Please see @sunny_bunny_ 's last post in this thread! It does a good job of explaining the keto motto, one of them at least, of "Your body is already HF so all you need is LC". Maybe you are eating too many calories? It would be a good idea to enter your info into a macro/TDEE calculator of some sort to get a jump off point for caloric intake relevant to your goals. When I started, only 4 weeks ago, I was eating at maintenance level which felt like a ton of fat. Now that I'm dropping cals to a deficit level it doesn't feel like such a daunting task. I'm actually eating fat to satiety and not just chasing a number.

Well, I just learned something new! I had never heard the term umami and had to look it up!!

@KnitOrMiss I LOVE your question of what sorts of foods you gravitate towards when stressed. That's such an important thing to figure out, and it's worth having at least the ingredients to make them around so you can whip something up when needed.

My experience is that I can eat about 400 kcal more on a ketogenic diet than I can on a standard "balanced" diet, and lose the same amount of weight. I'd guess the actual number would widely vary based on a person's hormones, efficiency of fat metabolism, etc. But obviously, calories are still important, and if your appetite isn't self-regulating so that you're losing weight without counting calories, it's probably worth paying more attention to them. Play around with it a little - if you're not losing weight where you're at, subtract maybe 250 kcal and see what that does. Also, as you get leaner you're going to have less fat to rely on and should probably use a smaller deficit.

It's just trial and error: eating 1900 kcal and not losing for a while? Eat 1500 kcal. Hungry all the time on 1500? Try 1700. And so on.

@CurvyMeli - Remember, in the beginning, you need additional calories. You are essentially performing a FULL SYSTEM OVERHAUL. All muscle mitochondria must be "re-wired" to be able to burn ketones for fuel instead of glucose...as well as other systems, your digestion must switch around, kicking up bile production and all of that... That is typically the main reason that folks suggest you don't worry as much about calories in the beginning. The body is still SCREAMING for carbs, because that's what it has used for fuel for ages. It doesn't know any better. So as long as you aren't eating when you aren't hungry or getting physically uncomfortable from too much, food, I'd listen to your body.

I firmly recommend NOT drinking immediately before eating (30 minutes + before might be okay, depending on your individual gut). Drinking before, during, or immediately after eating dilutes your stomach acid or causes it to float. Both of these things disrupt the digestive process and can trigger various levels of digestive discomfort and acid reflux (which is NOT treated by reducing acid using medications - but rather by increasing the RIGHT acids to allow the body to stop overproducing the WRONG acids...), etc.

The digestive process is delicate enough that for anyone with metabolic syndrome in any form (if you've ever gained weight unexpectedly or disproportionately to intake, kept on excess weight more than 3-6 months, or struggled to lose weight, you have some form of metabolic syndrome, regardless of formal diagnosis). Immunity, mental health hormone, and nutrient conversions all stem from the gut, and the gut needs a balance of bile acids and digestive enzymes to properly digest and process all the food you intake.

Generally appetite tapers once your system is converting and you enter fat adaption. This is usually somewhere between 4-12 weeks, depending on your body. And remember that the more health issues you have (known or unknown), the body continues to need more calories to repair itself, and it will and needs to fully repair before it can lose weight without overtaxing your systems. Choose to see this as a good thing.

I don't know what a salt flush is, but if you take more than, what is it, a full tsp(amounts may vary by person) of salt at a time, you create and "auto-dumping" response from the body/bowels to get rid of it. That works no matter what program you follow. Your BASE sodium requirement is generally higher with keto, as your body regularly dumps sodium to keep electrolytes in balance. So you may need more sodium for your base level before your "salt flush" will kick in, but since I don't know what a salt flush is, I personally don't know of any medically sourced need for this to happen.

Generally, keeping your carbs low as a limit, protein as a range based on activity, and fats to satiety is the way to go. Most people use the 20 grams as an "induction" to get fully into ketosis and to become fat adapted, but after that point, many find that their individual levels can vary from 20-50 grams of carbs to maintain nutritional ketosis (NK). You can look up Chris Kressler and Dave Asprey and Jimmy Moore or others for recommendations of how to find your own personal carb threshold. Remember, too, that types of carbs matter. I can eat 50 grams of carbs worth of broccoli and stay in NK, but 10-15 grams of grains, and I might be out...or more than 20 grams at a single meal, and I might be knocked out. However, the benefits I gain from being fat adapted far outweigh the ones I gained from struggling to maintain NK.

I don't have the premium version, but there is a script you can install ON THE DESKTOP VERSION that will show carbs, fiber, and net carbs. Remember, too, that labels in the UK (and other countries, too, sometimes) generally already show net carbs. Sugar alcohols should generally only subtract half, if any, as most still affect us somewhat. I don't know about using premium on the app at all.

If there is a dessert around, you can pretty much guarantee I'm going to eat most if not all of it. I had to limit even low carb desserts to holidays and birthdays only.
If you want to eat a big steak, just skip all the butter on the veggies. Then you can eat more food without so many calories.