Keto Diet Meal Plan

The additional weight loss benefits were eventually realized in the health industry. Weight changes aren’t the only side effect of the Ketogenic Diet. Other notable benefits include hormone control, improved insulin resistance, mood enhancement, and more.

Keto has some basic foundational characteristics that must be adhered to. These characteristics may vary depending on the type of Keto being followed, but they are largely consistent between all four primary versions.

The Keto Diet

Foods to Eat

Overall, Keto is best described as high fat, moderate protein, and very low carb. The Keto Diet macronutrient recommendations are nearly the exact opposite of the normal dietary recommendations. Across all forms, those suggested ranges include 5-10 percent of daily calories come from carbohydrates, 15-30 percent from protein, and 60-75 percent fat.

Keto being considered healthy versus unhealthy depends largely on the type of fat being consumed. Choosing primarily healthy fats, unsaturated fatty acids like omega-3’s, are known to have heart health benefits. A big part of this includes adding low-carb vegetables and enjoying keto meals that are well-rounded in terms of nutrition. With low-carb diets, it’s easy to focus solely on protein and fat intake, but a variety of healthy foods are important, no matter what type of diet you follow.

With the keto diet, you also want to focus on lean proteins that will help you burn fat and maintain ketosis. Fatty fish is always a good option, as is grilled chicken, tuna salad, and other lean meats. Red meat isn’t off the table with the keto diet plan, but the amount consumed is something you want to keep an eye on if your doctor suggests you stay away from a high-fat diet.

Foods to Avoid

While keto is naturally higher in fat, not all fat is the same. Stick to healthy fats, and stay away from saturated fats as a daily indulgence.

Choosing a large amount of saturated fat increases the dieter’s risk of producing elevated cholesterol (especially LDL cholesterol), triglycerides, weight gain, and overall risk of heart disease.

The focus of ketogenic diets is to keep the carbohydrate intake low enough so that you enter into, and maintain, a state of ketosis. This is where the fat burning happens and also where some of the additional health benefits come into play. Something to keep in mind is that sugar and carbs can be found in foods and beverages you might not expect.

Avoiding sugar-sweetened beverages and high-carb foods is a no-brainer on the keto diet. But be on the lookout for other keto-friendly swaps you can take to keep your daily net carbs in check.

For example, you might be surprised by the net carbs in food like cream cheese, especially if you go with a flavored variety. Check those labels and go with plain cream cheese instead — adding in keto-friendly extras to spruce it up a little if you wish.

Also, choose high-fat dairy instead of low-fat varieties. Low-fat cheddar cheese or sour cream might still be considered low carb but still contain enough sneaky carbs to sabotage your weight loss efforts.

You might also think that using keto-friendly pasta is a great addition to your keto-eating plan, which it can be. However, opting for low-carb zucchini noodles doesn’t only save on carbs; it’s a swap that helps you get more of those nutritious low-carb veggies into your diet for healthy weight loss.

Keto Meal Plans

Regular Keto
This is the straightforward version of the Ketogenic diet. The focus is on extremely low carbs, less than 50 grams, and high fat from primarily healthy sources. This form of Keto takes slightly longer than speed keto but may be more sustainable for some individuals.

Speed Keto
This version of Keto integrates Intermittent Fasting as a means to reach ketosis very quickly. The Speed Keto dieter will eat only one meal a day after 16 or more hours of fasting with a small eating window. This meal, or several snacks, should ideally be less than 1200 calories and closer to 20 grams of carbs or less, rather than 50 grams in other forms.

Lazy Keto
Lazy Keto allows the dieter to spend less time counting calories and often less time considering the quality of their food choices. This form of Keto is easier for those who do not want to count every gram of macronutrients and calories they take in but focus on carbohydrates only by staying under 50 grams a day.

It should not be confused as a version of Keto that allows cheat meals or off-and-on keto-specific foods. Rather, the dieter must still follow the keto diet regularly to prevent falling out of ketosis, but it is simpler for those with less time to focus on all the nutrient numbers.

Clean Keto
Perhaps the healthiest form of Keto by requiring the dieter to opt for whole and nutrient-dense foods that emphasize quality more than other forms. This form still requires staying under a carb intake of 50 grams with moderate protein and high fat, at least 75 percent of daily calories.

Keto Diet Plan Tips & Tricks

Following the keto diet always sounds fun — after all, you get to eat meats, cheeses, and all those decadent foods that you usually stay away from when you’re trying to lose weight through limited calorie consumption. However, there are some challenges along the way. Here are some tips to help you through them.

The Dreaded Keto Flu

One of the hallmarks of keto diets, that it seems most people who follow the diet experience, is something called the keto flu. This isn’t a real flu, but it can feel like it for a couple of days. Symptoms might include headache, brain fog, fatigue, and generally feeling unwell.

The good news is that this won’t last your entire keto journey. It usually hits somewhere around day two or three as your body enters ketosis and will last a few days as your body adjusts.

A few tips to get through this phase are to make sure you drink enough water and keep hydrated. Avoid sugary beverages as much as possible, even ones that are low-carbohydrate.

The sweetness can just make you crave sugary foods and make you miserable while you’re not feeling well, to begin with. Unsweetened coconut milk is a good beverage for this phase of the keto diet.

It’s also best not to drink alcohol until you’re further into your keto journey. Alcohol can work on ketogenic diets, but it’s dehydrating and can easily soak up remaining calories if you’re also trying to watch your calorie count and be keto at the same time.

Also, make sure you get adequate sleep and allow yourself some downtime to rest and recharge as much as possible.

If you’re feeling truly miserable, it could be that you’ve consumed too much protein and not enough fats or carbohydrates. Try eating a salad that’s loaded with low-carb veggies, drizzled olive or avocado oil, with fried eggs on top.

If carbs from veggies don’t help, try a single slice of whole-wheat bread. The carbs in a single slice shouldn’t push you out of ketosis as long as you’ve been following a solid keto meal plan the entire day.

Finding Your Optimal Carbs

The standard ketogenic diet suggests somewhere between 30-50 grams of net carbs per day. This is actually a wide range when you’re following a keto meal plan, and you might find that you’re optimal level is a little higher or lower on the scale. Start by consuming 50 net carbs (not total carbs) per day and see how that works.

If you’re not entering ketosis, then lower the amount of net carbs by 5 grams until you’re able to achieve ketosis.

Ketogenic Meal Plan – Making the Pieces Fit

Meal planning and following a specifically designed meal plan for the keto diet is one way to make starting on this new journey easier. Keto meal planning will help you keep your net carbs in check, take the guesswork out of your new eating habits, and help you out when you can’t come up with any new meal ideas.

7-Day Free Keto Meal Plan

Our Registered Dietician has created a 15-page full week of meals for the ideal Keto Diet meal plan, including:

• Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner & Snacks for each day of the 7-day meal plan
• Full macronutrients for each day of the week including calories, protein, fats, and carbs
• Keto diet recipes
• Shopping List

28-Day Keto Diet Meal Plan

The Keto Diet meal plan is a 4-week, 28-day meal plan including breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks created by our Registered Dietician, Trista Best. We’ve included macronutrients breakdown, recipes, and grocery lists for each week of meals. 4 Weeks of Keto Diet Meal Plans with daily breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack One week of…

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The Science Behind Success

Ketosis is a naturally occurring metabolic process in the body that is activated under certain circumstances. Following a high-fat and low-carb diet, like Keto, creates this state within the body and eventually leads to the benefits Keto is known to produce.

Carbohydrates are stored as glycogen in the body and are used for energy first. When this source of energy is used up, it turns to fat as the primary source of energy. This is when ketosis officially begins.

This secondary method of energy (fat) is ideal because often unwanted, stored fat is what is used, which means fat is burning at a higher rate. The keto dieter can know when ketosis has started and when ketones are present in the urine, which can be tested with ketone strips. Ketones are chemicals produced by the liver when it does not have access to enough insulin needed to turn carbohydrates into energy.

It takes between three to five days to enter into ketosis, depending on the type of Keto the dieter is following. There are four primary forms of Keto at this point; regular, clean, speed, and lazy. Each form requires the dieter to eat less than 50 grams of carbs a day.

Ketoacidosis is a dangerous side effect of ketosis, where the blood becomes too acidic. For this reason, it is recommended to get clearance from a healthcare provider to determine if you are healthy enough to start a Ketogenic Diet.

Bottom Line

There are many diets that eventually take various forms, the Ketogenic Diet included. This can be a positive occurrence by providing multiple versions to meet the needs of a larger number of people. For those that are new to Keto, it may be best, to begin with a regular version and advance to Clean Keto for sustainability and better health.

Speed keto may be good for those who have tried other diets in the past and want to reach ketosis quicker. Regardless of the form chosen, starting Keto should never be taken lightly, and the pros and cons should be weighed first.