I am no expert - and like you have just been reading and reading all I can. I believe it's net carbs you should monitor... keeping it below 20g.

jbutler9402 wrote: »

I would love the addresses! Thank you all for your responses!

I just messaged you!

Hello new to the group here but not new to Keto. I've been doing Keto since January 2017 and I never want to go back to a SAD diet. I have done every type of Keto there is out there and what works best for me is to NOT use fat as a lever and to not eat in a deficit.

I'm 45 years old, I'm a breast cancer survivor and until the last year I've been morbidly obese my entire adult life (well since the age of 25).

When I started Keto I ate around 1300 calories, always under 20 net carbs, about 60-70 grams of protein and used fat as a lever. It worked for me for several months. Around August 2017 I noticed my energy was very low, I was HANGRY, and I was losing hair again like I was going through chemo. I just about gave up and I hired a coach. She told me to take my calories up to 1500-1800, TOTAL carbs at 20 (not net), protein around 50-80 (depending on what I did in the gym) and fat at 120-160. When I did that my energy came back, I wasn't hangry and my hair became thicker again (I've always had fine/thin hair..but no more balding spots).

I had a surgery in May 2018 for my final new breast revision and since I was recliner bound for 4 weeks I thought I'm going to lower my macros to 1300 again and see how I do. Same thing...I was so tired all the time (granted I was recovering from a pretty significant surgery), I started getting brain fog again, I was more hungry than usual and my hair started falling out again.

I was trolling on FB and FB suggests groups you might like and I found a group called "Common Sense Keto" and I joined it. The creator of the group has done keto for more than 10 years, he's an avid CrossFit athlete and keto is his passion. He used to be a coach through the group that I used for my coaching as well. Anyway... he suggests to figure out your TDEE and eat at Maintenance NOT in a deficit. At first I thought he was crazy but I thought he was 300-ish pounds and he's now ripped and has been eating this way for a decade. So I started eating to his way of keto and I've never felt better in my life!!! I'm eating 1987 calories a day, 20 total carbs as a max, 53 total proteins as a max, and fat at 188. He suggest that 20 carbs and 53 proteins are a "lever" and fat is not.

Since starting "Common Sense Keto" way of eating I've never had more energy in my keto career and in my life honestly, my hair is becoming thicker than it ever has been, my skin looks incredible, and my performance in the gym is very good. For being out of the gym for 6 weeks with my surgery recovery I'm getting back to where I was post-op faster than expected.

So my suggestion and experience that I would tell anyone to start out with is go the Common Sense Keto way. You won't lose weight super fast but you will lose weight, you won't do any more harm to your metabolism that hasn't already been done, you'll actually heal your metabolism. Your body will thank you and reward you. This way of keto will also make it sustainable for the long term. Also from others in the FB group that are new to this way of keto that start out this way seem to experience less keto flu symptoms.

Here's a blog that Coach Jack wrote on how to figure your macros:

http://commonsenseketogenics.com/what-is-tdee-how-to-figure-it-out-and-what-is-the-point/

Here's a blog that he wrote about calories in/calories out:

http://commonsenseketogenics.com/2017/12/

Hope that helps and let me know if you have any questions

KristinLeeD wrote: »

jbutler9402 wrote: »

I have been researching the keto diet and have been trying to follow it this past week. Honestly, there is so much info online that I'm not really sure what to follow. Does anyone know of a reliable macro calculator to figure what your goal numbers should be? Is it total carbs or net carbs that we are counting?

I subscribe to the thinking that working strictly from percentages can make it difficult to lose weight because in order to lose, there must still be a calorie deficit each day and you can have your percentages perfectly in line, but have a calorie count that is way too high. Because of that, I stick to macro numbers (grams) rather than percentages. Mine are 100/68/20 (P/F/C) based on my height, etc. I do a lower fat version of keto based on the principle that if you have fat to lose, you want your body to burn the fat from your body rather than from your plate. When high fat keto stopped working for me, this was the change that made the difference. Protein is a goal, Fat and Carbs are limits.

I like the macro calculators through Ketogains and also mindyourmacros.co

I recently found three facebook groups that have reliable keto information backed by science and I deleted all the others from my feed because they were generating so much information that is not sound when it comes to science, health and nutrition. (I also wasn't looking to buy anything other than food, so I hated all the 'selling')
I have every resource I need from those three groups so I needed to get rid of all of the other 'voices'! Let me know if you want me to give you the addresses.