Thinking about eating low carb (or even keto) but don’t know how to keep them down? There are some easy things you can do to naturally keep your carb intake low without having to go crazy. Try these tips to make your low carb or keto journey a lot smoother!

Play the Swap Game 

Here’s a fun one. Rather than go online and search the carb content of your favorite foods, just switch them out for things that are already low in carbs. Here’s how it goes.

A classic example is a burger. I’m sure you know where this is going. Instead of the bun, go for a lettuce wrap. Simple. But what about rice? Use cauliflower! Many supermarkets are stocking up on “riced” (aka, pulverized) cauliflower, and you can always make it yourself at home with a food processor. 

 Speaking of cauliflower, it’s the current “it food” of the keto and low carb world. Crave mashed potatoes? Use cauliflower. Tater tots? Cauliflower. Hash browns? Cauliflower again. Its bland taste makes it a versatile substitute for carbs in many recipes, from pizza to mac and cheese.

Other “swaps” that you can play with include…

• Coconut or almond flour for white flour
• Spiralized zucchini, Palmini pasta, Miracle Noodles, or spaghetti squash for noodles
• Sliced eggplant or zucchini for lasagna noodles
• Soaked chia seed “porridge” for oatmeal
• Stevia, monk fruit, or erythritol for sugar
• Sliced, baked jicama for French fries
• Pork rinds, cheese crisps, and kale chips for potato chips
• Sugar-free, flavored sparkling water (Zevia, La Croix, etc.) or plain seltzer for soda
• Nuts, seeds, and pork rinds for croutons
• Mashed berries for jams
• Unsweetened almond, hemp, cashew, macadamia, or coconut milk for regular milk

Protein + Fiber + Fat

When in doubt, look for these three things when structuring your meals: protein, fiber, and fat. That’s how I do keto and recommend it to most people. While everyone has their approach, this combination is simple and easy to follow. You can even use it when ordering out.

Look at your plate. Where is the protein? Chicken, steak, salmon, eggs, shrimp, pork, etc.? What about the fiber? Be careful, though, because even high carb foods contain fiber. By fiber, stick to vegetables like kale, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, romaine, asparagus, etc. (Whole wheat bread and brown rice don’t count!) Then there’s fat. Be careful here, too. In my post about weight gain and keto, I covered the fact that a lot of people overdo it with fats like butter, oil, and cream. Yes, you can have too much fat on keto! Try not to drown your food in oil or inhale an entire bag of macadamia nuts. Look at the nutrition label for these foods. With nuts and seeds, a quarter cup is usually the recommended serving size. Oils are a tablespoon.

To help you get an idea of what this combo might look like, here’s an example:

Protein. Let’s use grilled salmon.
Fiber. How about sautéed spinach with minced garlic? (Yum!)
Fat. Not counting the tiny bit of oil used for cooking, let’s say we added pine nuts to the mix. And maybe a tablespoon or two of shaved parmesan.

There you go! Protein, fiber, and fat. But what about restaurants? 

Let’s say you went out to a local café for brunch. An easy go-to would be an omelet. Try ordering yours like this:

Protein. Eggs. Obviously! And maybe a few slices of bacon.
Fiber. Ask for veggies! It can be a mixture or a combo of your favorite ones — spinach and mushrooms, zucchini and summer squash, tomatoes and bell peppers, etc.
Fat. You can leave the omelet as is since the eggs already contain a lot of fat or ask for either sliced avocado or guacamole on the side. You can also add cheese to the omelet.  

Just say no to the toast, muffins, bagels, potatoes, and hash browns. And depending on your carb needs, you could have a small portion of sliced fruit. If you’re strict keto, then omit them. 

 Go Unflavored and Plain

An excellent way to hack away at the carbs is by using unflavored foods. How so?

Take yogurt, for instance. For those of you without a dairy intolerance, it’s a great source of protein, nutrients, and probiotics (hello gut health!). But it’s also notorious for containing tons of sugar. When buying yogurt, always go for plain, unflavored varieties. Even better, choose either Greek or Icelandic Skyr yogurt (both tend to be lower in lactose, a natural dairy-based sugar). You can add a little bit  of fruit to them at home if you wish. Don’t go crazy with fruit either. One piece of fruit a day is plenty if you’re going for low carb living. 

How about condiments like ketchup, mustard, and dressing? OK, you’ll have to do a little digging here and put on your detective hat by reading the label. Not just the front but the ingredients list on the back. Look for whole food-based ingredients that you can recognize and make sure it’s free of sugar and sweeteners like maltodextrin, sucrose, sucralose, corn syrup, and malt. A good brand I recommend is Primal Kitchen; their mayo is the best on the market.

Don’t forget plant-based milk! They’re a great low carb milk substitute provided that they’re unsweetened. Just because it’s almond milk doesn’t mean it’s free of sugar! Again, check the label. It has to specifically say “unsweetened.” Otherwise, even “original” milk contains sugar. Try to go for products made out of very few ingredients. For example you can find Almond Milk with 50 strange ingredients and Almond Milk made out of almonds and water. Which one do you think won’t cause any havoc or inflammation in your body?

Skip the Big Three

You can practically go low carb without even trying by skipping the big three: grains, legumes, and potatoes. With grains (and grain-like seeds), these include oats, rice, wheat, quinoa, corn, millet, rye, farro, amaranth (you get the idea). For legumes, you’ve got beans and lentils. No need to explain potatoes! If you skipped these three, you’d be eliminating a huge chunk of carbs from your diet. Now, I’m not saying they’re completely unhealthy. A lot of these carbs contains important nutrients, however for the most part, these benefits do not outweigh the unhealthy spikes in blood sugar and increased inflammation. If you’re someones who’s really active on a regular basis, and otherwise healthy (including healthy weight), you can include them on occasion, just watch your portion sizes. Bottom line, most of us would benefit from replacing them with other foods (see the Substitute Game above).

Over to You

There you have it, everyone! Some easy ways to naturally lower carbs without going crazy or making things complicated. I hope these tips helped, and if you’ve got any of your own, I’d love it if you shared them in the comments! And if you need more structure in your life or want something that tells you exactly what you have to eat to go low carb, check out either my Keto Meal Plan or the new Bikini Body Meal Plan! They’ll save you a lot of time by removing hours of guesswork and research.