Types of Keto Diet Plans: A Comprehensive Guide

The Main Types of The Keto Diet

Before we get into the specialized variations of the keto diet, let’s take a minute to review the three basic types of keto diet and their principles:

• The Standard Keto Diet – In a standard ketogenic diet, you should make roughly 75% of your daily calorie intake of fats. Then, you get 20% of your daily allotted calories through protein and about 5% from carbs a day.
• The High Protein Keto Variation – This is just a slight tweak of the standard keto diet. The high-protein keto diet ups your daily caloric intake to about 35% protein.
• The Cyclical Keto Diet – In this variation, you alternate days in which you are restrictive with carbs with ones in which you are a little more lax. This allows for more “carbo-loading” which may be beneficial for people who do high-intensity training.

What Kind of Keto Diets Are There?

Types of Keto Diet

Now that you have an idea of the basic precepts of the keto diet, it’s time to delve into the specialized variations. This may help you find a version of the keto diet that you can stick with.

The Standard Diet

Again, this is an apportionment of your daily caloric intake devoted to 75% fats, 20% protein, and 5% carbs. This may help accelerate weight loss, but it may omit muscle-building and many people find it difficult to be that restrictive of carbs.

The Cyclical Keto Diet

The cyclical keto diet entails being restricted from carbs for about 3-5 days and then cycling through a couple of days when you allow yourself to eat more carbs. This type of keto diet may be suitable for bodybuilders and other athletes who regularly engage in very demanding training.

The Targeted Ketogenic Diet

This variation involves ingesting roughly 20 grams of carbs about an hour before a workout session to target muscle growth while still remaining in a state of ketosis. Again, this is another variation that may be beneficial to bodybuilders who want to ensure that their muscles are not being sapped for energy.

The High Protein Keto Diet

As we have mentioned, the high protein keto diet is 35% calories from protein, 60% from fats, and 5% from carbs. The added protein (compared to the standard keto diet) is beneficial for people seeking to build and maintain more muscle^[2].

The Vegan Keto Diet

As the name suggests, the vegan keto diet eliminates all animal-based foods and animal byproducts including meat, cheese, dairy, honey, and others. The Vegan keto diet can be a challenge because it may be hard for you to find an adequate amount of plant-based foods to add to your diet.

In the vegan keto diet, you want to aim for a blend of 70% calories from fats, 25% from protein, and 5% from carbs. To make this variation more sustainable, keep a lot of nuts, coconut milk, full-fat and non-dairy, and nutritional yeast around to eat and cook with.

The Lazy Keto Diet

The lazy keto diet takes a more relaxed approach to what is a typical keto diet. It is a variation of the standard keto diet in which you focus more on limiting carbs and don’t worry so much about counting calories^[3].

It may be beneficial for people who have trouble with the standard keto diet but it may take longer to see weight loss results.

The Dirty Keto Diet

The dirty keto diet also focuses on limiting carbs but is more lax when it comes to frozen, processed, or even fast foods. The dirty keto diet may be beneficial for people who don’t have a lot of time to prepare their own keto-friendly meals but may lack some of the micronutrients that you get from a more typical keto diet meal plan or a plant-based diet.

The Keto Flex Diet

The Keto Flex diet allows you to ingest a bit more carbs but emphasizes intermittent fasting. This approach may help you stay in a state of ketosis without having to deny yourself high-carb foods all the time^[4].

The Keto Mediterranean Diet

As you can probably tell, this variation combines the tenets of the Mediterranean diet with those of the keto diet. This means the dieter places an emphasis on whole grains, olive oil, and seafood while limiting carbs and ingesting more healthy fats. This variation may benefit heart health and help you keep your blood sugar levels under control.

Keto-Friendly Recipes and Meal Plans

So what does a typical keto diet look like in practice? If you aren’t sure what you can eat while on the keto diet, please take a look at the following sample keto diet plan:

Breakfast

• Whip up an omelet of eggs and mushrooms and top it with some feta cheese.
• You can also pick up some keto-friendly bread and spread a layer of avocado over it to make filling and tasty avocado toast.

Lunch

• For lunch, try a keto salad complete with bacon, avocado, and ghee.
• You can also try sauteeing some ground beef in a pan to make lettuce wraps with your favorite kind of sauce and cheese.

Dinner

• Try some keto-friendly cauliflower stir fry.
• Take some frozen cauliflower rice and cook it in a wok or sauteing pan with vegetables like bell pepper, onion, broccoli, and cabbage.
• Add a source of protein like leftover ground beef from lunch or some lean chicken and cook with chili paste, soy sauce, ground ginger, lemon, diced garlic, and avocado oil.

Choosing the Right Keto Diet for You

As you can see, there are more than just 3 types of keto diet variations which is what most people seem to think. So how do you choose the right one for yourself?

We always recommend starting by talking to a doctor. Your doctor will be able to provide invaluable insight based on your actual medical history and an in-depth knowledge of your physical state.

Secondly, find the variation that fits your lifestyle. For instance, if you are a vegan the obvious choice would be the vegan keto diet. If you have a very hectic lifestyle, you may benefit from the dirty keto diet which allows you to eat more “ready-made” and microwavable keto foods.

Most of all, choose the keto diet that you will actually be able to maintain and stick with for a long time. The keto diet is not autonomous. You will need to put in your fair share of effort which means consistent dieting.

So in the end, the most important thing is to find a variation that you can sustain long-term. That’s the best way to get the weight loss results you are after.