Keto Meal Prep Tips

We’re sure you’ve heard many times that failing to have a plan can be a recipe for disaster. This can often be true, and this old adage can also apply in terms of your diet. Meal prep is a good way to ensure your plan for healthy living actually succeeds. If your eating plan of choice happens to be the ketogenic diet, this will give you an extra boost to your weight loss goals (more than just restricting calories alone). Read our keto meal prep plan to easily conquer your goals all week long.

A Bit of Keto Background

If you’re unfamiliar with the term, “keto” is short for the “ketogenic diet”. The ketogenic diet is an ultra low carb, high [healthy] fats plan. The diet puts your body into a state of ketosis, a mechanism whereby the body uses its own fat supply instead of incoming carbohydrate for energy. This mechanism greatly accelerates any weight loss goals.

This diet drastically reduces levels of blood sugar and insulin in the body, making it an ideal choice for diabetics. Fat is turned into ketones by the liver, which are used to supply energy to the brain. The diet has been beneficial for many different health ailments, including diabetes, epilepsy, and metabolic syndrome, to name just a few. To learn more about the ketogenic diet, take a look at Healthline’s Beginners Guide to the Ketogenic Diet.

As with any change to your daily routine, we recommend you check with your doctor before starting a ketogenic plan to ensure that it is safe for you.

Keto Meal Prep: Groundwork

One of the best hacks for getting started with your keto meal prep (or any meal prep) starts before you even get to the grocery store. Take stock of what you still have leftover from your last grocery trip (if anything). What will be going bad soon and what needs to be used first? This should be incorporated into your menu planning, and what you will make to be eaten at the very beginning of the week.  You should also take stock of pantry items and make note if any need to be replaced immediately.

With your keto meal prep menu planning, remember always to make extra portions of whatever dish you are cooking. You can portion it out into servings and freeze for a quick dinner later in the week if you have a busy day and no time to prepare anything. You can always have leftovers at lunch the next day.

A good rule of thumb at the grocery store is to shop the perimeter first. This is where you will find items like proteins, fruits, vegetables, dairy, etc. Once you start going down all the aisles is when you get stuck looking at hard-to-resist foods, carb bombs, and generally overprocessed items that are filled with chemicals. We probably don’t need to tell you that the closer to its natural state a food is, the better it is for you.

Another rule of thumb while reading labels at the grocery store is to make sure you are calculating only net carbs, not total carbs. The way you calculate this is by taking the total amount of carbohydrate listed on the label and subtract from this number the total amount of fiber listed. The remaining number will be your net carb count. Overall, ketogenic diets recommend keeping your total carb count for the day to under 20 grams of net carbs. Once you start looking at food labels it’s easy to see how quickly this number can add up if you’re not careful.

Keto Meal Prep Recipes

Now that you’ve laid some of the groundwork for a solid keto meal prep foundation, you’ll want to make sure you have some delicious recipes to keep you on track. Check out the following recipes for a sampling of how easy keto eating can be!

Breakfast:

Breakfast BLT Salad SkinnyTaste

Spinach, Herb & Feta Wrap Ruled Me

Lunch:

Keto Chicken Enchilada Hey Keto Mama

Low Carb Sushi Jess Page LCHF

Dinner:

Pizza Stuffed Peppers Simple, Sweet & Savory

Slow Cooker Bacon Cheeseburger Pie All Day I Dream About Food

It’s best to start your keto meal prep as soon as you get home from grocery shopping. Wash and cut all of your vegetables. You will know exactly how to prep your vegetables based on what you have planned on your menu for the week. Cook all of your proteins at one time as well. Then later, you can assemble prepped vegetables and protein with a sauce or side easily. This will save you so much time during a busy work week.

Hopefully, these tips help! Let us know how these tips worked for you, or snap a picture and tag us on Instagram at @effective.coverage.