The Ketogenic Diet – The First Few Days

So you’re taking the leap to go keto. That’s great! There are so many benefits to a ketogenic diet beyond weight loss, but the aforementioned is certainly a favorite 🙂 Many people know that to be ketogenic you must consume a diet that consists mostly of fat. But how much? And how little of carbs are we talking about? What about protein? I need numbers you say! Well sit back and let that tenderness of the fat sink in. Here are all of the juicy details PLUS a 3-day keto diet starter meal plan to get you off to the right bod!

~ The Numbers ~

To be successful at the ketogenic diet, it starts with fat. At least 70% to be frank. Let’s take Sharon Bacon, the bank clerk for example. She is 5’ 6’’ and weighs 185 pounds. She needs to eat about 1,500 calories since she is not very active and wants to lose weight. This means that at LEAST 1,000 calories are coming straight from fat! Ladies and gentleman, in order to do this we are talking about all of the good high fat foods here: avocado (it’s totally sensible to do 1 whole one a day!), coconut milk (full fat of course), cheese, olive oil, butter, bacon and the list goes on! The other number that is important to note is the carbs…5% or less is what you need to make the smoothest transition into ketosis and adapt as
quickly as possible. Research even shows that the lower your carbs are below 5%, the faster becoming ketogenic is.

And finally, we get to protein. It’s a great tool in ketogenic diets because it can help us feel full, but we don’t want to get too much protein. For Sharon Bacon, she only needs her daily dose of protein to be about 18% of her total calories, or about 68 grams…which may be more or less than what you’re actually getting now! So let’s do Sharon’s math for her: 70% fat plus 5% carbs plus 18% protein = 93% … so where do those other 7% of calories come from? MORE FAT! Seriously guys, that’s how much fat you need to eat. Life is rich in the keto world!!!

Ok, so now you’re equipped with the knowledge of the keto numbers. You may now be thinking, “What in the world am I supposed to eat?” and I’m so glad you asked! Here is a 3 day meal plan to get you started!!

3 Day Ketogenic Starter Meal Plan – If you are using our It Works Keto Coffee then replace breakfast with Keto Coffee (add It Works Chocolate Greens for a chocolaty Mocha style Keto Coffee.

Day 1 

Breakfast:

• 2 Eggs cooked any way in coconut oil and topped with 1 ounce cheddar cheese
• Bacon cooked as crispy or floppy as you like it!

Lunch: Smoothie time!

• 1 scoop It Works Shake (Vanilla or Chocolate)
• ½ avocado
• ½ cup coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• 2 tablespoons peanut butter (read the label for a low carb, low sugar PB)
• Ice to make it as liquidy as you like

Dinner: Cheeseburger!!

• 3.5 ounces of cooked grass fed ground beef (80% lean 20% fat)
• 2 ounce mozzarella cheese
• Use bib lettuce as the bun

Day 2

Breakfast: Cream Cheese Avocado Smash!

• ½ avocado
• 2 tablespoons cream cheese
• 2 ounces pork sausage, ground
• 1 ounce shredded cheese
• *Cook sausage in pan and mix in cream cheese. Add to ½ avocado and top with cheese. Enjoy!

Lunch: Sandwich Roll Ups

• 4 ounces sliced turkey
• 3 slices provolone cheese
• 2 tablespoons avocado mayo
• *Layer 1 slice of cheese partially over 1-2 slices of stacked turkey. Spread mayo on top and curl the combo into a roll.
• Lunch side: Greek Salad
• ½ cucumber chopped into medium sized pieces
• 3” cube of feta cheese, crumbled
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• *Combine all ingredients into a bowl. Mix well and chill before eating!

Dinner: Crispy Crustless Pizza!

• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 8 slices pepperoni
• *Create a thin layer of shredded cheese in a non-stick pan. Top with pepperoni. Cover with a glass lid and cook until the cheese crisps up and turns golden brown around the edges! Let cool and remove andsavor!!
• Snack: 1/2 avocado – top with ranch seasoning and savor!!

Day 3

Breakfast: Morning Pudding

• ½ cup coconut milk (full fat!)
• 2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon stevia or Truvia (as a sweetener!)
• 1 teaspoon cocoa powder
• *Blend ingredients and refrigerate for 1-2 hours to thicken up! Top with a few walnuts for CRUNCH!!

Lunch: Iceberg Wedge Salad

• ¼ head iceberg lettuce
• 4 ounces bleu cheese dressing
• ¼ cup bacon crumbles
• 1 avocado, pitted and diced
• *Make that salad! You know you know it!!!
• Afternoon snack:
  • 1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
  • *On a baking sheet with parchment paper, spread shredded cheese thin to form 3-4 disk shaped circles.
  • Bake at 350F until golden brown around the edges. Let cool for 10-15 minutes. You now have ZERO carb cheese chips! Yum!!

Dinner: Creamy Spinach Salmon

• (1) 6 ounce salmon fillet
• 4 tablespoons cream cheese
• ½ cup raw spinach
• 2 tablespoons grated parmesan
• Salt and pepper to taste
• *Combine cream cheese, spinach and parmesan in a bowl. Cut a slit in the salmon about ½ of the way through. This will create a pocket for the filling.
• Stuff salmon with cream cheese mixture and bake at 350F for 10-15 minutes.

Best of luck on your high fat adventures! Here’s to the rich life!! 💚

Download your free Keto Food List

Ok actually, it’s not magic…it’s an entirely new realm of science that researchers are discovering to be more and more beneficial for a broad range of health conditions! From Alzheimer’s to epilepsy to (our favorite) weight loss; high fat and keto diets are making a name for themselves as methods to both improve body composition and overall well-being!

So what are the must knows of the keto diet? Keto is actually short for “ketogenic” or “ketosis” – it’s a state that the body enters when it burns fat for energy as a preference over carbs. The idea behind the technique is to eat fat…a lot of fat! And in doing this, you essentially train your body to burn more of your OWN fat in the times that you aren’t eating! Brilliant right?

To enter ketosis, carbs are essentially obsolete. You need to consume about 65-75% of your calories from fat and 25-35% from protein, leaving only 5% or less for carbs…and the fewer carbs you eat below that percentage, the quicker you may enter ketosis. Eating 5% carbs does not just mean avoiding breads and pasta; there are carbs in almost everything! Fruit, starchy vegetables, even marinaras and sauces may have too many carbs to be considered “keto friendly”. The best way to go about counting carbs to make sure your effort is productive is to keep a food diary, such as on MyFitnessPal. Another important factor in reaching ketosis is the frequency in which you eat. We have been told all of our lives to eat multiple meals, but when reaching ketosis, the body needs to burn through our stored carbohydrates to activate our liver to produce ketones. This means that eating every 6 hours (or longer) is the right way to approach this. Just remember, eating less calories than you burn is an important factor so don’t overeat when you do eat!

Okay full disclosure – to train ourselves to burn fat instead of carbs does not happen overnight. In fact, studies show that it can take weeks to do this! In this transition period, many people tend to feel very tired and have low energy levels because our bodies are basically switching gears to a much slower form of energy. Luckily, there is a way to accelerate this gear switch – and it is something very near and dear to our hearts: Coffee. <3

Caffeine is a great thing for many reasons. First, it helps to suppress appetite by stimulating our sympathetic nervous system (this is the system that is active when we work out as well)! Here is the coolest thing: While this system is active while coffee is running through our veins, caffeine also slows down the use of the stored carbs we have in our body, forcing our bodies to use fat for energy! Now take this all to the highest level of cool and add some fat to your coffee…Now you’re fueling your body with fat while it is most likely to burn fat! (And it is making it easier for the body to transition into ketosis!)

These are the reasons why our Keto Coffee is working so well. It contains some of the most easily absorbable fats: MCTs, which not only train the body to burn fat as fuel, but also create a longer-lasting effect for the caffeine. It’s like jumping into a pool to get used to the temperature of the water instead of slowly and painfully tip-toeing into the deep end! Our KC also contains grass-fed butter. Cows who eat more grass produce butter with higher levels of anti-inflammatory omega-3s, and also vitamin K – a nutrient that is essential for good bone health. To go the extra mile, we top it all off with collagen. This compound is found in our skin and joints, and therefore can give us better looking skin and less trouble with our joints when we consume it regularly!

It is not always fun (or fair) to think about all of the ways that the food industry has manipulated food to make us sick, but there is something we can do about it now. We can manipulate our food to work FOR us! We can use this science therefore to sculpt the bodies, minds, and lifestyles that we want for ourselves. All we have to do is take it back!! Here’s to the good things in life. Like coffee <3