Dark Chocolate And Cocoa Powder
Check the label on these, as the amount of carbs depends on the type and how much you consume. Cocoa has been called a “superfruit” because it is rich in antioxidants, and dark chocolate contains flavanols, which may reduce the risk of heart disease by lowering blood pressure and keeping arteries healthy.
How Much Fat Do You Need On The Keto Diet
On the keto diet, youll be eating a small amount of protein and very few carbs.
That leaves the rest of your micronutrient consumption to fats anywhere between 60-75%.
There are four different types of keto diets you can follow. Each version is high fat and low carb but with different macronutrient ratios.
For example, the Standard Ketogenic Diet is the most popular version of the keto diet and the one were referring to throughout this article.
The SKD recommends:
The second type is the High Protein Keto Diet, which is geared mostly towards extremely active people or athletes.
This version of the keto diet recommends:
If your reason for following the keto diet is to lose weight, you typically wont eat more than 20-25 grams of carbs per day.
To put that into perspective, a medium-sized banana is around 23 grams of net carbs so even eating bananas in moderation would almost be enough to prevent the average person from entering ketosis.
People who are extremely active are the exception, as they require more fuel.
As you can see, the macronutrient ratios of your keto meals can vary depending on your personal needs.
However, your fat ratio must always be significantly higher than carbs and proteins.
The keto calculator can give you a general sense of how much fat you should be eating, although your individual nutrient requirements may vary.
Pasta Keto Veggies Shirataki Or Homemade Low
Though pasta is also flour-based, you wont need low-carb flours to make a keto-approved version.
The easiest keto pasta hack is to julienne or spiralize zucchini, eggplant, or cabbage into your preferred pasta noodle size.
However, if you find it to come up short in terms of flavor or texture, try using one of the other options in our guide to keto pasta substitutes.
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What About Carbs During Exercise
You might wonder if you need more carbs to support your workouts. The truth is that the importance of carbs for exercise is often way overblown.
For competitive athletes and bodybuilders looking to build a large amount of muscle, there might be a need for strategic carb re-feeds. In this case, a targeted ketogenic diet might be appropriate, where carb intake is increased slightly around workouts.
Otherwise, you probably dont need those extra carbs.
Top 3 Veggie Pasta Prep And Cooking Tips

Try salting zucchini noodles and laying them out to dry on a clean towel. You can also press them between towels to remove moisture.
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Are You Following The Ketogenic Diet Correctly
The Keto diet is one of the only popular diets that provide us with a precise way to tell if you are implementing it properly. Are you in ketosis consistently or not?
If you answer yes to this question, then you are technically on the keto diet.
If the answer is no, then you are on a low carb diet and most likely need to eat fewer carbs until you can achieve and sustain ketosis.
Although other variables matter much more than how many ketones you are producing, including your overall health and weight loss results, to experience all the benefits of the keto diet you must be in nutritional ketosis.
The primary variable that separates you from nutritional ketosis? The food you eat.
List Of Foods You Can’t Eat On The Keto Diet:
- Starchy vegetables and high-sugar fruits
- Sweetened yogurt
- Honey, syrup or sugar in any form
- Chips and crackers
- Baked goods including gluten-free baked goods
Don’t get too discouraged. Dietitians Stone and Laura Dority, M.S., RD, LD, with Keto Knowledge LLC, say that no foods are really off-limits on the keto diet. It’s about total carbohydrate intake and how you choose to “spend” your carbs. Generally, you should stay under 20 to 40 grams of carbohydrates per day. “The exact amount needed to achieve ketosis can vary on the individual, though, with carb prescriptions ranging from 10 to 60 grams per day. This total is for net carbohydrates ,” says Stone.
Dority adds, “Individuals who are really active can eat more carbs than someone who is sedentary.”
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Salad Dressings And Mayo Made With High
Oils with high polyunsaturated fat content are more vulnerable to damage when exposed to heat, air, and light all of which will occur during the production of most dressings, mayos, and other condiments.
For optimal health, stick with products made from MCT oil, EVOO, and avocado oil Or make them yourself with the quick keto recipes found in our condiment section.
For more information about the best keto products and recipes, check out the following guides:
For a comprehensive list of options, read through our guide to keto drinks and beverages.
What Is The Dukan Diet And How Does It Work
French general practitioner Pierre Dukan created the Dukan diet back in the 1970s. At its core, the Dukan diet is a low carbohydrate and low-fat meal plan built around eating primarily lean protein, drinking water, and taking a daily walk for about 20 minutes. As with most low carbohydrate diets, the theory is that the body transitions to burning fat by limiting carb intake.
The Dukan diet has four phasesattack, cruise, consolidation, and stabilization. How long you stay in each phase is based on how much weight you want to lose. Before any phase is started, your “true” weight is calculated by using your age, weight loss history, and other factors. The calculation is made by inputting information on the Dukan diet website.
Once a person is ready to start the diet, they would begin by following the attack phase.
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Keto Food List: What To Eat And What To Avoid
EMMIE SATRAZEMIS, RD, CSSD July 18, 2018
Because keto is a macro based diet, technically no foods are excluded – it just depends on how much you eat – specifically carbs! However, some options can certainly make or break your success on a ketogenic diet meal plan.
Even more so, getting the full benefits and achieving your health goals on keto goes beyond cutting carbs. Good nutrition and calorie control also matter. Thus, the best keto diet foods support your health and your ketogenic diet needs all at once.
So whether you are starting a ketogenic diet or just looking for trusted keto friendly food options to add to your shopping list, here is your complete guide to the best and worst foods to eat on a keto diet and how to portion them for optimum results.
Tips For A Healthy Keto Meal Plan
Sticking to a trusted keto diet food list is only one factor to consider. Keto is actually a fairly challenging dietary approach to master. But with a little bit of nutrition knowledge and the right tools, you can achieve a nutritious, balanced keto diet that helps you feel good and get results.
One of the hardest parts of keto is keeping calories controlled while following a high fat diet. Fat provides twice as many calories per gram as protein or carbs, so your portion sizes may actually be smaller on a keto eating plan.
In addition, it can be hard to get enough of certain nutrients commonly found in higher carb options – like vitamin D from milk and B vitamins from grains .
Here are a few tips you can use to make starting keto even easier:
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Practical Application: How To Know If A Food Is Both Keto
Although you can get results from following a general keto diet food list, you may want to eat some foods or food products that you arent sure about. In this case, you will have to apply the three keto-friendly food principles to see if the food in question can fit into your diet.
To do this, you will need to consider the foods:
- Net carb content
You will know that the food in question is keto-friendly for you if:
- It helps you stay within your carb limit.
- It helps you meet your fat and protein needs or you can meet your macros with that food in your diet.
- It improves your health and well-being.
Everything You Can Eat On The Keto Diet

The rumors are true: You can eat bacon on the keto diet.
That seems to be a sticking point for prospective dietersand for good reason. The ketogenic diet is heralded as one of the strictest eating plans around, but the fact that greasy, fatty strips of meat get a stamp of approval makes it feel sorta-kinda doable.
The whole point of going keto is to reach ketosis, a cult-y sounding name for the metabolic process that happens when your body uses fat instead of carbs for energy. To get there, youve gotta do the obvious: eat a whole lot of fat and little to no carbs. Its restrictive, but if you hack the the system just right, you can still create surprisingly delicious foodlike taquitos and cookie dough bites.
This list is your ultimate guide to everything you can and cant eat when you go ketoplus the foods youre allowed to spring for every once in a while. Keep it with you everywhere you go: to the grocery store, to restaurants, to book club.
Note: When it comes to keto-approved foods, you dont have to spend an arm and a leg. Yes, its suggested your meats are either grass-fed or cage-free and your seafood wild-caught. For produce, organic is recommended. That said, you will not mess up your chances of achieving ketosis by purchasing farmed or non-organic foods. Do what best fits your budget and goals.
And fyi, Regina Georges of the world: Go for the butter. Its not a carb.
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Can The Keto Diet Help With Weight Loss
This is one of the keto diet’s main selling points and a primary reason it’s so popular: keto diet proponents say you can drop a lot of weight in a relatively short period of time. But is that too good to be true?
A number of studies, including one meta-analysis, have found that patients assigned to a very-low-carbohydrate diet had greater weight-loss outcomes compared with those eating low-fat. Promising, right? Well, weight loss is only good if that momentum is sustainable long-term, and it’s not clear that that’s the case.
A large meta-analysis found that while low-carb dieters tended to lose more weight than low-fat dieters at first, the differences disappeared by the one-year mark. It seems that there may be an early difference, but it might all wash out the same in the end.
Still, let’s look at some reasons why keto may work for some as a weight-loss tool.
Unfortunately, it can’t all be rainbows and unicorns. Here are some potential side effects and dangers of eating keto.
Keto Diet Foods: Dairy
Most dairy products get the green light on the keto food list, as they typically contain high doses of fat and protein with very few carbs. Just opt for the full-fat version and organic and raw, if possible.
If you dont have any issues digesting dairy, try these keto-friendly options:
But for some people, dairy causes stomach bloating and abdominal pain, a condition referred to as lactose intolerance. Lactose intolerance comes from the sugar found in milk. If you are sensitive to dairy products, try following these tips:
- Find hard and long-aged dairy
- Use ghee, a butter alternative without the irritating milk solids
- Get checked for a casein sensitivity to rule out the other common irritant found in dairy
- If you really cant tolerate dairy, try a non-dairy alternative like unsweetened almond milk or coconut milk
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What Can I Not Eat On The Keto Diet
Eating keto means staying away from high-carb snacks and foods. Your diet will consist of five to 10 percent carbohydrates, which is 15 to 30 grams per day. Its not a lot to work with, considering one serving of almonds is six grams of carbohydrates. Its a good idea to spread out your consumption throughout the day. This can help you meet your nutrient requirements with each meal.
Sweets and high-carb snacks are never a good idea on a nutrition plan of any kind because they contain high amounts of trans fats that can potentially lead to weight gain, raised blood sugar and bad cholesterol levels.
To see progress in weight loss, it takes time and dedication. While there are some food restrictions, the benefit of eating on the keto diet is that there are substitutes for most of yourfavoriteindulgences.
Calculate Your Macros With The Keto Calculator
Too many carbohydrate-rich foods can bring you out of ketosis and slow down your bodys fat-burning capabilities. To ensure you stay on track, use the free Perfect Keto macro calculator.
Youll also want to bookmark this page so you get familiar with non-ketogenic foods to avoid when youre trying to get into or stay in ketosis.
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Key Takeaways: Formulating The Optimal Keto Lifestyle For You
As you are selecting foods, drinks, ingredients, and products for your keto diet, make sure to keep these three fundamental principles in mind:
- Will it fit within your daily carb limit?
- Will it help you meet your fat and protein needs?
- Will it improve your health and well-being?
If you need help converting these principles into a complete keto meal plan and lifestyle, weve our two best resources thatll simplify your path to the results you want:
- Our Keto Meal Planning App A personalized keto diet plan tailored to your goals and food preferences.
- How to Maintain Long-Term Keto Weight Loss Results for Life Learn how to turn your weight loss diet into a sustainable keto lifestyle.
P.S. Have a look at the Keto Academy, our foolproof 30-day keto meal planner. It has all the tools, information, and recipes needed for you to succeed.
+ The food will always fit to your macros and cooking preferences!
More Keto Diet Foods To Avoid
We know that we have listed a lot of keto foods to avoid, but always keep your eyes on the delicious price of keto friendly foods!
Just to make sure that you are fully aware of all the foods to avoid on your keto diet, here are some more tips and examples of food to keep your mouth off:
Honey and Maple Syrup may come from nature and seem unprocessed and hence harmless.
However, they are examples of sugars to avoid on keto. Honey, maple syrup, and raw sugars are also very high in carbs, and will likely be very harmful to your keto diet. So make sure you stay away from them as well!
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Legumes Nuts And Seeds
Although excellent sources of fat, nuts add up quickly in protein and carbs. Snack on fattier nuts such as walnuts, macadamia nuts and pecans, but limit those high in inflammatory omega-6s, like peanuts and sunflower seeds. Foods to avoid on keto include high-carb nuts like pistachios and chestnuts, and pass on most beans, too.
Use nut milks and nut flours in moderation, and check your labelsmacronutrients can vary widely between brands. Youll want a product with fewer carb counts per serving and no extra additives, sugar, starches or binders.
Need inspiration? Whip up a batch of Fluffy Almond Flour Pancakes or Low-Carb Almond Flour Pie Crust.
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Keto Condiments And Sauce List

When it comes to sauces and condiments, you’ll want to make sure you account for any added calories or fat.
While many high fat sauces, like ranch dressing and mayonnaise, are keto approved, they can also pack a lot of calories in a small serving, making losing weight a bit more challenging if you aren’t paying attention to what you’re eating.
On the other hand, adding some healthy fat to a lean meal can support your ketogenic diet by helping to keep you satisfied and potentially assist with getting into and staying in ketosis.
It’s a balancing act and depends on what works best for your health goals. Use sauces and condiments for added flavor, just be sure to double check the nutrition label and track what you’re consuming.
- Other high fat low carb sauces
You can also easily make your own high fat, home made keto sauces using simple ingredients like oils, nuts, herbs, and vinegars.
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