This is the simple definition. Keto is an eating hack. By this, I mean it’s something you do to finesse weight loss. It’s not a program you sign up for or pay a subscription fee to. It’s not just another diet that somebody else thought up to take your money. It’s not something you suffer through in order to lose a few pounds that you have it on past experience will show up again later.

Keto is shorthand for choosing ketosis-encouraging food to eat and other food to avoid eating. It’s totally under your control and like I said, it’s an eating hack or body hack. You make choices and your body responds because it has to. No options.

We’ve lost a lot of pounds doing Keto over the past 5+ years and think we understand the mechanics of cooking and eating Keto pretty well. Here, I take a closer look at how eating Keto works to help you create your own approach to Keto.

Getting specific, what you’re doing when you eat “Keto” is you are choosing to eat foods that will force your body to get the energy it needs to operate from fat instead of from carbohydrates. And guess what? If your body needs more energy than it can get from the fats and other stuff you eat, it will start cashing out the fat deposits it has stored for a rainy day here, there, and everywhere around the old belly, face, arms, and legs. Got it? Think, read, and repeat as needed.

Mostly what you do on Keto is eat foods with lots (relatively) of fat and not much in the way of carbs. The simplest way to go Keto is to stop eating anything with sugar in it in any form (including fruits and honey and maple syrup, yikes!) and stop eating anything with wheat flour in it. If you just do this, you’ll probably lose weight and be eating healthfully. What I like best about eating Keto is all that full-fat butter and cheese and sour cream, etc. And bacon and other fatty meats. And nuts. And eggs. We love butter. Also on the A-list are green, leafy vegetables, and cukes, and broccoli, and of course, cauliflower. (Did you ever imagine that you’d substitute cauliflower for mashed potatoes or proper pizza crust? Welcome to Keto.) The focus is on fat and eating almost no carbs. The good news is that a) fat means flavor and b) fat is filling. So, filling, flavorful fat is what Keto is mostly about in practice.

If it really were that simple, all the Keto pundits would be out of jobs, right? My favorite Keto pundits are The Diet Doctor, Carolyn at All Day I Dream About Food, and they won’t run out of followers for a long while.

My simplified definition of keto derives mostly from this Diet Doctor video, which explains the basics. But even this explanation makes Keto more complex than it needs to be in practice. Once you get a sense for the mechanics, you can make up your own menus and dishes, probably. If you feel more comfortable having a program tell you exactly what to eat and not eat, or even supply you with ready-to-heat-and-eat meals, that’s fine. This is easy for me to say since I’ve been doing Keto—off and on, you understand—for about six years.

One more thing. I have come to see that the true basic idea about losing weight is to—wait for it—eat less food. But to enjoy losing weight pretty quickly and feel better—I haven’t even mentioned the other health benefits of Keto eating—do Keto.

If you’re one of those people who can eat all day and not gain weight, God bless you. Enjoy the many carby recipes here on DRB.