Keto Diet for Beginners: What to Eat and Avoid on Day 1
One of the most exciting journeys you can take to better health, higher energy and maybe some weight loss is beginning a keto diet.
But the first day of keto is overwhelming.
The catch is it has to do with what to eat and what not to eat.
Starting the keto diet today will be laid out step by step in this beginner’s guide.
Ketogenic, or keto, is a high fat, moderate protein, low carbohydrate diet designed to put your body into a state of ketosis.
When your body is in ketosis, it is burning fat instead of carbohydrates for energy.
This change doesn’t happen overnight, and the things you eat from day one can have a huge impact, although what you do on your first day helps make this change as seamless as possible.
What is the keto diet?
The keto diet, while it does involve drastically reducing your carbs, actually eats healthy fats.
The good thing about this is that it helps your body to convert fat into the main fuel it burns and not the glucose, which it can find from the carbs.
Ketosis is a metabolic state—it's what happens when your body converts fat to ketones that you and your brain can use as energy (1).
Weight loss, greater mental clarity, and stabilizing blood sugar levels are all benefits of this process.
Unlike low carb diets, keto takes your carbs down to just 20 to 50 grams per day and makes it clear your body is running on fat, not the carbs.
The keto diet is not only low in carbs; it teaches you to live a healthy life by eating healthy fats, less processed foods, and more whole ingredients.
Preparing for Day 1 of Keto
If you’re embarking on the keto diet, preparation is key.
That’s why it’s easy to get stuck eating non-keto foods if you aren’t prepared.
Here are a few important steps to guarantee a successful first day:
So, your first step is to stock up on keto-friendly foods.
Eat healthy fats, good sources of protein, and low-carb vegetables.
Avocados, eggs, lean meats, olive oil, and leafy greens are a few examples.
Second, you need meal planning.
When it comes to meals, do it before hand to avoid last minute temptations.
While you’re still learning to work the diet, having a meal plan will also prevent you from having to count macros.
Next, prepare your kitchen.
Take them out of our pantry, along with any high-carb snacks, processed food, and sugary food items.
Unhealthy foods are not readily available, so they are easier to resist temptation.
Finally, stay hydrated. On your first day, get used to keto, and drinking enough water is essential to prevent dehydration.
The keto starter guide plus what to eat on your first day of keto.
How quickly you eat into ketosis is dependent on what you have eaten for the first day of your keto diet.
Limit your intake of carbohydrates and consume a lot of protein and healthy fats (2).
Here’s a breakdown of what to eat on day one:
Healthy Fats
As a result, a keto diet should be composed mostly of fats.
Healthy fats are essential to your energy and will keep you full throughout the day (3).
Avocados also provide a great amount of healthy fats and so much good fiber, vitamins, and minerals.
Other good choices include olive oi, which can be used for cooking or as a drizzle on salads.
Keto needs the butter and ghee—not only as emulsifiers for steaming or frying meats, but essential fats that are high in quality energy.
Other good fats and protein sources are nuts and seeds like almonds, walnuts, chia seeds, and flaxseeds.
Proteins
You should consume a certain quantity of protein when following a ketogenic diet in order to retain muscle mass while your body burns fat for energy.
Eggs are a good protein source filled with protein and healthy fats.
Protein and omega-33 fatty acid-rich fatty fish include salmon, sardines, and mackerel.
Chicken, turkey, duck, beef (preferably grass-fed), lean protein, and healthy fat profile.
Low-Carb Vegetables
The keto diet includes lower carbs, but you want to include low-carb vegetables for fiber and nutrients.
If you’re avoiding excess carbs, these vegetables will also help you stay healthy in terms of digestive health.
Each serving of spinach, kale, and arugula contains relatively few carbohydrates and is an excellent source of nutrients.
Good for side dishes or soup, broccoli offers the benefits of fiber and vitamins A and C.
Another versatile veggie that can be spiralized into 'zoodles,' aka a pasta substitute option... zucchini.
Cauliflower is also a great option, as you can use it instead of rice or mashed potatoes in the place of your starchy foods without the carbs.
Sample Day 1 Meal Plan
Here’s what your first day on keto could look like:
Instead of pouring eggs into eggs into butter into eggs to get eggs scrambled, try buckwheat pancakes, buttered, warm syrup topped with eggs.
Grilled chicken breast, salad of leafy greens, avocado, and olive oil dressing—that would work for lunch.
For dinner, bake salmon and roast cauliflower with olive oil.
Otherwise, if you get hungry in between meals, a handful of nuts or seeds will fill you up.
What to NOT do on your First Day of Keto
That's why you want to stay away from high-carb and sugary foods in order to put your body into ketosis.
Here’s a list of foods to stay away from on your first day:
High-Carb Foods
Both carbohydrates and fructose are the enemies of ketosis, however.
Don’t eat foods such as bread, pasta, rice, potatoes and cereals.
Carbs in these foods also can be high, and you can be kicked out of ketosis. To stay on track, you've got to give wide berth to these things.
Sugary Foods
All kinds of sugar are restricted on the keto diet. Insulin spikes, which can keep your body from getting into ketosis happen from eating sugary foods.
Candy, fruit juices, and sweetened beverages, including soda, sweet tea, and energy drinks, should all be avoided.
These will impede your progress and make sure that your body doesn’t burn fat.
Processed Foods
Hidden sugars and carbohydrates abound in many processed foods.
Stay away from fast food that contains all the unhealthy fat, carbs, and preservatives.
Stuff like chips, crackers, and cookies is highly packed with carbs, so aim to stay away from those if you’re in the process of staying in ketosis.
When you eliminate these foods, your body can lose weight on fat, not carbs.
Here’s What Happens During the First 3 Days of Keto
The first few days of keto are the hardest.
Your body will also go through an adjustment period as it switches from using carbs as fuel to fat as fuel.
Keto Flu
During the first few days, when your body gets used to ketosis, many newcomers report experiencing what is known as the "keto flu."
Symptoms of keto flu include headaches and muscle cramps, as well as fatigue, irritability, and nausea (4).
Most of these symptoms will go away within 3–5 days.
Hydration and Electrolytes
If you want to stay on the mildly unpleasant side of keto flu, stay hydrated.
Drinking water (and optionally taking electrolytes like magnesium, potassium, and sodium) are both important (5).
It will prevent dehydration and regulate your electrolytes as your body learns what to do with its new fuel source.
On Day 1, Learn to Avoid Common Mistakes
Keto is not a piece of cake, and hundreds of beginners make some common mistakes on the first day of starting keto.
Here’s what to avoid:
First, make sure you’re getting enough fat.
Keto leads to the production of fatty acids, and fat is the main fuel source, so you may not eat enough and wind up sluggish, hungry, and off your game all day long if you’re not pairing the felt of keto with the nutrition.
Second, you want to be careful not to eat too many carbs.
You can easily wind up getting more carbs than you realize and underestimate how many, so keep your macros in check by tracking the amount so your daily carb intake is less than 20 or 50 grams.
Then don’t forget to drink enough water.
It’s common to become dehydrated when starting keto, so try to drink lots of water.
And last but not least, meal prep is necessary.
When you haven’t planned your meals, you may tend to pull out non keto friendly foods.
Be sure to have meals prepared so that you won’t be tempted to stray from your plan.
The First Day Tips
Keto starts with the first day. Here are a few tips to help you stay on track:
The first thing you must do is drink water throughout the day.
Even more important is keeping hydrated, as your body starts using fat for fuel.
Second, you should plan your meals in advance.
This way, you’ll have what you need without going to high carb foods.
Third, track your macros.
To stay within the keto guidelines, use a keto app or journal to track your carb, fat, and protein intake.
Final Thoughts
The first day of the keto diet is tricky, but the right first step to long-term health and weight loss.
When you cook and prepare in advance and eat and avoid carefully, you are setting yourself up for success, effectively.
Your body will adjust in those first few days, and things will be tough, but mostly, just remember to be consistent.
So with time, keto can help you feel expended and energized, lose weight, and perform a mental clarity.
Stay on it, and you will soon be thriving in ketosis.
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FAQs
What do I need to do to start keto for the first time?
But first sulfating, reducing carbs to 20–50 grams per day, and sticking to healthy fats and protein.
Cut down on sugar as well as processed carbs.
So what are the nine rules of keto until death do us part?
Eat high fat, moderate protein, and really low carbs. We also track macro, stay hydrated and then avoid processed carbs or sugar.
Which foods are off-limits when following a ketogenic diet?
Eat low-carb foods and generally avoid high carb foods like bread, pasta, rice, potatoes and sugary snacks and beverages.
What do the first 3 days of keto look like?
Your body will go into ketosis in the first 3 days.
Although you might feel symptoms of the keto flu, such as fatigue and headaches—these tend to go away as your body adjusts—you should not get it really bad, either.
Related Studies
1. Title: Understanding the experiences of ketogenic metabolic therapy for psychological well-being
This study explores the effects of a ketogenic diet on mood and psychological well-being, finding improvements in cognition and energy levels as participants transitioned into ketosis.
Link: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2024.1397546/full
2. Title: A low-carbohydrate as compared with a low-fat diet in severe obesity
This study found that participants on a low-carbohydrate diet lost significantly more weight and had better improvements in metabolic markers compared to those on a low-fat diet over six months.
Link: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa022207
3. Title: Effect of the ketogenic diet on glycemic control, insulin resistance, and weight loss in patients with type 2 diabetes: a meta-analysis
This meta-analysis demonstrates that a ketogenic diet significantly improves glycemic control and contributes to weight loss in patients with type 2 diabetes.
Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41387-020-00142-z
4. Title: Consumer reports of “Keto flu” associated with the ketogenic diet
This study analyzes online forum discussions about keto flu, revealing that symptoms peak within the first week and typically resolve within four weeks.
Link: https://www.frontiersin.org/news/2020/03/13/the-keto-diet-can-lead-to-flu-like-symptoms-during-the-first-few-weeks