1/2cuppickleschopped and dried with paper towels, reserve 1 tablespoon
1/2cuppecanstoasted and chopped, divided
1jalapeñofire roasted and chopped, reserve 1 tsp
3/4cupscheddar cheeseshredded and divided
3/4cupsColby Jack cheeseshredded and divided
1tablespoonfresh parsleychopped
INSTRUCTIONS
Add cream cheese, sour cream, ranch seasoning,!1 teaspoon of everything seasoning, and pepper to a large bowl.
Mix thoroughly using a hand mixer to ensure even distribution of the seasonings.
Add 3/4 of the scallions, 6 oz of the bacon, pickles, 1/4 cup of the pecans, 3/4 of the jalapeño, 1/2 cup cheddar and 1/2 cup Colby Jack cheese into the cream cheese mixture.
Incorporate everything using a spatula.
Add the mixture onto plastic wrap and make a round ball.
Place in the refrigerator for at least two hours. If you’re in a hurry you can place it in the freezer for just until it firms up.
Before serving, mix all the reserved ingredients together in a large plate or bowl.
Remove the cheese ball from the plastic wrap and roll into the bacon, nuts and cheese mix.
Press the ball to ensure everything sticks.
Serve with crackers and vegetables.
NOTES
All recipes reflect approximate nutrition values for your convenience. Data is gathered by MyFitnessPal. Nutritional values can vary for each recipe based on variables such as measurement accuracy, different brands of ingredients, and so on. We make every effort to be as accurate as possible, but if exact calculations are required, user is advised to make their own calculations. Recipe author is not a nutritionist or dietician and recipes are not to be considered as any nutritional or medical advice. As with any diet, please consult your doctor before making changes to your diet.
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases with no cost to you.
In a large pot, fry bacon until crispy over medium-high heat. Remove bacon, set aside, and remove all but 2-3 Tbsp bacon drippings.
In the same pot, fry sausage in bacon drippings, crumbling with wooden spoon, until browned and crumbly. Remove and set aside.
Add chopped onions to same pan, sauté until translucent. Add garlic, cook until fragrant.
Add chicken broth, cauliflower, oregano, thyme, red chili flakes, salt and pepper. Mix well and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and cook until cauliflower is fork tender, about 10-15 minutes.
Optional – Remove about half of the cauliflower and blend in a blender or food processor, then stir back into the pot. This thickens the soup.
Add about 3/4 of the meat mixture, saving some aside for garnishing.
Stir in kale or spinach and cook 2-3 minutes, until wilted.
Reduce heat to low, add heavy cream, stir nicely and allow flavors to mix together for a few minutes.
Taste. Add additional salt, pepper, red chili flakes, thyme and oregano as desired.
Serve in your favorite bowl and garnish with more bacon and sausage along.
Nutrition Information
Yield10Serving Size1Amount Per ServingCalories425Total Fat34gSaturated Fat16gTrans Fat0gUnsaturated Fat18gCholesterol92mgSodium1464mgCarbohydrates9gNet Carbohydrates6gFiber3gSugar4gProtein22g
You’ve probably heard about the low-carb, high-fat diet that’s so popular among actors and models, and with good reason: low-carb diets offer proper nourishment with whole foods while keeping your body burning fat for fuel. This is a great way to be, as it makes fat loss largely effortless! But where does this “ketogenic” word fit into the picture?
Well, ketogenic comes from the word “ketosis“, which is a state in which your body breaks down fat molecules into ketones to provide energy. This state is achieved through very low carbohydrate intake and higher than normal fat intake. The “normal” state of the body’s metabolism is called “glycolysis”, where carbs are burnt for energy. The long and short is that when your body is in carb-burning mode, it will use all available carbs for energy before it touches stored fat. In ketosis, your body is primed to burn fat, and this is great news for anyone trying to get trim and slim.
Benefits of Ketosis
By cutting carb intake significantly, we can drastically reduce insulin resistance, the precursor to type 2 diabetes. In addition, low-carb diets, along with exercise, can be very effective at helping alleviate the symptoms and progression of type 2 diabetes. Beyond that, ketosis itself is appetite-suppressing, meaning your hunger will naturally check itself, increasing your caloric deficit and making you lose fat even faster.
Getting Started
Ketosis takes some time to get into – about two weeks of low-carb eating is required for the initial adaptation. During this time there will be bouts of sluggishness, fatigue, headaches, and some gastrointestinal issues as you adapt, often referred to as “keto flu“. Proper electrolyte intake will correct most of these issues. In addition, the “diet” aspect of this ketogenic diet plan – that is, the caloric restriction – shouldn’t be worried about. Weight loss will come as your body regulates appetite as it the addiction to sugar and processed food lessens, so restricting calories during the initial two weeks isn’t recommended.
The meal plan is designed to ensure you get three balanced, healthy meals a day that addresses fiber, satiation, and adequate protein intake. The greatest part of a ketogenic diet is the fact that it spares muscle loss, whereas a carb-based diet doesn’t. Weight lost in a high-carb, calorie-restricted diet will often come both from muscle and fat, whereas with keto, you can burn fat without sacrificing muscle. This is referred to often as “body recomposition” and leaves you with a much more preferred physique after weight loss.
Additional Points of Interest
Ketogenic diets often create a significant loss of water during the first phases. This is because carbs are converted to glycogen in your body, which is stored in water within the muscles and liver. As you deplete stored glycogen, your body flushes this water out. This is a huge part of the initial weight loss during the first few weeks of ketosis. While the rapid fat loss does occur at first, a lot of water weight is often dropped as well, but this is a great encouragement as it often results in both weight loss and less bloating, allowing clothes to fit better.
Vegetables: Broccoli, asparagus, Brussels sprouts, cucumbers, and many others.
Nuts and Seeds: Almonds, walnuts, sunflower, pumpkin, sesame, etc.
Dairy Products: Cheese, Greek yogurt, sour cream, heavy cream.
Fats and Oils: Peanut Butte, flaxseed oil, butter, sesame oil, olive oil, and almond oil. ( If you want to see more ketogenic diet foods, read this: The Ultimate List of Foods to Eat on a Ketogenic Diet
Foods to Avoid on a Ketogenic Diet
Grains: Grains: Wheat, oats, corn, barley, and rye. Includes bread and pasta.
Artificial Sweeteners: Sucralose, Equal, Acesulfame, Splenda, Saccharin, etc.
Processed Foods: If it contains carrageenan, don’t eat it.
“Low-fat” products: Atkins products, drinks, gluten, diet soda, etc.
7-Day Ketogenic Diet Meal Plan And Menu
So you have found the ketogenic diet, have figured out your macros and you are itching to get started. Here is a ketogenic diet meal plan for one week. If you are just getting situated use this basic plan to help get going.
I HAVE LOST 45 POUNDS IN 4 MONTHS WITH A KETOGENIC DIET
I just started MONTH five of a ketogenic diet(45 lbs lost). I’m by no means an expert. I am now 46 years old and I have spent my entire life trying to lose weight. Ironically I have also spent years learning about nutrition and exercise. Figuring out macronutrients just comes naturally to me as I have done it so much over my life. By following a keto diet this is the first time I have seen any real success in losing unwanted pounds. This is despite years of working out and being active.
I have had a very successful go of it so far, and I feel that a lot of you who are trying to get started with a ketogenic diet may get overwhelmed and confused with all of the numbers and information that is coming at you. Hence this ketogenic diet meal plan. It is what I am doing to keep things simple. I am a guy. I need simple.
For me, I think that success with a keto diet is found with having some base meals and adding some variety later on if needed. Hell, I eat the same thing pretty much every day. Not too exciting but losing 45 pounds in 4 months IS exciting, so I am sticking with it. If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.
7-DAY KETO DIET GROCERY LIST
The daily meals will be bacon and eggs, chicken with vegetables, and beef with vegetables. These are base meals and will provide good macros for some people. For others who need more food(fat), you can just add a keto-friendly snack or 2 to get your macros up to where they need to be. This is what I need to do.
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 am not much for cooking but I am doing better. A ketogenic diet meal plan does work better when you have food ready to go. It takes the guesswork out and we need to keep this as simple as possible in order to have success.
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 pointing out that you may want to consider taking a multivitamin with the ketogenic diet meal plan. It is very low on Vitamins B1, D, E, and K. Calcium, Magnesium, Manganese, and Potassium are also very low, but we need to manage those as part of our electrolyte strategy anyways on keto.
Do not omit essential electrolytes: Sodium (Na+), Chloride (Cl-), Potassium (K+), Magnesium (Mg++), Calcium (Ca++), Phosphate (HPO4–), Bicarbonate (HCO3-). Lack of electrolytes or more pointedly the body’s primary electrolyte sodium (aka Salt) is responsible for lethargy, brain fog, and keto flu symptoms on high fats diets.
You should be aiming for at least 8 cups of water a day. I have a 600ml bottle and I empty it at least 10 times a day. That is a lot of water and yes I am going to the bathroom a lot. Carbs hold water, so with minimal carbs, this will speed up the flushing of water. So even more bathroom breaks.
BUT HOW DO I KEEP TRACK OF ALL OF THIS?!
The “easiest” way to actually track your eating(and thus your macros) for your ketogenic diet meal plan is to set up a free account with MyFitnessPal.
This app is both web-based and/or you can use it with your phone. I cannot stress the importance of tracking what you eat. Doing this has made all the difference in the world for me and is a huge part of my keto diet success.
Once you get your account set up you just enter the food you eat and the app calculates your total consumption for each macro and your total calories. There is also a “bar code scanner” as part of the app. You use your phone to “scan” the bar code of the food you are eating and it enters it into your daily eating plan. Genius!
SUMMARY
I am proof that a ketogenic diet works. I also know that it can be confusing as hell trying to deal with all of the numbers and then figuring out what to eat. I am hoping that this 7-Day Ketogenic Diet Meal Plan will help you to stay calm(at least a little bit) and focused on your fat loss goals
You’ve probably heard about the low-carb, high-fat diet that’s so popular among actors and models, and with good reason: low-carb diets offer proper nourishment with whole foods while keeping your body burning fat for fuel. This is a great way to be, as it makes fat loss largely effortless! But where does this “ketogenic” word fit into the picture?
Well, ketogenic comes from the word “ketosis“, which is a state in which your body breaks down fat molecules into ketones to provide energy. This state is achieved through very low carbohydrate intake and higher than normal fat intake. The “normal” state of the body’s metabolism is called “glycolysis”, where carbs are burnt for energy. The long and short is that when your body is in carb-burning mode, it will use all available carbs for energy before it touches stored fat. In ketosis, your body is primed to burn fat, and this is great news for anyone trying to get trim and slim.
Benefits of Ketosis
By cutting carb intake significantly, we can drastically reduce insulin resistance, the precursor to type 2 diabetes. In addition, low-carb diets, along with exercise, can be very effective at helping alleviate the symptoms and progression of type 2 diabetes. Beyond that, ketosis itself is appetite-suppressing, meaning your hunger will naturally check itself, increasing your caloric deficit and making you lose fat even faster.
Getting Started
Ketosis takes some time to get into – about two weeks of low-carb eating is required for the initial adaptation. During this time there will be bouts of sluggishness, fatigue, headaches, and some gastrointestinal issues as you adapt, often referred to as “keto flu“. Proper electrolyte intake will correct most of these issues. In addition, the “diet” aspect of this ketogenic diet plan – that is, the caloric restriction – shouldn’t be worried about. Weight loss will come as your body regulates appetite as it the addiction to sugar and processed food lessens, so restricting calories during the initial two weeks isn’t recommended.
The meal plan is designed to ensure you get three balanced, healthy meals a day that addresses fiber, satiation, and adequate protein intake. The greatest part of a ketogenic diet is the fact that it spares muscle loss, whereas a carb-based diet doesn’t. Weight lost in a high-carb, calorie-restricted diet will often come both from muscle and fat, whereas with keto, you can burn fat without sacrificing muscle. This is referred to often as “body recomposition” and leaves you with a much more preferred physique after weight loss.
Additional Points of Interest
Ketogenic diets often create a significant loss of water during the first phases. This is because carbs are converted to glycogen in your body, which is stored in water within the muscles and liver. As you deplete stored glycogen, your body flushes this water out. This is a huge part of the initial weight loss during the first few weeks of ketosis. While the rapid fat loss does occur at first, a lot of water weight is often dropped as well, but this is a great encouragement as it often results in both weight loss and less bloating, allowing clothes to fit better.
Vegetables: Broccoli, asparagus, Brussels sprouts, cucumbers, and many others.
Nuts and Seeds: Almonds, walnuts, sunflower, pumpkin, sesame, etc.
Dairy Products: Cheese, Greek yogurt, sour cream, heavy cream.
Fats and Oils: Peanut Butte, flaxseed oil, butter, sesame oil, olive oil, and almond oil. ( If you want to see more ketogenic diet foods, read this: The Ultimate List of Foods to Eat on a Ketogenic Diet
Foods to Avoid on a Ketogenic Diet
Grains: Grains: Wheat, oats, corn, barley, and rye. Includes bread and pasta.
Artificial Sweeteners: Sucralose, Equal, Acesulfame, Splenda, Saccharin, etc.
Processed Foods: If it contains carrageenan, don’t eat it.
“Low-fat” products: Atkins products, drinks, gluten, diet soda, etc.
7-Day Ketogenic Diet Meal Plan And Menu
So you have found the ketogenic diet, have figured out your macros and you are itching to get started. Here is a ketogenic diet meal plan for one week. If you are just getting situated use this basic plan to help get going.
I HAVE LOST 45 POUNDS IN 4 MONTHS WITH A KETOGENIC DIET
I just started MONTH five of a ketogenic diet(45 lbs lost). I’m by no means an expert. I am now 46 years old and I have spent my entire life trying to lose weight. Ironically I have also spent years learning about nutrition and exercise. Figuring out macronutrients just comes naturally to me as I have done it so much over my life. By following a keto diet this is the first time I have seen any real success in losing unwanted pounds. This is despite years of working out and being active.
I have had a very successful go of it so far, and I feel that a lot of you who are trying to get started with a ketogenic diet may get overwhelmed and confused with all of the numbers and information that is coming at you. Hence this ketogenic diet meal plan. It is what I am doing to keep things simple. I am a guy. I need simple.
For me, I think that success with a keto diet is found with having some base meals and adding some variety later on if needed. Hell, I eat the same thing pretty much every day. Not too exciting but losing 45 pounds in 4 months IS exciting, so I am sticking with it. If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.
7-DAY KETO DIET GROCERY LIST
The daily meals will be bacon and eggs, chicken with vegetables, and beef with vegetables. These are base meals and will provide good macros for some people. For others who need more food(fat), you can just add a keto-friendly snack or 2 to get your macros up to where they need to be. This is what I need to do.
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 am not much for cooking but I am doing better. A ketogenic diet meal plan does work better when you have food ready to go. It takes the guesswork out and we need to keep this as simple as possible in order to have success.
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 pointing out that you may want to consider taking a multivitamin with the ketogenic diet meal plan. It is very low on Vitamins B1, D, E, and K. Calcium, Magnesium, Manganese, and Potassium are also very low, but we need to manage those as part of our electrolyte strategy anyways on keto.
Do not omit essential electrolytes: Sodium (Na+), Chloride (Cl-), Potassium (K+), Magnesium (Mg++), Calcium (Ca++), Phosphate (HPO4–), Bicarbonate (HCO3-). Lack of electrolytes or more pointedly the body’s primary electrolyte sodium (aka Salt) is responsible for lethargy, brain fog, and keto flu symptoms on high fats diets.
You should be aiming for at least 8 cups of water a day. I have a 600ml bottle and I empty it at least 10 times a day. That is a lot of water and yes I am going to the bathroom a lot. Carbs hold water, so with minimal carbs, this will speed up the flushing of water. So even more bathroom breaks.
BUT HOW DO I KEEP TRACK OF ALL OF THIS?!
The “easiest” way to actually track your eating(and thus your macros) for your ketogenic diet meal plan is to set up a free account with MyFitnessPal.
This app is both web-based and/or you can use it with your phone. I cannot stress the importance of tracking what you eat. Doing this has made all the difference in the world for me and is a huge part of my keto diet success.
Once you get your account set up you just enter the food you eat and the app calculates your total consumption for each macro and your total calories. There is also a “bar code scanner” as part of the app. You use your phone to “scan” the bar code of the food you are eating and it enters it into your daily eating plan. Genius!
SUMMARY
I am proof that a ketogenic diet works. I also know that it can be confusing as hell trying to deal with all of the numbers and then figuring out what to eat. I am hoping that this 7-Day Ketogenic Diet Meal Plan will help you to stay calm(at least a little bit) and focused on your fat loss goals
You’ve probably heard about the low-carb, high-fat diet that’s so popular among actors and models, and with good reason: low-carb diets offer proper nourishment with whole foods while keeping your body burning fat for fuel. This is a great way to be, as it makes fat loss largely effortless! But where does this “ketogenic” word fit into the picture?
Well, ketogenic comes from the word “ketosis“, which is a state in which your body breaks down fat molecules into ketones to provide energy. This state is achieved through very low carbohydrate intake and higher than normal fat intake. The “normal” state of the body’s metabolism is called “glycolysis”, where carbs are burnt for energy. The long and short is that when your body is in carb-burning mode, it will use all available carbs for energy before it touches stored fat. In ketosis, your body is primed to burn fat, and this is great news for anyone trying to get trim and slim.
Benefits of Ketosis
By cutting carb intake significantly, we can drastically reduce insulin resistance, the precursor to type 2 diabetes. In addition, low-carb diets, along with exercise, can be very effective at helping alleviate the symptoms and progression of type 2 diabetes. Beyond that, ketosis itself is appetite-suppressing, meaning your hunger will naturally check itself, increasing your caloric deficit and making you lose fat even faster.
Getting Started
Ketosis takes some time to get into – about two weeks of low-carb eating is required for the initial adaptation. During this time there will be bouts of sluggishness, fatigue, headaches, and some gastrointestinal issues as you adapt, often referred to as “keto flu“. Proper electrolyte intake will correct most of these issues. In addition, the “diet” aspect of this ketogenic diet plan – that is, the caloric restriction – shouldn’t be worried about. Weight loss will come as your body regulates appetite as it the addiction to sugar and processed food lessens, so restricting calories during the initial two weeks isn’t recommended.
The meal plan is designed to ensure you get three balanced, healthy meals a day that addresses fiber, satiation, and adequate protein intake. The greatest part of a ketogenic diet is the fact that it spares muscle loss, whereas a carb-based diet doesn’t. Weight lost in a high-carb, calorie-restricted diet will often come both from muscle and fat, whereas with keto, you can burn fat without sacrificing muscle. This is referred to often as “body recomposition” and leaves you with a much more preferred physique after weight loss.
Additional Points of Interest
Ketogenic diets often create a significant loss of water during the first phases. This is because carbs are converted to glycogen in your body, which is stored in water within the muscles and liver. As you deplete stored glycogen, your body flushes this water out. This is a huge part of the initial weight loss during the first few weeks of ketosis. While the rapid fat loss does occur at first, a lot of water weight is often dropped as well, but this is a great encouragement as it often results in both weight loss and less bloating, allowing clothes to fit better.
Vegetables: Broccoli, asparagus, Brussels sprouts, cucumbers, and many others.
Nuts and Seeds: Almonds, walnuts, sunflower, pumpkin, sesame, etc.
Dairy Products: Cheese, Greek yogurt, sour cream, heavy cream.
Fats and Oils: Peanut Butte, flaxseed oil, butter, sesame oil, olive oil, and almond oil. ( If you want to see more ketogenic diet foods, read this: The Ultimate List of Foods to Eat on a Ketogenic Diet
Foods to Avoid on a Ketogenic Diet
Grains: Grains: Wheat, oats, corn, barley, and rye. Includes bread and pasta.
Artificial Sweeteners: Sucralose, Equal, Acesulfame, Splenda, Saccharin, etc.
Processed Foods: If it contains carrageenan, don’t eat it.
“Low-fat” products: Atkins products, drinks, gluten, diet soda, etc.
7-Day Ketogenic Diet Meal Plan And Menu
So you have found the ketogenic diet, have figured out your macros and you are itching to get started. Here is a ketogenic diet meal plan for one week. If you are just getting situated use this basic plan to help get going.
I HAVE LOST 45 POUNDS IN 4 MONTHS WITH A KETOGENIC DIET
I just started MONTH five of a ketogenic diet(45 lbs lost). I’m by no means an expert. I am now 46 years old and I have spent my entire life trying to lose weight. Ironically I have also spent years learning about nutrition and exercise. Figuring out macronutrients just comes naturally to me as I have done it so much over my life. By following a keto diet this is the first time I have seen any real success in losing unwanted pounds. This is despite years of working out and being active.
I have had a very successful go of it so far, and I feel that a lot of you who are trying to get started with a ketogenic diet may get overwhelmed and confused with all of the numbers and information that is coming at you. Hence this ketogenic diet meal plan. It is what I am doing to keep things simple. I am a guy. I need simple.
For me, I think that success with a keto diet is found with having some base meals and adding some variety later on if needed. Hell, I eat the same thing pretty much every day. Not too exciting but losing 45 pounds in 4 months IS exciting, so I am sticking with it. If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.
7-DAY KETO DIET GROCERY LIST
The daily meals will be bacon and eggs, chicken with vegetables, and beef with vegetables. These are base meals and will provide good macros for some people. For others who need more food(fat), you can just add a keto-friendly snack or 2 to get your macros up to where they need to be. This is what I need to do.
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 am not much for cooking but I am doing better. A ketogenic diet meal plan does work better when you have food ready to go. It takes the guesswork out and we need to keep this as simple as possible in order to have success.
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 pointing out that you may want to consider taking a multivitamin with the ketogenic diet meal plan. It is very low on Vitamins B1, D, E, and K. Calcium, Magnesium, Manganese, and Potassium are also very low, but we need to manage those as part of our electrolyte strategy anyways on keto.
Do not omit essential electrolytes: Sodium (Na+), Chloride (Cl-), Potassium (K+), Magnesium (Mg++), Calcium (Ca++), Phosphate (HPO4–), Bicarbonate (HCO3-). Lack of electrolytes or more pointedly the body’s primary electrolyte sodium (aka Salt) is responsible for lethargy, brain fog, and keto flu symptoms on high fats diets.
You should be aiming for at least 8 cups of water a day. I have a 600ml bottle and I empty it at least 10 times a day. That is a lot of water and yes I am going to the bathroom a lot. Carbs hold water, so with minimal carbs, this will speed up the flushing of water. So even more bathroom breaks.
BUT HOW DO I KEEP TRACK OF ALL OF THIS?!
The “easiest” way to actually track your eating(and thus your macros) for your ketogenic diet meal plan is to set up a free account with MyFitnessPal.
This app is both web-based and/or you can use it with your phone. I cannot stress the importance of tracking what you eat. Doing this has made all the difference in the world for me and is a huge part of my keto diet success.
Once you get your account set up you just enter the food you eat and the app calculates your total consumption for each macro and your total calories. There is also a “bar code scanner” as part of the app. You use your phone to “scan” the bar code of the food you are eating and it enters it into your daily eating plan. Genius!
SUMMARY
I am proof that a ketogenic diet works. I also know that it can be confusing as hell trying to deal with all of the numbers and then figuring out what to eat. I am hoping that this 7-Day Ketogenic Diet Meal Plan will help you to stay calm(at least a little bit) and focused on your fat loss goals
In a pan over medium heat, cook onions in 1-2 tbsp olive oil until slightly softened. Add in ground beef and break up with a spatula. Season meat mixture with chile powder, cumin and smoked paprika. Cook until browned. Add in salsa of choice and olives if using. Set aside.
While meat is cooking, add mozzarella and cream cheese to a bowl and microwave for one minute. Take out and stir well, then put back in the microwave for another minute. Stir well.
Add egg to mozzarella and cream cheese mixture and mix well. Then add in the almond flour and combine well again.
Roll the dough flat with a rolling pin or with a piece of plastic wrap on top and use a wine bottles. Once you’ve rolled it flat, about 1/4″ thick, use a bowl to cut circle shapes.
For excess dough, form into a ball then roll out again and repeat the process until all the dough has been used.
Lay on a lightly greased cooking sheet, parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
Place a couple spoonfuls of meat mixture into each circle on one half and then fold the other half over. Make sure to press down firmly on the edges. You can also slightly roll the edges to make sure they’re together well or use a fork to gently push down the edges.
Once you’ve made all the empanadas, cook at 425 degrees for 12 minutes until starting to turn golden brown.
You’ve probably heard about the low-carb, high-fat diet that’s so popular among actors and models, and with good reason: low-carb diets offer proper nourishment with whole foods while keeping your body burning fat for fuel. This is a great way to be, as it makes fat loss largely effortless! But where does this “ketogenic” word fit into the picture?
Well, ketogenic comes from the word “ketosis“, which is a state in which your body breaks down fat molecules into ketones to provide energy. This state is achieved through very low carbohydrate intake and higher than normal fat intake. The “normal” state of the body’s metabolism is called “glycolysis”, where carbs are burnt for energy. The long and short is that when your body is in carb-burning mode, it will use all available carbs for energy before it touches stored fat. In ketosis, your body is primed to burn fat, and this is great news for anyone trying to get trim and slim.
Benefits of Ketosis
By cutting carb intake significantly, we can drastically reduce insulin resistance, the precursor to type 2 diabetes. In addition, low-carb diets, along with exercise, can be very effective at helping alleviate the symptoms and progression of type 2 diabetes. Beyond that, ketosis itself is appetite-suppressing, meaning your hunger will naturally check itself, increasing your caloric deficit and making you lose fat even faster.
Getting Started
Ketosis takes some time to get into – about two weeks of low-carb eating is required for the initial adaptation. During this time there will be bouts of sluggishness, fatigue, headaches, and some gastrointestinal issues as you adapt, often referred to as “keto flu“. Proper electrolyte intake will correct most of these issues. In addition, the “diet” aspect of this ketogenic diet plan – that is, the caloric restriction – shouldn’t be worried about. Weight loss will come as your body regulates appetite as it the addiction to sugar and processed food lessens, so restricting calories during the initial two weeks isn’t recommended.
The meal plan is designed to ensure you get three balanced, healthy meals a day that addresses fiber, satiation, and adequate protein intake. The greatest part of a ketogenic diet is the fact that it spares muscle loss, whereas a carb-based diet doesn’t. Weight lost in a high-carb, calorie-restricted diet will often come both from muscle and fat, whereas with keto, you can burn fat without sacrificing muscle. This is referred to often as “body recomposition” and leaves you with a much more preferred physique after weight loss.
Additional Points of Interest
Ketogenic diets often create a significant loss of water during the first phases. This is because carbs are converted to glycogen in your body, which is stored in water within the muscles and liver. As you deplete stored glycogen, your body flushes this water out. This is a huge part of the initial weight loss during the first few weeks of ketosis. While the rapid fat loss does occur at first, a lot of water weight is often dropped as well, but this is a great encouragement as it often results in both weight loss and less bloating, allowing clothes to fit better.
Vegetables: Broccoli, asparagus, Brussels sprouts, cucumbers, and many others.
Nuts and Seeds: Almonds, walnuts, sunflower, pumpkin, sesame, etc.
Dairy Products: Cheese, Greek yogurt, sour cream, heavy cream.
Fats and Oils: Peanut Butte, flaxseed oil, butter, sesame oil, olive oil, and almond oil. ( If you want to see more ketogenic diet foods, read this: The Ultimate List of Foods to Eat on a Ketogenic Diet
Foods to Avoid on a Ketogenic Diet
Grains: Grains: Wheat, oats, corn, barley, and rye. Includes bread and pasta.
Artificial Sweeteners: Sucralose, Equal, Acesulfame, Splenda, Saccharin, etc.
Processed Foods: If it contains carrageenan, don’t eat it.
“Low-fat” products: Atkins products, drinks, gluten, diet soda, etc.
7-Day Ketogenic Diet Meal Plan And Menu
So you have found the ketogenic diet, have figured out your macros and you are itching to get started. Here is a ketogenic diet meal plan for one week. If you are just getting situated use this basic plan to help get going.
I HAVE LOST 45 POUNDS IN 4 MONTHS WITH A KETOGENIC DIET
I just started MONTH five of a ketogenic diet(45 lbs lost). I’m by no means an expert. I am now 46 years old and I have spent my entire life trying to lose weight. Ironically I have also spent years learning about nutrition and exercise. Figuring out macronutrients just comes naturally to me as I have done it so much over my life. By following a keto diet this is the first time I have seen any real success in losing unwanted pounds. This is despite years of working out and being active.
I have had a very successful go of it so far, and I feel that a lot of you who are trying to get started with a ketogenic diet may get overwhelmed and confused with all of the numbers and information that is coming at you. Hence this ketogenic diet meal plan. It is what I am doing to keep things simple. I am a guy. I need simple.
For me, I think that success with a keto diet is found with having some base meals and adding some variety later on if needed. Hell, I eat the same thing pretty much every day. Not too exciting but losing 45 pounds in 4 months IS exciting, so I am sticking with it. If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.
7-DAY KETO DIET GROCERY LIST
The daily meals will be bacon and eggs, chicken with vegetables, and beef with vegetables. These are base meals and will provide good macros for some people. For others who need more food(fat), you can just add a keto-friendly snack or 2 to get your macros up to where they need to be. This is what I need to do.
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 am not much for cooking but I am doing better. A ketogenic diet meal plan does work better when you have food ready to go. It takes the guesswork out and we need to keep this as simple as possible in order to have success.
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 pointing out that you may want to consider taking a multivitamin with the ketogenic diet meal plan. It is very low on Vitamins B1, D, E, and K. Calcium, Magnesium, Manganese, and Potassium are also very low, but we need to manage those as part of our electrolyte strategy anyways on keto.
Do not omit essential electrolytes: Sodium (Na+), Chloride (Cl-), Potassium (K+), Magnesium (Mg++), Calcium (Ca++), Phosphate (HPO4–), Bicarbonate (HCO3-). Lack of electrolytes or more pointedly the body’s primary electrolyte sodium (aka Salt) is responsible for lethargy, brain fog, and keto flu symptoms on high fats diets.
You should be aiming for at least 8 cups of water a day. I have a 600ml bottle and I empty it at least 10 times a day. That is a lot of water and yes I am going to the bathroom a lot. Carbs hold water, so with minimal carbs, this will speed up the flushing of water. So even more bathroom breaks.
BUT HOW DO I KEEP TRACK OF ALL OF THIS?!
The “easiest” way to actually track your eating(and thus your macros) for your ketogenic diet meal plan is to set up a free account with MyFitnessPal.
This app is both web-based and/or you can use it with your phone. I cannot stress the importance of tracking what you eat. Doing this has made all the difference in the world for me and is a huge part of my keto diet success.
Once you get your account set up you just enter the food you eat and the app calculates your total consumption for each macro and your total calories. There is also a “bar code scanner” as part of the app. You use your phone to “scan” the bar code of the food you are eating and it enters it into your daily eating plan. Genius!
SUMMARY
I am proof that a ketogenic diet works. I also know that it can be confusing as hell trying to deal with all of the numbers and then figuring out what to eat. I am hoping that this 7-Day Ketogenic Diet Meal Plan will help you to stay calm(at least a little bit) and focused on your fat loss goals
In a microwave-safe bowl, microwave cream cheese, and mozzarella cheese on HIGH for 1 minute. Stir until smooth.
Add baking powder, eggs, ranch mix, and almond flour to cream cheese mixture. Stir well.
Stir in cheddar cheese and bacon. Stir until combined.
Spray a 10-inch iron skillet with cooking spray. Divide the dough into 11 or 12 balls and place in skillet. Place skillet in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.
Remove skillet from the refrigerator and bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Brush cooked biscuits with melted butter and sprinkle with dried parsley, if desired.
NOTES
Do not make the ranch dressing. Use the mix dry.
Can reduce the amount of Ranch dressing mix to your personal preference.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a 9in springform pan, or line the bottom with parchment paper.
Make the crust: Combine almond flour, optional flax meal, sweetener, cinnamon and salt in a mixing bowl. Stir well to break up any lumps in the almond flour.
Add the melted butter to the dry ingredients, and stir to combine. Using your fingertips, press down flat into the bottom of the cheesecake pan.
Bake for 10-15 minutes, until just beginning to brown. Remove, and let cool at least 10 minutes while you make the batter.
Make the cheesecake batter: In a large mixing bowl, beat the softened cream cheese until smooth. Add the sweetener, eggs, vanilla extract, and salt. Stir together until well combined.
Pour the cheesecake batter on top of the crust. Set the cheesecake inside a large pan, and pour hot water into the other pan until it comes halfway up the sides of the cheesecake pan. Bake for about 50-55 minutes. Check the cheesecake for doneness, removing when the center of the cheesecake just jiggles a bit when you tap the side of the pan.
Remove from the oven. Let cool on the counter for 30 minutes, then cover and chill in the refrigerator.
NOTES
Serve with whipped cream, berries, or sugar-free jam.
To unmold the cheesecake, run a thin paring knife around the edge of the cheesecakes to help release it from the pan.
If you want the crust to reach all the way up the sides of the cheesecakes, you can double the crust recipe.
