Keto Diet Plan Beginners Guide
If you’ve been searching for guidelines to follow, look no further! Your Keto Diet Plan Beginners Guide is right here in this post.
Changing your diet is hard. Especially while you’re trying to learn all of the details of the new diet and plan your shopping, your meals, etc.
With the Ketogenic Diet being one of the most strict diets around, it can be a bit overwhelming when trying to learn exactly what you should and shouldn’t be consuming on this diet.
But stress no more, I’ve already researched it all for myself and am sharing it with you right here in this post.
As far as where I found the information, I looked at multiple sources of scientific and medical data before summarizing the guidelines I’m presenting to you below. I’ve made every effort to be as accurate as possible in my write up.
As always, please understand that we are not giving you medical advice here. Everybody’s body is different and what may be good for me may not be good for you. For that reason, please always check with your doctor before changing your diet or exercise plan. We definitely do not want you to have any adverse impact based on our opinions.
Disclaimer Based on Conflict Inherent in Scientific Practice
Reminder: As explained in my Scientific Conflict post, anytime you are researching something and you’re reading a website, even this one, that discusses or cites a related study, take the information with a grain of salt. Read the actual study yourself and determine if you interpret it the same way. Look up any terminology you don’t know and make sure you really understand what the study is reporting.
Keto Diet Plan for Beginners
There is so much misleading information out there that I really wanted to keep my Keto Diet Plan Beginners Guide short and sweet so as not to confuse things.
Based on the research that I’ve done and the articles I’ve read, the following list includes the basic rules for keto diet plan beginners to follow.
Carb Intake
Cut carb intake to 20 grams of net carbs daily.
- Net Carbs = total carb count of food consumed – fiber
- Strict Keto diets typically allow up to 50 grams of net carbs per day depending on each individual, but the general recommendation is to start with 20 grams of net carbs per day
- Non-starchy vegetables should be the main source of carbs
Protein Intake
Eat 0.69 to 1.2 grams of protein for each pound of lean body mass.
- To calculate lean body mass, multiply your weight by your body fat percentage and then subtract that from your weight
- For example, 200 (total weight) x 0.20 (20% body fat) = 40 pounds; 200 – 40 = 160 lbs of lean body mass
- Protein means meat; this includes but is not limited to:
- Beef
- Pork
- Chicken
- Turkey
- Fish
Protein
- Some people may prefer red meats and may consume more red meat than other options, however, the Ketogenic Diet does not call for any increase in red meat, nor does it suggest such an increase
- The USDA recommends 2 to 3 servings of meat per day
- Serving sizes are recommended to be 5 to 7 ounces of meat, depending on individual diets
- There are about 7 grams of protein in 1 ounce of cooked meat
- To calculate needed protein, divide your weight by 2.2 to convert to kilograms and multiply that by 0.8 in order to find the protein grams recommended for your weight each day.
- A person that weighs 175 pounds would need about 64 grams of protein each day, according to the USDA.
Fat Intake
Increase intake of healthy fats.
- Healthy fats are your unsaturated fats
- Avocados
- Margarine
- Mayonnaise
- Pesto
- Salad Dressing
- Olive Oil
- Nuts
- Seeds
H2O Intake
Increase water consumption. I’ve heard that most problems you might run into on the keto diet can be solved by either drinking more water, increasing your salt, or eating more fat. Tweaks involving any variation of those three things have been attributed to helping people get over plateaus in their weight loss journeys.
Specifically, increasing water consumption has led to faster weight loss. Here are five reasons you need to increase your water intake on keto diet:
- Lost water gets replenished
- Water suppresses your appetite and gets rid of your cravings
- Reduces stress on the kidneys
- Improves bad breath caused by keto
- Fat is metabolized faster
- Drinking more water helps your body break down and use fatty acids more efficiently because it costs your body one water molecule per two carbon atoms in a fatty acid molecule just to burn fat. This is called beta oxidation, also known as the fatty acid spiral. Water is invested in the second step as shown in Chemistry.
- Carbs work the opposite way in that they bring their own water which is why “hydrate” is in the name. Carbs bring about one water molecule per glucose molecule as they’re burned which is why your body doesn’t need as much water to burn carbs as it does to burn fat.
Electrolyte Intake
Increase salt, calcium, potassium and magnesium intake to replenish electrolytes. Your body can’t function correctly without enough electrolytes. They are crucial for:
- Muscle contractions
- Heartbeat regulation
- Body temperature control
- Bladder control
- Energy production
- Neurological functions
If you are experiencing any of the following symptoms, you may be deficient in electrolytes:
- Heart palpitations or feeling like your heart is racing
- Feeling shaky, dizzy, or weak like you’re going to faint
- Headaches or migraines
- Leg or other muscle cramps, such as Charlie horses
- Constipation or bloating
These are all symptoms of the keto flu which is the body’s initial period of adjusting to the keto diet and learning to run off fats instead of carbs. The keto flu is an imbalance of electrolytes. Increasing sodium, calcium, potassium, and magnesium will help to replenish those electrolytes and get things balanced again.
Summary
In summary, following the above five rules will help get you onto the right path. There is a large wealth of knowledge out there about Keto, I hope our keto diet plan beginners guide helps get you started off in the right direction and answers any questions you may have.
We’d love to hear from you. Are you looking to start the Keto Diet or have you been on it for some time and just needed to refresh your knowledge? What has your experience with it been like? Drop us a line in the comments below and let us know about your journey.
Remember, forget skinny…train to be a fit badass!
Until next time, take care and hug your loved ones…
~Ki
a.k.a. Roadrunner
P.S. If you’d like my free weight loss progress chart (shown here) to use for yourself, just submit your name and email in the box at the upper right hand side of this page and it’ll take you to your own free copy.
For challenge worksheets and the Forget Skinny planner, see our Planners & Worksheets page!
Keto Diet Plan Beginners Guide Is just awesome. Not only just about the guide itself I also learned a ton of information about calcium intake, protein intake, Electrolyte intake, H20 intake and a lot more . Instead of me looking the whole web for each and every information I found everything at one place here.
Thank you so much for posting this. It was easy to understand and read the article.
You’re welcome Sunjandar, I’m glad I could help. Thanks for the feedback!
Train to be a fit bad-ass, I like that. I think the Keto Diet Plan would be a great start for beginners, especially people that don’t know to much about connecting with their inner-soul. I’ve learned that its vital to know whats right for you because everybody has a different bio-chemical make-up. Roadrunner, you should check out Trish Fahey and Dr. William Wolcotts’s book The Metabolic Typing Diet,” I think you would enjoy it.
Thanks for sharing your skill and knowledge with the world.