High protein keto is the key to long term weight loss. But, the term keto has become synonymous with eating a high fat diet. What happens if you want to switch from high protein keto to high protein keto? Can you still call it keto? Yes. Keto is actually maintained by keeping carbs low and really has nothing to do with whether you eat high fat or high protein. All you need to do to be in ketosis (your body burns fat for calories instead of carbs) is keep your carbs low. A good rule of thumb is 20g of total carbs but some people can eat up to 50g and still stay in ketosis (their body doesn’t switch to burning carbs for calories). Learning how to switch from high fat keto to high protein keto is straightforward as we will see.
How I lost over 100lbs with high protein keto
I have always done high protein keto except in the very beginning when I started keto. I lost the majority of my 100lbs doing high protein, moderate fat and low carb keto. In fact, I still do the same today. By following the protocol of the Protein Priority Diet I am able to eat more than enough protein, keep my fat in check and carbs low so that I can easily switch between weight loss mode and weight maintenance mode.
It wasn’t always that easy though. When I tried to use the traditional keto macros to maintain my weight loss, it went disastrously wrong and no matter how much fat I added, I was gaining weight. I went from 71kg to 81kg (more than 20lbs gained) trying to find the right way to lose weight. Traditional keto stopped working for me. Over and over the advice was “eat more fat Christina”. No wonder I put 20lbs back on.
The same stories over and over
When I released this video I was overwhelmed by the response. Hundreds of DMs and emails came flooding in saying “this is my exact story”, “I knew something wasn’t right when I stopped losing weight”, and more than a few said “I wondered why so many of the big names in the keto world that started off morbidly obese, have not got to healthy weights yet”. Through my own rigorous research and self experimentation with diets and weight loss programs I had put all of the missing pieces together and came up with Protein Priority Diet.
Traditional Keto
The traditional teaching of keto is high fat, moderate protein and low fat. That is the way I taught it but I always put the caveat on my teaching by saying that it’s high fat because that is what your body will be burning. You can eat that fat or you can use the fat on your body. Meaning that you should keep dietary fat lower than traditional keto says to. Over the years I have continued to preach about the importance of protein but to me traditional keto just didn’t sound right like that. It needed to be changed so that you clearly know to put protein first.
Protein Priority Keto
“Can I still do keto?” is probably the number one question I get asked when someone wants to join the Protein Priority Diet. “Absolutely, that’s how I do it” is the answer. In fact, following a keto diet (20g carbs or less) actually makes the Protein Priority Diet easier to follow. That is because we don’t count grams of carbs and fat in the diet unless you are doing keto level carbs. That is because gram for gram fat and carbs are far from equal. In fact, fat has twice the amount of calories per gram that carbs do. Carbs have 4 calories per gram and fat has more than double that amount at 9 calories per gram. That means if you do 50g of carbs and 50g of fat you get 200 calories from carbs and a whopping 450 calories.
Following grams for fat and carbs is massively misleading which is why members of Protein Priority Diet count grams for protein, calories for fat and carbs unless they are doing keto then it’s easier again. Grams of protein, 20g of carbs and the rest of the daily calorie allowance from fat. It’s actually easy once you do the initial calculations of what you need. You can read more about Protein Priority Keto and if you want to join the program to continue your keto weight loss click here.
Making the switch to high protein keto
Think about your fat sources. Do you choose the highest fat product out of habit? Making the switch from high fat ribeye steak to a lower fat (but not fat free) fillet steak or to leaner meats altogether like chicken and turkey can make a huge dent in your fat calories. That doesn’t mean that you have to ditch all the full fat products. I still eat full fat butter because it’s delicious and I love it. Very low fat diets are unhealthy, moderate fat is the goldilocks zone.
Switch your dairy from full fat versions to lower fat ones. Low fat cheese or zero fat Greek yoghurt are a great source of protein without stacking up on the extra fat calories. I use low fat cream cheese or cottage cheese in place of cream in recipes for a lower fat and lower calorie meal that is still high in protein, has enough healthy fat and is delicious.
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