So you have been reading all about the Keto Diet and want to start. Why not make it easy? Or maybe you started and haven’t had the results you wanted. The Keto Diet is relatively straight forward: You want about 6 ounces a day of fat, 3 to 6 ounces of protein per meal, and 0.5 to 1 ounce of carbs (15 to 30 grams).
How regementied you are in following the Keto Guidelines is up to you. If you do follow them, then you can be rest-assured that you will feel great, improving your long-term health and well-being. Here are my top steps to making the Keto Diet easy.
To make Keto easy start by planning your meals. Have options available when hunger strikes. Keep track of your macro-nutrients and calories with a cronometer. Eat generous amounts of good fats. Eat 7-10 cups of vegetables a day. Let’s discuss these and more below.
Planning-
Someone once said that if you fail to plan, then you plan to fail. There are a lot of good Keto books out there that have meal plans in them and have the recipes to go along with the plan. I have a few I recommend here. To plan the plate, I take half of it and that is for vegetables (7 to 10 cups). Then another quarter for fat 1 to 2 ounces, and the last quarter for protein (3 to 6 ounces). Make sure not to buy lean cuts of meat.
Here is a sample menu for a week:
Monday-
Breakfast: Baked avocado egg boats.
Lunch: Arugula salad with hard-boiled eggs, turkey, avocado and blue cheese.
Dinner: Bison steak with cheesy broccoli.
Tuesday-
Breakfast: Two eggs fried in pastured butter served with sauteed greens.
Lunch: Steak bowl with avocado, cauliflower rice, cheese, herbs, and salsa.
Dinner: Meatballs served with zucchini noodles and parmesan cheese.
Wednesday-
Breakfast: Coconut milk chia pudding topped with coconut and walnuts.
Lunch: A bunless grass-fed burger topped with avocado, cheese, mushrooms, on a bed of greens.
Dinner: Pork chops with vegetables.
Thursday-
Breakfast: Mushroom omelet.
Lunch: Tuna salad with celery and tomato atop a bed of greens.
Dinner: Coconut chicken curry.
Friday-
Breakfast: Bell pepper stuffed with cheese and eggs.
Lunch: Cobb salad made with avocado, cheese, greens, hard-boiled eggs, and turkey.
Dinner: Pork chops with green beans sauteed in coconut oil.
Saturday-
Breakfast: Full-fat yogurt topped with Keto granola.
Lunch: Caesar salad with chicken.
Dinner: Grilled salmon with spinach sauteed in coconut oil.
Sunday-
Breakfast: Cauliflower toast topped with cheese and avocado.
Lunch: Salmon burgers bunless, topped with pesto.
Dinner: Roast chicken with cream sauce and sauteed broccoli.
The meals for the day are less than 50 grams of total carbs a day.
The above menu is just a sample of what is possible on the Keto Diet. Meals can be flavorful and diverse. You should not be hungry on the Keto Diet.
If you are a vegetarian or vegan there are so many recipes out there to keep you satisfied as well.
If you are eating more carbs on your keto diet, adding a cup of berries, or a little starchy vegetable to you meal, will add a few more carbs without overdoing it.
Any Keto meal plan should include healthy fats like avocado, pastured butter, coconut oil, olive oil. It should also include whole foods and many low-carb, fiber-rich vegetables.
Snacks-
When hunger strikes, you can be tempted to reach for the donut, or other high carb food that is close and convenient. But if you have a keto snack at hand, you can avoid knocking yourself out of ketosis, and keep on burning the fat.
I have found the Keto Diet filling and only needing one or two snacks a day, depending on my activity level.
Here are some keto approved snack options:
- Nuts: Almonds, Macadamias, Walnuts
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Jerky (look at the carbs on the packaging)
- Berries with heavy whipping cream
- Trail mix (look at the carbs on the packaging)
- Guacamole with veggies
- Avocado’s
- Parmesan crisps
If you have a sweet tooth, like I do, then you will want to have this recipe for these Cheesecake Fat Bombs. They are the easiest to make in minutes. Simply beat all the ingredients until full combined and drop onto a baking sheet. Then freeze for a few minutes until set.
Ingredients-
- 8 oz Cream Cheese (room temperature)
- 4 oz butter melted (or heavy cream)
- 4 oz coconut oil room temp
- 2-3 tablespoons erythritol
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions-
- Add all the ingredients to a mixing bowl. Mix with an electric mixer until mixed thoroughly and creamy.
- Scoop batter using a spoon or an ice-cream scooper works as well into mini cupcake pan or a cookie sheet.
- Place in fridge for 1-2 hours or in the freezer for 30 minutes to set.
- Place in an air-tight container and refrigerate for upto 2 weeks.
These snacks will help you fight the cravings you may have and maintain fullness between meals. Try to eat sparingly to avoid too many calories in the day.
It’s critical to eat the appropriate number of calories per day for your weight loss goal, activity level, age and gender.
For snacking remember Keto-friendly snacks should be high in fat, moderate in protein and low in carbs. Also it never hurts to increase your fiber intake by snacking on low-carb vegetables with a high-fat dipping sauce.
Track macronutrients and calories with a cronometer-
With technology always improving and getting entering all facets of our life, it is easier than ever to track what you are eating and the macronutrients that you are consuming.
These calorie counting tools help give an accurate picture of what is actually being ingested. If you were doing this back in the day there would be no way I would do it. These apps make it so easy to do, and remove any doubt about the calories, carbs, fats and proteins in your diet.
The most popular cronometers are MyFitnessPal (MFP) and Cronometers.
Being one of the most popular, MyFitnessPa is free (unless you want extra features, which are helpful on Keto). MyFitnessPal puts a priority on social networking and sharing with your friends your progress, which helps keep you motivated.
It has a massive food database, and I have found some things that I thought would be hard like tumeric, ginger and flax seed powder. However, having such a large database can make it hard to find your item. Just keep scrolling through the list and you will find it.
The free version also doesn’t track net carbs, only total carbohydrates and fiber. So you will have to make your own calculation for net carbs. Which is just subtracting fiber from total grams of carbs.
For packaged foods it is easy with your phone you can scan the barcode and all the nutritional information is entered.
The item I like to look at the most is the Weight loss/gain progress graph. This has been great motivation for me to keep going on keto.
There is also an option to add your favorite recipes from websites, which is great.
The downside to MyFitnessPal is you only get macronutrient percentages and not specific gram targets. And there are advertisements on the app.
Cron-O-Meter by comparison has a cost of $2.99. Cron-O-Meter has a food database that is curated. The food that is there is validated with more detailed information (micronutrients and amino acids). Unlike MyFitnessPal there is not social sharing unless you upgrade your subscription.
The big plus is that Cron-O-Meter has a ketogenic diet mode that tracks net carbs. You can also change the macronutrient and micronutrient goals by grams and percentages. Also there are no ads.
The food database on Cron-O-Meter is limited. There is also not a weight loss/gain progress graph.
Which one is better? I use MyFitnessPal and have been happy tracking my macronutrients with it. I really enjoy the weight loss/gain graph! But choose the one you like.
Remember, the main benefit to having a cronometer or other calorie tracking app, is to make sure you are using it. I found by tracking my carbs everyday, I can almost guarantee my results.
I like to track my carbs for a variety of reasons. The main one being; I was surprised by the amount of calories I was consuming in a day. With MyFitnessPal I was able to dial in my calories and macro’s to get into ketosis. It really helped me with portion control.
With MyFitnessPal, signing up was easy. You can use Facebook or your email. Then it will ask for your goals, height, weight, your activity level.
Eat More Fat / Best Fats-
On the Keto Diet fat is your friend. You want around 6 ounces a day on a 2,000 calorie diet. Since it takes longer to digest, it makes you feel full faster and longer. Keeps you satisfied. But not all fats are the best for you.
When it comes to fats avoid eating too much trans fat. Healthy fats, Omega-3’s, 6’s and 9’s, are the ones that you should focus most of your fat intake.
Easy ways to add fat to the diet are to add cheese, salad dressing, or nuts. You can also eat coconut oil or mct oil or olive oil. Focus on Monounsaturated fats.
Some of my go-to oils are listed below:
Avocados and Avocado oil are a great choice to get more fat into the diet. If the taste of Olive Oil is too strong for you try Avocado oil. It has a real mild flavor and has a higher tolerance to heat.
Avocados are an excellent source of heart-healthy fats and have a good amount of fiber and vitamins and minerals.
There are many great ways to enjoy an avocado, by itself, or to make guacamole, or add it to a smoothie, or salads. You can use the avocado oil for salads, or drizzle it over steamed veggies or other sauces.
Butter fits right in the keto diet. It is carb-free and around 80% fat. Butter has butyrate in it, in rich supply. Butyrate is a short-chain fat. Research is suggesting that it may play a significant role in promoting brain health.
I like to saute my vegetables in butter and put some on my keto-friendly pancakes.
Cheese also makes a good fat, low-carb food. There are so many varieties to choose from, you should find several you like.
The nutrient content of the cheese with depend on the type of cheese, but many are a good source of protein and calcium. Some even have probiotics.
A great snack that is easy is to shred some cheese and place it on a cookie sheet and cook it in the oven and make cheese crisps. You can also melt some over roasted or steamed vegetables.
Eggs are a go to for me. They are versatile, and easy to cook. A single egg has about 5 grams of fat, 7 grams of protein and 80 calories.
I like the whole egg, as the yolk is a source of B vitamins and has lutein and zeaxznthin, antioxidants that support eye health.
Hard-boil a few and have a ready made snack. Or mix them with mayonnaise and you have egg salad. Eggs can also be scrambled or poached easy enough.
Nuts- I love nuts! They are a quite healthy snack and you can boost your intake of healthy fats, plus protein and fiber.
Studies have also associated a higher intake of nuts with reduced risk of heart disease and deaths associated with cancer, diabetes, and respiratory illnesses.
Different types of nuts have differing nutrient composition, so eat a variety of them will be most beneficial. Almonds, Brazil, cashews, pecans, pistachios, and walnuts are great choices for the keto diet.
So carry some mixed nuts to snack on, they are great on salads and in soups.
Nut and Seed Butters have many of the advantages of eating the whole nuts and seeds, but with a twist. You can use almond butter as a dip for some vegetables. How about some keto crackers with sunflower seed butter spread on them?
You could add a nut butter to a smoothie or in sauces and marinades for meat.
Many people make their own nut butters, but if you buy it from a store make sure to read the ingredients label, to avoid added sweeteners.
Chia seeds are rich in healthy fats and fiber and are an excellent addition to the keto diet.
With just 1 tablespoon, you get 4 grams of fat, mostly omega-3s, and 4 grams of fiber.
Chia seeds also contain some interesting plant compounds that include quercetin and kaempferol, that my help reduce inflammation and prevent cancer, diabetes and heart disease.
Chia seeds have the ability to absorb a lot of water. They become very gelatinous when soaked for a few hours. When they are like this they can be used to make chia pudding or to thicken sauces and dressings.
There are many uses for chia seeds. You can make them into crackers or use them as a breading for baked chicken, fish or pork. As with other seeds they can be added to salads, smoothies, soups or yogurt.
Flax seeds are a great source of omega-3 fats, fiber, and lignans.
In fact one-quarter cup of flax seeds provides 18 grams of fat, half of which are omega-3s, 11 grams of fiber, 7 grams of protein.
Research is indicating that flax seeds and their oil may help to prevent cancer, degenerative brain diseases, diabetes, and heart disease.
I buy bulk flax seeds from a local store and grind them up using a coffee grinder. Then place them in a container and place in the freezer to preserve freshness. I add 2 heaping tablespoons to my smoothie. You can also sprinkle them on salads, soups or in yogurt.
A note about whole flaxseeds. Ground flaxseeds are recommended over whole flaxseeds because the ground form is easier to digest. The whole flaxseed may pass through your digestive tract undigested. So you won’t have the nutritional benefits.
Hemp hearts are a great, nutrient dense option for increasing your fat intake. Just three tablespoons of them provides 15 grams of fat.
They are one of the very few complete plant based protein sources that contain all nine essential amino acids. They are loaded with a variety of vitamins and minerals, including calcium, iron, potassium, and vitamin E.
Hemp hearts are easy to mix into a wide variety of foods because of a mild flavor and texture.
I love them sprinkled on top of salads. You can also add them to yogurt, or roasted vegetables. You can blend them into smoothies and soup. They are also great added to sauces and dressings.
Olives and Olive oil have been used for centuries, and are in many of the healthiest diets.
Olives have plenty of heart-healthy fats and contain vitamin E and plant compounds known to reduce inflammation and lower your risk of chronic conditions like cancer, heart disease, and osteoporosis.
Olives are an easy portable snack. They are a great addition to salads.
Olive oil can be drizzled over sauteed veggies, or be used as a base for dressings or a marinade for meats.
Coconuts and coconut oil are a popular choice of fat, as they offer a source of medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs). MCTs are a type of fat that you can easily absorb and then use.
Research is showing that MCTs may help you in your transition into ketosis. Ketosis is when your body is burning fat for fuel rather than carbs.
I like to add coconut flakes to smoothies. They are also good in trail mix.
Frying chicken in coconut oil gives it a nice tropical flavor that is hard to beat.
Chocolate is a great source for fat. It just has to be the right kind. Cacao nibs are the unprocessed raw chocolate. In 1 ounce gives you 12 grams of fat and 9 grams of fiber.
Dark chocolate is known to be a source of polyphenols, which are anit-inflammatory and my encourage the growth of healthy gut bacteria.
Cacao powder is another great way to get your chocolate fix in. 1 tablespoon or 5 grams has 1 gram net carbs.
I like to add cacao powder to my smoothies. You can add the cacao nibs to trail mix or your smoothies, or trail mix.
Yogurt contains some carbs, but could be a healthy option for the Keto diet. Unsweetened, full-fat greek yogurt in 150 gram serving provides 6 grams of fat, 13 grams of protein, and 6 grams of carbs. So watch your portion size and count your carbs.
Yogurt also contains probiotics, beneficial bacteria which help promote a healthy gut.
One of my favorites is to make a parfait by layering yogurt, nuts, seeds, cacao and coconut. You could also make it into a veggie dip by adding herbs and spices to it.
Fatty fish are also a great way to add more fat to the keto diet. Salmon, tuna, anchovies, and sardines have heart-healthy omega-3 fats and are also a good source of protein. Some types of salmon also provides vitamin D, which helps with immune function, and bone health.
You can bake or grill your fish and serve with a salad or with some roasted veggies.
Fats to Avoid-
There are fats to avoid on the keto diet. Artificial trans fats are at the top of the list. Artificial trans fats or trans fatty acids are created in an industrial process that adds hydrogen to liquid vegetable oils. This process makes them more solid. This is where the “partially hydrogenated oils” come from. On labeling look for “partially hydrogenated oils” or “shortening.”
They are known for significantly increasing heart disease risk. Avoid these regardless of the type of diet you are on.
Trans fats are found in highly refined oils and usually are in commercially prepared processed foods like: biscuits, cakes, cookies, crackers, pastries, or other highly processed foods.
Eat 7 to 10 Cups of Vegetables a Day-
Eating a lot less carbs is one of the key components of the Keto Diet. People don’t think to add vegetables to the plate. Vegetables are full of vitamins and minerals. Generally speaking you want to avoid the root veggies i.e. carrots and potatoes. I recommend getting 7 to 10 cups of vegetables a day.
So what are some good vegetables to eat? Cauliflower, cabbage, avocado, broccoli, spinach, asparagus, brussels sprouts, green beans, zucchini, and kale.
Veggies are also a great way to get your fat on the Keto Diet. Those veggies taste good cooked in butter, roasted or sauteed in avocado oil, coconut oil, lard or ghee. Or you could make a nice cream sauce with any or all of these: cream cheese, cheese, and/or heavy cream.
Dipping veggies in salad dressings or other dipping sauces can also add fat. Olive oil also tastes good on your salad.
Just beware of getting too much fat, if you have plenty of excess weight that needs to come off. Let your body burn the excess fat, instead of the extra dietary fat. Eat just enough that you don’t feel hungry.
A Keto Diet Shopping List-
Here is a simple shopping list for a well-rounded keto diet. It should include lots of fresh produce, and plenty of healthy fats and proteins.
By having a mix of both fresh and frozen produce, you will have what you need for your keto recipes.
Here is a simple guide for when you are at the grocery store wondering what to get. Remember to look at labels and check out the net carbs.
- Eggs: Look for pastured eggs or omega-3 enriched whenever possible
- Fish: Look for the fatty fish like salmon, herring, mackerel, and sardines.
- Meat and poultry: Chicken, Beef, Pork, and Turkey. Choose organic, pasture-raised options whenever possible.
- Shellfish: Shrimp, oysters and scallops are good sources of protein.
- Cheese: All cheeses are good. Stay away from the processed cheese. Don’t be afraid of Cream Cheese.
- Full-fat dairy: Butter, heavy cream, sour cream, or even unsweetened yogurt.
- Fresh or frozen vegetables: Broccoli, cauliflower, greens, mushrooms, peppers, onions and tomatoes.
- Avocados: Try and get a mix of ripe and unripe ones, so that your supply will last.
- Oils: Avocado, coconut, olive oils are great choices.
- Nuts: Almonds, Macadamia nuts, pecans, pistachios, and walnuts.
- Nut butters: Almond and peanut butters. No sugar added.
- Seeds: Chia, flax, pumpkin and sunflower seeds.
- Fresh or Frozen berries: Blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries.
- Condiments: Pepper, pink and sea salt, herbs, garlic, mustard, salsa, olives, vinegar, spices.
Remember to plan your meals ahead of time and get the ingredients needed for those keto meals. And having the list will help you avoid those tempting, unhealthy foods.
A healthy keto diet should consist of around 75% fat, 20% protein, and only 5% carbs per day.
Look to high-fat, low-carb foods like dairy, eggs, meats, low-carb vegetables. Avoid highly processed items and unhealthy fats.
With the popularity of the keto diet, it is easier than ever to find a wide variety of recipes, and ideas online.