BS, Dietetics and Nutrition
So you have decided to adopt the low-carb, high-fat diet and generally don’t know what constitutes a ketogenic diet meal plan. In this article, I will consider the things you must know before going keto.
A lot of people are going the keto way as ketogenic foods help to speed the rate of weight loss, provide the body with more energy, and also help to improve workout routines.
Adopting a keto meal plan alone may be a bit difficult especially if you are more familiar with carb-heavy foods than foods that are high in fats. Before you choose to plan a ketogenic diet, you need to:
What you need when planning a Ketogenic Diet?
The best way you can be certain of ketosis is to plan out your meal and stick to your meal plan and follow this keto food list. There are two ways to approach this which includes knowing:
- You need to know if you have any hormonal deficiency which requires you to take in more calories.
- If you are uncertain about this, you can consult your doctor or better a dietician who will assist you in determining if you have any hormonal or endocrine deficiency problems.
- You need to know the number of calories you consume when on a ketogenic diet. The better approach will be to count your calories as by so doing, you can be sure of what you consume per meal.
- You need to get enough rest. You most certainly don’t need to be fixing a sleep schedule, but if you want to get the best out of ketogenic food, you need to get enough rest daily. Anything from 6hours and above daily should be enough.
- You also need to know the number of macronutrients you consume per meal. Macronutrients constitute proteins, carbs, and fats. While it will be impossible to toss out protein and carbs from your diet, you will need to calculate how little or how much of each you need in your diet to accomplish your goals.
- You need to follow what works comfortably for you if you require more calories you need to be consuming more fats which could be in the form of coconut oil, butter, and macadamia nuts while if you need to reduce your calorie intake, you could cut down on your protein intake or opt for low-carb protein powder.
- Lastly, you need to stick to your goal, which in this case will include staying true to your meal plan as even the slightest of cheat meal can affect your ketosis process.
Planning a ketogenic diet
The best way you can be certain of ketosis is to plan out your meal and stick to your meal plan. There are two ways to approach this which includes knowing:
- When to eat and?
- How much to eat?
One of the benefits of a keto diet is that you don’t necessarily have to track the amount of food you consume, but I strongly advise that you do as this is the only way you can be certain of what you are eating.
It doesn’t necessarily matter what time of the day you eat, but you do not stick to your scheduled time for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You can also have snacks in between provided that it doesn’t go against your ketosis. To decide how much you need to eat, you need to ensure that you consume
- 70% of calories from healthy fats
- 20% of calories from protein
- And 10% from carbs.
Ketogenic Diet Meal Plan
Below is a sample meal plan to get you started on a ketogenic diet, but you need to understand that it will require a bit of trial and error to finally find a meal plan that best suits you.
Breakfast
Option 1: eggs, whole milk, and unsweetened yogurt assorted with a few walnuts, raspberries, and chia seeds. To pull this off, you need to carefully count the carbs since yogurts contain a high amount of lactose which leads to more carbs. The eggs provide a carb-free protein which helps to balance out the macros.
Option 2: mushroom, spinach, and feta omelet with keto coffee. This breakfast is rich in both healthy fat and protein which helps to reduce your food cravings before lunch.
Lunch
Option 1: Salad combined with avocado, cheese, nitrate free bacon, pumpkin seeds and grape tomatoes dressed with blue cheese or ranch.
Option 2: tiny cubes of grilled chicken, pickle slices, boiled egg, broccoli or cauliflower, almonds or walnut, guacamole, nitrate-free ham dressed with ranch dressing is a great keto meal you can have for lunch.
Dinner
Option 1: grilled chicken in addition with few tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant and yellow squash, with a blend of garlic in olive oil. You can also add coconut cream or heavy cream to balance out macros.
Option 2: romaine lettuce with Caesar salad, parmesan, bacon and chicken breast. You can include olive oil or plenty of cheese to increase the fat content.
Snacks
You can choose any snack in between meals provided that they are keto friendly.
On a Final Note
Planning and maintaining a ketogenic diet requires a great deal of discipline as you have to completely ignore meals that can affect your goals. You also need to make it a habit of counting calories as that the best way to be certain of what you eat.
If you have any further questions or a thing or two to add feel free to let me know in the comment section, if you also find this information helpful, don’t hesitate to share it among your circle.
Author’s Bio:
My name is Layla and I’m a writer at Howtonight.com – lifestyle blog which mostly focuses on health and nutrition but we also publish articles related to pets, travel, and entertainment.
