The Best Keto Thanksgiving Recipes (2024)

FAQs

How do you survive Thanksgiving on keto? ›

A few general tips for making your Thanksgiving keto-friendly: Swap out mashed potatoes for mashed cauliflower, nix adding any flour to thicken recipes like green bean casserole or creamed spinach, and load up on the low-carb veggies like Brussels sprouts, spaghetti squash, and mushrooms.

If you're unfamiliar with a keto diet, here's the quick explanation: It's extremely low in carbohydrates and high in fat. Meat, including turkey with skin, is fine to consume, but other Thanksgiving staples aren't. Mashed potatoes are off limits, along with bread stuffing, rolls, sugary cranberry sauce and desserts.

Most gravy recipes use flour which is full of carbs. I'm sure you could find some that substituted keto-friendly ingredients but for the most part gravy is one more thing to avoid while keto. Gravy can be keto-friendly if made with low-carb thickeners and ingredients.

Sweet potatoes, being a naturally high-carb food, are unfortunately not keto-friendly. Nutritionists believe that the high carb content in sweet potatoes cannot easily fit into keto macros, the common ratio for which is 70% fat, 25% protein, and 5% carbohydrates.

The basic rules of keto are eating few carbohydrates and emphasizing fat with a moderate intake of protein. In order to be in a state of ketosis, you will likely have to track the amount of carbohydrates you eat by weighing out your food.

As you can see, bread is by far the food people miss the most, followed by dessert/sweets and beer. Below are our best suggestions for low-carb versions of these foods.

1.The First 10 Days May Be The Toughest

Before starting, you should be aware that if you drop carbs cold-turkey, the first few days you will most likely experience symptoms of your body adjusting to lack of glucose. Many people starting off keto will go through this and it's often referred to as the “Keto Flu”.

Regular Crust

This type of pizza crust can have up to 33g of carbs without any added sauce or cheese. If you're limiting your carbs to 20-50 grams per day, one slice of this type of crust will likely kick you out of ketosis.

The bottom line. You should avoid cheat meals and days on the keto diet. Consuming too many carbs can kick your body out of ketosis — and it takes several days to 1 week to get back into it. In the meantime, your weight loss may be disrupted.

Steak is perfect for the keto diet because of its abundance of healthy fat, protein, and essential micronutrients. In fact, nutritionists consider it the best fat and protein source for keto dieters. The best part is that there are many cuts to choose from, almost all of which contain zero carbohydrates.

What sauce is keto-friendly? ›

Potato chips are another food to avoid on keto. A 1-ounce (oz) serving (about 22 chips) has about 14 g of net carbs, per the USDA. Here's a worthy keto- and heart-friendly snack substitute to scratch that salty itch, says Nasar: Finely chop up nuts and seeds in a food processor, and add white vinegar and salt.

You still need to exercise portion control with most keto-friendly fruits to be within the limits of a keto diet. Keto-friendly fruits include avocados, watermelon, strawberries, lemons, tomatoes, raspberries, peaches, cantaloupe, star fruit, and blackberries.

While cottage cheese is known for its high protein content, it also contains a relatively high amount of carbs and not that much fat, making it a less-than-ideal choice for keto. A ½-cup serving of cottage cheese contains 88 calories, 2.4 g of fat, 4.5 g of carbs, and 11.6 g of protein, per the USDA.

The carb content varies depending on the potato variety. The lowest is Zerella with 8.9 g per 100 g. GiLICIOUS comes in at 10.3 g per 100.

With that said, you will probably see weight fluctuations as you increase carbs because carbs hold on to water (muscle glycogen) and you may become a bit more puffy or swollen looking than usual. This will balance out and pass with time. Be sure to drink plenty of water in the meantime.

Make sure you are eating enough fat. Being much more energy-dense than carbohydrates, fats are also more satiating. They will also ensure that you stay in ketosis. Increase the size of your meals with nutrient-dense foods.

Keto practitioners say that you can absolutely have cheat days while observing keto. But it's important that you do it right to stay in ketosis and on track with your weight loss goals.

You'll Lose Water Weight

A sudden lack of carbs will make you lose weight. It's mostly water weight at first, though. This is mostly because cutting carbs also wipes out the glycogen stores in your muscles. Glycogen helps your body retain water.