Keto for Beginners Over 50: Simple Tips for Success
It’s not too late to make lifestyle changes to improve your health, even as you age! One of the best ways to promote healthy aging is by eating fewer carbs. You’ve probably heard of the ketogenic diet and how it can lower your body fat and improve health markers, mood, and energy levels.
For this reason, we’ve prepared a guide to keto for beginners over 50. Here, you’ll learn how keto works, how it can benefit you or a family member, and some things to keep in mind if you’re over 50 and looking to try the ketogenic diet.
An Overview of the Keto Diet
The ketogenic or “keto” diet cuts out most carbohydrates—particularly those likely to spike your blood sugar—such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes, corn, sugary foods, and tropical fruits. Check out this list of foods to avoid on keto and what to eat instead.
As a general rule, you need to eat only 30-50 grams of carbs, or lower if you’re less active and can tolerate close to zero carbs, to enter ketosis. During the state of ketosis, your body switches to using its stored fat for energy, instead of glucose, resulting in weight loss. Besides weight loss, ketosis has anti-inflammatory benefits thanks to the ketone beta-hydroxybutyrate or BHB. [1]
Is Keto Good for People Over 50?
It’s worth noting that the keto diet helps with many issues that can arise around the age of 50 and above. This makes keto a good option for this age group. Below are some issues that can sneak up on you as you age and how a very low-carb approach can help.
Cravings During Menopause
Menopause, which happens between the age of 45 and 55, causes shifts in a woman’s hormones. These hormone changes can lead to increased cravings, which keto addresses by providing sufficient amounts of healthy fats and protein. [2]
Here’s more about keto and menopause.
Low Testosterone Levels
Testosterone is the primary sex hormone in males, and a normal level is considered at least 300 nanograms per deciliter (ng/dL).
Studies have shown an age-related decline in testosterone, along with male menopause (or andropause) symptoms, such as mood changes, increased body fat, low libido, reduced muscle mass, gynecomastia (often referred to as “man boobs”), and erectile dysfunction. [3]
A low-carb diet such as keto may increase serum testosterone levels. A randomized clinical trial found that male participants who reduced carbs to 20-30 grams per day while increasing their protein and fat experienced significant improvements in their symptoms. Their total serum testosterone was also greater than the control group. [4]
Diabetes and Increased Risk of Health Complications
While diabetes can affect people at any age, it affects many adults after the age of 50. Type 2 diabetes is the most common form, and your risk of getting it increases if you’re overweight, inactive, and eating too many carbs—especially refined carbs.
Having persistent high blood sugar will eventually lead to other problems, such as retinopathy (vision loss or blindness), high blood pressure, stroke, and kidney disease. [5]
By managing your carb intake through the keto diet, you can keep your blood sugar under control and avoid these complications. Many people who’ve adhered to keto have seen significant improvements in their HbA1c. Moreover, they were able to rely less on their glucose-lowering medications. [6]
Here’s more about diabetes reversal using keto.
Cancer
For most cancers, incidences increase with age, and one explanation is that DNA damage accumulates over time. There’s also evidence showing that DNA repair becomes less efficient and more prone to errors during aging. [7]
The keto diet may help fight cancer by starving cancer cells of glucose since sugar feeds these cells. Unlike glucose, ketones cannot be used by cancer cells for energy. [8]
Additionally, keto reduces your likelihood of getting cancer by helping reduce the likelihood of risk factors like obesity and type 2 diabetes.
How to Do Keto for Beginners Over 50
First and foremost, it’s always a good idea to consult a healthcare provider who recommends and has used the keto diet on their patients. Feel free to use Ketogenic’s Doctor Finder tool to connect with a doctor today.
Ready to get started? Follow these tips.
1. Cut carbs and replace them with keto-friendly alternatives
People who start a keto diet are worried that they can no longer enjoy their favorite high-carb foods. But whether you’re missing bread, rice, pasta, or a slice of cake, there are many tasty replacements that will keep you in ketosis.
Here are some food swaps you can make:
- Low-carb bread instead of wheat bread
- Shirataki noodles instead of wheat pasta
- Cauliflower rice instead of white rice or quinoa
- Stevia sweetener instead of table sugar
- Homemade cheese crisps instead of potato chips
2. Eat enough fat and protein
Fat and protein are so important for keto dieters.
Dietary fat replaces carbs as your energy source and eating more fat helps you become keto-adapted over time. When this happens, you’ll have fewer cravings (which is beneficial for menopause), and higher energy levels.
Healthy fats, such as omega-3s from salmon, oysters, and chia seeds, will prevent you from becoming overweight or obese, plus they lower blood pressure and your risk of getting heart disease. [9]
Protein, on the other hand, plays many roles in healthy aging. Besides stabilizing your blood sugar, it slows down muscle loss related to aging—known as sarcopenia. Preserving muscle means greater strength, mobility, and a low probability of falls and fractures.
3. Prevent electrolyte imbalances
Low electrolytes can happen when you’re starting keto. This is because reducing carbs also reduces the amount of water your body holds onto. Essentially, it makes you pee more, which results in electrolytes getting lost in your urine.
Another thing to note is that older individuals are more prone to electrolyte imbalances and dehydration, with hyponatremia (low sodium levels) being the most common. [10]
With that said, be mindful of your electrolyte intake. Be sure to consume a variety of electrolyte-containing foods and consider supplementing your electrolytes. See the list below for keto-friendly sources:
- Bone broth: sodium, potassium, and magnesium
- Dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa): potassium and magnesium
- Pork rinds (pig skin): sodium, potassium, and magnesium
- Green vegetables: potassium and magnesium
- Cheese: sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium
- Chia seeds: potassium, magnesium, and calcium
Other Health Promotion Strategies
In addition to replacing carbs with keto-friendly items, prioritizing protein and fat, and replenishing your electrolytes, don’t ignore other habits that support your health.
You’ll find that many strategies that increase longevity also complement the keto diet. This includes intermittent fasting, lifting weights or resistance training, and getting 7-9 hours of sleep per night.
Check out Ketogenic.com’s success stories to discover more about succeeding on the keto diet regardless of your age!
References
Youm, Y. H., Nguyen, K. Y., Grant, R. W., Goldberg, E. L., Bodogai, M., Kim, D., D'Agostino, D., Planavsky, N., Lupfer, C., Kanneganti, T. D., Kang, S., Horvath, T. L., Fahmy, T. M., Crawford, P. A., Biragyn, A., Alnemri, E., & Dixit, V. D. (2015). The ketone metabolite β-hydroxybutyrate blocks NLRP3 inflammasome-mediated inflammatory disease. Nature medicine, 21(3), 263–269. https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.3804
Gibson, A.A., Seimon, R.V., Lee, C.M.Y., Ayre, J., Franklin, J., Markovic, T.P., Caterson, I.D. and Sainsbury, A. (2015), Do ketogenic diets really suppress appetite?. Obes Rev, 16: 64-76. https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.12230
Golan, R., Scovell, J. M., & Ramasamy, R. (2015). Age-related testosterone decline is due to waning of both testicular and hypothalamic-pituitary function. The aging male : the official journal of the International Society for the Study of the Aging Male, 18(3), 201–204. https://doi.org/10.3109/13685538.2015.1052392
da Silva Schmitt, C., da Costa, C.M., Souto, J.C.S. et al. The effects of a low carbohydrate diet on erectile function and serum testosterone levels in hypogonadal men with metabolic syndrome: a randomized clinical trial. BMC Endocr Disord 23, 30 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12902-023-01278-6
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2019, May 1). Diabetes in older people. National Institute on Aging. https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/diabetes-older-people
Tinguely, D., Gross, J. & Kosinski, C. Efficacy of Ketogenic Diets on Type 2 Diabetes: a Systematic Review. Curr Diab Rep 21, 32 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-021-01399-z
Laconi, E., Marongiu, F. & DeGregori, J. Cancer as a disease of old age: changing mutational and microenvironmental landscapes. Br J Cancer 122, 943–952 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-019-0721-1
Poff, A. M., Ari, C., Arnold, P., Seyfried, T. N., & D'Agostino, D. P. (2014). Ketone supplementation decreases tumor cell viability and prolongs survival of mice with metastatic cancer. International journal of cancer, 135(7), 1711–1720. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.28809
Jain, A. P., Aggarwal, K. K., & Zhang, P. Y. (2015). Omega-3 fatty acids and cardiovascular disease. European review for medical and pharmacological sciences, 19(3), 441–445.
Boyer, S., Gayot, C., Bimou, C. et al. Prevalence of mild hyponatremia and its association with falls in older adults admitted to an emergency geriatric medicine unit (the MUPA unit). BMC Geriatr 19, 265 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-019-1282-0
