If you’re a breakfast lover following the keto diet, prepare to be pleasantly surprised: The list of keto breakfast ideas is long and mouthwatering, full of tasty fat-rich foods like eggs, avocado, sausage, butter, cheese, and bacon.
Of course, the list of things not permitted on the ultra-restrictive ketogenic diet is pretty darn long, too. That’s because the goal is to deprive the body of its primary energy source—carbohydrates—and load up on fat in order to force your body into a metabolic state called ketosis, in which stored fat is burned for energy, as SELF has reported. In general, what you can eat on a keto diet includes fish, meat, low-carb dairy products (like butter, cheese, and cream cheese), low-carb vegetables, nuts, oils, and avocados—as well as more carby foods, like fruit, as long as it’s in moderation.
“On keto, you really need to moderate everything that’s not pure fat,” as New York–based dietitian Samantha Cassetty, MS, RD, previously told SELF. That includes protein, and even the carbs in nuts and veggies. (And, by the way, while we’re talking about trendy low-carb diets—when it comes to paleo vs. keto recipes, most keto recipes are also paleo, and vice-versa.)
Unsurprisingly, experts are critical of restrictive, imbalanced diets used for losing weight, as keto often is, for a number of reasons—including the fact that they can limit the variety of nutrients your body gets, promote disordered eating, fail to deliver on long-term health benefits, and be unsustainable for most people. The TL;DR is that if you’re giving keto a go, it’s a good idea to read up on the research for yourself and consult your doctor or a registered dietitian before trying it out. Here’s a good place to start as far as what to know before starting a keto diet.
If you’re looking for ways to inject as much variety as possible into a keto diet, you’ll find a bunch of keto breakfast recipes to start your day below. From sweet to savory, many of these creative recipes recreate the carb-y breakfasts we know and love, but with low-carb, high-protein and high-fat ingredients instead. Some of these ideas call for keto-approved sweeteners like stevia, but almost all can be adapted to use only low-carb, plant-based ingredients—like banana bread that gets all its sugar from just bananas, and bouncy pancakes made from coconut flour.
Whether you need an easy keto breakfast that will be ready in five, or one that you actually have time to prep in advance, these 35 keto breakfast ideas have you covered.