KETO: Please Help!

mariahleann93

Hi! I am new to Keto. I want to stick with my calorie goal of 1200 calories a day and I am STRUGGLING to do that and keep my Keto percentages. Can anyone tell me if what I have planned is okay?

Breakfast:
3 eggs (scrambled)
6 slices of bacon
1/2 avocado

Lunch:
4 slices hard salami
1 cup broccoli
1 tbsp grass fed butter

Dinner:
3 oz baked skinless chicken
2 cups riced cauliflower
1 tbsp grass fed butter
1 tbsp olive oil

Totals:
9 Net Carbs/24 Total Carbs (7%)
72 g Protein (22%)
104 g fat (71%)


Please share any suggestions you may have!

kommodevaran

1) Set your calorie target properly - what's your height and weight?
2) Eat food you like.
3) Lose weight.

lynn_glenmont

mariahleann93 wrote: »

Hi! I am new to Keto. I want to stick with my calorie goal of 1200 calories a day and I am STRUGGLING to do that and keep my Keto percentages. Can anyone tell me if what I have planned is okay?

Breakfast:
3 eggs (scrambled)
6 slices of bacon
1/2 avocado

Lunch:
4 slices hard salami
1 cup broccoli
1 tbsp grass fed butter

Dinner:
3 oz baked skinless chicken
2 cups riced cauliflower
1 tbsp grass fed butter
1 tbsp olive oil

Totals:
9 Net Carbs/24 Total Carbs (7%)
72 g Protein (22%)
104 g fat (71%)


Please share any suggestions you may have!

Is that enough calories? It seems pretty low.

bpotts44

No magic to keto. Just set a reasonable calorie target, reasonable macro profile and lose weight.

oconnor5922

find out your macros. if you go online and search how to calculate macros u will be able to see what works for u. macros are important because they show you the good and the bad calories you can eat. it seems hard but is actually quite simple. i do mine on 40% protein, 20% carbs and the rest 40% x

TrishSeren

That doesn't seem like a lot of food to me. I'd be starving between meals. Is lunch just broccoli and salami? Why 1,200 calories? How tall/heavy are you? Are you exercising?

Also, you should weigh your avocado, broccoli, cauliflower etc rather than just 1/2 an avocado or 1 cup of broccoli.

mariahleann93

I’m 5’1, about 165 lbs. The 1200 is the number I got from keto calculators online in order to lose 1lb a week. I will be working out 3 to 4 times a week, but that starts next week, so for this week I’ll be bumming it.

hippysprout

mariahleann93 wrote: »

I’m 5’1, about 165 lbs. The 1200 is the number I got from keto calculators online in order to lose 1lb a week. I will be working out 3 to 4 times a week, but that starts next week, so for this week I’ll be bumming it.

You don't need a "keto calculator" to determine your calorie needs. Your calories for losing weight are the same regardless of how you choose to reach your caloric deficit. The Keto choice will come in when you determine your macros to reach ketosis, but your daily calorie goal to accomplish fat loss has absolutely nothing to do with how much fat or how few carbs you consume.

So I would suggest you plug your goals into MFP and see what it recommends for a daily calorie goal and eat to that goal. I'm betting it's more than 1200/day off-hand, though I haven't crunched your numbers. Whatever you want to do with your macros while eating to that goal will not affect your fat loss.

TrishSeren wrote: »

Also, you should weigh your avocado, broccoli, cauliflower etc rather than just 1/2 an avocado or 1 cup of broccoli.

Also this ^ or we'll probably see you in two weeks in another thread titled "why isn't this working for me?"

TrishSeren

mariahleann93 wrote: »

I’m 5’1, about 165 lbs. The 1200 is the number I got from keto calculators online in order to lose 1lb a week. I will be working out 3 to 4 times a week, but that starts next week, so for this week I’ll be bumming it.

Oh yep, so quite short I'm 5'4 so I only get 1,360 but I exercise 4-5 days a week and eat back my calories so I tend to eat more like 1,400 - 1,500 a day.

Don't be afraid to eat back exercise calories. If you're throwing exercise into the mix you'll likely be hungrier than usual. I've been eating back nearly all of mine and still losing consistently.

nvmomketo

I think it looks fine for that calorie level. If you are working out you might find that you are able to add back in a couple of hundred calories (depending on what you burn).

You might want to consider a bit more protein and perhaps a bit less fat (if it works for you). 72g of protein is fine but more won't hurt, and is often helpful to those exercising and in preserving lean mass while losing. I only mention it because you added butter and oil to your meals and some people new to keto think they need to hit a certain percentage of fat in order to do keto "right", which is not true unless you have a medical need for very high ketones. If it feels like you are forcing fat in lieu of protein, I would go with the protein.

And don't forget to increase your sodium to about 2 teaspoons of salt a day to avoid electrolyte imbalance symptoms like headaches, fatigue and flu like symptoms.

Good luck.