New to Keto - need support
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@KnitOrMiss Thank you! I really don't want to give up my exercising, but how the heck do you get more calories while trying to stay in your macros??? I have my fat almost to max and that would be the only place I feel like I could add calories... Any suggestions? I really appreciate your input!
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@KnitOrMiss Thank you! I really don't want to give up my exercising, but how the heck do you get more calories while trying to stay in your macros??? I have my fat almost to max and that would be the only place I feel like I could add calories... Any suggestions? I really appreciate your input!
@kcross121 - The best place to add calories is always protein. ESPECIALLY when working out.
Carbs are a hard limit.
Protein is a minimum goal range.
Fats are ONLY to satiety...
The only one of those that's flexible is protein.
Makes it easier to figure out where to stick the calories... Lean meats (turkey, chicken breast, tuna, etc.) are easy ways to get more protein with little to no carbs.
But remember, if you're truly not hungry, don't eat. If you are hungry, don't force yourself to skip a meal... As your true hunger signals return, listen to them. Calorie deficits should be looked at on a 7-10 day average. The body NATURALLY has higher and lower hunger days. No two days are ever identical.
One day will have more or less sleep.
Another will have more or less stress.
Yet another will have more or less activity.
Even still another may have sickness or healing, etc.
All of these things (and many, many more) affect how many calories you need. Forcing yourself to eat less when you really need it is not good. Neither is eating when you're not hungry.
On keto you'll have days, and sometimes weeks, where your body gets really efficient at burning your body fat for energy, and while it is using those calories to fuel your body, you may have reduced hunger. That is one of the nicest benefits of the ketogenic diet for some of us!
So just keep on trying different things until something works, then when it stops working, shake it up again, etc.1 -
Here's my version of how to get more calories...@KnitOrMiss Thank you! I really don't want to give up my exercising, but how the heck do you get more calories while trying to stay in your macros??? I have my fat almost to max and that would be the only place I feel like I could add calories... Any suggestions? I really appreciate your input!
Get more calories (and carbs, fat and protein grams) by NOT giving up your exercise. Using MFP as designed: when you exercise, enter your exercise calories in MFP and feel free to "eat them back" within reason. I say "within reason" because all calculators/trackers/gadgets typically over estimate. Not all and not for every activity, but often.
Your initial macros are set based on your deficit calories. When you enter your exercise minutes, MFP adds calories and those calories automatically disperse between carbs, fat, protein within the percentages you have set. Thus, you have a new higher amount of calories and grams per macro that you can eat.
Using myself as an example (note I am not striving for ketosis):
1) Calories are 1500
2) Macros are 15% carbs (56 grams), 30% protein (113 grams) and 55% fat (92 grams)
3) I take a long brisk walk which burns 300 calories and I enter it into MFP (or my tracker does it for me).
3) MFP then increases my allowable calories to 1800. 1500+300= 1800 calories that I can eat and still be in my deficit because the exercise calories are in addition to the calories already assigned to be eaten.
4) MFP will also then increase my 56 grams of carbs to 68 (rounded), my 113 protein grams to 135 grams and my 92 fat grams to 110 grams. Those increases in grams, are reflective of the 300 calories.
Since most keto folks set carbs as a limit, say 20 perhaps, the only macro they would not want to "eat up to" then is carbs. So just stick with your 20 carb grams (regardless of what MFP says) and have another 200-300 calories of some nice form of protein or a few pieces of cheese or a fat bomb.
I don't know @kcross121 if that answers your question. Perhaps I'm not understanding the question. Perhaps the explanation will clarify something for someone. Your comment of "I don't want to give up my exercise" does (to me) serve as an example of how something presented in an "either/or" fashion could be misinterpreted and a bit confusing. IMO the best scenario is to do both and MFP accommodates that via added calories with exercise.
Not wanting to step on toes here. It's just that I concern myself (and shouldn't) with the thought that some folks are using MFP but not understanding how MFP works. I like MFP because I think it encourages folks both eat properly and move a little more. Some folks will never want engage in exercise. They just don't like it or they are physically unable and that's OK. In that case, just eat at the deficit calories provided. If hungry at that deficit or wanting to eat a bit more on certain occasions, know you can...if you just get a little exercise. It's good for your overall health.
There are lots of debates on calories and carbs and protein yadda, yadda but I have personally not heard a debate that reasonable exercise (acknowledging personal health issues or limitations) is detrimental to health.
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@KnitOrMiss Thank you! That does make sense! I will give it a try this week as well as @kpk54 suggestion of entering my exercise minutes! Thank you both for taking your time to help guide me! By the way my reason for saying I did not want to give up exercise, is that some extreme Ketoers fast for days and can't exercise for conservation of energy....I'm not willing to go that route. That's all I meant1
