What is Lazy Keto? Is Lazy Keto right for you?
Some people hate to track their macros and others love to track.Those of you (you know who you are) love to track your macros and most likely follow a strict keto diet. Others don’t like being weighed down and instead opt not to track macros and instead eat intuitively low carb.
Should you count your macros? Should you follow a lazy keto diet?
Well…that depends.
When first starting a keto diet, I normally have my clients just reduce their total carbohydrate intake. First I’ll instruction them to take out chips and soda from their diet. Then the potatoes and other starchy vegetables and grains.
After a few weeks you’ll have effortlessly reduced your carbohydrate intake, and you may or may not already be in ketosis.
A good majority of my clients follow a strict keto diet. This is because they need elevated ketone levels and lower Glucose Ketone Index (GKI) to manage some sort of disease or aliment.
The blood glucose and blood ketone meter I use is the Keto Mojo. It’s easy to use and the strips are the cheapest on the market!
One of the most surprising benefits my clients have benefited from have been reduction of (some elimination of!) hot flashes and night sweats. All by following a strict keto diet and tracking their glucose ketone index.
Some who follow a strict keto diet track their macros because they have tracked for years and it’s just a part of them that they don’t want to give up. Others track because we are trying to reverse diet them.
If you want to track your keto macros, I recommend using the cronometer app! It’s super easy to use and I like it much better than other apps because it uses the USDA database for nutrition and it doesn’t allow just anyone to add a food that the whole world can see (you can still add foods and recipes just visible to yourself though!).
Reverse dieting means that a client came to me eating a severely low caloric intake, or were eating at a caloric deficit and we will be slowly increasing their macros to minimize any fat gain while increasing their basal metabolic rate.
Some of my clients that are interested in weight loss, initially start on a strict keto diet, and then transition to a lazy keto diet once they hit their goal weight, or they are able to continue their weight loss by intuitively eating.
Two benefits to following a keto diet, are that you have more even glucose levels throughout the day and that you are more easily satiated. Both of these factors allow you to follow a lazy keto diet and stay in ketosis without tracking.
WHAT IS LAZY KETO?
The definition of lazy keto is open to interpretation. To me, I feel that the term lazy keto refers to intuitively eating a low carb, moderate protein and high fat diet without tracking macros.
To follow a lazy keto diet and see results, you must first know what foods include carbohydrates, and specifically which foods contain a lot of carbohydrates.
High carb foods include
- Chips
- Cookies
- Bread
- Starchy vegetables (potatoes, peas, corn, lima beans, some squashes)
- Some fruits
- Candy
Or reversely, if you know what foods are low in carbohydrates, you can just stick to eating those. To help you follow a lazy keto or strict keto diet, we created this keto diet grocery list.
We also created more in-depth individual posts that talk about which foods you can eat on a lazy keto or strict keto diet
- Keto Fats
- Keto Sweeteners
- Low Carb Vegetables
- Low Carb Fruits
- Low Carb Dairy
- Low Carb Snacks
- Low Carb Nuts
- Low Carb Flours
Some people call a lazy keto diet a “dirty keto diet” when the majority of the food eaten is highly processed or in the form of fast foods.
This may be grabbing a burger or two from a fast food joint, adding cheese and bacon and omitting the bun and ketchup. This meal is low in carbs, high in fat and moderate in protein – but depending on the quality of the restaurant the micronutrient profile might not be the best.
We created a keto fast food guide to help you navigate different fast food restaurants and still eat low carb.
What do some lazy keto meals look like?
A lazy keto breakfast may look like, 2 eggs and 2 slices of bacon cooked in bacon fat, with a side of avocado.
A lazy keto lunch may look like 1 chicken thigh, 1 hard boiled egg, 1 cup steamed broccoli and cauliflower with 1oz of melted cheese.
A lazy keto dinner may look like an 8oz ribeye steak, seared in a cast iron skillet with 1 tbsp of butter, a few brussel sprouts and the rest of the avocado from breakfast.
You don’t have to eat extravagant or difficult meals on a keto diet to still get awesome results.
Lazy Keto Recipes we love!
- 3 Ingredient Keto Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein bites
- Easy Sea Salt Caramel Low Carb Mousse
- Instant Pot Crack Chicken
- Cilantro Lime Cauliflower Rice
- Sesame Vegetable Beef Stir Fry
