Keto Diet Plan: A Quick Start Guide
- Chantal van der Merwe
- May 1, 2024
- 8 min read
Updated: Sep 25
Uncertain about how to start your keto diet? This quick start guide provides a free 7-day keto meal plan, with breakfast, lunch, dinner, and even dessert options to get you started today.
The keto diet became very popular in 2016 for it's effect on weight loss and improving overall health. The ketogenic diet, or keto for short, is a way of eating that changes your metabolism to use ketones as a form of energy. When your body is in a metabolic state called ketosis, fat becomes the primary fuel source instead of carbs.
For over ten years I have been passionate about coaching people to lose weight and incorporate keto as a lifestyle. Whether it is a quick and simple guide you are looking for to get started, or need personalized coaching - you’ll definitely find something on my website.
Understanding The Different Keto Diet Variations
One of the top questions I get asked (from my fellow South Africans) is whether keto is the same as the Banting diet. The short answer is yes, it is indeed also a high-fat, low-carb diet. The easiest way to understand it is that the Banting Diet, and some other low-carb diets such as Paleo and Mediterranean diets do not have specific macronutrient ratios like keto.
There are primarily four main variations of the keto diet:
Standard ketogenic diet (SKD): This is a very low-carb, moderate protein and high-fat diet. It typically contains 75% fat, 20% protein, and only 5% carbs. Ideal for weight loss and overall health.
Cyclical ketogenic diet (CKD): This type of keto diet plan typically follows five days of standard keto followed by two high-carb days. This type is also popular with bodybuilders and athletes who follow high-intensity training.
Targeted ketogenic diet (TKD): With this type of keto diet plan you’ll also follow standard, or even higher protein ratios, but you’ll add carbs around workouts. This type of keto diet plan is perfect for athletes, incorporating strategic carb intake around their workouts.
High protein ketogenic diet: The higher protein keto diet plan ratios will look like this: 60% fat, 35% protein, and 5% carbs. It is similar to a standard ketogenic diet, but includes a higher ratio of protein and is popular amongst people who do strength training.
Your macro ratios will vary depending on your goal. If you are starting out with keto and want to lose weight, then this quick-start keto diet plan with standard macro ratios is ideal for you.
As you progress with your keto diet or exercise on a regular basis, you may want to adjust your macros to suit your goals.
Which Diet Is Best For Me To Lose Weight?
For this quick start guide, we’ll focus on the Standard Ketogenic Diet ratios. This is the ideal macros if your primary goal is to lose weight with keto.
75% fat, 20% protein, and only 5% carbs.
The Basic Macronutrients For The Standard Keto Diet Are:
Limit your carb intake per day to 5%. This usually is around 20 to 30 grams of carbs per day.
Eat approximately 20% of your calories from protein. This can vary depending on your calories. For females your protein for the day can be approximately 60 to 90 grams (this is not the total weight of your protein) grams per day. To put this into context. A chicken breast weighing 100 grams contains approximately 32 grams of protein.
What is left is your fat macro, which is 75% of your calories.
How Long Does It Take To Get Into Ketosis?
The key to the keto diet is limiting your carb intake to around 20-30 grams per day. Good keto-friendly foods include meat, fish, eggs, dairy, nuts, seeds, and low-carb vegetables. You'll want to avoid sugar, grains, beans, root vegetables, and most fruits.
When you eat 20 grams of carbohydrates or less a day, you will typically help your body to get into ketosis. Within a few days of limiting your carb intake, your blood glucose or blood sugar will lower and essentially your body (specifically your liver) will start to produce ketones.
Getting into ketosis can be different from person to person, but most people get into ketosis within two to four days. Other factors such as your activity level, medications, and exactly what you eat can influence how quickly you get into ketosis.
Preparing To Start Your Keto Diet Plan
Plan Your Meals
When first starting the keto diet, it's important to plan your meals and snacks in advance. Many people also find it helpful to track their carb, fat, and protein intake using a fitness app or online food diary.
Your first week’s meals are covered in the 7-day quick-start keto meal plan. After that, you can switch up some of the recipes from my website to extend your meal plan and keep it interesting.
The keto diet food list is also helpful to get to know what foods are keto-friendly and to continue to plan your meals.
Some questions to consider when organizing your keto meal plan:
How many meals will you eat?
This keto diet plan starts of with three meals for the first 7 days. You may find after about two weeks on keto that you want to skip breakfast and only have two meals a day.
How many people in your household?
The number of people in your household will influence how many servings you will make of the recipes in the meal plan. Some recipes make 4 servings and others only one. You’ll need to adjust it depending on the number of people in your home.
Consider your situation. Are you working from home, do you go to the office?
If you go to the office during the day, you can prepare your lunch the night before while you are preparing dinner. You can also switch up some of the recipes from lunch to dinner if they are more convenient for you to take to the office instead.
Save Time With Your Keto Diet Plan
Make simple, no-cook meals with foods like hard-boiled eggs (already prepared and waiting in the fridge), canned fish, cheese, cold cuts, and pre-chopped veggies.
Cook double portions for dinner. Save time preparing, cooking, and cleaning up by making two dinner servings. Refrigerate half to enjoy for lunch the next day.
Once you have planned your meals, use the grocery shopping guide to select the ingredients you need and go shopping.
[provide a weekly meal plan template?]
[provide tutorials on how to add meals to food diary app]
[provide links to course/programs for more detailed guide to track food]
Start Cooking
The keto diet focuses on fresh, whole-foods. Shops provide little to no foods that are conveniently packaged and ready-to-go meals. Unless you’re making use of a meal service like Dinnerbox or Low-Banke. [insert and get affiliate links] it can be challenging to find grab-and-go keto-friendly meals.
With this keto diet plan you will prepare and cook some of your meals beforehand so that you are prepared. Making some egg-muffins, meatballs, and having some droewors on hand is good and can prevent cravings turning into falling off the bandwagon.
Check out the keto snack list for some more options.
[insert keto snack list link]
The 7-Day Keto Meal Plan
This sample meal plan guide offers a glimpse into the delicious possibilities of keto living. Remember, these are examples; feel free to adjust portion sizes and experiment with different meals throughout the week.
Supplements For The Keto Meal Plan
Supplements can be very helpful on a keto diet and exogenous ketone supplements can help you get into ketosis quicker with your keto meal plan.
Exogenous Ketones
Just briefly. Exogenous ketones is a supplement that provides extra ketones to your body. Exo meaning from outside of the body. It is true that the body makes ketones - referred to as endogenous ketones - but drinking Keto Halo’s BHB Ketones can help get you into ketosis faster, help with appetite suppression, keep cravings at bay, and improve your energy, especially in the transitioning phase.
Even when you give in to cravings or stop your keto diet for whatever reason, exogenous ketones can help you quickly get back into ketosis. at any time, instead of having to wait a couple of days.
MCT Oil and Powders
MCT is another great type of supplement to support your keto diet. MCT stands for medium-chain triglyceride. MCT oil and powders come in - well - oil and powder form. MCT oils are readily converted into ketones once it is ingested. Similar to BHB, or exogenous ketones, MCTs provide sustained energy, suppress appetite and can assist with weight loss.
MCTs help to stimulate your metabolism and support fat burning.
Collagen
Collagen is the most abundant protein in your body that makes up about 30% of your body's total protein. Collagen is the primary building block of your skin, hair, nails, muscles, bones, tendons and ligaments.
Anyone over the age of 25 should supplement with collagen, and even more so if you are not consuming a lot of protein. Incorporating a collagen supplement into your keto diet can help support natural collagen production.
Keto Halo's Pure Collagen is the best, high-quality hydrolyzed bovine collagen peptides sourced and imported from one of the world’s leading collagen peptides manufacturers. It provides 9 grams of protein per serving and contains no fillers or artificial ingredients.
Keto Halo’s Pure Collagen is completely odourless, flavourless and dissolves instantly in hot or cold beverages.
Track Your Macronutrients
The keto diet plan has your macros worked out for you. However, as you continue with your diet, creating your own meals, it can be challenging to figure out what your macronutrient ratios are.
There are many macro-calculators available on the internet like Cronometer and My Fitness Pal.
Using a food diary tracker will also allow you to add and track your macros and most of these food diary apps have a suggested standard keto ratio when you sign up and enter your details such as your age, height, and activity level. Do keep in mind that it is extremely difficult to get all your ratios within 100% when you are starting out. Just keep it within a range of a few grams and stay consistent and your efforts will still pay off.
If you need help figuring out your macros, creating your meals, or using a food diary app, feel free to set up a quick session with me. [insert link to consultation]
[insert image of percentages or ratios]
[insert cronometer and other food diary tracking]
With the right plan and a little discipline, the keto diet can be an effective way to lose weight, boost energy levels, and improve various health markers. Just be sure to consult your doctor before making any major changes to your diet, especially if you have any underlying medical conditions.
FAQs
Q: Can I customize this meal plan?
Absolutely! This plan serves as a guide. Feel free to adjust portion sizes, swap meals between days, and explore new keto recipes from my website to suit your preferences.
Q: What if I don't have time to cook some of the meals?
There are plenty of quick and easy keto options. Explore recipes like egg muffins or keto salads for time-saving solutions.
Q: Where can I find more keto resources?
My website offers a comprehensive collection of keto recipes, articles, and helpful tools. Feel free to explore and dive deeper into the resources or reach out to me for a coaching session.
Disclaimer:
This blog post is intended for informational purposes only and should not be interpreted as medical advice. It's best to consult with your doctor before starting the keto diet, especially if you have any underlying health conditions, are pregnant, or breastfeeding.
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