seekingdaintiness wrote: »

Hi guys I'm new here. I know a little about keto, I lost 50 pounds on it in 6 months once
I'm currently maintaining a 100 lbs overall weight loss but fora while I have been stuck getting lower. Peri seems to be the culprit and I went back to keto to break through a plateau this week and it's worked shockingly well.
I'd like to continue it but I have questions about net carbs. I always used to just track total carbs. I saw someone suggest carb counter but it looked a little difficult to use since most of my food is home made and my own recipe, so I just put it into mfp's recipe box and log it.
Are net carbs just total carbs - fiber? Should the total be 50, or less than 50? I tried searching google but came away totally confused. Should I just play it by ear?

Yes.
Now some people quibble about should it be 50 of total or net. That will be a YMMV. Carb count and ketosis can be effected by activity level and personal biology. But most people can go into ketosis at 50g total. A lot of people say 20g net carbs as a cap so that they prioritize fiber. Some just go with 20g total, to completely eliminate any chance that they are an outlier that doesn't go into ketosis at 50, or want to get into ketosis faster, or just because they want a keto trophy. (joking, people! But you know there are folk like that.) A lot of folk really discover they do well at 20g total, but some people just "run" better at 20g net, or 50g net, or 50g total. Regarding peri, I've heard a lot of folks say that they just can't lose much thanks to that hormone situation unless they keep carbs really low.

All that blah blah to say, just pick what level will work best for your for compliance sake, and then after a month or 2 you can tweak when you see how that works. Hormones and the resulting water retention can mask loss the closer you are to goal, so in my experience, getting lower is going to be annoying. And you know that, amirite? Been there! I'm pretty sure I'm in peri but I'm not currently keto though I lost almost 100lb using it. Losing weight during perimenopause or even maintaining regardless of plan: Frustrating isn't even the word!!! So mess with your carbs and watch the calories like a hawk. Peri and meno ladies closer to goal don't get the luxury of fudging the numbers at all. Which feels unfair, but it is what it is.

HTH.