Ever been on a diet? With two-thirds of the Australian and US population either overweight or obese, chances are, the answer is yes.

Dieting isn’t fun, plain and simple. Restricting your eating habits is challenging, hard work and, in the worst case, unfulfilling. What’s more, choosing a diet is a daunting task leaving even the most informed weight loss warrior confused.

What should you do? Low fat? High protein? Paleo? South Beach? A cleanse? With so many options, it’s easy to become overwhelmed and abandon the whole diet thing altogether.

But what if there was a diet that allowed you rich, filling foods typically banned by conventional weight loss plans? Better yet, with this diet, you can eat your fill. That means no more starving yourself to be skinny. Sound good? It is!

This weight loss regimen, called the keto diet, could be a game changer for you this year.

Here’s how you can accelerate your weight loss with a keto diet.

What’s a keto diet?

You may have already heard of this diet, but you probably don’t know what it entails. Simply put, the keto diet requires you to eat low-carb, high-fat foods. You read correctly — high-fat. We’ll get to how that works later.

The main metric tracked by keto dieters is carbs, with most people electing to eat anywhere between 0 to 50 grams of carbs per day to be able to stay in ketosis, depending on their body type.

It’s very important to determine your daily intake of carbs, fat and protein to have success with the keto diet. You can use this simple keto macro calculator to help you achieve a good balance of macros.

Once you know what you need to eat to succeed, start eating! All forms of animal protein, including eggs and fish, easily fit into a keto diet. You can also enjoy most types of cheese and some dairy products, like sour and heavy creams.

Most vegetables have low net carbs, but beware of starchy vegetables like potatoes, carrots, corn and peas. Stick to dark, leafy greens whenever possible. Fruits are a little more challenging as they’re higher in sugar and therefore higher in carbs. Most berry and melon varieties are safe, in addition to kiwi.

Do your research before deciding which foods you’ll eat while losing weight on the keto diet.

How does it work?

To understand the keto diet, you need to know how the body’s digestive system works. Typically, our bodies burn glucose, a form of sugar derived from carbohydrates, to create energy.

Keto is short for ketosis, one of the body’s metabolic states. When your body’s deprived of carbs, it begins to produce and burn ketones for energy. This puts your body in ketosis, causing it to burn fat for energy instead of the carbohydrate-derived glucose.

It takes about a week for your body to adjust and fully enter a state of ketosis. During that time, you’ll probably lose about two to 4-5 kg and several inches. While some of the loss will be fat, much of it will be water weight. When you’re consuming carbohydrates, your body stores much more water. Without the carbs in your diet, the excess water sheds during your first week of eating keto.

From that point, expect to lose about a pound or two a week. Again, this depends on many factors including your current weight, net carbs consumed, exercise and more.

Benefits of a keto diet

There are many benefits to eating keto. Here are just a few of the proven positive side-effect of this diet:

• Increased energy
• Increased mental clarity
• Appetite suppression
• Fewer food cravings
• Lower triglycerides
• Lower blood pressure
• Higher HDL “good” cholesterol

What’s more, the keto diet has been scientifically proven to work! A 2014 analysis examined 13 dieting studies that included 1,577 subjects over a 12-month period. A portion of the subjects followed a keto diet and the remaining subjects followed a conventional, low-fat diet. The researchers determined those eating keto lost two more pounds, on average, than their conventional counterparts.

Countless other studies have yielded similar results. The conclusion: keto works!

In a world full of diets (and people who need them), picking one to work for you is nothing short of overwhelming. What makes keto unique is its ability to transform your body — from the inside out and feel younger!

The keto diet is a scientifically proven eating regimen to help you lose weight and keep it off. Begin your keto journey today to transform your body and your overall health.