Just a few questions for a newbie
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I am really enjoying Lyle MacDonald's "The Ketogenic Diet". I like how he goes into not only what ketogenic diets are, but why and how they work, without getting too crossed up in either overly technical terminology or overly simplified generalizations.0
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Welcome. This way of eating does great things for the body overall.
A few points:
Websites are too cookie cutter with their one size fits all approach and I found them to not help me outside of a few recipes here and there. I think you are right where you need to be as the folks on this keto board are great. I'd suggest scrolling through and reading the older post, it's what I did.
Keto Flu wise stock up on Powerade Zero. It helps to balance out the keto flu effects and is cheap and quick.
I wouldn't waste another penny on urine strips as I found them to be fairly useless. Keto blood meters are better for the first 2 months on Keto but are pricey. After two months you should be fat adapted if you followed the low carb requirement which is the goal and the diet will likely be more of a keto-low carb hybrid as your body makes the change to using fat for fuel.
Think of the first 10 pounds as water weight leaving the body. It's nice to see on a bathroom scale but more than half of that can come back at any point for a while if the body retains fluids for it's needs especially if you workout. That tends to depress folks.
On the topic of bathroom home scales, they are a piece of junk and do more damage long term. If you have access to Fit3D type scans I'd suggest those once a month. In Orlando where I live it's like 5 bucks a month for the membership. It's easy to say woohoo I lost 20 pounds but if 19 of it is lean mass that is horrible for your body. You want to lose fat fat and more fat while retaining or building you lean mass.
Protein: Do not listen to any of the noise. Your body needs this. Hit this macro every day or even pass it or you risk your lean mass plus protein does a great job of limiting hunger. The goal in the first two months is really to restrict Carbs not protein. Fat can be adjusted and you shouldn't be trying to hit that macro every day but rather to stay at or under it.
@qweck3 As for the advice about protein intake, doesn't that defeat the purpose of the diet? Keto is always described as a "high fat, moderate protein" diet...?1 -
@chrisjthomas721 Your body needs protein to protect your lean mass. You really have to tinker with the %'s until you find the perfect spot for you. My perfect spot was 10% carb/45% fat/45% protein.3
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chrisjthomas721 wrote: »Welcome. This way of eating does great things for the body overall.
A few points:
Websites are too cookie cutter with their one size fits all approach and I found them to not help me outside of a few recipes here and there. I think you are right where you need to be as the folks on this keto board are great. I'd suggest scrolling through and reading the older post, it's what I did.
Keto Flu wise stock up on Powerade Zero. It helps to balance out the keto flu effects and is cheap and quick.
I wouldn't waste another penny on urine strips as I found them to be fairly useless. Keto blood meters are better for the first 2 months on Keto but are pricey. After two months you should be fat adapted if you followed the low carb requirement which is the goal and the diet will likely be more of a keto-low carb hybrid as your body makes the change to using fat for fuel.
Think of the first 10 pounds as water weight leaving the body. It's nice to see on a bathroom scale but more than half of that can come back at any point for a while if the body retains fluids for it's needs especially if you workout. That tends to depress folks.
On the topic of bathroom home scales, they are a piece of junk and do more damage long term. If you have access to Fit3D type scans I'd suggest those once a month. In Orlando where I live it's like 5 bucks a month for the membership. It's easy to say woohoo I lost 20 pounds but if 19 of it is lean mass that is horrible for your body. You want to lose fat fat and more fat while retaining or building you lean mass.
Protein: Do not listen to any of the noise. Your body needs this. Hit this macro every day or even pass it or you risk your lean mass plus protein does a great job of limiting hunger. The goal in the first two months is really to restrict Carbs not protein. Fat can be adjusted and you shouldn't be trying to hit that macro every day but rather to stay at or under it.
@qweck3 As for the advice about protein intake, doesn't that defeat the purpose of the diet? Keto is always described as a "high fat, moderate protein" diet...?
Just because we're saying "enough protein" doesn't mean "low-fat." Neither does it mean "high protein." It's not a magic ratio of protein to fat that makes keto-folk in ketosis. It's the lack of carbs. The original ketogenic diet was developed to treat neurological conditions. The ratio of fat to protein was very heavy on the fat side and strict in order to create certain conditions in the body. It was often 80-90%. Keto for athletics and weight loss or maintenance doesn't need to have fat so high. With too little protein, which your body can NOT make, it will cannibalize your lean muscle if you do not eat enough. Weight loss also includes a loss of lean muscle as part of the process. To preserve muscle, we eat adequate protein. At least those of us who are veterans mostly do. I never got my fat higher than 70%. It mostly rode around 63% with protein 27%. I was able to preserve my muscle. I was in prime position to begin building some muscle and recomping during maintenance.
Keto can provide benefits but we also need to look at the overall picture of our health, which includes our lean muscle condition. There IS a happy zone where we can have both high fat (which is anything over 50% IMO) and adequate protein. The body only synthesizes glucose from protein at a fixed rate, as far as the current studies show, and that's only about 3g even for a large portion, which is then most likely gobbled up immediately by our brains. Because they are whiny turds that still actually need some glucose. Wimps.
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I have a question too! When counting carbs, do you count the carbs of vegetables too?? ALSO what kind of salty snacks do you guys eat? I’m a huge chip lover anddd it’s been a struggle.0
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alyssadawnxo wrote: »I have a question too! When counting carbs, do you count the carbs of vegetables too?? ALSO what kind of salty snacks do you guys eat? I’m a huge chip lover anddd it’s been a struggle.
Yes. A carb is a carb.
Some veggies are lower in carbs, but many people if given unlimited veggies would end up above their carb goals. KWIM?
I've used porkrinds for a snack. I also love veggies with a tasty sourcream dip. I love salty nuts as a snack but I can overeat that VERY easily. Lately my snacks are usually leftovers, cheese or pepperoni.1 -
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I just discovered Cheese Whisps and Parmesan Crisps. I will never need a potato chip again!!2
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alyssadawnxo wrote: »I have a question too! When counting carbs, do you count the carbs of vegetables too?? ALSO what kind of salty snacks do you guys eat? I’m a huge chip lover anddd it’s been a struggle.
Quest protein chips are pretty dang good. Good snack size. I've made my own pepperoni and cheese chips before. There are recipes to do cheese chips on a baking sheet/jelly pan at home using piles of shredded cheese.2 -
CentaurusSoter wrote: »There are recipes to do cheese chips on a baking sheet/jelly pan at home using piles of shredded cheese.
OMG! Never thought of making them for myself. What a fabulous idea. DUH!1 -
CentaurusSoter wrote: »There are recipes to do cheese chips on a baking sheet/jelly pan at home using piles of shredded cheese.
OMG! Never thought of making them for myself. What a fabulous idea. DUH!
Yeah there are so many recipes for alternates out there. I generally avoid the ones that call for a lot of alternate flours, as my carb issue isn't solved by slightly lower carb items. But for others, it works fine.
https://www.ditchthecarbs.com/keto-cheese-crackers/
Decent recipe, 1g net per cracker it appears. That's NOT 1.6g total per 15 crackers. I bet there's a better recipe out there that's more cheese and less flour-y. Shredded cheese piles with a mix of cream cheese and an egg seems good enough for me. Maybe find a dough recipe, then just use a bottle cap or similar size and cut out circles from the dough, like you'd do when making biscuits or doughnut holes.
Hope these ideas help
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Hi! I seem to be having a harder time meeting my daily "fat intake" goals. Any suggestions, tips and/or advice?0
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GDowning2Fit wrote: »Hi! I seem to be having a harder time meeting my daily "fat intake" goals. Any suggestions, tips and/or advice?
Carbs and Fat are a limit, protein is your goal. That's what I read and it really made sense. I try and hit my protein numbers, and then do a fat bomb if I am actually hungry and in need of some fat outside of my main meals.
I could be totally wrong, as I've been winging it on keto since July. But it's working pretty well so far with exercise.
I lost a ton of my weight while planning my day in my 20% deficit to all my macros, where I would drink the fatbombs if I wasn't hungry to make sure I got enough fat. I'm not sure if the "too much protein, not enough fat" kicks you from ketosis, and it certainly may be true, but I find that I don't normally need 30-40g more of fat after I hit my current goals.
As for things that you can do to increase fat: My fatbomb is lazy. It's 1tbsp butter, 1-2tbsp coconut oil, 200ml almond milk (1 cup is 240ml), and I melt the butter and coconut oil, then pour it into the milk, and drink. It's not pleasant, but it sure does work when I need fuel and I am hungry. Most of the time I need to do this, I have some coffee with it. In the mornings for a while I was doing this with my 150ml of my muscle milk, as it sweetened the bland coffee.
Heavy cream, avocados, half and half. They're all good sources of fat. You could try making a avocado smoothie?
Anywho, I bet there are people here that can correct any misinformation I may have inadvertantly given. But this is what has worked for me, and I'm doing pretty well. Almost to 70lbs down today, and that's with my heavy carb test in early november, and then thanksgiving, basically making that month a long term test of recovery without any major loss (6-8lbs total loss for november, so not bad).1
