If you’re on a ketogenic diet, you probably have friends and family who are shocked when you tell them that you can eat as much steak, bacon, avocados, and other fatty foods as you need until you’re satiated–and you’re still losing fat.
But the keto diet becomes nothing short of a dilemma when you go out to eat with friends or when you’re just on a night out and they decide to order food. You don’t want to be the spoilsport and say you can’t really eat what they’re eating because you’re on keto.
Actually, eating out while on a ketogenic diet has become much easier over the years. If you asked for a bunless burger 10 years ago, you’d probably get shifty eyes from behind the counter or they’d think you were filming some sort of prank.
Now, however, it’s become so much easier to avoid unnecessary carbs when you’re eating out while on keto. We’re about to give you the top ways you can do so without kicking yourself out of ketosis.
1. Go For Fatty Cuts of Meat
At home, you probably know exactly what you’re eating. You likely cooked the meal yourself and are sure that it’s keto-friendly. However, when you’re out to eat, it’s usually safe to select the fattier cuts of meat that are offered.
So, if you’re going out to eat steak with your friends, it’s probably safest to go for ribeye and other more marbled types of meat. In the same vein, you should be selecting chicken parts such as thighs and the wings and ignoring the chicken breasts.
And if you go out and order chicken wings, make sure to order them naked. You never know if the restaurant is going to bread them with their secret carb-rich formula that’s primed to kick you out of keto.
2. Avoid Most Sauces
It’s probably not a stretch to say that sauces are your enemy when you’re on a ketogenic diet. Eating the wrong sauce can kick you out of a ketosis state faster than you can say “That’s kinda sweet.”
For example, maybe you’re out with some friends and you’re enjoying Korean barbeque. Have you ever looked up how much carbs are in the sauces they put on the barbeque? You can get as much as 32g of carbs from a single tablespoon of these sauces.
The horror of sweet or sweet and sour sauces is that you could be doing everything right, selecting a fattier cut of meat, avoiding carby sides, but then you end up eating 150g of carbs just by dipping the meat in some sauce!
There are some keto-friendly sauces, such as ranch, blue cheese, buffalo sauce, and melted butter. Eating these sauces will still leave you in a ketosis state. And next time you order a salad, adding ranch dressing will actually be good for you.
3. Choose Your Alcohol Wisely
If you go out with some friends and you have to drink, make sure you’re avoiding drinks and liquors that are on the dry side, without added or residual sugar. Choose wines that are low in residual sugar–many Cabernet Sauvignon wines will not give a glucose response. Also focus on hard liquors like vodka, scotch, gin, and everything in between.
If you avoid anything with sweetness in it and stick mostly with plain hard liquor, you’re probably going to be ok if you drink with some friends while you’re on a ketogenic diet.
We hope this article gave you some great tips for eating out while on keto.
