Though keto can indeed suppress appetite and make fat loss easier to achieve, this may not happen for everyone at first. Fortunately,  if you’re struggling with hunger or weight gain on keto, a simple lifestyle adjustment is often all it takes to get you back on track to the results you want.

The Secret to Keto Weight Loss Results

The secret is to get more strict with your keto diet, right? Not necessarily.

In fact, cutting carbs down to zero and chasing the highest ketosis levels are rarely the secret to losing weight and preventing weight gain.

Ironically enough, the secret to getting the weight loss results you want is the same as any other diet (even those that are higher in carbs):

• Get most of your nutrition from minimally processed whole foods.
• Limit your intake of heavily processed products.

By eating in this way, you will feel more satiated while naturally eating fewer calories than before and burning stored body fat.

Though driving your ketone levels higher can help with hunger and weight loss, this should be thought of as the sugar-free icing on the keto-friendly cake, not the cake itself.

Can You Gain Weight on Keto?

In a literal sense, we can use the keto cake metaphor mentioned above to understand weight gain on keto as well: Even a zero-carb cake can stimulate fat storage if it overloads your body with calories.

Although it can be harder to gain weight when we restrict carbs, it is still possible. This is because our bodies are designed to store any excess calories we eat, so we have sufficient energy to fuel us through a future famine.

This applies to most of the excess fat we eat from keto-friendly foods as well. Rather than letting it go to waste, our body will store it as fat.

In fact, the most common culprit of unexpected weight gain on keto is adding excessive amounts of butter, coconut oil, and other pure fats/oils to meals. Though these are staples in the keto kitchen, they are also surprisingly easy to overconsume.

Why Am I Gaining Weight on Keto? 10 Reasons Why Your Weight Loss Plan Isn’t Working

Whether you hit a plateau or you start seeing the numbers on the scale climb, this doesn’t mean you’ve failed. Even if you’ve struggled with weight loss for decades, you can still lose fat and keep it off.

More often than not, there will be 2 or 3 simple adjustments we need to make to get back on track. To help you figure out why you’re not getting the weight loss results you want, we’ve included the most common keto culprits below.

1. Adding Too Much Pure Fat/Oil to Meals: A Common Cause of Sudden Weight Gain on Keto

To ensure that you burn your own body fat, it is crucial to consume less energy than your body needs (i.e., maintain a calorie deficit). If you add too much fat to meals, your body will burn that fat and store any excess energy it doesn’t need. As this continues, your body fat stores will grow incrementally.

A quick fix for this is to hold off on the extra butter and oil. Prioritize minimally processed whole foods instead, such as fresh meat/seafood, avocados, full-fat cheese, nuts, seeds, and olives.

These options are packed with much more nutrition than you’d get from pure fats and oils. As a result, you’ll feel more satisfied after eating fewer calories.

If you’d like to take a closer look at your fat intake needs and how to meet them on keto, check out our comprehensive guide on the topic.

2. Overeating High-fat Keto Snacks

Snacking on keto-friendly foods can be an effective way to prevent hunger between meals. However, it is surprisingly easy to overeat high-fat keto snacks when we don’t portion them properly.

The perfect examples of this are low-carb nuts, nut butter, and full-fat cheese. Though these snacks are healthy in moderation, an extra ounce or two can provide your body with enough fuel to prevent it from dipping into its body fat stores.

If you find over-snacking to be an issue on keto, try opting for lower-calorie and/or higher protein snacks. These tend to be more filling with fewer calories, helping you get through the day without hunger taking over.

Some examples of this include hard-boiled eggs, sugar-free deli meats, beef jerky, sardines, mackerel, pickles, and kale chips. For a complete list of ketosis-boosting snacks, check out our keto snack list.

That being said, it is also helpful to consider why you need a snack to make it through the day. The drive to snack in the afternoon is often caused by a nutritionally inadequate lunch and/or breakfast. It’s usually best to reduce or eliminate your snacking habits by eating well-balanced meals that can keep you full when you’re not eating. Increasing the amount of water you drink can also help tide over hunger between meals as you may just be dehydrated and not actually hungry.

3. Not Eating Enough Nutrient-rich Foods

No matter what diet plan you follow, the key to healthy, sustainable weight loss is consuming nutrient-rich whole foods. These include low-carb vegetables, full-fat dairy products, eggs, fish, pastured fatty cuts of meats/poultry, avocado, olives, low-carb nuts, and seeds.

When our meals are composed of these keto foods, we provide our bodies with plenty of healthy fats, protein, fiber, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. As a result, we are more satisfied and energized throughout the day without feeling the need to reach for a snack. (This will translate into more sustainable weight loss results in the long run.)

In contrast, if we rely on heavily processed keto ingredients and products as our primary source of fat — such as keto snack bars, low-carb desserts, fat bombs, and added fats/oils —  we tend to feel less satiated, experience more hunger, and eat more food than our body needs.

4. Underestimating How Much You Eat

Many of us naturally underestimate how much we eat.

In fact, this is a prevalent cause of arguably the most frustrating part of dieting: When you step on the scale after a month of eating the right foods, only to see that the number increased.

To prevent this from happening, we need to develop a better awareness of how much is too much. The first step to figuring out what “too much” means for you is calculating your macronutrient needs with the keto calculator.

With your macronutrient goals in mind, you’ll be able to adjust how much goes into each keto meal and track your intake until you develop a better sense of what your body needs.

5. Overeating on Cheat Day(s)

For some, cheat meals can be an effective way of sticking to a keto lifestyle without feeling restricted. Though this means you won’t be in constant ketosis, it can help make weight loss more sustainable in the long run.

That said, there are two huge caveats to keep in mind when adding cheat meals to your keto lifestyle:

• Eating high-carb foods will cause your body to retain more water than it does while eating keto. This can increase the weight on the scale by several pounds.
• It’s surprisingly easy to consume enough calories on a cheat day to gain more fat than you lost throughout the week. This is particularly true if you have a couple of alcoholic beverages with your cheat meal(s).

6. Alcohol Consumption is Getting in the Way

Alcohol intake can impair keto weight loss results in several ways. In fact, the extra carbs you’ll get from alcoholic beverages are less worrisome than the effects of the alcohol itself.

For example, even a zero-carb alcoholic drink will impact your body in the following ways:

• Adds an extra 7 calories per gram of alcohol to your diet
• Decreases overall sleep quality (when consumed within 4 hours of bedtime)
• Impairs blood sugar regulation
• Causes fluctuations in ketone production

Because of this, regular alcohol consumption can make any significant diet change more difficult and impair your weight loss efforts.

Cutting it out completely is generally the healthiest option, but you can still get the results you want with a moderate alcohol intake. In other words, when you do drink, keep alcoholic beverage consumption below two servings per day for men or one serving per day for women. And, of course, make sure those drinks are keto-friendly!

For a comprehensive list of keto options, check out our complete guide to drinking alcohol on keto.

7. Chronic Stress and Poor Sleep Quality are Making Weight Loss Too Difficult

A lack of sleep has been shown to increase appetite and cravings, making it harder to resist and restrict our intake of unhealthy foods. Being under chronic stress can have a similar impact as well.

Furthermore, chronic stress and inadequate sleep can cause our cortisol levels to climb, increasing the likelihood of storing fat around our midsection.

You can lower stress and improve sleep quality at the same time by adding meditation and/or journaling to your bedtime routine. While doing so, make sure you are limiting your exposure to bright lights and electronic devices as well.

Another simple way to improve sleep quality, reduce stress levels and get better weight loss results is to increase your daily activity levels.

8. Dieting Triggered a Decrease in Your Daily Activity Levels

One fascinating finding in the weight loss literature is that many of us will subconsciously reduce how much we move throughout the day while dieting.

This is thought to be your body’s natural energy-conserving mechanism, which is triggered whenever food is limited. As a result, we end up burning less energy throughout the day, making it easier to overeat and gain fat.

To counteract this, we must make a conscious effort to move more throughout the day. However, this doesn’t mean you have to force yourself to go to the gym every day.

In fact, going for a morning or evening walk, gardening, hiking, and/or using a treadmill desk is enough to increase your activity levels significantly.

Once this becomes a part of your keto lifestyle, consider adding resistance training, yoga, a workout class, or cardio workouts to your weekly routine a few times a week.

9. Eating Too Many Carbs

Since typical diets contain 45–65% of calories from carbs, decreasing that intake down to 5% for ketosis is a rather steep drop. It’s normal to have difficulty cutting out carbs when first adjusting to the ketogenic diet.

To help you reach your keto intake goals, consider tracking your carb, fat, and protein intake with an app like MyFitnessPal, Cronometer, or Carb Manager. After 1-2 months of doing this, you’ll develop a better sense of what you need to eat to lose weight and promote ketosis.

If you’d like to learn more about tracking carbs on keto, we’ve created a comprehensive guide that’ll help you get started.

10. A Certain Medication or Health Condition might be the Underlying Cause

If you’re having a hard time losing weight even after doing everything right, it’s a good idea to rule out any medical issues that may be preventing weight loss success.

Hypothyroidism, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), Cushing’s syndrome, and depression, for example, are some conditions associated with weight gain and difficulty losing weight. Your doctor can rule out these conditions with a series of tests.

Certain medications can cause weight gain or make it difficult to lose weight as well. If you recently started a new medication, make sure to check for side effects that may impact your weight (i.e., slowed metabolism, greater fluid retention, increased appetite, or increased body fat storage).

That said, regardless of what condition you have or medication you take, it is still possible to improve your health and body composition. By consulting with your health care practitioner and fine-tuning your approach, you’ll be able to figure out what works best for you.

What About Weight Regain on Keto? Why We Struggle to Keep the Weight Off

Slow and steady will win the weight loss race.

Though eating fewer calories than our body needs is necessary for weight loss, this doesn’t mean we should aim for the biggest calorie deficit possible.

In fact, our bodies have developed several mechanisms to prevent excessive weight loss when calories are limited, including decreasing how much energy you burn and driving up your hunger and stress hormone levels.

When we rely on severe calorie restriction, we still lose weight, but more of it will come from muscle mass than we’d like. Altogether, this results in a “skinny fat” body composition that burns much less energy than before and a deprived brain that responds by increasing your appetite substantially.

More often than not, these factors overcome our best weight loss efforts, eventually causing us to eat more and gain the weight back.

To break the cycle of weight loss and regain, try aiming for a gentle calorie deficit that promotes a weight loss rate of 1 to 2 pounds per week. A 10-20% caloric deficit tends to the sweet spot for this.

What If You’re Still Hungry on Keto? How to Keep Cravings Under Control

Hunger is a complex phenomenon that can be influenced by a wide variety of lifestyle factors. In fact, several of the common culprits behind weight gain on keto can drive hunger as well.

Here are some of the most effective solutions for hunger on keto:

• Eat the right amount of food. In earlier sections, we emphasized how eating too much fat can cause weight gain on keto, but this doesn’t mean we should severely restrict food consumption. This approach will drive substantially more hunger than if you strive for a slow and steady weight loss rate.
• Eat more nutrient-rich foods. In other words, get most of your fat and protein from minimally processed keto-friendly whole foods. Check out our keto food list for options, ideas, and inspiration.
• Add a protein-rich food to each meal. Protein intake helps suppress hunger and curb cravings. By implementing the two hunger hacks above, you will likely have enough protein with each meal. That said, if your hunger is still out of control, it may be helpful to focus on getting the right amount of protein daily. To find out what this means for you, use our keto calculator.
• Implement stress-relieving practices. Chronic stress can drive hunger and greatly reduce your ability to resist cravings. One of the best stress-relieving practices is maximizing sleep quality. A simple way to do that is by meditating and/or journaling 30 minutes before your ideal bedtime or getting adequate physical activity.
• Improve your sleep quality. A lack of sleep is a major driver of hunger, cravings, and subsequent weight gain. Prioritizing sleep quality is a secret weapon to making any diet easier. You can enhance your sleep quality tonight by stopping food and alcohol intake at least 3-4 hours before bed and increasing your activity levels throughout the day.
• Limit your alcohol consumption. Due to its impact on blood sugar, ketosis, and sleep quality, alcoholic beverages can increase hunger and cravings. This is why we often reach for high-fat, high-carb foods like fries, pizza, and ice cream when we are drunk or hungover.
• Increase activity levels. Aerobic activities, such as walking, cycling, and jogging, can help curb your appetite. This is also a great way to promote fat-burning and ketone production, particularly when you start your morning off with a brisk walk (or any other preferred form of exercise).

This list represents the keto lifestyle factors that will have the biggest impact on your hunger and cravings. By addressing them throughout your diet plan, you will significantly increase your chances of long-term, sustainable weight loss results.

Quick Keto Hunger Hacks

That being said, what should you do if you are struck with a craving or hunger pang that is suspiciously hard to resist? Try one of the following keto-friendly hunger hacks:

• Coffee/Tea — Black coffee, green tea, and black tea contain ketosis-boosting caffeine and phytocompounds that can help decrease appetite. Altogether, these qualities increase energy levels and reduce hunger. (Note: Caffeine consumption will impair sleep quality when consumed within 6 hours of bedtime.)
• MCT oil — Of the primary fats you’ll eat on keto, MCTs have been found to increase ketone levels and feeling of fullness the most. Blending some MCT oil into your morning coffee or incorporating it into keto snacks/meals can help control hunger and boost energy levels. To learn more about MCTs, what to buy, and how to use them on keto, check out our guide to MCT oil.
• Keto snacks — What should you do when an unhealthy food item ignites an intense craving? Use a tasty keto snack with similar textures and flavors to extinguish that fire. Browse through our keto snack list to find the perfect option for your specific craving. Just make sure it fits within your daily keto macros as well.
• Ketoproof coffee or tea (Combining the three hunger hacks) — One of the best ways to fight those late-morning or early afternoon hunger pangs is by adding MCTs and other healthy fats to your morning coffee. This will provide you with the benefits of caffeine, the health-promoting compounds in coffee/tea, MCTs, and a high-fat keto snack, all in one delicious morning beverage. To learn how to make it, click here for a ketoproof coffee recipe and here for ketoproof tea.

Common Keto Weight Gain Myths: Carbs, Protein, and Ketosis

Before putting everything together into a personalized keto plan, there are a few keto myths we must address. You’ll often find these myths being emphasized as common keto weight gain culprits.

Though rigidly focusing on them can lead to short-term weight loss, they simultaneously make those results less sustainable and increase the likelihood of gaining all of the weight back.

Myth #1: Limit your protein intake for better results.

Though it is true that overeating protein can impact ketosis and weight loss results, we often underestimate how much protein is required for this to happen. In reality, most of us won’t come close to a protein intake that impairs our results.

Furthermore, by limiting protein intake, we only make dieting and weight loss harder to maintain. This is because protein is essential for curbing cravings, satisfying our appetite, and preventing muscle loss.

For a quick estimate of how much protein you need on keto, use our keto calculator.

Myth #2: You must be in constant ketosis to lose fat and prevent weight gain.

Though being in ketosis is the hallmark of keto, this doesn’t mean you have to be in deeper ketosis to lose weight and keep it off.

Ultimately, the most important factor behind getting the results you want is formulating a healthy diet that you can turn into a sustainable lifestyle.

For some, following a strict keto diet will do the trick. For others, experimenting with different low-carb or keto variations may be necessary before finding a way of eating that works well for them.

Myth #3: Keep reducing your carb intake.

Getting carbs as low as possible is not necessary for keto weight loss results.

Once you get to a carb limit that helps you maintain ketosis, there is no need to push your intake lower and lower. This can put excess stress on your body and make your diet unnecessarily hard to follow.

If your carb intake is already low enough and you’re still struggling with hunger or weight gain, apply one or two of the keto diet tips described in previous sections instead. Typically, the most effective strategy for both hunger and weight gain is to replace pure fats/oils with low-carb whole foods.

For example, instead of relying on olive oil, coconut oil, and butter to get most of your fat, think of these fats/oils as a garnish. Get most of your fat from fatty cuts of meat, fish, eggs, cheese, and other minimally-processed keto-friendly foods.

The Bigger Picture: Weight Gain, Hunger, and Bulletproofing Your Keto Weight Loss Results

There is no secret to preventing weight gain, curbing hunger, and maintaining your weight loss results. Chasing higher levels of ketosis, zero-carb eating, and keto fat loss supplements will only make your keto diet less sustainable in the long run.

To get the results you want, you must address the lifestyle factors that are getting in the way. The most common examples of this include:

• Adding too much fat/oil to meals
• Not eating enough nutrient-rich foods
• Snacking on high-fat snacks without being mindful of portion sizes
• Overeating on cheat day(s)
• Drinking too much alcohol
• Neglecting the importance of stress relief and optimizing sleep quality
• Being less physically active than usual
• Eating too many carbs
• Severely limiting your calorie intake

If you’re still hungry on keto or experiencing unexpected weight gain, these tend to be the most common triggers.

That said, rather than overwhelming yourself with the impossible task of addressing multiple culprits at once, focus on one at a time. Start with the easiest option for your lifestyle and build off of that momentum.

As you continue to make small changes, you’ll naturally begin to formulate a healthy keto lifestyle that helps you maintain your weight loss results for life.

If you’d like to see more tips, strategies, and tools to make this happen, we’ve included several resources below:

• How to Maintain Long-Term Keto Weight Loss Results for Life — A deep dive into building a sustainable keto lifestyle.
• Keto Plateau Buster – What To Do When Weight Loss Stalls — Proven strategies to help you break through plateaus.
• Keto Meal Plan App — Create a personalized meal plan based on your macro goals and food preferences.

Sources

• Dirty, Lazy Keto Vs. Clean Keto Diet [Which Is Right For You] — Ruled.me
• How to Lose Weight on a Ketogenic Diet — Ruled.me
• Sleep, Appetite, and Obesity—What Is the Link? — NCBI
• Global rise of potential health hazards caused by blue light-induced circadian disruption in modern aging societies — NCBI
• Caffeine, coffee, and appetite control: a review — NCBI
• Acute exercise and hormones related to appetite regulation: a meta-analysis — NCBI
• Caffeine intake increases plasma ketones: an acute metabolic study in humans — NCBI
• Timeline of changes in appetite during weight loss with a ketogenic diet — NCBI
• Effect of a plant-based, low-fat diet versus an animal-based, ketogenic diet on ad libitum energy intake — Nature
• Alcohol and Sleep — Sleep Foundation
• Measures of Poor Sleep Quality Are Associated With Higher Energy Intake and Poor Diet Quality in a Diverse Sample of Women From the Go Red for Women Strategically Focused Research Network — AHA
• Caffeine’s Connection to Sleep Problems — Sleep Foundation
• The impact of sleep deprivation on food desire in the human brain — NCBI
• Pathways from dieting to weight regain, to obesity and to the metabolic syndrome: an overview — NCBI
• Mechanisms of weight regain after weight loss — the role of adipose tissue — Nature

The post Weight Gain on Keto: Common Causes & Simple Solutions appeared first on Ruled Me.

Though experts may not agree on the exact details of a “perfect” keto diet, there are several low-carb food groups that are widely accepted as healthy keto staples. To give you a visual representation of what these foods are, we decided to create a keto-friendly food pyramid for you.

This keto food pyramid will look similar to the original USDA food pyramid, but with one crucial difference: We feature food groups that help promote health and ketosis.

Along with the keto-friendly food lists and resources that follow, the keto food pyramid will provide you with the info you need to get started right away (in a way that is also right for you). Let’s begin by exploring the two foundational principles of keto eating.

Keto Food Pyramid Principle 1: Macro Ratios for Ketosis

The first rule of keto is to eat the right amount of carbs, fat, and protein. These are the three primary nutrients we get from food (also known as “macronutrients” or “macros”).

By eating different ratios of carbs, fat, and protein each day, we can manipulate what our body uses as fuel and gradually change our body fat %.

On the ketogenic diet, we must limit carbs low enough to shift our primary fuel source from carbs to fat and promote ketosis (i.e., when our body consistently produces ketones for fuel). In contrast, by eating too many carbs, we prevent our body from being in this fat-burning, ketogenic state.

In practical terms, the macronutrient ratios needed for ketosis will be around 70% fats, 25% protein, and 5% carbohydrate.

That said, being in ketosis and burning fat for fuel isn’t all that matters on keto — It’s simply the first step.

Keto Food Pyramid Principle 2: Whole Foods for Optimal Health and Weight Loss

If we solely focused on macros, the keto food pyramid would feature pure fats and oils as the base. (Unfortunately, this is how most keto food pyramids look, and it is quite confusing).

For example, an “ideal” day from a keto macro perspective would feature a stick of butter garnished with ground meat and a small side dish of plain spinach dressed with olive oil.

Though meals like this will promote ketosis, they also increase the likelihood that we over-consume fat, gain weight, and become deficient in essential nutrients.

This is why we advocate for a whole foods keto approach, where minimally-processed low-carb foods serve as the basis of your fat, protein, and carb consumption. Not only will this approach provide you with the right keto macro ratios, but you’ll get more flavor, nutrition, and satiety from each bite.

To see what this looks like, check out the keto food pyramid below.

Keto Food Pyramid: Promoting Optimal Health, Weight Loss, and Ketosis with Whole Foods

Upgrade fat content of meals with 1-2 tbsp of high-quality fats/oils: 

• Butter
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Bacon grease
• Coconut oil
• MCT oil

Upgrade flavor with:

• Herbs & spices
• Salt & pepper
• Keto-friendly condiments — sugar-free bbq sauce, keto ketchup, marinara, hot sauce, mustard, etc.

Upgrade food quality for optimal health:

• Pasture-raised meat, eggs, and dairy
• Sustainably-sourced fish and seafood
• Local, organic, and biodynamic vegetables, fruit, nuts, and seeds

Keto drink staples:

• Plain water
• Carbonated water
• Black coffee
• Unsweetened tea
• Bone broth
• Flavored zero-calorie beverages made with natural keto sweeteners

The other side should feature foods and drinks to avoid on keto:

Avoid:

• Grains – wheat, corn, rice, cereal, bread, baked goods, etc.
• Legumes — beans, lentils, chickpeas, etc.
• Sugar – honey, agave, maple syrup, etc.
• High-sugar fruits – apples, bananas, oranges, etc.
• Starchy vegetables – potato, yams, yucca, etc.
• High-carb drinks — regular soda, fruit juice, most regular beers, etc.

As a shortcut, here’s a graphic that includes all of the information above:

How to Use the Keto Food Pyramid

When you’re looking to plan your keto meals, start from the bottom and prioritize those fattier cuts of meat/fish and eggs. As an example, you want to opt for the budget-friendly skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs rather than the over-priced chicken breast, the pork shoulder instead of the pork tenderloin, and so on.

Not only will these simple swaps significantly increase the fat content of your meal, but you’ll also get a well-rounded source of fatty acids, minerals, and proteins (including collagen).

Next, you’ll add another high-fat, low-carb food (like avocado, olives, and cheese) to boost the fat to around 70% (if necessary) and incorporate a low-carb veggie to up your fiber, vitamin, mineral, and antioxidant intake.

This whole foods keto approach will help you create a well-balanced keto-friendly meal with plenty of health-promoting nutrients. Additionally, these foods can also help you breeze through the keto flu and any other symptoms that may occur as your body adapts to carb restriction and ketosis.

Now, with our keto foundation set, let’s take a closer look at each level of the food pyramid: Starting at the base.

The Base of The Keto Food Pyramid: Fatty Cuts of Meat, Fatty Fish, and Eggs

This category of low-carb foods is often the feature ingredient of keto entrees.

As a general rule of thumb, each meal should have roughly 1-2 palm-sized portions (i.e., between 3 and 6 ounces) of foods from this category.

To fit into this group, the food should contain at least 50% fat and less than 5% carbs. For a better idea of what foods to look for, we’ve included an extended list of keto-friendly choices below.

List of the Fattiest Fish and Seafood for Keto

• King (chinook) salmon
• Sardines, packed in oil
• Mackerel
• Herring
• Eel

List of the Fattiest Cuts of Meat

• Chicken thigh, skin on
• Duck leg, skin on
• Bacon
• Pork belly
• Pork shoulder (Boston butt)
• Pork loin (not tenderloin)
• Pork chop
• T-bone steak
• Rib-eye steak (also known as rib roast or prime rib)
• Oxtail
• Ground lamb
• Lamb hock
• Lamb roast
• Lamb ribs
• Lamb leg
• Fresh sausage — Sausages will vary in fat content and added sugar, so make sure you get the highest fat option with no additional carbs.
• Head cheese, Liverwurst, and Braunschweiger — Double-check ingredients for high-quality meats and no added sugars

And of course, don’t forget this keto staple:

• Whole eggs

Other high-fat options that almost make the cut (Between 40 and 50% fat)**:

• Beef brisket
• Flap steak
• Filet mignon (Chateaubriand or tenderloin)
• Porterhouse steak
• Skirt steak
• New York strip steak
• 55% lean ground beef or pork

** Add a high-fat cheese, high-fat fruit, or melt a tablespoon of butter on top to increase the fat content above 50%.

The Second Level: Leaner Cuts of Meat and Seafood

When fattier cuts aren’t available, leaner options can still be good for keto as long as you keep these two things in mind:

1. The portion size may need to be a bit smaller, especially if you have very lean meats (e.g., skinless chicken breast or turkey breast).
2. Make sure you prepare it with high-fat cheese, avocado, and/or other high-fat, low-carb foods from the pyramid and supplement the meals with high-quality fats/oils if necessary.

To give you an idea of what fits into the leaner cuts of meat/seafood category, we’ve included a list below. In general, these cuts have less than 40% calories from fat:

• Pork tenderloin
• Pink salmon
• Sockeye salmon
• Cod
• Tuna
• Trout
• Turkey
• Chicken breast
• Chicken wing
• Duck breast
• Seabass
• Shellfish
• Sirloin tip side steak
• Top round steak
• Eye of round steak
• Bottom round steak
• Top Sirloin
• Beef liver
• Beef heart
• Ground beef (70% lean / 30% fat)
• Ground pork (~70% lean)

Keto Food Pyramid Level 3: Low Carb Veggies and High-fat Fruit

Keto-friendly plant foods will be your secret weapon. Not only are they packed with health-promoting nutrients, but they will make your keto transition as smooth as possible.

For this reason, we recommended incorporating at least a handful of low-carb veggies or high-fat fruits into each keto meal.

A list of the best low-carb vegetables and fruit for keto:

• High-fat fruits — Olives and avocado
• Leafy greens — Spinach, arugula, salad greens, etc.
• Cruciferous vegetables — Broccoli, kale, cauliflower, cabbage, brussels sprouts, etc.
• Nightshades — Tomato, eggplant, bell peppers, etc.

Don’t forget to add more flavor and nutrition to meals with a small amount of alliums (onion, garlic, chives, etc.), mushrooms, and herbs.

For a complete list of keto-friendly vegetables and recipe ideas, check out our guide to keto vegetables.

Keto Food Pyramid Level 4: The Best Keto Dairy

Most keto recipes will call for at least one of these three dairy products:

• Grass-fed butter (or ghee/clarified butter)
• Heavy cream (or heavy whipping cream)
• Cheese

Why? For two main reasons:

1. They add flavors and textures that increase how satisfying a meal is.
2. They tend to be very low in carbs and high in fat.

However, there’s a catch: Keto dairy products are easy to overconsume.

In fact, one of the most common culprits of keto weight loss plateaus is adding too much cheese and butter to meals.

This is why we recommend keeping your intake of keto dairy within 1-2 servings per meal or less. (That being said, you don’t have to eat dairy to get results with the keto diet. Read our dairy-free keto guide if you’d like to find out how.)

Another crucial consideration with dairy products is to read the serving sizes, nutrition info, and ingredients carefully. When you first start keto, you may find them to add much more fat and carbs than you’d expect.

For a comprehensive list of cheeses and other dairy products that are good for keto, check out our guide to the best and worst low-carb dairy options.

Level 5 of the Keto Food Pyramid: Low Carb Nuts and Seeds

As with keto dairy products, nuts and seeds tend to have a deceivingly high amount of fat and carbs per serving.

For best results, consume only one palmful per day of low-carb nuts and seeds as a high-fat snack or as an addition to keto meals.

The best nuts for keto are:

• Pecans
• Brazil nuts
• Macadamia nuts
• Walnuts
• Hazelnuts
• Peanuts
• Almonds

And keto-friendly seeds include:

• Flax
• Hemp
• Chia
• Sunflower
• Sesame
• Pumpkin

For specific guidelines, recipes, and nutrition info, check out our complete guide to keto nuts and seeds.

The Top of the Pyramid: Nature’s Keto Candy

To cap off our keto food pyramid, we feature low-carb fruits (that are also low in fat).

Though these aren’t necessary for a successful keto diet, they are often used to add flavors and health benefits that you can’t get from other low-carb foods.

That being said, it is crucial to keep your servings sizes in mind because their net carbs can add up quickly.

The best low-carb, low-fat fruits for keto include:

• Starfruit
• Blackberry
• Raspberry
• Strawberry
• Rhubarb
• Blueberry
• Coconut meat
• Lemon
• Lime
• Melon

You can typically fit a palmful or less of these fruits into your keto diet daily. However, I highly recommend reading through our guide to low-carb fruit before adding them in.

How to Upgrade the Fat and/or Flavor of Your Keto Meal

As you’re crafting your keto plate, you may notice that it’s either too low in fat or lacking some flavor. The easiest fix for this is to dress your meal up with high-quality fats/oils and keto-friendly flavor enhancers.

To upgrade the fat content of your meals, try adding 1-2 tbsp of high-quality fats/oils:

• Grass-fed butter or Ghee
• Tallow
• Lard or leftover bacon grease
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Coconut oil
• Avocado oil
• MCT oil (one of the few oils that boosts ketosis directly)
• Bone marrow
• Egg yolk
• Sugar-free Mayo
• Macadamia Oil
• Cocoa butter
• Keto salad dressing

Need fat and flavor? Try these keto options:

• Butter
• Bone marrow
• Egg yolk
• Sugar-free Mayo
• Bacon grease
• Keto salad dressing

If the fat content of your meal is high enough but it still lacks flavor, try these low-calorie flavor enhancers:

• Herbs
• Spices
• Salt
• Pepper
• Keto-friendly condiments — Sugar-free bbq sauce, keto ketchup, marinara sauce, hot sauce, mustard, etc.

What Can You Drink on Keto?

Staying hydrated on keto is crucial, especially as your body sheds excess water weight during your first week of carb restriction. Your go-to options will be water (still or sparkling), black coffee*, unsweetened tea*, and bone broth.

If you want something with more flavor to it, stick with zero-carb options, such as diet soda, flavored sparkling beverages, and water flavor enhancers.

When choosing a flavored drink, however, pay close attention to ingredients and the nutrition label. Opt for zero-carb choices that feature natural sugar-free sweeteners.

Regarding alcohol, the lowest carb alcoholic drinks will be dry wine, low-carb beer, unsweetened spiked seltzers, and unflavored hard liquor. Despite being low in carbs, these should only be consumed in moderation because alcohol consumption impairs our ability to lose fat.

For a complete list of keto-friendly drinks and what to avoid, check out our comprehensive guide to what you can drink on keto.

*Caffeine caveat: As long as you consume less than 500 mg of caffeine (or roughly 5 cups of black coffee) per day, the caffeine will not have a dehydrating effect.

Foods and Drinks to Avoid on Keto

Think back to the base of the USDA food pyramid. There, you’ll find what is known as the bread, cereal, rice, and pasta group.

Ironically enough, these are the exact foods you should avoid on keto and low-carb diets. (Even just one serving of this food group can kick us out of ketosis.)

Other foods to look out for include high-carb fruits, starchy veggies, products with added sugar, sweets, pastries, and baked goods.

To give you a better idea of what to avoid on keto, here is a list of the most common high-carb culprits:

• Bread, bagels, and buns
• Cereal
• Corn
• Pasta
• Beans
• Rice
• Pizza
• Fries
• Pretzels, potato chips, tortilla chips, and other popular snack foods
• Candy and sweets
• Dried fruit
• All carb-rich sweeteners — sugar, brown sugar, honey, agave, maple syrup, etc.
• Baked goods — cookies, cakes, pastries, etc.
• Starchy veggies — potatoes, yams, etc.
• Higher carb fruits — apples, bananas, peaches, pears, etc.
• High-carb drinks — regular soda, fruit juice, most regular beers, milk, etc.

What About <Insert Food Here>? How to Find Out If a Food is Good or Bad for Keto

Since it’s nearly impossible to find and categorize every food into its respective keto food pyramid group, we’ve included a quick process you can use to see if a particular item is good or bad for keto:

Step 1: Check the carb content.

Look at the nutrition facts label or search for the information online. The best indicator of how much a food will impact ketosis is its net carb content.

You can find the net carbs in each serving by subtracting total dietary fiber from total carbs (click here for an example calculation).

Is it possible to fit that food within your daily net carb limit (which is typically 25 grams)?

As a general rule of thumb, any food with 10 or more grams of net carbs per serving will be difficult to fit into a keto diet. (In other words: If the net carbs are in the double digits, it’s usually bad for ketosis.)

Step 2: Consider the fat and protein content.

After you’ve found a food that is low enough in carbs, let’s figure out its fat and protein ratio:

1. Find the nutrition info on the food label or search for it online.
2. Find how many calories from fat are in each serving (or calculate it yourself by multiplying the grams of total fat by 9).
3. Divide that number by the total calories per serving.
4. Multiply that number by 100, and you’ll get the percentage of fat in that specific food.

For example, let’s take a closer look at bacon:

• According to the USDA, one slice of cooked bacon has 3.3g of total fat.
• 3.3g fat x 9 calories = 29.7 calories from fat
• 29.7 calories from fat divided by 43 total calories in a slice = 0.69
• 0.69 x 100 = 69% fat
• Since keto requires around 70% calories from fat per day, bacon is a great fit for keto.

Note: If you’d like to find the specific protein percentage as well, multiply the grams of protein by 4 (not 9). This will give you the calories of protein per serving, which you can then divide by the total calories per serving and multiply by 100 to get the percentage of protein.

For a more in-depth look at how to find out what foods are keto-friendly for you, check out our comprehensive guide to the best and worst foods for keto.

Practical Takeaways: A Quick Overview of How to Use a Whole Foods Based Keto Pyramid

In general, here is what each day of keto eating will look like according to the keto food pyramid:

Each meal will contain:

• 1-2 palm-sized portions of a fatty cut of meat, seafood, or eggs (>50% fat).
  • Are no fatty cuts available? Have leaner cuts of meat/seafood (<40% fat) instead**.
• 1-2 handfuls of low-carb veggies and/or high-fat fruit.
• 1-2 servings of high-fat, low-carb dairy.

**Need to add more fat to your day?

• Try 1 serving of nuts/seeds, or
• Add 1-2 tablespoons of high-quality keto fats/oils to meals, or
• Dress your low-carb meals with 1-2 tablespoons of a high-fat keto condiment (e.g., mayo or sugar-free salad dressing)

Add flavor with:

• Low-carb, low-fat fruits like lemon, limes, or berries
• Onions, garlic, chives, and other allium veggies
• Herbs and spices
• Salt and pepper

Remember to hydrate with these keto staples:

• Water
• Sparkling water
• black coffee (consume less than 5 cups or 500mg of caffeine per day to avoid the dehydrating effect of caffeine)
• unsweetened tea
• bone broth

Avoid these high-carb culprits:

• Grains and grain-based flours
• Baked goods
• Candy and sweets
• Legumes
• Added sugars and high-carb sweeteners
• High-sugar fruits
• Starchy vegetables
• Sugary drinks

How to Optimize Keto for Your Specific Needs, Goals, and Preferences

The keto food pyramid is meant to give you a general guideline of what to eat, how much to eat, and what to avoid for better health, weight loss, and ketosis. For many first-time keto dieters, this will be all that’s needed to get started and achieve results.

Though this is possible for you as well, we must also consider what to do if things don’t go as planned.  For the most part, these are the three most common keto speed bumps you might run into:

1. Experiencing an unintended weight loss plateau for 4 weeks or longer.
2. Noticing consistent fat gain over a span of 3-4 weeks.
3. Declining health and wellbeing after the first two weeks of keto.

If any of these occur, the first step is to take a closer look at your keto eating and fine-tune your food choices and portion sizes.

In other words, it’s time to tailor your diet to your specific needs, goals, and preferences. To do this yourself, follow this three-step process:

1. Use our keto calculator to find your daily keto macro goals.
2. Create a meal plan based on the keto food pyramid and keto recipes to develop a better idea of how much you should eat at each meal.
3. Replenish the water and electrolytes you lose during the first week of carb restriction. For specific intake guidelines, read through our guide on how to remedy the keto flu.

To dive deeper into each step, read through our guide on how to start keto. There, you’ll find the information you need to fine-tune your diet and create a healthy keto lifestyle.

Putting It All Together: Using the Keto Food Pyramid to Achieve the Results You Want

If you were to simplify everything from this article, you’d end up with the following three steps to getting started and creating your own keto lifestyle:

1. Determine how much you need to eat to promote ketosis and achieve expected results.
2. Choose whole low carb foods from the keto food pyramid to help you meet those macro goals.
3. Monitor your health, wellbeing, and results along the way.

Though implementing these steps will be time-consuming at first, they will set the foundation for a healthy keto lifestyle that helps you to get the results you want and maintain them for life.

In fact, this step-by-step approach to keto is what we used to create our new keto meal planning app. If you’re looking for the easiest solution for your keto goals, this app will do all the calculations and planning for you so that you can get started right away.

Sources

• Dirty, Lazy Keto Vs. Clean Keto Diet [Which Is Right For You] — Ruled.me
• The Ruled.me Food Policy — Ruled.me
• Does Coffee Dehydrate You? — Healthline
• Ketogenic Diet Food List — Ruled.me
• The Keto Oil Guide: The Best, Worst, and What to Avoid — Ruled.me

The post The Keto Food Pyramid: Low Carb Food List Made Simple appeared first on Ruled Me.

That said, there is a simple trick we can use to convert ketosis-disrupting corn into a satisfying keto-friendly serving of popcorn: Add heat.

If you are looking to indulge in this popular high-carb snack and stay on keto, we’ve included several tips, suggestions, and alternatives below.

What is Popcorn Exactly?

Popcorn kernels are simply dehydrated corn off the cob. They are then heated until the water that’s left inside of them expands and the kernels explode open to around 40x their pre-popped size.

This delicious snack hack has been enjoyed for thousands of years.  In fact, the first evidence of popcorn consumption was found on the coast of Peru, dating back over 6,000 years ago.

Today, you’ll find hundreds of popcorn products ranging from stovetop to microwavable, pre-popped pre-packaged to pure kernels, and a plethora of sweet, salty, and/or savory flavors. With all these choices, the world of popcorn can be overwhelming, especially on a low-carb keto diet.

This is why it is best to keep it as simple as possible with 100% unpopped kernels that you’ll pop yourself and add your preferred keto-friendly ingredients to boost the flavor and fat content.

We must keep in mind, however, that even in its purest form, popcorn contains the same starches found in the fresh ear of corn. To fit popcorn into your low-carb or keto diet, it is crucial that consider the carb content in each cup.

Is Popcorn Low Carb and Keto? Nutrition and Carbs in Air-popped Popcorn

First, let’s examine the overall nutrition provided by air-popped popcorn (without any other added ingredients).

From a macronutrient ratio perspective, however, each cup of popcorn has 80% net carbs! This is far from keto-friendly, right? Furthermore, popcorn offers us a good source of vitamin B1 (thiamin), vitamin B3 (niacin), vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), antioxidants, and several key minerals.

Well, it depends. As long as you are mindful of the portion sizes and any additional ingredients, you can fit this high-carb food into your keto diet without disrupting ketosis.

Can You Eat Popcorn on Keto? Turning a Ketosis Disruptor into a Healthy Low Carb Snack

Though keto and low-carb dieting is much easier without the addition of high-carb foods, you can make an exception for small portions of popcorn.

By considering the nutrition info above (or the information on the popcorn label) and your daily net carb limit, you’ll be able to determine the proper portion size for your diet.

As an example, let’s say your daily net carb limit is 25 grams (which is a great starting point for most keto beginners). With this limit in mind, you can start planning your popcorn serving size. Two cups of popped popcorn would leave you with 17 g left from your other keto meals. As long as you limit your consumption of any other high-carb foods, this would be a reasonable serving for keto.

In contrast, as the portion size increases to 3 or 4 cups, you’ll find it difficult to fit it into your daily carb limit without displacing healthier keto-friendly options. This is when a healthy low-carb snack becomes a ketosis-disrupting food.

In general, it’s best to avoid foods like this, but if you absolutely can’t give it up, you’ll find some suggestions on how to fit popcorn into your keto diet.

How to Add Popcorn to Your Keto Diet Without Impairing Ketosis

As with potato chips, popcorn is surprisingly easy to overeat when we aren’t mindful of our portions.

To help keep your portion sizes in check while feeling fully satisfied with each serving, consider adding keto fats (like butter) to your popcorn. The added fat and flavor will make each bite more fulfilling, so a cup or two is all you need to curb your carb cravings.

Other than butter, there are plenty of other keto-friendly popcorn toppings you can use to enhance the fat content and/or flavor:

• Olive oil
• Coconut oil
• MCT oil — This flavorless oil can help provide an extra ketone boost as well.
• Nut butter drizzle — Over low-to-medium heat, combine your favorite sugar-free nut butter with a keto-friendly sweetener. If it’s too thick, add a small amount of coconut oil, butter, or MCT oil for easier drizzling. Homemade Macadamia Nut Butter, Keto Nutella, and natural peanut butter are some of the best options for this keto popcorn hack.
• Keto sweeteners — Mix a keto-friendly sweetener with melted butter or oil and drizzle on top for a quick and easy keto kettle corn alternative.
• Dried herbs and spices — Turn your popcorn into a savory, flavorful snack by tossing it with some of your preferred herbs and spices.
• Parmesan cheese powder — Skip those cheese-flavored popcorn products in favor of some real cheese. However, before adding the parmesan, make sure to drizzle some butter or oil on top to help the powder stick to the popcorn. You can even mix in some garlic powder for a keto-friendly garlic parmesan popcorn flavor.

By using the high-fat options on the list (such as butter, oil, or nut butter), you can turn an 80% net carb food into a high-fat keto snack. In fact, just one tablespoon of butter or oil is all it takes to raise the fat content of 2 cups of popcorn above 70%.

That said, we must also consider the carb content of the remaining 30%. Occasionally, you’ll find that you simply can’t fit a cup or two of popcorn into your carb limit for the day.

Keto-friendly Popcorn Alternatives and Snacks

What do you do when even a measly handful of popcorn would take you above your daily carb limit? Opt for a very low carb popcorn alternative instead.

Below we’ve included the most popular keto-friendly options for when you need to keep the carbs as low as possible:

Store-bought Keto Popcorn Substitutes:

• Cello Whisps — Each bag of whisps is like cheese-flavored popcorn without the popcorn. These cheese crisps come in nine different flavors containing between 1 and 3 g of net carbs per ounce serving.
• Moon Cheese — Similar to Whisps, but with a popcorn-like shape and different flavors (including cheddar bacon and gouda). Each 1-oz. serving comes with 1 to 2 g of net carbs.
• ParmCrisps — These are made from 100% aged parmesan cheese with a wide variety of flavors as well.
• Microwaveable pork rinds — Skip the high-carb popcorn and grab some microwaveable pork rinds for your next movie night. With the extra crunch and flavor they provide, you may never crave popcorn again.
• Pork rinds — This humble keto snack will give you the saltiness and crispness you’d get from popcorn, but with zero carbs. To learn more about what pork rinds to buy and their surprising health benefits, check out our guide to eating pork rinds on keto.

Homemade Keto-friendly Popcorn Alternatives:

• Keto Tortilla Chips
• Keto Chips
• Pizza Chips with Pepperoni & Cheese
• Keto Cheesy Bacon Nacho Chips
• Crispy & Delicious Kale Chips
• Flavored Keto Cheese Chips

Would you like to see more low-carb snack options? Check out our comprehensive list of healthy snacks for keto.

The Bigger Picture: Low Carb Popcorn and Your Keto Weight Loss Results

Popcorn can be a healthy addition to your keto diet, but only when it’s eaten with your daily carb limit in mind.

You can even use popcorn as a way to add more fat, flavor, and nutrition to your day with the help of butter, high-quality oils, sugar-free nut butter, keto sweeteners, and seasonings.

That being said, there are plenty of low-carb popcorn alternatives that are much easier to fit into a keto diet. Pork rinds and cheese crisps, for example, have a much lower carb content than popcorn and are packed with high-quality fats and flavor.

However, if you are struggling to stay keto and get the results you want, then a popcorn substitute is unlikely to help. In this case, we must shift our focus to your overall meal plan and macronutrient needs.

To help you figure out what keto lifestyle changes to make, we’ve included several tools that’ll get you on track toward achieving your health and weight loss results:

• A Comprehensive Guide to the Ketogenic Diet — Keto made simple with a food list, recipes, tips, and tricks.
• Our Keto Calculator — The easiest way to estimate your daily macronutrient needs.
• Our Keto Meal Planning App — A personalized keto diet plan tailored to your goals and food preferences.

The post Keto Popcorn: How to Make It Keto-friendly and Other Low-carb Alternatives appeared first on Ruled Me.

To help you figure out exactly what beans to avoid and what to replace them with, we put together this keto guide addressing the following topics:

• Can you eat beans on keto?
• How many carbs are in beans?
• What about lentils on keto?
• Keto-friendly bean and lentil substitutes
• Soy-free bean alternatives and beanless keto recipes
• What about bean sprouts?
• Key takeaways

Can You Eat Beans on Keto?

Beans should be avoided on keto.

Though they’re a good source of protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals, beans are also packed with starch. As you digest them, their starches are broken down into simple sugars and absorbed as net carbs.

How Many Carbs Are In Beans?

From a keto nutrition perspective, think of each bean as a miniature potato — Packed with starch but comes with other healthy components as well.

In fact, if we look at the net carb count of boiled white potato (~14.3 g in every ½ cup), it falls within the average range of net carbs in beans (between 12 and 20 g per 1/2-cup serving).

Below, we’ll take a closer look at the net carb content of the most popular varieties of beans.

Carbs in Black Beans: Are They Keto?

When it comes to net carbs, black beans are surprisingly similar to white potatoes.

Every ½-cup serving of black beans comes with ~13 grams of net carbs. In other words, they are not keto-friendly.

While restricting carbs, it is best to replace black beans with keto-friendly beans or make beanless keto recipes instead.

Carbs in Pinto Beans

Every ½ cup of cooked pinto beans comes with ~15 grams of net carbs. This means they have more net carbs than white potatoes and are not suitable for keto.

Carbs in Garbanzo Beans: Are Chickpeas Keto?

Have you ever noticed how garbanzo beans (chickpeas) are a lot rounder/fuller than black beans and pinto beans? This is because they are packed with more starch.

In every 1/2 cup of garbanzo beans, there will be roughly 16 grams of net carbs.

Carbs in Refried Beans and Baked Beans: Are They Good for Keto?

Both refried beans and baked beans are not keto-friendly. Even if you find a can with no added sugar, the starch from the beans will still be high enough to impair ketosis:

• Refried beans — A ½-cup serving of refried beans tends to have 12 or more grams of net carbs.
• Baked beans — Even the lowest-carb baked beans around 20 grams of net carbs in every ½-cup serving.

Carbs in Kidney Beans, Navy Beans, Lima Beans, and Great Northern Beans: Keto-friendly or Not?

Every ½-cup of these beans comes with the following net carb counts:

• Kidney beans — 14.6 g
• Navy beans — 14.4  g
• Lima beans — 13.1 g
• Great northern beans — 12.5 g

Simply put, these beans are not keto-friendly either.

How Many Carbs In Green Beans (String Beans)?

Green beans are one of the only true keto beans, with ~3 grams of net carbs in every 1/2-cup serving. They provide us with similar benefits as low-carb vegetables as well.

To add more green beans to your keto diet, try adding them to your favorite keto casserole/entree or make them as a side:

• Easy One-Pan Ground Beef and Green Beans
• Roasted Pecan Green Beans
• Bacon Jammin’ Green Beans

Carbs In Soybeans: Are They Healthy for Keto?

There are three main types of soybeans you are likely to come across: Mature soybeans, green soybeans (edamame), and black soybeans.

Here are the net carbs per ½ cup in each type of soybean:

• Green soybeans — 3.5 g
• Mature soybeans — 3.4 g
• Black soybeans — 1 g

From a carb content perspective, all three are keto-friendly beans.

However, it is also important to consider your sensitivity to soybeans and the quality of the product you purchase for keto.

The highest quality soybean will be non-GMO and organic. In contrast to their GMO counterparts, these soy products will be free from chemical pesticide residues.

That being said, even the healthiest soy products contain natural compounds that a small subset of the population may be sensitive to and/or allergic to. For this reason, we recommend monitoring your overall health and wellbeing if you increase your consumption of soy and soy-based products (such as tofu and tempeh).

What about Lupini Beans?

Since one particular type of lupini bean isn’t being mass-produced (like most of the beans mentioned earlier), there may be a significant variation between the starch content of one lupini bean product versus another.

For example, if you buy imported lupini beans made by Delallo, you’ll get 13.5 g of net carbs in every ½-cup serving (which is not keto-friendly). In contrast, the lupini bean products made by Brami contain such a low amount of starch that they can list their beans as having zero grams of net carbs.

Put more simply:  If you are looking to buy lupin beans, lupin flour, or lupin-based hummus for keto, make sure to double-check how many carbs and net carbs are in that particular product.

Overview of Carbs in Common Bean Varieties

For your convenience, we’ve included the following table with the carb info for the beans we looked at so far:

Note: All information in this table is for a ½ cup of boiled, drained beans, without salt.

In general, there are hundreds of varieties of edible beans, and most of them are not keto-friendly. When in doubt, make sure to double-check the label and calculate the net carbs yourself.

The same principles apply to the many varieties of lentils as well.

Carbs in Lentils: Are They Keto?

Lentils and beans are very similar in terms of macronutrients. Each lentil is like a miniature version of a bean, with high-protein skin and starchy insides.

Though different types of lentils can vary slightly in their nutrient contents, they tend to contain around 20 g of total carbs and 12.2 g of net carbs in every 1/2 cup.

In other words, as with most bean varieties, lentils are packed with too many carbs for keto.

Keto-friendly Bean and Lentil Substitutes: Black Soybeans and Green beans

On the keto diet, it is best to go beanless or use the lowest carb beans — black soybeans and green beans — as substitutes for their starch-filled cousins.

While green beans are typically prepared more like a vegetable, black soybeans are the best keto-friendly replacement for other beans in soups, bean dips, refried beans, baked beans, and other bean-based recipes.

That being said, if you are looking to avoid or limit soy for any reason, we’ve included several other bean alternatives and beanless keto recipes below.

Soy-free Bean Alternatives and Beanless Keto Recipes

If you’re looking for soy-free bean substitutes that will mimic their texture, here are some tasty alternatives:

• Diced eggplant is a healthy, low-carb alternative that you can use to add more bulk to your dishes.
• If you’d like to have some keto Mexican food, opt-out of high-carb refried beans or bean dip with your meal and choose guacamole, smashed avocado, or chopped avocado salad instead.
• Cooked mushrooms are very low in carbs and can be used in place of beans in soups, stews, and chili. They will add an extra layer of umami to your meal as well.
• Ground meat. The perfect bean replacement for soup and chili recipes. You can also use leaner or fattier meat depending on how much fat and protein you want in your soup or chili.
• Boiled peanuts. Boiled peanuts have a similar texture to that of cooked beans with only ~6 g of net carbs in every ½-cup serving.

To go 100% bean-free without missing out on your favorite bean-based dishes, try making these keto recipes as well:

• Beanless Low-carb Chili — A thick, meaty keto-friendly chili with all the flavors and textures you get from the standard, bean-based version of the dish.
• Beanless Keto Hummus Recipe — Simply by replacing the chickpeas with roasted cauliflower, you can make a creamy and delicious hummus dip (without all of the excess starch).
• Creamy Keto Taco Soup — Though beans are often added to make soups hearty and satiating, this is no longer necessary when you use ground beef with an avocado garnish on top.
• Keto Pork Carnitas — Pork carnitas are often accompanied by tortillas, rice, and refried beans or baked beans, turning this keto meat dish into a carb-heavy ketosis killer. As long as you skip the high-carb foods in favor of keto tortillas and guacamole, you can have a satisfying carnitas meal without missing out on your favorite flavors and textures.

For more ideas on how to replace the beans in your favorite cuisines, check out the following keto guides:

• Keto Mexican Food Recipes & Restaurant Tips
• The Keto Indian Food Guide

What About Bean Sprouts?

During the sprouting process, the beans will use their stored starch to provide the energy necessary to grow into a plant. As a result, the sprouts will have a significantly lower net carb content, resembling a low-carb vegetable rather than a high-starch potato.

This means you can reap the benefits of beans while staying in ketosis. Unfortunately, this also means that they will taste more like vegetables and lose their starchy texture.

As with other foods you eat on keto, double-check the nutrition info of your bean sprouts to make sure they’ll fit into your carb limit.

Key Takeaways: Beans, Lentils, and Their Keto Alternatives

Most beans and lentils are too high in carbs to fit into the keto diet. This includes the following bean varieties and products:

• Black beans
• Pinto beans
• Garbanzo beans
• Baked beans
• Refried beans
• Kidney beans
• Lima beans
• Great northern beans
• Some varieties of lupini beans

As with anything you have on keto, always make sure to check the nutrition labels.

The best keto bean option is black soybeans, which you can use as a direct replacement for high-carb beans. However, if you want to go soy-free, there are several other delicious alternatives, including mushrooms, diced eggplant, avocado, ground meat, and boiled peanuts.

With these low carb bean alternatives, there’s no need to shy away from bean recipes while on keto. In fact, you can even make your favorite bean-based dishes without the beans:

• Beanless Low-carb Chili
• Beanless Keto Hummus
• Creamy Keto Taco Soup
• Keto Friendly Pork Carnitas

If you’re looking to achieve some great results and are in need of some more keto meal ideas or a complete meal plan, we’ve included more resources below:

• Free Keto Recipe Collection — Over 600 easy keto recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and more
• Keto Meal Planning App — An app that does most of the work for you. All you have to do is prep your meal, eat it, and watch your body transform.

Sources

• The Ruled.me Food Policy — Ruled.me
• Composition of Lupinus albus — Cereal Chemistry
• Soy and phytoestrogens: possible side effects — NCBI
• Clinical studies show no effects of soy protein or isoflavones on reproductive hormones in men: results of a meta-analysis — Fertility and Sterility
• SELF Nutrition Data | Food Facts, Information & Calorie Calculator — NutritionData

The post Are Beans Keto? Full Guide to Beans and Their Keto-friendly Alternatives appeared first on Ruled Me.

Their palate-pleasing combination of salt, fat, and carbs makes it unnaturally easy for us to overeat them without feeling full. This is why many of us can easily eat an entire family-sized bag of chips in one sitting (and on a larger scale, this is one of the driving forces behind the rising rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes worldwide).

The solution is simple: Skip the high-carb chips and fill up on foods that nourish your body and make you feel full. One of the easiest ways to do this is by serving low-carb chips instead.

To find out what low-carb chips are best for you, let’s take a look at all the options. From homemade cheese chip recipes to low-carb tortilla chips you can find in popular stores (like Walmart and Target), there are plenty of ways to get your chip fix while following a low-carb keto diet.

Side note: If low-carb chocolate chips are the type of chip you’re looking for, check out our best keto cookie recipes for sugar-free keto-friendly options.

Why are Tortilla Chips and Potato Chips Not Good for Keto and Other Low Carb Diets?

Here’s the “secret” formula for making a cheap chip that people will overeat and buy consistently:

1. Get cheap high-carb foods, such as potatoes or corn.
2. Process them until most of their healthy components are gone.
3. Fry/bake them in cheap, refined oils.
4. Add salt (and make sure the bag is half empty!)

This fool-proof process is what snack producers have been using for decades to make cheap products that people will love and overeat. In fact, most of the chips stocked at Walmart, Target, Costco, or your local grocery store will be made in this way, which means they will not be suitable for low-carb and keto diets.

Fortunately, a wide variety of low-carb chips have been popping up on the shelves. There are so many different options and flavors that you’ll find exactly what you are looking for to satisfy your chip craving.

Keto-friendly, Low Carb Chips to Buy

Though it’s typically cheaper to make them yourself (with the keto recipes in the next section), there are several low-carb chips you’ll be able to find in the store.

Let’s begin our journey through the aisles with the best alternatives for potato chips and tortilla chips on keto:

Low Carb Potato Chip Alternatives to Buy:

• Quest Original Style Protein Chips* — A healthier potato chip alternative, these have around 4 g of net carbs per bag (32 g) and come in a various flavor including Loaded Taco, Chili Lime, ranch, sour cream and onion, and nacho cheese.
• Wholesome Provisions Protein Chips* — These are another great option with two flavors: Sea Salt & Vinegar at 3 g of net carbs per bag (35 g) or BBQ with 4 g of net carbs per bag (37 g).
• Genius Gourmet Keto Snack Chips — A rare find at the store, but these snack chips are worth mentioning because their primary ingredient is MCTs. In other words, not only are these chips low in carbs, they can help boost ketosis as well. If you order them online, you can choose from 4 different flavors: Spicy Nacho, Ranch, Chili Lime, or BBQ. Each one comes with only 2 g of net carbs per bag (32 g).

*These can usually be found at Walmart.

Low Carb Tortilla Chips You Can Find at Walmart:

• Wholesome Provisions Protein Tortilla Chips — A tortilla-style low-carb chip substitute for corn-based chips. Each ounce comes with 5 g of net carbs.
• Quest Tortilla Style Protein Chips — Another easy-to-find low-carb tortilla chip, with around 3.5 g of net carbs per ounce in all of the same flavors as their Original Style Protein Chips.

Keto-friendly, Low Carb Cheese Chips:

• Cello Whisps — These keto-friendly cheese chips can easily be found at Walmart and other major retailers. With nine different flavors containing between 1 and 3 g of net carbs per ounce serving, you’re sure to find a bag of Whisps that’ll help satisfy your chip craving and keto macros at the same time.
• Moon Cheese — Similar to Whisps, but with a more spherical shape and different flavors (including cheddar bacon and gouda). Each 1-oz. serving comes with 1 to 2 g of net carbs. These are typically carried at Whole Foods, Wegmans, Publix, Target, and Costco (but not Walmart).
• ParmCrisps — These are made from 100% aged parmesan cheese with a wide variety of flavors. Though the carb counts look lower than other cheese chip products, keep in mind that their serving size is listed as 18 grams. ParmCrisps can usually be found at Whole Foods, Shoprite, CVS, Publix, Kroger, Wegmans, and Safeway.
• JustTheCheese — Same as the above cheese chip options, but you can buy them in the form of a snack bar with 75 calories and ~0.5 grams of net carbs per bar. You can find them at Target, Weis, Wegmans, and a wide variety of local grocery stores.

Other Low Carb Chip Alternatives:

• Pork Rinds — A zero-carb chip substitute that can be found in virtually any store, from the gas station to Walmart. If you need a reliable keto-friendly snack that you can use as nachos, breading, and even low-carb popcorn, pick up some pork rinds. For buying and cooking tips, check out our guide to pork rinds on keto.
• Chicken Skin Chips — These are another great zero-carb option, but they are a rare find in most stores. If you’d like to try them instead of pork rinds, Flock, Hatch, and Chick N’ Skin are three chicken chip producers with plenty of zero carb flavors you can buy online.
• Crispy Salmon Skin Chips — Likely the rarest of the low-carb chip options, these also have zero carbs in each serving with the added benefit of marine collagen. As with chicken chips, you can find these online.
• Kale Chips — To sneak in some low-carb vegetables with a crunch, look for kale chips in your local health food store or online. Just make sure to double-check the carb counts since some flavors will come with added sugars. Usually, sugar-free store-bought kale chips will come with 4 g of net carbs per ounce. For a lower-carb and cheaper kale chip option, try making them yourself with the recipe below.

Low Carb Chip Recipes for Keto

Low-carb store-bought options provide us with a simple way to get our chip fix, but it’s hard to justify buying them when you’re on a tight budget.

The cheapest option will be to make your own chips with keto ingredients you already have (or would buy anyway). Not only will this strategy save you money, but you can make them healthier, lower in carbs, and more flavorful as well.

Below, we’ve included several low-carb, keto chip recipes and alternatives to try:

Keto Tortilla Chips

Like a regular tortilla chip crossed with a bready, soft chalupa shell, these are much more satisfying than the low-carb tortilla chips you can buy at the store.

In fact, I find these to be the best tortilla chips for keto. Not only will they curb your craving for a crunchy, salty chip, but they’ll fill you up fast.

See How to Make It

Keto Cheese Chips

Another 2-ingredient low-carb chip option, but this time it’s vegetarian-friendly. You can easily these in under 15 minutes and switch up the flavors by using different herb and seasoning powders.

What you’ll pull out of the oven will be almost exactly like the cheese chips you can buy a the store (but at a much lower cost).

See How to Make It

Sugar-free Kale Chips

Though store-bought kale chips provide us with a convenient way to get our veggies, they often come at a higher cost with extra carbs. Next time you want some kale chips, buy a bunch of kale and follow this recipe instead.

All you need is kale, olive oil, and salt to make the lowest carb version of kale chips that won’t break your budget.

See How to Make It

Other Keto-friendly Chip Alternatives:

• Low Carb Chia Seed Crackers
• Harissa Crackers
• Pesto Keto Crackers
• Low-carb vegetables (Broccoli, celery, bell pepper, and cucumber slices are all great keto-friendly veggies to try for dipping)

Keto Dips for Your Low Carb Chips

Pairing keto-friendly chips with a high-fat, low-carb dip is an excellent option for a quick, delicious, and nutritious keto meal.

As long as it helps you meet your keto macro needs, there’s no shame in eating chips and dip for dinner.

For some inspiration, check out our most popular keto dip recipes:

Simple Keto Guacamole

In just five minutes, you’ll have a keto-friendly guac ready and waiting for your low-carb chips. If you want to up the flavor even further, give our bacon and roasted garlic recipe a try.

Either way, you’ll be getting plenty of healthy fat, fiber, and micronutrients to keep your keto results on track.

See How to Make It

5-minute Keto Salsa

Salsa is surprisingly simple. In fact, you’ll save much more time and money by making it yourself instead of sifting through the sugar-ridden salsa products in the store.

For a complete keto meal, make sure to pair your salsa with high-fat chips or crackers such as low carb tortilla chips, keto cheese crisps, or low carb crackers.

See How to Make It

Low Carb Hummus

Hummus typically features starch-filed chickpeas as its primary ingredient. Unfortunately, this causes the carb counts to climb.

Your best bet is making the hummus yourself by replacing the chickpeas with roasted cauliflower. Not only does this create a creamy keto hummus, but it adds delicious notes of caramelization as well.

See How to Make It

Low Carb Spinach & Artichoke Dip

As with queso (and other popular appetizer dips), spinach & artichoke dip is often thickened with flour and/or starch. Your best bet to satisfy your craving for this delicious vegetarian-friendly option is making it yourself. With this recipe, all you need is the right mix of keto-friendly foods for the perfect balance of thickness, flavor, and fats.

See How to Make It

For more low-carb dip recipes, search “dip” on Ruled.me.

Putting It All Together: Low Carb Chips, The Keto Diet, and Your Weight Loss Goals

Chips can be a part of your low-carb, keto diet as long as they are made from low-carb ingredients.

When looking for low-carb chips to buy, make sure to read labels carefully and double-check serving sizes and carb counts.

Overall, these are the most widely-available low-carb chip options you can find online or in the store:

• Quest Original Style Protein Chips*
• Wholesome Provisions Protein Chips*
• Genius Gourmet Keto Snack Chips
• Wholesome Provisions Protein Tortilla Chips*
• Quest Tortilla Style Protein Chips*
• Cheese chips, crisps, and bars*
• Pork rinds*
• Chicken skin chips
• Crispy salmon skin chips
• Sugar-free kale chips*

*Products marked with an asterisk can typically be found at Walmart, Target, and other popular store chains.

Keep in mind, however, that it is also easy to make keto chips yourself (without breaking your budget on overpriced products). Next time you have a craving for some chips, try making your own with the help of these recipes and alternatives:

• Keto Tortilla Chips
• Pizza Chips with Pepperoni & Cheese
• Keto Cheesy Bacon Nacho Chips
• Crispy & Delicious Kale Chips
• Flavored Keto Cheese Chips
• Low Carb Chia Seed Crackers
• Harissa Crackers
• Pesto Keto Crackers
• Low-carb vegetables (Broccoli, celery, bell pepper, and cucumber slices are all great keto-friendly veggies to try)

And, don’t forget the keto dip:

• Simple Keto Guacamole
• Keto Queso
• 5-minute Salsa
• Low Carb Hummus Recipe
• Keto Buffalo Chicken Dip
• Low Carb Spinach & Artichoke Dip
• Bacon and Roasted Garlic Guacamole

As with everything you eat, make sure you’re mindful of how much fat, protein, and carbs you need to achieve the results you want.

The easiest way to stay on the right track is by using our keto meal planning app. It will provide you with an endless eating plan personalized to your goals and preferences.

The post Low Carb Chips for Keto: What to Buy and How to Make Them Yourself appeared first on Ruled Me.

Unfortunately, the answer is no.  If you’re on a non-keto low-carb or standard ketogenic diet, you should avoid rice for optimal results.

That being said, you can still get your rice fix by using low-carb substitutes and keto recipes. Let’s begin our journey through the world of rice and its keto alternatives by exploring the following topics:

• Why you should avoid rice on low carb and keto diets
• Are wild rice, black rice, and brown rice low carb?
• What about rice noodles?
• Are rice cakes keto-friendly?
• The five best keto rice substitutes
• Tasty keto recipes featuring low carb rice alternatives
• Keto rice alternatives and recipes without the cauliflower
• Keto-friendly rice noodle options
• Key takeaways

Why Rice isn’t Good for Low Carb and Keto Diets

Each grain of rice is essentially starch that is packaged in a fibrous protein capsule. From a nutritional perspective, rice is like a bean but with more starch and less protein and fiber.

Though different types of rice will vary in their carb content, even the lowest carb variety isn’t low enough to fit into a low-carb diet. In fact, it will be nearly impossible to find a rice variety that is composed of less than 75% net carbs.

To give you a better idea of what I mean, we’ve included a chart with the carb content of the most popular rice varieties below. In this case, we’ll focus mostly on the “healthier” rice options (which aren’t as low in carbs as you might think).

Is Wild Rice, Black Rice, or Brown Rice Low Carb?

Though brown rice, wild rice, and black rice are all richer in micronutrients, fiber, and protein than white rice, they are still packed with too many carbs to fit into a low-carb diet.

As you can see, wild rice is the lowest carb rice. However, with ~32 grams of net carbs in each half-cup, it’ll be challenging to fit it into a low-carb or keto diet without cutting out other nutritious keto-friendly foods.

What About Rice Noodles: Are They Low Carb? 

Rice noodles can be thought of as long strips of net carbs (similar to traditional flour-based pasta).

More specifically, one cup of rice noodles comes packed with 44 g of total carbs and 42.2 g of net carbs (which is almost identical to the carbs in white rice).

Rather than skipping noodles altogether, there are plenty of keto-friendly alternatives you can try. We’ll learn more about them after we uncover the truth about rice cakes.

Are Rice Cakes Low Carb?

Since they are made from puffed rice, rice cakes will be lower in carbs than cooked rice. However, before we are tricked by their low carb content, we must also consider what rice cakes lack.

Since they are almost 100% net carbs, rice cakes will increase your daily carb count without adding any healthy fats, protein, fiber, or micronutrients to your diet. In other words, even the lowest carb rice cake products are not a good option for keto since they add empty carbs to your diet and nothing else.

That being said, If you are craving a rice cake, opt for the lowest carb option and make sure to have some high-fat keto foods with it. For example, try spreading keto Nutella on top or make it into a quick keto pizza.

The 5 Best Low Carb Rice Substitutes for Keto

If you can’t eat rice, what can you eat on a low-carb diet as a suitable alternative? Here are the best low-carb substitutes for rice that are both healthy and keto-friendly:

• Riced cauliflower
• Miracle rice (shirataki rice)
• Cabbage rice
• Hemp seeds
• Mushroom rice

1. Riced Cauliflower

This is the most popular low-carb rice alternative since it is relatively cheap, low in carbs, and packed with health-boosting vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.

In general, ½ cup (85 g) of prepared cauliflower rice has 4 grams of total carbs and 2 grams of net carbs, which makes it easy to fit into a strict keto diet as well as non-keto low-carb diets.

Riced cauliflower is available at your local grocery store pre-packaged, but it can be made just as easy at home if you have a cheese grater or food processor.

How to Use It:

Riced cauliflower makes a great keto pizza crust, the perfect rice substitute for fried rice, and a tasty low-carb alternative for sushi rice. Scroll below for more keto cauliflower rice recipes.

2. Miracle Rice — The Lowest Carb Keto Rice, No Cauliflower Necessary

Made from konjac root, miracle rice (and shirataki noodles) only contain trace amounts of net carbs and are packed with health-promoting fiber. More specifically, a 3 oz. serving (85 g) of miracle rice comes with 10 calories, 3 g of fiber, and less than 0.5 g of net carbs.

Miracle rice is available in most health food stores or online. You may also see it called “shirataki rice,” “slim rice,” or “konjac rice” as well. There are some that have better consistencies than others, so shop around and try a few different brands to see which fit your tastes more.

As long as the product is listed as having zero net carbs per serving, it’ll be the perfect rice alternative for keto.

How to Use It:

Try using miracle rice as a rice alternative in a stir-fry, pilaf, or cauliflower rice recipe. It would also work well as a rice or barley replacement in a soups and stews.

3. Cabbage Rice

Another great keto rice substitute is cabbage rice. You can prepare cabbage rice as you would cauliflower rice: in a food processor or with a cheese grater.

Both red and green cabbage are keto-friendly options, with green cabbage having a slightly lower net carb count:

• Red cabbage — 1 cup,chopped (89 g) has 6.2 grams of total carbs and 3.9g of net carbs
• Green cabbage — 1 cup, chopped (89 g) has 4.9g of total carbs and 3.2g of net carbs

How to Use It:

Riced cabbage is great in stews, as an alternative to fried rice, or as the feature vegetable in a keto bowl. It will pair exceptionally well with spices commonly used in Indian food, such as garam masala, cumin, and turmeric.

4. Hemp Seeds

Shelled hemp seeds are great for mimicking the taste and texture of wild rice and other heartier grains.

They are also packed with healthy fat, plant-based protein, and fiber, making them the best rice substitute for anyone looking up their intake of these nutrients while keeping carbs low.

Overall, each ½ cup of shelled hemp seeds (also known as hemp hearts) provides us with:

• 442 calories
• 39 g of fat
• 25 g of protein
• 6.9 g of total carbs
• 3.7g of net carbs

Since this is the highest fat rice substitute, make sure not to overdo it. The fat calories can add up surprisingly fast and slow weight loss.

How to Use It:

Use as a wild rice substitute for wild rice pilaf, or add it to your keto meals to mimic the mouthfeel of couscous or wild rice.

5. Mushroom Rice

With their earthy umami flavor, mushrooms are a delicious keto-friendly substitute for rice as well. Just make sure to keep the carb counts in mind because they will vary depending on the mushroom variety.

Here are the carbs in the most commonly consumed mushrooms (in every cup, sliced):

How to Use It:

To prepare mushroom-based keto rice, finely chop a cup or two of mushrooms and saute with some butter and salt. You can also combine mushroom rice with the other low carb rice alternatives to switch up the flavor and texture of your meals.

Other Less Common Keto Rice Alternatives You Can Try

If you’re looking to fit more vegetables into your keto meal plan, these two healthy low carb alternatives to rice are worth a try a well:

Hearts of Palm Rice

Brands like Palmini who initially released a pasta made from hearts of palm have also delved into ricing their product to make a keto-friendly rice alternative. It comes in a can so you simply need to drain, rise, and cook to your preferred consistency. Typically it doesn’t take long to cook and will fulfill the craving you have for rice.

The nutrition facts for 100g of cooked heart of palm are as follows:

• 28 calories
• 0.6 g fat
• 4.6 g total carbs
• 2.4 g dietary fiber
• 2.2 g net carbs
• 2.5 g protein

It can be a great vegetable rice alternative because of its texture, lower carb counts, and when cooked al dente really fits the bill in a meal.

Broccoli Rice

Riced broccoli makes a great grain alternative for anyone on a paleo, low carb, or keto diet. Since you can use the stems, it will help you cut down on your food waste as well.

Essentially, you’ll follow the same steps as you would to turn a head of cauliflower into rice. Just make sure you shave off the knobs from the broccoli stem before processing.

Sauté for about 2 to 3 minutes until tender in extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, or your preferred cooking oil/fat. Toss in some soy sauce for quick and easy keto side dishes (that are also dairy free)!

That said, it is important to double-check the nutrition facts and make sure you’re staying within your ketosis carb limit.  Here’s what you’ll get in every 100 grams of riced broccoli:

• 35 calories
• 0.4 grams of fat
• 7.2 grams of total carbohydrates
• 3.3 grams of dietary fiber
• 3.9 grams of net carbs
• 2.4 grams of protein

Rutabaga Rice

You can also process rutabaga, as you would with broccoli or cauliflower,  to make another gluten free low carb alternative for rice. The only downside to this option is that it’ll be a bit higher in net carbs than the other keto rice substitutes.

The nutrition facts for 100 g of cooked rutabaga are as follows:

• 37 calories
• 0.2 g fat
• 8.6 g total carbs
• 2.3 g dietary fiber
• 6.3 g net carbs
• 1.1 g protein

Because of its higher net carb content, we recommend only making rutabaga rice as an occasional side dish to accompany some of your low carb meals.

Low Carb, Keto-friendly Rice Recipes: Fried Rice, Sushi, Rice Balls, and More

If you’d prefer to follow step-by-step instructions, we’ve included a round-up of our favorite rice-based keto recipes below:

Spicy Cauliflower Rice & Salmon Medley

A delicious keto dinner featuring low-carb fried rice, with all the steps you need to cook the fish, prepare the keto rice, and combine them into a satisfying meal. Feel free to replace the salmon with your fish/meat of choice whenever you want to throw together a quick dish that you know will come out delicious.

For more keto-friendly rice-based dinner ideas, check out these recipes as well:

• Cilantro Lime Shrimp with Crispy Coconut Caulirice
• Cajun Shrimp and Cauliflower Rice
• Peri Peri Bowl

See the Recipe

Keto Chicken and Rice Casserole

Chicken and rice casserole is much healthier and more satisfying with low-carb ingredients. In fact, this is one of the best ways to sneak a keto-friendly dish into a family dinner without anyone noticing. It uses some of my favorite low-carb convenience foods to save on prep time like pre-riced cauliflower and rotisserie chicken. I almost always grab a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store. It’s quick, easy and can be used for a million different dishes. Pre-riced cauliflower can be found in the produce section of most stores and is a fabulous low carb staple and substitute for rice.

See the Recipe

Cauliflower Rice Congee

This keto Congee is an Asian-inspired porridge that is great for cold weather or as a zesty dinner appetizer. The ingredients such as cauliflower rice and chicken stock can be made from scratch or store-bought to reduce time. Optional toppings for congee include hard-boiled eggs, sliced scallions, and fried garlic. With this recipe, you’ll also learn how to incorporate low-carb cauliflower rice into your favorite keto soups.

See the Recipe

Cauliflower-free Low Carb Rice Recipe Options (No Cauliflower Necessary)

You may have already noticed that most low-carb rice recipes feature cauliflower as the primary rice alternative. Whether you are looking to switch it up or you’re just not a fan of cauliflower, here are three go-to options for making low carb rice without the cauliflower:

1. Keto Mushroom Wild Rice Pilaf

This side dish is the perfect keto-friendly alternative for cauliflower rice (and it’s 100% gluten free). Step-by-step, you’ll learn how to make it cauliflower-free by using hempseeds and mushrooms as the low-carb rice substitute.

Altogether, this recipe will mimic the taste and texture of wild rice pilaf without the excess carbs. Feel free to add meat to it for a complete keto meal — or use it as a replacement for cauliflower fried rice.

2. Replace the cauliflower with another low-carb rice alternative.

Pick your preferred option(s) from the list below:

• Miracle rice
• Cabbage
• Hempseeds
• Mushrooms
• Broccoli

These will work wonderfully in most keto stir-fry and fried rice recipes. You can even try mixing multiple alternatives together.

Just make sure you are mindful of the difference in your rice substitute’s carb, protein, and fat content compared to cauliflower. Use our macro calculator if you need help fitting it into your meal plan.

3. Skip the low-carb rice.

Though your meal won’t be as filling without the low-carb rice, this may be the best option for certain keto recipes.

When making keto sushi, for example, the other low-carb rice alternatives won’t work well. In this case, the best option is to make it without the rice or try another recipe with similar flavors and textures (like our keto poke bowl recipe).

Secondarily, you can take a step in a completely different direction by making keto bread. Though it doesn’t match the texture of rice, it can still help satisfy that craving for starchy goodness.

Are There Keto-friendly Rice Noodle Alternatives as Well?

As with low-carb rice substitutes, there are several keto-friendly rice noodle alternatives made out of konjac root and keto vegetables.

Of all the different and unique takes on noodles, here are some of best keto-friendly substitutes for rice noodles:

• Spiralized vegetables. While zucchini is the most common in keto recipes, you can also spiralize daikon radish, cucumbers, bell pepper, turnips, kohlrabi, onion, and even broccoli stems.
• Eggplant pasta. Cut eggplant into strips and cook as a penne-style pasta, or slice into thin sheets and use as a layering noodle in lasagna or pasta roll-up recipes.
• Thinly sliced cabbage can work really well as a noodle, but you can also use whole cabbage leaves as a layer in lasagna or even use it as a wrapper for eggroll type recipes.
• Miracle noodles. Also known as konjac or shirataki noodles, these fibrous noodles are made from the same ingredients as Miracle rice.
• Tofu noodles. Similar to shirataki noodles, these are typically a combination of tofu and glucomannan (the fiber found in konjac root). This yields a much more pleasant, less crunchy low-carb noodle.
• Homemade noodles. Using psyllium husk, almond flour, or a combination of low-carb flours, you can create keto noodles at home. These tend to be the most realistic in texture and flavor but can add a significant amount of calories to the dish, so you have to be mindful of your noodle portions.

To learn more about each noodle alternative and their keto recipes, check out our comprehensive guide to keto-friendly noodles and pasta.

Key Takeaways: Low Carb Rice Alternatives and Recipes for Keto

Rice is not suitable for low-carb and keto eating, regardless of the variety you have

However, there are plenty of low-carb rice substitutes that you can make to satisfy your craving for the starch-filled grain. These include:

• Riced cauliflower
• Miracle rice or shirataki rice
• Cabbage
• Hemp Seeds
• Mushrooms

With the help of these keto-friendly options, you can make virtually any of your favorite rice-based dishes, including:

• Low Carb Fried Rice
• Jalapeno Cauliflower Rice Balls
• Spicy Cauliflower Rice & Salmon Medley
• Cilantro Lime Shrimp with Crispy Coconut Caulirice
• Cajun Shrimp and Cauliflower Rice
• Peri Peri Bowl
• Keto Chicken and Rice Casserole
• Cauliflower Rice Congee
• Keto Sushi

If you are also looking for suitable substitutes for cauliflower-based rice, here are the three best options:

• Make Keto Mushroom Wild Rice Pilaf.
• Replace the cauliflower with one or more low-carb rice alternative(s).
• Skip the rice and have another keto side

That being said, even if you have the lowest carb rice substitute, it is still crucial to be mindful of how much fat, protein, and carbs you need to achieve the results you want.

The easiest way to make sure you are on the right track is by using our keto meal planning app. It will provide you with an unlimited eating plan personalized to your goals and preferences, so all you’ll have to do is shop for the ingredients, make your meals, and enjoy them.

Sources

• FoodData Central — USDA
• SELF Nutrition Data — NutritionData
• Foods to Avoid on a Ketogenic Diet: What is Keto-friendly? — Ruled.me
• 25 Best Keto Foods — Ruled.me
• Shirataki Noodles: How to Cook Them and Their Health Benefits — Ruled.me

The post Best Low Carb Rice Substitutes for Keto appeared first on Ruled Me.

In other words, keto doesn’t cause hair loss directly. Instead, it is the significant shift in what and how much we eat that can cause us to lose hair.

Fortunately, there is a simple solution that’ll help your hair regrow just as thick as before: eating more of the right keto foods. (Plus, you can even prevent hair loss with the same strategies!)

To reach your keto weight loss goals without losing your hair in the process, let’s address each crucial aspect of hair health:

• What causes hair growth vs. hair loss?
• Keto and hair loss
• Five common causes of hair loss on keto
• How to stop keto hair loss
• Key takeaways

The Process of Hair Growth and What Causes Hair Loss

Though the part of our hair we can touch is mostly composed of inert protein fibers, there is a lot going on underneath the surface of our skin to create this strong tissue we call hair.

In general, the anatomy of our hair can be simplified into two fundamental structures:

1. The follicle — Residing deep in your skin, the follicle is where hair growth starts (or stops) in response to the nourishment and chemical messages it receives from the body.
2. The shaft — This is the part of the hair that you can touch. It is made primarily of a protein called keratin, which is compacted and fused together.

Whether or not your hair grows, falls out, or grows back is determined by the hair growth phase your follicles are in:

1. Anagen phase — This is when hair growth happens. During this phase, the hair grows about 1 cm every 28 days, pushing the old hair up and out of the follicle. The length of each anagen phase depends on where the hair follicle is. For example, scalp hair typically stays in this phase for two to six years.
2. Catagen phase — A transitional stage where growth stops, lasting two to three weeks.
3. Telogen phase — Also known as the resting phase, this is when growth completely stops for up to 100 days. Around 6% to 8% of all hairs are in this phase while the rest is growing. Typically, 25 to 100 telogen hairs are shed each day.

Though each hair follicle will cycle through these phases throughout life, the number of hair follicles in a specific phase will vary based on various lifestyle factors.

Significant increases in stress, for example, can cause a greater percentage of follicles to shift into the telogen phase. This eventually leads to the shedding of more hair than usual.

Simply put, excess stress means more hair loss.

Does Keto Cause Hair Loss?

One often overlooked cause of stress that can lead to hair loss is making a major diet change.

In many cases, following a new diet requires us to eliminate certain types of foods, which increases the likelihood that we don’t eat enough calories, protein, or specific micronutrients to support optimal health. This forces your body to prioritize the function of your vital organs over hair growth.

If the stress from inadequate nutrition continues, more hair follicles will shift into the telogen (resting) phase and hair shedding will soon increase (but it may take several months before you notice substantial increases in hair loss).

Put in another way; if your diet is deficient, this can cause excess stress that leads to hair loss. (This is why backpackers, keto dieters, and raw vegans can all struggle with hair loss, regardless of how different their diets may look.)

To keep this from happening or promote hair regrowth, we must address the following keto hair loss culprits:

• Inadequate calorie intake
• Eating too little protein
• Lacking key vitamins and minerals for hair growth
• Abrupt carb restriction
• Gut health issues

Common Keto Hair Loss Cause #1:  Excessive Calorie Restriction

Studies have found that rapid weight loss can cause hair loss. When you substantially reduce your calorie intake, your body responds by making sure the available energy goes to the most important functions first.

At the level of the hair follicle, a process called telogen effluvium will take place, which is when more follicles shift from growing to resting. On the keto diet, this typically occurs when people don’t replace the calories they would usually get from high-carb foods with healthy fats and protein.

One simple way to keep keto from thinning your hair is by following a personalized keto meal plan that is designed for steady fat loss rather than rapid drops in weight. We’ll take a closer look at how to accomplish this after addressing the remaining causes of hair loss on keto.

Common Keto Hair Loss Cause #2: Inadequate Protein Intake

A popular keto concern is that eating too much protein will keep us from ketosis. This often influences keto dieters to limit their protein intake before learning that “too much protein” means much more than most of us would expect.

In fact, even those who are on a carnivore diet can easily maintain ketosis despite eating high-protein meals all day.

Furthermore, the downsides of eating too little protein far outweigh what might happen when we eat too much. Compared to a moderate-protein keto diet, someone who limits protein intake may lose the same amount of weight, but much more of it will come from their muscle and hair.

If inadequate protein intake is then added to a diet that restricts calories excessively, muscle and hair loss will be accelerated and compounded. In fact, one study on nutrient deficiencies and hair found that severe calorie deficits and low protein intake were the two main factors responsible for hair loss.

Common Keto Hair Loss Cause #3: Lacking Micronutrients for Hair Growth

When we change the foods we eat, this may also lead to vitamin and/or mineral deficiencies. As with any function in your body, your hair follicles need key vitamins and minerals for optimal function.

To reduce the risk of hair loss, make sure you are consuming foods that provide you with plenty of biotin, iron, zinc, and vitamins A, C, D, and E.

It is also crucial to replenish the minerals your body excretes as it adapts to keto. This includes sodium, magnesium, potassium, and iodine.

The simplest way to prevent vitamin and mineral deficiencies on keto is with a minimally-processed keto diet that features fresh seafood, fresh meat/poultry, eggs, low-carb vegetables, avocado, high-fat cheese, and keto nuts/seeds.

Common Keto Hair Loss Cause #4: Quick Drop in Carb Intake

As you cut carbs and you shift into ketosis, your body will start using more fat and ketones, instead of carbohydrates, for fuel. Due to a concept known as metabolic flexibility, the transition from carbs to fat can vary significantly from person to person.

Some of us, for example, experience a relatively smooth transition into ketosis, while others will struggle through flu-like symptoms, fatigue, and increased stress levels.

Often, the transition to ketosis will be eased by addressing the previous three keto hair loss culprits. However, if going strict keto is still too stressful for your body, then you may need to decrease carb intake at a slower pace.

Common Keto Hair Loss Cause #5: Gut Health Issues

Your gut health directly affects every system in your body, including your hair, skin, and nails. If you are struggling with gut issues, it can increase overall stress levels and cause your follicles to put hair growth on hold.

Furthermore, recent research in mice has found that an unhealthy gut microbiome can prevent the production of key hair health nutrients, particularly biotin. As a result, mice that were fed a biotin-deficient diet experienced substantial amounts of hair loss.

Since the human gut microbiome also synthesizes biotin (along with thiamine, folate, riboflavin, pantothenic acid, and Vitamin K), this finding demonstrates the importance of taking care of our gut microbiome, especially as we adopt a new diet.

The Keto Hair Loss Solution: 3 Steps to Fix or Prevent Hair Loss

Although there are five common hair loss culprits, it will not be necessary to apply five separate solutions to resolve each one. In fact, all it takes is three simple steps to address them:

1. Calculate and track your keto macros.
2. Eat more micronutrient-rich keto foods.
3. Transition to ketosis carefully with the help of the right foods, supplements, and strategies.

Step 1: Calculate and Track Your Macros As You Adapt to Keto

With this step, you can address the top two causes of hair loss on keto: Inadequate calorie and protein intake.

To figure out what you should aim for, plug your info into our keto calculator. This will help you establish a baseline to start from.

In general, it is best to stay within the range of a 5-30% calorie deficit. If you have lower body fat levels (or only a few pounds to lose), aim for a lower deficit to prevent muscle and hair loss.

When it comes to protein intake, you can either follow the numbers you get from the keto calculator or figure out your daily limit with these guidelines:

• If you are sedentary — consume 0.6 – 0.8g of protein per pound of lean body mass.
• If you are regularly active — have 0.8 – 1.0g of protein per pound of lean body mass.
• If you lift weights — eat 1.0 – 1.2g of protein per pound of lean body mass.

To decrease the likelihood that you’ll lose hair and muscle mass, it is best to shoot for the higher end of these protein intake ranges.

Once you’re equipped with your keto macros, track what you eat using a keto-friendly tracking app to make sure you are hitting your macro goals and minimizing your risk of hair loss. (If you need help configuring the app for keto, follow the steps in our guide to macro tracking.)

During your first week of keto, you may lose 2 to 10 pounds of water weight. Make sure you are drinking plenty of water with electrolytes during this time.

After your initial drop in water weight, aim for a slow and steady weight loss rate of 1-2 pounds per week. This gentle decrease in weight will minimize the stress that following a new diet places on the body.

Step 2: Eat Mostly Micronutrient-rich Keto Foods

To reduce the risk of hair loss, we must meet our vitamin and mineral needs as well. More specifically, make sure you are adding natural sources of biotin, iron, zinc, and vitamins A, C, D, & E to your keto meals.

Not only will this address any micronutrient deficiencies that can contribute to hair loss, but you will improve gut health and your ability to adapt to keto as well (i.e., the fourth and fifth keto hair loss culprits).

Simply put, eat more minimally-processed low-carb foods. This includes:

• Meat — Fresh cuts of beef, lamb, and pork are a great source of keto-friendly protein, zinc, iron, and b-vitamins.
• Organ meats — The most nutrient-dense of the organ meats is beef liver, which is one of the best sources of vitamin A, iron, copper, and biotin on keto.
• Fish — Not only is fresh fish filled with healthy fat and protein, but it provides us with a good source of vitamin D, zinc, iodine, iron, magnesium, and potassium. Wild-caught sardines, mackerel, and salmon are typically the most nutrient-rich options.
• Shellfish — Most shellfish are packed with essential hair health minerals, including zinc and iron.
• Poultry — Need help with increasing your protein and zinc intake on keto? Add in more chicken and turkey.
• Eggs — While the egg white is a great source of protein for keto, the yolk serves as a low-dose multivitamin, providing us with a good source of biotin, vitamin A, and vitamin D, along with ten other essential vitamins and minerals. Simply put, eggs will benefit your overall health, from your hair follicles to your bones.
• Low carb fruits and vegetables — Leafy greens, cruciferous veggies, herbs, tomatoes, and avocado are low-carb plant foods that’ll help cover most of your remaining hair-growth nutrient needs. By adding them to your keto meals, you’ll get plenty of vitamin C, biotin, and vitamin E, along with a plethora of electrolytes and antioxidants. Along with that, you’ll be feeding the good bacteria in your gut and supporting gut health as well.
• Low-carb nuts and seeds — As with keto-friendly fruit and vegetables, nuts and seeds are packed with a variety of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that are relatively sparse in meat and seafood. Keto-friendly nuts and seeds, in particular, provide us with one of the best natural sources of vitamin E and biotin.
• High-fat cheese — Cheese makes every dish better by boosting its flavor and health benefits. Adding extra cheese is one of the easiest ways to ensure you get plenty of fat, protein, vitamin A, and zinc with your keto meal.
• Mushrooms — Turn them into pizza crust, use them as a keto bun, or toss some of your favorite mushrooms into your keto meal for extra zinc, biotin, and vitamin D.

With this keto food list in mind, we can now bring steps 1 and 2 together: Meet your calorie and protein needs with micronutrient-rich keto-friendly foods (and you will get the results you want without losing your hair over it). See our keto friendly recipes for inspiration.

For some of us, however, implementing these steps may not be enough to mitigate hair loss entirely. In this case, we must take extra precautions (with step 3) to make the keto transition as easy on the body as possible.

Step 3: Adapt to Ketosis Carefully with the Right Foods, Supplements, and Strategies

This step will help address any remaining gaps in your keto diet, easing your body’s transition into ketosis.

Keto Supplements to Consider:

• Electrolytes — When we significantly reduce our carb intake, we tend to lose fluid and electrolytes rapidly. If you don’t replenish these lost minerals, you may experience hair loss and flu-like symptoms (which are known as the keto flu). While you are transitioning to keto eating, make sure to increase your intake of key electrolytes, particularly sodium, potassium, and magnesium. For more in-depth recommendations, check out our article on how to remedy the keto flu.
• MCT oil — MCTs are a type of fat that can be rapidly converted into ketones in the liver. This can help improve our ability to adapt to keto. To find the right MCT supplement for you, read through our guide to MCT oil.
• Collagen — Whether it’s coming from a collagen protein supplement, bone broth, chicken skin, or pork rinds, make sure you get a daily dose of this protein. Not only will it improve the health of your skin, hair, and nails, but it can help improve gut health and sleep quality as well. To learn more, check out our guide to collagen on keto.
• Vitamin D3 — If you aren’t able to get adequate sun exposure, vitamin D3 supplementation will help ensure optimal health. For most people, taking 1,000-2,000IU of D3 per day is sufficient.
• Coconut oil — A 2018 review of coconut oil studies discovered that topical coconut oil may help prevent hair damage. Try gently massaging some into your scalp as a way to provide nourishment directly to the follicle.

Keto Strategies and Medicinal Foods:

• Reduce carb intake little by little — If going from high-carb eating to strict keto is too stressful for your body, then try taking the slow and steady approach to keto instead. Start by cutting out processed high-carb foods like chips and candy for 1-2 months, then progress to grains, followed by beans, potatoes, and so on. Replace those high-carb foods with the keto foods from the list under step 2. After several months, you’ll likely find yourself in ketosis without having to struggle through a difficult keto transition.
• Add fermented foods to your meals — Sauerkraut, kimchi, sugar-free coconut yogurt, and other fermented low-carb foods provide us with the easiest and cheapest way to add probiotics and other gut health-promoting nutrients to our keto diet.
• Eat high-biotin foods each day — This b-vitamin is essential for healthy hair, skin, and nails, but biotin deficiency is unlikely if you’re on a healthy keto diet. As long as you include a few of the following foods into your low-carb eating plan, you should be able to meet your biotin needs: Cauliflower, whole eggs, salmon, almonds, avocados, spinach, mushrooms, or high-fat dairy.
• Don’t forget the zinc-rich foods — This essential mineral plays a crucial role in hair tissue growth and repair. On keto, red meat and poultry will provide the majority of zinc. Other good sources include low-carb nuts, shellfish, and high-fat dairy.
• Eat the skin and make your own broth — These are two of the cheapest natural sources of collagen. A simple way to save big on meals and supplements is by buying a whole chicken, eating the skin, and using the leftover parts to make your own bone broth.
• Incorporate other foods with hair-nourishing phytonutrients — Green tea, onions, capers, and pumpkin seeds all contain high amounts of particular plant compounds that might help reduce hair loss and support healthy hair growth. These compounds include EGCG (found in green tea), quercetin (found in capers, onions, and green tea), and cucurbitin (found in pumpkin seeds).
• Add stress-relieving activities to your keto lifestyle — Meditation, brisk walks, hiking, yoga, and other stress-reducing activities will help you keep stress levels under control, so you don’t lose your hair over keto, literally and metaphorically.
• Be gentle with your hair as you adapt to keto — As you adjust to keto dieting, make sure to use a gentle shampoo and a moisturizing conditioner. It is also best to avoid harsh formulas, chemical treatments, tight braids/ponytails, and excessive heat exposure.

Though there are a lot of suggestions in these three steps to stopping hair loss, the bottom line is to follow a well-formulated ketogenic diet plan with nutrient-dense low-carb recipes. This will naturally address the nutritional deficiencies that cause hair loss while supporting healthy hair growth as you’re losing weight. (You’ll also be able to avoid several other potential side effects of low-carb, high-fat diets as well.)

Key Takeaways: Keto Hair Loss, the Three-step Solution, and How to Prevent It

Any significant increase in stress can cause our hair to fall out. A common cause of stress-induced hair loss is implementing a restrictive diet.

Though keto isn’t directly to blame for thinning hair, transitioning to the diet can increase the likelihood that the following five hair loss culprits occur:

• Severe calorie restriction
• Inadequate protein intake
• Micronutrient deficiency
• An abrupt drop in carbs
• Gut health issues

Fortunately, these five causes of hair loss can be addressed with three simple steps:

1. Calculate and track your keto macros.
2. Eat more micronutrient-rich keto foods.
3. Adapt to ketosis carefully with the help of the right foods, supplements, and strategies.

With the help of these steps, you will be able to address the cause of keto hair loss at the root, preventing further thinning and stimulating growth.

Sources

• How to Lose Weight on a Ketogenic Diet —me
• Caloric Restriction and Hair Growth | Nutrition Reviews — Oxford Academic
• Diet and hair loss: effects of nutrient deficiency and supplement use — NCBI
• The Role of Vitamins and Minerals in Hair Loss: A Review — Springer Link
• Physiology, Hair — NCBI
• Intestinal Dysbiosis and Biotin Deprivation Induce Alopecia through Overgrowth of Lactobacillus murinus in Mice — NCBI
• Contributions of Intestinal Bacteria to Nutrition and Metabolism in the Critically Ill — NCBI
• Biotin – Health Professional Fact Sheet — NIH
• Vitamin D Supplement: Health Benefits, Dosage, Side Effects — Examine
• Health Effects of Coconut Oil-A Narrative Review of Current Evidence — NCBI
• Effect of Pumpkin Seed Oil on Hair Growth in Men with Androgenetic Alopecia: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial — NCBI
• Human hair growth enhancement in vitro by green tea epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) — NCBI
• Prevention and treatment of alopecia areata with quercetin in the C3H/HeJ mouse model — NCBI

The post Keto Hair Loss: Why It Happens and How to Prevent It appeared first on Ruled Me.

Ironically, the most popular camping foods, meals, and snacks are so highly processed that they bear little resemblance to real food. From the chips to the sugar-filled trail mix, the hotdog buns to the deli salads (and let’s not forget about s’mores), most classic camping foods are packed with processed carbs and far from being healthy.

That being said, it is surprisingly simple to improve health and reach your keto goals while camping, hiking, and backpacking. All it takes is packing nutrient-dense keto-friendly foods and ditching all the highly-refined high-carb “foods” they are often accompanied by.

To help you plan for your next trip, let’s explore the most important aspects of how to stay in ketosis while your camping, hitting the trails, and backpacking:

• Why keto and camping are a great combination
• Three things to consider before you go
• Keto camping food list
• Keto camping meals: low-carb breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert recipes
• Easy 3-day keto camping meal plan
• Food tips to minimize waste and maximize taste
• Keto hiking and backpacking food list
• Easy backpacking meal recipes
• Key takeaways

Why Keto Makes Camping, Hiking, and Backpacking Easier (and Vice Versa)

Keto and camping are the perfect combination for two key reasons:

1. By eating keto while camping, hiking, or backpacking, you’ll free up more space for nutrient-dense foods that’ll fuel you up, improve your health, and keep you satisfied.
2. Keto is much easier to follow when we’re surrounded by nature rather than the temptation of fast food, candy, and high-carb snacks around every corner.

While you’re camping on keto, weight loss is likely to happen effortlessly and naturally as your body burns more fat and ketones for fuel and high-carb foods are no longer readily available.

That being said, jumping on the keto train right before your camping trip won’t be the best strategy. It is crucial to account for the three keto considerations in the next section before you go.

Three Key Keto Camping Considerations: Ketosis, Activity Levels, and Meal Planning

Before you start packing for your camping, hiking, or backpacking trip, there are a few keto-related questions you must consider:

How long have you been on the keto diet?

Before getting into nutritional ketosis, you may experience flu-like symptoms as your body adapts to carb restriction. Though the symptoms usually go away in a few days, you’ll find it hard to be a happy camper during this time.

For this reason, it may be best to give yourself at least 1-2 weeks on a strict ketogenic diet before going on your camping or backpacking trip.

If you are already keto-adapted, then staying keto will be much easier. Plus, you’ll be able to add some extra carbs into your diet to compensate for any long hikes you go on.

On the other hand, if you can’t change your plans, you may want to hold off on strict keto until you get home. Instead, use the camping trip as an opportunity to cut back on high-carb foods and ease your transition into ketosis.

How active are you going to be?

It is crucial to plan your meals and snacks around what your activity levels will be.

In general, how much you eat will depend on these two principles:

1. If you’re planning on relaxing more than usual, then you should eat fewer calories. This can be done by slightly decreasing your intake of pure fats and oils (e.g., butter and olive oil).
2. In contrast, if you’re going to be more active than usual, then you can eat more calories without gaining weight.

The second principle is particularly important for backpackers or anyone hiking for multiple hours a day. If this substantial increase in activity levels is not compensated for with extra calorie consumption, then your body will start breaking down muscle and won’t be able to recover from the hike.

To get a better idea of how much extra food you’ll need, I’d recommend using a backpacking activity calculator and adding that estimate to the macros you get from our keto calculator.

Did you plan your meals, snacks, and emergency foods?

In general, it is better to over-prepare for your trip. There is nothing worse than having a beautiful serene spot in the middle of the woods and running out of food. (This is especially true for keto backpackers who have no car to get them back to town.)

The easiest strategy is to make sure you have a plan for each meal with extra nutrient-dense keto snacks that can serve as meal replacements if necessary.

How much excess food you pack will ultimately depend on what style of camping or backpacking you decide to do.  For example, if you’re backpacking and space/weight are at a premium, you’ll want to prioritize the highest calorie, easy-to-prepare foods with the least water weight.

In contrast, for those of you planning to bring your car and 2 or more coolers, you can be much more flexible with what keto foods, snacks, and meals you have.

With these considerations in mind, the only barrier standing in our way to staying ketosis while camping is knowing exactly what to eat. Fortunately, there are a host of on-the-go keto foods and easy-to-make recipes to choose from.

Keto Camping Food List: What Foods to Eat and What to Avoid to Stay in Ketosis

Before we start prepping, let’s save some space and money by learning what popular camping foods to avoid.

Common camping and hiking foods to avoid on keto:

• Bread, buns, and rolls — All baked goods should be avoided on keto
• Chips, pretzels, crackers, and other high-carb snack foods
• “Healthy” trail snacks — Trail mix, Chex mix, energy bars, dried fruit, fruit snacks, and granola are often branded as being healthy trail snacks, but often contain more net carbs than candy or bread.
• Candy — high-sugar chocolates and other sweets. Opt for sugar-free chocolate instead.
• Starchy veggies — potatoes, sweet potatoes, and other starchy tubers
• High-sugar fruits — bananas, apples, pineapples, mango, etc.
• Deli salads and slaws with high-carb ingredients — Premade coleslaws often have added sugars, while popular deli salads, such as potato salad and macaroni salad, feature high-carb ingredients.
• Sugar-added sauces, dressings, and condiments — Ketchup, BBQ sauce, and honey mustard dressing are common sugar-filled campsite culprits. Make sure you find a sugar-free product or make them before you go with keto recipes.
• Cereal, oats, and all other grain-based products
• High-sugar drinks — This includes regular soda, lemonade, milk, and fruit juice.
• High-carb alcohol — Most beers and flavored/sweetened alcoholic drinks are carb-rich culprits. For a complete list of what to drink and what to avoid, read through our guide to keto-friendly alcohol.

Though you may have to ditch these high-carb camping staples, there’s a major upside to keep in mind: By avoiding them, you will free up plenty of space for some of the most satisfying foods.

Healthy Keto Camping Food List

Here’s a summary of our keto camping food list, but scroll down below for a more in-depth look at what to eat and tips on how to include them:

Low-carb Foods to Keep Cool

• Low-carb fruit — Berries, avocado, and tomatoes.
• Low-carb vegetables — Celery, peppers, mushrooms, cabbage, brussels sprouts, asparagus, broccoli, and cauliflower are some examples of keto veggies that keep relatively well without a fridge.
• Fresh meat or vacuum-packed meat — Make sure to keep it chilled and prepare it within 3 to 5 days.
• Hard cheeses — Parmesan, cheddar, cheese sticks, etc.
• Other high-fat dairy products — Heavy cream, cream cheese, sour cream, and soft cheeses.
• Eggs — hard-boiled eggs are particularly easy to pack and incorporate into meals/snacks for extra protein and fat.
• Keto condiments — Sugar-free ketchup, keto bbq sauce, marinara, and sugar-free dressing.
• Fat bombs — A quick high-fat snack or dessert (and the perfect backup food). Easy to make and pack for camping and backpacking.
• Keto tortillas — Make them at home and pack them in the cooler to make a delicious wrap or burrito with the keto camping recipes below. You can even use them to make a simple bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast burrito to start your day.
• Keto bread — Make sweet or savory low-carb bread and bring it for breakfast or the perfect keto bun and sandwich bread replacement.
• Deli meats — For more fat, look for salami, mortadella, and full-fat cold cuts. If you need help getting enough protein, buy some leaner cuts as well (e.g., chicken and turkey).
• Smoked fish — The vacuum-sealed smoked salmon is an example of an easy-to-pack camping-friendly fish option.
• Premade meals or leftovers — Scroll down to the camping recipe section for some keto inspiration.

Frozen Foods

• Sausages
• Bacon
• Your favorite cuts of meat
• Salmon and other fatty fish — defrost then wrap in foil and cook on the campfire
• Shellfish — prawns, for example, are a great option for a quick campfire stir fry
• Cauliflower rice — perfect for quick campfire stir-fries or hash browns
• Low-carb frozen vegetable mixes — Just throw them in your camping pan and stir-fry with meat or fish.
• Frozen berries

Keto Camp Foods With a Long Shelf Life

High-protein options:

• Packets of tuna or other fish — Opt for the fish that is packed in olive oil.
• Canned meat and seafood — chicken, tuna, sardines, mackerel, etc.
• Jerky*
• Pork rinds*
• Turkey pepperoni*
• Meat sticks*

*Make sure there’s no added sugar or artificial ingredients.

High-fat options:

• Coconut Oil
• Olive Oil
• Olives
• Cheese chips — Whisps, Moon Cheese, and homemade cheese chips are all great options.
• Premade keto-approved granola
• Nuts and seeds
• Sugar-free nut butter
• Seed crackers
• Canned coconut cream or milk
• Pemmican
• Sugar-free dark chocolate
• Beef and/or pork pepperoni and other cured meats
• Vacuum-sealed hard cheese
• Premade keto bars — Though there are many “keto-approved” products out there, many of them aren’t as keto-friendly as their labels claim. To ensure you get a nutrient-dense and healthy keto bar, we recommend making them yourself.

Drinks and beverages:

• Water — Bring a water filter and filter water from a stream to save space.
• Coffee or tea
• Keto-friendly alcohol — Unflavored hard liquor, dry red or white wine, and low-carb beers are the most reliable options. However, I recommend reading our keto guide to alcohol before indulging.

For a complete list of keto drinks (with and without alcohol), check out our complete guide to drinks and beverages.

Keto Recipes for Satisfying Camping Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and Dessert Ideas

Rather than mixing and matching from the food list above, you can plan your camping menu ahead of time with the help of the keto recipes below. For each meal, we’ve included recipes you cook over the fire as well as delicious easy-to-store meals you can make before you go.

Keto Camping Breakfast Recipes

Keto Campfire “Oatmeal”

A comforting low-carb “oatmeal” recipe that is perfect for chilly mornings by the campfire. Just mix the dry ingredients before you go and bring your preferred keto-friendly milk alternative with you.

Warm the keto milk over the campfire and stir in the dry ingredients until it resembles oatmeal. Pour your keto “oatmeal” into a bowl and top with crushed nuts, seeds, and/or berries.

Sliced Keto Sandwich Bread

Bread that won’t kick you out of ketosis. Make a loaf before you go and toast it in your campfire pan with butter for a quick high-fat keto breakfast. (Missing a few of the ingredients? Check out our other keto bread recipes.)

Keto Zucchini Bread with Walnut Crust

If you prefer to start your morning with something sweet, this keto zucchini bread will be the perfect breakfast. Warm each slice over the campfire and spread with butter, cream cheese, or nut butter for a satisfying low-carb camping meal.

Maple Pecan Fat Bomb Bars

For a quick no-fuss breakfast, bring these fat bomb bars with you. They are nutritious, delicious, and packed with healthy fats, making them a great meal replacement energy bar to bring with you on the trail.

Keto Camping Lunch Recipes

Keto Chicken Salad

Skip the deli line and make the chicken salad yourself. This keto recipe makes for a quick lunch bowl or a satisfying lunch wrap on a low-carb tortilla.

Creamy Keto Taco Soup

A hearty, flavorful soup that is incredibly easy to make at home and reheat over the campfire. Don’t forget to add some extra cheese and avocado on top if you need to fuel up for the trail.

Easy Keto Smoked Salmon Lunch Bowl

If you’re looking for a lazy lunch idea, bring these keto recipe ingredients with you and assemble the bowl for a quick meal. Feel free to use any extra lime, greens, or mayo to make tonight’s dinner or tomorrow’s lunch even better.

Hawaiian Hot Dogs

Though you can have them without the bun on keto, there’s nothing like packing a hot dog with all the fix-ins. Feel free to customize the toppings with your keto favorites, especially if you are bringing beanless campfire chili or pulled pork with you.

Don’t forget to bring the two-ingredient keto hot dog buns with you. They are surprisingly satisfying and can be used as low-carb tortillas or bread replacements if you’re limited on space.

Dinner Ideas for Keto Camping

Easy Keto Campfire Chili

All you need is the right mixture of spices, sugar-free tomato sauce, cheese, and meat to make a delicious campfire keto chili. In fact, this recipe is so simple that you can make it all in one pot over the fire (as long as you skip the sauteed onions and peppers) — or just make a big batch at home and use the fire to warm it up for dinner.

Portobello Mushroom Burger Bun

If you’re craving a juicy burger with all your favorite toppings, this is the recipe is for you.  Just clean and marinate the mushrooms and prepare the burger mixture beforehand so that all you have to do is grill them over the fire.

Keto Carnitas

There is nothing like slow-cooked pork by the campfire. Though it’s easier to make it at home and fill your Tupperware to the brim with carnitas, you can also slow-cook the pork shoulder in a large pot over the fire. Just make sure to give it plenty of time to cook — and don’t forget the low-carb tortillas.

One-Pan Cabbage and Bacon Keto Bowl

Bacon, green cabbage, butter, a skillet, a fire, and a trusty knife are all you need to prepare this keto meal. It can also be made as a side dish to accompany your carnitas, burgers, or chili.

To maximize storage space, chop the bacon and cabbage beforehand and pack it into separate containers. You can also cook it up and pack the leftovers for a quick meal or side dish.

Keto Chicken Bacon Ranch Foil Packet Meals

Foil packet meals are an awesome keto camping hack that can save you a ton of time and minimize clean-up. Essentially, you’ll be loading up heavy-duty aluminum foil with your preferred meat, low-carb vegetables, and seasonings, seal them up into a foil packet, and cook them over the campfire and/or grill until done.

As an example, For a quick chicken bacon ranch foil packet meal, follow these six simple steps:

1. Tear off a ~15-inch foil sheet and grease it with EVOO
2. Mix bit-sized raw chicken pieces with EVOO and ½ teaspoon of ranch seasoning
3. Place a cup of broccoli on the center of each sheet, followed by chicken, ¼ cup of shredded cheese, and a piece of crumbled cooked bacon.
4. Fold up the edges of each tin foil sheet lengthwise, and fold them over to seal them together. Make sure the packet is sealed.
5. Place foil packets on a preheated grill over medium heat or over the campfire. Cook for 10-15 minutes, flipping halfway through. Make sure to check for doneness.

Feel free to customize your own keto foil packet meals as well. Just use the low-carb camping food list and this recipe example as your guide.

Keto-friendly Camping Desserts

No Bake Coconut Cashew Bars

High-fat, low-carb, delicious, and filling, these bars are a must-have if you are craving something sweet or need a reliable keto snack on the trail.

No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Fat Bombs

To get your peanut butter and chocolate fix, make a batch of these and take them with you. Feel free to double up the recipe and bring them on the trail for a great hiking snack as well.

Coconut Chocolate Fat Bombs

These are the perfect desserts for anyone who finds themselves eating a bit too much chocolate candy when they’re camping.

Neapolitan Fat Bombs

A delicious camp-friendly dessert for fruit lovers, these fat bombs combine chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla with keto sweeteners to satisfy your sweet tooth. If Neapolitan is not your favorite flavor combo, check out our fat bomb guide for more keto camping dessert ideas.

Easy Keto Camping Meal Plan: 3-day Example

To give you a better idea of what keto eating looks like in the great outdoors, we formulated this straightforward meal plan suitable for a long weekend camping trip:

Day 1: The Most Convenient Keto Camping Options

• Breakfast: 1 Maple Pecan Fat Bomb Bar (make a batch before you go and have them as a quick on-the-road breakfast)
• Lunch: 1 serving of Keto Chicken Salad with one Low-carb Tortilla
• Keto hiking snack: 1 serving of Keto-friendly Granola
• Dinner: 1 keto foil packet meal of your choice
• Dessert (optional): Eat as many No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Fat Bombs as necessary to meet your needs

Day 2: Cooking Around the Campfire

• Breakfast: 1 serving of Keto Campfire “Oatmeal”
• Lunch: 1 serving of Hawaiian Hot Dogs
• Hiking snack: 1 Maple Pecan Fat Bomb Bar
• Dinner: 1 Portobello Mushroom Bun Burger
• Dessert (optional): Eat as many Neapolitan Fat Bombs as necessary to meet your needs

Day 3: Just Heat and Eat

• Breakfast: 1-2 slices of Keto Zucchini Bread with Walnut Crust with 1-2 tbsp of butter, cream cheese, or Keto Nutella
• Lunch: 1 serving of Creamy Keto Taco Soup
• Low-carb hiking snack: 1-2 Coconut Cashew Bars
• Dinner: 1 serving of Keto Campfire Chili
• Dessert (optional): Eat as many Coconut Chocolate Fat Bombs as necessary to meet your needs

Keep in mind that your servings and portion sizes will depend on your specific macronutrient needs and daily activity levels. To figure out how much you should eat to stay on track toward achieving your weight loss goals, use our keto calculator.

Keto Camping Food Tips: How to Minimize Food Waste & Maximize Taste

If you’re not sure exactly how to prioritize your foods, meals, and recipes, I recommend following these camping tips:

1. Eat fresh food first. Without the climate control of the fridge or freezer, you may find that your fresh foods spoil more quickly than expected. This is why it is best to eat your fresh meat, fruit, non-frozen leftovers, and any spoil-prone dairy products first.
2. Prioritize frozen food after fresh. Once your fresh food has been consumed, start eating the frozen food that you brought along with you. This includes frozen meat and pre-made keto meals. Only thaw out what you plan to eat within the next 1-2 days, and keep the rest in your frozen food cooler.
3. Consume long shelf-life foods sparingly until you’ve finished your frozen foods/meals. For example, don’t eat your packet of tuna until you’ve made your burgers, carnitas, etc.
4. Bring extra snacks that can also serve as high-fat meals. Think of this as your food insurance policy. If something happens to your main meals or if you’re hours deep into a hike and feeling fatigued, keto snacks will be there to save you.

Keep in mind, however, these rules work best for camping trips with the help of cars and coolers. Everything changes when storage isn’t plentiful, climate control is not an option, and we don’t have the luxury of an automobile.

Hit the Trails: Keto Backpacking Meals and the Best Hiking Snacks

If you are going on long hikes (lasting longer than 2 hours) or backpacking, it is best to prioritize high-fat, low-water foods that will not spoil quickly. These foods tend to take up the least space and provide the most calories, which is crucial when you’re burning up such a substantial amount of energy.

Let’s take a look at the best trail foods that fit into this category, followed by the simplest keto meals you can have after you set up camp at the next spot.

The Best Keto Foods and Snacks for Hiking and Backpacking

• Fish packed in olive oil — Tuna, salmon, mackerel, and sardines with olive oil are the best options. Opt for the pouches rather than the cans if possible.
• Pork rinds — A light-weight, nutrient-dense trail snack that is perfect for keto.
• Nuts — Pecans and macadamia are the highest-fat options.
• Nut butter — Opt for the highest calorie nut butter stored in packets rather than jars. You can make it yourself as well with the help of our nut butter recipe.
• High-fat deli meats — A simple way to fit more fat, protein, electrolytes, and flavor into your trail meals. Make sure to pack them carefully and keep them as cool as you can.
• Hard cheese — It may sound crazy, but opt for a block of the highest-fat cheese rather than individually packed sticks. Just use your knife to create your own cheese stick. This will help minimize waste and maximize space.
• Cheese crisps — Whisps, Moon cheese, and even homemade cheese chips are delicious trail foods. If you are buying bags of cheese crisps, I recommend dumping the crisps into a larger bag and getting as much air out as possible.
• Meat sticks — Packed with protein, meat sticks provide us with an easy way to boost recovery after long hikes.
• Pemmican — A high-fat version of a meat stick.
• Jerky — You can’t go wrong with dehydrated meats on the trail. Have a handful of nuts with the jerky for a high-fat, protein-rich trail meal.
• Fat bombs — Make a batch of your favorite fat bombs with the help of the recipes above and our fat bomb guide. (Note: This will only work if you use fats that won’t melt at the temperatures you are likely to encounter during your trip.)
• Grain-free, sugar-free granola — Find some keto granola on the shelves, online, or make it yourself before you go.
• Keto-friendly energy bars — Whether you use the bar recipes above or purchase some keto bars at the store, these are the easiest way to sneak in a quick high-fat snack or meal. Our favorite’s are Perfect Keto Bars.

Are you looking for more keto trail snack ideas? Check out our complete list of keto-friendly snacks.

Keto Backpacking Meal Ideas and Recipes: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and Dessert

Backpacking meals are not as glamorous as the camping recipes above, but they can still be flavorful and satisfying:

Three Ingredient Backpacker Breakfast Recipe: Rehydrated Keto Cereal

What you’ll need:

• Powdered keto creamer — this can be powdered heavy cream, flavored MCT oil powder, or a powdered keto creamer product.
• Premade low-carb granola cereal — Use our keto recipe or find a keto-friendly granola/cereal in the store.
• Filtered water — Use a trusted water filter to filter water from a nearby stream.

How to make it:

1. Mix the creamer with water to make a keto-friendly milk alternative.
2. Pour over a bowl of keto granola for a hearty, filling keto backpacking breakfast.

Alternatively, use your rehydrated keto milk to make the campfire keto “oatmeal” from the camping breakfast recipe section above.

Quick Trail Lunch Idea for Keto Hiking — Two Ingredient Tuna Salad

What you’ll need:

• Tuna pouch — Feel free to use any other meat/fish stored in a pouch or can. The best option will be meat/fish packaged in olive oil (not water) and stored in a pouch (not a can).
• 2-4 mayo sachets — Use any mayo you can find at a store, restaurant, or rest stop. Since your activity levels will be so high, there is no need to worry about the 1-2 grams of net carbs that you may find in the mayo.
• Optional: Add yellow mustard, salt, and/or pepper for added flavor. These will likely be found next to the mayo sachets.

How to make it:

1. Mix tuna and mayo together in a bowl or the tuna pouch (if there is room).

Alternatively, squirt some mayo on each bite of tuna for a deconstructed trail-friendly tuna salad.

Two Easy Keto Dinner Ideas for Backpackers

• Meat and cheese wraps with nuts — After a long hike, this’ll taste like a restaurant-quality meat and cheese plate. Just wrap 1-2 slices of your preferred deli meat around a piece of hard cheese. Switch it up with a handful of nuts, so your palate doesn’t get bored.
• Dehydrated keto meals — This the priciest, yet most convenient option. Unfortunately, most dehydrated backpacking meals are high-carb, so make sure you double-check the label. (The most highly-recommended dehydrated meal brand I’ve found for keto backpacking is Next Mile Meals.)

Dessert and Trail Snack Recipes

If you’re planning to backpack or hike for multiple hours a day, I recommend having a trail snack and dessert to make sure you have enough food to recover for the next day.

We’ve included three delicious recipes below that make for the perfect snack and dessert:

• Protein-packed nut butter rolls — Also known as “hippie candy,” you can make these by mixing nut butter with whey protein and rolling a portion of the mixture in shredded coconut.
• Double Peanut Butter Balls — Perfect for peanut butter lovers. Make a batch and sneak it into the extra spaces in your backpack before you go.
• Coconut Peanut Butter Balls — Similar to the peanut butter balls, but with one key difference: cocoa powder. These are just as easy to make and are the perfect trail food for satisfying chocolate cravings.

Key Takeaways: Staying Keto While Camping, Hiking, and Backpacking

Regardless of your camping style, it is crucial to keep these two principles in mind so you can stay keto:

• Plan ahead based on your activity levels and food preferences — Know how much you should aim to eat and what to bring based on your camping style. If you are going on long hikes, it’s crucial to consume more food than you normally would.
• Prioritize the right keto foods and recipes — Backpacking means you’ll need plenty of high-fat, low-water foods. In contrast, if you’re camping with your car and coolers, you’ll have much more space and flexibility for fresh and frozen foods.

To make planning for your next keto camping, hiking, or backpacking trip as simple as possible, we’ve included several resources below:

• Keto Calculator — Estimate how much you need to eat to reach your goals with keto.
• Ultimate Keto Snacks List to Help with Ketosis — An extensive list of keto-friendly snack foods, many of which are trail-friendly.
• How To Stick to Keto While Traveling — More travel tips that can help you stay keto while on-the-go.

Remember, however, it is best to hit the trails after you are in nutritional ketosis. (This may take up to 2 weeks of strict keto eating.)

If you need help getting started before your trip, the easiest option is to use our keto meal planning app. It will do most of the hard work for you, so all that’s left is to prep your meals and enjoy!

The post Complete Guide to Keto Camping, Hiking, and Backpacking appeared first on Ruled Me.

Unfortunately, many of the best dishes are filled with starchy foods, flour, or sugar. This can make it challenging to satisfy your craving for Italian food on keto. Find out exactly which foods to avoid when making delicious Italian food.

However, this doesn’t mean you have to give up on all of your Italian favorites to stay in ketosis.  In fact, with a few simple ingredient substitutions, restaurant ordering tips, and keto-friendly recipes, you can have a complete Italian meal that tastes authentic and helps you get the results you want.

The Problem with Eating Italian Food on Keto: High Carb Ingredients that Impair Ketosis

Often, the most popular Italian dishes feature high-carb foods and ingredients. In general, the following are the most common keto offenders are:

• Pasta — It is best to avoid all pasta dishes and side items with pasta on keto. This includes ravioli, tortellini, manicotti, and lasagna as well. Though they are commonly stuffed with keto-friendly foods like cheese and meat, don’t forget about their high-carb pasta wrapping.
• Bread, breading, breadcrumbs, and croutons — Each one is made from high-carb flours. Be cautious of meatballs and meat/seafood dishes as they typically have breadcrumbs or breading added to them. Double-check with the wait staff before ordering.
• Pizza crust — Pizza crust is made up of the same components as bread. This means that pizza, strombolis, and calzones should all be avoided (or made with keto-friendly crust).
• Rice or corn-based dishes — The most common culprits in this category are risotto, arancini, and polenta.
• Soup — Most Italian soups feature pasta, beans, starchy veggie, or a combo of these ingredients. For example, Zuppa Toscana, minestrone, and Italian wedding soup all have high-carb ingredients lurking in their broth.
• Dessert — Italian classics like cannolis, tiramisu, lemon cake, and biscotti are far from keto-friendly. To satisfy your craving for these desserts, we’ve included several options in our keto Italian recipe section below.

Keto Italian Food Staples You Can Order at the Restaurant

Though we’ve just taken away a big chunk of the menu, there are still plenty of traditional Italian options you can rely on that are both keto-friendly and delicious:

• Olives — Ask for fresh olives instead of bread.
• Cured meats — Prosciutto, pepperoni, salami, soppressata, coppa, capicola, bresaola, etc. The fattier the meat, the better.
• Carpaccio — Raw, thinly sliced meat or fish
• Italian cheeses — Ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan, buffalo mozzarella, etc.
• Fresh tomato slices — Always opt for fresh over sun dried tomatoes to keep carb intake lower.
• Fresh herbs
• Roasted, grilled, or marinated vegetables — Eggplant, artichokes, and red peppers are common low-carb vegetables you’ll find on the menu. Raw peppers stuffed with meat and/or cheese are also a great option.
• Hot Italian sausage — Opt for hot over sweet sausage. Sweet sausage typically gets its sweetness from added sugar.
• Roasted, grilled, or steamed meat/seafood dishes — Make sure they are not breaded or served with the high-carb items from the previous section.
• Sugar-free red sauces — Marinara, fra Diavolo, and arrabbiata sauce tend to be the lowest carb sauces. That being said, make sure to double-check with the wait staff (or the ingredient label) that it is sugar-free.
• Flour-free alfredo sauce — Authentic Italian alfredo sauce is one of the most delicious keto-friendly options. However, before ordering, make sure they didn’t add any flour to thicken up the sauce. The best alfredo sauces are made with 2-3 simple keto ingredients, typically Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and butter.

Not only will these options help you on your way to weight loss success, but they are typically much healthier and 100% gluten free. As you’ll see below, many of our low carb Italian recipes and menu items are based on these simple Italian staples.

Eat This, Not That: Stay in Ketosis while Eating Italian, Simplified

What to Order at an Italian Restaurant to Stay in Ketosis

Now that we know the keto-friendly components of Italian cuisine, let’s go over some specific menu items and how to order them in a way that keeps the carbs as low as possible:

What to Eat Before the Appetizer

Most Italian restaurants will bring you complimentary bread or breadsticks, which both should be avoided on keto. Ask them to bring some fresh olives and olive oil instead. Olives are the perfect salty, high-fat snack to set you up for a delicious keto Italian meal.

Keto-friendly Appetizer Orders (Hot, Cold, Salads, and Soups)

• Antipasto platter — Typically contains an assortment of cured meats, cheeses, and marinated vegetables such as artichokes and peppers. Avoid any dried fruits, mostarda, jams, or bread.
• Carpaccio — Aged, raw, thinly sliced beef or fish, usually served with an olive oil dressing, cheese, and a few low-carb vegetables.
• Gamberoni — A traditional shrimp antipasto dish, served cold or hot after the shrimp have been sautéed with garlic and wine. Ask them to make it without any pasta.
• Grilled, roasted, or marinated vegetables — Artichokes, red peppers, and eggplant are great low-carb Italian veggies that may be featured as a dish or served with antipasto.
• Caprese salad — Fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and fresh basil, seasoned with salt and olive oil, occasionally paired with arugula. Ask them to hold the balsamic vinegar if you want to keep it as low in carbs as possible.
• Steamed mussels or clams — These should simply be steamed in broth or marinara sauce. Ask for it to be served without pasta, bread, or breading.
• Caesar salad — Ask for it without the croutons or bread. Don’t forget to add some extra parmesan or anchovies.
• Salsiccia alla Cacciatore — A dish that features Italian-style sausage, herbs, and low-carb veggies covered in marinara sauce. Be sure there are no starchy ingredients served with this dish, such as beans, pasta, polenta, or bread.
• Gamberi alla Piccata — A delicious combination of shrimp, lemon, capers, garlic, butter, and tomatoes. You may also be able to get it with chicken instead of shrimp, but make sure it isn’t breaded. Hold any pasta or bread that comes with the dish.
• Grilled portobello — As long as they don’t stuff the mushroom with breading, order it as is.
• Seafood salad — Typically consists of shrimp, calamari, mussels, clams, peppers, arugula, olive oil, and vinegar. Make sure none of the components are breaded.

Keto Italian Dinner Menu Items

• Costolette di Agnello (Lamb Chops) — A simple Italian lamb chop dish. Ask them to hold any reduction sauce and starch (rice, potatoes, pasta, or bread) it may come with, and opt for a side of broccoli or a house salad without croutons.
• Salmone Rustica — Grilled salmon served with spinach, roasted tomato, red onion, and olive oil. Ask for extra spinach or a side salad to replace any starchy side it may come with.
• Costilla Corta di Manzo — A delicious braised beef short ribs dish. Order without the sauce/reduction, bread, pasta, risotto, or potatoes that come with it. Ask for low-carb veggies or a house salad without croutons on the side.
• Osso Bucco — Veal shanks braised with vegetables, white wine, and broth. Ask them to hold the risotto or polenta that is traditionally served with.
• Chicken or Veal Saltimbocca — Meat wrapped (or lined) with prosciutto and sage, cooked in a marsala-based sauce. Double-check to make sure the meat isn’t covered in flour or breaded, as this dish is sometimes made in this way.
• New York Strip Steak or Ribeye — Ask for it to be served with steamed broccoli, asparagus, or a side salad. Hold the bread, potatoes, risotto, or wine reduction it may come with.

What About Italian Dessert?

Ordering a low-carb dessert at an Italian restaurant will be much more difficult, so I recommend skipping it and having a homemade keto dessert instead.

That being said, there are a couple of simple options that most restaurants won’t mind preparing for you:

• Berries and cream — Ask for a small serving of fresh berries and sugar-free whipped heavy cream or mascarpone cheese.
• Espresso (no sugar or milk) — Skip the cappuccino, and order a shot of Italian espresso black. Add some heavy cream if you find the espresso to be too bitter.

Not Sure What to Order? Use These Three Keto Italian Ordering Tips

If the menu or the waitstaff leaves you feeling confused, make sure to order with these tips in mind:

1. Avoid the flour, starches, and desserts — This includes bread, croutons, risotto, pasta, potatoes, beans, polenta, pizza crust, etc.
2. Look for non-breaded meat/seafood dishes — Whether they are cured, carpaccio-style, grilled, roasted, or steamed, make sure they aren’t breaded, dredged in flour, or served with high-carb sides.
3. Add fat and flavor with olive oil and cheese — If your dish is falling flat, don’t forget to amp up the flavor and fat content with extra virgin olive oil and cheese. Grated parmesan and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil can really turn a bland meal around.

However, as with eating out at other restaurants, it is difficult to figure out how many calories, fats, carbs, and protein are in your order. This is why preparing most of your meals at home is one of the best foolproof strategies to ensure that you get the results you want.

In fact, there is no better way to enjoy your favorite Italian dishes than by making them yourself.

Making Keto Italian Food Yourself:  Low Carb Substitutes for Traditional Italian Ingredients and Dishes

The first step to converting Italian meals into a keto-friendly dish is by using low-carb alternatives for the most common high-carb ingredients:

50+ Keto Italian Recipe Round-up: Your Favorite Foods Made Keto-friendly

Making the dish yourself is the best way to ensure that you’ll get all of the authentic Italian flavors and textures you love while achieving your goals with keto. To help you find your favorites, we created a comprehensive keto Italian menu divided into the following sections:

• Breakfast and brunch
• Italian low-carb lunch
• Appetizers and snacks
• Soup and salad
• Keto-approved Italian pasta
• Keto Italian dinner entrees
• Side dishes (keto contorno)
• Pizza and bread recipes
• Italian desserts (sugar-free dolces)

Italian-inspired Keto Breakfast and Brunch Recipes

Speculoos and Macadamia Biscotti — A satisfying keto-friendly version of the traditional Italian biscuit. Try dipping it in Ketoproof Coffee for the perfect start to your day.

Mini Pizza Egg Bakes — Get your morning pizza fix without having to fiddle with keto pizza crust.

Eggceptional Sausage Keto Frittata — There’s no better way to celebrate the Italian frittata than by combining the traditional egg dish with Italian sausage.  If you love Italian sausage, you’ll find this recipe to be undeniably satisfying.

Keto Pepperoni Pizza Quiche — Though quiche isn’t keto-friendly or Italian, we can make it into a keto Italian dish by using keto-friendly pizza crust ingredients and Italian-inspired toppings.

Breakfast Keto Pizza Waffles — This recipe sells itself, satisfying your craving for pizza and waffles at the same time.

Ham, Ricotta, and Spinach Casserole — One of the cheapest and simplest ways to fit low-carb vegetables, meat, eggs, and Italian cheese into your day with one quick casserole.

Savory Italian Egg Bake — A savory casserole dish for those who need a hearty protein-packed breakfast to start the day. Feel free to make this for lunch or dinner as well.

Italian Low-carb Lunch Menu

Personal Pan Pizza Dip — All the pizza toppings you love, but without the crust. Eat it by the spoonful, scoop it up with pork rinds, or serve with a side of Keto Breadsticks.

Italian Cheesy Bread Bake — Ooey gooey doughy goodness without the high-carb flour. If you’ve been craving authentic Italian stromboli since you started keto, this recipe will really hit the spot.

Hot Sausage & Pepper Soup — A delicious low-carb alternative for Italian soups that come with beans or pasta.

Grilled Tuna Salad with Garlic Dressing — A hearty & healthy keto salad inspired by the fresh flavors of Italy’s Mediterranean coast.

Rosemary Chicken Salad with Herb Balsamic Vinaigrette — This is nothing like the salads where they just plop a bland piece of grilled chicken breast on top. With this recipe, every component is bursting with Italian flavor.

Prosciutto, Caramelized Onion, and Parmesan Braid — Yes, it’s as delicious as it sounds. After you have this mozzarella-based braid, you’ll never reach for a high-carb calzone or stromboli again.

Keto Hoagie Lunch Bowl — This keto lunch bowl is like having a cold Italian antipasto combined with delicious hoagie sandwich toppings.

Keto Sub Sandwich Casserole — If you miss the days when you had an Italian sub for lunch, skip the bread and make this casserole instead. Pack it with your favorite meats, cheeses, and toppings for the perfect grab-and-go keto lunch.

Snacks and Appetizers (Keto Antipasto)

Easy Keto Italian Plate — Start your keto Italian night off right with this no-frills cold antipasto.

Low Carb Keto Caprese Snack Salad — The beauty of this Caprese salad is in its simplicity. Just prep, cut, and layer the ingredients for a delicious keto snack or appetizer.

Pesto Keto Crackers — Skip the Italian bread and snack on these pesto crackers. They’ll satisfy your craving for bread while pairing wonderfully with the keto Italian dips below.

Cheesy Hearts of Palm Dip — Incredibly cheesy and satisfying, this Italian-inspired dip is a guaranteed crowd favorite.

Spicy Sausage Cheese Dip — Craving something meaty and spicy to kick off your keto Italian dinner? This simple dip will be the perfect starter.

Garlic and Herb Breadstick Bites — Not only are these breadsticks keto-friendly, but they are so much more satisfying than their high-carb counterpart. Serve as a hot appetizer or have it on the side with your soup, salad, or main dish.

Keto Stuffed Artichokes — Inspired by the traditional Italian appetizer, these stuffed artichokes taste surprisingly authentic. Preparing the artichokes can be intimidating at first, but with the help of this recipe, you’ll be able to make a restaurant-quality plate.

Keto Arancini (Cauliflower Rice Balls) — To pull off the ultimate keto Italian magic trick, make yourself some low-carb arancini by replacing the rice and breading with cauliflower and pork rinds. Pour your favorite low-carb sauce over the finished product and enjoy! (Skip the jalapeno if you don’t want the added spiciness.)

Soup and Salad

Homemade Keto Caesar Salad — Just like authentic Caesar salad, but without the bread or high-carb croutons. Serve with keto breadsticks or low-carb croutons instead.

Vegan Cucumber and ‘Bacon’ Side Salad — Add some extra low-carb vegetables and healthy fats to your Italian meal with this side salad. Don’t forget the sugar-free Italian dressing.

Sausage and Kale Soup — Whether you are craving escarole and bean soup, zuppa Toscana, or minestrone, this recipe is one of the most satisfying low-carb alternatives for these classic Italian soups.

Low-Carb Broccoli Lemon Parmesan Soup — A comforting, cheesy, and creamy broccoli soup that’ll get your taste buds ready for the main course.

Oven Roasted Caprese Salad — Fresh mozzarella accompanied by roasted garlic and tomatoes, tossed together with fresh basil and pesto. This is arguably one of the best salads on keto.

Keto Italian Pasta Recipes

Keto Spaghetti alla Carbonara — Just replace the carb-heavy pasta with a keto option and experience the sublime combination of egg, Parmesan cheese, and bacon that make Carbonara so delicious.

Bolognese Zoodle Bake — A satisfyingly meaty keto sauce without the added sugar and high-carb veggies that are typically added to bolognese. Feel free to serve it with any of your preferred low-carb pasta alternatives.

Zucchini Ribbons & Avocado Walnut Pesto — A lighter and brighter tasting keto pasta dish featuring basil and walnut pesto.

Eggplant and Bacon Alfredo — Surprisingly enough, eggplant makes for the perfect keto noodle, soaking up the alfredo flavors better than fettuccine.

Keto Lasagna — This is the closest you’ll get to the real thing on keto. In fact, you may even find this to be more satisfying and flavorful than traditional Italian lasagna.

For a wider variety of keto pasta alternatives and recipes, check out our 15 best pasta recipes.

Keto Italian Meat and Seafood Dinner Entrees

Simple Chicken Parmesan — A deliciously tender, pan-fried chicken cutlet with keto breading and layered with sauce and melted cheese. (You can use the same low-carb breading method to make Eggplant Parmesan as well.)

Keto Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Chicken Thighs — Like a vodka cream sauce with a hint of chicken Cacciatore, this keto recipe belongs on the menu at the best of the best Italian restaurants.

Baked Italian Meatballs — The humble meatball deserves more attention. Its versatility, simplicity, and flavor are unmatched. After making these classic Italian meatballs, don’t forget to try stuffing them with cheese or make them with Italian sausage.

Keto Shrimp Alfredo — Pan-fried shrimp swimming in a decadent, creamy alfredo sauce without the high-carb fettuccine getting in the way of your goals.

Zingy Lemon Fish — A quick low-carb fish dish inspired by the flavors of fish Piccata.

Vegan Portobello Steaks with Avocado Salsa —  A vegan-friendly way to experience Italy without the meat, cheese, and carbs.

Perfect Ribeye Steak — Follow the recipe as is or amp up the flavor by marinating the steak in Zesty Keto Italian Dressing.

Lemon & Rosemary Roasted Chicken Thighs — This keto recipe takes the classic flavors of Chicken Piccata to another level with roasted chicken thighs and aromatic herbs.

Coffee and Wine Beef Stew — A warm, comforting stew reminiscent of Beef Spezzatino (Italian beef stew).

Keto Italian Side Dishes (Contorno)

Mashed Cauliflower with Parmesan Cheese and Truffle Oil — The perfect side for your main dish, especially if you’re craving mashed potatoes.

Keto Breadsticks — Italian food is better with fresh breadsticks. With this low-carb recipe, you’ll learn how to make them Italian-style or extra cheesy.

Low Carb Cauliflower Mushroom Risotto — Creamy, cheesy risotto doesn’t have to be filled with net carbs. Next time you have keto Italian night, give this cauliflower-based risotto a try instead.

Crisp Garlic Parmesan Keto Green Bean — A simple side of green beans covered in garlic and parmesan.

Low Carb Broccoli and Cheese Fritters — Another delicious keto alternative for arancini and a great way to add more low-carb vegetables to your main dish.

Keto Bread, Pizza, Stromboli, and Calzone Recipes

Low Carb Focaccia Bread — Aromatic Italian bread that is actually keto-friendly.

Keto Plain Pizza — Quick and easy plain pizza in just 5 minutes, no flour necessary.

Low Carb Pepperoni Pizza — Sink your teeth into a keto-friendly slice of thin-crust pepperoni pizza.

Cauliflower Pizza Crust — Replace the flour with cauliflower, and learn how to turn this keto vegetable into the perfect pizza crust.

Portobello Personal Pizzas — Like stuffed Italian portobellos, but they’re packed with pizza toppings.

Keto Stromboli and Calzone Options:

• Ham and Cheese Keto Stromboli
• Italian Cheesy Bread Bake
• Prosciutto, Caramelized Onion, and Parmesan Braid

If you’d like to see more pizza or bread recipes for keto, click the following links:

• Top 10 Keto Pizza Recipes
• The Best 10 Keto Bread Recipes

Keto Italian Desserts (Dolces)

Blackberry Chocolate Panna Cotta — A creamy keto-friendly alternative for the classic Italian dessert.

Keto Tiramisu — Everything you love about traditional tiramisu without the added sugar and high-carb flour.

Italian Lemon Sponge Cake — A lighter keto dessert option that features a fluffy, airy cake and a subtle lemon flavor. Don’t forget to top it with homemade sugar-free whipped cream.

Keto Mocha Gelato — Most keto ice cream recipes are so rich and creamy that they serve as a perfect gelato substitute as well. If coffee-flavored gelato isn’t your favorite, here is a link to our other keto-friendly flavor options.

Keto Cheesecake Bites — Simple, creamy, and satisfying, just like a bite-sized Italian cheesecake.

Keto Cream Cheese Truffles — Decadent truffles reminiscent of fine Italian chocolates, no specialty ingredients or sugar necessary.

Key Takeaways: How to Add Italian Food to Your Keto Lifestyle

Whether you are eating out, ordering takeout, cooking at home, or looking for a quick snack, you can eat Italian food while staying in ketosis and experiencing the benefits of keto.

To fit more of your favorite Italian dishes into your keto diet, make sure to follow these three rules:

1. Avoid bread, breading, pasta, risotto, polenta, and desserts.
2. Look for non-breaded meats/seafood dishes.
3. Add more fat and flavor with olive oil, cheese, olives, and cured meats.

However, the only way to ensure that what you are eating will satisfy your craving for Italian without impairing ketosis is by making the dishes yourself. This is why we’ve included 50+ Italian keto recipes above (and why we update our keto recipe catalog regularly.)

As with any keto meal, it is also crucial to consider how these dishes fit into your nutritional needs for the day. This is because your results ultimately depend on what and how much you eat.

To help you figure out exactly what this means for you, we’ve included several tools that’ll help you achieve your health and weight loss goals with keto:

• A Comprehensive Guide to the Ketogenic Diet — Keto made simple with a food list, recipes, tips, and tricks.
• Our Keto Calculator — The easiest way to estimate your macronutrient goals.
• Our Keto Meal Planning App — A personalized keto diet plan tailored to your goals and food preferences.

The post Eating Italian Food On Keto: What to Eat/Avoid, Restaurant Tips, and Recipes appeared first on Ruled Me.

That said, it’s still easy to be fooled into thinking that this humble keto snack food is unhealthy. Though they are crisp like chips (and are typically found in the same grocery store aisle), pork rinds share very little else in common with those high-carb options.

In fact, unflavored pork rinds are one of the few zero-carb snacks you can eat on the ketogenic diet. Plus, they can be used as a keto substitute for cereal, tortilla chips, breadcrumbs, and gluten-free breading (for fried chicken, onion rings, and more).

To learn how and why pork rinds are great for keto (as well as how to replace them with pork-free alternatives), let’s take a closer look at the following topics:

• What are pork rinds?
• Fat, protein, and carbs in pork rinds
• Why are they good for keto?
• Are they healthy?
• How to use pork rinds on the keto diet
• Keto recipes and examples
• What brands and flavors to buy at the grocery store and online
• How many pork rinds can you eat on keto?
• Pork rind substitutes
• Key takeaways for your low carb keto lifestyle

What Are Pork Rinds?

Technically, “pork rind” is the culinary term for the skin of a pig. However, it is more commonly used to refer to the fried crispy snack, which looks more like puffed rice crackers than pigskin.

You may also come across different variations of pork rinds throughout the world, as well as different names for the fried pig skin (such as pork scratchings and pork cracklings).

For the purposes of this article, we will be using the term “pork rinds” to refer to the fried crispy snack that consists of only two ingredients: pork skins and salt.

Pork Rind Nutrition: Carb, Fat, and Protein Content

While the nutrient breakdown of pork rinds may differ depending on the brand, they are usually extremely similar.

According to the USDA, a one-cup (30g) portion of plain pork rinds contains:

• Calories: 163
• Fat: 9.4 g
• Carbohydrate: 0 g
• Fiber: 0 g
• Net Carbs; 0 g
• Protein: 18.4 g

Overall, this equates to 0% carbs, ~45% protein, and ~52% fat, making it a great source of protein and fat for the keto diet. (If you’re curious about the nutrition info for BBQ, spicy, or other flavored pork rinds, scroll down to the “what to buy” section.)

Why Are Pork Rinds Keto-Friendly?

Being a zero-carb food, pork rinds are a perfect addition to the keto diet (especially when you learn how to use them as a replacement for high-carb breadcrumbs, cereal, and flour).

However, as with everything you eat, it is important to be mindful of how much you consume. Since pork rinds are relatively high in protein and calories, it is possible to overeat them to the point that the excess protein impairs ketosis and the extra calories are stored as fat.

That being said, you’re more likely to find them so filling that they are hard to overeat. In fact, this is one of the many benefits of having pork rinds on keto.

Are Pork Rinds Healthy? A Keto Snack with Benefits

Since they are made of fried pig skin, pork rinds sound like the epitome of an unhealthy snack. However, they are far healthier than anything else you’ll find in the snack aisle. This is because they provide us with these three science-backed benefits:

• Packed with protein. Getting enough protein on keto is the key to maintaining muscle mass and curbing cravings. Over time, this helps us lose more fat and look leaner without continually having to fight against hunger pangs.
• Filled with healthy fats. Most of the fat found in pork rinds comes from oleic acid, which is the same health-promoting monounsaturated fat found in olive oil and avocados.
• A natural source of collagen. Collagen powder has exploded onto the supplement scene over the past few years, providing us with a host of science-backed benefits. What these supplement companies won’t tell you, however, is that you can get all of the same benefits from eating pork rinds, chicken skin, or gelatinous bone broth.

Overall, as long as you don’t overindulge on pork rinds, they are among the healthiest keto-friendly snacks you can have.

Even if you’re not on keto, pork rinds are a much better option than other common snacks (like potato chips, cheese puffs, pretzels, and candies). They can also be used as a healthy alternative for breadcrumbs, breading, and all-purpose flour as well.

The Best Uses For Pork Rinds

Pork rinds are often found in keto recipes that transform high-carb favorites into keto-friendly classics.

To give you a better idea of their versatility, here are some of the most common uses of this keto ingredient:

• Breadcrumbs. Simply crush your pork rinds, and use them as a keto-friendly breadcrumb replacement (perfect for keto meatballs). Or, you can grind together with other keto ingredients to make a delicious low-carb breading.
• Breading. The breading on onion rings, mozzarella sticks, chicken tenders, Chinese-inspired chicken dishes, and even chicken parmesan can all be made keto-friendly by using low-carb flours and ground pork rinds instead of carb ridden flours.
• Gluten-free flour substitute. You may also find ground pork rinds used as a part of a keto-friendly flour mix for gluten-free bread, buns, and pancakes. In fact, this is exactly what we did with our low-carb pancake sandwich and savory pork rind pancakes.
• Crunchy topping. If you want to add more fat, flavor, and crunch to your meal, simply crush up some pork rinds and garnish your meal with it (perfect for keto casseroles).
• Keto cereal. Pork rinds can be fashioned into a low-carb, protein-packed breakfast cereal as well. To learn how, check out our salted caramel cereal recipe in the next section.
• Keto-friendly nachos and crackers. Do you miss having chips with your favorite dip? Try having pork rinds instead. (Just make sure your dip is keto-friendly as well.)
• A ready-to-eat keto snack. Pork rinds are a widely available option that you can usually find when you are on the go. As always, double-check the label to ensure you are getting a zero-carb snack that promotes ketosis.
• Microwave popcorn replacement. Skip the high-carb popcorn and look for microwaveable pork rinds. With the extra crunch and flavor they provide, you may never crave popcorn again.

Keto Recipes With Pork Rinds

Now that you know what’s possible with pork rinds, let’s learn how to use them with the following keto recipes:

What Pork Rinds to Buy for Keto (and What to Look Out For)

The best pork rinds for keto eating (regardless of the brand) will be the plain, unflavored variety. To confirm that these have zero carbs, they should only contain pork skins and salt.

The cheapest, most-widely available zero-carb pork rinds you’ll find are Utz Original Pork Rinds and Mac’s Original Fried Pork Skins. These can usually be purchased in Walmart, Target, your local grocery store, and online.

For a higher quality pork product made from pasture-raised pigs, look for the brand 4505 or Epic instead. They tend to be more expensive and harder to find, but they are a healthier option for us, the animals, and the environment.

If you prefer flavored pork rinds, make sure to read the ingredients label carefully. Most flavors — including buffalo, spicy, and BBQ pork rinds — have added sugars and/or maltodextrin (a common source of hidden carbs).

Despite this, they will often claim to have zero carbs per serving. How is this possible?

Due to nutrition labeling regulations, the food producers can list their product as having zero grams of carbs as long it contains less than 0.5 g of carbs per serving.

In other words, if your pork rinds have sugar and/or maltodextrin on the ingredient list, it is best to assume it contains closer to 0.5 grams of net carbs per serving rather than zero.

(Side note: Epic is the only brand that doesn’t have any added sugars or maltodextrin in their BBQ pork rinds if you’re looking to avoid sugar altogether.)

How Many Pork Rinds Can You Have On Keto?

As mentioned above, it is possible to overeat pork rinds to the point that you impair your keto progress. To find out how much is too much for you, we must figure out how much of each macronutrient (i.e.,  fat, protein, and carbs) you should aim to eat daily.

The two simplest ways to do this are by:

1. Plugging your info into our keto calculator and tracking your meals and snacks from there.
2. Using our keto meal planning app, which automatically tailors your meals to your macronutrient goals and food preferences.

In general, once you know your macronutrient needs and how much you are eating, you’ll be able to figure out how many servings of pork rinds you can fit in your keto diet without slowing your progress.

Keto-friendly Substitutes for Pork Rinds: From Chips to Pork-free Breadcrumbs

If you prefer to avoid pork-based products for any reason, there are several pork rind alternatives you can use for keto:

• Cheese crisps — You can use them as a chip replacement or blend them to make breadcrumbs or breading. Feel free to pick up a bag of your favorite cheese crisps or Make them yourself with this recipe.
• Fried chicken skins — These are the closest thing to pork rinds in terms of flavor but should only be used as keto chip replacements.
• Keto crackers and tortilla chips — A great keto-friendly alternative for high-carb chips and pork rinds. To make them yourself, check out the following recipes: Keto Tortilla Chips, Pesto Keto Crackers, and Low Carb Chia Seed Crackers.
• Almond meal — The slightly gritty texture of almond meal makes it the perfect pork rind replacement for keto breading.
• Dry grated parmesan and almond meal breading — Alternatively, If you aren’t following a recipe, you can also make a quick keto-friendly breading by mixing half dry parmesan powder with half almond meal.
• Vegetarian keto cereal — Skip the pork rind cereal, and make vegetarian-friendly granola cereal for breakfast instead.

Key Takeaways: Pork Rinds and Your Keto Diet

Pork rinds are one of the best all-around keto foods. Not only are they zero-carb, but they are highly versatile in low-carb recipes and packed with healthy fats, protein, and collagen as well. Discover more keto friendly snacks.

Whether you eat them as is or use them as a replacement for breadcrumbs, breading, flour, cereal, or chips, pork rinds will provide the perfect flavor, texture, and macros for your keto diet.

However, as with everything you eat, it is crucial to be mindful of how much fat, protein, and carbs you need to achieve the results you want.

The easiest way to make sure you are on the right track is by using our keto meal planning app. It will provide you with an eating plan personalized to your goals and preferences, so all you’ll have to do is make your meals and enjoy them.

Sources

• Pork skin rinds — USDA
• CFR – Code of Federal Regulations Title 21 — FDA
• The Types of Fat: A Comprehensive Look at Good vs. Bad Fats — Ruled.me
• Macronutrients and the Ketogenic Diet — Ruled.me

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