#20: 7 Simple and Common Low Carb Mistakes That Sabotage Your Success

So, maybe you’ve tried a keto or low carb diet in the past, but you’ve given up or not seen results. Or, maybe you’re on one now and it’s not working in the way that you’d hoped. You might be hungry, tired, headachy and low…

Here’s the thing, there are SO many simple mistakes you could be making that are sabotaging your success when attempting a low carb or keto diet yourself (Psst, want to know the difference between the two? Be sure to listen to episode 7 on Body Bites with Bec).

And, if this is the case it makes me sad, because, often women will just rule them out and say nope, low carb diets aren’t for them!

Here, I am going to explain 7 of the most common mistakes you might be making with low carb diets so that you can ensure you do it properly to see the results that you deserve! Or, you may be encouraged to give it another shot!!

1. You’re not eating enough fat

When cutting carbohydrates such as added sugars, grains, breads and pastas from your diet a lot of people actually don't realise that you need to replace those calories with fat. Replacing these calories with fat will help you stay full and satiated all day and ensures you meet your nutrition needs. When adding more fat to your diet ensure to choose the healthy fats, which are monounsaturated and omega-3 fatty acids whilst avoiding additional trans fats.

2. You’re not counting calories and are actually eating too much fat

Opposite to reason number one, without a balanced plan or counting calories you could actually be eating too much fat. As you may know, a lower carb, higher fat diet fat still has a lot of calories. However if you go online and you search for low carb recipes often you might find recipes that are lighter with lots of added fats in the form of oils, butter, cream or cheese. When following a low carb diet it is still really important to make sure that you are counting or are aware of your daily calories because unless you're in a calorie deficit, you are not going to lose weight.

3. You’re not replenishing your sodium levels

One of the main mechanisms behind low-carb diets is the reducing your insulin levels, insulin has many functions in your body, such as telling your fat stores to store fat and your kidneys to retain sodium. On a low carb diet, as your insulin levels go down your body starts excreting excess sodium along with water.

Often see me sharing reviews and women losing so much weight in just the first couple of days, this is because whilst some of it is definitely fat, a lot of it is water. When you lose water, you also lose sodium which we need to replace as sodium is a crucial electrolyte for our bodies.

Low sodium levels can be a cause for side effects in the first few days of swapping to diets lower in carbohydrates. The best way to prevent these side effects is to make sure that you're adding enough salt to your food. The added salt to your home cooked meals is actually really negligible compared to the amount of salt that's in processed foods that are naturally reduced on a low carb diet.

4. You’re quitting too soon

Our body is designed to preferentially burn carbohydrates over fats. When you first reduce your carbohydrates, your body needs to shift to burning fat as its primary source of fuel, which can come from either your diet or your body's stores.

This shift can take a few days up to 14 days to ensure the fuel your burning is predominantly fat instead of carbohydrates. When you first switch, you can feel a little bit under the weather, your energy might go down, you might get to the gym or class and won't have as much energy as you normally have.

In my 3 Week Body Reset and Health with Bec Tribe, I really guide women through how to exercise during the switch. When when your energy naturally starts to increase around week two or three, you can start upping your exercise again as your body is more adapted to burning its fat stores for energy. The key is to not quit whilst the body is adapting to the change in fuel source.

5. You’re not eating enough fibre and vegetables

If you're not eating enough fiber in the short term you may not even realise or may experience constipation. Daily fiber intake needs to be at least 25 grams to prevent constipation and support optimal long term gut health. Optimal gut health is essential to reduce your risk of disease, for weight control, energy, mood, and sleep, it's honestly connected to every single aspect of health and your body!

Ketogenic and low carb diets can be low in fiber if fruits and vegetables are restricted. The 3 Week Body Reset and Meal Plans in the Health with Bec Tribe have been carefully constructed to meet fiber needs with fruits, vegetables and seeds such as chia and flax.

6. You’re being far too strict

It's so important when you follow any kind of diet that it's not too strict because then you just want to rebel and then you want to binge on the weekends or at the end of the day. The good thing about following just a lower carb diet compared to ketogenic diet, is that lower carb diets can fall anywhere between like 40 to 150 grams per day.

That really gives you enough room to have that wine here and there and not worry about moderately low carb vegetables that you can include. This is why included in my Plans are ‘Free Meals” during the weekend. It's really good to also have at least one or two days where you eat a bit more as long as stay fairly on track. Doing so creates a mindset where you are not too strict on yourself and can comply with the plan without the binging.

7. You avoid socialising or going out for dinners as you’re not educated on the HOW

If you're following any kind of diet that is too restrictive and feel like you can’t eat out you could be socially isolating yourself and avoiding going out for events and dinners. If this is happening there is a reduction in the quality of your life and your happiness. We really need to make sure that our diet allows us to socialise with friends to be happy and healthy, because if we're not, then there's just no point in doing it.

A lot of diets out there don't actually educate you on how you can eat out. A dining out guide is included in my 3 Week Body Reset and I also talk about this more in Episode 10 of the Body Bites Podcast. I am passionate about incorporating the low carb diet into our lifestyle as I always say to women that the way you lose weight should actually really be the way that you keep it off!

There we have seven of the most common mistakes I've seen in low carb diets. So can you think of one which you could improve on? I'm really interested to know, reach out to me on Instagram to let me know which one resonated with you!

I always love hearing from you guys!

Links mentioned:

Join my 3 Week Body Reset! Click here

Follow me on instagram for more motivation and actionable tips: @health_with_bec