Under 30 g carbs
Keto for big guys
Keto for a big guy who lifts is not the same as keto for someone trying to shrink. The protein has to stay high enough to hold muscle through the first hard month, and there has to be enough total food that heavy sessions do not fall apart in week two.
Fat carries the calories, protein carries the training
How this one works
The first two weeks are the hard part, and it is mostly water and salt rather than willpower. Dropping carbohydrate flushes sodium fast, and the headaches, cramps and flat feeling usually respond to salt, broth and magnesium within a day.
Expect your top sets to dip for two or three weeks and then come back. If you are eight weeks out from something you care about lifting in, start this after it, not before it.
The two cook sessions
What you make, and when
The site-wide schedule is Sunday for the long cook and Wednesday for the top-up. On this track that means:
- CookGround beef and cheese chili, no beans — 8 portions
- CookSlow-roast pork shoulder — 8 portions of pulled pork
- CookTwo trays of roast broccoli and cauliflower in butter
- Cook18 hard-boiled eggs
- CookSheet-pan chicken thighs with garlic butter — 6 portions
- CookOne big pan of cauliflower rice
- CookSalad components chopped, dressing made in a jar
Timed run sheets for both sessions are on the prep schedule.
The actual week
Seven days, about 190 g of protein
This is the whole week rather than a teaser. Friday dinner is deliberately left open — a plan with no room in it is a plan you break once and abandon.
| Day | Breakfast | Lunch | Dinner | Extras |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon | Four eggs fried in butter, two sausages, avocado | Beef and cheese chili with sour cream | Pulled pork, roast broccoli, butter | Cheese, olives, a handful of macadamias |
| Tue | Three-egg omelette with cheddar and mushrooms | Chili again, day two | Ribeye, cauliflower mash, green beans | Two boiled eggs |
| Wed | Eggs, bacon, half an avocado | Pulled pork bowls, slaw, sour cream | Chicken thighs, roast cauliflower | Beef jerky, cheese |
| Thu | Full-fat Greek yoghurt, walnuts, cinnamon | Chili, last portions | Salmon fillets, asparagus, butter sauce | Boiled eggs, olives |
| Fri | Four eggs, sausages, spinach | Chicken thighs, big salad, olive oil | Whatever you like within the carbs — steak out is easy | Cheese if the day ran short |
| Sat | Big plate — eggs, bacon, mushrooms, halloumi | Tuna and mayo over lettuce, avocado | Burgers with no bun, cheese, side salad | Nuts, 90% dark chocolate |
| Sun | Eggs and leftover meat, whatever is open | Cook day — eat as you go | Roast chicken, veg roasted in the fat | Portion out Monday to Wednesday |
Big-batch recipes
The three that do the work
Real quantities, a per-portion protein count, and how long each one actually keeps. Everything here scales to a full tray or a full pot on purpose.
Ground beef and cheese chili, no beans
What goes in
- 3 lb ground beef, 80/20
- 1 lb bacon or pancetta, diced
- 2 cans (14 oz) chopped tomatoes
- 2 peppers, 2 onions, 8 cloves garlic
- 3 tbsp chilli powder, 2 tbsp cumin, 1 tbsp oregano
- 2 cups beef stock, 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 cups grated cheddar and sour cream, to serve
How
- Render the bacon first, then brown the beef in the fat in two batches. One crowded batch steams and you lose the crust.
- Onion, pepper and garlic into the same pan, 8 minutes. Paste and spices, 90 seconds.
- Tomatoes and stock in, simmer 45 minutes uncovered until thick.
- Cheese and sour cream at the bowl, not in the pot. Dairy cooked into it splits on the reheat.
Keeping it: Fridge 4 days, freezer 3 months. The fat sets on top in the fridge; stir it back in rather than pouring it off, because it is most of the calories.
Slow-roast pork shoulder
What goes in
- 5 lb bone-in pork shoulder
- 3 tbsp salt, 2 tbsp smoked paprika, 1 tbsp garlic powder, 1 tbsp black pepper
- 1 cup water or stock in the tray
How
- Rub the salt on the night before and leave it uncovered in the fridge. This is the single biggest difference between good and forgettable.
- Rest of the rub on, into a tray with the liquid, covered tight in foil.
- 300F for 6 hours. It is done when a fork twists in it with no resistance, not at a clock time.
- Uncover, 450F for 20 minutes to crisp the outside, then pull it apart with two forks in the tray juices.
Keeping it: Fridge 4 days, freezer 3 months, and it freezes better than almost anything else here. Freeze it in its own juices or it reheats dry.
Sheet-pan chicken thighs with garlic butter
What goes in
- 12 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
- 2 heads broccoli and 1 head cauliflower, cut small
- 1 stick butter, 8 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 tbsp salt, 1 tbsp paprika, thyme
How
- Dry the skin with paper towel and salt it. Wet skin will not crisp however hot the oven is.
- Thighs skin-up on one tray, vegetables tossed in melted garlic butter on another.
- 425F for 35 to 40 minutes. Do not turn the thighs.
- Pour the tray fat over the vegetables when both come out.
Keeping it: Fridge 4 days. Reheat in the oven or an air fryer — microwaved chicken skin is the worst thing on this page.
Garlic butter shrimp and zucchini noodles
What goes in
- 2 lb raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 6 medium zucchini, spiralized or cut into ribbons
- 6 tbsp butter
- 8 cloves garlic, sliced
- 1 tsp chilli flakes, zest and juice of 2 lemons
- A bunch of parsley
How
- Salt the zucchini noodles and leave them in a colander for 10 minutes, then pat dry — skipped, this dish turns watery.
- Shrimp seared hard in a little of the butter, 90 seconds a side, then out of the pan.
- Rest of the butter melted with the garlic and chilli flakes over low heat until fragrant, not browned.
- Zucchini noodles tossed through the garlic butter for 2 minutes just to warm, shrimp back in, lemon and parsley off the heat.
Keeping it: Fridge 2 days only — zucchini noodles weep water and go soft fast. Best made close to eating; if batching, keep the noodles raw and salted separately until the day you cook the shrimp.
Doing it cheaper
The budget version
Keto is the most expensive of the six tracks per gram of protein, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest. Ground beef ran $6.89 a pound in July 2026, about 11 g of protein per dollar, against 35 for eggs and 58 for dried beans. The saving levers are the cheap cuts and the cheap fats.
Around $85–115 a week for one person at national average prices, realistically the dearest track here. Building it on eggs, whole chickens and pork shoulder rather than steak pulls it toward the bottom of that range.
| Instead of | Use | Why it is worth it |
|---|---|---|
| Ground beef every day | Eggs, whole chicken, pork shoulder | A whole chicken at $2.01 a pound is roughly four times the protein per dollar of ground beef. |
| Steak | Chuck, shoulder and thighs, cooked long | Cheap cuts carry more connective tissue, which is a feature at six hours and a problem at six minutes. |
| Almond-flour baking | Skip it | Keto bread and keto cookies are the fastest way to double a grocery bill for no nutritional return. |
| Fresh out-of-season veg | Frozen broccoli, cauliflower, spinach | Cheaper, and low-carb vegetables freeze better than most. |
The prices behind these swaps, with sources, are in the protein-per-dollar table.
Shopping list
One week, one person
Sized for a big guy eating the plan above with a little slack in it. Halve the fresh produce if you shop twice a week.
Protein
- 3 lb ground beef 80/20
- 5 lb pork shoulder
- 12 chicken thighs
- 4 dozen eggs
- 1 lb bacon
- 2 lb salmon or frozen white fish
Fats
- 2 sticks butter
- Olive oil
- Heavy cream
- Block of cheddar
- Sour cream
- Olives and macadamias
Plants
- 2 heads broccoli
- 1 head cauliflower
- Bag of spinach
- 2 avocados
- Salad leaves, cucumber
- Frozen green beans
Pantry
- 4 cans chopped tomatoes
- Beef stock
- Chilli powder, cumin, smoked paprika
- Salt — more than you think
- Magnesium supplement
Very low carbohydrate eating is not a good fit for everyone and it interacts with real medication, insulin and SGLT2 inhibitors in particular. If you take anything for diabetes or blood pressure, talk to your doctor before you start rather than after the first dizzy week.
Nothing on this page is medical advice. It is a plan written for general strength training in healthy adults, and any condition or medication you are managing outranks it.
Not the right track?
Five others, same structure, all with a budget version.