I’m Trying Keto for a Week—Here’s The Details

What is keto? The keto diet is a diet that completely flips the way your body gets energy. Instead of your body running solely on carbs, it will also use fats. This diet will help push your body into ketosis, which burns your fat and in return turns it into fuel. To make this happen, you have to stick to this specific macro breakdown for this diet:

• 70-80% fat (avocados, eggs, and bacon)
• 20-25% protein (lean meats, chicken, fish)
• 5-10% carbs (leafy greens and some berries)

For someone like me, who’s used to eating way more carbs and protein, this will be a difficult task, as it’s a completely different lifestyle of eating. While taking this diet, I will compare my energy levels, hunger, and workouts with my new diet to my diet before. I’ll also be comparing my daily meals with my new keto ones to help draw a comparison of how different/similar they are.

By the end of this diet, I’ll break down the results, what I struggled with, what surprised me, and, most importantly, if I’d ever do this again.

Before the Diet

Before the keto diet, my eating habits consisted of a lot of protein and carbs and not a lot of fats. What I would eat: Protein: Mostly red meats, chicken, eggs, and sometimes fish. Carbs: Mostly rice, bread, oatmeal, and fruits. Fats: Mostly from cheese, dairy, and certain meats.

I had a very well-balanced diet before the keto diet. This provided me with the necessary nutrients as a student-athlete, as I got plenty of protein for repairing and building muscles and lots of carbs to help keep my stomach full and body energized throughout the long days of practices and workouts. Fats, even though I consumed a decent amount, I didn’t seem to notice it playing that big of a role in my day-to-day life.

During keto diet

What I ate: I focused mostly on lean meats (chicken, pork, steak) and healthy fats (nuts, avocados, dark chocolate), which were a huge help during the day for achieving the high consumption of fats required for the diet. My carbs came mostly from whole bread and fruits, which I avoided eating a lot of because of the diet.

On this diet, especially in the beginning, I felt less motivated and energized, which was to be expected because of the major decline in my carbs, which was definitely the hardest part about this diet. During the day, I also found myself feeling really hungry, which was hard to satisfy because of the strict food restrictions. At the end of this diet, I also lost a decent amount of weight, which I soon gained back pretty fast after the diet.

My Opinion

Even though it may seem I didn’t have the best experience, it doesn’t mean I didn’t think the diet was effective or good. The diet was simply just not right for my situation. That being said, the diet is not easy; the strict food restrictions and imbalances in energy levels make it really hard, but depending on you, your situation, and your goals, it might just be a sacrifice worth making or considering.