keto diet?

cdryba
cdryba Posts: 2 Member
in Getting Started
I'm back to fitness pal. Same amount to lose as before. Trying Keto this time. Any advice on what to eat to get fat, protein and carbs in ?? Esp having trouble with percentages.

Replies

  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    edited May 2019
    cdryba wrote: »
    I'm back to fitness pal. Same amount to lose as before. Trying Keto this time. Any advice on what to eat to get fat, protein and carbs in ?? Esp having trouble with percentages.

    Welcome back :smile:

    I don't do keto, but I believe generally the most important part is keeping your carbs low, some people are below 50g to as low as under 20g. Protein you want to get at least 0.6-0.8g per lb of your goal body weight for any diet, and then you fill in the rest with mostly fat or some more protein.

    Here is a link to the Low Carbers group, I believe they have some Getting Started info for both Low Carb and Keto.

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/394-low-carber-daily-forum

    :drinker:
  • Smaya29
    Smaya29 Posts: 106 Member
    Welcome back. You can get protein from eggs, chicken, fish and other meats. I use a protein shake 2-3 times a week too.
    I get fats from butter, coconut oil, mayonnaise, coconut milk, and almond milk. I'm thinking about buying MCT oil too this week.
    Greek yogurt (2%-5%) is a good source of protein and fat. It also gives you carbs but you have to watch out the quantity you are taking. I take less than 25g of carbs a day. How many you prefer is up to you and you can calculate and incorporate them accordingly. Just make sure you are taking high fat, moderate protein and less than 50g of carbs. Good luck 👍
  • ccrdragon
    ccrdragon Posts: 3,374 Member
    Smaya29 wrote: »
    Welcome back. You can get protein from eggs, chicken, fish and other meats. I use a protein shake 2-3 times a week too.
    I get fats from butter, coconut oil, mayonnaise, coconut milk, and almond milk. I'm thinking about buying MCT oil too this week.
    Greek yogurt (2%-5%) is a good source of protein and fat. It also gives you carbs but you have to watch out the quantity you are taking. I take less than 25g of carbs a day. How many you prefer is up to you and you can calculate and incorporate them accordingly. Just make sure you are taking high fat, moderate protein and less than 50g of carbs. Good luck 👍

    All good advice except the high fat part. If you are actively trying to lose weight, keto actually works better if you do low carbs (less than 30 net for most people), moderate/high protein and moderate fat. You want your body to use it's fat stores for energy as opposed to the fat that you eat, so you really don't need to add lots of fat to your diet. As long as you keep the carbs low enough, you will achieve ketosis.

    One other thing you need to do is to increase the amount of salt that you eat every day - I have seen recommendations as high as 5000 mg per day. If you do this from the start, you will also avoid the dreaded 'keto flu' (which really is an electrolyte imbalance and not the flu).
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    edited May 2019
    You don't have to set your macros up by percentage you can do them by grams.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    edited May 2019
    cdryba wrote: »
    Any advice on what to eat to get fat, protein and carbs in ?? Esp having trouble with percentages.

    I tried keto as an experiment and read a bunch about it. What made sense to me was the following:

    (a) figure out your calories for the desired loss (mine are 1600, for example)

    (b) figure out your protein (.8g/lb of a healthy goal weight is a good goal for muscle maintenance and won't interfere with ketosis). That makes mine 96. So my protein goal is 96x4/1600 or 24% (I will round up to 25%).

    (c) figure out your carbs. One option is 5-10% of maintenance calories (my maintenance at current activity level would be about 2100, so about 26-52 g (net). OR (and I prefer this approach), under 50 g net will typically be ketosis for a reasonably active person, so I aimed for 60-65 g total, and assumed at least 20, and more likely 25-30 g fiber, which is well under what is needed. That actually works out to be 15% of my 1600.

    (d) make the rest fat -- that means 100-(15+25)=60, so 60% fat (or about 107 g).

    When logging aim to stay UNDER carbs, to HIT protein, and eat fat to satiety (but do not consistently stay well below calories, and beware for some people it can be easy to accidentally way undereat on keto).

    As for what to eat, I started with a vegetable and feta omelet at breakfast with half an avocado on the side (similar to my pre-keto breakfast). Lunch was normally a salad with protein on it, and usually some olives and nuts or seeds. Homemade vinaigrette dressing. Dinner would be fish or other meat with lots of vegetables, and what else, if anything would depend on how my macros were looking.

    I never did any special keto treats or recipes, found it preferable with my normal foods but without the starches and fruit and other higher carb items).

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