What to Eat?????
Recinos0507
Posts: 28 Member
Hi, new to keto and I’m at a lost on what to eat besides just salads to keep my carb levels under 20g for the day. I can’t just eat eggs and salads all day without going insane. Please help what do you guys eat ???
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Most meats are zero carbs... Back when I wasn't doing carnivore, I used to make many things with cauliflower or cabbage. Lettuce makes great wraps! Any kind of nuts in moderation so almond flour opens up various recipes; one of my favorites is the fat head for pizza crust or to make crackers. I think that is still allowed if you aren't on some kind of induction? I can't remember the hard keto macros so I may be off on my suggestions for your individual plan. I was more concerned with getting my protein and watching my calories/carbs.2
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Do you eat meat? Lean meats are great and most are zero carbs. Tuna (I like albacore packed in water), fish, no sugar peanut butter (in moderation).1
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eggs and salads sounds vegetarian - you can find lots of keto vegetarian recipes and food lists...
Non-starchy vegetables: spinach, broccoli, mushrooms, kale, cauliflower, zucchini, and bell peppers
Healthy fats: olive oil, coconut oil, avocados, MCT oil, and avocado oil
Nuts: almonds, walnuts, cashews, macadamia nuts, pistachios, and Brazil nuts
Seeds: chia, hemp, flax, and pumpkin seeds
Nut butters: almond, peanut, pecan, and hazelnut butter
Full-fat dairy products: milk, yogurt, and cheese
Protein: eggs, tofu, tempeh, spirulina, natto, and nutritional yeast
Low-carb fruits (in moderation): berries, lemons, and limes
Herbs and seasonings: basil, paprika, pepper, turmeric, salt, oregano, rosemary, and thyme
https://dietdoctor.com/low-carb/keto/vegetarian2 -
Thank you so much for the ideas. I didn’t think milk was allowed on keto or yogurt. I think I was doing the carbs wrong. I was tracking it by total carbs and not net carbs. How do you tack it on here?0
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@MrsRecinos0507
I ran across this video today that looks super helpful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHEHjGJgSnwMrsRecinos0507 wrote: »Thank you so much for the ideas. I didn’t think milk was allowed on keto or yogurt. I think I was doing the carbs wrong. I was tracking it by total carbs and not net carbs. How do you tack it on here?
To answer that we'd need to know whether you are using the app or the website to log your food. The explanation will be a bit different.
Dr Becky also has a video on net carbs that is interesting. Doing total carbs isn't "wrong." It's just a different technique for people with different goals. To stay in ketosis, in general people need to keep their carb TOTAL to 50g or less. While it's true that fiber is not digestible, other carbs that are sometimes excluded when counting net carbs are tricky especially when we start messing with sugar alcohols. B/c with some of those, they are actually partially digested and will add carbs. So it if helps with your compliance in the beginning, if your net carbs only involve fiber, you can try doing that, but some folks find that to stay in ketosis, they need to do 50g total. Counting total carbs is definitely easier. But net carbs allow you to eat more veggies if you find that to be a sticking point between compliance and keeping your calorie deficit and failure. Or if you just like veggies, counting net carbs lets you eat more of those.
That will be a YMMV (your mileage may vary) situation for each person. 1 -
Thank you so much for the video it was super helpful. I need to look her up for more info.
I track through the app, but I only have the free version not the premium.
I’m not a big veggie fan which makes eating salads really tiring as I never really liked eating them anyways. My biggest problem is pasta and bread.0 -
MrsRecinos0507 wrote: »Thank you so much for the video it was super helpful. I need to look her up for more info.
I track through the app, but I only have the free version not the premium.
I’m not a big veggie fan which makes eating salads really tiring as I never really liked eating them anyways. My biggest problem is pasta and bread.
She has a lot of good videos. I spied one about "3 fat burning foods" and that's just nonsense. I didn't watch it and I don't need to. There are no magic foods. But most of the rest I've looked at look ok. Also don't get too hung up on "natural". Processed meats are fine. Don't let perfect be the enemy of "good enough." We're trying to get to a healthy weight here. Nobody is going to get unhealthy by occasionally eating processed foods here and there.
So, on the app. Tap Diary, either at the bottom of the screen or in the 3 lines button at the top left in the blue bar. Once there, scroll down to the Nutrition button. It lists carbs there. To the right and left of Nutrients are Calories and Macros tabs that will show you a pie-chart of your day indicating where your concentrations lie. In Macros, it gives you your Protein, Fat, and Carb splits. Which are interesting to see, but nothing to obsess over.
If you keep under your carb level, and make sure you get good protein, then your Macros will fall in on their own. Chasing after some fat macro # is unhelpful and pointless unless you are doing medically therapeutic keto. Or you aren't losing weight, in which case decreasing fat a little bit helps get calories down. Some people will go on about "don't get too much protein!!!" If you are eating a yummy keto diet, that's almost impossible and worrying about too little protein is more important than too much. If you are hitting your calorie targets, you aren't eating too much protein anyway.
HTH.1 -
FWIW, here is my diary for yesterday. I keep net carbs under 20 and protein over 120. I more or less try to keep fat under 100 just to manage calories, but that one varies a little.
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Hi, thank you for telling me where I can find my macros at. So making sure you stay under your carbs and eating your protein everything else will fall into place. That is great to know.
So heavy whipping cream in your eggs? Is that just for flavor or something thing? I never had it before in my eggs just have always had my eggs scrambled with nothing added.
have you seen that keto bread from nature’s own. Is that okay to eat? Or even some of those frozen keto waffles? I’ve seen them but wasn’t sure about it.0 -
MrsRecinos0507 wrote: »Thank you so much for the video it was super helpful. I need to look her up for more info.
I track through the app, but I only have the free version not the premium.
I’m not a big veggie fan which makes eating salads really tiring as I never really liked eating them anyways. My biggest problem is pasta and bread.
Sounds like you are able to eat meats, so go nuts on them.
In my own case, I try to keep things simple and basically cut my carbs to as close to zero as possible so generally between 20-40g.
I literally dont track anything else, but essentially I eat lots of protein and fat.
So all meats (and not the lean meats most times), fish, sausages, streaky bacon, whole milk, sweeteners in my sugar.
And eggs OMG I eat over 20 fried eggs in a week!
I guess you could sayvI intermittent fast because Id ususlly just do breakfast and supper, and a little after supper snack.
Ill usually do one low sugar cookie daily in the evening with tea, and often have some almond pancakes with butter and sugar free maple syrup one every week or two.
I find it's nice to have the sugar free low carb, carb like things as a treat every now and then to keep it sustainable!
I also exercise 4 or 5 hours a week which I helps keep me in keto and deal with any excess carbs hanging around.
Been 6 month on the keto journey and lost about 17kg (37 lbs) and looking to lose 5 more kilos but not in any hurry!1 -
MrsRecinos0507 wrote: »Hi, thank you for telling me where I can find my macros at. So making sure you stay under your carbs and eating your protein everything else will fall into place. That is great to know.
So heavy whipping cream in your eggs? Is that just for flavor or something thing? I never had it before in my eggs just have always had my eggs scrambled with nothing added.
have you seen that keto bread from nature’s own. Is that okay to eat? Or even some of those frozen keto waffles? I’ve seen them but wasn’t sure about it.
I put heavy whipping cream in my morning coffee. I can believe it would be good with scrambled eggs.
For the most part, I avoid the keto prepared products. I can't speak to the commercial waffles/bread. My wife has made keto "mug bread" before, and I thought it was pretty good toasted with some butter.1 -
Hi, thank you for the advice I really appreciate it. But I am wondering now if I workout and i may have had too many carbs that day would working out still keep me in ketosis?0
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MrsRecinos0507 wrote: »Hi, thank you for the advice I really appreciate it. But I am wondering now if I workout and i may have had too many carbs that day would working out still keep me in ketosis?
Maybe - I have never checked for ketosis. I am confident I am there. Energy levels feel pretty good when I go for a hike or something, but I still keep the net carbs under 20.
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MrsRecinos0507 wrote: »Hi, thank you for the advice I really appreciate it. But I am wondering now if I workout and i may have had too many carbs that day would working out still keep me in ketosis?
The answer is "it depends." How much is too many? Exercise burns glucose (carbs) but I'm certain there is a threshold that is too much a spike for even exercise to handle. And to find out that specific number for you you'd have to test blood or breath ketones. But exercise will burn some of those carbs to get you back into ketosis faster for sure.
In general keeping your carbs at or below 50g will get you into and keep you in ketosis. Too many carbs will switch you over to glucose burning instead of ketones temporarily until they are burned off. And what happens if carbs kick you out? That's personal. Fatigue, bloat, stomach upset, cravings coming back? And for many going back in gives you another round of "keto flu" (electrolyte imbalance, so you need to watch that salt and magnesium.)
So the short answer is, I wouldn't depend on exercise to save you from the repercussions of carb blowouts. Exercise is great for health and exercise and will burn off some carbs, but I wouldn't count on it to keep you from going out of ketosis if you have too many carbs.2 -
Question I had 2 Slim Jim’s and it said my carbs are 3g, but the box says for 1 it would be 1g for carbs. Which one do you follow? Or would you just say no carbs really because it’s meat?
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Carbs are frequently rounded down. It's possible that each one is like 1.4g of carbs. Per stick they call it 1g. But, 4 sticks would be 5.6g which rounds up to 6g. So, in this case, I would definitely go with the 3g number and not the 2g number.
But, if a single gram is breaking your day, you probably have other stuff going on. If you're eating enough of these that it's more than plus or minus a single gram, you're probably eating too much crap and processed foods.
Edit: I should say that almost all values on nutritional labels are rounded (up, down, whatever) and there is also a large amount of error allowed on the values. When in doubt, use the less beneficial version for you. When it comes to carbs, assume they rounded down because you would prefer to think you're eating more than you really are than the other way around.1 -
I just log it in the MFP diary and take the numbers it gives me.1
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Carbs are frequently rounded down. It's possible that each one is like 1.4g of carbs. Per stick they call it 1g. But, 4 sticks would be 5.6g which rounds up to 6g. So, in this case, I would definitely go with the 3g number and not the 2g number.
But, if a single gram is breaking your day, you probably have other stuff going on. If you're eating enough of these that it's more than plus or minus a single gram, you're probably eating too much crap and processed foods.
Edit: I should say that almost all values on nutritional labels are rounded (up, down, whatever) and there is also a large amount of error allowed on the values. When in doubt, use the less beneficial version for you. When it comes to carbs, assume they rounded down because you would prefer to think you're eating more than you really are than the other way around.
This.
And always count the carbs. Cuz if you do your 50g in other things and then have 6g of carbs (which is sugar) in something like Slim Jims, then you are over. And it can make the difference on staying in ketosis or not. Now if you aren't fussed not staying in ketosis, reg ol' low-carb is just fine. But whether it's in meat or veg or starch, carbs count for keto, especially if they aren't fiber carbs.
This isn't to say you can't eat Slim Jims. This is where FIT_Goat and I might part ways just a tad. It's really hard to get deli meat and hot dogs with 0 carbs. Of course, try to pick the lowest carb options. They do exist. And occasional Slim Jims aren't going to kill you, but the added sugars in these things do count and add up. So I guess what I'm saying is as I might have said upthread, "don't let perfect be the enemy of good enough." Sometimes we have to grab something like deli meat. Sometimes, like earlier in the pandemic, I know we had meat shortages locally and it was hard to find reg meat for a little while. Oh the frozen sludge patties that might have once been meat!
That's fine. But Goat is right that if you constantly find yourself in the dilemma of despairing over meat carbs, you might need to make different choices. Real reg chicken thighs and ground beef are zero carbs.
My sermon is over.
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Hey, I'm not saying don't eat them. I'm saying if you're eating enough that the rounded 0.4g of carbs are a problem then you need to make better food choices. That's a lot of processed meat to make 0.4g add up to a significant amount.1
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Thank you, for the advice it didn’t make me go over my carb for the day. But I also didn’t think about all the sugar it does have in it.0
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Hey, I'm not saying don't eat them. I'm saying if you're eating enough that the rounded 0.4g of carbs are a problem then you need to make better food choices. That's a lot of processed meat to make 0.4g add up to a significant amount.
Ok. Sorry. I did say "might". I was just filling in between the lines where I thought a newbie might get confused. There's enough new things to learn, and the lady's videos I posted earlier tend to lean a bit toward "anti-processed foods," and I didn't want OP getting lost in the weeds (unless she's gotten her feet under her and feels like going off into them apurpose) from that other subject beating her over the head in videos, so I was mainly reiterating that point.
Didn't mean to put words in your mouth. 0
