Must Love Fish: Trying a Ketogenic Diet
If you're one of many people reaping the fat loss benefits of the ketogenic diet, then you'll no doubt be aware of the different foods available for you to eat as part of a balanced diet. For those who haven't heard of this method of eating, it's very straight forward: Just adjust the percentages of your macronutrients so that you're consuming approximately 70-75% fat, 20-25% protein and 5-10% carbs, in order to get into a state known as ketosis. Ketosis is where the body has used up its carbohydrate energy store (glucose) and produces chemicals called ketones. These are like an alternative energy system and are very efficient at helping to burn off body fat.
It all sounds great, but following a keto diet can cause problems at meal times, especially when eating out because so many foods contain carbohydrates, often from sugar or flour. Ketosis is a state that your body moves in to when these carb stores are depleted, requiring an absence of carbs to maintain it. For the average person about 50 grams of carbs or less per day is adequate, but this does mean that it can be very easy to consume too much if you're not careful.
There is an easy way around the macronutrient percentage problem though, and that's to swap the burger joint for a seafood restaurant like Maisie's Seafood & Steakhouse. Eating more fish means that you'll get a healthy dose of omega fish oils and protein combined in one dish, and providing you don't have a crumb or batter coating, none of the carbs to go with it.
Like with any restaurant, try to plan your meals before you go out, as you'll be less tempted to continually scan the menus for more appealing carb-heavy foods. One of the better dishes you can eat is salmon, or any other oily fish, combined with a simple leafy green salad. Whilst the salad will provide some carbs, they will be in small quantities, and it will also offer vitamins, minerals and fibre. Fibre itself is a non-soluble carbohydrate that passes through the body and improves intestinal health. The good news is that you never include fibre in your daily carb intake.
If you're not too keen on salmon and prefer white fish like cod, you can still ensure your fat intake is high by requesting an accompaniment of olive oil, pesto or an oil-based dressing. Many restaurants now have nutritional guides at the back of their menus, so you can check to see whether any dressings have high carb contents.
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