Keto Calorie question

photo_kyla

I just recently went from a high protein/low carb diet to true keto and I was curious. I was already at 1,200 calories before and had plateaued on weight loss at that. My MBR is 1,765 cal/day and at a sedentary exercise level they estimated that I was using 2,118 cal/day, so 1,200 was where I needed to be for steady 2 lb/wk loss on just calories, but I've read some people saying that they are eating 3-4,000 cal/day and still losing a lot of weight.

So I'm curious, what do those of you doing keto diets set your calorie deficit at?

Rweeks4513

I'm similar to you. I'm not fully keto, but close to it and I do about 1200. I lose about 2#/week. About every ten lbs or so, I plateau. Don't know why. It eventually goes away. If you burn enough via cardio/heavy lifting it is completely plausible to up the calories and lose. It will only happen if there is still a deficit after eating that amount though.

supnicole

I know quite a few people who say they can eat more calories on keto. I've never eaten below 1,600 calories daily on keto and had great success (196 lbs to 149 lbs). You may be able to eat slightly more, but I question 3,000-4,000 cals unless these individuals have a lot of weight to lose. Keep in mind keto reduces water in the body, so if someone switches to keto for a week at 3,000 cals, they'll still lose the initial water weight of 4-8 pounds, or more if they are bigger, and attribute this success to the calorie intake instead of water loss.

GaleHawkins

This is something after being at 220 for 6 week I am working on but need to do some counting. Because one is burning fat I think I have my fat intake too high because to lose a pound a week would add 500 cals of fat a day to what I already eat. Working on it.

terbusha

What I do and what I recommend to people is to eat at a calorie level that allows you to make good progress towards your goal. If you are trying to lose weight, eat so you drop 1-2 lbs/week. This assumes an average calorie burn from you getting in all of your workouts. This will be different for everyone, so you'll have to do some trial and error to figure it out. I'd start ~1600 cal/day. Hit this goal, along with your macros and getting in your workouts, for a week. If you lose 1-2 lbs, you're good to go. If you lose too much, increase your intake and repeat. If you don't lose enough, reduce your intake a bit and repeat. After a few weeks, you'll figure out what works for you in your situation.

Allan

tennisdude2004

I noticed you mentioned you were doing a high protein diet? I assume you have reduced your protein and increased your fat intake for your keto diet?

Best answer i can give is play around with it and see what works. Just make sure you are getting your micro nutrients and just enough protein - as it spikes insulin, you probably do not want to be over doing it.

GaleHawkins

eatfatlosefatblog.com/how-to-configure-myfitnesspal-for-a-low-carb-or-ketogenic-diet/

Here is an example on how to use MFP for setting up low carb macros that I just found but have not worked with yet.

I am trying Casein vs Whey to try and reduce Insulin Spikes so as not to get kicked out of ketosis. With Whey I read it all gets digested in 3 hours but it takes 7 hours with Casein. The best I can find 50-60% of protein is converted to glucose. Not sure if that as in "come hail or high water" or is conditional on other factors.