You may have only heard of the ketogenic diet<\/a> (keto for short) in recent years, but it\u2019s been around for nearly a century. First created in the 1920s to treat epilepsy<\/a>, it\u2019s since been lauded for its ability to help people lose significant amounts of weight.<\/p>\n While keto fans praise the high-fat, low-carb diet for its weight loss potential, there\u2019s a whole lot of dedication and planning required to stick with it long term. Lazy keto, on the other hand, is a more laid-back version that\u2019s reportedly easier to follow.<\/p>\n So what is the lazy keto diet, and is it healthy?<\/p>\n Lazy keto is a simplified version of the traditional ketogenic diet, wherein you make every effort to consume no more than 10 percent of your daily calories in the form of carbohydrates without tracking your fat or protein.<\/p>\n For context, the ketogenic diet entails eating a specific amount of all three macronutrients<\/a>:<\/p>\n The goal is to\u00a0reach ketosis<\/a>, a metabolic state in which the body uses fat as its primary source of fuel. Studies show keto may help people\u00a0reduce body weight<\/a>, though it\u2019s still unclear if it\u2019s a healthy or effective long-term approach.<\/p>\n While drastically cutting carbs and calories can effectively drop the number on the scale, sticking to a keto lifestyle is\u00a0challenging to say the least. Calculating those macros day after day and sticking to a set ratio isn\u2019t easy. \u201cIt takes some work,\u201d says Andrea N. Giancoli, MPH, RD, registered dietitian. \u201cThere\u2019s a learning curve to it.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s where lazy keto comes in. Rather than meticulously plan and tally your intake of all three macronutrients (carbohydrates, fat, and protein), you focus solely on carbs. For someone who eats a 2000-calorie diet, that percentage translates to roughly 25 to 50 grams of carbohydrates (for reference, a\u00a0medium banana<\/a>\u00a0is 27 grams and a\u00a0large sweet potato<\/a>\u00a0is 37 grams).<\/p>\n While this approach is simpler, Giancoli says it\u2019s a lot trickier to deduce if you\u2019re actually in ketosis since you don\u2019t monitor how much fat or protein you consume.<\/p>\n Just like lazy keto, there are other keto variations that have taken hold since the rise in popularity of the regular old keto diet. Clean and dirty keto are two popular takes on the diet.<\/p>\n Clean keto:\u00a0<\/strong>This involves eating healthy, unprocessed or lightly-processed whole foods. Clean keto eaters may consume more plant-based fat sources including coconut oil<\/a>, avocados<\/a>, and nut butters<\/a>.<\/p>\n Dirty keto:\u00a0<\/strong>This is the not-so-clean approach to keto. It may include more animal-based fats and protein, including butter and bacon, as well as more processed<\/a> low-carb, low-sugar items like protein bars, packaged snack foods, and artificial sweeteners.<\/p>\n Lazy keto recipes aren\u2019t far off from any other type of keto recipe. Here\u2019s a sample-day snapshot:<\/p>\n If you choose to embark on a keto diet \u2014 lazy or not \u2014 pay attention to the quality of food you eat. Lazy keto meals can be healthy if you stick to mostly clean ingredients, meaning minimally-processed, whole foods, like:<\/p>\n But with any form of keto, you may be at risk of missing important nutrients<\/a>. \u201cYou\u2019re severely restricting carbohydrates \u2014 even the\u00a0healthy carbohydrates<\/a> like fruits and grains \u2014 and you\u2019re eliminating very healthful foods with fiber<\/a> and phytonutrients<\/a>,\u201d Giancoli says.<\/p>\n The lazy take on keto isn\u2019t necessarily a healthier version. And if the goal is to lose weight by way of burning fat as fuel, lazy keto may not be considered effective either.<\/p>\n \u201cSince you\u2019re not tracking your protein or your fat,\u201d Giancoli says, \u201cyou might prevent your body from going into ketosis.\u201d Maintaining a low-carbohydrate diet can also do a number on your focus and mood. \u201cYou might not be able to concentrate as well, you\u2019re likely going to be irritable, you might be hungry, or you may have the\u00a0keto flu<\/a>,\u201d Giancoli says.<\/p>\n Lazy keto may not be the most sustainable or healthy way to lose weight. If you go the way of keto, there may be several reasons you end up ditching it \u2014 from the unpleasant side effects to the lack of flexibility. And that\u2019s perfectly fine! \u201cIf you want to lose weight, it\u2019s okay to have a balanced variety of foods,\u201d Giancoli says.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You may have only heard of the ketogenic diet (keto for short) in recent years, but it\u2019s been around for nearly a century. First created in the 1920s to treat epilepsy, it\u2019s since been lauded for its ability to help people lose significant amounts of weight. While keto fans praise the high-fat, low-carb diet for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1412,5,164],"tags":[1411,162,163,1298],"class_list":["post-14201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meal-plans","category-nutrition","category-other-nutrition","tag-meal-plans","tag-nutrition","tag-other-nutrition","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/promotinghealthnow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/promotinghealthnow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/promotinghealthnow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/promotinghealthnow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/promotinghealthnow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/promotinghealthnow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/promotinghealthnow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/promotinghealthnow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/promotinghealthnow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/promotinghealthnow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What Is Lazy Keto?<\/h2>\n
![\"Table](\"https:\/\/bod-blog-assets.prod.cd.beachbodyondemand.com\/bod-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/17143101\/Lazy-Keto-600-table.jpg\")
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Lazy vs. Clean vs. Dirty Keto<\/h2>\n
![\"Ketogenic](\"https:\/\/bod-blog-assets.prod.cd.beachbodyondemand.com\/bod-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/17143055\/lazy-keto-600-breakfast.jpg\")
<\/p>\nLazy Keto Meal Examples<\/h2>\n
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Is Lazy Keto Healthy?<\/h2>\n
![\"Keto](\"https:\/\/bod-blog-assets.prod.cd.beachbodyondemand.com\/bod-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/17143050\/Lazy-Keto-600-avocado.jpg\")
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The Bottom Line<\/h2>\n