What is a Keto Meal?
Most people get confused when they read about the Keto diet meal. It always sounds like a sophisticated word or a jargon to others. Keto diet meals are any foods that contain fewer than 50g of carbs or a net of 30g carbs. Net carbs mean that all the carbs you consume should be less than the fiber contents or intake.
Fiber is a crucial part of any diet. It is plant-based, and it is essential to include it in any Keto diet meal. It helps in improving the digestive function, protects the body from any bacteria, and prevents constipation. You will be surprised that in such a meal, most of the calorie intake is from fats and less from proteins like fish, eggs, and meat.
The meals are essential in increasing fasting levels, reduction of fat mass, and waist circumference. Some studies indicate that, when you adapt to a Keto diet meal, you will benefit from less risk to high blood pressure, heart disease, triglycerides, and lower cholesterol.
Keto Diet Basics
A keto diet is not as complicated as it sounds, or as many people perceive. It merely is lower carbs, higher fats, and moderate proteins. As earlier stated, always ensure that you stick to below 50 grams daily. Your calorie intake should include around 75% of the overall calorie intake.
A more straightforward ratio can be 75:25:5, fats, proteins, and carbs, respectively. It brings about the ketosis process, and this means when carbs intake reduced, the physical body will rely on the fats as a source of energy.
The process produces ketones, and these are molecules produced from the fats when there is limited glucose in the liver. When you adapt to such diets, you are guaranteed of a faster way to lose weight. One of the reasons is that it reduces hunger, and satiety is increased hence better chances at weight loss.
It can be challenging and overwhelming when switching from regular dieting to Keto diet meals. In order not to have such a daunting ordeal, bear in mind that you are reducing carbs and increasing fats and protein for all your meals and snacks.
To achieve the ketosis state, restrict your carbs. Some people opt to have less than 20 grams of carbs daily, while others opt for more. The secret is, the less the carbs, the easier and faster to start at the ketosis state. If your goal is to lose weight, ensure you adopt a keto diet meal. Stay away from foods with higher carbs content.
Foods to Eat
When you are on a strict diet and want to achieve weight loss, it is imperative to stick to the listed food items:
- Look for whole eggs that are pastured and organic.
- Ensure you can get mackerel, herring, and salmon.
- Your beef should be from grass-fed cows, bison, venison, organic meats, and pork.
- Look for full-fat dairies like cream, butter, and yogurt.
- Turkey and chicken are the best poultry variation.
- If you love your cheese, look for goat cheese, mozzarella, cream cheese, and cheddar.
- You can adapt to nuts as your snack, and this includes walnuts, flaxseeds, macadamia, pumpkin seeds, and almonds.
- Another healthy snack is avocado added to any meal.
- Look for a natural butter like cashew butter, almond, and natural peanut.
- Ensure you include healthy and natural fats like coconut butter, avocado oil, sesame oil, and olive oil.
- Broccoli, mushrooms, tomatoes, and peppers are the best considered as non-starchy vegetables
- Look for condiments like fresh herbs, lemon juices, spices, vinegar, pepper, and salt.
Foods to Avoid
When starting a keto diet, ensure you avoid all foods that are rich in carbs. Below is a comprehensive list of what you should altogether avoid or do away in your diet.
- Avoid any baked or wheat-based products, for instance, crackers, white bread, rolls, and doughnuts.
- Do away with sugary foods like ice cream, maple syrup, coconut sugar, sugar, and candy.
- Avoid any pasta-like noodles and spaghetti.
- Black beans, kidney beans, lentils, and chickpeas considered grains and legumes.
- Some fruits avoided bananas, grapes, pineapple, and citrus.
- Do away with any sweetened beverages like sports, drinks, juice, and soda.
- Avoid rice, wheat, breakfast cereals, and oats.
- Vegetables that are considered starchy should not be part of your diet; some include corn, sweet potatoes, potatoes, pumpkin, and butter squash.
- Beer should also scrap from the list like other sugary drinks.
Even though most carbs are not healthy, some are considered low-glycemic like berries. You need to make sure you have limited amounts and maintain the keto advised range.
The bottom line is that you need to ensure you keep away from processed foods and always consume healthy fats and grains. It would be best if you ascertained that you avoid unhealthy fats like corn oil, canola, and margarine.
By processed foods, it means any packaged and fast foods, and processed meats like hot dogs. Avoid any diet foods like sweeteners, artificial colors, and preservatives.
Ketogenic Healthy Beverages
Choosing a healthy beverage for your keto diet can be tricky. The reason being most beverages contain sugar; this includes iced tea, soda, juice, and coffee drinks. It is against the keto diet since you need to avoid any diet high in carb content.
The same rule against foods rich in carbs applies for drinks too. The main reason to avoid unnecessary sugars is that it reduces the risk of diabetes and obesity. So, when planning to shift to a keto diet, do not panic. Below is a list of keto-friendly drinks that you can choose.
- The most healthy and affordable drink is water; it helps in hydration and consumed daily. Consider it fit to take eight glasses per day.
- Sparkling water is another option to replace the entire soda intake.
- Look for unsweetened coffee, and you can add heavy cream to get some flavor.
- Unsweetened green tea has several health benefits.
Vegan Keto Meal
For any vegetarian switching to a keto diet, it can be an uphill task since most of their foods are from carbohydrates. A pure bean or lentils meal is considered rich in carbs. It is still possible to have a , ensure plant-based foods replace fish and meat with high-fat content.
