Keto meal planning is hard enough — recipe research, planning what to make, shopping for ingredients, and cooking the food are all time-consuming alone. Yet the food options get much more limited for the people on the keto diet. That\’s because the low-carb, high-fat diet plan has very specific macros that can limit one\’s food options (sorry, but pasta and rice are completely out of the window). In this article, you will discover how to make the perfect keto plate portions with examples of foods that can be incorporated.
Let\’s start by talking about what a keto diet is and in the later sections we will cover how to build the keto diet plate portions.
What is Keto Diet?
The ketogenic diet is a low on carbohydrates, moderate protein, and low-fat diet where your body burns fat as you eat fat. Usually the mechanism of the body is to derive energy from carbohydrates. Carbs are metabolized into glucose and stored as glycogen in the liver. When you reduce carbohydrate intake, eventually the fat stored in adipose tissue is used for all chemical and physical activities. This state is known as ketosis and it results in fat and water weight loss.
Macros Distribution in Keto Diet
The macronutrient distribution of a typical ketogenic diet is macros are 75percent of fat calories, 15 to 20 percent of protein, and only 5 to 10 percent of carbs. People may play with these macros depending on their specific health goals and needs, or their specific interpretation of keto.
Aptly done, a proper keto diet should consist of plenty of well-grown animal proteins (such as grass-fed beef, pastured chicken, and seafood), healthy fats (including avocados, extra virgin olive oil, nuts /seeds, olives, coconuts, etc.) and non-starchy fiber and micronutrient vegetables.
If you\’ve just started keto, or you\’re thinking about the macros, here is how to portion your keto plate with your favorite vegetables, carbs (whatever you can eat), protein, and fats to ease your appetite and burn those ketones.
Prioritize good fats all over your plate
It is extremely important to judge because good fat should be integrated into every aspect of a keto meal. The plate will comprise of one-fourth fat but bear in mind that your veggies are topped with a fat, and your meat may have fat as well. So indeed, fat is spread around your plate and not just in one place.
Some great options in terms of healthy fats include avocado oil, coconut oil, avocados, coconut, olives,
cooking olive oil, grass-fed ghee or butter, and pastured animal fats. You can use these fat sources for dressings and cooking methods, as well as high-fat protein or protein topper options (think of burger
avocado). You can also snack snacks on fats in a smoothie, such as a nut butter or MCT oil.
Load up on veggies
On the keto, vegetables that are not starchy will take up half of your plate. Consider lots of leafy greens, bok choy, cucumber, cauliflower, asparagus, mushrooms, bell peppers, zucchini, and tomatoes. Vegetables contain essential micronutrients such as starch, folate, B vitamins, calcium, and a wide variety of prominent antioxidants. Try to as 300-450g of low veggies to your diet every day.
However, keep in mind that while veggies take up half of your plate, they are not calorically dense
and therefore do not reflect much of the distribution of macronutrients. And
you\’ll need to add plenty of fats and proteins to power up properly. Cover your vegetables with (or cook them in) healthy fats such as avocado oil, ghee, or extra virgin olive oil for extra fats to help ketones burn and keep you fuller longer.
Keep the carbs minimal
Vegetables should be the only carbs a person consumes on the keto diet. Your total calories from carbs in your diet should account for 5%. On occasion, you can also get carbs from low-sugar fruits such as blackberries, given they don’t exceed your allotted carb macros past their daily limit. That is why there is not a fixed ratio for carbs, but include the carb count within your half-plate of veggies. Cut down on call the major sources of carbs such as cereals, pulses, pasta, noodles, pizza, oats, and milk.
Don’t take protein overboard
There is a common belief that there are large quantities of steak, bacon, and other fatty meat in the keto diet. Protein should be up to a fourth of your plate. The type of protein depends on
the preferences, but the best quality you can afford is always recommended to the source. Because those
who adopt a keto diet that eats higher-fat meats, it is especially important to look for high-quality meats, as items like hormones, antibiotics, and toxins end up in the fat of the animal.
Moreover, do not over-board red meat for the sake of heart health, but prioritize leaner meats such as chicken and fish for your day.
Overview: What looks like a sample keto plate?
To sum up, somewhat simplified well-balanced keto plate portions will be half vegetables, a fourth protein, and a fourth balanced fat. Sautéed mushrooms, bok choy, and asparagus cooked in grass-fed ghee are some keto meal options. Then add some steak cooked in a little pat of pastured butter (or change the beef to skin-on chicken thighs). Or you could roast the zucchini and tomatoes in avocado oil, then serve them with a creamy sauce on top of skin-on cooked salmon.
The breakfast may be a veggie omelet with some cheese, cooked in olive oil, or grazed butter.
With all meals, the plate should stay consistent, because the macros are the same whether you are
consuming breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Many people may be following intermittent fasting and not
eating breakfast, but it is also not influencing what their plate looks like.
Consistency is key to achieving and maintaining ketosis — hopefully making things easier for meal
preparation, too.
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