Vegetarian Keto for a Day
I have recently seen a blog post on vegetarian keto. While the article was fine, the amount of food that was given as an example of a sample vegetarian keto day was appropriate for someone with a lean body mass over 200 pounds! That might be good for a professional body builder with lots and lots of muscles, or a man or woman over 6 feet tall. Most of us do not fall into those categories.
While I do not want to be vegetarian all the time, I enjoy the occasional vegetarian keto day. So I put together a more realistic sample of what a day of eating vegetarian, while remaining in nutritional ketosis, might look like.
Breaking my fast with fat to stay ketosis:
2 deviled eggs (2 hardboiled eggs, 1 Tablespoon mayo, a bit of mustard, sprinkle of paprika)
1 ounce macadamia nuts
Midday (if not at home, cook the night before, bring to work, microwave):
1 serving loaded cauliflower (no bacon) http://www.alifeinharmony.me/recipe/loaded-cauliflower/
1 cup cooked carrots with 1 Tablespoon butter
Dinner (not too late at night)
1 serving artichoke spinach mushroom bake http://www.alifeinharmony.me/recipe/artichoke-spinach-mushroom-bake/
1 cup blackberries
This comes to about 25 grams of fiber, 63 grams of carbs, 50 grams of protein, and 90 grams of fat. But I get to subtract the fiber from the carbs. So I really get 38 grams of carbs, 50 grams of protein, and 90 grams of fat.
I’m 5 foot 6 inches tall, with a lean body mass of about 100 pounds. My target macro nutrient levels are 50 grams or less of carbs, 50 grams of protein, and 100 grams of fat. So this vegetarian keto day is a pretty good fit for my nutritional goals.
This is harder for BH. He is 5 foot 9 inches tall, with a lean body mass about 140 pounds. He needs 20 more grams of protein and more calories. So I could add 2 more deviled eggs and 1 ounce of cheddar cheese somewhere in the day. That would bring the nutrients to 39 grams of carbs, 69 grams of protein, and 120 grams of fat. Again a pretty good fit.
Does this look like a day of meals that you would enjoy? Would you feel deprived at all eating like this? I think this looks like a very yummy day!
It is a lot of cooking, so my clever plan is to prepare the artichoke spinach mushroom bake at some point ahead of time and freeze it into individual portions. Cook the cauliflower and carrots the night before, put the cheese and sour cream together in small container, wrap a tablespoon of butter in a bit of plastic wrap. After heating the cauliflower the next day, add the cheese and sour cream. After heating the carrots, add the butter. (This prevents having hot fat ruin your microwave dishes.) Once you get used to it, deviled eggs are really fast to make.
