Lazy Keto vs Dirty Keto

There is no denying, the snowballing popularity of the keto diet has brought about multiple keto variations. What started as a strict, low-carb diet has now given rise to numerous offshoots, and there seems to be no limit to how you can practice the keto diet. 

If you are a keto enthusiast, you’ve probably heard of lazy keto, strict keto, and dirty keto. But, have you ever taken time to scrutinize the principles of these diets? Do you know how they work? Are the foods of any benefits to you? 

In this article, we’ll discuss two of the most popular keto diet spinoffs: Lazy keto versus dirty keto. I’ll walk through this showdown to help you understand the differences between these keto variations. 

To understand the difference between lazy and dirty keto better, you must first comprehend what happens on a standard keto diet. Generally, when you are on a regular ketogenic diet, you consume at most 5% carbs, 20% protein, and 75% fat. The typical keto diet restricts carbs intake to put your body into a metabolic state known as ketosis. When you are in ketosis, your body reaps numerous benefits such as reduced inflammation and weight loss [1].

In a nutshell, lazy keto is just as the name suggests; it’s a lazy approach to the traditional keto that is often popular with people looking to lose weight. This is a variation of the keto diet that emphasizes a more laid back strategy, in that, it is not as stringent in tracking macros as the regular keto. 

As mentioned above, the perfect keto diet plan encompasses many aspects key amongst them being keeping track of carbs, calories, protein and fats. Calculating the daily intakes of these diet components guides your keto journey and helps you reach ketosis more definitively. 

However, on lazy keto, you only pay attention to carb intake. This means restricting the intake of carbs, without worrying about the consumption of fat, protein, and calories. If you are getting started with keto diets, the lazy keto diet is not for you. The lazy keto is best for seasoned ketogenic diets who want to practice and reap the benefits of keto in the long term. Lazy keto advocates low-carb foods [2] such as eggs, seeds, nuts, low-carb vegetables, fish, shellfish, meat and poultry

As you may notice, lazy keto follows all the principles of the traditional ketogenic diet. The only difference is that in lazy keto, you don’t calculate the calorie, protein, and fat intake. While measuring the quantities of the macros is key to a perfect keto lifestyle, it doesn't primarily impact how the keto diet works. Basing our argument on that, lazy keto can work, but it may be a topsy turvy task to reach any benefit. 

Lazy keto works best for people who have gained a lot of weight and want to shed some to remain healthy. It may also be ideally perfect for people who have reached their weight goal and are so much into keto diet that they don’t want to abandon the lifestyle.

Remember, in the regular ketogenic diet, there are certain food groups that you exclude from your meal plans to maintain your dietary limits. Dirty keto is similar to the standard keto in that you stick to the regular keto macros. However, with dirty keto, you do not exclude some food groups; you essentially eat any food provided you don't exceed the daily keto macros. 

This means you still stick to ingesting 20g of carbs daily, but the carb can come from any food like keto bread or spinach. Besides, with dirty keto, you don’t have to consume healthy fats like avocado and wild salmon; you can reach the fat limits by consuming highly processed vegetable oil or lard. The general dirty keto principle is to focus on the strict macros of regular keto, but not the source or quality of the food as defined in classic keto.

This depends on what you want to achieve. If your goal is to lose weight, dirty keto might be an option. However, it will require a perfectly orchestrated diet plan to gain any weight loss benefit when on dirty keto. This is because, with dirty keto, you are required to maintain the typical keto diet macros, but there is no limit to what you can eat. As a result, it can be a daunting task to draw a plan that will include junk and processed foods, and still lose weight. But there is a glimmer of possibility. 

On the other hand, if you are conscious about your general health, dirty keto will not work. Eating junk and highly processed food, even when it is within the daily keto macros, is less than ideal for your health. Ideally, dirty keto is perfect if you want the flexibility to eat any food when practicing a keto lifestyle [3].

By now, you already know the differences between lazy keto and dirty keto. But, do you know the similarities of these diets? One thing you should know is that both Lazy and Dirty keto requires dieters to consume less than 20g per day. Additionally, when practiced with the utmost strictness, both diets can deliver notable benefits. 

The main difference between the two diets is the extent with which they deviate from the norms of a traditional keto diet. As mentioned earlier, with Lazy keto, there is no tracking of calories and other keto macros; the focus remains firmly on restricting carbohydrates intake. On the other hand, with Dirty keto, you can eat anything including junk and processed foods provided you keep your macros within limits stipulated in regular ketogenic. 

So, what version should you try? 

If you are easily overwhelmed by tracking daily keto macros or you just want to keep your keto lifestyle simple, try lazy keto. Alternatively, if your lifestyle doesn't allow you to eat cleanly and you want the flexibility in your dieting, dirty keto is ideally perfect. Regardless which you pick, try to move your lifestyle to eating healthy foods, especially for the dirty keto supporters. Yes, it’s great you lose kat eating pork rinds, but in the long run, it’s a losing proposition.