Are you looking to design your own moderate protein, high-fat, low-carb diet? Well, then you’ve come to the right place. Let’s get to designing your very own 7 day keto meal plan for a healthy diet for your keto journey.
The Standard 7-Day Keto Diet Plan
This diet is where you can start to build a complete 7-day keto meal plan. You can customize this diet to get you your daily fat and protein intake, and your minimal carbs per day. This will boost your energy levels and also fulfill your health goals. Plus, it’ll reduce your body fat.
You can also look up this article for some advice on the delicious foods you can eat.
Monday
Breakfast: 2 Butter Cooked Eggs for breakfast. You can add sauteed greens too.
Lunch: Go for a bunless burger with cottage cheese and mushrooms.
Dinner: Chow down on pork chops with green beans sauteed in olive oil.
Tuesday
Breakfast: Go for the common mushroom omelet with cheddar cheese.
Lunch: Try a tuna salad with celery and tomato with a bed of greens.
Dinner: Munch on a roast chicken with heavy cream sauce. Serve with sauteed broccoli.
Wednesday
Breakfast: Try a bell pepper with stuffed goat cheese and eggs for breakfast.
Lunch: Hard boiled eggs served with avocado, blue cheese, and turkey.
Dinner: Chow down on some spinach with grilled salmon and sesame oil.
Thursday
Breakfast: Begin your day with full fat yogurt and keto granola bars.
Lunch: Have a full steak bowl with cheese, herbs, salsa and an avocado snack.
Dinner: Chow down on cheesy broccoli with a bison steak.
Friday
Breakfast: Avocado egg boats will make a great breakfast.
Lunch: Try a simple caesar salad and chicken.
Dinner: Go for a pork chop with low-carb vegetables and keep it simple.
Saturday
Breakfast: A cauliflower toast topped with cheese and avocado snack will be very filling.
Lunch: Try the bunless salmon burgers with some pesto.
Dinner: Go for some meatballs served with zuchhini noodles and parmesan cheese.
Sunday
Breakfast: Coconut milk chia pudding will do wonders for you along with some chopped walnuts and coconuts.
Lunch: A cobb salad with greens, avocado, cheese, and hard boiled eggs will make the perfect lunch.
Dinner: Just top off the week with some coconut chicken curry.
Keto Friendly Foods for Your Ketogenic Diet Plan
No matter what you decide your personal keto diet to be, you’ll need to incorporate certain types of food. Otherwise, you won’t be able to put your body into ketosis, and your health journey will end before it starts.
Here is a guide to the foods that you should absolutely incorporate into your diet. They’ll help you lose excess body weight and keep you healthy. You can’t do without either of these. So you should give up on eating just one type of food for the entirety of your diet.
Proteins
Ketogenic diets usually place a medium emphasis on proteins. They are usually high on fats as the replacement for carbohydrate intake. However, you can’t do without a moderate protein intake since it’s used to manufacture new cells. What’s more, it also helps bulk up on muscle.
For your protein sources, you should typically rely on:
- Grass Fed Beef: This is one of the best sources of protein since it incorporates plant-based proteins as its base source. You will not only feel healthier, but find that you bulk up faster and for longer with this beef. You can use this beef in any form, such as ground beef or pulled beef. It’ll work well for steaks, or even for stringy beef snacks.
- Dark Meat Chicken: Dark Meat chicken is actually much richer in nutrients than light meat chicken. This is because dark meat chicken has a larger amount of myoglobin. That’s what gives dark meat its color. Myoglobin provides muscles with more oxygen which helps in exercise and movement. This is why chicken thighs and are rich in dark meat, while chicken breasts are rich in light meat.
- Fatty Fish: Salmon and other fatty fish is also recommended. Not only will it supplement your fat diet, but it’s also a great source of protein. They also contain a lot of fatty acids.
- You can also occasionally have bacon and low-fat proteins like skinless chicken breasts. Also, you can occasionally have shrimp. These foods are great for cheat days. You shouldn’t have them regularly though.
Fats and Oils
- You should substitute healthy fruit or vegetable oil when you’re cooking or garnishing. This is a good idea to supplement your keto diet with healthy fats. These include:
- Avocado Oil
- Olive Oil
- Heavy Cream
- Natural Butter (Try Almond Butter as well)
- Coconut Oil
Not only will healthy fats help you with excess weight loss, but also reduce your chances of heart disease.
Keto Friendly Carbs
Here are some healthy carbs to help you get the minimal carbs per day allowed by the keto diet. There is less truth to the 20-50 grams per day figure than you think. You just need to have enough carbs to keep you going. The proteins and fats will do the rest. These are the right foods to boost your blood sugar levels.
- Tomatoes: Tomatoes are both juicy and a great source of healthy carbohydrate intake. They can be used in a variety of salads and even in general keto recipes. Their versatility and nutrients make them a perfect fit for the ketogenic diet.
- Spinach: Popeye the sailor man was right about spinach. It’s chock full of nutrients, and a great way to supplement your keto diet. You’ll feel yourself getting stronger when you eat this leafy green regularly.
- Mushrooms: Mushrooms are more than a great garnish. They’re a great carbohydrate source and a healthy substitute for a snack.
- Cauliflower: Cauliflower is a great vegetable to put in a stew or even in gravy for flavor. It’ll provide you with a lot of nutrients and minerals and bolster your keto diet.
- Asparagus: Asparagus is one of the few non-starchy vegetables and is a great snack to enjoy regularly. You can enjoy the fresh flavor and put it in stews or gravy to enjoy till your heart’s content.
- You can even use vegan flour for healthy carb consumption. Almond flour for example, is much better than standard flour for your health.
- Other options include fresh berries or strawberries if you want to add more healthy carbs.
Keto-Friendly Options for Beverages
Drinks and beverages play a huge part in the keto diet, believe it or not. Since the diet reduces your dependence on carbohydrate intake drastically, your body’s water content decreases.
Also, since your body is in ketosis, and burning the body fat stored, you will also lose water to perspiration. That’s why you should always drink up to restore your water content. Otherwise, you can fall prey to dehydration. Here are some keto diet friendly you can consume while on your ideal keto diet meal plan.
Water
Whether it’s sparkling or normal water, you should be drinking as much as you need. You should drink before your thirsty, and whenever you need to. There is no magic number like 8 glasses every day.
Instead, everyone’s water needs depend on their environment. You should always drink plenty of water; as much as your body requires. Doing any less will only do harm to your body.
Non-Sweetened Coffee
If you’re opposed to the bitter taste of coffee, you can try topping it off with heavy cream. That may add a little dash of flavor to your daily cup. It’s ok to drink one cup every day. However, don’t add sugar or milk chocolate flavoring. Otherwise, you’ll put your body out of ketosis.
Non-Sweetened Green Tea
Green tea has been touted as a great drink for weight loss. And it’s definitely a very healthy beverage. It’s delicious and can provide several health benefits. However, as with coffee, you shouldn’t sweeten it if you want its effects to pay off.
You can check out this article for a keto diet designed to lose weight.
Vegan Dairy
You should substitute several dairy foods like cheese or milk with vegan options. This will help you lose weight, and have you feeling lighter. Try some almond milk and you’ll never want to go back to normal milk again.
Foods You Should Avoid on a Keto Diet Meal Plan
Proteins
- Cold Cuts with Sugar: These are laced with added grams of carbs. These will put your body out of ketosis. You’ll essentially lose the gains of the day. So, avoid this.
- Fish/Chicken Nuggets: You should know better than to go for any fast food as your source for healthy fats. They’ll just bloat you up and won’t do much for your health.
- Marinated Meat in Sugary Sauces: This is Ok for a cheat day, but never for a regular diet.
Oils and Fats
- Margarine and Artificial Trans Fats: These will put your body out of ketosis pretty fast. They are unhealthy fats which only add extra calories to your body.
Traditional Carbs
- Avoid Artificial Sweeteners: They may seem like they’re doing you good by offering a sugar substitute. However, they won’t let your body into ketosis. If you avoid this, you won’t have to obsess over your carb counts. Don’t use these to increase the number of carbs per day for your diet.
- Fruit Juice: No matter how tasty it is, it always contains a lot of sugar and complex carbs. Avoid fruit juice like the plague. It’ll pump up your blood sugar levels, but won’t do much else. It’ll just increase the grams of carbs you’re digesting.
Tips for Creating Your Own Keto Meal Plan
Do Your Shopping Beforehand
You shouldn’t leave your keto diet meal plan to chance. Instead of daily grocery shopping, get everything you need for the month, or at least the week beforehand.
Start by making a grocery list and buying in bulk so that you have enough for multiple batches. If you come across a sale which can help you stock up on a staple, then go for it. Better to buy in bulk now than to regret not having stock later.
Doing grocery shopping beforehand will also help you stock up on essentials for YOUR keto diet. These will include your favorites such as vegan ingredients, gluten free ingredients, etc.
You will also find that creating shopping lists in advance will help you pick out an allergy free stock. That way, you’ll be able to substitute in foods that would otherwise result in an allergy attack.
Buy Some Food Containers
Since you’re buying in bulk, it’s a good idea to invest in several food containers to store in bulk.
- Pick out 5-8 plastic containers which you can easily store and reuse in your fridge or freezer. These should be primed not just for cold storage, but for travel as well. Opt for recycled materials and BPA Free where you can.
- You can also get glass containers for easy reheating. These will work well for cold storage.
- If you’d prefer, you could also get bamboo or metal containers. These are very sturdy and very mobile as well. However, they’re not designed for heating.
Incorporate Your Keto Favorites
It’s a good idea to start a habit with the elements that you already prefer. It’ll be easier to form that habit if you approach it from a place of familiarity.
Incorporate your favorite healthy proteins and large amounts of fat into your diet first. That way, it’ll be easier for you to soldier on. This is a more effective way of making a change in your life. Making a big change at once will inevitably blow up in your face.
Start with 2-3 days of keto at a time and then proceed forward. Then you can try incorporating other keto friendly foods into your diet.
Don’t Forget the Keto Staples
Keto staples have to be a part of the keto diet. Incorporate as many of the foods mentioned in the above sections as you can. These include the oils, the low-carb vegetables, and the cream. Other keto staples include:
- Proteins: Tofu, Yogurt
- Healthy Fats: Nuts, Eggs, Coconut Milk
- Condiments: Vegan versions of mayonnaise made with Olive Oil , hot sauce, and Sugar Free ketchup. These will reduce your overall carb intake.
- Low-Carb Vegetables: Kale, Onions, Peppers, Eggplant, Broccoli
Intake of these foods is a must. By stocking your pantry and freezer with these, you’ll almost never run out of foods that you can eat at all times for the keto diet.
Cook in Bulk (Double the Recipe On Occasion)
One very important thing about the keto diet is that you should batch cook or cook in bulk. This will help you keep leftovers to freeze and reheat. This way, you’ll be set for a few days with a single batch of cooking.
Great foods for batch cooks include soups and stews, but also chicken, beef, and fish. The latter contain some great fatty acids.
If you settle on a few foods that you really love, you can double the batches on certain occasions. For instance, you can cook a very tasty stew in bulk so it lasts you most of the week. You can even cook a whole chicken or a pound of beef so it lasts you for the entire week, or more.
Don’t Skip Breakfast
Skipping breakfast shouldn’t be on the table (pun fully intended). It’s the most important meal of the day, and you should find time for it.
Even if you’re running late for work, you can prep breakfast beforehand to claim a chunk of the morning. Cook breakfast in the night if you have to and reheat it in the morning. Also, try experimenting with new recipes for breakfast to help you look forward to the meal.
It’s also important to eat a good breakfast if you’re intermittent fasting. A good breakfast will help you eat a lighter lunch, and then not fret about meals until the next morning.
Experiment With Different Keto Recipes
You should always be open to new experiences. Instead of sticking to your favorites, you should try new keto recipes which will widen your palette. This may help you find new favorites, and also improve your chances of sticking to the diet.
You can also check in with your dietitian nutritionist to help you design the keto diet of your choice.
