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How To Make A Keto Meal Plan

May 4

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This article is written for people who are ready to start following the keto diet but aren’t quite sure how to make a keto meal plan. Whether you want to control your weight or gain muscle while following a keto diet, read on to learn the easy steps to calculate how many macros and calories you have to plan for.

Calculating the number of macronutrients for a keto diet

The first few pieces of information you’ll need to make a keto meal plan are:

- Your height, weight, and age
- What is your level of physical activity
- Your body composition goals

This information is used to calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) as well as your Total Energy Expenditure (TEE).

BMR is the calculation to find the number of calories you need just to exist with no regard to your activity level (i.e., how calories would you need if you never left your bed?).

TEE is your personal BMR plus daily living activity plus the energy used for exercising.

How many calories will you need to consume on the keto diet?

The most accurate way to find your BMR is to use an indirect calorimeter which is not cheap! The next best thing is to use the Mifflin St. Jeor equations calculator.

- Men’s Equation: 10 x your weight in kilograms + your height in centimeters x 6.25 – 5 x your age in years + 5
- Women’s Equation: 10 x your weight in kilograms + your height in centimeters x 6.25 – 5 x your age in years – 161

Once you have your BMR calculated, you can find your TEE by multiplying your BMR by one of the following activity factors:

With little or no exercise	TEE = BMR x 1.2
Exercising one to three days a week	TEE = BMR x 1.375
Exercising three to five days a week	TEE = BMR x 1.55
Exercising 6 or 7 days a week	TEE = BMR x 1.725
Exercising twice/day or extra heavy workouts	TEE = BMR x 1.9

If you’re not keen on math you can use this online BMR calculator.

After deriving your TEE you need to calculate your macronutrients (fat, protein, and carbohydrates) as a percentage of your total caloric intake.

If you want to lose weight, reduce your daily intake by 500 calories to lose about one pound per week. To gain weight, add 500 calories per day. To maintain your weight and reap the other benefits of a keto diet, hold your caloric intake to your TEE.

As an example, if a ketoer’s TEE is 2000 cal/day and they want to lose weight, they would reduce their consumption by 500 cal/day and only eat 1500 calories worth of food per day. The next thing to do is figure out how many calories are needed from fats, proteins, and carbs.

The standard keto diet is 80% of the calories come from fat, 15% from protein and just 5% from carbs.

How many grams of fat, protein, and carbs you will need

These calculations are based on a 1500 cal/day diet.

Fat:
Fat makes up 80% of your calories, so 1500 X 0.8 = 1200 cal/day from fat.

There are nine calories/g of fat. Therefore we divide 1200 cal/day by 9 to get 133.33 grams of fat.

Protein:
Fifteen percent of your calories is to come from protein. So we do the math, 1500 x .15 = 225 cal/day from proteins.

Protein contains 4 cal/g. Dividing 225 cal/day by 4 gives us 56.25g of protein per day.

Carbs:

This is easy. Take the total daily calories minus the calories from fat and protein will give the carb calories.

So, 1500 cal/day – 1200 cal/day from fat – 225 cal/day from protein = 75 cal/day from carbs.

And we know carbs have 4 cal/g so we divide 75 cal/day by 4 and get 18.75 g/day of carbohydrates.

So that’s 133.33g of protein, 56.25g of protein, and 18.75g of carbs per day when modified TEE = 1500 cal/day.

Easy peasy, right?

Now you know how to make a keto meal plan that ensures you’re getting the right quantities of fat, protein, and carbs in your keto diet.

A much easier way to go is to have a custom keto diet plan prepared for you based on your height, weight, age, level of physical activity, and personal weight goals. Click the banner below to learn more about your customized keto diet plan, or click here to go straight to your custom keto diet meal planner.

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Lose Weight Fast With Yoga And Keto

by Ryan Roberts

April 26

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Keto Diet, Weight Loss, Wellness, Yoga

keto, keto and diet, keto and weight loss, keto and yoga, yoga

You typically need to do more than simply following a strict list of meals after you choose a diet to lose weight. To really be effective, your new diet has to be more like a change of lifestyle. One of the most popular diets today is the keto diet with its high-fat, low-carb, medium protein meals helping many dieters lose impressive amounts of weight.

If you’re giving the keto diet a try, there certainly are other changes you can make in your life to make keto even more effective. The most beneficial of those changes is to add more physical activity to your daily routine. Added physical activity is a great way to lose weight fast. And yoga is a fantastic exercise for getting the most from your keto diet.

Yoga builds strength, improves balance, and increases your range of motion

Yoga is great on its own, but it also improves your performance and ability to do other exercises even better. Since yoga is centered on stretching it builds strength, improves balance, and increases your range of motion. Yoga can also develop your core’s strength depending on which poses you do.

You may be able to participate in exercises, activities, or sports that haven’t possible because yoga improves your strength and range of motion. And being more active will lead to greater and easier weight loss.

Losing weight with yoga

Although a lot of people think of yoga as a technique to relax and stretch, there’s more to it. Yoga can be very effective on a person’s weight-loss ability. Many studies have shown that the connection between mind and body can affect weight loss. Because yoga strengthens that connection, yoga can make weight loss even more obvious!

Consider other weight loss tips & tricks as well

You can do to magnify your results after starting a custom keto diet plan and incorporating yoga into your routine. There are many dietary supplements on the market designed to enhance a variety of body types and fitness levels. Supplements are designed to help you lose the most weight safely can in conjunction with a keto diet and exercising.

Be sure to do your research on the various keto supplements available to pick the right ones for you.

Summary

There are so many good things about yoga, you just can’t go wrong with it.

- Yoga is suitable for all ages
- Yoga is a gentle exercise that virtually any body type or shape will benefit from.
- Because yoga is a gentle exercise, it wonderful way to begin exercising.
- Yoga provides many mental benefits

Diagram of a keto diet food pyramid. Click to learn about getting a customized keto diet plan designed based on your activity level, food preferences, weight goals, and other personal criteria.

Comparing Dirty Keto And Clean Keto

by Ryan Roberts

April 23

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Keto Diet, Weight Loss, Wellness

athletics, brain health, clean keto, dirty keto, endurance, keto and Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor, keto and diet, keto and weight loss

A lot of people have been helped with their weight management journey by following the Keto diet. Although it’s a diet that’s been divided. One version of the diet starter ~100 years ago. The second is more modern and influenced by today’s eating patterns. The second version of the keto diet is “dirty keto” and the first is “clean keto”.

How do you figure out which keto diet is right for you?

The keto diet is useful for weight loss and weight control. Many studies show there is a wide variety of other health and wellness benefits. Clean keto helps to increase energy levels, improve brain function, and athletic performance. Dieters who are experiencing the clean keto benefits may wonder what the newer “dirty keto” has to offer compared to “clean keto”. So let’s spend some time comparing dirty keto and clean keto.

Comparing dirty keto and clean keto

Clean keto

The basis of clean keto is to eat a fixed number of macronutrients composed of high-fat, moderate protein, and a very low amount of carbohydrates. These macronutrients will give you the energy your body needs while you lose body fat without feeling hungry, weak, or fatigued. By reducing your consumption of carbohydrates your body enters a state of ketosis. When you’re in ketosis your body’s primary source of energy is ketones, not sugar. Ketones are made in your liver by converting fat. They are a fantastic energy source for both body and brain and increase the Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF). From Wikipedia, “BDNF acts on certain neurons of the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system, helping to support the survival of existing neurons, and encouraging growth and differentiation of new neurons and synapses.”

Most of your calories come from healthy fats, nuts, and seeds. Be mindful that some nuts and seeds are suited to the keto diet more than others. Nuts and seeds with the highest amount of fat and the lowest amount of carbs are the ones you want to include in your keto diet (i.e., almonds, brazil nuts, walnuts, chia seeds, flaxseeds, etc.). The keto diet allows for eating lots of leafy green vegetables and other low-carb vegetables. Additionally, eat moderate amounts of protein from meat, fish, poultry, and eggs. Lastly, you curb your sweet tooth with a piece of 90% dark chocolate.

Some foods to avoid on the keto diet are those with high amounts of carbohydrates. Limit your consumption of fruit due to the high sugar content and avoid fruit juices entirely for the same reason. Avoid grains, legumes, and root vegetables because of their carb count.

Dirty keto

The dirty keto diet follows the same macronutrient guidelines as the clean keto diet. The difference is with dirty keto it doesn’t matter where those macronutrients come from. For example, dirty keto allows you to have a fast-food hamburger, pork rinds, and Cheese Whiz. Whereas clean keto encourages good fats, grass-fed meats and butter, wild-caught fish, and avocados.

Can you control your weight with a dirty keto diet?

It’s certainly possible, but most of the benefits stop there. There are notable deficiencies that you should be aware of. To begin, the dirty keto diet won’t provide you with the micronutrients you need such as vitamins and minerals needed for general health. Additionally, processed foods are loaded with sodium that can cause inflammation and bloating.

On top of that you’re more likely to put any weight you lose back on, have more cravings, and feel less satiated. Dirty keto foods may cause cravings, bloating, and a feeling of withdrawal. These are all symptoms associated with the so-called “keto flu”.

You are what you eat

When your digestive system is healthy the small and large intestines are built with a paper-thin lining. In normal healthy conditions, only water and digested food will enter your blood. When you’re experiencing inflammation of the intestines, or consume inappropriate food, the intestine’s lining becomes too porous.

Diets that include processed food with their added chemistry like those included in a dirty keto diet can damage the intestinal lining, making it more porous. This also affects the balance of both the good and bad bacteria found in our intestines. This condition of unbalanced bacteria can allow the bad bacteria to get out of control further increasing how porous the lining becomes. Resulting in a “leaky gut”, also called “intestinal hyperpermeability”, allowing toxins, bacteria, and particles of undigested food to get in your blood and move through the rest of the body including the brain.

Your gut affects your mental state and overall physical feeling. Likewise, your mental state affects your gut and its health, making the clean keto diet the better choice for your brain’s well-being.

Summary

Even though dirty keto seeks the same macronutrients as clean keto does, there are some stark differences between the two diets and how they influence your body and brain. A dirty keto meal is better than a standard American diet meal and can be eaten as a contingency meal, but a dirty keto diet shouldn’t be used as part of a continuing healthy eating program. Follow a clean keto diet instead and you’ll be successful at controlling your weight, increasing your energy level, as well as giving your brain a healthier, longer-lasting fuel.

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How A Ketogenic Diet Benefits Your Body And Mind

by Ryan Roberts

April 19

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Brain Health, Weight Loss, Wellness

brain function, cancer fighting with keto, keto and weight loss, keto benefits, ketosis, working out

You’re seeing “Keto” everywhere. It’s the latest buzzword and favorite thing for people wanting to lose weight and get fit as well as the newest target for the mainstream medical industry that favors the grain-dominant food pyramid. Though not the cure for cancer, the keto diet shows potential for healing many terrible health conditions. So let’s separate fact from fiction, get through the science, and take a look at how a ketogenic diet benefits your body and mind.

3 Benefits A Keto Diet Offers

1 – Weight loss

This probably isn’t news to you, but it’s possibly the most common reason people switch to the keto diet. An often asked question is, “Why is weight loss typically so easy on a ketogenic diet?”. Well, here a couple of the top reasons:

- Ketogenic diets contain about 75% fats, 20% proteins, and no more than 5% carbohydrates. The high fat and lack of sugars diminishes cravings, reduces swings in blood sugar and binging, and increases the dieter’s feeling of satiation. The greater your level of satiation the less you’ll want to eat. Because so many people have sensitivities to grains, including gluten-free grains, eliminating them can lead to better absorption of necessary minerals like magnesium, potassium, and others, helping your body to be better nourished with fewer cravings.
- Ketones. When you start running low on blood sugar your body starts to use the glycogen it has stored as an energy reserve. Our bodies typically store about 2000 calories in glycogen for backup energy for when we use up the glucose in our blood. If our bodies use up the glycogen stores it will start converting stored fats to the energy that our bodies can use to keep going.

THIS IS IMPORTANT: Being on a keto diet does not give you permission to eat all the proteins and fats you want to willy nilly. If you eat too many calories, you won’t lose weight. So be mindful of the keto dairy, desserts, and sweets. Focus on eating quality, fatty, grass-fed meats, butter, eggs, and avocados as well as a lot of green and cruciferous vegetables.

2 – Brain functions

A brain that is functioning poorly leads to lessened productivity, an unhappy boss, lack of job satisfaction, cravings for energy-producing sweets, and depression. It’s a terrible chain reaction.

Dr. Russell Wilder developed the original ketogenic diet to treat epileptics in the early 20th century. He has a phenomenal success rate and the keto diet is still used today for treating epilepsy and some other neuro/brain-related disorders. Research reported by the National Center for Biotechnology Information shows that ketones are a more efficient fuel for our brains than glucose.

3 – Cancer-fighting potential

Another study which was also reported by the National Center for Biotechnology Information shows a ketogenic diet can lead to a dramatically improved survival time and slower tumor growth.

In Summary

If you’re reading this article it’s likely you are in some kind of pain or anguish. Whether your pain is physical or mental (overweight, an autoimmune disorder, thyroid disease, fatigue, a foggy brain, depression, etc.) you can use this information, don’t just skim over it and think that’s nice for someone else. Motivate yourself to change!

If you find information like this useful, why not request our FREE eBook “Deliciously Easy Keto Recipes” and learn more about the ketogenic diet?

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Top 7 Benefits Of The Keto Diet

by Ryan Roberts

April 17

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Benefits, Keto Diet

keto, keto and weight loss, ketosis and weight loss

The first thing you might think about when you first heard of the ketogenic diet is how can it be as good as people say it is? The short answer is that there are enough benefits to change your life!

What is a Keto diet?

The Keto, or ketogenic, diet is a diet of moderate amounts of protein, high in fat, and low in carbohydrates (carbs). The goal is to dial in your nutritional intake in a way that your body enters a metabolic state known as ketosis.

Ketosis happens when your body has depleted its stores of glycogen sugar used for fueling your energy needs. After the available sugar is consumed your body has to use its stored fats for energy. Our body’s fat is converted into ketones by the liver as a source of energy. This is the reason the Keto diet is such an efficient way to lose body fat.

Top 7 Benefits Of The Keto Diet

Unlike other diets, where the only benefit is weight loss, the Keto diet offers several additional benefits.

1 – Weight loss

There’s no doubt that weight loss is the main goal of a Keto diet. The diet works because it causes your body to use its fat reserves to fuel its metabolism. Let’s go a little deeper into the process.

When a person is deprived of carbohydrates they enter a condition known as ketosis. In ketosis, blood sugar and insulin levels decrease. When our bodies convert fat cells to energy the fat cells release quite a bit of water. The combination of using fat for energy and the accompanying water loss makes for some great weight loss.

The fat is then free to enter the bloodstream and then the liver turns it into ketones to energize the body. So long as you can stay in a caloric deficit you will reap the weight loss benefit of the Keto diet.

2 – Keto curbs your appetite

When your diet isn’t loaded with carbs you won’t have the craving for as much food as you did before. A lot of people who use the Keto diet often fast for much of the day, only eating at mealtimes. They just don’t feel as hungry as they used to.

3 – Greater ability to focus

The Standard American Diet loads you up with a lot of carbs. Our brains have to deal with the resulting rise and fall of blood sugar caused by all those carbs. It’s hard for our brains to focus when we have fluctuating energy levels. But on a Keto diet, our energy levels are more constant and consistent. That makes it easier for the brain to focus and to stay focused longer.

4 – Feeling more energetic

Your body is always on the verge of running out of energy on a regular diet. You have to eat continuously to refuel it. On a Keto diet, your body is tapping into its fat reserve which is nearly an unending source of energy. Then the body can keep its energy level constant all day long. Resulting in you feeling much more energetic!

5 – It can help diabetes

A person who has Type II Diabetes experiences high levels of insulin. Because the Keto diet removes excess sugar from your diet it can help to stabilize their HbA1c counts and may even reverse Type II diabetes.

6 – Keto improves your levels of good cholesterol

HDL cholesterol helps your body get rid of bad cholesterol. After you start a Keto diet your triglyceride level decreases and the levels of HDL cholesterol increase.

7 – Improves your blood pressure

Being on a Keto diet can lower your blood pressure. Many people on a Keto diet are able to decrease their high blood pressure medicine or stop taking it entirely.

A person’s life can change dramatically, and in a positive way, on a ketogenic diet. The Keto diet isn’t hard to start either. There are plenty of Keto recipe books. All you need is a willingness to give it a shot.

Why not request our FREE eBook “Deliciously Easy Keto Recipes” and learn more about the ketogenic diet?

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Ketosis And Weight Loss (Fat Loss)

by Ryan Roberts

April 8

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Benefits, Keto Diet, ketosis, Weight Loss

keto, keto and weight loss, ketosis and weight loss

Over the years many diets have come and gone promising miraculous weight loss and an overall improvement in body composition and wellness. But at what cost and how many have actually worked?

Most diets are designed to keep its practitioner in a caloric deficit. Meaning to consume fewer calories than their body needs to work normally and maintain its weight.

Generally speaking, the average person needs about 2,000 calories a day to function normally and maintain weight. The usual diet is designed to restrict our calorie intake to about 80% of normal, or 1,600 calories per day. These diets concentrate just on calories instead of considering the macronutrients that different food provides.

Obviously, this method of dieting works for many people. The challenge is when we run up against plateaus in our weight loss journey. People have been experimenting, for a number of years now, with high-fat diets and their possible benefits regarding weight and fat loss.

How can a diet high in fat help you lose weight?

It’s not very intuitive, but a high-fat diet can help you lose weight by putting your body into a state of ketosis. Ketosis is very effective at burning body fat.

What is ketosis?

Under everyday circumstances, our bodies can draw upon various sources of energy as needed. The primary energy source is glucose which comes from the carbohydrates that we consume. But when glucose isn’t available our bodies look for other forms of energy, these are called ketones.

So ketosis is our body’s metabolic state when there isn’t enough glucose and we’re using ketones as our energy source.

Eating a high-fat, low-carb diet can put us into the state of ketosis. While we are in ketosis our bodies convert our fat stores into ketones for energy.

Achieving ketosis

Whenever we fast for a prolonged time our bodies will enter a state of ketosis. A lot of the experts think that runners will enter ketosis during a long run, especially so when carb cycling.

Other than fasting or exercising, we can enter ketosis by consuming very few calories. By limiting the number of calories we get from carbohydrate consumption to less than 15% of our caloric intake, our bodies will start taking energy for its stored fat instead of the restricted carbohydrates.

Can ketosis help with fat loss?

There are always instances when any diet won’t work. However, the Keto diet is known for effectively stimulating fat loss and consequently weight loss.

Some recent research has shown the keto diet improves the levels of triglycerides, LDL cholesterol (“bad” cholesterol), blood sugar, and HDL cholesterol (“good” cholesterol). These effects are all beneficial to your overall health and well-being.

What are the downsides?

Nothing is perfect and diets aren’t any different. Even though we know low carb, high-fat diets are quite effective at getting rid of unwanted fat and weight they might be dangerous for people who have diabetes or a pre-existing heart condition. For that reason, you should talk to your primary health care provider before starting any diet that is a dramatic change from your normal diet.

Converting stored fat to usable energy for our bodies is much slower than readily convertible carbohydrates. So anyone on a Keto diet may find themselves lagging in high-energy activities like sports, cross fit, powerlifting, etc.

A balanced lifestyle is important

Long-term research hasn’t found any major negative health issues brought on from following a Keto diet. In fact, the opposite has been noted citing weight loss and weight control as well as internal health benefits.

Just remember, a balanced lifestyle is important no matter your diet. Don’t think just because you’re on a high fat diet you eat nothing but double bacon cheeseburgers without consequences. The Keto diet is intended to put your body in a state of ketosis by consuming whole foods, healthy oils, lean proteins, seeds, nuts, and plenty of dark leafy greens.

Undoubtedly, a healthy diet will lead to a healthy lifestyle including a healthy weight, more vitality, and deeper satisfaction with your life!