hi everyone
hope you're well
so i've been away for a little bit and
there are a few things i had to take
care of
but i really miss you guys i was really
looking forward to coming back so i
wasn't able to make new content in the
last few months but i never stopped
reading your comments and one of the
common questions you've been asking was
how do you know you're on keto if you
don't measure anything so for those of
you who've been watching the channel for
a while you know that i practice keto
but i practically don't measure anything
so i don't measure my ketone level i
don't measure my blood sugar level and i
don't count macros
and i don't count calories the only
thing i track is my body weight so it's
a valid question if you go well
fine if you don't measure anything how
do you even know you're on keto at all
so today i'm going to show you how i do
it and hopefully it's going to help you
too
so i've been practicing kiddo way of
eating for over four years now it was
back in 2017 um i started this venture
so from the start i made a conscious
decision not to measure anything or at
least minimizing the things i have to do
in order to stay on this way of eating
so from the beginning the only thing i
track was my body weight and it was
relatively easy no hassle and it gave me
pretty good indication on how i'm doing
so my initial goal was weight management
i think a lot of people
when it comes to keto was to test the
ketone level to make sure they're
actually in ketosis fundamentally
there's nothing wrong with that because
it gives you clear indication on whether
your body is in ketosis but it's
something you have to do fairly
frequently and i think a lot of people
do it every day and for me le step is a
little bit intrusive because you do have
to um you know put the test strip
through your urine and of course there's
some brave people out there they're
using the
glucose measuring device by pricking
themselves
to test the blood and also some really
organized people they want to log
everything they want to count calories
and macros and carb counts etc so i
wanted to know whether i could practice
and stay on keto without doing any of
these things because ultimately i wanted
to be
just normal part of my life without
having to do extra things and i knew
that was the only way
i could make it sustainable so how do i
know if i'm on ketosis at all so there
are few really clear indicators i want
to share with you and we're talking loud
and clear signals
the first one is your hunger the feeling
of hunger is very different
being on keto versus
being on quote-unquote regular diet so
when you're hungry on keto
it feels like a gentle nudge
for you to you know eat something
and most of the times for me from the
moment i feel well maybe i need to eat
something to the point i actually really
need to eat something that's a pretty
big leeway
i'm talking about two three hours
so
sometimes i go well maybe it's full time
i need to eat something and
then i get engaged in something that i
forget to eat that happens a lot and a
couple of hours later i realized i
haven't eaten something but i've
forgotten about it and that does not
happen
when you're eating a carbohydrate
carbohydrate-rich diet and i know that
because that's what i've been doing all
my life the non-keto hunger is a
desperate core when you're hungry your
blood sugar level drops and you're
obsessed with the idea of grabbing some
food and if you're not able to eat
something right away you get desperate
you get irritable you get tired and you
get angry even we've all heard of hungry
and that's because your blood sugar
level drops and your body is desperate
to urge you to bring you back up to
balance and when you're really really
hungry you're less selective with the
food you choose and that's when we get
in trouble we eat something that we
later regret because it just doesn't
serve our body and that happens all the
time so that was the most
sort of strongest changes that i noticed
when i went on keto is that
hunger is no big deal and it's no big
deal because your body
have access
to
food storage in your body so being
ketosis essentially what your body does
is then it switches the fuel source from
glucose to ketones and ketone is derived
from fat
and your body does not make distinction
between the fat that you take in via
food or your body fat so there's no
urgency for your body to
get you to eat food immediately because
your body has access to your body fat
and i don't care how slim you are you
feel healthy slim person
you still carry enough body fat to last
you for several days so your body is
much more relaxed stage if there's no
food coming in immediately it just goes
to your body fat and burn it
and i think we'll love that
so that's why a lot of people practice
keto also practice fasting as well and
you'll probably find that fasting is a
lot easier simply because the fact that
hunger is much less an issue
if you're not on keto and you try to
fast for a day
good luck and you'll probably lead you
to
kind of binge on food
once you get to the full time because
you've been so hungry so you try to
compensate it by eating more so i know
i'm in some form of ketosis if my
appetite is totally stable
and the hunger is very gentle and that
for me is a clear indicator that i'm
doing well and the second indicator is
food craving as well it goes hand in
hand with the hunger so how you hunger
felt is a very clear signal below so the
type of food you crave is also a really
important indicator when it comes to
carb counts i do keep an eye on
roughly how many carbs
the food i eat contains
very often i kind of veer off and
eat food that perhaps not totally
low carb so for instance i eat fruits
berries most of the time and they're low
carb but i also eat nutrients
and plums from time to time so they may
not be considered um completely keto i
eat them from time to time and i monitor
how my body feels so i generally eat
low-carb keto friendly food so that's
the food choices but i don't count carbs
i don't weight them
and i don't keep track of them i just
listen to my body and allow my body to
guide me so if i start to crave for food
um for instance rich in carbohydrate if
i start to crave for bread for instance
um which i have to say
has
not happened in over four years and is
borderline miracle and i think simply
because my body does not need it
therefore there's no reason to crave for
it so i pay attention to the food i'm
craving so if i'm starting to crave for
something that's non-keto for instance
something sugary or rich in carbohydrate
i know i need to rain back the carb
counts maybe i cut off some fruits so
instead of having arbitrary number for
carb counts and i see people having
certain numbers around for me it doesn't
make a lot of sense because
we'll build differently so we have
different tolerance to carbohydrate so
it's not the number of carbs that counts
necessarily obviously you want to bring
it down because it's low-carb diet but
the question is how low is the right
level for you and that's for you to find
out and the only way you can find out is
through experimenting well luckily we
eat every day so there's plenty of
experiments we can do i find my body
doesn't like certain foods even though
they're low carb and keto friendly they
make me feel sluggish or maybe bloated
or you know not feeling well and on the
contrary the foods that not strictly
keto and this i said um not trains for
instance and also
occasionally eat fava beans roasted
broad beans i really love them and for
me they're power snacks they're not
strictly low carb but i'm totally fine
with it but they work for me they might
not work for you and this is what i mean
about you need to find that balance
point and the type of food that works
for your body and i also watch my energy
level so if you think about why you want
to make changes in terms of changing the
way you eat
is ultimately you want to feel better
you want to feel more energetic you want
to feel strong so you can do whatever
you want to do in life so
there's no point
losing weight have your ideal weight but
you don't feel strong you don't feel
energetic what's the point of that so
when you first start keto you might feel
a short period of
energy slump
which you find that you probably cannot
do as much
as you normally can so let's say if you
used to go running or you go to the gym
you might feel that sort of lack of
energy for a short period of time and i
say that's totally normal because your
body is going through
a transition you're trying to get your
body to switch fuel source which is
major so if your body's been using
glucose all your life and suddenly you
go well now switched keto
it's going to resist it for a while
until it comes to the realization that
uh okay this is a new plan and i'm using
ketone as fuel source that takes time
and that's called fat adaptation so you
probably feel that drop of energy level
initially for maybe a few weeks but once
your body is getting used to it
you should feel a surge of energy coming
through because
first of all your body is less burdened
because previously when you're eating a
lot of carbohydrate it probably takes
your body a lot of energy dedicated to
digesting those foods particularly
processed food it puts a lot of burden
on your digestive system and once you're
free from that and my own experience is
that i actually realized that
i could exercise for
much longer than i could before and i
think that was because
your body has that energy source the
body fat and to burn
so it doesn't have to stop whereas if
you run of glucose you have to replenish
it otherwise you're in trouble so once
you're on keto for a while and you're
fat adopted you should feel the increase
of energy it makes perfect sense so as i
said in the beginning the only thing i
track is my body weight so for the past
probably four years um i get on my scale
every morning and it's a digital scale
so it tracks and logs my weight so i
could look at it you know every week to
see how i'm doing so the weight loss for
me happen in an initial
maybe six months to a year and then
stabilize you know your body just find
that point that it's happy with the way
you feel strongest so my weight has been
very stable so now instead of weighing
myself every day i wait once a week i
think at this point i feel that that's
efficient so it's up to you to decide
the frequency but what you want to track
is not so much with day-to-day changes
because it goes up it goes down depends
on what i eat and there were days that
i'll gain like a kilo overnight and
it's alarming but it's probably because
your body retains water because of a
certain food you eat and that's what i
mean about choosing the foods that works
for you not just because it's keto
friendly or low carb so your body weight
goes up and down that's totally normal
but the big trend is what you want to
look at if it's going the right
direction
you're fine and if not tweak it that's
no big deal i know that when it comes to
macro again for me is more of
following
what my body wants i think your body
will naturally guide you to
the type of food that you need so what
you want to focus on is sustainability
be honest with yourself in terms of what
is doable
so you could be rushing into doing
everything you know you could be
tracking your ketone level you count
every carb and
you know count calories macros etc but
what you don't want to do is to put so
much burden on yourself
that
it leads you to giving up so instead of
being hyper focused
on being on keto what you want to do
well at least it's my approach is to
actually
sit back and allow your body to tell you
what you need to do i think it's a
culture we are trained to not trust a
body because
to a certain extent i understand because
you know giving into quote unquote
temptation normally leads to
something that's not that doesn't serve
us and instead we trust devices we trust
measurements we trust numbers but if you
think about it there's no other
creatures
in the animal kingdom
or in the universe that
need to rely on devices to tell them
what to eat i know we're unique as a
species and we're complex
but i see that as a dysfunction
because eating is such a fundamental and
basic part of our existence
if we're not able to
function
according to our instinct
that's a problem so it's about
relearning
how to listen to your body so the fact
we need to be on keto probably say so
much about you know the things we
brought up to eat and the food we
produce so for me it's about relearning
the skills
we're supposed to possess and eating
through instinct and trusting it and
it's a relationship
we need to rebuild so to recap the
indicators
your hunger
how does it feel
is it a gentle nudge or a desperate call
if it's a calming sense of hunger you're
on the right track and then your food
cravings if you one day you just realize
you haven't craved for bread or pasta
for a while you're doing well and also
observe your energy level pay attention
to what food works for you and what
doesn't and that's beyond whether
they're keto or not you know don't eat
anything if you don't feel great even if
it's low carb and then suspender believe
that your body is always leading you
astray and ultimately it's about
reminding yourself why you want to be on
keto and why you want to make changes my
goal is not to be in ketosis that's not
my goal my goal is to find a way
to
be fit and healthy and happy and not
having food is an issue constantly in my
life so if keto takes me there so be it
i'm looking for freedom not a religion
so go back to the question how do you
know if you're in ketosis
so my answer would be
if
i'm doing as well as i am when food is
no longer an issue in my life
and i maintain my weight i have a lot of
energy i think i'm in some form of
ketosis but how deep i have no idea
and frankly i don't care
because it doesn't matter so it's about
focusing on the real goal as i remember
there was a buddhist monk said the
finger the points to the moon is not a
moon so what it says is not to get lost
in the practice itself ultimately what
you're trying to get to is that
destination and the rest is the mean to
an end and how you get there you need to
find your way but there's no one way so
what i've been sharing is my way
and it may or may not be your way so
harness the tools understanding the
tools but not to get lost in the format
itself so this is how i practice keto
and hopefully it's been useful to you so
thanks for hanging out with me today and
thanks for watching i'll see you next
time
very soon i hope
thank you