10 Foods to eat on a Ketogenic Diet

The ketogenic (keto) diet is one of the most popular nutrition plans in today’s health and fitness scene and is all the rage at gyms in Dubai. It’s touted as providing a great deal of energy. It can help you to build muscle and burn body fat, all whilst taking in a large number of calories and having access to some of your favourite foods. 

But what exactly is it? How can you successfully stick to a keto diet plan?

Let’s run through what it is and see what foods will be the most helpful when following it.

What is the keto diet?

The majority of your calories come from fats and protein when you follow a keto diet plan.

Very few carbohydrates will be permitted, with fewer than fifty grams taken in daily. This compares to around 200g for a more average diet.

Therefore, carb heavy foods like pasta, rice, bread, sugar and starchy vegetables like potatoes are excluded.

Instead, fat heavy foods like nuts, oils, avocados and olives are emphasised instead, as we will see below.

This lack of carbs will deplete your natural glycogen stores. Glycogen is generally your body’s preferred energy source, on which the majority of most peoples’ bodily process are run.

Without this glycogen to run on, your body will go into a state called ketosis.

This is the keto diet’s main goal.

Under ketosis, your body converts fat into energy in the form of ketones.

In the long run, using ketones for energy will help most people to burn up unwanted body fat whilst also providing a great deal of mental clarity, as the brain runs very effectively on them.

So, what should you eat on a keto diet plan?

Many of us build our diets around heavy carbs. Potatoes, pasta, noodles and rice form the bedrock of many cuisines all over the world and lots of traditional cooking makes use of them.

To exclude them often leaves people wonder just what exactly a keto diet will allow them.

Though it may be hard at first, there are plenty of healthy foods that can be eaten on a keto diet.

The key is to know what to look for and plan ahead, ensuring that every recipe is filled with the right kinds of nutrition in a tasty, accessible manner.

With this in mind, let’s look at 10 of the best types of food to look for when out shopping or planning your meal prep at home. These include:

1. Beef, lamb, game and pork
2. Oils
3. Fatty fish and white fish
4. Ham, pancetta, pastrami, prosciutto, roast beef, speck, and turkey
5. Nuts
6. Olives
7. High fat dairy: Butter and ghee, heavy cream, softer cheeses (blue, buffalo mozzarella, brie, camembert, colby, goat, gouda) and harder cheeses (cheddar, havarti, mozzarella, parmesan, pepper jack, muenster, provolone, and Swiss)
8. Fresh produce: lettuce collard greens, kale, mustard, spinach, Swiss chard, asparagus, avocados, bok choy, celery, eggplant, herbs, kohlrabi, mushrooms, radishes, rapini (broccoli raab), tomatoes, and zucchini
9. Blackberries and raspberries
10. Eggs

Who to turn to for advice?

If you’re still struggling to find healthy meal plans and work out what you should be doing to fulfil your keto needs, talk to a fitness professional.

Any personal trainer in Dubai at a gym in Dubai will be well-versed in current trends and dietary protocols: they will know how to implement a ketogenic diet, in tandem with a well-crafted fitness regime, to really get the most out of your efforts. You can consult GymNation's nutrition partner Kcal and help them design a completely customised plan for you.

Simply Google ‘Gym near me’, go in to the best gym in the UAE and talk to the GymNation experts.