The 7-Day Keto Meal Plan for Weight Loss

A keto meal plan is your key to success on the ketogenic diet. Knowing which foods to eat (and which to avoid), meal prepping, and following a ketogenic guidelines will help you reach your macro goals and stay in ketosis.

This guide offers a sample one-week keto meal plan — perfect for your first week on keto. Feel free to follow it to the letter or tailor it to your individual goals.

Before you dive into the meals, review how to calculate your macros and which foods are keto-friendly. This will set you set you up for success after your initial week on the keto diet.

Which Version of Keto Should You Follow?

For Fat Loss and Overall Health: Standard Ketogenic Diet

The standard ketogenic diet (SKD) is the most common approach to keto, and the most highly recommended method for beginners. Those who follow SKD are typically looking to achieve weight loss or fat loss. You might also be looking to improve certain symptoms related to depression and mental health, inflammation, and cholesterol levels.

The basic rules for SKD are:

• Limit your carb intake to 20-50 grams of net carbs per day
• Consume moderate amounts of protein
• Consume high amounts of fat

An intake of 30 grams of net carbohydrates or less will typically induce ketosis.

For Improved Workout Performance: Targeted Ketogenic Diet

The targeted ketogenic diet (TKD) is ideal for maintaining exercise performance, and therefore best for athletes or those who maintain a high activity level. How does it work? TKD allows for glycogen resynthesis without interrupting ketosis for extended periods of time.

To follow TKD, use these guidelines:

• Consume 25-50 grams of carbs per day
• Consume highly digestible carbs 30 minutes to one hour prior to exercise
• Consume high amounts of fats and moderate amounts of protein

For Bodybuilders or Athletes: Cyclical Ketogenic Diet

The cyclical ketogenic diet (CKD) involves alternating days of strict keto and high-carb consumption. For example, a week on CKD would involve eating 20-50 grams of carbs for five consecutive days, then eating a high-carb diet (over 100 grams per day) for two days.

Athletes who follow a high-intensity, high-volume training schedule would be best suited for this approach. The goal of CKD is to completely deplete muscle glycogen between the carb loads while the TKD has a goal of maintaining muscle glycogen at a moderate level.

To follow the SKD, try this schedule:

• For five days: Consume 20-50 grams of carbs per day
• For two days: Consume over 100 grams of carbs per day
• Following your two days of “carb loading,” return to restricting carbs to 20-50 grams

For Those Who Need More Protein: High-Protein Ketogenic Diet

If you lift four times or more per week, you might require more protein in your keto meal plan. While the standard ketogenic diet typically limits protein intake to 20% of total calories, the high protein ketogenic diet (HPKD) allows 35% of total calories come from protein.

To follow HPKD, try this:

• Consume 35% of total calories from protein
• Consume 60% of total calories from fat
• Consume 5% of total calories from net carbs

Calculate Your Macronutrients

Macronutrient ratios are very important on a ketogenic diet. You’ll eat plenty of healthy fats and protein, while your total carb intake will be kept to a minimum. The macro ratios on a low-carb, high-fat diet typically look like this (for simplicity’s sake, the following percentages are based on the standard ketogenic diet approach):

• High fat: 70-80% of your calories
• Moderate protein: 20-25%
• Low carb: 5-10%

Start by using our keto macro calculator here to help you determine what and how much of each category to eat based on your specific body composition and lifestyle.

You’ll have a rough estimate of how many grams of fat, protein and carbs your meals need to cover over the course of one day.

Plan Your Meals

Now that you’ve calculated your macros, pick one day each week to sit down and and create your keto meal plan for the next seven days.

Your first week on the keto diet is covered below, but after that you’ll want to check the recipes on the Perfect Keto website and add them to your repertoire so you’re never bored.

All the recipes on this list include the macro breakdown so you don’t have to calculate it.

If you stumble on a recipe without a macro count, you can enter the ingredients in a diet app like KetoDietApp or MyFitnessPal to get the macros and calorie count of any meal without any complicated math equation.

If you come across other recipes you’d like to use, follow the keto diet cheat sheet at the end of this guide or use the keto diet foods list to map out your keto meal plan. Before you go grocery shopping, consider downloading the Perfect Keto grocery list.

When organizing your keto meal plan for the week, consider the following:

• How many people in your home will be eating the meals? (This will determine how many servings you need to make.)
• Do you want to make enough for leftovers the next day?
• How do you want to structure each day? Do you plan to eat breakfast every morning? Or will you fast through breakfast and only eat lunch and dinner?

Once your meals are planned out, make a shopping list with the ingredients you’ll need for each meal and head out to the store.

Start Cooking

You have your keto meals planned. You have your ingredients. Now everything comes down to the specifics.

Maybe you’ll want to prep and cook most of your meals on your day off and store them for easy grab-and-go during the week. Consider what fits your schedule and lifestyle most. That’s the easiest way to stick with it.

Making any new change can seem overwhelming, but having a plan in place will set you up for success. View recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner, snacks and dessert on this site, or download the Perfect Keto recipes ebook.

The 7-Day Keto Meal Plan

Below, you’ll find a week of meal planning for inspiration to start your new ketogenic diet.

The example macros are set for a person who is eating 1,600 calories per day and sticking to 100 grams or less of protein, 25 grams or less of carbs, and about 125 grams of fat.

Day 1 Meals

Recipe Fat Protein Carbs Calories

Breakfast A Southwest omelet with bell peppers and chorizo 28g 17g 3g 426

Lunch Super Simple Chicken Cauliflower Fried Rice 14g 27g 5g 260

Dinner Superfood Meatballs and Keto Creamed Spinach 36g 36g 7g 485

Day 2 Meals

Recipe Fat Protein Carbs Calories

Breakfast Chocolate Pancakes with Blueberry Butter 50g 27g 11.5g 611

Lunch Zesty Chili Lime Keto Tuna Salad 37g 17g 1g 406

Dinner Lemon Herb Low Carb Keto Meatloaf 29g 33g 2g 344

Day 3 Meals

Recipe Fat Protein Carbs Calories

Breakfast Three Quick n’ Easy Keto Egg Muffins 12g 12.9g 4.5g 174

Lunch Italian Turkey Casserole 44.5g 28.8g 5.5g 568

Dinner Portobello Bun Cheeseburger with Celeriac Everything Oven Fries and Homemade Keto Mayo 40g 31g 13g 539

Dessert 1 Mocha Chip Cookie 13g 3g 2g 127

Day 4 Meals

Recipe Fat Protein Carbs Calories

Breakfast Keto Avocado Egg Bowls 27g 10.5g 7g 305

Lunch Crispy Cheesy Chicken Salad 36.5g 55g 8g 575

Dinner 4 oz grilled ribeye steak, 2 tbsp grass-fed butter, and 2 cups of mixed leafy greens with 1 tbsp avocado oil 62g 20g 1g 286

Dessert MCT Fat Bomb 8g 1g 2g 81

Day 5 Meals

Recipe Fat Protein Carbs Calories

Breakfast Avocado Breakfast Bowl 40g 25g 3g 500

Lunch Keto Parmesan Chicken 25g 34g 5.5g 369

Dinner Cheesy Broccoli Meatza 24g 32g 7g 375

Dessert Easy No-Churn Keto Ice Cream

46.05g 7.45g 4.3g 440

Day 6 Meals

Recipe Fat Protein Carbs Calories

Breakfast Acai Almond Butter Smoothie 20g 15g 6g 345

Lunch Keto Beef Stew 18g 25g 3g 242

Snack Cucumber roll-ups with smoked salmon pate 40g 18g 5g 450

Dinner Creamy Mushroom Chicken 27g 24g 3g 334

Dessert Keto Chocolate Mousse 14g 17.5g 6g 248

Day 7 Meals

Recipe Fat Protein Carbs Calories

Breakfast Keto Boosted Coffee 31g 1g 0.5g 280

Lunch Low Carb Crispy Keto “Fried” Chicken and one cup steamed broccoli 27g 33.5g 6.5g 494

Dinner Low Carb Keto Lasagna 21g 32g 12g 364

Dessert Collagen Mug Cake 43.5g 27g 4g 535

Now You’re Ready to Start a Keto Meal Plan