Keto Tips for Beginners

I’m in week five of my third round of keto right now. I’ve done two previous rounds of it over the past year and a half and I love it every time. I know that the keto diet isn’t for everyone (it’s an extreme low carb diet), but for whatever reason, it works really well for me.

I have lost 13 pounds in three weeks so far. I have gone down a size in my tops, but haven’t changed sizes yet in my shorts and pants. But, I can feel the shape of my body changing, which is such a good feeling because I was starting to feel like one of those Russian dolls who eats all the other Russian dolls. Not a great look, really. I’m a lot narrower now and thinner in some places, like my face and hands especially.

More than the weigh loss, keto makes me feel good. I am full all the time, I like all the foods I get to eat (hello, cheese!), and I have more energy. In addition to keto, though, I’ve also started walking three miles every day and just this week, I started a training program for running again. It feels really good to take care of myself.

I get a lot of questions about keto on Instagram. I thought I’d put together some of my best tips for beginners on keto today:

1. The most common question I get by far is, “How do I start keto?” and my answer is JUST JUMP RIGHT IN! Get your shopping done and food prepped so that you can be successful and then just do it! Focus only on net carbs (carbs minus fiber) and that’s it. It’s really that simple to get started.
2. Try to get your carbs from vegetables and fruit. They usually have a lot of carbs, but you’ll feel better if you’ve got fresh produce in your diet. My favorites are strawberries, green peppers, tomatoes, avocados, blueberries, and jalapeños.
3. Be prepared for days 3-5 to be awful. You’ll be beyond tired and feel really terrible. But it’s your body adjusting and getting into ketosis, which is a good thing. I find that by the 4th or 5th day, I feel so much better and have a resurge of energy.
4. Adjust your idea of a meal. Keto meals look different and until you adjust your thinking on what a “meal” should be, you’ll have trouble staying under your carb allowance at meals. My meals often look like a charcuterie board – a little of this, a little of that. As long as you are getting your nutrients and hitting your carb goal, it’s a meal!
5. There are a lot of dips you can have on keto, which is awesome. But there aren’t any crackers to dip into the dips, which is a total bummer (and I don’t like dipping most veggies in dips, but that’s just me). Try getting low carb tortillas and cutting them into triangles and baking them to make low carb tortilla chips. They are delicious! I use the Mission brand.
6. If you’re like me, you’ll start to miss warm, comfort foods since so much of what you eat is of the cold meat and cheese variety… If you start to feel like that, make this one pan green chili chicken. I make myself a big batch on the weekends and eat on this all week. I put it on salads or wrap it in a low carb tortilla. It is DELICIOUS.
7. Avoid cardio and keep your exercise low for the first week of keto. Your energy levels will be unusually low and you can easily get a little dizzy or lightheaded during this time. Give yourself a week to reset.
8. Use a food tracker. I have the paid version of My Fitness Pal and I love it, but there are other options out there specifically for keto. You will do a better job of sticking with it if you are counting your carbs carefully in the beginning.
9. For a keto diet, the recommendation is to stay between 20-30 net carbs a day. Try to keep yourself to 20 carbs to allow for errors in calculations of carbs. You’ll eventually find the amount of carbs your body thrives on. For example, 25-27 net carbs keeps me perfectly balanced and satisfied, but I don’t lose weight here. I have to stay right at 20 net carbs for the weight loss to continue in my body. You’ll fine tune your carb levels using a tracking tool, too.
10. Don’t worry about tracking macros when you begin. Keto and macro tracking often go hand in hand (so does intermittent fasting, by the way). All of these things are helpful, but when you are starting out, just focus on your carbs and fiber. Count those net carbs and don’t worry about anything else. I don’t worry with macros at all.
11. You’re going to stall out sometimes. Mine usually happens every two weeks, almost like clockwork. My diet and exercise never changes, but suddenly, the scale just stops moving for 3-5 days. It drives me crazy. When this happens, I usually have a cheat day, which sounds counterintuitive, but having that cheat day usually wakes my body back up and the weigh loss starts up again. On cheat days, don’t go crazy, though. Your body will protest! Stick to a common sense, healthy diet, but don’t worry about your carb counting… and maybe add a bowl of ice cream in there for kicks. 🙂
12. Try to get as much fat in your diet as possible. If you can add cheese, cream cheese, bacon, heavy cream, and other high fat items to your meal, do it. The fat helps you feel fuller for longer and helps in the weight loss, as weird as that sounds.
13. Avoid the keto prepared foods in the grocery store, like the Atkins bars and products. There are a ton of keto packaged foods available in every shape, size, flavor, and bar you can imagine. But I avoid these because they usually taste like diet food and you pay a lot more for them. Every few weeks, though, I’ll see a box of something at the store that just looks DELICIOUS and I get home and rip into them and it tastes like dog food. You’re better off sticking with items you’ve prepared yourself.
14. The downside of keto is that it’s one of those diets where you pretty much eat completely different from the rest of your family. To save time during dinner prep, I try to eat the meat that the family is having and then just add my snacky sides with it, like cucumbers and tomatoes or some nuts and strawberries. I also throw whatever meat the family is having onto a salad a lot of the time, too. Because keto foods are more snack-like, it’s really not hard to fix two dinners because my dinner is usually already prepped in the fridge. I also make myself a big pan of keto-friendly casseroles or heartier meals and just warm them up in the microwave for myself at dinner time. Some of my favorite recipes for this are below.
15. Use diet sodas or flavored waters when you’re looking for something sweet. Like my feelings about peanut butter, I refuse to give up diet sodas. I just can’t do it. And there’s nothing better than a Diet Coke or Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper with a handful of almonds, nuts, or seeds when I’ve got a case of the snackies! Be careful, though, because diet sodas can lead to bloating. I stick to one a day.
16. Don’t worry too much about being in ketosis. You’ll lose weight faster if you are, but you’ll still lose weight if you aren’t, too. If you’re really working to stay in ketosis (I do for the first few weeks), try these Keto test strips from Amazon.

I also get asked a lot about my favorite keto recipes. I have a whole highlight section on my Instagram page that shares my meals, but here are a few quick links, too:

Green chili chicken (same link as above)

Sausage, egg, and cheese cups (my whole family eats these)

Chocolate peanut butter fat bombs

Chicken fajita casserole

Buffalo stuffed green peppers

Another thing people ask about are snack ideas. To be honest, I don’t snack a whole lot because the food on keto tends to be pretty filling during my meals. But I eat these snack-like foods a lot with my meals:

• Sliced cucumbers
• Sliced tomatoes
• Strawberries
• Avocados (I like mine with Everything But the Bagel seasoning; I also add these to as many meals as I can because they don’t have much of a taste to me and they raise the fat content, which keeps me feeling fuller)
• Pistachios (with the shell on because it makes me eat them slower!)
• Flavored almonds
• Toasted pumpkin seeds (one of my favorite snacks because you can have a ton of them for 2 net carbs. Pair with a Diet Coke and I’m a happy girl!)
• Pepperoni and cheese slices
• Baked cheese crackers (make little piles of shredded cheese and bake them on 375 for 10 minutes)
• Hard boiled eggs (I keep these in a container in my fridge all the time)
• Sugar free Jell-O with Cool Whip (my favorite when I’m craving something cold and juicy!)
• Celery and peanut butter (I keep celery cut up in my fridge at all times)
• Spoonfuls of peanut butter (I use Jiff Natural because peanut butter is a non-negotiable in my life, forever and ever, amen. And you can take your almond butter and SHOVE IT!)
• Lil’ Smokies
• Pickles
• Dark chocolate covered almonds (usually about 2 net carbs each, but the perfect treat when you just need a sweet bite of something)
• Homemade jalapeno poppers (high fat and low carb, so these fill you up really good. I fill mine with flavored cream cheeses for variety.)

Keto isn’t for everyone. My body likes it because it keeps me feeling full and it gives me lots of energy (and really good skin glow!). If you’re thinking about it yourself, don’t be afraid to jump right in. Even if it takes a few days or weeks to get into the habit or to feel like you’re doing right.

For details on what I eat, check out my Keto highlights on my Instagram profile.