Keto: A Woman's Guide and Cookbook by Tasha Metcalf

Keto: A Woman's Guide and Cookbook

by Tasha Metcalf

Women are biologically different from men, so why follow the same dieting advice? This expanded, full-color edition of Keto: A Woman’s Guide and Cookbook—now including 35 recipes, 25 photos, and additional diagrams—presents in-depth insight into how the keto diet works with the female body, with easy-to-follow, realistic, and customizable strategies for achieving your keto dieting goals.

Women’s bodies are different from men’s in many ways: including in physical composition, hormonal makeup, and how they metabolize fat and calories. Here, Ketogasm website and blog creator, Tasha Metcalf, breaks down the essential differences between male and female keto dieters to create an actionable plan for adapting the keto diet to your own body and needs, whether you are looking to lose weight, reverse insulin resistance and PCOS, enhance athletic performance, improve thyroid health, or balance your hormonal cycle.

The first part of this book introduces the keto diet and fat-burning metabolism, while busting common keto myths and addressing diet dogma. This sets the stage for you to confidently approach your diet, avoid the pitfalls, and put the naysayers to rest.

Next, learn exactly how female bodies respond to both diet and exercise. Find out how the keto diet and calories coexist, how the menstrual cycle and menopause affect metabolism and eating behavior, and how the keto diet can be used to bring harmony to your hormones.

Finally, put everything you’ve learning together to implement your custom keto diet with simple strategies and instructions. These and more delicious recipes make it easy to stay on track all day long:
  • Keto Oatmeal
  • Keto Smoothie
  • Portobello Eggs Benedict
  • Smoked Salmon Boats
  • Pan Seared Duck & Daikon Noodles
  • Coconut Curry Stew
  • Chicken Piccata with Squash Noodles
  • Coconut Yogurt
If you are ready to take charge of your health and transform you body, this friendly guide delivers a clear plan of action.

Reviewed by annieb123 on

4 of 5 stars

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Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Keto: A Woman's Guide and Cookbook is a tutorial aimed especially at women who want to utilize a low/no carbohydrate diet for health and weight loss by Tasha Metcalf. Due out 14th Jan 2020 from Quarto on their Fair Winds Press imprint, it's 272 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats.

This book is certainly very well organized. The first 15% of the page content covers the introduction, definitions and concepts involved in a keto. The author covers macronutrients, different metabolic pathways and some layman accessible biochemistry, along with advantages and disadvantages of various diets. The author discusses some of the side effects of ketosis and benefits of getting through the initial adjustment period.

The second section covers some of the differences of female metabolism and hormonal cycles as they relate to diet and exercise. These chapters (and indeed the whole book) are layman accessible, scientifically accurate, free of outrageous claims, and reasonable. I must admit though, when reading, this book is so theory dense that I often felt overwhelmed. I think that most readers will get probably get more from the book by 'buffet' style reading (finding specific information and taking careful notes) than by 'novel' style reading from cover to cover and trying to compile and assimilate all the information in one read-through.

The last 60% of the content is given over to implementation of a low carb diet, realistic expectations, the phases of ketosis, fat-adaptation, etc along with a bank of well curated recipes which are keto-friendly. The book is very well photographed and the composition is pleasant and easy to read. The recipes themselves are clear and easy to follow. Each recipe has a header with cooking times and a short description of the recipe. The ingredients (given in American and metric measures) are listed in a sidebar, along with yields and serving sizes. Step by step directions are followed by nutrient information. Most of the ingredients will be easy to source at any well stocked grocery, but some of the more specialized 'keto-specific' nut butters and low carb flours, milks, etc might be more difficult to find and necessitate specialty grocers or health food stores. Some, but by no means all, of the recipes are vegan friendly. The photography is exceptional and very nearly every recipe is attractively presented.

This is a comprehensive book, and it's very information dense. Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes

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  • 24 December, 2019: Reviewed