Make Ahead Thanksgiving! Keto, Low Carb, & THM 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.

There Are Plenty of Conscious Ways to Have a Keto Cheat Day

Or, if it's Thanksgiving, don't offer to cook green beans or turkey (which are already keto-compliant). Instead, bring a low-carb pumpkin pie or make mashed cauliflower instead of potatoes.

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.

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.

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.

Eating more than 50 grams of carbs may disrupt ketosis.

With keto diets, however, carb restrictions vary from person to person. Some people can eat more and still stay in ketosis, whereas others may need to restrict their carb intake more in order to stay in ketosis.

It's important that you do not just fall back into whatever old eating patterns you had before going keto! This could no only result in nasty side effects, but also, weight regain. Weight regain after restrictive diets like this is SO common it's almost textbook.

Following a ketogenic diet is the most effective way to enter ketosis. Generally, this involves limiting carb consumption to around 20 to 50 grams per day and filling up on fats, such as meat, fish, eggs, nuts, and healthy oils ( 6 ). It's also important to moderate your protein consumption.

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.

Is there a cheat day on keto? ›

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.