You've definitely heard of the low-carb, high-fat diet that's popular among actors and models, and for good reason: low-carb diets provide sufficient sustenance through complete meals while maintaining your body burning fat for fuel. This is a fantastic way to be because it makes weight loss a breeze! But where does the term "ketogenic" come into play?
The term "ketogenic" is derived from the word "ketosis," which is a state in which your body converts fat molecules into ketones to generate energy. This state is attained by consuming relatively little carbohydrate and a lot of fat. "Glycolysis" refers to the "normal" state of the body's metabolism, in which carbs are burned for energy. In a nutshell, while your body is in carb-burning mode, it will exhaust all available carbs for energy before reaching for stored fat. Your body is geared to burn fat when in ketosis, which is wonderful news for anyone wanting to lose weight.
Benefits of Ketosis
We can considerably reduce insulin resistance, the precursor to type 2 diabetes, by severely reducing carbohydrate intake. Furthermore, low-carb diets combined with exercise can be quite beneficial in reducing the symptoms and progression of type 2 diabetes. Aside from that, ketosis is an appetite suppressant, which means your hunger will naturally be suppressed, boosting your calorie deficit and speeding up your fat loss.
Getting Started
Ketosis takes time to adjust to; around two weeks of low-carb meals is required for the initial adaption. As you adapt, you will experience spells of sluggishness, fatigue, headaches, and possibly gastrointestinal difficulties, which are sometimes referred to as "keto flu." Most of these difficulties can be resolved with enough electrolyte consumption. Furthermore, the "diet" element of this ketogenic diet plan - that is, caloric restriction - should not be a concern. Weight loss will occur when your body controls appetite as your addiction to sugar and processed foods fades, thus calorie restriction during the first two weeks is not advised.
The meal plan is intended to guarantee that you have three balanced, healthy meals each day that address fiber, satiation, and protein intake. The best thing about a ketogenic diet is that it prevents muscle loss, something a carb-based diet does not. A high-carb, calorie-restricted diet will often result in weight loss from both muscle and fat, whereas keto allows you to burn fat without compromising muscle. This is sometimes referred to as "body recomposition" and results in a much more desirable physique after weight loss.
Additional Points of Interest
During the earliest stages of a ketogenic diet, there is generally a large loss of water. This is because carbs are turned in your body to glycogen, which is stored in water in your muscles and liver. Your body flushes this water away as you exhaust stored glycogen. This accounts for a significant portion of the initial weight loss during the first few weeks of ketosis. While quick fat loss occurs at initially, a lot of water weight is frequently lost as well, which is a terrific motivator because it often results in both weight loss and decreased bloating, allowing clothes to fit better.
Foods Recommended on a Ketogenic Diet
Meats include beef, goat, lamb, turkey, hog, veal, and chicken.
Salmon, trout, catfish, sardines, tuna, haddock, and other species.
The strawberry, blueberries, raspberries, and avocado are examples of such fruits.
Broccoli, asparagus, Brussels sprouts, cucumbers, and many more.
Almonds, walnuts, sunflower, pumpkin, sesame seeds, and so on.
Cheese, Greek yogurt, sour cream, and heavy cream are examples of dairy products.
Peanut butter, flaxseed oil, butter, sesame oil, olive oil, and almond oil are all fats and oils. (If you want to view additional ketogenic diet meals, check out this article:
The Comprehensive List of Ketogenic Diet Foods
Foods to Avoid on a Ketogenic Diet
Grains: Wheat, oats, corn, barley, and rye are all grains. Bread and noodles are included.
Sucralose, Equal, Acesulfame, Splenda, Saccharin, and other artificial sweeteners.
Processed foods: Avoid eating anything that includes carrageenan.
"Low-fat" products include Atkins products, beverages, gluten, diet soda, and so on.
7-Day Ketogenic Diet Meal Plan And Menu
So you've discovered the
ketogenic diet, calculated your macros, and are eager to get started. Here is a one-week ketogenic diet food plan. If you're just beginning started, our basic plan will help you get started.
I HAVE LOST 45 POUNDS IN 4 MONTHS WITH A KETOGENIC DIET
I'm in MONTH FIVE of a ketogenic diet (45 pounds dropped). I'm far from an expert. I am 46 years old and have spent my entire life attempting to reduce weight. Ironically, I've also spent years studying nutrition and fitness. Calculating macronutrients comes effortlessly to me because I've done it so many times before. This is the first time I've seen any genuine progress in dropping unwanted pounds by following a keto diet. Despite years of working out and staying active.
So far, I've had a really successful run, and I believe that many of you who are trying to get started with a ketogenic
diet may become overwhelmed and bewildered by all of the data and information that is bombarding you. As a result, this ketogenic diet meal plan was created. It's what I'm doing to simplify things. I am a man. I require simplicity.
For me, having basic base meals and adding some variety later on if needed is the key to success with a keto diet. I mean, I eat the same thing almost every day. Not that interesting, but dropping 45 pounds in four months IS, so I'm staying with it. Don't fix what isn't broken.
7-DAY KETO DIET GROCERY LIST
Bacon and eggs, chicken with vegetables, and beef with vegetables will be the regular dinners. These are basic meals that will offer adequate macronutrients for certain persons. Others who require additional food (fat) can simply add a keto-friendly snack or two to bring their macros up to where they need to be. This is exactly what I need to accomplish.
A dozen eggs.
A package of bacon.
Butter. (real butter)
A pack of boneless SKIN ON chicken thighs
1 onion.
1 bell pepper (Green, red, yellow, that’s your choice.)
Two bulbs of garlic. (Optional, but very heart healthy.)
A big bag of mixed frozen vegetables, at least 12 cups worth. If you are not sure what to get, just pick something else that’s keto friendly like frozen broccoli.)
a bag of almonds, and a jar of almond butter (very expensive – the cheapest I can find is 10$ for 750g at Costco).
A package of beef. You want to find some kind of beef that you can imagine cutting/dividing into 6 equal portions of about 5.5 ounces each(a bit bigger than a deck of cards.)
I AM ACTUALLY COOKING. WELL…SOME
I'm not a great cook, but I'm getting better. When you have food ready to go, a ketogenic diet meal plan works better. It eliminates the guesswork, and in order to be successful, we must keep things as simple as possible.
Put the 12 thighs into the oven with all the cloves from a bulb of garlic. You should separate the cloves, but you don’t need to skin them. The heat from the oven will do that nicely, and you can peel them when you eat them.
While the thighs are cooking, hard boil the eggs. Then set them aside to cool.
Take a skillet, put some butter in it, and then fry up the bacon. (Note: Some might argue that butter isn’t needed. In my experience, you can either grease up that pan somehow, or your first strips of bacon will come out burnt.)
Dice up half the onion, and save the other half for next week.
Cut up the pepper
You might need to take the chicken out at this point. If it’s done, pull it out, and let it cool.
In the skillet (I love to use the bacon grease as a base) sauté the pepper and half onion, and another bulb’s worth of garlic cloves. (leave the skin on, just like before.)
Add the beef and brown it.
GETTING THE MEALS TOGETHER
Wash/rinse out 12 containers.
In 6 of them, put 2 chicken thighs each. Share the garlic between them, and evenly divide the fat juice.
In the other 6 evenly spoon out the beef/pepper/onion mix.
Take the veggie blend, and evenly pour it across the 12 containers, right on top of the meat.
Put them all in your fridge. If you have minimal fridge space you could just put some in there, and then rest in your freezer. Just pull another out when you pull from the fridge.
Pull out six plastic bags and put 2 hard-boiled eggs in each.
Evenly divide your remaining bacon by 6.
Now brown bag it, and put it in your fridge.
THE MACRONUTRIENTS OF THE KETOGENIC MENU PLAN
Right now you have 6 day’s worth of meals in your fridge
6 bags with 2 hard-boiled eggs and bacon
6 containers of thighs/veggies
6 containers of Beef/Veggies
Okay, so this is only 6 days. Make extra for day 7 OR you can try to get creative and plan your own meals. Ruled. I have some awesome keto recipes if you are feeling brave.
*I messed up. The macros of each “meal” above are too high in protein and too low in fat so reduce the amount of meat in each meal by about half AND add 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil to each meal(or some cheese). Please forgive me!!
For this base ketogenic meal plan I am going to use the following macronutrient profile that I helped someone set up for themselves:
TOTAL CALORIES- 1570
Net carbs – 20g per day
Protein – 80 g per day
Fat – 130 g per day
Now divide each of those by 3(for 3 meals per day) and you get:
≈7 net carbs per meal
≈26 grams of protein per meal
≈44 grams of fat per meal
Omg, so much math! If you halve the protein in each meal you will be pretty close to these totals PER MEAL!
Personally, I need more protein and fat each day and so will some of you. So I add in some snacks, cheese, or keto fudge during the day to get my macros up where they need to be. I also drink homemade Bulletproof coffee which for me is:
1 cup coffee
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 tsp butter
1 tbsp full-fat coconut milk(in a can)
This adds about 25g of fat to my day.
If you got hungry on Day One between breakfast and lunch, or lunch and supper while you’re still at work eat more fat!
You may also want to consider adding these fat-boosting strategies:
Full fat cream, butter, coconut oil, and MCT oil in your coffee.
Put a tablespoon of mayonnaise on the chicken while it’s baking.
Top the vegetables with some cheese before reheating.
SALT AND ELECTROLYTES WITH THE KETOGENIC DIET
It's also worth noting that you should consider taking a multivitamin along with the ketogenic diet meal plan. It is deficient in vitamins B1, D, E, and K. Calcium, magnesium, manganese, and potassium are also quite low, but we must control these as part of our electrolyte strategy on keto anyhow.
Sodium (Na+), chloride (Cl-), potassium (K+), magnesium (Mg++), calcium (Ca++), phosphate (HPO4-), and bicarbonate (HCO3-) are all necessary electrolytes. On high fat diets, a lack of electrolytes, specifically the body's key electrolyte sodium (called Salt), is responsible for lethargy, brain fog, and keto flu symptoms.
You should drink at least 8 cups of water per day. I have a 600ml bottle that I empty at least ten times every day. That's a lot of water, and yeah, I'm going to the restroom frequently. Carbohydrates hold water, thus eating fewer carbs will speed up water flushing. So there will be even more restroom breaks.
SUMMARY
I am living proof that the ketogenic diet works. I also understand how perplexing it may be to deal with all of the numbers and then figure out what to eat. I'm hoping that my 7-Day Ketogenic Diet Meal Plan may assist you in remaining calm (at least a little) and focused on your fat loss goals.
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