When you start a diet, any diet, and begin making progress you’ll generate a bit of interest in what you’re doing to lose the weight. I’m always happy to discuss the ketogenic lifestyle with the people who ask, and what benefits I think it can have in their life as well. After discussing the basics I get two frequent responses. One response I get, the other I don’t.
The first response is “I don’t know if I can give up the things I like to follow the keto diet as you just explained it.” That I totally get. It’s a total rework of your diet. And most of the foods you love the most are probably not going to make the cut. It isn’t like the glucose based diets where you can slowly wean yourself off of them. You have to give them all up right when you go keto. You might find keto friendly alternatives to help you along but the reality is as tasty as some of them are, most are just not the same thing as you’re giving up. Again, I totally understand that response.
The one I don’t get is “I don’t know if I can afford to go on the keto diet.” That one makes no sense to me. One of the bonus effects of the keto diet, at least for me, has been the cost savings. Let me break them down for you.
The first is the cost of food. The higher fat meats are generally the cheaper cuts of meat. The vegetables you buy can be pricey if you get it pre-cut or frozen, but on the whole the cost of the vegetables is much cheaper than the cost of sides at a fast food place.
Oh, and while we’re on fast food, the money you save cutting that out of your budget is amazing. I’ll occasionally go to McDonald’s and get a couple of sausage and egg McMuffins no muffin and a black coffee, but for the most part I cook for myself at home. Keto is done most easily when you cook for yourself which means lower price per meal. Now if you have the budget and want to get grass-fed beef and cage free eggs that’s awesome, and yes it will cost more than the regular fare. But you can keto with regular beef and regular eggs and you’ll still be better off than you were eating the glucose based diet you were on. And even going with the grass fed foods you’ll still be ahead of the game compared to buying tons of processed foods like chips and pre-made dinners.
Second, there’s nothing else to buy. There are keto friendly supplements and prepackaged foods, but none of them are required to be successful on keto. Having said that I will make one caveat. In the beginning it does make transitioning to keto easier if you buy some exogenous ketones to fuel yourself with when you start out. The key here is that it makes it easier. It isn’t necessary. Supplementing with electrolytes is also helpful and can make you feel better but if you’re eating a well-rounded keto friendly diet it isn’t necessary. I do know that this can be true of many diets. But it seems especially true of the keto diet.
Finally, and this is the biggest cost saver, when you switch to a ketogenic lifestyle your body becomes very agreeable to fasting. Fasting becomes a cinch when you’ve fully keto adapted. And that’s the biggest cost savings of all. Fasting requires $0.00 to do. Even if you cook for yourself and have your per meal cost down to say $10 per a day, you’re still saving $40 a month if you fast one day a week. If you fast two you just doubled your bank account gains. And I can easily do 48 hours of fasting now that I’ve been living the ketogenic lifestyle for over a year. Of course the more you spend per meal the bigger the savings this becomes.
So from a “I’m not ready to make the transition” perspective I totally understand the hesitancy to go keto. But from the “I can’t afford to go keto” perspective, I just scratch my head. I think it’s actually cheaper to eat keto, especially figuring in fasting periods. And that doesn’t even begin to cover the cost savings from being overall healthier and happier. Or the cheaper clothing for me now that I don’t shop at the big and tall store. So from that perspective can you really afford not to live the ketogenic lifestyle? I’m thinking the savings speak for themselves. Hope you’re having a great day today. Peace.
Senso1970's Blog 
Leave a Reply