30-Day Keto Diet Meal Plan
The first month on a diet can be challenging. Your food is changing, your body is changing, and you may even be going through some general life changes. 30 day keto diet meal plan While the long-term results are always worth it, it may be difficult to see beyond the challenges you will experience in the short term.
To get you through these transitions, having a guide like this one is always a good idea.
But this guide is not just for beginners. Whether you are a keto veteran and have just gotten too busy with work or family, or you need a hand planning your low-carb meals, this guide will definitely work for you.
In this guide, you will get to know the benefits of doing keto for a month, the drawbacks, the foods to eat and avoid on the diet, a free shopping list, and a sample day’s menu for your ketogenic monthly meal plan.
What is a 1-month keto meal plan?
This is a diet plan where you eat healthy high-fat and low-carb foods for 30 days or a month.
In this one month, you commit to doing away with all high-carb foods and maintaining a strict ratio of macros. The macro distribution on a ketogenic meal plan usually looks something like this:
- Carbohydrates – less than 10%
- Protein – 20%
- Fat – 70-80%
For most people, this means limiting net carb consumption to 20 to 50 grams per day. 30 day keto diet meal plan
Easier said than done! For context, one medium Golden Delicious apple has 18.9 g of net carbs. This means that about 3 apples are enough to go over your limit for carbs in a day.
This is why many ketoers get support with meal planning. We can help you calculate your personal macros and get a customized 1 month meal plan to make it easier.
Staying within your daily limits of each macronutrient will allow you to get into a state of ketosis. When your body has no carbs to burn for energy, it resorts to fat. The fat is broken down into substances known as ketone bodies. When these ketone bodies accumulate in the blood, you enter a state known as ketosis.
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Benefits of a 30-day keto diet plan
Yes, not eating bread is hard. However, with the many benefits low-carb diets have, you will be over it in no time.
Unlike a lot of popular diets, the benefits of low-carb diets have been proven in many scientific studies several times over. Some of these benefits include:
- Weight loss. Keto has been shown to be an effective way to lose weight.
- Improves general body health. On keto, different aspects of your body health may improve, for example, your immunity, skin health, and even brain function.
- Heart health. Keto is beneficial for heart health in many ways. The two most prominent are better cholesterol control and normalizing blood pressure (usually through weight loss).
- Seizures. Eating a low-carb diet may reduce the frequency of seizures in patients with epilepsy and other seizure-inducing conditions.
- Blood sugar control. Low-carb diets can improve blood sugar levels by keeping blood sugar constantly low and reducing insulin resistance.
- Appetite. High-fat foods are highly satiating, especially compared to high-carb foods. Eating keto meals keeps you fuller for longer, helping you prevent constant snacking.
The best part about the ketogenic diet is that you do not have to wait years to experience these benefits. If you strictly follow a low-carb meal plan for 30 days, you can get to see these changes for yourself.
Drawbacks of a doing a ketogenic diet for a month
To say that keto will be a breeze would be a lie. Many days, especially in the beginning, will not be easy to get through. Some of the challenges you can expect are:
- Keto flu. At the start of the diet, you may experience some bad symptoms that resemble the flu. The symptoms include headaches, fatigue, and insomnia.
- Constipation. Since some of the best sources of fiber in our diets are high carb, going low carb may give you constipation if you do not find suitable fiber-rich replacements.
- Reduced athletic capacity. When you are working out, your body relies on carbohydrates for energy. Until your body gets adapted to burning fat, exercise, especially the intense kind, might be a challenge.
- Loss of muscle. If you do not get enough protein, you may lose some muscle mass even in important organs like the heart.
- Social life. An often overlooked effect of a ketogenic diet is the toll it can have on your social life. Can you imagine what a pizza party would look like for someone on keto?
- Dehydration. Carbohydrates help the body retain water. You run a higher risk of getting dehydrated if you eliminate them from your diet.
- Keto breath. When you reach ketosis, your breath may change to give off an unpleasant smell similar to that of acetone, one of the ketone bodies in the body.
How to start the 30-day keto meal plan
To make your 30 days on the diet easier, here are some tips you can use.
- Consult your doctor for permission to start the diet
- Work with a registered dietitian to plan your meals
- Shop foods that support a ketogenic lifestyle
- Use supplements if you need to. You can use supplements like protein powder, exogenous ketones, MCT oil, electrolytes, and vitamins.
- Educate yourself on the keto diet
- When you experience any persistent side effects, consult your doctor immediately
Foods to eat and avoid on a 1 month keto meal plan
The first food group to be cut from a ketogenic diet is obviously carbs. Very high-carb foods that do not belong on a ketogenic diet include:
- Bread
- Pasta
- Sweet baked foods like cookies and cakes
- High-sugar dairy products like ice cream and sweetened yogurt
- Peas
- Sweetened beverages like soda and tea
- Starchy vegetables like potatoes
- Grains and grain products
- Rice
Keto is not just about eliminating carbs from your diet. It also encourages reduced consumption of highly processed foods even though they are low carb. There is a wide variety of processed ketogenic foods available on the market like:
- Cheese sticks
- Zero calorie soda
- Sweet treats with artificial sweeteners
Now that you know which foods will not feature on your diet, it is time to think about those that will. While on keto, your focus should be on high-fat moderate-protein foods. Most importantly, they should be whole and minimally processed. 30 day keto diet meal plan
The foods you can enjoy are:
- Meats like beef and poultry
- Fish like salmon and shrimp
- Seafood
- Nuts like peanuts, walnuts, and almonds
- Seeds like chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds.
- High-fat dairy products like plain Greek yogurt, cheese, and butter
- High-fat condiments like mayonnaise (preferably homemade!)
- Healthy oils like olive oil
- Low-carb fruits like avocado, strawberries, and cantaloupe
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30-day keto diet shopping list
If your diet is going to change, so is your shopping list. To help you stick to your diet, you will need to stock up on food that is keto-friendly. Those you can stock are mostly dry foods and freezer-friendly foods. 30 day keto diet meal plan
Freezer-friendly foods include:
- Meat
- Chicken
- Fish
- Baked keto foods like egg-muffins or casseroles
- Frozen fruits and vegetables like berries and zucchini
Dry foods for your pantry include:
- Raw nuts
- Seeds
- Herbs and spices
- Canned foods. have a decently lengthy shelf life while not becoming dry
For your regular shopping trips, you will get more fresh foods like:
- Plain Greek yogurt
- Cheese
- Fresh fruits like avocado and watermelon
- Non-starchy vegetables like spinach, arugula, beet greens, kale, cabbage, tomatoes, and zucchini
Sample day’s meal plan for a monthly keto menu
| BREAKFAST | Ingredients | Serving Size | Calories | Net Carbs(g) | Protein(g) | Fat(g) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bacon and avocado | Bacon | 2 slices | 73 | 0 | 4.8 | 4.6 | |||
| Avocado | 1/2 medium avocado | 113 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 10.5 | ||||
| Calories | Net Carbs | Protein | Fat | ||||||
| 186 | 1.3 g | 6.1 g | 15.1 g | ||||||
| MORNING SNACK | Ingredients | Serving Size | Calories | Net Carbs(g) | Protein(g) | Fat(g) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yogurt and canteloupe | Greek yogurt | 100 g | 406 | 4 | 9 | 5 | |||
| Canteloupe | 100 g | 38 | 7.8 | 0.8 | 0.2 | ||||
| Calories | Net Carbs | Protein | Fat | ||||||
| 44 | 11.8 g | 9.8 g | 5.2 g | ||||||
| LUNCH | Ingredients | Serving Size | Calories | Net Carbs(g) | Protein(g) | Fat(g) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cabbage soup (recipe serves 4) | Ground beef | 1 lb | 1,494 | 0 | 64.8 | 135 | |||
| Cabbage | 1/4 head | 57 | 7.5 | 2.9 | 0.2 | ||||
| Crushed tomato | 1/2 cup | 39 | 6.5 | 2 | 0.3 | ||||
| Butter | 20 g | 148 | 0 | 0 | 16.4 | ||||
| Calories | Net Carbs | Protein | Fat | ||||||
| 435 | 3.5 g | 17.4 g | 38 g | ||||||
| EVENING SNACK | Ingredients | Serving Size | Calories | Net Carbs(g) | Protein(g) | Fat(g) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Olives | Olives | 200 g | 290 | 1 | 2 | 30.6 | |||
| Calories | Net Carbs | Protein | Fat | ||||||
| 290 | 1 g | 2 g | 30.6 g | ||||||
| DINNER | Ingredients | Serving Size | Calories | Net Carbs(g) | Protein(g) | Fat(g) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parmesan salmon | Salmon | 1/2 fillet (159 g) | 202 | 0 | 32.7 | 7 | |||
| Parmesan cheese | 1/2 cup | 210 | 0.9 | 14.2 | 13.9 | ||||
| Brussels sprouts | 1 cup | 37.8 | 4.5 | 3 | 0.3 | ||||
| Avocado | 1/2 medium avocado | 113 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 10.5 | ||||
| Calories | Net Carbs | Protein | Fat | ||||||
| 451 | 5.8 g | 51.1 g | 52.9 g | ||||||
| DAILY TOTALS | 1,806 cal | 23.4 g net carbs | 84.6 g protein | 120.6 g fat |
