A low-carb diet is a diet where (surprise, surprise) you lower your carb intake, and instead up your protein and fat intake. The purpose of that is to help your body burn fat for energy, instead of sugar – so it’s great for weight loss. 

Two popular low-carb diets are keto and Atkins. Both are similar, the only difference is that with the Atkins diet you slowly increase your carb intake, and with keto, the carb intake remains low, so you can stay in ketosis.

As I mentioned, a low-carb diet can help your body burn fat for energy, which is obviously great if you want to lose weight. A low carb diet can also help you increase levels of good cholesterol, reduce your appetite, etc.

Starting a low carb diet may seem hard and challenging at first, but with the right knowledge and some practical tips, you can be well on your way to kick starting your low carb diet in no time.

How To Kick Start A Low Carb Diet

Learn How To Count Carbs

Counting carbs doesn’t have to be difficult. When you get the hang of it, it will become a habit, and you won’t even notice you’re doing it.

For each food, you can google for example “broccoli carbs” and you’ll see how many grams of carbs there are in 100g of broccoli (or a different amount, depends on the website), so you can weight your food and do the math to see how many carbs are in each food.

For packaged foods, you can always find that info on the back of the product – every packaging includes the number of net carbs the food has.

Clean Out Your Pantry/Fridge

If you decided to start a low carb diet, it would be a great idea to clean out your pantry and fridge, and give away all high carb foods that you’ll be avoiding from now on (if you love with someone who will continue eating all of that, you can maybe reorganize your pantry/fridge so you have your own little low carb section – it will make it easier to stick to your non-keto and keto diets).

Create A Meal Plan

Deciding upfront what you’ll be eating will help you so much. It will make everything less stressful for you, since you won’t have to come up with different low carb meals every day, and you won’t have to go grocery shopping every day when you realize you don’t have the ingredients that you need. 

Do some research, find some low-carb meals (you’ll see some ideas in this post), and decide which ones sound delicious to you.

Then, write a plan. You can either write a full plan right away, with each day of the week planned out, or you can start by making a list of low carb meals that look good to you, and then each week, pick some of those to make that week.

Find dishes that have healthy fats (avocado, coconut oil, olive oil, etc.), lean protein, no added sugars, low amount of total carbs in them, and overall low carb foods, and add them to your eating plan. There are tons of keto friendly foods you can eat, just be creative.

Do Grocery Shopping In Advance

When you create a meal plan, write a grocery list of all the things you’ll need. That’s one of the things that’s amazing about meal plans – you know exactly what to buy, and you won’t end up without a key ingredient when you start cooking!

Do Meal Prep

Doing meal prep is great no matter what diet you’re on (especially for weight loss), but it can be extra useful when you’re on a low carb diet. That way, you don’t have to come up with any meal ideas during the week (low carb recipes aren’t hard to come up with, but it’s great to have them ready), or spend time cooking – you have your low carb dishes ready for you to eat! If you have an eating plan (as I recommended above), it will be easier to use it to do your meal prep.

Stock Up On Low Carb Snacks

Stocking up on low carb snacks can be super useful if you love snacking. It can often happen that you don’t have any low carb snacks at home, and you feel like munching on something, and you don’t want to go to the store. So, you may end up breaking your low carb diet and eating some potato chips (which are not only high carb, but high fat as well).

But, if you stock up on low carb snacks, you’ll have them every time you want to do a little bit of snacking, and you’ll be able to stick to your ketogenic diet.

Low Carb Meal Ideas

Here are some great low carb recipes.

Low Carb Tea Sandwiches

292 calories

• 1 Cucumber, medium – 42 calories

• 7½ Tbsp Cream cheese, whipped – 250 calories

• 2 Tbsp Dill – 0 calories

• 2 Tbsp Chives – 0 calories

• 1 Salt, dash – 0 calories

DIRECTIONS

1. Note: 7 1/2 Tbsp cream cheese = 1/2 cup

2. Cut herbs finely.

3. Slice cucumber.

4. In a bowl, combine cream cheese, dill, salt, and pepper. Stir until herbs are mixed in.

5. Spread mixture evenly on cucumber.

Low Carb Sausage Jambalaya

423 calories

• 1 cup Tomatoes, canned, crushed – 50 calories

• 2 cups Broth, chicken or beef – 70 calories

• 1 Sausage, chicken – 140 calories

• 1½ cups Cauliflower rice, raw (already riced) – 57 calories

• ¼ Bell pepper, yellow – 12.5 calories

• ¼ Onion, yellow – 13.75 calories

• ⅔ Tbsp Olive oil (Tbsp) – 79.73 calories

• 1 Garlic salt, dash – 0 calories

• 1 Oregano, dash – 0 calories

• 1 tsp Paprika, dash – 0 calories

• 1 Pepper, dash – 0 calories

DIRECTIONS

1. Dice onion, slice sausage into coin shapes, and chop bell pepper into medium pieces.< /p>

2. Add oil to a pot. Note: 2/3 Tbsp = 2 tsp oil.

3. Stir fry diced onion for 5 minutes on medium-low heat.

4. Add in sausage and bell pepper for another ~4 minutes.

5. Add in cauli rice, stir fry for another 4 minutes until you see some browning.

6. Reduce heat to low. Add in tomatoes, broth, and seasonings.

7. Let simmer for a minimum of 4-5 minutes.

8. Note: I personally like these brands of sausage – but choose whatever brand you have access to! Trader Joe’s; Fra’Mani; Teton; Open Nature; Aidells. No meat? use a meat-free sausage, or beans.

9. No meat? Use beans, tofu, or vegetarian sausage.

Quick Low Carb Chili

429 calories

• ½ Onion, yellow – 27.5 calories

• ½ Bell pepper, red – 18.5 calories

• ½ cup Celery stalks, chopped in half – 8 calories

• 3 oz Ground beef, 85% lean, raw – 213 calories

• 1 cup Canned, diced tomatoes – 50 calories

• ⅓ cup Cheese, shredded, mozzarella – 112 calories

• 1 tsp Red pepper flakes, dash – 0 calories

• 1 Cumin, dash – 0 calories

• 1 Garlic powder, dash – 0 calories

• 1 Salt, dash – 0 calories

DIRECTIONS

1. Dice celery and onion.

2. Spray a pot with an oil spray.

3. Stir fry ground beef, celery, and onion on medium heat ~8 minutes, until meat has cooked through.

4. Add in rest of ingredients (besides cheese), heat on lowest heat for at least 10 minutes.

5. Top with cheese.

6. No dairy? Use oil. No meat? Use tofu or beans.

Salmon & Dill Bowl

392 calories

• 4 oz Salmon filet – 200 calories

• ½ Cucumber, small – 16 calories

• ½ cup Tomatoes, grape – 16 calories

• 4 cups Mixed greens – 40 calories

• ½ Avocado, small – 116.5 calories

• 1 Tbsp Dill – 0 calories

• 1 Tbsp Red wine vinegar – 3 calories

• 1 Salt, dash – 0 calories

• 1 Pepper, dash – 0 calories

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

2. Spray a sheet pan with an oil spray.

3. Remove skin from salmon.

4. Place salmon on sheet pan. Bake salmon for 15 minutes, until flakes easily. P.S. also bake the salmon skin, and eat separately, it’s so good for you!

5. While salmon is baking, chop cucumber, avocado & tomatoes and combine in a bowl

6. Once salmon is baked, slice into small pieces. Add salmon pieces to the salad bowl.

7. Add in red wine vinegar, top with salt & pepper.

Tuscan-Inspired Salmon

438 calories

• 4 oz Salmon filet – 200 calories

• 4 oz Coconut milk, reduced fat (oz) – 140 calories

• ⅛ cup Broth, vegetable – 1.875 calories

• 0.3 Tbsp Garlic, minced (Tbsp) – 0 calories

• 4 cups Leafy greens, spinach, raw – 28 calories

• 4 Tbsp Tomatoes, sun-dried – 68 calories

• 1 Garlic salt, dash – 0 calories

DIRECTIONS

1. Add garlic salt to salmon.

2. Spray a pan with an oil spray & add in minced garlic. Add in salmon. Cover pan with lid.

3. Cook salmon ~12 minutes on low-medium heat.

4. Turn heat to low. Add in spinach, sundried tomatoes, broth, and coconut milk to the pan, recover & let simmer for ~5 minutes

Eggplant Feta Slices

151 calories

• ½ cup Eggplant slices – 17.5 calories

• ⅓ cup Cheese, crumbled, feta – 133 calories

• ¼ cup Basil, fresh – 0 calories

• 1 Garlic salt, dash – 0 calories

• 1 Pepper, dash – 0 calories

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

2. Line baking sheet with parchment paper & spray with an oil spray.

3. Slice eggplant and season with garlic salt and pepper. Bake for 20 minutes, flipping over midway through.

4. Top with feta for the last 5 minutes.

5. Remove from oven, and top with sliced fresh basil.

6. No dairy? Use a dairy-free cheese.

7. No fresh basil? Use dried.

Lightened Tomato Tuna Melts

349 calories

• 1 Tuna, canned (1 can) – 120 calories

• 1 Tomato, medium – 22 calories

• 1 oz Cheese, sliced, cheddar, full fat/ regular – 110 calories

• 1 Tbsp Mayonnaise (Tbsp) – 97 calories

• 1 Everything bagel seasoning, dash –
  0 calories

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Slice tomato into ~4 slices.

3. Mix tuna and mayo and add to tomatoes.

4. Bake for 5 minutes.

5. Turn oven to broiler.

6. Take tomatoes out of the oven, top with 1/4 slices of cheese.

7. Broil for 1-2 minutes.

8. Notes: Alternatively, do the same steps but in the toaster oven! No dairy? Use a dairy free cheese or have some avocado on the side.

Zucchini Tomato Bake

423 calories

• 1½ Zucchini, medium – 49.5 calories

• 1 cup Tomatoes, grape – 32 calories

• ⅔ cup Cheese, Parmesan, shredded (cups) – 222 calories

• 1 Tbsp Olive oil (Tbsp) – 119 calories

• 1 Salt, dash – 0 calories

• 1 tsp Red pepper flakes, dash – 0 calories

• 1 Tbsp Basil, fresh – 0 calories

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

2. Chop zucchini into small-medium pieces and tomatoes in halves.

3. Add oil to a casserole dish.

4. Add in vegetables.

5. Bake for 30 minutes.

6. Once cooked, top with cheese and seasonings. Stir so evenly mixed. Let cheese melt ~2 minutes before serving.

7. No dairy? Use a dairy-free cheese, extra oil, or swap this meal out for another.

Read Next