Keto diet, also known as ketogenic diet, is a high-fat, sufficient-protein, low-carb diet that has many resemblances with the low-carbohydrate and Atkins diets. This diet is all about a significant lowering of carbohydrate consumption and substituting it with fat. This lowering of carbohydrates gets your body in a metabolic condition known as ketosis.
Of late, the ketogenic diet has become significantly popular. Researchers have found that this high-fat but low-carb and a four-week keto plan helps in diabetes, weight reduction, and epilepsy. Besides, it is advantageous for particular forms of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and other ailments.
What can you eat on a keto diet?
- Low-carbohydrate and keto-friendly vegetables
- Seafood. Fish and shellfish are quite keto-friendly foods
- Avocados
- Cheese
- Eggs
- Meat and poultry
- Coconut oil
- Cottage cheese and Plain Greek Yogurt
- Olive oil
- Nuts and seeds
- Berries
- Butter and cream
- Olives
- Cocoa powder and dark chocolate
- Unsweetened tea and coffee
Related article: Does the Ketogenic Diet Work for Weight Loss?
A 4-Week menu plan for a keto diet
A keto diet particularly restricts carbs to 20-50 gm per day. Though this might seem to be a difficult task, you can incorporate various healthy foods into this diet. Let’s see how a 4-week menu plan for a keto diet stands out.
In a four-week keto plan, you can incorporate tasty breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack recipes. You can return your body into ketosis if your body was in that state earlier.
Week 1
- Avoid high-glycemic foods such as pasta, bread, and rice
- Consume plenty of non-starchy vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflowers, and fresh green leafy vegetables
- Moderately eat proteins, comprising 15-30% of your overall intake generated from nutritious proteins such as beef, chicken, tofu, and fish.
- The remainder of your daily intake should comprise good fats such as nut butter, nuts, olive oil, cheese, and avocados.
Week 2
- Cut down fruits to just once a day if you have not already done it. If possible, turn to low-glycemic fruits such as berries and avoid high-glycemic fruits like watermelon and bananas.
- Give a gap of a minimum of 4 hours between meals and don’t take snacks in the middle. It helps in lowering your insulin levels and you will begin returning to ketosis. The logic behind this is that taking food results in insulin secretion. When insulin is secreted, no burning of fat takes place. When you are too hungry, you can take a sugarless beverage or simply a glass of water.
- Take a minimum of 64 oz liquid daily this week. This will help you feed your stomach in the middle of meals, hydrate, and eliminate toxins. Drinking water is a healthy habit that leads to weight reduction.
Also Read: Keto Diet for a Working Women
Week 3
- Stop eating fruit altogether. Do this till the time your body is easily burning fat rather than sugar and carbs.
- Grow your fasting. In the second week, you were fasting for four hours in between meals. In the third week, go for 12 hours between dinner and breakfast or lunch and dinner. Keep on drinking water or sugarless beverages according to your convenience.
- Increase drinking liquids. Getting tired of drinking water? You can go for club soda (in moderate amount), sparkling water, coffee, black or green tea, or bone broth. Don’t go for Diet Coke as it may make your body crave calories.
- Begin jotting down your food consumption. There are plenty of food trackers that will help you keep tabs on your carbs. You can pick from Cronometer, MyFitnessPal, and Lose It.
Week 4
By this time, you are now well acquainted with what you can and can’t take on a keto diet. It is highly likely that you have begun burning fats rather than carbs and you have shed some weight. Week 4 is for figuring out your macros or macronutrients such as proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. This is termed by diet experts as C/P/F and your food is a varied blend of this. A fitness calculator will help you do the calculations on macros. There should be an optimum balance between the C/P/F elements to ensure that you are in ketosis.
You can use this four-week keto plan to attain a reduction in blood sugar, weight loss, and other health benefits and objectives. However, a break or interruption might spoil your efforts. Consulting a dietitian before beginning such a diet is always recommended.
