After following the keto diet for seven whole years, I’ve finally made the decision to step away. In this blog, I’m sharing exactly why I quit keto.

When I first started keto, it felt amazing. My energy was through the roof, I never felt hungry, and I lost weight FAST — without counting a single calorie. I even reached my goal weight in just six weeks.

In this blog, I’m going to tell you why I quit Keto. It worked for me for seven years, with some tweaks that I learned along the way.

Starting Keto

When I first started the Keto diet, I loved it. It was easy to eat Keto. I had a lot of energy and was never hungry. I didn’t have to count calories because eating so much fat filled me up, so I just naturally ate less. It felt easy.

I used a supplement to help me speed up the process of losing weight. After consuming it, it got me into ketosis within one hour, which helps me burn fat instead of glucose. After six weeks of taking this supplement, my body became keto-adapted, and that is when the weight just fell off. I reached my ideal weight two months after that. That was wonderful. I wouldn’t change that. That’s an easy way to lose weight in a healthy way. However, the keto diet is not a sustainable option if you want to be healthy in the long term.

If you are interested in starting the keto guide, here is a Simple Step to Step Guide to Starting Keto.

Tweaks I Made With The Keto Diet

There are three problems I came across while doing the keto diet. I’ll explain each one and the solutions I found for each one.

Electrolyte Depletion

The first problem was electrolyte depletion. Soon after I lost the weight, I ended up in the hospital for three days because I was low on electrolytes. I was at the gym one day, working out hard, maybe too hard. I took a spin class and a weightlifting class and then ran a few miles on the treadmill. Throughout my entire workout, I drank enough water. It all came back up in the ER.

While on the treadmill, I crashed. I had no energy to do anything. I went to the Women’s dressing room, and I couldn’t even change out of my workout clothes to go home. Someone found me collapsed on the bench and called the ambulance. After some tests, the doctor told me I was low in electrolytes. They kept me for three days in the hospital to replenish my electrolytes. I’m not sure why it took that long.

Later, after conducting some research, I discovered that consuming ketones can deplete electrolytes in the body. To address this issue, I began adding electrolytes to my diet. That worked. I no longer felt low in energy.

Not Enough Protein

The next problem with a keto diet is that I wasn’t getting enough protein. The keto diet is high in fat, moderate in protein, and low in carbs. While on the keto diet, I focused on increasing my fat intake and reducing my carbohydrate intake. I was not paying attention to my protein intake at all.

I started noticing my hair falling out. I researched why this was happening and figured it out. It was because I wasn’t getting enough protein. So, I fixed this by adding a can of salmon to my diet almost every day. This change in my diet worked. My hair started growing back, so I continued with the keto diet.

Eating Too Much Fat And Not Enough Carbs

The Keto diet is high in fat, 70% of your macros. However, I was focusing on increasing the fat in all my meals, and I wasn’t considering my other nutritional needs. I cut out most fruits because they are high in carbs. But fruits have a lot of micronutrients that your body needs. So, I started adding more fruits and vegetables to my diet and reducing my fat intake.

Then, I decided that protein was more important in my diet than fats. Research says that you should have at least one gram of protein per your ideal body weight in pounds. It was challenging for me to incorporate that much protein into my diet while maintaining my fat intake for the keto diet. Increasing my protein intake while trying to keep my fat intake led to weight gain. I had to decrease my fat so I would stop gaining weight.

Why I Quit Keto and The Diet I Eat Now

For seven years, I continued to experience these fluctuations. That’s when I realized that I was not eating a keto diet anymore. I was eating a balanced diet. I quit the keto diet. My macros now are 35% protein, 35% fat, and 30% carbs.

I have quit the keto diet because it is not sustainable. Transitioning away from Keto was not just about changing my diet; it was about prioritizing my health and finding a sustainable lifestyle that works for me.