First day gone by of attempting keto.
Damienriven
Posts: 53 Member
Hello wanted to add keto to my life since I already do IF and wanted to make it more effective. However I don’t have much experience in the protocol. I think today I took in too much protein and carbs and not enough fat, any tips for a beginner? 
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Replies
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I didn't start at 5% carbs (it takes a bit to get your food choices and stock up with the right things to not just blow that every day, or at least it has for me). Lots of different opinions on what constitutes the carb max...some folks say it's 20-25g *net carbs, others say it's less than 50g total carbs, etc..etc..
It has taken me a couple of weeks to really look at recipes of items that I can use and implement into an eating routine... for instance I now have a spring mix salad with olives, avocado, cucumber, tomatoes with every meal, coupled with some avocado ranch dressing...just having that is 20g total carbs, 32g fat, 4g protein, 7g fiber (bringing the carb count down to 13g *net)...I can obviously adjust down those carbs in that salad by omitting the tomatoes or cucumber etc.. if I need to based on what I'm having for my dinner.
My current macros are 10%/70%/20% until I get it dialed in well and have a good stock of food choices that I have no problem maintaining, then I'll look at lowering
I'm still experimenting with what I like vs. what I don't...of course bacon/eggs are awesome in any form, and since I only eat two meals a day sometimes I've been making a pretty large omelet with bacon/eggs/spinach/full fat mozarella in the morning when I get up and bringing into my work, where I break my fast usually between 12-1pm...
It appears that you are well organized with your tracking and attention to detail on what you are doing, I say don't make big changes to your thought process, give it some time, and then start testing to make sure you have reached your goal of being in ketosis.1 -
There’s no way 72g of protein is too much. You probably need quite a bit more of it actually. I’m a 5’4” woman and I wouldn’t eat less than 100g myself.
The fat and carbs look totally fine to me.
When you increase the protein, you’ll no doubt get a little more fat too anyway.3 -
Also. Be careful with those Atkins products. They aren’t as low carb as they are labeled because some of those sweeteners do count.
They are really more of a low carb candy than a meal. I would treat them as such.4 -
15% protein is pretty low with your low calorie levels if you are active in any way.
What is your current weight and activity level?
You may want to look into an RMR test to get some baseline numbers of what your true calorie needs are and work from there.0 -
Also... sorry. I keep thinking of other things to note.
I just realized what you’re showing appears to be your only meal of the day. Is that right?
That’s a bad plan. Calories are to low and your nutrient density is really really low. You cannot sustain a healthy body eating so little and having such a huge nutrient deficit.
You would really serve your body better replacing those bars and MCT oil with some beef. Being nutrient deficient isn’t a good way to lose weight and will not lead to long term health.
I don’t know if you’re male or female or how tall you are but at my height I would eat around 1300 calories during weight loss. Also the idea of intermittent fasting is that you can eat around your maintenance calories during your eating window then don’t eat again for however long you’re doing it. If it’s a shorter fasting time, maybe like 12-16 hours, you can probably have some calorie restriction. But if you’re doing one meal a day, generally the idea is to eat a whole days food or at least until you’re well satisfied for sure. But limiting food volume really makes the quality of the food matter more than ever. The Atkins products are novelty foods. They can help you feel like you can still have a candy bar or treat. They are not a good food replacement.4 -
Sunny_Bunny_ wrote: »Also... sorry. I keep thinking of other things to note.
I just realized what you’re showing appears to be your only meal of the day. Is that right?
That’s a bad plan. Calories are to low and your nutrient density is really really low. You cannot sustain a healthy body eating so little and having such a huge nutrient deficit.
You would really serve your body better replacing those bars and MCT oil with some beef. Being nutrient deficient isn’t a good way to lose weight and will not lead to long term health.
I don’t know if you’re male or female or how tall you are but at my height I would eat around 1300 calories during weight loss. Also the idea of intermittent fasting is that you can eat around your maintenance calories during your eating window then don’t eat again for however long you’re doing it. If it’s a shorter fasting time, maybe like 12-16 hours, you can probably have some calorie restriction. But if you’re doing one meal a day, generally the idea is to eat a whole days food or at least until you’re well satisfied for sure. But limiting food volume really makes the quality of the food matter more than ever. The Atkins products are novelty foods. They can help you feel like you can still have a candy bar or treat. They are not a good food replacement.
20/4 minimum each day down from 48 hour fasts and also take a lot of supllements to help on what nutrients I may be missing out on. I’m only drastically cutting back on calories for two reasons and that is to see how my body reacts and to discipline myself until my next pt test so I don’t trigger myself to overeat. Back on 1600 a day I would convince myself I can do 2000 instead and then that became 3000 etc. I’m only planning on doing the 1100 for 50 days. I listen to my body and honestly feel great.
I wanted to weave myself off of the carbs so I bought the Atkins and now regret it. I did some research into malitol which was one of the sweeteners I didn’t have much knowledge on as the others and saw that it is basically sugar in how it reacts blood sugar wise. I’m not going to eat the brownies anymore but going to at least finish that small box of peanuts I got.. lol1 -
I set it as 15 because I thought that was what keto was at the time I set it up. Honestly I still don’t really know the ideal macros to have still. It seems like I can get it to 70 25 5 though with little effort. Anything higher in fat I’m going to have to mess around to find out how I can do that. Obviously cut out the Atkins crap which I plan on doing and replace it.15% protein is pretty low with your low calorie levels if you are active in any way.
What is your current weight and activity level?
You may want to look into an RMR test to get some baseline numbers of what your true calorie needs are and work from there.
Also 224.2 lbs yesterday now 217.8 due to water weight. 6’2 and I run 2 miles-4 miles depending on the day, every day.1 -
Sunny_Bunny_ wrote: »There’s no way 72g of protein is too much. You probably need quite a bit more of it actually. I’m a 5’4” woman and I wouldn’t eat less than 100g myself.
The fat and carbs look totally fine to me.
When you increase the protein, you’ll no doubt get a little more fat too anyway.
This is what I was going to say. 72g is not a lot. Its actually on the low side. You could go higher.
Try not to worry about getting "enough" fat. If you are trying to lose weight, you have your own fat stores you can dip into.
You just dont want to dip into your protein stores, aka muscle. 3 -
You are burning through a lot of fuel running 2-4 miles a day for your height/weight. You need more protein and calories but you have to determine what you want to do. Listen to your body but it may be yelling at you soon. Last thing you want is the body to freak out and start tearing down muscle to survive.1
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You’re 6’2” and running 2 to 4 miles a day.
I really have to say that I think trying to restrict to 1100 calories is a terrible idea. And you should be eating around 120g of protein a day minimum.
It’s difficult to regain lost muscle.3 -
I agree that your calories and protein are low. I also agree to beware the Atkins bars, as Malitol does spike blood sugar in most people.
Have you used a keto macro calculator?
Give it a Google.
The calculator will take gender, height, weight, activity level and desired goal into account and then give you a pretty good idea what you should be eating. I highly suspect it will be more
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River_Goddess wrote: »I agree that your calories and protein are low. I also agree to beware the Atkins bars, as Malitol does spike blood sugar in most people.
Have you used a keto macro calculator?
Give it a Google.
The calculator will take gender, height, weight, activity level and desired goal into account and then give you a pretty good idea what you should be eating. I highly suspect it will be more
Checked it out, suggested for me 1300 calories and 126g of protein. I'm going to spend tonight looking into ways to get that much protein within that amount of calories while maintaining the fats.1 -
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Damienriven wrote: »Checked it out, suggested for me 1300 calories and 126g of protein. I'm going to spend tonight looking into ways to get that much protein within that amount of calories while maintaining the fats.
Yup I get this dilemma! I totally struggle with protein too. I was vegetarian for 13 years before keto and I find I just can't eat enough protein in the form of food.
I now make a keto shake each morning:
1 c unsweetened almond milk (0 net carbs)
1-2 scoops Kaha New Zealand Vanilla Whey Protein Powder (0 carbs)
1 scoop Love Good Fats chocolate shake powder (4 net carbs, but nice boost of flavour and fat)
This has been a game changer for me in terms of hitting my macros
It's caloric, a meal for sure... but the whey has 31 grams of protein, and the chocolate has 8 I think? So I get 39 to 70 g protein depending on if I use one scoop or two.
And it's yummy!! 3 -
River_Goddess wrote: »Damienriven wrote: »Checked it out, suggested for me 1300 calories and 126g of protein. I'm going to spend tonight looking into ways to get that much protein within that amount of calories while maintaining the fats.
Yup I get this dilemma! I totally struggle with protein too. I was vegetarian for 13 years before keto and I find I just can't eat enough protein in the form of food.
I now make a keto shake each morning:
1 c unsweetened almond milk (0 net carbs)
1-2 scoops Kaha New Zealand Vanilla Whey Protein Powder (0 carbs)
1 scoop Love Good Fats chocolate shake powder (4 net carbs, but nice boost of flavour and fat)
This has been a game changer for me in terms of hitting my macros
It's caloric, a meal for sure... but the whey has 31 grams of protein, and the chocolate has 8 I think? So I get 39 to 70 g protein depending on if I use one scoop or two.
And it's yummy!!
I use protein powder too. I dont eat mant lean meats , so it's a nice 15-30g protein boost. It helps. 0 -
I have been keto since October 2016. During that time, I have kept net carbs under 20, but I have played with the protein and fat macros to find the happy place for me. I am in this for the long haul, and so it needs to be easy for me and satisfying. I settled on a gram of protein for every pound of lean body weight as my goal, and this works well for me. I am 6' 3", male, late 50's and reasonably active, but I don't work out or run or anything.
I would try more protein.1 -
I love RiverGoddess recipe for keto shake. I will probabaly look up similar recipes for when I dont have cooked or ready meat protein and am in hurry, or sick, or... IS there a thread already where people share their keto friendly protein powder brands and/or "shake powder"? Dont want to cover old ground if this has been discussed, but would love a list of what you people use that is keto friendly so i can look it up on amazon and see what works best for me. Please share or direct me to a thread or website. Thanks!0
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I like Sun Warrior chocolate with milk (hot or cold), it tastes good, and is high protein and low carb but not specifically labeled for keto.1
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Lot's of good advice from folks here. I'll reiterate some.
-Get rid of the Atkins fake sweetener crap. They will not only keep you wanting sweets, but artificial sweeteners/alcohols can affect your blood sugar/insulin too. Don't believe all the marketing b.s. they spew out to sell their products. And yes not good nutes anyway's.
-There is no "set" number of carb macro you "have" to go by to get into nutritional ketosis. 20 grams/day is a very basic guideline but it varies from person to person depending on factors with the individual metabolism, organ function etc.. You will have to find out the number of grams of carbs per day YOUR body has to be under in order for you to be in full ketosis every day burning your fat reserves. The ONLY way to do this and to know for 100% certainty that you are in ketosis is by testing your blood ketones with a monitor. Urine strips are no good. Read up on this stuff. They are very affected by water consumption, amount of time you pee a day etc, etc.. Blood ketones don't lie. I honestly don't know how a lot of people do this WOE without consistently testing their blood ketones. They are just guessing that they are in ketosis by the macro's they are eating. It doesn't work that way. You can "hope" you are getting in ketosis by eating macro ratio's you read about on the internet but you won't be actually "knowing" for sure you are in ketosis. Being in ketosis full time is a whole knew way of life. Your body will function differently, you will feel and act differently because of it. Personally I know some folks that have to be consistantly under 30 grams per day, others that need to be under 15 grams per day and some that need to be under 10 grams per day to get into and stay fully in ketosis. Goes to show how this varies from person to person. And this is from a control group doing so under doctors supervision.
-Yes protein. You need to try to consume at least .7 gram per lb of body weight per day to ensure your body doesn't consume muscle for energy. Read up on all the studies but that's just a basic guideline. Depending on how much you burn a day, your work out regimes etc, whether you want to gain muscle or maintain muscle (lean mass) etc.. Personally I have lost tons of fat, got to the point I wanted to be at and gained quite a lot of lean mass and maintained it. This is all possible with a proper plan, lifestyle, finding out what works for your metabolism, and dedication. I love my unsweetened, unflavored protein powder. I look forward to it every day. You can bake/cook with it as well if you're so inclined. Again, watch out for artificially or naturally sweetened protein powders. They can be counter productive. I don't mess around anymore with any artificial or naturally sweetened foods. ZERO for me. When you are involved with a control group to see what affects blood sugar/ketone levels in your body and you first hand see the affects of any kind of sweetener whether it be alcohols, artificial's, naturals, etc. let me tell you it is very very eye opening. Things you read on the internet are very often untrue, distorted, or lobbied by special interest groups. Get yourself a blood ketone monitor to find these things out for yourself. Often folks need to see things happen to themselves to truly see what's going on with their own bodies.
-MCT oil's etc... They have their place sure but don't get too caught up on all the hype. Try to get your nutrients (macros) from good whole, un processed foods.
-Fat macro. Yes keep your fat's up but if you have lot's of fat to lose don't get hung up on consuming massive amounts of fat per day. If you have a blood ketone monitor and you know you are in full nutritional ketosis every day your body will thrive on and continue to burn your stored fat. I have been doing this for quite awhile now and I h have experimented with every kind of macro combination imaginable to see where I stay in full ketosis every single day and while I have fat on my body I can stay in full ketosis even when my fat and protein macro consumption are even in macro % as long as my carbs stay low enough to keep me there. You need to find out what works best for YOUR metabolism. Other numbers are guidelines.. you need to fine tune those to YOU.
-Get a full physical from your doctor before and during your fat loss. Full blood and urine screening. Make sure first there isn't things going on with your metabolism, organs etc that can affect the way your metabolism is running. It's again the only way you will see with 100% certainty that things you are doing are beneficial to your health.
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