Dieting is hard. You’re stressing about burning fat, you’re missing out on sweet treats, and you’re questioning what you’re allowed to eat and not eat. In order to make things easier, it helps to understand your diet of choice completely. Understand what you can and cannot eat and why. Understand how the diet works and the goals of the diet for your body. So let’s delve into the new diet craze, the Keto diet.

What is Keto?

According to Diet Doctor, the “keto” in a ketogenic diet is achieved when the body is able, because of the new diet, to produce an alternative fuel source for the body rather than glucose. This diet causes glucose to be in short supply and the new fuel source, called ketones, takes over. Once this happens your body induces a metabolic state known as ketosis.

What is a Low Carb Diet?

The definition is simple enough. A low carb diet is all about lowering your intake of carbohydrates or removing them from your diet all together. The goal is much the same as the Keto diet; it is the hope that the body will burn fat for body fuel rather than burning carbohydrates, thus the reason to cut carbs out of your diet.

The Difference Between Keto and Low Carb

There really is not a whole lot of difference between the two diets. The difference is determined by whether or not your body reaches the metabolic state of Ketosis. But there in lays the problem. Every person’s body is different. Some may be able to reach ketosis rather easily, only having to lower their carb intake and others will have to work harder and cut all carbs out completely.

So how will you know if you’ve reached a state of ketosis? If you are shedding the fat right off then it might not matter. But if the fat isn’t coming off then you probably haven’t reached ketosis. One helpful tool is this Keto website. They also have an app if that is more convenient for you. You punch in your information: age, weight, desired weight, activity level, foods you love, foods you’d prefer to be or not be part of your new diet. Then it generates a specific meal plan for you based on your information given; ideally this will help you reach ketosis.

However, there is a drawback to this particular diet (as is with most diets). The problem is that once a person loses the weight, they tend to return to their old eating habits. You know, like chowing down the delicious bread served at restaurants. When dieting it needs to be more of a lifestyle change rather than a crash course. We all want to lose the weight and keep the weight off, but going back to those old habits will reverse the success. If you can make a lifestyle change then these two types of dieting have been very successful for many people.