Have you heard of the keto diet? 

In short it’s a high fat, medium protein and low carb diet which is very popular with people trying to lose weight and burn fat. Lots of celebrities like Kim Kardashian, and Lebron James have followed the keto diet and it’s extremely popular amongst both guys and women. 

The keto diet is something i’ve used with lots of my personal training clients, and with great success, and it’s also something that I use myself if I only have a limited period of time (4-8 weeks) to get trim… 

For example in the next month I’ll be following The 28 Day Keto Challenge – a fat loss plan which I designed a couple of years ago. It’s an amazing e-book with a diet plan and exercise program to follow. When I first did the 28 Day Keto Challenge I lost 16lbs in less than a month…

The keto diet works amazingly well, and it’s always something I will go to when trying to get lean quickly. In this post I thought it would be good to talk more about the keto diet and how it works, i’ll give away plenty of free tips, that if followed will get you a lean beach body – which will make you feel more confident on holiday. 

Keto Diet – What is it and how does it work? 

Like I mentioned at the start of this article the ketogenic diet is a high fat and medium protein diet, with very minimal carbohydrates. The diet works because it’s easy to create a calorie deficit – all diets work when you create a calorie deficit.

The keto diet helps you reduce calories mainly because you are cutting out carbs – which are easy to overeat on! Carb foods taste good (that’s why we eat them!) but they are often easy to over consume, think of foods like: pasta, pizza, bread, chocolate, ice cream, and sweets – they are hard to put down! and when we do… it’s often too late! 

Keto diets are high in fat and protein, both of which help keep you fuller for longer – important when trying to lose weight. Protein also helps support muscle mass, which is very important, whether you are a man or woman, the more muscle you have the easier it is to stay trim. 

Keto Diet Foods 

There are plenty of food options available on a keto diet plan, for example, foods such as:

• Chicken
• Turkey
• Steak
• Mince
• Lamb
• Bacon
• Sausages 
• Eggs
• Ham
• Gammon 
• Tuna
• Mackerel 
• Salmon 
• Hake
• Prawns 
• Vegetables – pretty much all veg 
• Fruit (80g per day) 
• Nuts (again pretty much all nuts)

The combined foods mentioned above will give your body plenty of nutrients, which will help nourish your mind and body. These high fat/protein rich foods will help you stay fuller for longer (meaning you’re more likely to consume less calories) – leading to greater weight loss. Keto foods will also support muscle mass as they are rich in protein. Finally foods like fruit and veg are packed with fibre which is essential for healthy bowl movements. 

Quick Keto Diet Tips

The key on a keto diet is to eat 4x per day, ideally every 3-4 hours, and with each meal consume a good amount of protein and fat. An example keto diet would look like this…

Breakfast – 1 poached egg, with 2 rashers of grilled bacon and 100g avocado 

Lunch – 150g mince, cooked in 10g butter. Add in chopped onions/peppers, and some broccoli 

Afternoon Snack – 40g whey protein shake, with a side portion of almond nuts, and 1 x apple

Dinner – 150g grilled chicken, with lettuce, tomatoes, and low fat Cesar salad dressing

The above is just a basic example, you may need to eat more (or less!) depending on your current body mass index, and starting point. This is where it’s handy to hire an expert personal trainer to help you ascertain the best starting place for you as an individual.  

Exercise on a Keto Diet 

Doing some sort of exercise alongside your keto diet will help speed up your results. Exercise is also extremely important for improving your mental health. Whilst any exercise is beneficial here are some good choices…

Walking – this is usually low intensity exercise, and it can be done everyday because it doesn’t take it out of you the same way as an intensive gym workout, or when you doing something more vigorous such as playing a sport like football, rugby or tennis – which can take longer to recover from. If you walk 10,000 steps per day you will likely burn around 200-300 extra calories per day, which will significantly help you to lose weight alongside your keto diet. 

Weight Training – the best type of exercise for improving your body shape. If you want to improve the shape and definition of your legs, arms, stomach (whatever muscle it may be) then weight training is the best way to go. Do weight training exercises that burn lots of calories, exercises like deadlifts, squats, pull ups and the bench press. If you are a beginner and don’t know how to lift weights correctly then reach out and hire a personal trainer to show you the ropes – a couple of one to one personal training sessions could make a big impact. 

Sports – playing sport can be a great way to burn calories and have fun. Whether it’s playing sport competitively like in semi professional football, or whether it’s just hitting a tennis ball with your friend on a Saturday afternoon… it all helps when it comes to improving fitness, and burning calories.  

Keto Beach Body Plan

Here’s an 8 Week Program I run with some of my 1-1 personal training clients who are looking to get a beach body…

#1 Walking – The aim is for each client to walk at least 10,000 steps per day, for 8 weeks straight. This equates to around 1 hours worth of walking per day (so 7 hours of walking per week). Clients will buy a Fitbit to track their daily step count. 

#2 Diet – each client will follow the 28 day keto challenge. Often after just 4 weeks the client will have lost at least 14lbs and will be feeling much fitter, and healthier. We will then continue the keto challenge for another 4 more weeks. 

#3 Weights – Alongside the 10,000 steps per day and 28 Day Keto Challenge, clients will also lift weights 4x per week, here’s the program I use with lots of clients (with me demonstrating the exercises)…

Workout 1:

Workout 2:

Workout 3:

Workout 4:

With each exercise aim for 3 sets of 10-15 reps, rest 60s in between each set. Your weekly program will look like this…

• Monday – Workout 1 + 10,000 steps
• Tuesday – 10,000 steps
• Wednesday – Workout 2 + 10,000 steps
• Thursday – 10,000 steps
• Friday – Workout 3 + 10,000 steps
• Saturday – Workout 4 + 10,000 steps
• Sunday – 10,000 steps

Buying A Keto Meal Plan 

There are lots of personal trainers and dieticians out there who can design you a custom keto meal plan. For a good quality keto diet program which is written by an expert you are probably looking at paying around £150-£200. Not cheap, but worth it if you can afford it. 

Another option is to try my 28 Day Keto Challenge – a meal and exercise plan which has been hugely popular the last 3 years. For this plan it’s just £9.99 – that’s less than what you would pay for a takeout! 

The final option is to write your own keto meal plan, you can find plenty of free keto recipes online. This is ideal for those of you out there who are on a very tight budget. 

Other Keto Resources 

I hope you found this post helpful and learned lots about the keto diet. If you want to learn more about keto dieting then there’s lots of information online. Not all of it is accurate and it can be misleading, and hard to know who to trust, so i’ve given you some of my favourite keto articles below – 

• Science of keto – written by Harvard Health
• Long term effects of a keto diet – ready study here
• Keto diet and cognitive decline – read post
• 20 free keto blogs – check out the LEP Fitness Blog

Thanks for reading,

Nick 🙂