Introduction
The Ketogenic diet is a powerful tool that can not only help you lose weight, but also improve your overall health. And if you want to get the most out of the Keto diet, meal prepping is one of the best ways to ensure your success. So today I’m going to show you how easy it is to meal prep for the keto diet by following these simple steps:
Choose Your Foods
To start, you’ll need to choose foods that are high in fat and low in carbs. This may sound boring but it’s not! A keto diet involves eating foods that keep your body in a state of ketosis.
Let’s look at an example: the average person eats around 300g of carbs per day, which is a lot! For comparison, the average person on a ketogenic diet will limit their carb intake between 20-30g per day. That’s because most of these people also eliminate all sugars from their diets (including fruit) and eat other carbohydrates like whole grains or legumes as little as possible.
For example: if you have just one slice of bread with your meal, it can quickly add up! But if you replace it with buttery avocado instead (which contains almost no carbs), then suddenly those 30g don’t seem so hard to hit anymore! By choosing food items that have less than 5 grams of net carbs (that means including fiber) per serving size, you’ll be able to make sure that every meal fits within your total daily carb limit.*
- Net Carbs = Total Carbohydrates – Fiber
Choose Your Recipes
It’s important to choose recipes that are easy to make, have few ingredients, high fat content and low carb content.
In addition, you want your meals to be quick to cook because you will be making them every week and needing them each day. You’ll also need the meal prepped so it can go into the fridge or freezer quickly and easily. The last thing you need is a recipe that takes hours in the kitchen!
Make Your Grocery List
Now that you have a plan for the week and your grocery list is ready, it’s time to hit the store!
It isn’t hard to get overwhelmed with options at the grocery store. The good news is that most things can be bought in bulk and stored for later use. This works especially well for meats, vegetables and dairy products as they keep longer than other foods.
It’s best to shop on a full stomach so you don’t end up buying more than what you need—or worse yet, splurge on unnecessary extras like candy or soda. Make sure you have enough food for leftovers during the week so that if something isn’t finished during dinner one night then it can easily be incorporated into lunch or another meal later in the week (this also helps with portion control). To make this easier, try having separate containers at home: one for prepping lunches ahead of time; another one where all of your dinners are stored together; and finally one filled with snacks throughout the day (i always keep nuts/trail mix around since they’re easy snacks but don’t spoil).
Buy Your Food
You should be able to buy the right amount of food that you need for your meals, but not too much food. This will help prevent you from wasting money on extra food that goes bad. You also don’t want to buy too little either because then you will have to go back to the store again later and waste more money—something we all want to avoid! The best way to do this is buy what your recipes require and only add a few things like:
- A few extra items (such as celery)
- Spices (like garlic powder)
- Condiments (ketchup or mayonnaise).
Pre-Prep Everything You Can (Chop, Mix, etc)
Pre-prep everything you can. Chopping vegetables, mixing spices, washing and chopping fruit, cooking meat and preparing sauces are just some of the things that can be done in advance. Make sure to prepare as much as possible. This will save you from having to cook every night when it comes down to it!
Select One Day Each Week For Cooking
Once you’ve decided on the day, it’s time to get cooking. If possible, try to schedule your meal prepping for the weekends so that you have more time in the week to enjoy your meals and snacks.
If you live with a family or roommates, this is also a great time to have them join in on the fun! It’s an excellent way for everyone to bond over healthy eating habits and spend time together—even if they don’t follow the same diet as you.
If your schedule doesn’t allow for weekend cooking, don’t worry! You can choose another day of the week that works best for your lifestyle—just make sure there’s enough time between when you start preparing food and when it’s consumed so everything stays fresh.
Portion & Pack It All Up (Emphasis on Portion)
The next step is to portion out your food. I recommend using a kitchen scale, measuring cup/spoon, or a measuring device (more on this later).
A good rule of thumb is to use your dominant hand (the one you write with) as an estimate of what a proper serving size looks like. If you’re right-handed and want to eat three servings of protein in the morning, then use your right hand as an estimate for what those three servings would look like if they were sitting on top of each other in front of you. That way, when it comes time to pack up your lunch or dinner meal prep containers with that item included in each container’s serving size requirements, it will be easy for you to know how much food needs to go into each container without having to measure out every single bit separately!
Planning ahead is important to stay on the Keto diet.
Planning ahead is the key to staying on the Keto diet. When you shop for your groceries and cook your meals, you’ll be able to eat more delicious and nutritious foods while saving time and money in the process. Here are some tips:
- Choose foods that align with your goals. If you’re going keto because it’s been recommended by a doctor, nutritionist or other medical professional, then choosing foods that fit in with their protocol should be easy enough; just ask them what types of food they recommend eating. Otherwise, choose those which are high in fat but low in carbs—the most common choices include avocados, butter (or ghee), nuts and seeds, animal products like meat and fish as well as dairy products like cheese. Some vegetables can also contain more carbs than others so make sure to check how many grams per serving before purchasing large quantities at once if possible!
- Choose recipes based on what ingredients you have available – this is where meal planning comes into play! If I have chicken breasts but no spices then I will buy spices instead of buying ground beef while shopping because it’s cheaper per pound overall even though ground beef has more protein per ounce than chicken breast does (10g compared to 5g).
Conclusion
Meal prepping is a great way to stay on track with your ketogenic diet. It allows you to cook in bulk and eat healthy, filling meals all week long. If you’re just starting out with meal prepping, don’t be overwhelmed! The important thing is that you start making changes one at a time until they become a habit. Once those habits are set in stone, they will become second nature and before long, meal prepping will be as easy as breathing air.
