This is what happened after 30 days of trying the ketogenic diet.

I generally steer clear of severe diets and eating plans. Atkins? never knew they existed. Whole30? I'm not even going to bother. Paleo? There are certain things that are best left in the past.

How the Keto Diet Plan Affected Me

The following four factors significantly aided my beginning:

• a goal
• a carb-focused strategy with no other accountability sources

About a month before the wedding, I began the keto diet with the intention of shedding 10 pounds. A weight reduction of up to 2 pounds a week can be achieved with a low-calorie diet, so losing 10 pounds in 4 weeks didn't seem particularly drastic. I believed losing 10 pounds would be simple if the keto diet regimen was as effective as had been claimed.

I did a lot of study on the diet before I began, got ideas from keto-focused Instagram accounts, and made a plan (see our healthy version of a keto meal plan). I quickly discovered that this last section was crucial for my travel.

I calculated my caloric, carbohydrate, and fat intake using an online keto calculator. Except for fat, I basically complied with the advice. The calculator recommended eating more than 200 grams of fat each day. Without adding ghee to my coffee or consuming coconut oil before lunch, that's difficult to reach. Is it possible? Absolutely. I simply wasn't able to get there. For me, cutting carbohydrates was the main goal. I simply let the other components naturally fit together.

A buddy was also invited to serve as my accountability partner. She had previously tried the ketogenic diet and had excellent results, so having a resource for my many inquiries was really helpful. It also served to keep me focused.

However, I was hoping to reduce some weight before a wedding I was attending, so the ease of the ketogenic (or keto for short) diet plan appealed to me.

Learn about my experience restricting carbohydrates for 30 days, including how I did it, my accomplishments, my struggles, my findings, and my lessons for life.

My Greatest Difficulties with the Keto Diet Plan

It's challenging to consume just 20 grams of carbohydrates each day.

The keto diet is an HFLC (high-fat, low-carb) eating regimen. You are only permitted to consume 20 grams of carbohydrates each day, so I would really classify it as very low-carb. Some keto dieters adhere to a net-carb strategy, which enables you to consume more carbohydrates per day by deducting the grams of fiber from a food's total carb count. I stayed with total carbohydrates for the duration of my 30-day diet and for the sake of simplicity.

I typically tried to have 20 grams each day, which broke down as 2 at breakfast, 5 at lunch, 3 during snacks, and 10 at supper. I discovered that if I shot for 20, I'd come in under 30. That satisfied me as being a success.

Planning was the key to achieving my goal of attaining my number. On the weekends, I worked out all three meals, sides, and snacks. I found it simpler to control the rare cravings and hunger sensations if I planned what I was going to eat ahead of time. I cannot emphasize enough how crucial it is to prepare for a keto diet.

The meal is monotonous.

I consumed a lot of meat, cheese, eggs, and bacon (steak and chicken mostly). Dietary processed pig products every morning was obviously a major departure for someone whose eating philosophy is normally more plant-based and whole-food centered.

This diet may have extremely little calories.

Keeping your daily carb intake under 20 grams also helps you consume fewer calories. Because we consume so many of them, foods high in carbohydrates are among of the foods that have the highest calories. You may consume much less calories if you cut down on carbohydrates. (See the top 30 foods low in carbs.)

I had trouble getting more than 1,200 calories on certain days. I virtually always failed to reach my daily calorie target of 1,800. Even without the minimal carbohydrate intake, it is enough of a calorie deficit to cause weight reduction.

I developed "keto flu."

On keto blogs and forums, the phrase "keto flu" is often used. For me, it was a genuine experience, but not everyone will.

You may feel exhausted, mentally foggy, and even irritable when your body breaks through the carb cycle and enters ketosis (where you depend on ketones rather than carbohydrates for energy). My "keto flu" barely lasted a day, and after I got over it, I never again had any of the symptoms. (Learn more about the subtle side effects of the keto diet, such as some of those symptoms that resemble the flu.)

My Greatest Gains on the Keto Diet

I achieved my weight reduction target.

I wanted to drop 10 pounds, but I ended up losing more than that. Within three weeks, I dropped 10 pounds, and two days before the wedding, I was down to 15 pounds.

It's crucial to keep in mind that the first few days of any low-carb diet will see you drop several pounds. Your body is losing water weight, which explains why. Over the wedding weekend, I resumed my normal eating habits and put on 4 pounds as a result of the water weight returning when I began eating carbohydrates.

I had greater vigor (but not every day).

I didn't have the regular mid-afternoon energy slumps while following the ketogenic diet since I had so much more energy. Going to the gym was a little difficult. Without carbohydrates, your body must burn fat for energy, leaving you feeling exhausted throughout certain workouts. It's OK. Continue on and try again the following day.

I gained a lot of culinary creativity.

It's almost tough to maintain your keto diet when dining out. (You'll simply want to stop dining out after the third time you beg the waitress to hold the onions off your chicken fajitas.) Fortunately, I like experimenting with different dishes and consider myself an experimental chef.

Of course, a ketogenic diet drastically reduces the number of ingredients you need. I looked through blogs, Instagram, Pinterest, and other sites for trustworthy recipes before putting my creative thinking hat on and coming up with a few things I really liked.

Record the ingredients in a meal-tracking program like MyFitnessPal, write down the recipes, and then test them out to see whether they work for you. Compared to a typical meal plan, it requires a little more preparation, but it's worthwhile.

I now consume less sugar.

The keto diet forbids the use of sugar, and I personally have trouble with most no-carb sugar replacements.

Life-Changing Lessons from My 30-Day Keto Diet Plan

I can't eat that much bacon anymore, therefore I won't be sticking to a keto diet meal plan for the long haul, but I anticipate going back to it many times a year. My month-long trial at least encouraged me to consume less processed carbohydrates and sugars.

Not everyone should follow a ketogenic diet. Without a doubt, you shouldn't undertake this diet without a doctor's supervision if you have blood sugar problems or a family history of heart disease. The keto diet, however, could be the chance you've been seeking for if you're in excellent health and want to jump-start your weight reduction. I really hope you like bacon a lot.

This does not suggest that my urges just disappeared. In the first days, there were intense desires for Coke, peanut butter cups, or even simply a banana. (Having an accountability partner is really helpful at this point.) You could discover (like I did) that many of the items you used to routinely consume are now just too sweet to complete when you resume normal eating.