Avoiding carbs is one of the key foundations of the keto diet. If you want to lose weight and reap the health benefits from being in ketosis, then watching your carb intake is a necessity.
You need to stay under 20-30 carbs in order to find the highest level of success. When it comes to meals and planning foods for specific mealtimes, most people do okay with limiting carbs.
But one area that tends to trip people up on the diet is when it comes time to grab a snack. It’s easy to forget the amount of carbs in the snack or not be as proactive as you need to be to look out for the sneaky diet busters.
It can be helpful to know ahead of time which snacks to grab and keep on hand. This way, when it’s time for a pick-me-up, you already know that what you’re eating isn’t going to blow your diet.
When you choose a diet, make sure that the amount of carbs it contains, if any, fit into your daily allotment of total net carbs. If you over-snack, you can have too many carbs. Make sure your snack items are ready to go foods that you can grab and go if need be.
You can have keto friendly foods like nuts, boiled eggs, or olives. Cheeses are a good idea, too. Choose ones like cottage cheese, mozzarella cheese or cream cheese. You can also have meats as snack foods.
These would foods like bacon or the higher fat cold meats. You can use garlic butter on bread made from almond flour to create a snack that equals one carb. Making a sandwich using lettuce leaves in place of bread and very low or carb free ingredients is also a good snack idea.
Some low carb/no carb ideas are to use broccoli, zucchini, spinach, mushrooms, cauliflower or bell peppers and some people like to dip them in a low carb Ranch dressing.
Celery has one carb and cucumbers only contain three. You’ll want to avoid carrots as a snack, since these are higher in carbs. If you choose to have fruits such as berries, always choose the lowest carb one.
A ¼ cup of strawberries gives you less than two carbs, but the same size serving of blueberries gives you five carbs. Bananas are high in carbs, so you’ll want to keep those off your low carb snack list.
When you feel like you need to snack on something that gives you a crunch, opt for pork rinds, which are a zero carb snack. If you’re craving chocolate as a snack, look for chocolate that’s specifically made for the keto diet – usually dark chocolate.
All natural peanut butter has less than two carbs per tablespoon, making it a quick and low carb snack. You can also look for keto snack bars. These are snack bars that are high in fat, but low in carbs.
