1500 calories, meeting macros and getting started

(Marianne) #1

Hi everyone, I’m new here and stalled with just getting started. I have been playing around with easy daily meal plans (ideally, I can scramble two eggs, bacon and add half an avacado), but I don’t want to cook a lot or make elaborate meals. Finding it hard to meet the macros values (calories, protein, fat, net carbs). Plus, what do you put on your salads? Dressings are so high in calories, even the better ones. Two Tbs. of dressing is nothing (to me). My salads used to swim in it. Sorry; don’t mean to be a debbie downer, but I am feeling stymied by all of this (guess I am looking to do it “perfectly”). Thx.

#2

I wouldn’t worry about calories. Just try to get dressings with low carb counts, and preferably with no vegetable oils (just do the best you can), otherwise don’t worry about the calories. Keto isn’t a calorie-controlled diet, it’s a hormone-controlled one, controlling insulin secretion by eating high fat foods.

(Door Girl) #3

Hi Marianne,
I’m not sure why you are worrying so much about calories. Worry about getting good food in front of you and let your body tell you when you are full.
I’ve found that the lusciously fatty dressings are incredibly helpful for me to get in a good and easy meal. Some good greens, some great full fat dressing, and a reasonable serving of normal protein (that my non-keto family can and will eat too) makes for a great meal.
Are you trying to do all of the complex keto recipes, or are you starting with some of your basic cooking skills? Even if those skills are getting ingredients ready to eat from the store, you can take a reasonable serving of protein, add some greens that aren’t carb-dense, and add in some fatty taste-makers like sauces or dressings.
And don’t aim for perfect. Aim for good, and then keep tweaking to make it work better for you. Good meals that you eat regularly are better than 2 perfect keto meals a week and the rest back in the normal way of eating.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #4

The ketogenic diet is a low-insulin diet, which we achieve by limiting carbohydrate. People’s carb tolerances vary, but keeping carbohydrate under 20 g/day is a good place to start. Once insulin goes down, the body has access to its stored fat again.

That said, even on a low-carb diet, cutting calories too low makes the body think there’s a famine and it needs to hang onto fat as a reserve. We get around this by eating to satiety, which ensures that the body gets enough calories, without eating too much.

So eat when you’re hungry, stop eating when you stop being hungry, and don’t eat again until you’re hungry again, regardless of what the clock is telling you. That should do it!

(Marianne) #5

Thanks, doorgirl. Just have to get out of my own way, I guess. I tracked some sample meals/days to see what kind of things would make my values (protein, fat, net carbs) and I wasn’t hitting the mark. Didn’t have trouble staying under the carbs, but seemed to have more trouble getting enough protein and fat (when I was also looking at calories). I was counting calories because that was in my keto calculator and because I want to lose weight.

(Marianne) #6

Thank you!

(Marianne) #7

Thank you. Good thing is I do like to read labels.

(Door Girl) #8

It is great to track some sample meals. It helps to understand how everything goes together. I’m doing this to lose weight and improve health as well. I’m one of those unicorn women who loses weight relatively well on this, but I also don’t have much history of restrictive dieting.

The formula I’m seeing is determine carbs by a limit on net carbs (I stay below 20g, sometimes well below), figure out target protein based on lean body mass or target body mass, and then based on those numbers figure out the fat aspiration. I say aspiration, because you eat the fat to satiety.

Early on, you will probably need to add more fat than you will later as your body gets fat adapted. I’ve been resistant to carbs for quite some time (9 years gluten free b/c of digestive issues and migraines, and I don’t like to substitute GF for standard so I just avoid), and I’m not afraid of fat. So I’m one of those weirdos who teetered on the edge of fat adapted and not. For me its a valley instead of a peak for most normal people.

Anyway, start off with lots of dressings or sauces to eat along with your food and let your body tell you when you need to have less of those extra fats. Your body has to trust that you will provide it adequate nourishment, or else it will cling to all of its emergency fat stored in your body. Biochemically, your body needs to get the signals that it will get what it needs. Even if it isn’t on the same schedule as we have been trained to eat.

If you are metabolically healthy, it seems that you will probably be satisfied relatively quickly with less added fat than you might calculate. If you need metabolic healing, it seems that people need to stay in that higher fat range longer. Either way is fine! You need to eat to your own needs.

Once your body trusts it will be fed with fats, it will be happy to eat your fat stores. And the weight will probably come off. Depends in part on how much you have to lose, if you need to heal your metabolism, etc. Don’t forget to track measurements, you may see more of a change in body composition from putting on muscle while eating your own fat than you see on the scale.

(Marianne) #9

Makes total sense to me. I just finished reading Simply Keto by Suzanne Ryan and she said she tracks diligently, so got stalled with that somewhat. Will keep you posted. How long have you been doing keto?

(Door Girl) #10

I’ve been doing official Keto since January 4th, but my WOE had me teetering on the edge of keto off and on over 2 or 3 years. (I rarely added the slow carbs I was supposed to have.)

My brother religiously drinks bulletproof coffee and aims for macros at each meal, but he has a really hard time getting into and staying in ketosis.

I’m an analyst by trade, so I did a deep, deep dive into the science and thinking behind keto as I was getting started. Read Art & Science of Low Carb by Volek and Phinney, read a bunch on their company sites, lots of 2KD, and Jason Fung. Plus dove into the Krebs Cycle and all of the science behind it. I was amazed at the impact on mitochondria, and it all clicked for me as my mitochondria weren’t happy and that was likely why I literally felt like I had a completely drained battery at times. The science says that you need to support mitochondria, close gaps in your intestines, and a couple other things.

But when you look at how it all works, it really boils down to simple things. Get enough sleep. Reduce stress. Give you body enough protein to do its work but don’t overload it. Keep your insulin response low. Make sure you are getting your micronutrients - this is what drives my carb consumption through diverse greens. And to get your body burning fat instead of carbs, make sure that you have enough that your body can transition to the correct metabolic pathways. Which comes back down to the simple advice we started with. :smiley: The amount of carbs people can eat while still being able to burn fat varies, so that will be a personal number.

I’ve lost about 15 pounds since the start of the year, and my clothes are fitting like they did another 10 pounds lighter in the past. After the first “big” reaction, my loss has averaged to be pretty linear around 2 pounds a week. It varies of course, but I use a smart scale and graph the data so I don’t panic on changes but do watch to see how what I do and eat impacts the numbers. I give it at least 3 days averaged to see the impact of any choices.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #11

You can find ways to limit your efforts but I am afraid that cooking is just something that you need to do with keto. You can’t depend on pre made convenient frozen or canned foods or restaurants eating the keto way. Fresh real foods are a requirement. Make salad dressing, 5-10 minutes to make a bottle that you know has real food in it, quality oils in particular and no added carbs or sugar. Fresh steamed vegetables, and simply cooked proteins are easy and don’t take much time. Make a stew or casserole that you can get a few meals out of. Cook a large batch of something you like and freeze leftover single sized portions. Cooking and preparing food is a reality of life. Our cultures dependence of fast foods, restaurants, pre prepared frozen and packaged food is what is killing our culinarily traditions and health. Honestly most people have no idea how to cook, they can’t be bothered with learning one of life’s basic survival skills. It kills me. :confused:

Don’t take this as a criticism of you since I don’t know you even, but a call to everyone to treat yourselves well. :cowboy_hat_face::heart:

(Cindy) #12

You need to do you…not Suzanne Ryan or anyone else. :wink: I don’t track anything except carbs. I don’t weigh or measure my food, I don’t even weigh or measure me, except to judge by my clothes.

It’s especially important in the beginning that you don’t weigh. Just look through the dozens of “I’m not losing” threads and you’ll see how frustrating and worrisome it can be. But it’s important to realize that, despite the hype, keto is NOT a “lose weight quick” diet. It’s meant to be a healthy, sustainable way of living and eating that will, eventually, help you to shed pounds. But you first have to get past the years of dieting mentality, calorie restriction, low fat dogma, etc habits that you might have.

So you have to find the way that it’ll work for you. For me, I don’t want to count macros and use apps to track what I eat. Yes, in the beginning, I checked labels a lot to make sure foods didn’t have carbs in them and I still keep a pseudo-tally of the carbs I’ve eaten for the day, but even that’s not extremely precise because I don’t think eating and living life is a precise activity.

It’s also important that you listen to your hunger signals. If you’re really hungry one day, EAT! But if you’re living your life according to an app, you’ll have trouble doing that. In the reverse, if you’re NOT hungry, DON’T eat…but if you’re trying to hit target macros, then you’ll try to make yourself eat, which isn’t good. So you have to find a way to be enjoying this whole process, listen to your body (but ignore it’s carb cravings), and let it be a journey.

(Marianne) #13

Very interesting. I, too, enjoy the science behind how our bodies work and respond to different ways. At 60 (2/13), I have come to know and like myself pretty well and am looking to take better care of me physically now and embrace a healthier way. Good for you on your weight loss; that is a wonderful bonus and feels good. The first goal I am looking forward to meeting is to lose five pounds so that my jeans will be comfortable in the waist again. Little victories.

(Marianne) #14

Thanks, Dave. I hear you and appreciate your input. Information is a wonderful thing - as are forums. I am a sponge right now and am learning a lot. Can’t wait to report how things are going - which I look forward to.

#15

I’ve not done this because usually I sauté my salad in butter or duck fat. But if I wanted to make a dressing, I might make an avocado oil mayonnaise (or just purchase the Primal Kitchen one, or even one of their flavored ones) and thin it out and season it up. Voila! Keto dressing that you can heap on.

I’ve been enjoying mayo as a dip for pork skins. One dip, I just mixed the mayo with a kalamata tapenade. The other, I just use the Primal kitchen chipotle lime mayo. So yum and so keto.

Edited to say that it’s not about the calories in your dressing. It’s about the amount of carbs. You want low or no carbs. And if you make it fatty enough, you will not be able to overeat it (thus taking care of any worry about too many calories). The homemade mayo or PK mayo is no carb.

(Keto butts drive me nuts) #16

I’m pretty sure since we are all different (deranged metabolisms) that there is no perfect way of doing this. As for calories, this thought must go away and worry about nothing but staying clear of the nasty carbs. Eating high fat to satiety is what you should be focusing in on. Keeping calm when I low carb

#17

Hi and welcome,

I understand it can be frustrating, calculate this, measure that, research everything - but the good news is - it does boil down to some very simple meal preparations.

The big key by far is to avoid sugar, bread, rice and pasta. Keep the carbs below 20g

The calories on those salad dressings are no concern to me whatsoever, but I would be very concerned about any hidden sugar in them.

So I simply have some sort of meat/fish/chicken with veggies. With butter on top. Or salad with virgin olive oil.

Throw in plenty of salt (it is essential for keto). Drink plenty of water.

Coffee with cream.

Pretty easy. I do track everything with one or two apps because nailing the 20g carbs is by far the most important thing. Once you get into ketosis you will burn your own stored fat and your appetite will automatically go down, so don’t worry about the 1500 cals, focus on the 20g carbs.

(Marianne) #18

Hi Alex,
I am not having a problem keeping my carbs usually below 12. Regarding the dressings, you mentioned about sugar. One of the dressings I use has one net carb for 2 Tbs. Isn’t that okay if my daily carb values are low?

#19

Hi, 1g net in this case seems quite okay.

I was saying avoid augar in general (which is all but impossible, it finds itts way into almost everything).

And 12g carbs also seems fine