how many carbs in a low carb diet ?– When it comes to keeping in line with a ketogenic diet, It’s often difficult to imagine turning to fast food as an option. Low carb diet foods, After all, most take out meals come laden with carbs and sugars as a standard. As a keto warrior, your go-to option often involves specialized meal plans and recipes. Since our modern dietary culture places such an emphasis on carb intake, it's hard to imagine that conventional food, let alone fast food could make the cut. But we will have you know that with the right knowledge and by looking for the right things in your takeout menu, you can easily cater to your keto cravings at your nearest burger joint.
How Many Carbs In A Low Carb Diet
The first thing you want to understand is what counts as keto. A keto meal is one that has an emphasis on fat with a substantial amount of Protein and little to no carbs. This is because you’re aiming to sustain ketosis, as metabolic state where you use fat, instead of carbs, as your main fuel source. Its quite understood that most fast food offerings come with a generous portion of fat, so you have that base covered. The only problem is the equally high carb content. Low carb diet foods. One way to bypass this is to remove the carb based portions of the food. Any bread, pasta, cereal or sugary component of a menu item gets tossed. Easy, right? Well, you also have to consider how certain foods which aren't completely carb based may contain sugars as additives. Even a simple burger patty can be an absolute carb bomb in the way of added sugar. It's always worth it to check which foods contain sugar in spite of not being sweet treats.
How Many Carbs In A Low Carb Diet – Having said that, the next thing you need to take note of is that most food will have some carbs. The aim of a ketogenic lifestyle is not necessarily to eliminate carbs 100%, it's simply to eliminate reliance on them as your main metabolic source. This is because it’s almost impossible to eliminate carbs from the diet completely low carb diet foods. Most plant and animal based food sources contain some carbs in their molecular structure. It’s also because your body does need carbs, albeit for other reasons not related to being a metabolic fuel source. In this regard, carbs are used more as a micro nutrient than a macronutrient.
Equipped with these fundamentals, you can now turn to fast food, low carb diet recipes, the most convenient food source at your disposal and discover how you can keto hack your take out menu.
Top 7 Keto Friendly Fast Food Options
1.Bunless Burger
How Many Carbs In A Low Carb Diet – The cornerstone of any fast food menu is the burger. Equally true is the importance of a good burger bun to keep it all together. When it comes to sustaining a good keto lifestyle, a burger bun is the last thing you should be thinking about. An obvious carb-dense part of the meal, getting rid of the bun will put you on a winning path towards your ketogenic goals.
You can substitute your burger bun using lettuce or spinach wraps, or opt for low carb breads based on almond or coconut flours. Try source organic 100% beef patty burgers to ensure there’s no extra sugar sneaking around.
Read More : Keto side dish – Keto Breadsticks
Read More : Keto Diet Breakfast – Salted Caramel Pork Rind Cereal
2.Steak.
Going even more primal than the burger is steak. A decent cut of steak accompanied by a side of roast or steamed green veggies is your go to keto meal.
Just remember to forego any starches such as fries, baked potatoes, rice or pasta as a side to your prime cut. Opt for steak that has been cooked using sugar free ingredients.
3.Burrito Bowl.
What's a great way to enjoy a burrito without compromising your keto diet? Remove the tortilla wrap!
Taking all your typical burrito ingredients, sans tortilla, will allow you to enjoy all the traditional Tex-mex goodness without violating your keto program. Make sure you skip all the sugar rick sauces such as sweet chilli.
4.Cauliflower Pizza.
What would fast food be without pizza? Really lame! But when it comes to keeping up with the keto, regular pizza is devastatingly incompatible. How Many Carbs In A Low Carb Diet ?. This is all due to the bread base on which pizza lies. Unlike the other foods on this list, you can't just remove the base of a pizza, you’d just end up with gunky mass of melted cheese and toppings. A substitute is in order!
Enter the cauliflower pizza base. This substitute for conventional pizza found its footing as a gluten free alternative, but is now popular with the keto crowd. Cauliflower pizza is becoming a standard menu item at many pizza joints so be on the lookout.
5.Zoodles and Zasta
Continuing with our Italian trip, we have zoodles and zasta and even zbaghetti (okay, we made that last one up). But basically, these are substitutes for conventional pasta. which use stringed zucchini instead of grain based pasta
Although on their own, zoodles taste nothing like regular wheat noodles. The texture and consistency can easily pass of as similar to pasta, allowing you to enjoy your pasta take out keto style!
6.Chicken, But Grilled!
Chicken in itself is a great part of a keto meal plan, but when it comes to fast food, its often laden with carbs. This is because the most common fast food variant of chicken is deep-fried meaning it comes with a thick crisp coat of batter usually containing flour and bread crumbs. Because of this, chicken loses its keto value.
You could remove the crispy crunchy coating off your fried chicken, leaving you with a bare, bland chunk of meat, or you could spare yourself the drama and just go for grilled chicken instead.
Oven baked, flame grilled or rotisserie chicken options are good substitutes to good old southern fried nuggets. Just remember to make sure the basting/marinade sauce is sugar free.
7.Sugar Free Condiments.
How Many Carbs In A Low Carb Diet – Through this list, we’ve hinted at avoiding cook-in sauces and table condiments that contain sugar. It's time to go in depth and give you the lowdown on what sauces to pick or pass. After all, what’s fast food without.
The problem with most of our favorite sauces such as ketchup, mustard and ranch is the heavy concentration of sugar. Others such as sweet chili and honey mustard are very much based on sugar.
You have two options when going for a keto friendly condiment. Go naturally sugar free or go sugar free alternative.
Naturally sugar free sauces and condiments include vinegar, oils, guacamole, garlic sauce and homemade mayonnaise. Sugar free alternative sauces include your regular condiments such as ketchup or mustard, but with artificial or alternative sweeteners such as aspartame or xylitol. Most major brands now offer sugar free varieties which have made their way into the little sauce packs you get with every takeout.
In Conclusion.
Fast food is convenient both in accessibility and value for money. It's often overlooked as part of a healthy nutrition plan simply because people aren’t aware of what to look for in their food. When it comes to a keto diet plan, eliminating carbs is the main objective. With a mindful approach, you can make your ketogenic diet much more rewarding to your palette.
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