A typical American consumes about 250 carbs per day. With processed, refined, frozen, and fast food (and drinks), much of what the average person eats is loaded with added sugars and refined carbohydrates. Most people probably don’t think much about their carb intake but you’d be shocked to learn how many are in some of the drinks you may consider getting from fast food restaurants!

“Low-carb”, although not strictly defined, usually means keeping your carb intake around 100-150 grams per day. Obviously, this is much lower than the average person, but it’s actually far from a ketogenic diet. Being low-carb does, however, allow you to consume certain foods that someone following a ketogenic diet would not, such as fruits, whole grains, and starches (lentils, beans, etc).

Keto, which can be short for ketogenic or ketosis, actually refers to someone’s physical state, which is using ketones for fuel. Although food can be labeled “keto”, it’s not the food that’s really keto – it’s simply products that someone following a ketogenic diet could typically consume and stay in a state of ketosis. For most people, that means keeping your carb intake under 50 grams per day.

If you want to learn more about ketones, ketosis, and/or being fat-adapted, that’s another lesson. I want to keep these lessons short for quick reading but you can click here for that specific one.