4 days in and maybe not getting enough fat?

#1

70 year old male, 6’, 227 pounds, generally good health - blood pressure under control with medication, and very mild ulcerative colitis, also under control with medication. I’m kinda surprised that I’ve been able to stay away from the carbs and sugar, but it’s not as hard as I thought it would be. This morning, after 4 days, the keytone test strip shows that my keytone levels are between small and moderate - between 15 and 40 mg/dL. I’m mainly concerned with getting rid of belly fat.

Breakfast has been two large mugs of coffee with heavy cream and 5 stevia packets, two scrambled eggs with either bacon or lots of butter, chopped green peppers, chopped mushrooms, chopped cheddar cheese, and maybe some feta cheese, too. I still feel full and maybe don’t get lunch regularly, but yesterday I had some salmon shashimi (no rice), olives, and brussel sprouts. Dinner is broccoli slaw with chopped up rotisserie chicken, the chopped green peppers, chopped mushrooms, chopped cheddar cheese, and low\no carb and sugar dressing - a different dinner was the salad with two brisket burgers. I think I’m probably not getting enough fat into my diet? This morning I added some coconut oil into the eggs, and extra bacon. What say you?

(Marianne) #2

I’d suggest ditching the ketone strips. If you eat less than 20g carbs/day (lower, if you can comfortably), you will be in ketosis. No need to laser focus on this.

That much stevia may trick your body into thinking it is ingesting sugar and cause an insulin spike, which you don’t want. Can you try splitting a half a packet of stevia between two cups of coffee, or just using one packet each?

I don’t know how big your portions of veggies are, but it looks like you may be getting too many carbs. If you are going to track anything, I’d track the carbs (vs. ketones). Again, keep these as low as possible. Maybe make your broccoli slaw with mayo (and vinegar, like a classic cole slaw). If the meat you eat is on the leaner side, supplement with some melted bacon fat - delicious. Don’t restrict calories and eat until you are comfortably satisfied. It will happen for you.

Good luck.

#3

Thanks very much for the guidance! I checked the broccoli slaw package and it shows for a 1 cup serving, 25 calories - and 5g carbs and 2g fiber and 2g sugars - 3 grams net carbs, right? And I usually eat about 2 cups, maybe a bit more - a total of 6 or 7 carbs, right?

I need more sweetener than half a packet of stevia - but I’ll give it a try.

The meats I usually eat are not low fat - shoulder pork chops, bonless rib steaks, brisket burgers.

I did have an Atkins bar after dinner - I have three kinds, and they’re either 2, or 3, or 4 net carbs - all of them are 1g sugar.

I should be well below the 20g carb threshold - what am I missing?

(Susan) #4

First, welcome to the forum!

This would cause me and others to gain weight –

did you read the ingredients on the salad dressing? I haven’t been able to find any that didn’t have any artificial sweeteners and/or vegetable oils of some sort.

Are you using an app like cronometer.com and putting in all your foods. There are so many hidden carbs in foods.

I have been doing Keto since February and have never used any strips or meters, they are not necessary for people unless they have a medical reason for needing them (such as diabetes, cancer, etc.).

I ditched all sugar in February, all artificial sweeteners in June, they make your body think it is having sugar and can mess up your insulin levels.

The key to keto is having less then 20 grams of net carbs a day, no sugar, (for many of us no artificial sweeteners), adequate protein, adequate good fats, drink enough water, get enough electrolyes (salt) and don’t count calories, and no snacking! If you can do at least 12 hours from supper to breakfast of no calories into your system to start this will really help. As time goes on, many of us find it easy to lengthen this time, but it is a good goal to start with =).

I really encourage you to track -you might be surprised how many carbs you are actually having. It is really important to stay below 20 grams =).

The advice that @gingersmommy gave you is excellent, and I agree with everything that Marianne said as well =). We all want you to succeed and are here to cheer you on, best wishes in your Keto journey!

#5

Track your days for a little while, I can’t have any idea about your fat or net carb intake but I don’t know why are you so sure you are below 20g net carbs… You wrote about broccoli and the Atkins bar, but all your vegetables, heavy cream, cheese, eggs have net carbs… Most meat has very little and coconut oil not at all but the others…
Maybe you are fine with much more than 20g net carbs but 20g is the safe limit.
Sweeteners are individual, some people say those affect their fat loss very much. To me, it’s only calories but if I overdo carbs, I inevitably eat much more calories if everything else is the same.

As you didn’t wrote and probably don’t know how much fat you consume, no one can tell if you eat enough. It’s not necessarily very important, some people works well with high protein and lower fat, especially at a lower calorie intake when they can go away without eating an insane amount of protein. You already have fat in your body, you don’t need very much fat, therefore very many calories but of course, too little is problematic. But what is too little, that’s a bit individual. But if you eat fatty protein and add lots of butter, I don’t think you eat too little fat. But without the numbers and without knowing your individual case, it’s hard to say.
Why do you think you eat too little fat? Keto strips? Those don’t matter. We all go into ketosis without any fat consumed if the carb intake is low enough. Every long time faster is in ketosis, it’s inevitable.

(Allie) #6

You’ll be surprised how quickly your taste buds adapt to reduced sweetness in things. If you really believe you NEED that much sweetness, then to be honest it is a massive red flag that is showing you that what you really need is to break that addiction.

(PSackmann) #7

You’d be surprised how enjoyable coffee can be without sweetener, although it takes a while to get used to it.

The times I buy broccoli slaw, I stir-fry it instead of making a salad with it. Very yummy! Then again, I also like wilted lettuce with bacon grease or burger drippings.

(Cancer Fighting Ketovore :)) #8

Check the “Primal Kitchen” salad dressings. Or just make your own :smiley:

(Cancer Fighting Ketovore :)) #9

I like to sautee broccoli in butter and then add some bacon & cheese and a touch of heavy cream.

(Susan) #10

We don’t have Primal Kitchen in Canada, and I have your recipe that you posted for trying later =) but I am on no dairy until November 30 so I am not making any atm =). I was referring to the dressing that Texas was using was all =) but thanks!

(Cancer Fighting Ketovore :)) #11

I probably also should have tagged Texas in the post, not just you :slight_smile:

#12

I am with the others. It might take much time but one can enjoy unsweetened coffee, it doesn’t even matter if the one in question eats sweetener in sweets every day but some determination might help. I did it gradually but I can’t stand the same sweetness as before anyway. It’s typical to find things much more sweeter after giving up sugar. Probably giving up most sweet stuff helps even more but I never tried that.
So you probably will need less and less sweetener anyway, it happened automatically and slowly in my family. Maybe do it consciously gradually.

(Rebecca ) #13

Welcome! That is a lot of Stevia. I have used the extract drops for years in my coffee…however what I have noticed over the 4.5 months I have eaten Ketogenic is, my desire for sweetness has drastically declined and I have decreased the number of drops over the months…I imagine soon I won’t want any at all!!! I feel that the right amount of daily fat and salt has made a huge difference for me. Good luck!!

#14

Thanks for the guidance - yeah, the Stevia has too many carbs, for the amount I use - so this morning was no Stevia at all. Any meat I eat has fat - I don’t enjoy the chicken breasts or pork loin - so it’s rib eye and chuck and chicken wings (baked) and stuff like that. The broccoli slaw is 3 net grams per cup, and 2g sugar per cup, so yeah, maybe I gotta cut back on that.

I checked the salad dressing I’ve been using and yeah, it also has carbs and sugar which I thought was low, but I use more than the serving size so that’s gotta go, too - I have an oil and vinegar salad dressing (1g carbs, no sugars) that I’ll switch to.

Thanks again - much appreciated - this is such a huge switch for me!

#15

Any tips for that or coffee suggestions? I really WANT to love either black or unsweetened coffee but can’t seem to pull it off. I smell the notes the bags talk about like cocoa, caramel etc, but only taste bitterness. I’ve brewed with drip, French press, different ratios, fail every time.

(PSackmann) #16

You can try a pinch of salt in each cup, that cuts the bitterness. At home I use heavy cream and coconut oil, and occasionally add cinnamon sticks to the drip basket. At work I add salt since there’s no true cream and it’s pretty bitter. You can try a slow wean, reducing the amount you use by one packet a week as you get used to it.

(Jennibc) #17

You can retrain your tastebuds. As you cut out sugar, things will taste sweeter over time. It might be uncomfortable for a week, but it’s worth it it get there.

(Allie) #18

Pinch of salt, heavy cream, maybe a dash of unsweetened vanilla…

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #19

It took me years to eliminate sugar from my coffee, so go at your own pace, and don’t worry about it. You might try putting heavy cream in your coffee; it helps moderate the bitterness (so does a touch of salt, I understand).

Under the influence of these forums I tried coffee with heavy cream in it, and while I enjoy it, I still really prefer black coffee. And to think that forty years ago, I couldn’t drink coffee at all, unless it was loaded with milk and so much sugar that there would be about an eighth of an inch of undissolved suger at the bottom of the cup when I finished drinking the liquid! I was eventually able to cut way back on the sugar, but as I mentioned, it took years from that point to eliminate the sugar entirely. Giving up milk was far easier.

So the moral of the story is that you should just proceed at your own pace and trust that you’ll get there eventually. :bacon:

#20

The coffee with heavy cream AND NO STEVIA at all was OK this morning ! That really surprised me - sure, not what I was used to (lots of sugar), but while it was different, it was OK - I think I’ll be able to get more used to it going forward.

Those having problems with no sweetner (LOL, listen to me!), maybe switch to better coffee? Some of the stuff out there is coarse and bitter - some of the dark roast and expresso blends are very strong.

Dinner last nite was some “moist” brisket (no sauce), and a sausage link.

Breakfast this morning was some nice fatty bacon, two scrambled eggs with heavy cream, chopped peppers, chopped onion (1\2 slice), seasoned feta cheese, and extra olive\avocodo oil,

I am wondering though, about why heavy cream is OK and not half and half. Looking at two containers, the half and half is 3.5 grams of fat, 1g carbohydrate, and 1g sugar for a 2 tbsp serving. Heavy cream is 5g fat, <1g carbohydrate, and <1g sugar, for about 1 tbsp serving - half the serving size, so they look to be about the same, right? Half and half ingredients have milk cream, while heavy cream has heavy cream and skim milk - any thoughts?