Carb Foods To Eat On The Keto Diet
On a keto meal plan, youll fuel up on plenty of healthy fats and high-quality protein sources. Youll get the bulk of your calories from foods like olive oil, coconut oil, avocados, and MCT oil, and youll get protein from both plant-based and animal sources.
When it comes to carbs, youll want to keep your blood sugar levels in check by consuming foods that rank low on the glycemic index. The glycemic index ranks foods 0-100, where higher numbers cause a higher spike in insulin levels. Avoid high-carb grains, starchy vegetables, and high-sugar fruits, instead building your diet on keto foods such as:
- Green leafy veggies, including kale, lettuce, asparagus, and arugula
- Low-sugar berries, including blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries
- Cruciferous vegetables, including cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and broccoli
On a low-carb diet, youll also want to avoid all sugar, including soda, candy, baked goods, and even sugar alcohols. If youre craving something sweet, use a keto-friendly sweetener, such as stevia, Swerve, monk fruit, or erythritol.
Budget It Into Your Carb Allowance
If youre still having cravings on a high fat diet, consider budgeting a treat into your meal plan.
Keto is a low-carb, not a zero-carb diet. So you can eat some carbs and still be in ketosis. Your daily limit is around 50 grams. If you eat zero carbs for the entire day, you could sneak in a small cheat meal while remaining in ketosis.
For example, high carbohydrate foods like a large doughnut contains 34 grams of carbs, while one cup of marshmallows has 41 grams of carbs.
However, only use this as a last resort. Although youll stay in ketosis, this high sugar intake triggers inflammation, a significant factor behind diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
It takes your body a while to repair itself after this, so if you budget junk food into your diet regularly, youll always be inflamed.
How Many Carbs Can You Have On Keto
How Many Carbs Can You Have on Keto?
Posted 2 years ago
One of the core principles of the Ketogenic diet is keeping carbohydrate intake extremely low less than 50 grams per day.
The purpose of keeping carbs low is so that your body has to switch to using fat as the primary energy source instead of glucose from carbohydrates. Fat is a very energy-dense molecule, and some of that energy is converted into ketones. Ketones can be used by most of the cells in your body for energy instead of glucose. When your body switches to using fat and ketones as the primary energy source, youre in a state ofnutritional ketosis.
But that doesnt mean you have to completely remove all carbs from your diet. After all, Keto isn’t meant to be a zero carb diet.
In this Keto Beginners Series, were going to talk about the types of carbohydrate foods that fit best into the low carb, high fat Ketogenic diet.
Recommended Reading: How Much Do Sugar Babies Charge
How Protein Can Keep You From Ketosis
Insulin is known as a blood sugar lowering-hormone. However, not only carbs but also protein increases insulin levels. The hormone helps to shuffle sugar and amino acids into cells.
Since high insulin levels can prevent ketosis, you should try to limit insulin release.
Even though protein does not nearly cause the same insulin spike as high glycemic carbs do, too much can make ketosis less stable.
This is why carb restriction shouldnt be your only focus on the ketogenic diet. To achieve ketosis efficiently, eat the right amount of protein and limit your carbohydrate consumption. Dont just do one or the other.
In general, you should aim to get around 25% of your calories from protein. If youre active or restricting calories for fat loss, then it is best to increase your protein intake. To find out the exact amount of protein you should eat, use our keto calculator.
What Not To Worry About When Tracking Your Keto Macros
Naturally, you might be wondering Do I need to be picky about hitting my keto macros spot on down to the last gram?
Frankly, no. If youre slightly above or below your keto macros on any given day it isnt going to make or break your results. After all, youre human and not a robot. Just because you happen to eat 144 grams of protein one day when your keto macros say to eat 140 grams of protein, you wont hinder your progress.
The key is to get as close as possible to hitting your keto macros and being consistent.
If you miss the mark by a few grams here or there, its no big deal.
In reality, the unnecessary stress you put on yourself by scrutinizing over every morsel of food you eat will do more damage than missing your macros by a bit.
Read Also: What Foods Have 0 Carbs And 0 Sugar
I Learned To Be Very Creative In The Kitchen
Eating at a restaurant and keeping your keto status is almost impossible. Luckily, I consider myself an adventurous cook who is frequently cooked at home before the diet and willing to try new recipes.
Write the recipes down, use a meal-tracking app like MyFitnessPal to record the ingredients, and determine if a recipe works for you. It takes a bit more work than an average meal plan, but it’s worth it.
What Happens If I Eat Sugar On Keto
If you eat sugar on a ketogenic diet, it could potentially disrupt your progress and lead to some unwanted side effects. Eating too much sugar on a ketogenic diet can raise your blood sugar levels and insulin levels, which can cause an increase in lipogenesis and can lead to weight gain.
Eating too much sugar can also decrease ketone levels and cause fluctuations in energy levels. Eating too much sugar can reduce the production of acetyl-CoA and reduce the levels of -hydroxybutyrate, which can interfere with the way ketosis works, which is how a ketogenic diet helps you to lose weight.
Eating sugary foods can also cause cravings, which will make it harder to stay on track with your ketogenic diet. Its important to try and limit the amount of sugar you eat, as it can interfere with your progress.
Also Check: Can Sugar Cause Migraine Headaches
What Other Components Of My Diet Do I Need To Amend
Todays keto diets advocate 75% of calories from fat,25% from protein, and less than 5% from carbs, which will put your body into the metabolic state of ketosis.
Ketosis is a process that happens when your body is essentially deprived of enough carbohydrates to burn for energy.
So instead, your body will burn existing fat stores , which creates a substance called ketones, which are secreted from the liver, which the body then uses as an immediate source of fuel in the absence of glucose
In essence, the keto way of life removes the higher quantities of glucose from your consumption to force the body into producing ketones, which will then become your source of fuel, taken from the stores of fat you already have and wish not to have.
Youll find that a lot of convenience food contains hidden sugars and carbs. We should be heading to the naturally high protein sources of food to keep the carbohydrate count low and within the daily targets.
A ketogenic diet app designed to make keto easy. From the start.
- Personalized meal plans & workouts
- 10,000 keto recipes + vegetarian-friendly recipe database
- Customizable grocery list
- Keto education and overviews of current trends
While keto is quite open with these foods, please be mindful of the amount of fruit you eat on this plan, as many fruits contain natural sugars, affecting ketosis.
Read more:Keto Cycle Review: Heres What Its REALLY Like
Reasons To Limit Sugar On Keto
There are various health risks that the consumption of excess sugar poses on the human body. From gaining weight due to eating excessive calories to developing a food addiction to sugary items, it is best to stay in control of your sugar consumption.
The following health risks are reasons to limit sugar, especially whilst following a keto diet:
- Increased risk of obesity due to high-calorie content
- Increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes
- Inflames the walls of arteries in your body
- Increases the risk of suffering from heart diseases
- Increases the risk of suffering a heart failure
- Increases the risk of having a stroke
- Increases blood pressure
You May Like: Can Low Blood Sugar Make Your Eyes Blurry
How Fast Is It Healthy To Lose Weight
He immediately bit the tip of his tongue and how to get the best results with phentermine puff A mouthful of blood sprayed How Much Sugar Daily On Keto Diet on the surface of the knife, and the blood low meat keto diet immediately sank into the how sugar daily diet How Much Sugar Daily On Keto Diet knife.
Najia Tubo glared at her and said, You are what is the best proven How Much Sugar Daily On Keto Diet weight loss medication the cause of all laughter, but they are going to kill you.
You guys are too nasty. How Much Sugar Daily On Keto Diet You can also participate in this kind of boring activity. Let s leave after eating Girl, you can t say that.
Ruan Lingyu s hands began to groping around Jiang Fan s body dishonestly, Hey How Much Sugar Daily On Keto Diet Don t be like this, I won t be able to withstand the temptation Jiang Fan How Much Sugar Daily On Keto Diet much sugar daily diet exclaimed.
Dont Miss: What Happens To Diabetics When Sugar Is Too Low
What To Eat On Keto To Prevent Sugar Cravings
Your body mainly uses sugar for energy. If you are craving sugar, and its not just your sugar addiction talking, you may be running low on energy. On a very low carb keto diet, your body has no carbs or sugar for energy and uses fat instead. However, your brain and muscles cannot directly use fat for energy, so it has to convert fat into ketones, an energy source it can handle.
Turning fat into ketones uses a lot of energy. This energy inefficiency means your body uses more fat than usual, and you lose weight faster.
The keto diet is a high-fat diet. Seventy percent or more of your calorie intake must come from dietary fat. A lot of keto dieters are nervous about eating so much fat, but its essential for keto dieting success. Low fat keto diets DO NOT WORK!
Eating too little fat means you may have less energy, and low levels of energy can trigger sugar cravings. Eating enough fat will ensure you have all the energy you need and should have fewer sugar cravings as a result.
Good sources to diet-friendly fats that can help you stop craving sugar on keto include:
Don’t Miss: What Foods Will Not Raise Blood Sugar
Keto Diet For Beginners: Your Main Take Away
When youre doing keto, make sure the sugar grams of what you eat are as close to zero as possible. The whole goal with keto diet is to avoid spiking blood sugar and Fat Storing Hormone. If you must take sugar, keep it below 2 grams.
I hope that ends your push and pull with carbs and sugar on keto. To know more about keto diet for beginners, check out my blog.
Which one in the list of food groups mentioned, do you find the hardest to let go off? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below!
Other Food Products With High Sugar
There are other products with high sugar that you might not know about, like the kombucha tea. When youre reading labels, you really want to make sure. Dont just look at the carbs, you need to look at the sugar grams because certain kombucha tea blends sometimes have 6 to 10 grams. If you were to purchase kombucha tea, purchase the ones that have 2 grams or less sugar.
What is Kombucha Tea? A sweetened black or green tea thats slightly alcoholic known for its various health benefits.
Salad dressings also have hidden sugars. So, read not just the carbohydrates but the sugar grams on salad dressings. Try to get those that have 1 gram. That would be the ideal scene.
Don’t Miss: What Is Good Substitute For Sugar
Net Carbs Vs Total Carbs On Keto
NET CARBS VS TOTAL CARBS Net carbs only contain carbohydrates that are digested and absorbed by the body, whereas total carbs include all carbohydrates found in a food product or meal like sugars, fiber, and sugar alcohols.
Getting to grips with the fundamentals of the keto diet can be a difficult process, and one particularly confusing element is finding the difference between keto net carbs vs total carbs.
You may have heard these terms floating around in keto discourse, but what exactly do they signify, and how are they relevant? Here, well discuss carbohydrates in a ketogenic diet so that you feel more confident on your journey!
Are you ready to master the knowledge of net carbs and total carbs? How about making well-informed decisions regarding your carb consumption while taking part in keto success?
This article will provide helpful tips and insights, whether you are a new or experienced keto dieter. So lets get started!
Youre Not Drinking Enough Water
Due to the restriction of carbs, you lose a lot of water in the body. So, make sure that you drink more water to prevent dehydration.
A common side effect of the ketogenic diet is constipation, but it is preventable. Dr. Sudano says that for every gram of carbohydrates you consume, your body holds four grams of water. Overall, this effect can be a good thing because your body is going to shed excess water weight. The problem occurs when you lose water that your body needs for vital functions like digestion.
Make sure to up your water intake if youre feeling stopped up. Start by drinking 64 ounces of water a day, and then increase it if youre still not regular after a few days.
Keep your water bottle on you at all times, as its easy to get sidetracked and forget to drink. Dont let your thirst be the only indicator to have some water. If youre thirsty, it means that youre already getting dehydrated, and we want to avoid going down this path.
If your urine is on the yellow side, then drink up! It means that you are not drinking enough water. You want it to be light or pale yellow.
Read Also: What Is The Best Sugar Substitute For Coffee
The Keto Carb Limit For Athletes And Other High
If you are a keto athlete or do some form of high-intensity exercise and your performance is tanking, then increasing your daily carb limit little by little wont help. You need to use carbohydrates as a tool.
For example, exercise beginners who are suffering through their high-intensity training sessions should increase their carbs during a targeted time. This is why high-intensity exercise beginners should follow the targeted ketogenic diet.
- The targeted ketogenic diet is implemented by taking 25-50g of easily digestible carbohydrates like natural maple syrups 30 minutes before exercise. This strategy, however, wont work for intermediate, advanced, or elite keto athletes and high-intensity trainers. They may require the cyclical ketogenic diet to improve performance.
- The cyclical ketogenic diet is comprised of 1-2 carbohydrate refeeding days followed by 5-6 strict ketogenic diet days. This type of ketogenic diet combines carbohydrates with ketosis to improve strength, performance, and body composition. To implement the cyclical ketogenic diet correctly, you must deplete your glycogen stores with high-intensity exercise training and get into ketosis before the carbohydrate re-feeding days.
For more in-depth information on the difference between the cyclical, targeted, and standard ketogenic diets, check out our guide on the three ketogenic diets.
Things That Knock You Out Of Ketosis
As I’ve gone over in the previous section, the main factor that will knock you out of ketosis is the over-consumption of carbohydrates . Two significant factors help influence how many carbs it takes to knock you out of ketosis:
Meaning, the more muscle and more active you are, the more carbohydrates you can generally eat while staying in ketosis. For most individuals, between 20 and 50 grams of net carbs works to establish and remain in ketosis.
However, I’ve known athletes and very active individuals who can eat upwards of ~150 grams of carbohydrates and still stay in ketosis.
Also Check: How Often Do You Check Your Blood Sugar
List Of Carbs You Can Consume On Keto
Now that you understand which foods should be avoided entirely, lets talk about the best Ketogenic-friendly carb sources you can still incorporate into your diet plan.
Some of the foods listed below still contain some carbohydrates, so its best to be sure to read labels and carefully track your intake so you dont overdo it, especially if youre a beginner.
#1. Cocoa Powder and Dark Chocolate
Cocoa powder and dark chocolate are great alternatives to eating sugary chocolate bars. Theyre a great source of antioxidants. Chocolate is even considered a superfood, because it contains essential nutrients to help you stay healthy.
Dark chocolate also has flavanols, which have been linked to reducing the risk of heart disease by lowering your blood pressure.
Its important to only consume dark chocolate that contains 85% cocoa or more. Anything less usually contains other higher carbohydrate ingredients that could potentially interrupt ketosis.
Tip: A great low-carb snack you can make with cocoa powder or dark chocolate is a Keto Coconut-choc Fat Bombs. Simply add cocoa powder into a bowl with almond butter and coconut oil and put it in the microwave or heat on a stovetop and stir until it becomes a consistent liquid. Then place it in the freezer for half an hour and you’ll have a tasty, sweet low-carb snack! Add a little stevia if you need a little more sweetness. Read about more Keto snack ideas here.
#2. Low-Carb Vegetables