Keto Diet Cheat Sheet | Enjoy your Cheat Meal While Staying in Ketosis
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Lucky for you, it’s possible to cheat on your keto diet while retaining its weight-loss benefits!
Cheating On Your Keto Diet
Want to cheat on your keto diet? Be strategic. Instead of a cheat day that can potentially take away weeks of progress, indulge in a cheat meal. With a cheat meal, you’re “cheating” on your diet without completely throwing away the progress you’ve made so far. You can also eat out as long as you opt for keto-friendly fast food options. There are even some keto options at Burger King.
Every cheat meal has the potential to scale up to 1,000 calories. That’s pretty tolerable, especially if you compare it to the thousands of calories you’d rack up from an entire cheat day.
Ketogenic Diet Low Carb Cheat Sheet
If there’s one thing all keto dieters can agree on, it's that in addition to being incredibly hard to follow, a keto diet can also be confusing.
Here are our recommendations for the perfect ketogenic low-carb cheat sheet.
Breakfast Options
Having bacon and eggs once in a while is a real treat but eating the same thing every day can be tiring. Here are substitutes you can use to mix things up:
Whole Eggs Instead of Just Egg Whites
Egg yolks are extremely beneficial. It’s where most of the egg's nutrients are. Plus, they add flavor to your meal. For cheat meals, consider consuming whole eggs instead of just the whites.
Cream Cheese Pancakes and Almond Flour Waffles Instead of Traditional Pancakes and Waffles
Pancakes and waffles are high in calories. Use almond flour and a mix of other flours for delicious, fluffy pancakes and crispy, flavored waffles for breakfast. They’ll taste just as good as the “real” pancakes and waffles!
Dinner Options
Is your dinner menu getting too repetitive? Here’s a list of dinner options you can do to make dinner more exciting while still maintaining a low-carb diet:
Switch Pasta with Zucchini Noodles
Zucchini noodles are a healthy substitute for pasta. Add your preferred choice of cream sauce to the mix and you get a delicious keto-friendly dinner.
Replace Processed Soup with Heavy Cream-Based Soups
Instead of purchasing ready-made soup in cans that contain sugar, carbs, and preservatives, start making them from scratch. Make big batches so you can freeze the leftovers and use them whenever needed.
Lunch and Snack Options
Here’s what you can replace popular keto lunch items with.
Lettuce Wraps Instead of Bread and Sandwiches
The next time you reach out for bread, get some lettuce and turn your sandwich into a lettuce wrap. They’re healthy and incredibly easy to make.
Replace Chips and Cookies with Dehydrated Vegetables
Thinly slice vegetables and slide them into the oven. Flavor them with spices and/or dips for a crispy snack alternative to chips and cookies.
Beverage Options
Spice things up with these keto-friendly beverages.
Replace Coffee and Sugar with Coffee and Stevia
Stevia is a useful sweetener that doesn’t increase your blood sugar levels. Just add a spoonful to your cup of coffee and you’re done.
Choose Hard Liquor Instead of Cocktails
Instead of flavored liquor and cocktails, hard liquor is low in carbs and the perfect alternative to sugar-filled cocktails.
Dessert Options
Sugar consumption can negatively impact your diet. Here's a couple of low-carb guilt-free dessert options that you can reward yourself with:
Replace Cake with Cheesecake
Cakes are high in carbs and far from healthy. A healthier and delicious option is cheesecake. You can also consume cakes that use almond flour.
Replace Regular Pie Crusts with Nut-based Crusts
Making keto-friendly pie crust can be tricky but if you use the right ingredients like almond flour mixed with other flours, you can get the type of crust you want.
Baking Options
Low-carb keto-friendly baking demands familiarity with ingredients that can and can’t be added to the mix. To make it easy on you, here’s a list of replacements you can use for your guilty pleasure:
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Replace flour with almond flour and eggs.
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For more texture, add a flaxseed meal.
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Replace sugar with Stevia.
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Use dark chocolate instead of regular chocolate.
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Use cream cheese for frosting
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Instead of breadcrumbs, use ground-up pork rinds.
Pros of Cheating on Keto
Starting a diet often entails cravings, especially during the early days. Indulging in a cheat meal now and then can help you address your cravings without stunting your progress.
Having a cheat sheet in place can also help you maintain your diet since you don’t feel overly deprived.
Cons of Cheating on Keto
Having cheat meals or cheat days is a balance that still requires discipline. If you aren’t careful, you may be indulging in too many cheat days or meals that make your diet ineffective. Here are other cons to consider:
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They may become the norm instead of the exception.
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Consuming more carbs makes you more hungry.
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Cheating interferes with weight/fat loss and other keto diet benefits.
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It can potentially raise blood sugar levels, taking you on an energy roller coaster every time you have a cheat meal.
Tips For Doing Cheat Days Right
Having cheat days or meals can be controversial for dieters, mainly because of how quickly they can spiral out of control. To combat this, here are tips for incorporating them into your diet:
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Plan, plan, plan. Schedule your cheat days well in advance so you’re motivated to see your diet through.
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Cheat, but cheat moderately.
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Take note of your cravings and try to eat their low-carb versions during cheat meals or cheat days.
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Exercise or workout after you eat a cheat meal.
By keeping these tips in mind, you’re all set for a satisfying but moderate keto cheat meal.
