I'm not saying to do it, but one reason to consider adding butter/fat to your eggs despite increased calories is increased satiety. That's one of the reasons low carb works.

Well, as far as eggs, let's say I was debating between 2 eggs and a pat of butter or three egg. I think 3 eggs would be more satisfying, but adding the butter increases the fat % for the meal. So which is better. Maybe I'm really wondering if fat calories count? Can dietary fat be converted o body fat if you maintain ketosis?

There are a lot of varieties of low carb diets. It might help to understand what you follow.

For me, I follow keto. The basics of keto are that you want your body to be in ketosis. There are recommended macro guidelines of 65-30-5 (fat%-protein%-carb%). For me, I've found better weight loss at higher fat levels of 75-20-5. For me, 75% is the MINIMUM level of fat i try for each day. To achieve 75-20-5, I need to have 2 grams of fat for every 1 gram of protein. (In the absense of carbs, excess protein can convert to glucose in the body; this can be as detrimental to ketosis as actually eating carbs). After a few weeks of eating like this many people struggle to eat their calorie targets because they just aren't hungry.

Every meal, I try to make sure I have fat in it. I was at a friends wedding last night where they had a meat carving station (god bless them!). Not a lot of fat though. So yes, I put butter on that meat.

To answer your question for the eggs. 3 eggs have macros of 62-33-5, with 18 g of protein and 15 g of fat (210 cal I think). The fat levels are too low at this level. I'd add both a tbsp of butter (or bacon grease) to cook the eggs in, and a tbsp of heavy cream. Now those eggs are at 81-16-3; with 27 g of fat, and 12 g of protein. Calories are 302. Higher fat good.

I don't tend to focus on the calories so much. (Obviously, within reason). One research I read identified that obese people on a balanced diet could maintain weight on 2000 calories, but those same obese people would consistently lose eating very high fat diet (like 90%) with 2600 calories. The rules change. As a newbie, you want to eat until satiated - and when you are hungry, higher fat will do that most effectively. These days, I do bulletproof coffee in the morning, which is 98% fat with 300 calories. I never feel hungry in the morning when I have that.

After eating like this for a few weeks, many people struggle to eat their calorie targets because they are satiated. Don't stress it early on.

Good luck!

If you're doing low carb, you have to do high fat. Just like the flip side is low fat, high carb. If you drastically reduce one macro, another one has to go up. Since the general consensus is that you should be eating .8-1g of protein per pound of lbm, no matter the diet, the only macro left to replace the calories lost from removing the carbs is fat.

Do not fear the fat!

Just get it from good sources like animal sources (butter, cream, meat), olive oil, coconut oil, avocado, nuts, etc..

About dietary fat being stored as body fat. Your body stores dietary fat as body fat in the presence of insulin. Insulin has two primary functions in the human body. The first is to enable fat storage. The second is to tell your brain you have enough carbs and fat and it's okay to stop eating. So, basically, when you eat carbs, your body produces insulin so that your fat intake gets stored and your carbs are converted to glucose and used as energy first. If you are in ketosis, you're insulin levels are so low that dietary fat is not being stored as body fat. Dietary fat CANNOT be stored as body fat without the presence of insulin. When your body is in a state of nutritional ketosis, the excess dietary fat is flushed out of your body as waste. You test for the presence of this waste (ketones) in your urine to see if you are in ketosis.

Also, if you are eating a high fat, low carb diet and losing weight, then clearly you are not storing dietary fat as body fat, otherwise you would not be losing weight. :happy:

Hopefully that makes sense?

Ideally a low carb diet is roughly 60/30/10 or thereabouts as far as Fat/Protein/Carb intake goes. Those numbers vary from person to person, nutrition plan to plan, fitness regime, etc. Figure out what works for you, but fat should be over half your food intake, not protein.

My understanding is that if your protein is higher than what your body can metabolize and your dietary fat is lower than the energy your body requires, then your body starts converting the protein to glucose, glucose causes insulin production, which causes .... dietary fat to be stored for use later.

Although I haven't done tons of research on the topic, this is my understanding of what is leading to your plateau.

oh, and finally .... heck yeah cream is better than milk! I really don't like milk, actually. But I love cream and butter and cheese. Lots of fat and proteins in those things, tons of good fats, oils, heart healthy stuff going on. Enjoy to your heart's content, I say.

I didn't read through all of the previous posts but yes, cream is a good choice and you can dilute with water or unsweetened almond milk if you want to cut down some calories.

If you are trying to boost fat content, try coconut oil. It is a healthy fat and is very good for you. You can fry your three eggs in about 1/2 a tsp and they will taste wonderful. I love butter but coconut oil is a healthier alternative. Eat the two eggs, if you are still hungry, eat another one!

Calories aren't as important as staying at low carb levels. No, you can't eat 3000 calories worth of meat and bacon and lose weight BUT you will find that as you cut out the carbs, your appetite decreases anyway, so lowering calories is not so much of an issue. I use mine as a "guideline" If I go over by 100 or so, no big deal (although I try not to).

Milk is chock full of carbs anyway, stick to cream. Eat less of it would be my first thought if you worry about the calories.

well, I guess I wonder.....do I need to worry about the calories?
If I could use 100% cream, is that actually better than 50% cream/50% water? I was making alfredo sauce to go over broccoli, which is what caused my original question.

Should I be loading up on fat?......maybe I'm just wondering the classic "do fat calories count" question.

I have read some stuff about insulin being needed to convert diatary fat to body fat. If I eat some carbs (the broccoli with the cream and cheese, for example), will this create some insulin, and cause some fat storage (cream is shockingly high calorie)?

I agree with the statement of seeing what works for me......I'm just trying to figure out some details and methods. Thanks!!!

Can you clarify what you are trying to follow? Atkins Induction? Keto? Targeting 100 carbs a day?

If you are following Atkins Induction or Keto, I'd tell you to eat as much fat as you want (actually - as you CAN) while sticking to your goal of less than 20 carbs per day, and don't stress calories (at least for 2 weeks).

If you are just trying to eat low carbohydrates, but are in the 100 carbs a day range (and many days it seems like you are at 100 or above) then this doesn't apply. High fat in this circumstance could be a problem, because as you point out, the carbs may drive an insulin response and therefore store excess calories as fat.