Keto Meal Plan for a Week (7-Day Menu + Grocery List)

Last updated: October 25, 2026

A keto diet keeps carbohydrates very low, usually 20 to 50 g a day, and gets most of its calories from fat. You build meals on meat, fish, eggs, cheese, nuts and low-carb vegetables, and you leave out bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, beans and sugar.

Below is a keto meal plan for a week: breakfast, lunch and dinner for 7 days, the net carbs of each day, and the grocery list for the week sorted by aisle. If you are new to keto, the two short sections before the table explain the rules.

What is the keto diet?

"Keto" is short for ketogenic. When you eat very few carbs, your body runs low on glucose and burns more fat. The liver turns part of that fat into ketones, which the body uses for fuel. This state is called ketosis.

To get there, most keto plans keep carbs under 50 g a day, and some go as low as 20 g. The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health describes a classic split of 70 to 80% of calories from fat, 10 to 20% from protein and 5 to 10% from carbs.

Keto plans usually count net carbs: total carbs minus fiber. A cup of chopped broccoli has about 6 g of carbs, but 2 g of that is fiber, so it counts as about 4 g net.

What to eat and what to avoid on keto

Eat:

• Meat and poultry. Beef, pork, chicken, turkey, bacon.
• Fish and seafood. Salmon, cod, halibut, tuna, shrimp.
• Eggs and full-fat dairy. Eggs, butter, cream, cheese, plain full-fat Greek yogurt, cottage cheese.
• Low-carb vegetables. Spinach, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, asparagus, green beans, mushrooms, bell peppers, cabbage, bok choy.
• Fats and oils. Avocado, olive oil, avocado oil.
• Nuts and seeds. Pecans, walnuts, almonds, chia seeds, hemp hearts.
• Some berries. A small handful of blueberries, raspberries or strawberries.

Avoid or keep very small:

• Bread, pasta, rice, oats and other grains.
• Potatoes, sweet potatoes and corn.
• Beans, lentils and chickpeas.
• Sugar, honey, syrups, sweets, juice and soda.
• Most fruit, such as bananas, grapes, apples and mangoes.
• Beer and sweet cocktails.
• "Low-fat" products with added sugar. Check the labels of sauces, dressings, deli meat and bacon too.

Does keto help you lose weight?

It can, mostly because many people eat less when their meals are high in protein and fat. The first week often brings a fast drop on the scale, but much of that is water, not fat.

Over a year, the difference from a low-fat diet is small. A meta-analysis of 13 trials with at least 12 months of follow-up found that people on a very-low-carb ketogenic diet lost on average 0.91 kg (2 lb) more than people on a low-fat diet (Bueno et al., British Journal of Nutrition, 2013 ). The same study found a small rise in LDL cholesterol on keto. So choose the diet you can follow for months. On any diet, you need to eat fewer calories than you burn. Our calorie calculator gives you a starting number.

In the first days, some people get headaches, tiredness, low mood, constipation or "brain fog". This is often called the "keto flu". It usually passes in a few days to a few weeks. Drink enough water and add enough salt to your food.

Keto is not for everyone. If you have type 1 diabetes, take medicine for diabetes or blood pressure, have kidney or liver disease, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or are under 18, talk to your doctor before you start.

The 7-day keto meal plan

We made this week in MenuMagic with the Keto diet turned on and breakfast, lunch and dinner planned. We did not change the meals. The net carbs come from the recipes the app wrote for each meal: total carbs minus fiber, per person, with sweeteners such as erythritol and stevia counted as zero.

Six of the seven days stay under 30 g of net carbs. Sunday is higher because the braise cooks with onion, carrot, tomato paste and red wine. To keep Sunday under 30 g, leave out the carrot and use half the onion, or split the short ribs into four portions and keep two for another day.

In this week, about 60 to 75% of the calories come from fat and 20 to 35% from protein. That is a little more protein than classic keto. Extra protein helps you keep muscle while you lose weight.

A few notes on the week:

• Use unsweetened almond milk for the chia pudding. Sweetened almond milk adds about 9 g of carbs per serving.
• Make the chia pudding the night before. It needs a few hours in the fridge to set.
• Cook extra chicken on Monday. Grill enough for Thursday's Cobb salad at the same time. Boil the eggs for the Cobb salad on Wednesday.
• Buy riced cauliflower to save time. Wednesday's fried rice needs it, and Sunday's mash works with it too.
• Start the short ribs early on Sunday. They need 2½ to 3 hours in the oven, but almost no work from you.
• Read the labels. Ranch dressing, mayonnaise, deli turkey and bacon can have added sugar. Choose brands with 1 g of carbs or less per serving.
• Portions follow the recipes, not a calorie goal. Most days come to 1,100 to 1,850 kcal per person, and Sunday is higher, about 2,400. If you count calories, set a calorie goal in the app (see below).

Keto grocery list for the week, by aisle

Quantities are for two adults. Check your pantry first: you probably have the oil, spices and some of the condiments already. For the method behind a list like this, see how to make a grocery list from a meal plan .

Fruit and vegetables

• Avocados, 4
• Lemons, 2
• Blueberries, 1 small box (or frozen)
• Baby spinach, 10 oz
• Romaine hearts, 3
• Iceberg lettuce, 1 small head
• Collard greens, 1 bunch
• Asparagus, 1 bunch
• Green beans, 12 oz
• Broccoli, 1 large head
• Cauliflower, 2 medium heads (or 2 bags of riced cauliflower)
• Baby bok choy, 3
• Cremini mushrooms, 14 oz
• Shiitake mushrooms, 5 oz
• Bell peppers, 2
• Poblano peppers, 2
• Tomato, 1
• Celery, 1 bunch
• Carrot, 1
• Yellow onions, 2
• Red onion, 1 small
• Green onions, 1 bunch
• Garlic, 1 head
• Fresh ginger, 1 small piece
• Fresh parsley, 1 bunch
• Fresh thyme and rosemary, 1 small pack each

Meat

• Chicken breasts, 1¾ lb
• Pork tenderloin, 1 (about 1 lb)
• Bacon, 12 oz
• Flank steak, 10 oz
• Ribeye steaks, 2 (about 8 oz each)
• Ground beef, 10 oz
• Boneless beef short ribs, 2 lb
• Deli turkey breast, 7 oz

Fish and seafood

• Salmon fillets, 2 × 5 oz
• Cod fillets, 2 × 5 oz
• Halibut fillets, 2 × 6 oz
• Raw peeled shrimp, 9 oz
• Canned tuna in water, 2 cans (5 oz)

Dairy and eggs

• Eggs, 18
• Butter, 2 sticks
• Heavy cream, ½ pint
• Plain whole-milk Greek yogurt, 12 oz
• Full-fat cottage cheese, 16 oz
• Unsweetened almond milk, 1 quart
• Cheddar, 8 oz block and 4 slices
• Swiss cheese, 2 oz
• Parmesan, 3 oz
• Goat cheese, 2 oz

Nuts, seeds and baking

• Chia seeds, 2 oz
• Walnuts, 1 oz
• Pecans, 2 oz
• Sliced almonds, 1 oz
• Hemp hearts, 1 oz
• Almond flour, 1 small bag
• Erythritol or stevia, 1 small pack

Condiments and canned goods

• Mayonnaise, 1 jar
• Ranch dressing, 1 bottle
• Dijon mustard, 1 jar
• Yellow mustard, 1 bottle
• Dill pickles, 1 jar
• Anchovy paste, 1 tube
• Soy sauce or tamari, 1 bottle
• Tomato paste, 1 small can
• Beef broth, 1 carton (32 oz)
• Dry red wine, 1 small bottle (or more beef broth)

Pantry (check first)

• Olive oil, avocado oil, sesame oil, baking powder, vanilla extract, ground cinnamon, ground cumin, dried rosemary, bay leaves, salt, black pepper.

How to make your own keto week with MenuMagic

The week above is one example. Next week you need 21 new meals and a new grocery list. MenuMagic has a keto diet setting, so each new week follows the same rules without extra work:

1. Go to Settings, then Food and cooking.
2. Under Meals, turn on Breakfast next to lunch and dinner.
3. Under Diet, check Keto. The planner then leaves out meals built on grains, bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, legumes or sugar.
4. Optional: in Settings, open Calorie goal and set your daily goal.
5. Tap Update plan to generate the week.

Allergies and dislikes from your settings still apply, for example no shellfish or no mushrooms. If a meal does not fit, or you don't like it, tap it while editing the plan and choose Regenerate; the new meal is keto too. For one keto dinner made from what is in your fridge, try the recipe generator .

With Premium, each meal comes with its full recipe: ingredients, steps, calories and macros, including carbs and fiber, so you can check your net carbs. If you plan for one person, the planner picks dishes that fit your calorie goal and sizes each recipe to it. In the shopping list, Generate list turns the week into a list with quantities, sorted by aisle and shared with everyone in your household. The Diary logs your planned meals with their calories and macros in one tap; our guide on how to track macros for beginners explains the numbers.

Meal names in the plan and the diet settings are free. Full recipes, calorie-sized portions, macros, the automatic shopping list and one-tap logging need Premium.

FAQ: what can you eat on a keto diet?

Meat, poultry, fish, seafood, eggs, butter, cheese, cream, plain full-fat yogurt, avocado, olive oil, nuts, seeds and low-carb vegetables such as spinach, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, asparagus and mushrooms. Small amounts of berries also fit. Bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, beans, sugar and most fruit do not.

FAQ: how many carbs a day on keto?

Most keto plans keep carbs under 50 g a day, and stricter ones go down to 20 g. They usually count net carbs, which are total carbs minus fiber. The sample week in this article has about 12 to 28 g of net carbs on six days, and 44 g on Sunday.

FAQ: does keto help you lose weight?

It can, because high-protein, high-fat meals are filling and many people eat less. Much of the fast loss in the first week is water. In a meta-analysis of 13 trials of a year or more, people on keto lost on average 0.91 kg (2 lb) more than people on a low-fat diet. You still need to eat fewer calories than you burn.

FAQ: who should not follow a keto diet?

Talk to your doctor first if you have type 1 diabetes, take medicine for diabetes or blood pressure, have kidney or liver disease, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or are under 18. Keto can lower blood sugar and blood pressure quickly, so some medicines may need a new dose.