Ketogenic Diet for Beginners

Ultimate Guide to Ketogenic Diet for Beginners: Keto 101!

If you are looking to start ketogenic diet, then you will find this post on keto diet for beginners very helpful. This is because it will provide you with all the vital information you need to get started on the right footing.

I guess you must have heard about the incredible results people have achieved by doing the Ketogenic diet.

Not only does it aid in weight loss, but it also helps you gain muscle mass and improves your overall wellbeing.

I found that going keto is one of the best things to do if you want to see results in your weight loss journey. At least it was for me and I’m happier for it!

However, there are certain things you need to know keto before you can have success with it. So keep reading to find out.

What is the Ketogenic Diet?

Ketogenic diet popularly called “keto” is a high fat, moderate protein and low carb diet.

The goal is to starve your body of carbohydrates, forcing it to go into ketosis.

When you restrict your carbs intake, there will be no sugar to burn, so your body will be forced to burn the stored fats in your body to produce energy.

This is the “ketosis state” which the keto diet aims to achieve.

Oh, yes I know, you are probably wondering how eating more fats can help YOU burn fat and lose weight!

When it comes to weight loss, the problem is NOT fat, but sugar. I mean the GOOD FATS. When you consume a lot of carbs, your body stores the excess as fat.

On the other hand,  the good fats helps to turn your body into a fat burning machine. Sounds wierd, doesn’t it? This book explains the the why.

Ketosis

You have heard the word “ketosis” a lot, but what is it? Ketosis is a metabolic process that occurs in your body to help keep it functioning.

If your body lacks enough carbs, your cells will begin to burn fats for energy. During this process, your body produces ketones, which it uses as fuel.

Related: How to Know You are in Ketosis

Benefits of Ketogenic Diet

Even though the keto diet was developed to help treat epilepsy, it was later discovered to have many other health benefits including aiding in weight loss.

Some of the benefits include the following:

Weight Loss

Weight loss is basically the most common reason people do keto today. And you don’t need to do rigorous exercise to get results. In fact restricting your carbs intake is one of the best ways to achieve quick weight loss.

Appetite Control

Truth be told, one of the major culprits behind weight gain or the inability to lose weight is the inability to control appetite, which makes you eat more than your body really needs. By curbing your appetite, keto helps you eat less and lose weight.

Reduces Visceral Fat

Have you noticed that your abdomen tends to store more fats than other parts of the body? That is called visceral fat.

Visceral fat is dangerous as it lodges around organs. It can also lead to insulin resistance and other metabolic dysfunctions.

Low carb diet helps to reduce abdominal fat, reducing your risks of diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and cancer.

Increases Good Cholesterol (HDL) Levels

HDL stands for High-density lipoprotein – the good cholesterol. Most often, we tend to fucus on how to reduce the bad cholesterol (LDL) without thinking of how to increase the HDL. Truth is, increasing our HDL is as important as (if not more important than) reducing the LDL.

Good news is, keto diet helps to increase your HDL level, thereby lowering your risks of heart disease.

Lowers Blood Sugar Levels

When you eat carbs, they are broken down into glucose, which enters the bloodstream and spikes your blood sugar levels. Low carb diets help to solve that problem.

Kills Cancer Cells

Cancer cells feed on sugar, so by starving you body of carbs, you are inherently cutting off food supply to the cancer cells.

How is Keto Different than other Low Carb Diets

While other low carb diets like Atkins and Ducan work in phases, keto does not. On keto, you have to continue with the low cab, moderate protein and high fat until you reach your goal. There is NO maintainace phase!

Keto diet limits about 50g of carbohydrates per day.

Keto Macros

The term Macro stands for macronutrients – the molecules your body needs to produce energy and function properly. The macros include carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. Keto requires that you get most of your calories from good fats, followed by proteins and just a minimal amount from carbs.

Below is the break down of your keto macros:

• 70-75% of your calories from fats
• 20-25% from proteins
• 5-10% from carbohydrates (net carbs)

Tracking Macros

Keto demands that you eat 70-75% fats, and 20-25% proteins and 5-10% carbs.

When you find out exactly what quantity of foods (in grams) you are supposed to eat a day, then you need to track it.

Tracking your macros helps to ensure that you stay within the limit. And you need to measure all your foods in a very precise way.

You can use this Kitrics Digital Nutrition Scale. It measures calories, calories from fat, carbohydrates, protein, fat, saturated fat, fiber, sugars, cholesterol, and sodium.

There are also free app like my fitness pal you can utilize for tracking.

What is Net Carbs?

Net carbs = total carbohydrates minus fiber. Your body cannot break down fiber into glucose. That is the reason it doesn’t count towards your daily carb intake.

What to Expect When You go on Keto Diet (Side Effects)

Before beginning this journey, you should be ready for the changes your body may experience during the transition process as you go into ketosis.

Your body goes through a shock as it transitions from burning carbohydrates to burning fats.

While these changes may be undesirable, they are not so severe or unbearable, and are usually short lived.

Note that different people have different experiences. But, it generally feels like you are coming down with the flu, hence the term “keto flu”.

Keto Flu

Keto flu has nothing to do with the normal flu even though you may experience similar symptoms.

Like I mentioned before, it is your body reacting or adjusting to the new low cab and high fats diet.

It is normal to experience this, and its symptoms include:

• Hunger
• Fatigue
• Headache
• Anxiety
• Dizziness
• Excessive thirst
• Sweating chills

How to Combat Keto Flu

Some of the ways to combat keto flu symptoms include:

• Drink a lot of water to replenish the fluid you are losing.
• Add salt to your water to replenish electrolytes you lose through your urine (I prefer Himalayan salt because they have all the vital minerals you need). This will help alleviate the fatigue.
• You can also relieve the side effects by taking supplements.

Related: Keto Flu – Symptoms and Remedies

How to Prepare for Ketogenic Diet

When you choose to do keto, you need to prepare yourself both mentally and practically. Consider the following steps before commencing on this exciting journey.

Find out What You Need to Eat

Since keto is about diet, have in mind that carbs will be limited. Check out this keto food list to help you know what you are allowed to eat.

Improve Your Cooking Skills

You will realize that most of the foods recommended for keto may not be what you are used to cooking. And you will be doing a lot of cooking yourself instead of eating out.

Inform Your Family

Don’t begin keto without letting your family know. Explain to them why you will not be able to eat the same diet with them during to prepare them for your new meal plan

Get Keto Strips

Get keto strips – you will need them for testing your urine for ketones. The presence of ketones in your urine means that you are in ketosis.

Relate: How to Achieve Ketosis Fast

What to Eat on Keto Diet

Meat

Consider opting for organic unprocessed meat because they have no additives or hamful chemicals (antibiotics and hormoones).

• Pork
• Bison
• Beef
• Lamb
• Moose
• Elk
• Veal

Natural Fats

You are on keto diet because you need healthy fats to provide energy to your body. Consider fats from:

• Palm oil
• Olive oil
• Coconut oil
• Ghee
• Butter
• Bacon fat
• Lard
• Avocado oil
• Macadamia nut

Eggs

Low Carb Vegetables

Consider eating above the ground vegetables like:

• Zucchini
• Broccoli
• Avocado
• Cabbage
• Egg plant
• Cucumber
• Green beans
• Chard
• Cauliflower
• Garlic

What to Avoid on Keto

When you go keto, you are trying to reduce your carbs intake. Wondering what foods could get you out of keto after starting this fantastic journey. Here are some of them:

Normal Milk

The problem with the normal milk is that it contains high amounts of sugar you do not need.

Tropical Fruits

As much as tropical fruits are healthy, they contain high levels of sugar. Examples of these fruits include:

• Mangoes
• Bananas
• Pineapples
• Papayas
• Oranges
• Kiwi
• Grapes

Grains

Grains contain a lot of carbs, so stay away from them.

• Rice
• Oats
• Quinoa
• Barley
• Sorghum
• Amaranth
• Millet
• Bulgur
• Corn

Potatoes

Potatoes are quite starchy, and you can replace them with leafy greens, broccoli, and cabbage

Processed Foods

Believe it or not, processed foods are NOT your friends if you want to go keto. Some like hotdogs contain high levels of proteins (you need protein in moderation), while others contain high levels of sugar.

Dried Fruits

Ditch dried fruits because they contain high amounts of carbs.

Pasta and Noodles

You might want to go for Keto friendly option such as veggie noodles.

Soda and Alcohol

Soda and alcohol are choked full of sugar, so do yourself a favour and avoid them.

Other Foods to Avoid While on Ketogenic Diet

• Bread
• Pancakes
• Pastries

1 Week Keto Meal Plan for Beginners

I know starting out on Keto can be challenging. Although you may have a list of different foods to eat to achieve Ketosis, planning what to eat each day can be daunting.

I have organized a 7-day meal plan that you might want to use as a beginner. You can change it once you understand what to eat when going keto.

Monday

Breakfast – Eggs and Bacon

This is a simple and easy to prepare a meal. You can fry two eggs and some bacon. The purpose of eating such a lunch is to help you stay full and energized.

Lunch – Spinach salad

When you take bacon and eggs for breakfast, you will realize that by lunch time you won’t be starving as the other days. You might want to try spinach salad as it helps you to stay full though it won’t bog you down.

You can take some spinach salad with bacon, some red onion, tomato, and hot vinaigrette source. You can even add some Salmon, and that will create a healthy lunch.

Dinner – Cheese-Stuffed Bunless Burgers

Here is another delicious and easy to make a meal. Just cook some fresh beef patties, top one piece with cheese and stick the other piece on top. You can add veggies and some low carb sauces, and that’s it! Recipe

Tuesday

Breakfast – Sausage, Cheese, Spinach and 3 Eggs Omelette

Eggs are highly recommended in the keto diet because they have lutein and protein, which makes you full for several hours. Recipe

Lunch – BLT Salad

You can make BLT salad by using 2 cups of lettuce. Dice tomato and crush some bacon. Mix them and add three tablespoons of mayo.  Add some splashes of hot sauce and toss it.

Dinner – Baked Salmon and Asparagus

You need lemon juice, butter sauce, chopped garlic, pepper and some salt. You can drizzle the sauce on 4-6 oz portions of Salmon fish and bake it for minutes.

Use another bowl to toss asparagus with salt, olive oil, and pepper. Ensure that you evenly spread it out on a cookie sheet and let it roast in an oven for 20 minutes.

Wednesday

Breakfast – Eggs, Vegetables, and Cheese.

I still recommend eggs for your breakfast due to their low carb content. Beat three eggs in a bowl and add vegetables and cheese. You can put them in muffin tins that have some strips of bacon.

Let them cook for 30 minutes so that when you stick a toothpick in the middle, it doesn’t come out with anything attached on it.

Lunch – Walnuts, Cottage Cheese, and Hot Sauce

You need a quick, delicious meal at lunch time and that’s why you can’t go wrong with this. If hot sauce isn’t your thing, you can try blueberries with cottage cheese.

Dinner – Meatloaf

Meatloaf can be a great dinner if you are on a keto diet, but you need a binder and meat. Chop mushrooms and onion then use them as a binder. You can add some vegetables, and your dinner will be complete.

Thursday

Breakfast

You can have what you ate on Monday –  that’s eggs and bacon.

Lunch – Tuna Salad Lettuce Wraps

When making Tuna salad, remember to use low carb ingredients. You can find the recipe here.

Dinner – Slaw Hash

Get some shredded cabbage and cook them with ground beef, onions, red pepper flakes, soy sauce, and garlic.

Friday

Breakfast – Sausage, Cheese, Spinach and 3 Eggs Omelette

As mentioned earlier, these are veggies and work well for breakfast.

Lunch – Tacos Salad

Do you have leftover tacos? You can top it with sour cream and salsa. If you wish to add something more, some shredded cheese might make the taste better and help you stay full the whole day.

Dinner – Pork Roasts and Roasted Veggies

You can pair a nice pork roast with some broccoli, Brussels or roasted cauliflower.

Saturday

Breakfast – Fatty Coffee

Take good quality coffee by blending 1-2 tablespoons of coconut oil, stevia and two tablespoons of grass-fed butter. You can read more on how to prepare fatty coffee.

Lunch – BLT Salad

Just prepare it the way you cooked it on Tuesday.

Dinner – Tacos

You can cook Tacos with some beef. Add a small portion of full-fat sour cream and cheese, and your meal is ready.

Sunday

Breakfast – Avocado-Baked Eggs

This is a simple meal that takes fifteen minutes to prepare. You crack an egg in a bowl and cut avocado into half and pour the egg into it.  Let it bake until the egg is done.

Lunch – Chicken and Hummus Lettuce Wraps

You will need to spread spicy hummus on deli sliced chicken. You can wrap it up with butter lettuce, and that will be your quick, healthy lunch.

Dinner – Philly Cheese steak Casserole

Get pork roast and mix it with cream cheese, peppers, sliced onions and shredded cheddar. Let it bake for 30 minutes and enjoy your hearty meal.

Going keto doesn’t mean that you have to eat flavorless meals. You can start with this keto diet plan for beginners and go on to develop your own meal plan.

I hope you find this detailed guide on ketogenic diet for beginners helpful. Leave your feedback in the comment section below.