Keto made easy

Keto Basics for Beginners: 50 Carbs, Enough Protein, and Keep It Simple

2018-05-02

I called this "a quick video" and it ran 39 minutes. It was my attempt in 2018 to put the whole beginner protocol from my group into one place, built around one idea: every extra rule makes a diet harder to stay on.

In this video

Then vs now: three numbers that moved

Carbs. Early on I said to work your way down to 20 (video DoSUgIr2rNo). Here I said 50 and called it an unpopular answer (video UygKGoP_BtA). The 50 came from the dose logic: going from 250–350 g a day to 50 g is already a major cut in glycemic load.

Fat. In 2017 fat was optional (video cTGYIFOTPl8). By this video it was the dial you turn by phase, the frame I first laid out in the too-much-fat video.

Salt. Here I recommended light salt and told people not to worry about salt and blood pressure. In another 2018 video I said I'd moved from recommending light salt to NoSalt, a pure potassium chloride substitute, because I was getting my sodium from bouillon (video -dHjt_Bpruk). Both carry the same upload date, so I can't tell you which came first.

Drill-down: are 80 and 100 grams of protein enough?

The adult RDA is 0.80 g per kg of body weight per day (National Academies 2005). A review on weight management puts about 1.2 to 1.6 g/kg/day, with 25 to 30 g per meal, alongside better appetite and weight control (Leidy 2015).

As an example, for a woman weighing 70 kg (about 154 lb), my 80 g works out to about 1.1 g/kg: above the RDA, a bit under the Leidy range. So "fear of protein" was the right target, and "err on the upside" was right too. If you're heavier, older or training hard, my modifiers may not take you far enough.

Drill-down: total carbs, and fibre in 50 grams

My reason for total carbs was that US labels make net carbs unreliable. The evidence pages back the confusion: none of the bodies defines "net carbs," and the FDA counts dietary fibre inside total carbohydrate (FDA).

I called fibre the most overlooked thing in the diet. The National Academies set an adequate intake of 25 g a day for women 19–50 and 21 g for women 51 and over (National Academies 2005). A large Lancet analysis found the biggest risk reductions at 25 to 29 g a day (Reynolds 2019). Hitting that inside 50 g of total carbs means the 50 really does have to be mostly vegetables.

Where I and the literature differ

Multivitamin. I called it a kind of silver bullet for micronutrient gaps. There's real support for the gap: in one trial, women on Atkins shifted toward inadequate thiamine, folate, vitamin C, iron and magnesium at eight weeks (Gardner 2010). But for preventing disease, the USPSTF says the evidence on multivitamins is insufficient (USPSTF 2022). Gap-filler: reasonable. Silver bullet: no.

Salt and blood pressure. I said not to worry. The literature says modest salt reduction lowers blood pressure, more in people with hypertension (He 2013). Both things are true at once: keto beginners lose sodium early, and people with high blood pressure respond to salt. If you have hypertension, the broth-and-salt advice needs your doctor's input.

Light salt. Potassium salt substitutes have good trial support: in 20,995 people in rural China, a potassium-enriched substitute lowered stroke, major cardiovascular events and death (Neal 2021). The WHO suggests them in place of regular salt, except for people at risk of high potassium (WHO). That means kidney disease, and some blood pressure drugs. Check with your doctor before using it.

Cholesterol. I said markers tend to improve over six to twelve months. The National Lipid Association's statement is more mixed: lower triglycerides and higher HDL, but a variable effect on LDL (NLA 2019). Get a baseline lipid panel and a follow-up.

The line that holds up

"Do your own research is a red flag." If someone cares enough to tell you you're doing it wrong, they should care enough to share their homework (video UygKGoP_BtA). That's why every number above has a link.

Key points