Within every weight loss plan, there are often little variations that can turn the plan into a whole new type of diet. That’s the way it is with low carb and ketogenics. Whenever you begin cutting carbs, your body doesn’t store them as fat and uses body fat instead as your fuel!

The more you cut down, the faster the weight melts off. There comes a point when you get to the ketogenic phase – which, for some people means 30 carbs or less, and for others, means 20 carbs or less.

During the ketogenic phase, your body is burning lots of fat as fuel. Every time you add more carbs, it gives the body carbs to burn instead of fat. So you’ll want to manage your carb intake according to however much weight you have to lose, and how fast you want to lose it.

With low carb, you have more freedom and flexibility to have some of the foods you want – such as fruit or starchy carbs like potatoes. But you’ll still want to be vigilant about the maximum number of carbs you allow into your diet.

With keto dieting, the number gets slashed, so you’ll have to be pickier about where your carbs come from. For example, you might really want bar-b-que chicken, but you’ll get sugar free sauce to coat it with so that you don’t blow all your carbs on a few chicken tenderloins.

If you know you want to enjoy tacos, you can shop for things that allow you to cut down on carbs and stay within a low carb or keto diet plan. Instead of taco shells made from corn, you could choose a Carb Balance tortilla with just 4 net carbs.

Low carb is a bit easier for most people to pursue, but it doesn’t help you shed the weight as fast. You also might experience more cravings for things like sugar, because a keto diet tends to eliminate them due to the satiety of the full fat you enjoy.

Because every person is different when it comes to what puts their body into ketosis, you’ll need to track your body to see if you get into ketosis at different levels of carb intake. That way, you’ll know what amount of carbs would kick you out of ketosis, too.

You can measure using keto trackers that use your urine sample, blood or even your breath. You’ll have to get into ketosis little by little to see what level it takes to get you there and then add a bit here and there to see how many carbs your body will allow and still have you in ketosis.