Some people adopt a keto diet to manage their health conditions. It has been shown to help with:

• Epilepsy
• Metabolic Syndrome
• Glycogen Storage Disease
• Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome
• Diabetes
• Autism
• Parkinson’s Disease
• And some cancers

But most of the people on the keto diet today are doing it to lose weight. It has become extremely popular in the media as a safe and effective way to manage your weight.

But, you can’t expect dramatic results right away.

While everyone’s experience will be different, here’s a general guide of what to expect when you adopt the keto diet. 

The First Week

One of the things that is great about the keto diet is many people see results the first week. While some will shed a few pounds, many will lose as much as ten pounds. 

But don’t get too excited. A lot of that weight is water weight that your body sheds because it isn’t relying on glycogen anymore and therefore doesn’t need to store it in water molecules. 

When you start a keto diet, your body will burn all of its glycogen stores before it starts relying on fat.

While your progress during the first week isn’t true weight loss, it is a good sign. It shows that your body is entering the ketogenic state. 

Weeks Two Through Eight

Once your body adapts to using fat as energy, you’ll start to lose weight. The average loss for keto dieters is one to two pounds per week. 

While that may seem like a conservative amount of weight loss, you can be sure that all of it is fat. People who participate in a keto diet see almost no change in their lean mass.

Weeks Eight Through Sixteen

Most people see the majority of their weight loss in the first two to three months of being on a ketogenic diet. After that, the progress is slower but still consistent. 

As long as you maintain your diet, you will continue to lose weight. 

Week Sixteen and Beyond

The closer you get to your weight loss goal, the more your progress will seem to slow down. 

As your body loses weight, it needs fewer calories. That means that the deficit that you created when you started dieting will make less of a difference. 

After the first sixteen weeks, you may have weeks where your weight doesn’t change. But you could lose three pounds the following week. 

Just stick with it!