How to Ease into Keto

Low Carb into Keto

Easing into keto has advantages. The first step is to reduce your daily carbohydrate intake.

Rather than heading straight for keto by cutting carbs out almost completely, you could aim for a fairly low-carbohydrate diet of less than 130 grams of net carbs per day (no more than 26% of your total daily consumption), which is still a significant drop from the standard American diet of over 250 grams daily. This doesn’t have to happen overnight, but making little dietary alterations can get you there over the course of 2-3 weeks or months.

Remember, keto is typically fewer than 50 grams daily, so when you get to 130 grams daily, you’ll still have a little way to go to reach ketosis.

Small Changes

Take a look at your current diet and determine where the bulk of your carbs are coming from. Are you drinking sodas and eating bread, or is it the mashed potato that tips your carb scale? Making immediate changes like ditching sugary soda, lowering your bread intake, or even finding a lower-carb bread, are excellent steps forward you should be proud of right now. Eat smaller portions of high-carb foods or swap some of those foods out for low-carb alternatives. It’s easier to fit smaller swaps into your busy modern life.

The research speaks for itself and concludes that people who make small changes to their lifestyle over time are more likely to stick to it compared to those who make significant and immediate changes.

One Meal at a Time

You may feel overwhelmed at the thought of changing every meal you eat all at once, so you could start by just changing your breakfast for a week or two. If you typically start your day with pancakes or sugary cereal, make these keto pancakes or keto cereal instead, or try a keto smoothie. Next, you can turn your attention to changing your snacks or your lunch.

High-Protein and Non-Starchy Vegetables

Shift your focus to high-protein foods like fish, eggs, nuts, and low-starch vegetables like bok choy, cauliflower, asparagus, and broccoli.

Crush Your Cravings

Crush your cravings before they start by finding the perfect delicious keto alternative for your favorite comfort food. Are you a sucker for chocolate muffins, and you know you could roll right off the wagon at the sight of one? Hush those desires and satisfy your palate with a keto chocolate muffin instead. Is pizza your thing? Peruse the pizza recipes here at Ketogenic.com and look forward to your keto pizza. You’ll be pleased to realize there are plenty of similar and tasty low-carb alternatives for the majority of your high-carb comfort foods.

Use Sugar Alternatives

If you use added sugar anywhere, for instance, in your coffee or tea, ease into keto by swapping it out for keto sweeteners and sugar alternatives like monk fruit, allulose, or stevia.

Add More Healthy Fats

Slowly add more healthy fats to your diet, like fatty fish, grass-fed beef, avocado, nuts, seeds, coconut oil, and olive oil. If you always use a sugary salad dressing on your salad, make this keto coconut lime dressing instead with unsweetened coconut yogurt, cilantro, and lime juice.

Watch Food Labels

Check the serving size and carb content of the packaged and processed foods you’re eating to get an idea of where you are and where you’d like to be.

Meal Prep

Stock your pantry with low-carb ingredients and snacks to help you stay on track. You may decide to meal prep for the week ahead to streamline your keto transition.