When I first started on the keto diet, one of the most difficult aspects of grocery shopping was figuring out exactly how to get enough fat.

It seemed almost impossible, to stay around 2,000 calories per day, and hit my macro goals at the same time, unless I wanted to just literally eat cheese and bacon all day every day.

But after doing some extensive research, I fell in love with not one, but a variety of different ways to efficiently add in fat to my daily routine, that both taste great, and have other added health benefits too.

In this article, I’ll be explaining in-depth how exactly you can get more fat into your diet while following keto, and once you’re done reading, I’m confident that you’ll be a healthy fat expert.

How Can I Eat more Fat on Keto?

1. Buy Full Fat Ingredients

Transitioning to the keto diet was a bit confusing for me when I first started out, because I noticed all of the foods that advertised themselves as ‘healthy’ or ‘diet’ also had ‘reduced fat’ or ‘fat free’ on the label. It was extremely difficult to find anything with a healthy label that also had a good amount of fat macros.

But after some time, I found that it was pretty easy to get more fat into my diet, I just had to pay attention to what I was buying at the store. Aiming for full fat products like heavy whipping cream, butter, cheese, cream cheese, and coconut milk are great ways to amp up your fat counts.

It’s best to always be sure to avoid anything labeled ‘light’, or anything that contains more carbohydrates than it does fats, when it should be a good source of fat in the first place.

2. Try replacing butter with Ghee

Replacing butter with ghee, in cooking, baking, and even just eating with other foods, is a great way to amp up the amount of healthy fats that you’re consuming.

Don’t get me wrong, full fat, grass fed butter can be a great tool to help hit your fat targets on the keto diet, but ghee really brings things to a new level.

A standard serving of butter can have anywhere from 5 to 11 grams of fat, but ghee comes with a whopping 14-15 grams of fat in every serving.

This can really help you hit your fat macro targets when cooking it in foods like eggs, adding it into your bone broths, and even mixing it into your bulletproof coffee.

On top of that, ghee has a lot of other great benefits like cancer fighting properties and immune-boosting properties that make it worth the higher price tag than butter.

Not every grocery store carries ghee though, which is why I like to get mine over at Amazon.com

3. Eat more fatty cuts of meats

Fattier cuts of meat are a great way to level out your fat to protein ratios, without really changing much to your diet anyway. It’s likely that you’ve already been eating these cuts of meats, so all you have to do is opt for the versions that have a little more fat content when doing your shopping.

Some good examples of fattier cuts of red meat include:

• • Lamb
  • Beef (80/20 ground beef is a great way to go for this)
  • Bison
  • Pork

You can also get a lot of healthy fats from fish. Some of my favorite types of fish that are high in omega-3 fatty acids include:

• • Salmon
  • Tuna
  • Sardines
  • Mackerel
  • Halibut
  • Cod
  • Herring
  • Eel

Additionally, poultry can be a pretty good source of both protein and fat. The best options for high fat content in poultry are:

• • Chicken (dark meat)
  • Duck
  • Turkey

4. Double down on Avocados

I know people call avocados superfoods all the time, but when it comes to the ketogenic diet, they truly are super powerful.

Avocados taste fantastic, are relatively cheap, and they pack an insane amount of healthy fats into every serving. What’s even better is that they can go with most types of foods, or simply be eaten on their own.

The only real kryptonite of avocados is that they can sometimes be hard to open up, and they can go back pretty quickly, so you’ll need to get some practice in when it comes to timing when to eat your avocados, and how soon you eat them after slicing them open.

Looking into the numbers, the nutrition facts for two servings of (or one whole) avocado are:

• • 231 calories
  • 21 grams of fat
    • 3.1 grams of saturated fat
    • 2.7 grams of polyunsaturated fat
    • 14 grams of monounsaturated fat
  • 12 grams of carbohydrates
    • 10 grams of dietary fiber
    • 1 gram of natural sugars
  • 2.9 grams of protein
  • 10% of the daily value of Magnesium
  • 20% of the daily value of Potassium
  • 24% of the daily value of Vitamin C
  • 20% of the daily value of Vitamin B-6

As you can see, avocado was a food practically made for the keto diet (which is why I made it a part of my logo). With such a high fat content, and a low net carb count (they’re crazy high in fiber), avocados are a great way to help you hit your fat targets.

5. Try more Coconut Oil

Coconut oil can be a great way to bulk up on healthy fats without having to worry about losing out on flavor. Like ghee, coconut oil can be cooked into just about anything, and it works great for baking too.

The nutrition breakdown of one serving of coconut oil (1 teaspoon) is as follows:

• • 117 calories
  • 14 grams of total fat
    • 12 grams of saturated fat
    • 0.2 grams of polyunsaturated fat
    • 0.8 grams of monounsaturated fat
  • 0 grams of total carbohydrates
  • 0 grams of protein

As you can see, it’s almost entirely just healthy fats, which makes it perfect for getting that fat count up in any meal without running the risk of going over your macro targets for carbohydrates and protein.

Other health benefits of coconut oil include:

• • Increased fat burning ability
  • Coconut oil can kill off harmful microorganisms
  • Coconut oil can help reduce your hunger, so you’re not always hungry right after eating
  • Coconut oil can raise HDL, the good cholesteorl
  • It can protect your skin, hair, and dental health

One of the only drawbacks is that not every store always sells coconut oil. I like to pick mine up online over at Amazon.com, where it’s usually the cheapest anyway.

6. Cook with your bacon grease

As you may have noticed this far into your keto journey, a lot of keto recipes call for using bacon. Bacon’s a great source of healthy fats and proteins, and is an efficient way to add some flavor and texture to almost any dish.

Another hidden benefit of bacon is all that extra grease it leaves behind! That grease is derived from the burned off fat from cooking it, and it still contains a lot of those healthy fats we strive to get in order to hit our fat macro targets on the keto diet.

It’s easy to cook with, just as you would with butter, coconut oil, or ghee, and since you’re already cooking bacon, you don’t ever really need to go out and buy it!

Obviously quality does come into play a bit here. If you go for higher quality cuts of bacon, you’re likely to get healthier, higher quality fats in your bacon grease. Processed meats do have their dangers, so it’s always best to aim for bacon that comes from organic, grass fed farms, in order to avoid unwanted elements in your food.

If you’re not a fan of cooking bacon yourself, but would still like to try out cooking with it, did you know that you can actually buy rendered bacon fat for cooking?

I pick mine up over at Amazon.com, it’s completely safe and healthy, and is another great way to add in fats to whatever you’re cooking.

7. Heavy up on mascarpone and cream cheese

Mascarpone cheese and cream cheese can be great ways to whip up some healthy but sweet keto treats (I’ve included some recipes that use both at the end of this article).

I find that mascarpone cheese can be pretty rich at times, but it’s a great way to really pack fat into whatever dessert you want to make.

The nutrition breakdown of one serving of mascarpone cheese (one tablespoon) is as follows:

• • 122 calories
  • 13 grams of total fat
    • 7.2 grams of saturated fat
    • 0.2 grams of trans fats
    • 0.5 grams of polyunsaturated fats
    • 3.3 grams of monounsaturated fats
  • 1.3 grams of protein
  • 0.9 grams of carbohydrates
    • 0 grams of dietary fiber
    • 0.7 grams of sugars
  • 38 milligrams of cholesterol
  • 9.1% of the daily value of Vitamin A

Clearly, mascarpone cheese fits perfectly within the keto diet, being high in total fat, and very low in net carbs.

8. Consider adding in MCTs

MCT, or medium chain triglycerides, are one of the most common fat supplements used in the keto diet.

Most of the fats we get in our diet are long-chain triglycerides, but medium chain triglycerides come with their own array of benefits too.

The first great thing about MCTs is that it doesn’t require additional breakdown in our bodies. Once it enters the digestive system, it immediately starts to be absorbed. Once it’s entered our blood stream, it gets sent straight to the liver, in which it’s converted into ketone bodies. That’s why MCTs can be a great way to help you get into ketosis faster, all while being a great source of healthy fats.

Generally, MCTs can come in either liquid or powder form. I personally prefer the powder, because I find that it’s easier on my stomach.

When it comes to MCT powder, I usually go for Perfect Keto’s MCT Powder, because it’s packed with other nutrients, and tastes great in my bulletproof coffee, bone broth soups, and a ton of other dishes.

Like coconut oil, MCTs can be a powerful tool to help max out your fat counts in almost any meal.

If you want to learn more about MCT oil, you can check out my guide on it right here.

9. Try coconut butter

Like coconut oil, coconut butter can be another great way to add in natural fats.

Unlike coconut oil, coconut butter is a type of food that you can actually eat on its own. Think of it like almond butter, sunflower seed butter, or peanut butter. It can be a great way to add some substance to keto-friendly fruits and vegetables, and is really useful in desserts and fat bombs (we’ll get to those later), and you can also just eat it plain on its own!

The nutrition breakdown for a single serving of coconut butter is as follows:

• • 210 calories
  • 2.0 grams of protein
  • 8.0 grams of carbohydrates
    • 3 grams of dietary fiber
    • 2 grams of natural sugar
  • 18 grams of total fat

Coconut butter is also rich in key electrolytes, including magnesium, phosphorus, and potassium.

10. Try other high fat nut butters

Your use of nut butters on keto doesn’t have to end with coconut however. As I mentioned above, there’s a ton of nut butter options that can help to add more fat to your daily intake.

While I’m sure you’re familiar with peanut butter, it isn’t exactly the best option when it comes to the keto diet. And while almond butter and sunflower seed butter have slightly lower carb contents than peanut butter, it’s macadamia nut butter that I think is the best option for keto.

Macadamia nut butter has some pretty impressive macros, which include:

• • 203 calories
  • 21.4 grams of total fat
    • 3.4 grams of saturated fat
    • 0.4 grams of polyunsaturated fat
    • 16.7 grams of monounsaturated fat
  • 3.9 grams of carbohydrates
    • 2.4 grams of dietary fiber
    • 1.3 grams of natural sugars
  • 2.2 grams of protein

As you can clearly see, 21.4 grams of total fat with only 1.5 net carbs is pretty spectacular. And while macadamia nut butter can be a bit pricier, it’s definitely worth incorporating into your diet to help hit your fat goals.

11. Choose higher fat nuts

As you might suspect from #10 on this list, macadamia nuts are also an incredibly healthy source of fat when eaten raw on their own. In fact, there’s a few different kinds of nuts that are great at bringing in a ton of fat, without running the risk of unwanted carbohydrates like you’d find in peanuts or cashews.

Other nuts that are extremely high in fat content include Brazil Nuts and Pecans. These three types of nuts are all great because they have the lowest amount of carbs per serving.

From an accessibility standpoint, pecans are probably the easiest to come by, Brazil nuts tend to be the most expensive, and I personally think macadamia nuts have the best natural taste.

12. Add homemade cheese sauce to any meal

This is a fairly easy hack to pull off. There are tons of ways to make a homemade cheese sauce that’s keto-friendly and tastes great.

One of my personal favorites that’s more cream than is cheese is alfredo sauce (you can check out my keto guide to alfredo sauce right here), but you can also make a Mexican-style queso sauce, beer cheese sauce, and anything else your heart desires when following the keto diet.

As long as you don’t mix in any sugar or use cheeses that are heavily processed (Kraft singles for example have a whopping 3 carbohydrates per slice!), you should be in easy shape to hack any meal with a delicious and creamy topping.

13. Consider drinking bulletproof coffee

I’ve mentioned bulletproof coffee a few times already in its list, but it definitely deserves its own number because of all the benefits it provides.

Bulletproof coffee can be a great way to kickstart your daily with a significant portion of healthy fats that will leave you fuller for longer periods of time, and will help your body get into fat burning gear earlier in the day rather than later.

The sky is really the limit when it comes to bulletproof coffee add ins. You can go with butter, coconut oil, MCT, ghee, or anything else that’s considered to be a good source of fat.

To make bulletproof coffee from home, you really only need three four things:

1. 1.  The coffee
   2.  The coffee maker
   3.  The fat to add it in
   4. A blender to combine it all together while the coffee’s still hot

When I’m on the go and can’t make my own bulletproof coffee, I like to depend on the Bulletproof brand, who have their own portable, chilled coffees that have high fat content and taste great.

14. Use smoothies and shakes

Like bulletproof coffee, smoothies and shakes can be highly effective delivery systems to help get your fat count a lot higher.

You can use anything from coconut oil, cream cheese, heavy whipping cream, to even some types of MCT oil to help add in some extra fat that won’t effect flavor whatsoever.

All it takes is something as simple as a VitaMix blender and some healthy sources of fat that I’ve listed above to get started.

Whether you’re in the mood for a chocolate shake, or a lean berry flavored smoothie, you’ll be able to enjoy what’s essentially a meal replacement that has all the nutrients of a meal, and all the necessary fat of one too.

I’m a huge fan of Keto Connect, and have some of their best keto smoothies embedded below for your viewing pleasure.

15. Try cooking with avocado oil

Just like avocados on their own are stellar sources of fats, so is avocado oil. Avocado oil can be a great way to replace other types of cooking oils like olive oil are vegetable oil, which are much more inflammatory in nature, which can have adverse effects on your state of ketosis in the long run.

I like cooking with avocado oil because it gets the lubricative job done like that of any cooking oil, has an insanely high fat content compared to other cooking oils, and leaves your food with a nice subtle flavor of avocado – and who wouldn’t love that?

16. Fat Bombs!

Last but not least, are any keto dieter’s trusty ace in the hole – fat bombs.

Fat bombs can be sweet or savory, and are some incredible ways to help you fight off those cravings for sweet treats, all while helping you load on a ton of fat in one sitting, without overdoing it on carbohydrates.

Fat bombs can generally be made with all kinds of healthy fat sources that I’ve listed above,, and often are best served chilled by using a fat bomb mold.

You can check out one of my favorite fat bomb recipes from youtuber High Fat High Fun right below.

Final Thoughts

If you didn’t think it was possible to get enough fats into your daily intake on the keto diet before, I certainly think you’ll be convinced now.

It can come as a tough transition for a lot of people, because they’ve always been taught to opt for products branded as ‘fat free’ or ‘light’ or ‘reduced fat’ when pursuing healthy options.

But once you know where to look, it becomes a whole lot easier to get your hands on the tools you need to be successful in hitting your fat targets and effectively maintaining a healthy state of ketosis.