On the face of it, sticking to a keto diet sounds easy enough. You eat fewer carbs, focus more on fats and protein, and try to keep your meals as balanced as possible.

However, in reality, it can be much harder to do this when your week is a revolving treadmill of school drop-offs, work deadlines, after-school activities and preparing family meals. That is why many people who want to maintain a keto lifestyle practice meal prepping. Planning and preparing meals ahead of time, it helps them to stay organised, make better food choices and feel less stressed overall.

This guide explores meal prepping for keto dieters in more detail. Hopefully, it will provide those who want to maintain a healthy weight or simply just eat more consistently better, with salient insight.

What is the keto diet?

The keto or ketogenic diet was first developed by Dr Russell Wilder at the Mayo Clinic in the 1920s. Initially, it was designed to be a medical approach to help manage epilepsy, particularly among children. However, over time, it gained traction as a weight management strategy based around eating foods that change how the body uses energy.

At its core, the keto diet involves consuming foods that have low amounts of carbohydrates, moderate protein, and higher amounts of healthy fats. The theory goes that by reducing carbs, the body shifts into a state called ketosis. In doing so, it relies more on fat for fuel rather than glucose from sugars and starches.

Meals on a keto diet usually centre around foods like:

• Meat
• Eggs
• Fish
• Cheese
• Nuts
• Seeds
• Oils
• Low-carb vegetables

It limits intake of foods like bread, pasta, rice, and sugary snacks or treats.

What Is meal prepping?

Meal prep is the habit of planning and preparing meals in advance. This can involve cooking full meals for the week. Alternatively, it can mean prepping ingredients so they are ready to use. Or organising snacks or ready-to-eat foods, they are easy to grab when the hunger pangs hit.

For those on a keto diet who lead busy lives, meal prepping enables them to make beneficial food choices. It also saves them precious time during the working week and removes the temptation to order takeaways or consume packaged snacks that do not align with keto goals.

That is why many people find inspiration from resources like Bondi Meal Prep’s keto recipe ideas when it comes to organising their weekly menu.

What are the benefits of meal prepping for keto dieters?

We are not going to lie – meal prepping does take a bit of time to roll out. At least initially. But, as touched upon previously, keto dieters can benefit from doing so in several ways. They include the following.

1. Staying on track

Life gets busy. And while you may have the best of intentions, sometimes it’s easy to drop the ball when trying to maintain the keto lifestyle.

The great thing about meal prepping in advance is that it allows you to stay on track. When you have your breakfasts, lunches, or dinners planned (at least some of them, if not all), then you are no longer battling against your willpower. Instead, by being organised enough to have food ready when it is needed, you are less likely to succumb to temptation.

2. Saves time during the week

For many people, time is a commodity they never seem to have enough of. This can be a real issue for those who are trying to follow the keto diet. Especially if they get home late from work and can’t seem to muster the energy or inclination to cook.

Meal prepping for the week largely takes this out of the equation, because instead of cooking every day, you are only doing so on one or two occasions. This means you spend fewer evenings from Monday to Friday making something from scratch.

It also potentially cuts down the time you would spend shopping midweek or ordering last-minute meals from takeaway venues.

3. Practice better portion control

Sometimes, if you find yourself cooking when you are hungry during the working week, the temptation is to pile your plate with food. However, on the keto diet, portion control is a critical success factor. Especially for those focused on energy levels or weight management.

Meal prepping in advance helps you divide your meals into healthy portion sizes. As you can eat them within a few minutes of getting home (if it needs warming up), you are less likely to be so hungry that you end up eating more.

4. Reduced stress/lack of inspiration

We’ve all experienced those moments when we’ve come home from work, or generally had a busy day, and just can’t think of what to make for dinner. This can often be quite stressful for people who assume the responsibility to cook for others in the household, including children.

Planning meals for the week goes a long way towards reducing that stress. Just by deciding and making in advance what you will have, it can free up a lot of mental space for other priorities. At the same time, it can help you avoid the trap of eating the same old, dull meals.

Is meal prepping worthwhile for keto dieters over the long term?

If they can stick to it as a matter of routine, meal prepping can be incredibly worthwhile for many keto dieters. Having meals planned and ready gives people the structure to maintain the lifestyle choice when life gets busy.

While it might take a little while to set up and get into the swing of meal prepping, doing so empowers keto dieters with a vital shift in dynamics. Essentially, it allows them to take control of the diet, as opposed to it controlling them.

This article was written by Lucy Mitchell, Content Manager for Current.com.au | The Home of Australian Product Reviews, with editing by Kidspot NZ.

The appearance of external hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by Kidspot NZ of the website, information, products or services contained therein. All views are those of the author.