For the past year, Instagram influencer Jenna Jameson has been keeping her followers up to date on her keto journey. After giving birth to her daughter two years ago, Jameson became super transparent about her weight loss goals, and the keto diet is seemingly working for her. The influencer and actress shared a one-year update photo on Instagram and the results of her new lifestyle change are significant.
“Today I celebrate 1 year of being #keto,” Jameson captioned her May 2nd post. “I have absolutely never felt better! Combining #sobriety, the keto lifestyle and intermittent fasting is the perfect trifecta for me when it comes to a healthy sustainable fitness journey. Thanks everyone for supporting me and joining me in my quest for ultimate health!!! Love you!”
For those who are unaware, the keto diet is a low-carb, high-fat diet that involves reducing carb intake and upping fat intake. This shift puts one’s body into ketosis, which means the liver is turning fats into ketones that supply energy to the brain.
Many people choose to try the keto diet for weight loss. However, the meat-heavy diet can also be beneficial for those diagnosed with diabetes, heart disease, polycystic ovary syndrome, and cancer.
In May 2018, about a year after her daughter was born, Jameson told her followers that she started a “no white food” diet. “Which is kinda like a lazy keto diet,” she said. “I eat no bread, pasta, potatoes or rice. No refined sugar. I rarely eat out and I make all my meals with fresh ingredients.”
That no-carb diet helped James drop 30 pounds in about two months. Although the diet paid off, Jameson admitted, “I’ll be honest, Im effing hungry for pasta on a whole different level.”
“I never felt my weight defined me, but my health DID,” Jameson said in a June 2018 post. “I felt lethargic, sad when I looked in the mirror and didn’t recognize myself. My ankles hurt. I struggled up the stairs carrying Batel [her daughter]. I couldn’t go on like that anymore.”
“I’m here to say you can do it… it’s possible.”
By July 2018, Jameson was down 45 pounds after having officially started a ketogenic lifestyle. “I stopped paying attention to the scale because I’m not really losing weight anymore, just losing inches. I’m feeling satisfied with my progress physically, but an awesome byproduct of this ketogenic lifestyle is I feel sharper mentally,” she wrote.
Because the keto diet was giving Jameson so much energy, she was able to kick butt at the gym and build some serious muscle. “This has been a strong week for my Keto lifestyle results,” she wrote. “I’m no longer really losing fat, I’m tightening.”
By month four on the keto diet, Jameson was feeling better than ever. She wrote in late July 2018, “[The keto diet has] not only given me physical results, I feel happier, smarter, and much more confident.”
Jameson told her followers that she paired her keto lifestyle with intermittent fasting, which is a weight-loss method that is all about the timing of one’s meals. Some intermittent fasting methods call for 16-hour fasts or 24-hour fasts about twice per week, as Healthline notes.
In August 2018, Jameson opened up about how the keto lifestyle truly transformed her mental health. “I’m going to be honest with you, when I was heavy I hated leaving the house,” she wrote. “I felt judged. I felt eyes on me everywhere.”
“I kept telling myself if I could beat addiction and stay sober, I can easily lose the weight… and I did. The healthy way. And as of today I can say my mental game is STRONG.”
And Jameson reminded her followers that every body is beautiful. When sharing a before-and-after picture in late August 2018, Jameson wrote, “But to be honest I look at the before picture and I see a beautiful body that gave life to 3 perfect children.”
Jameson’s keto diet is fairly basic and consists of eggs, steak, vegetables, and sometimes fish. And coffee — because duh!
She’s noticed that the keto diet has been really beneficial for belly weight loss. “I think #keto cracks the code to get rid of belly fat,” Jameson wrote in September 2018. “When I started the #ketodiet on April 22 of this year, the first fat to go was my waist. Miracles.”
Jameson notes that sometimes it’s easy to fall out of love with keto — especially when on vacation. But if one is dedicated enough, it’s just as easy to hop back in the saddle.
For Jameson, choosing a keto lifestyle was first about getting “skinny,” but now she realizes that the keto diet is really about getting healthy, mentally and physically. “I realized how important normalizing women’s true bodies is,” she wrote in April 2019. “This is normal. This is beautiful. My transition to health has helped me realize a lot of my connection to ‘skinniness’ was unhealthy.”
“So remember these #beforeandafter pictures aren’t just to show the esthetics of being slim, they show hard work and attention to my inside health.”
If any of you have considered trying the keto diet, Jameson’s Instagram is a great resource for honest opinions and obvious results (combined with other lifestyle changes, of course). It’s worked wonders for her, and she’s seemingly going to continue to keto for as long as possible.
However, this is something that should be discussed with your doctor first. The keto diet is not for everyone and is not the key an overall healthy lifestyle.
Everyone deserves to feel great in and about their bodies. If the keto diet has also improved your mental and physical health, definitely share your results because now we are totally intrigued.