Choosing Between Low Carb and Keto Diets: What you Need to Know

Reviewing Different Low-Carb Diets

Test out the Atkins Diet for a phased long-term plan. The Atkins Diet works in 4 phases, designed to work for a long period of time. In the first induction phase, you need to count the number of carbs you eat each day, limiting yourself to 20 total carbs a day for 2 weeks. After this, you can transition to the “balancing” phase, which you follow until you’re about 10 lb (4.5 kg) from your ideal weight. From here on, you switch to the third “pre-maintenance” phase, where you work your way down to your goal weight. Once you‘re at your goal weight, you continue onto the fourth “lifetime maintenance” phase, which you follow for the rest of your life. The Atkins Diet doesn’t worry about portion control or total calorie intake; instead, it’s a type of diet that focuses on counting carbs. As you transition through the diet, you may feel tired, weak, or dizzy. It may take a couple months before you move between phases.

Give the Eco-Atkins diet a try if you’d like a vegetarian alternative. Unlike the regular Atkins Diet, the Eco-Atkins Diet focuses more on calorie intake. With this diet, aim to get 31% of your calories from plant-based proteins, 26% from carbs, and 43% from plant-based fat. This diet doesn’t offer as many restrictions, but it can be a bit tricky to follow the exact ratios. This diet is a great alternative for vegetarians looking for a low-carb diet.

Try the Paleo diet if you're interested in a high-protein diet. Keep in mind that the Paleo diet is designed to imitate the diet of early humans, with a strong focus on meat and vegetables. Similar to the keto diet, the Paleo diet offers a pretty strict list of what you can and cannot eat, and cuts out the dairy and grain food groups entirely. If you’re okay with making some significant changes to your diet, you may be a good candidate for the Paleo diet. For instance, you’re not allowed to eat full-fat cheese, sour cream, potatoes, or beans on the Paleo diet.

Go for the Slow-Carb diet if you’d prefer a more regimented diet. The Slow-Carb diet cuts out any white carbs from your diet, like white bread or white pasta, along with fruit and dairy products. On this diet, you need to eat breakfast immediately after waking up and do your best to eat your meals at 4-hour intervals. Make sure you get enough protein in all of your meals, too. For instance, your breakfast needs to have 30 g of protein, while your lunch and dinner need to have at least 20 g. This is a great diet option for people who thrive on dietary rules and regulations.

Opt for the South Beach Diet if you’d like a long-term, low-carb diet. Like other low-carb diets, the South Beach Diet follows 3 progressive phrases. In the first, 2-week phase, you avoid all carbs and sugary foods. In the second phase, you can eat whole-grain carbs, and focus on reaching your target weight. After this, you move onto phase 3, where you try to maintain your weight on a long-term basis. The South Beach Diet is a good option if you’re a fan of whole grains, and don’t want to cut carbs out of your diet completely.

Following the Keto Diet

Get 70-80% of your calories from fats. The keto diet focuses on turning fat into energy, so it’s important to eat foods that are really high in fat. You can get this fat from a lot of different sources, like avocados, fatty sections of meat, fatty fish, butter, and other types of healthy oil. For reference, if you eat 2,000 calories each day, you’ll be eating 165 grams of fat, 75 grams of protein, and 40 grams of carbs.

Obtain 10-20% of your daily calories from protein. While fats are king in the keto diet, protein is still an important element of the diet. Thankfully, you can get protein from a lot of high-fat sources like fish, meat, and nuts. Protein is an important part of your diet, but if you eat too much, you can keep yourself from reaching ketosis.

Restrict yourself to 20-50 g of carbs each day. You have to make some pretty big adjustments to your lifestyle when you’re on the keto diet, like cutting grains and starches out of your diet almost entirely. Limit yourself to extremely small portions of carbs each day so your body can successfully reach and maintain ketosis.

Avoid a specific list of foods while on the keto diet. Cut out most fruits from your diet, like apples, bananas, peaches, oranges, plums, and more. Additionally, you can’t eat any bread or starchy foods while on the keto diet, such as rice, oats, rye, and wheat. Sugar is also a big no-no for keto. Other common foods, like beans, legumes, and popular condiments, are also forbidden by the keto diet.

Reach ketosis so your body burns fat for energy. Unlike other low-carb diets, the keto diet revolves around the process of ketosis, where your body breaks down fat stores for energy instead of carbs. With this in mind, you have to follow a strict, nearly carb-free diet so your body is only burning fat for fuel.

Comparing the Dieting Styles

Opt for a ketogenic diet if you don’t mind cutting out nearly all carbs. This high-fat diet focuses on bringing you to a state of ketosis, where your body burns fat stores in sugar/carbs for energy. In order to do this, you need to stock up on foods that are high in fat and protein, while reducing your carb intake to around 50 grams of carbohydrates each day. While this restrictive diet can help improve fat loss and reduce your cravings, it can be a difficult adjustment if you’re used to eating high-carb foods. In the keto diet, your body burns energy from fat instead of carbs or sugar. Eat plenty of healthy fats, including foods like avocados, olive oil, and almonds. It can be tricky to create balanced meals and snacks on the diets. While it’s important to eat a lot of high-fat foods, it’s also important to eat a lot of leafy greens, seeds, and nuts. You’ll need to cut out starchy vegetables as well.

Expect to suffer from the “keto flu” on the keto diet. As your body adjusts to ketosis in the first week or so, you may experience flu-like symptoms, such as bad breath, a brain fog, nausea, sleeping troubles, physical fatigue, and headache. While not a long-term effect, this condition can last for several days as you transition and is an unpleasant part of the keto diet. These are only temporary side effects—once your body adjusts to ketosis, your symptoms will go away within a week or so.

Test out the keto diet if you’d like improved insulin sensitivity. Think about your current health before committing to a specific diet. If you live with type 2 diabetes, you may notice some positive effects like improvement in your insulin resistance and blood sugar management after switching to a keto diet. If you have a health condition like diabetes, it’s always best to consult a doctor when trying out a new diet. The keto diet is also known for unique benefits like improving cholesterol levels, lowering blood pressure, and improving cognitive function.

Try a low-carb diet if you’d prefer a wider range of options. To bring your body to ketosis, the keto diet severely limits the number of carbs you can have in 1 day. If you don’t want to commit to the keto lifestyle, a low-carbohydrate diet might be a better option for your dietary needs. In the keto diet, you can only get 5% of your daily calories from carbs.

Go for either a keto or low-carb diet to help achieve your weight loss goals. You have a lot of options if weight loss is your primary goal. Keep in mind that low-carb diets are better for short-term weight loss, but not a super effective option for long-term goals. If you’re looking for long-term weight loss, you may have some luck with a low-fat diet instead. There isn’t a lot of recent studies available addressing weight loss between the keto diet and general low-carb diets. In addition to helping you manage your weight, following a keto diet may help you have more energy and focus.