KETO: Trouble/confusion about saturated fats.

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Debusaurus
Debusaurus Posts: 9 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
My husband encouraged me to try a ketogenic diet with him a few weeks ago, so I was preparing myself by slowly reducing carbs/sugars, making better grocery choices and so on.. I started a very strict diet on the first of this month (10/01/2014) where I am aiming to eat 70% fat / 20% protein / 10% carb, and 1500 calories per day. I am trying to avoid sugars entirely unless from vegetable sources, so I've allotted myself 25g sugar max. I'm also avoiding grains because of the carbs.

1500 calories per day is not exactly intentional.. I just have trouble meeting that limit, even before I started this diet. Putting this info into MFP along with my other preferences gives me guidelines of:

117g fat
75g protein
38g carbs (max, preferably 20)
25g sugar (max, preferably 0)
2300mg sodium

I'm having a lot of trouble eating more fat than protein. If you take a look at my food diary, you will see where I am struggling to cram fats into my diet any way I can without eating much meat (I do not like it). I only really eat tilapia as my protein source, I very much like pepperoni but there's too much sodium for my liking, I'm willing to eat eggs but I'm watching my cholesterol pretty closely.. I like crispy bacon but never eat it because I can't tell if it's good for me or not..

So far, in these 5 days, my saturated fat intake has been 40g, give or take, each day and that concerns me. Isn't that a bit much, especially considering the restricted calories in my diet?

Is there a way to get fat into my diet more easily without worrying about saturated fats? I have a number of coconut products in my house I'm going to try out, but a small amount can put me over my carb limit easily.

I'm having no trouble adhering to my diet.. but I want to do it for the sake of losing weight AND getting healthy. I don't feel like eating tons of cheese and cream is going to cut it..

This will take a lot of trial and error for me, whom is not so well versed in food.

Anything you can offer me would help. Thank you.

Replies

  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
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    Tilapia is a poor choice if your goals are 70% fat / 20% protein / 10% carb, you need an oilier fish or half the portion of tilapia and add a load of cream / butter / olive oil dressing or whatever to it.

    Saturated fat is no longer beleived to be a problem, especially as part of a restricted carbohydrate diet. Ditto sodium - if you have normal blood pressure sodium isn't an issue, in fact you usually have to increase sodium intake on keto to counter the diuretic effect of carb restriction.

    Eggs and full fat cheese have somewhere near the right fat:protein ratio, as does 20% fat beef mince, mackerel is 61% fat / 39% protein by calories (tilapia is 16 / 84 ie the wrong way round).
  • Debusaurus
    Debusaurus Posts: 9 Member
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    I started low dose blood pressure medication two years ago (switching three times to find one I was comfortable with) but I believe that in time, the changes to my diet going keto will help reverse the need for that. My numbers without medicine are, at max, about 140/90 and that's mostly from anxieties.

    Lately my BP has been reading no higher than 126/74, with lows being like 111/66

    I was told to cut down on sodium and to include more "good cholesterols", because my doctor noticed my HDL was lowering slightly and my LDL raising.

    These are the results of my last Lipid Panel, July 29th 2014

    Cholesterol, Total 135 mg/dL
    Triglycerides 60 mg/dL
    HDL Cholesterol 41 mg/dL
    VLDL Cholesterol Calc 12 mg/dL
    LDL Cholesterol Calc 82 mg/dL
    LDL/HDL Ratio 2.0 ratio units

    Before starting keto, most of my intake came from carbs (and the fats in the processed carby foods) and I ate about the same amount of protein as my keto requires, but was limiting my healthy fats as a suggestion previously to cut down on cheese and I found that actually adversely affected my health..

    So, in a nutshell, this is a pretty drastic diet change for me, but I'm very serious about it and I don't want to end up diabetic as my doctor keeps warning.. even though the diet she prescribed me was low fat, high carb!
  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
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    I don't know much about the keto diet, and the board as a whole is usually against being so restrictive because for a lot of people it doesn't work long term. If you have no problems sticking with this diet for the rest of your life, then it will work for you, but do know that is isn't required for weightloss or being "healthy" (whatever that means). There are several keto-specific groups that you can search for in the group section. I'd start there for the best advice on types of foods that would work for you.
  • Debusaurus
    Debusaurus Posts: 9 Member
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    Thank you both so far!

    For me, being healthy is about making more educated choices and finding creative alternatives to eating more nutritious foods without having to take shortcuts in eating. I am someone who walks into a grocery store, grabs microwave dinners and protein bars/shakes so that I don't have to cook and has trouble eating proper amounts of food when not paying attention.

    My husband is similar sometimes, in that rather than waiting for me or our housemate to cook, he goes for poptarts and has a sweet tooth otherwise, eating piles of oatmeal cream pies some days just because he can stomach it. ^^;

    I just know there has to be a better way, and my body hasn't been taking my prior eating habits well.

    I've tried a number of different diet changes over the years because my father is very big on nutritional health and fitness, but never have I used a low-carb, moderate protein theory and I'm seeing some really convincing results so far! That has got to be the most motivational aspect for me. My energy level is solid and my weight is dropping steady.

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