Keto Diet For Beginners: Easy Tips & Tricks

Begin With Simple Meals

When I was starting out, I almost always used this simple framework for my meals. It makes the process much easier, and focuses you on eating real food! I ate a lot of salads, stir fries, and simple “protein with veggies on the side” dinners.

1. Pick a protein – Meat, eggs, protein powder, etc.
2. Pick a (low carb) veggie – Zucchini, cauliflower, leafy greens, etc.
3. Add fat – Butter, olive oil, mayonnaise, etc.

Remove Temptations

One of the easiest ways to start a keto diet for beginners is to remove foods from your house that you want to avoid. I find this helps a lot! If you have family members that eat them, store them together so that you can at least avoid a certain cupboard or fridge shelf.

• Grains – Wheat, bread, pasta, rice, cereal, corn
• Sugar – Table sugar, ice cream, sweetened drinks
• Starchy vegetables – Potatoes, sweet potatoes, parsnips
• Legumes – Beans, lentils, chickpeas (Peanuts are an exception in moderation.)
• High-sugar fruits – Bananas, apples, oranges
• Low-fat dairy – All cow’s milk (except heavy cream), low-fat yogurts or cheeses
• Seeds & vegetable oils – Margarine, canola oil, corn oil, grapeseed oil, soybeean oil
• Processed “low carb” foods – Read labels for hidden sugar, starch, and artificial ingredients

Stock Your Fridge

As a reminder, my keto food list has a more complete list. Here’s a good starting point for the main foods for low carb diets:

• Healthy fats – Like avocado oil, olive oil, butter, and coconut oil
• Leafy greens – Such as lettuce, spinach, and kale
• Low carb vegetables – Focus on varieties that grow above ground, like broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, asparagus, and mushrooms
• Keto meats – Any kind of unprocessed meat is great, including chicken, beef, pork, lamb, etc.
• Full-fat dairy – Including cheese and heavy cream. I also eat plain Greek yogurt in moderation.
• Eggs
• Low carb fruit – Like avocados and fresh berries

Stock Your Pantry

My pantry started out as a minefield of processed foods! These days, I stick to clean ingredients. Below are the types of items you’ll want to keep.

• Herbs & spices
• Low carb condiments
• Keto nuts & seeds
• Keto sweeteners
• Low carb flours – The most common ones are almond flour and coconut flour
• Sugar-free beverages – Water, coffee, tea

Want to know what I don’t keep in my pantry? Exogenous ketones, ketone urine or blood strips, diet supplements, and processed products labeled “keto”. They’re not necessary to have success on a keto diet for beginners! Your body will produce ketones on its own if you restrict carbs enough.

Ease Into It

Cutting carbs and sugar cold turkey can be a shock! If you’re a keto beginner and want to be kind to yourself (which I recommend), try these approaches instead:

• Apply a couple of beginner keto tips at a time. This gives you time to adjust.
• Cut out foods gradually. Eliminate sugar first, such as soda and candy, then complex carbs like bread and pasta, and starchy veggies and fruit last.
• Listen to your body and be patient. If you finished your meal and still feel hungry, try drinking some water, brushing your teeth, distracting yourself with something fun to do, or just waiting 20 minutes for your brain to catch up. If you’re still hungry after that, try a salty, water-packed snack, like olives or pickles.

Carbs Are A Limit, Protein Is A Goal, And Fat Is A Lever

Years ago, I learned this catchphrase about a keto diet for beginners. It was confusing at first, but now it makes so much sense! To help you understand it, start with my macro calculator here, and then approach each macronutrient like this:

• Carbs are a limit – This means that carbs have a maximum, but not a minimum. Don’t go over your carb limit, but it’s okay to go under! For most keto beginners, the carb limit is 20-30 grams of net carbs per day.
• Protein is a goal – Keto is a moderate protein lifestyle, and protein is necessary to preserve muscle mass. Unlike carbs, you want to aim to reach your protein goal! However, you don’t want to go too far over either, because a lot of extra protein converts to glucose (source) and can kick you out of ketosis.
• Fat is a lever – After your carb limit and protein goal, your remaining calories on keto come from fat. Fat works like a lever: Increase for curbing hunger or decrease for weight loss! The hardest part for me to get used to was remembering that I shouldn’t go too low, since fat is the main energy source on keto. This is a high fat diet!

One last piece of the beginner keto diet puzzle is fiber, and there’s some controversy around this. FDA guidelines say 28 grams per day, while the National Academy of Science recommends 25-38 grams per day. I always strive to get as much as I can, primarily from vegetables.

Portions Do Matter

A keto plateau happens when you stop losing weight on this lifestyle. Ketosis inherently reduces hunger and cravings, so I tend to eat less with it, but you can still stall or even gain weight if eating too many calories. Watch your portions and use fat as your lever, like I explained above!

Eat Only When You’re Hungry

This sounds obvious, but I know some people eat just because it’s mealtime. On keto, you don’t have to! Focus on hitting your protein goal when you do eat, but otherwise let your body decide. I get much less hungry when eating low carb.

Electrolytes Help Avoid The Keto Flu

Keto flu is probably on of the biggest surprises on a keto diet for beginners. You can read more in my guide to keto flu here. This is not a real illness, but rather symptoms of fatigue, nausea, or headaches caused by electrolyte imbalances. The good news is, these side effects are temporary and avoidable.

Salting my food generously always makes the biggest difference for me to avoid keto flu. Easing into lowering carbs slowly also helps. Finally, there’s always my homemade electrolyte drink to replenish!

Stay Hydrated

Eating carbs causes us to store more water in our bodies, in the form of glycogen (like I mentioned above). A keto diet flushes out a lot of that water, so it’s crucial to drink enough. I usually aim for 16 cups per day.

Try My Easy Keto Recipes For Beginners

Keto recipes are not required to stick to this lifestyle, but they sure make it easier and more enjoyable! Introducing my old comfort food favorites in keto form, like keto bread or keto pasta, is one of the best keto tips that helped me stick to this lifestyle long term. I have hundreds of keto recipes here.

If you like print cookbooks, my two hardcovers below have thousands of 5-star reviews, from keto beginners like you.

My Keto Cookbooks For Beginners

The Easy Keto Carboholics’ Cookbook

Learn More

The Easy Keto Cookbook

Learn More

Use Sweeteners Responsibly

Cutting out sugar sounds hard, but it doesn’t have to be! I’ve made hundreds of keto dessert recipes over the years. They make a keto diet for beginners a lot easier, because you don’t have to say goodbye to sweets or spike your blood sugar levels. I do recommend enjoying them in moderation, so you still get plenty of protein, vegetables, and healthy fats as your main carb intake.

The key to all of these is keto friendly sweeteners, like monk fruit and allulose, or sweet alternatives like keto honey and keto maple syrup. You can learn more about sugar substitutes here to help you choose (I’ve tried them all), and bookmark my conversion calculator so you know how much.

Get Support For More Beginner Keto Tips

You don’t have to do it alone! Over the past 10 years, I’ve built a private support community of people just like you and me. We follow a range of healthy eating lifestyles, many of them low carb. Join here — it’s free!

There Are A Few Ways To Do Keto

Did you know that you can do keto a few different ways? I’ve tried them all and prefer lazy keto or low carb, but choose what works best for you:

• Strict keto – Involves strictly monitoring calories and all macros (fat, protein, and carbs), usually with a tracking app. This lifestyle is usually paired with clean keto (below).
• Lazy keto – My personal favorite! With lazy keto, you track only net carbs, no other macros. I’ve even follower a lazier method of eating keto foods without tracking anything. I have more info about this type and lazy keto recipes here.
• Dirty keto – This is an “if it fits your macros” approach to keto. It means you can eat anything (even if it’s processed, artificial, or has added sugar), as long as it works for your macros. I’m not a big fan of this approach because it ignores benefits of whole foods, but some people find it easier to follow.
• Clean keto – This means following keto while eating natural, whole foods and avoiding artificial ingredients, wheat or gluten, added sugars, etc. It can be combined with any of the other approaches. I’m a big advocate of this!
• Low carb – This is similar to lazy keto, but more lenient on carbs. The carb limit can be as high as 50-100 grams, which is still much lower than a standard American diet. I’ve done this as well and it’s definitely the easiest option!

Plan Your Meals

Following a keto diet plan for beginners doesn’t have to take hours out of your day. I can do it for you!

It can be difficult and time consuming to come up with recipes that fit your macros, offer enough variety, and taste good. That’s why I create an easy keto meal plan for beginners every week. They balance meal prep, super simple recipes (that even my non-keto family members eat), and occasional leftovers to save time and money. I have options for a single person or a family of four, so that it can fit your life.