If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Nothing could be more true for those on a Keto diet. It is possible to make decisions on the fly at each meal, but in the very beginning, that might be hard to do.

Beginner Keto dieters need structure, and it helps to know the ins and outs of tracking carbs and macros as well as cooking methods and food choices that will help you lose weight fast. 

First thing you want to do is educate yourself on what you can and can’t have, be carb smart and try to eliminate or replace those items in your kitchen. For example, you do not need to give up coffee or tea, but you’ll need to replace sugar with a sweetener that isn’t loaded with carbs.

Plan for snacks on the go that work well with your keto plan, rather than relying on fast food stops or convenience stores that are packed with processed foods. You can have bags of nuts, cheese, meat sticks or jerky or keto friendly snack bars to take with you.

You can use a carb tracking tool like MyFitnessPal, so you can track the exact carbs and use a tool like TamperMonkey to track the net carbs in your meals, which is the true number of carbs you’ll be using as your guideline. 

You’ll want to prepare for the beginning of your keto diet. The mental cravings and old habits can be hard to overcome if you’re not ready. Sometimes you may need to get  over keto flu, if you suffer from that. 

The keto flu is basically a feeling of bring under the weather when your body is first going into ketosis. The best fix is a simple chicken broth that you sip to get the electrolytes back in your system.

You want to plan for some variety too. Don’t get stuck eating the same thing seven days a week, for every meal. You’ll burn out. Plan on some creative ways to make meals low in carbs and learn which foods taste best to you. Such as a chocolate desert as a special treat. 

The keto diet is not complex. It is one of the easiest diet plans you’ll find. You’re just not used to eating plenty of quality fats and protein, you’re probably used to eating low calorie, low fat, so planning is necessary to retrain your brain for your future weight loss success!

There’s a big myth that makes some people steer clear of the diet. It’s that the ketogenic diet is the same as a high protein diet. It’s not, in fact, protein should only be approximately 30% of your macros for the day. 

One reason people think keto is similar to high protein diets is that you can eat lots of protein foods such as eggs, chicken, beef, cheese and other meats for very few carbs.

This means dieters often fill up on these foods, and probably aren’t tracking their macros very well. If they were, they’d realize that most of their meals are made up of healthy fats, not proteins.

The macro count for healthy fats is approximately 70% of your nutrition for the day, with the remaining 5% being carbs. Healthy fats are beneficial for your body, while too much protein can be damaging. 

One of the benefits about the keto diet is that you don’t have to go low fat. Fat is tasty, so consumers love to be able to eat marbled meat, like a steak, without having to feel guilty. 

When bacon and cheese are encouraged on a diet plan, it makes many peoples mouths water, so you often see many starting their keto diet with a heavy amount of meats and cheese. 

The real focus of the ketogenic diet is low carb, high fat – so it’s very important that as you wean yourself off carbs and sugar, you look at which fats will keep you satisfied in stead of larger portions. 

Healthy fats are things like coconut oil, avocados, olives or olive oil, nuts and seeds. That doesn’t mean you can’t have other fats. Keep in mind that as you stay on the diet longer, your taste buds will probably change. After going without soda and fake sweeteners for weeks and you were to cheat and have a soda it would probably taste good or too sweet for you. 

This is helpful because it curbs your sugar cravings and you begin craving the healthy fats that benefit your body. Enjoy the fact that you can have plenty of proteins, but don’t neglect the real star of keto, the one that keeps you feeling full, fat!

People are different in how much or how little they like to plan ahead when it comes to meals. Some like to avoid temptation by having everything planned and use a tracking system so they don’t go over their carb level. Others like to have the freedom to eat whatever keto friendly carb foods they want throughout the day. It’s all up to you. But if you’re a planner, here are some things you can do to make sticking to this diet plan easier for you.

You can purchase keto foods to have on hand in your home at all times. Some recipes or meals call for unique ingredients and you want it to be convenient for you to prepare your foods. You can prepare your favorite keto foods ahead of time. Some people prepare their meals on a weekend so they have everything ready a week at a time. Others only prep everything the night before, so it’s up to you. 

Another way of planning is to think about what you want to eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks and then enter them into your carb tracker the night before. That way, you know what you need to prepare meals and how many net carbs it will be. 

One way to plan ahead is to educate yourself about which foods are carb friendly, and which foods at your favorite restaurants are going to help you stay in ketosis. If there aren’t any, you can plan ahead on how you’ll order tailored to your needs. 

Some keto dieters even plan for temptations. Everywhere you go there will be the lure of carb laden foods. So you have to be ready to adjust. Some carry keto friendly snacks in case they’re put in an awkward situation where the only foods being served are those with too many carbs. For example, you can use bag of nuts, keto friendly snack bars or string cheese to satisfy your hunger.

If you’re active in outdoor activities, if you travel or if you have to be away from your home for any amount of time, you can take snacks along with you. Even if you simply drive a lot for work, you may want to have something on hand when hunger strikes. 

The keto diet is one of the most popular diets and for good reason. Not only can it help you lose weight, but it’s also good for your heart. One of the many reasons is because the keto cuts out foods that are bad for cardiovascular health while encouraging you to eat foods that are good for you. 

You only have to look at the record number of diabetes cases as well as the vast amount of heart related health disease to understand that the way people are eating is the root cause of many health problems. 

Low fat, high carb diets being touted as helpful simply aren’t good for your heart. High carb diets are the number one cause of long term health problems and being a big cause of weight gain. 

They’ are not good for you the way the keto diet is. It’s one of the best diets you could go on to gain both immediate and long term benefits for your heart. When you begin to follow the keto diet, the first thing that occurs is your insulin level drops. 

This is beneficial to your heart because higher levels of insulin help the body store more fat. When you eat more than you should or weigh more than you should, your body has to produce greater amounts of insulin. 

As a result of this, your body can become insulin resistant. Since insulin is what tempers the metabolism of certain cells within your body, it impacts your heart health. This is because the higher the glucose in your body the more damage it can cause to the heart and the more plaque developes in your arteries. 

The keto diet keeps insulin levels within a range that promotes heart health rather than diminishing it. Another hearth healthy point is that when you eat this way, it lowers your cholesterol. 

Some people might think because fat is used as part of the keto diet that it is not healthy. Healthy fats are used, the diet boosts your good cholesterol, which in turns lowers your risk of developing heart disease. 

Studies done on the keto diet show that several metabolic risk factors for developing heart disease are lowered. These risk factors include not having a high enough level of good cholesterol, high or borderline blood pressure, abdominal fat, and high glucose levels. 

The keto diet is healthy because it can keep your blood sugar level stabilized. You won’t crave the high sugar foods, which tends to send your glucose levels soaring, and then dropping, which can lead to overeating and retaining fat.