How much sugar are you allowed on keto

If you are exploring new diets in your search to become a healthier person and to live a longer life, you may have looked into the keto diet, otherwise known as the ketosis diet.

This is a type of diet which involves eating a lot of protein, a decent amount of fat, and a limited amount of carbs.

The main point of the keto diet is to be very low in carbs, so that your body absorbs the protein and builds muscle, but also loses a lot of fat at the same time. It’s all about losing weight and maintaining a healthy body weight by eating the right types and amounts of food.

This can admittedly get a bit complicated, especially when it comes to various meats, fruits, nuts, veggies, and of course, junk food too. As a hint, when you are on a keto diet, junk food is one of the things that you need to stay away from.

As a side note, check out this Keto Macro Calculator to make life easier.

Although a good deal of fat is required for the keto diet to be successful, in terms of carbohydrates, their intake needs to be kept fairly low.

You might be wondering what sugar has to do with this, especially in relation to carbs. Well, that is what we are here to figure out right now. How many grams of sugar a day on a keto diet is allowed ?

Table of Contents

• Carbs and Sugars + Fiber Too – How are They Related?
• How Many Carbs and Sugars Per Day on a Keto Diet?
• Conclusion

Carbs and Sugars + Fiber Too – How are They Related?

You might be a bit confused because we have done a lot of talking about carbs so far, which means you might be wondering where exactly sugar fits into this equation. Well, did you know that sugar, especially refined sugar, such as basic white sugar or even brown sugar, is considered to be a carbohydrate?

When you are examining your foods for carbs to meet the carbohydrate requirements of your keto diet, you need to pay attention to the sugar content of the food you are eating.

To be clear, carbohydrates are defined as the total amount of sugars, fiber, and starches found in food. This is where it can get a bit confusing. For example, pasta and bread is full of starch, but generally speaking has little sugar content.

On the other hand, something like a candy bar or soda is loaded with sugar, but does not contain any starch, or barely any for the most part. Therefore, 2 vastly different foods like noodles and chocolate bars can both be very high in carbs, but these carbs come from different sources.

Now, it all gets a little more complicated when you take fiber into account, because the amount of fiber your food contains will to a certain degree counteract the amount of sugar and starch your food contains. This all has to do with net carbs, which is the amount of carbs your body absorbs from the total carb content of your food.

As an example, if your food contains 10 grams of sugar, 10 grams of starch, and 10 grams of fiber, you actually have to subtract the fiber content from the other 2, so you can figure out what the net carbs are which your body will absorb.

In the above example, you were to add the 10 grams of sugar to the 10 grams of starch, for a total of 20 grams of carbs, you would then subtract those 10 grams of fiber, which leaves you with a total net carb intake of 10 grams. It can get a bit confusing, but in all reality, it’s not rocket science.

How Many Carbs and Sugars Per Day on a Keto Diet?

What you need to know now is that there is a certain amount of carbohydrates which you are supposed to eat per day when you are trying to stick to a keto diet. The total amount of carbs you can eat per day should be around 5% of your total food intake.

For most average people, this is going to equal roughly 50 grams of carbs, give or take depending on your size and weight. Therefore, you can eat up to 50 grams of sugar per day on a keto diet.

However, you need to remember to take fiber and starches into account too. For instance, if you eat 25 grams of starch and absolutely no fiber, you can only eat 25 grams of sugar to stay within that 50 gram daily carb limited.

On the other hand, if you eat food that has 30 grams of fiber, because it gets subtracted from the grand total, you can eat up to 80 grams of sugar, or a combination of starches and sugars that total 80 grams.

As you can see, it all depends on the combination of fiber, starches, and sugars, which goes towards determining your overall daily sugar and carb allowance on a keto diet.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, you need to pay attention to the amount and types of food you eat on the keto diet so that you don’t exceed that daily sugar and carb intake limit.

Generally speaking, you want to limit the amount of white bread, pasta, and rice that you eat, and really all kinds of baked goods, chocolate, soda, and candy.

However, this does not mean that you cannot eat any sugar at all. You just have to make sure that you stick within that 50 gram carb limit per day.

Remember that the net carbs you take in per day equal the total starches and sugars you eat, minus the amount of fiber you have taken in. Sticking to this will ensure success in your keto diet.

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