Keto Shortcuts: A Step-by-Step Guide

For many, the keto diet is not just a diet, it’s a way of life. Especially for those who eat this way for health reasons and not just to lose weight.

We’ve discussed the keto diet a few times already – how it works, the right keto friendly foods and snacks to eat. We’ve also provided some great keto recipes and ideas to swap out foods you’re currently eating to be keto friendly.

The keto diet seems pretty simple. Eat a low-carb, high-fat diet and reap the results. Even for beginners, the keto diet isn’t very hard to follow, once you get past the keto fatigue period. 

Many people see promising health benefits, including:

• Weight loss
• Increases in HDL (good) cholesterol
• Decreases in LDL (bad) cholesterol
• Better sleep quality
• Better ability to focus
• Less hunger
• Increase in overall fat burning

Today, we’re going to discuss five keto shortcuts that will help you reach ketosis faster. Why does this matter? Your body does it’s best fat burning when in ketosis. These ketogenic tips will help you make the most out of your workouts and body’s ability to burn fat fast.

Ready for some keto tips and tricks to speed up your fat burning while in ketosis?

Work Out in the AM

Our first ketogenic shortcut is one that might be easier for some to do than others. To accelerate your body’s fat burning ability, it’s better to work out in the morning rather than at night.

For some, this is their preferred time to work out, so this tip is easy. If you prefer to work out at night, you might not be game to change your routine.

1. Burn More Fat

What is it about working out in the morning that is better for fat burning than at night?

For one thing, you can burn more fat when you work out on an empty stomach. Working out before eating breakfast can actually accelerate your fat burn and prevent weight gain.

Three sets of men around the same age (21) were divided into three groups:

• Men who exercised before eating
• Men who ate before and during their exercise routine
• Men who didn’t exercise at all

All the men were fed the same fat-rich diet. Out of all three groups, the only men who hadn’t gained any weight were the ones who fasted before exercising. The fasting group also showed the greatest increase in glucose tolerance and oxidation in muscle cells.

The study also noted that exercising in a fasted state leads to increase and sustained energy throughout the day. Another study confirms that increased fat oxidation leads to longer fat-burning throughout the day – long after you left the gym.

2. Reset Your Circadian Rhythm

The circadian rhythm is what regulates your wake-sleep cycle based on a 24 hour day. Being in rhythm means you naturally wake and sleep at roughly the same time of day. You’re able to be more alert throughout the day and more rested while you’re sleeping.

When 51 older and 48 younger adults were studied, researchers found a few ideal times to exercise. Participants woke and exercised at regular intervals over a six-day period. What researchers found was those who showed the highest improvement regularly worked out at 7 am and from 1 pm – 4 pm. 

Waking up early has another benefit. People who wake up early and perform a routine tend to take less time to make the habit stick. 

Forty-eight students were given three months to make a healthy habit of stretching become routine. Half performed their stretch routine in the morning and the other half night. The morning group took less than 106 days while the night group took 154 days.

If you’re not a morning person and the thought of doing this fills you with dread, don’t change your routine. If you’ve found success with what you are doing, there’s no need to change. But, if you can stand to shake up your routine and are willing to try it, consider a week trial.

Set your alarm so that you can begin your workout by 7 am. Do this for a week and see if you notice any of the benefits described above. If you do, it might be worth continuing. 

If it doesn’t work out, remember the study above – exercising between 1 pm – 4 pm has its benefits.

Intermittent Fasting

This next tip is about intermittent fasting and how it is a great keto shortcut. We recommend the 5:2 diet, also called the Fast Diet. This type of intermittent fasting is currently the most popular.

Intermittent fasting is not a diet, it’s an eating pattern. On the 5:2 diet, you eat regularly for five out of seven days and then restrict the other two days. The two restriction days consist of eating no more than:

• 500 calories per day for women
• 600 calories per day for men

Unsure of what to eat on days when calories are low? Consider filling those days with:

• Large portions of leafy greens
• Small portions of
  • Lean meats
  • Fish
  • Eggs
• Filling soups or stews
• Berries if you want something sweet
• Drink plenty of 
  • Water
  • Black coffee
  • Tea (black, green, herbal)

The great thing about the 5:2 diet is the flexibility it allows. You can choose which two days you want to fast each week. Your fasting days can adapt to your schedule, so no problem if one week looks different than the next.

Until you’ve become accustomed to this way of eating, you probably shouldn’t do fasting days back to back. Let your body get used to the reduced calories first. You should also avoid high-intensity workouts on those days and not eat to replenish any spent calories.

Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

Research around intermittent fasting has still not concluded on the optimal fasting regimen. However, the the benefits of fasting for many are noted, including:

• Increase fat-burn and weight loss
• Improve metabolic health
• Prevent diseases
• Increase overall longevity
• Improve cognition
• Increase energy
• Improve sleep cycles

Intermittent fasting may not be for everyone, and there are many different eating patterns to try. If you haven’t tried it before, consider the 5:2 diet pattern. We’d love to hear about your experience and your thoughts on it in the comments here.

Take RK Fat Burner

If you’ve read our other keto articles, you’ve seen that we’ve unveiled the new Real Keto line of products.

One of our products, RK Fat Burner, is a great keto shortcut for increasing your fat burn. It has a few key ways that it helps avoid the keto plateau and help melt unwanted fat away.

1. A Little Help with Lipotropics

In order to burn fat, your body must send the fat cells to your muscles and organs to be burned away. They are able to move through your body thanks to lipotropics.

Created with a “super-stack” of lipotropics, the Real Keto Fat Burner will make sure you never run out. 

2. Increase Your Metabolism

When living the keto lifestyle, your body is getting a large reduction in carbs. If you are also intermittent fasting, you are getting even fewer carbs than others on the keto diet.

One thing that happens to your body in response to fewer carbs is slow down your metabolism. When that happens, you bet your fat-burning is reduced as well.

RK Fat Burner includes some key ingredients to keep your metabolism and your thyroid hormones in check:

• Tyrosine
• Organic iodine
• Guggul extract
• Caffeine for energy

3. Keep Your Appetite in Control

Anyone who has done the keto diet has felt the dreaded carb cravings. Your body is just screaming at you to give it some carbs already! It can be hard not to give in, especially when your energy levels are low and you’ve hit the keto plateau.

The 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) and DL-phenylalanine in RK Fat Burner help curb those cravings. It also helps regulate your mood to keep you going strong if cravings do hit. 

Don’t risk derailing your fat-burning progress and the benefits you’ve seen from the ketogenic diet. We’ve done the research to bring you a quality product that can keep you in control.

4. Burn All Your Own Fat

A lot of supplements out there that are geared towards keto eaters include exogenous ketones and/or MCTs. We didn’t include them in our product because we want all the fat you burn to be your own!

If you are eating correctly on the keto diet you should be in ketosis. When you are, your body is producing its own ketones to burn fat into energy. Other products provide ketones which can cause you to hold onto more fat and burn less. 

Not ours. Take our Fat Burner and know that every drop of fat you destroy was yours. The victory is sweet.

Increase Your Reps

Another ketogenic shortcut tip to keep the fat-burning is to increase your reps when working out.

Once you’ve moved past the keto flu symptoms, consider increasing your reps and overall activity level.

As you learned in our previous articles, glycogen is what is produced by the body to fuel the muscles. As you burn the muscle glycogen it stimulates fat burning, even post-workout.

One of the side effects of the keto diet is depleted energy, especially in the beginning. We’ve already provided some great ketogenic tips to combat fatigue. Let’s see what increasing reps can do to help with fat-burning in ketosis.

When the body is completing strenuous activity, like increasing reps on a weight set, it burns more glycogen. The breakdown of glycogen not only signals to keep burning fat but also increases energy output. That greater energy is what you can use as fuel for your harder workout sets.

Training is Key

The key to increasing your reps effectively without completely depleting energy is HIIT. We talked about high-intensity interval training before. You go as hard as you can for a certain time and then cool off before you go again.

This keto shortcut takes less than 20 minutes to complete, so you don’t have to worry about increased cortisol. Plus, it helps you burn more fat during and after your workout. Sustained fat-burning hours after you’ve left the gym? Yes, please!

Avoid muscle wasting by eating a small number of carbs and protein before and after your workout. If your glycogen stores deplete too much, then your body will want to use protein in the muscle instead.

Also, if you are participating in intermittent fasting, make sure you aren’t increasing your reps on fasting days. You don’t want to risk injury or collapse on your extreme calorie deficient days.

Lower Your Stress Levels

Reducing your stress is a keto shortcut that might be harder than others. Between work, eating correctly, taking care of adult responsibilities, and life, in general, it’s hard not to stress.

But it’s an important factor in your keto lifestyle fat-burning journey. Increased stress levels negatively affect your health in a few ways. 

• Increase your chance of Type 2 diabetes
• Reduce testosterone levels
• Lower the immune system
• Cause you to overeat and throw you out of ketosis
• Make existing breathing issues (asthma) worse
• Cause depression
• Cause anxiety
• Headaches
• Body pain/aches

There are some great keto shortcuts you can do to reduce your stress levels.

1. Exercise the Right Way

Exercise is one of the keys to promote fat-burn. Yes, eating keto makes it easier to lose fat, but stress can keep those pounds from budging. And not all exercise is considered equal for burning fat.

As we stated above, HIIT training will help keep cortisol levels low. Once you’ve hit about 40 minutes of sustained exercise your cortisol levels increase quickly. 

When your cortisol levels peak, they lower testosterone levels and can reduce muscle mass. What’s more, your stress levels start to rise and your fat-burning gets put on hold.

The key to keeping your cortisol is doing HILIT exercises or high-intensity low-interval training. Think the intensity without as much impact on your body. We’re talking things that keep your feet on the floor, like:

• Stationary skaters
• Jump-free burpees
• Lunges
• Squats
• Planks
• Rowing exercises
• Resistance band exercises
• Rope exercises

These low impact exercises give you all the benefits without the cortisol boost. Plus, you will get the endorphin flood as well as post-workout fat-burn.

2. Breathe It Out

This keto shortcut comes from Harvard Medical School. Using a simple breathing technique is another great way to keep your stress in check.

Take a minute and complete it whenever you find yourself starting to stress:

1. Start by breathing in slowly and letting your stomach out to take in as much breathe as possible.
2. Hold your breath for just a second or two.
3. Slowly begin to exhale, reminding yourself to relax while you do it.
4. Repeat this sequence up to ten times as needed. Remember you want to focus on breathing deeply and slowly. 

3. Meditate

If you find the breathing technique above works for you, meditation is another keto shortcut you’d enjoy. 

Meditation is another way to help fuel your fat-burn too. It also helps:

• Curb stress eating
• Reduce anxiety
• Lower cortisol levels
• Helps reduce or eliminate insulin resistance
• Increase dopamine
• Become more accepting of yourself and others
• Reduce depression

All of these benefits not only help burn fat and reduce stress, but they also increase overall quality of life. You’ll gain more energy, want to work out more, and stick to your keto lifestyle.

It really doesn’t get much better than that, does it? Practicing mindfulness will help change your brain in positive ways. Don’t you want your insides to feel as good as your outsides look?

4. Walk Away

This keto shortcut seems really simple but can be hard for a lot of people. If you want to destress and keep burning fat, then consider the art of walking away.

Whether the situation is at work, home or you had a fight with a friend, walk away from the situation. Go sit in a quiet place alone for 10 – 20 minutes. Try the breathing technique we mentioned above while you sit.

Think about what it was that started stressing yourself out, and ways to resolve the matter. If it’s still too stressful to think about, then try to think about something that will make you happy. Your significant other, pet or a favorite memory can put a smile across your face.

Once you’ve had time to sit and reflect while breathing it out, hopefully, your stress has at least gone down. Practicing this and techniques like it will have you in control of your stress levels in no time. 

That means maintaining a level of fat-burning that makes you happy. Imagine not only meeting your goals but crushing them!

Are you struggling with fat-burning on the keto diet? Have you tried the 5:2 diet? Which tip is your favorite and do you have one to add? Let us know in the comments!