Are you thinking of starting the ketogenic diet? It can be a good decision because a keto diet has proved to be more effective for weight loss than other diet plans. A keto diet is a high-fat, low-carb diet that is designed for helping dieters shed those extra pounds. Having said that, it can easily go wrong if you are reckless and uninformed. You need to avoid some common keto diet mistakes that most beginners tend to make. Here are a few of them:

Fast changes
Lowering your carbohydrate intake and upping your fat intake too fast can be disastrous. For instance, if you had been eating a lot of carbohydrates every day and now, suddenly, switch to a keto diet by restricting your carbohydrate intake drastically, the body may not be able to cope with the change. You need to first reduce your carbohydrate consumption before starting this diet program so that your body is used to low-carb meals and does not react when your carbohydrate intake is limited even further.

Dehydration
Many keto diet followers often forget to drink enough water because they are too focused on what they are eating. A keto diet can cause dehydration if you are not cautious; when your carbohydrate intake is diminished, it can upset the electrolyte and fluid balance in your body. Moreover, the body tends to flush out ketones through urine, and this automatically depletes salt and water levels in the body.

Lack of preparedness
When you choose to follow the keto diet, you should be prepared to handle flu-like symptoms, commonly referred to as the “keto flu”. This happens in the initial stages of adopting the diet, when the body starts to experience nausea, cramps, and tiredness, because of the sudden reduction of carbohydrates in meals. This may or may not happen to you but you should be aware of it and know that it will pass soon. The best way to deal with it is to keep consuming foods containing more iron and magnesium, and water to hydrate the body.

Eliminating omega-3 fatty acids
The keto diet recommends eating high-fat foods like cheese, bacon, etc., but this does not mean that you ignore omega-3 fatty acid-rich foods like fish. Try to include salmon, herring, sardines, mussels, and oysters in your diet and stock up on healthy fats like olive oil, avocado, and chia and flax seeds.

Excess sweets
You may have heard of keto brownies and cookies, but these are calorie-rich, even if they are low in carbohydrates. These can only be had once in a while and can’t be made into regulars.

Frequent snacking
You can snack when on a keto diet, and snacks can be seeds, nuts, cheese, avocado, etc. But these should be eaten when you are really hungry and not because you are bored.

Skipping salt
If you do not consume enough salt in your meals, you can suffer from dehydration. When ketones are eliminated from your body, the body loses a lot of sodium. Since you have also eliminated processed and canned foods from your diet, you will need sufficient levels of salt to replenish the diminished sodium levels.

Reducing vegetable intake
Vegetables may have carbohydrates, but avoiding them altogether in an attempt to reduce your carbohydrate intake is one of the common keto diet mistakes. Veggies are needed for their fiber content; they can prevent constipation, which is a common side-effect of the keto diet. Choose non-starchy vegetables, such as broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, tomato, cucumber, and leafy greens.