Am I fat adapted? 2.5 months in

(LeeAnn Brooks) #21

Are you eating enough during meals?

#22

@Anniegirl9 maybe not. I probably eat 500-600 kcal/meal breakfast, lunch and dinner but I might try to eat more and fever meals and not snack. Sometimes I just want a piece of cheese and coffee with cream for breakfast and I feel satisfied, but then I get hungry again within 2-3 hours.
I’m curious if I can eat 2000 kcal/day divided into two meals and lose weight? It seems like all the keto weight loss people on Instagram eat about 1200 kcal/day. I have a really hard time doing that, maybe because I’m not fat adapted?

(Running from stupidity) #23

Lots of the supposed “keto” people on IG are so full of shit I’m surprised they lose any weight at all.

(TJ Borden) #24

That’s a good sign you need to eat more at meals

(TJ Borden) #25

We don’t know that they do. Just like when body builders that happen to be naturally thin try to pretend they know the secret to weight loss… because they’re thin.

(LeeAnn Brooks) #26

Yeah, 1200 calories is fat too low for probably 98% of the adult population. I would highly advise NOT trying this unless you want to screw up your metabolism.

#27

@Anniegirl9 I like your answer :slight_smile:
it’s hard to figure out a winning strategy for weight loss! I’m KCKO but it would be nice to lose weight soon

(Jake Liddell) #28

1200c is a calorie-restrictive way of eating. I thought the whole point of keto was eat when hungry, stop when full, and don’t count?

At least that’s how I’m doing it, and it seems to be working just fine.

#29

Where did this number come from anyway. It’s like this magic unicorn weightloss number that everyone uses.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #30

It sounds as though you aren’t eating enough. Even in the absence of carbohydrate, the body will still hang on to its excess fat as long as it thinks there is a famine going on. So the key to weight loss, paradoxically, is to give it more energy, rather than less. In terms of insulin secretion, the safest source of calories is fat, so try to add more fat to your meals. If you are getting enough calories, you’ll find yourself able to go hours between meals without needing to snack. If you do need to snack, make it a fatty one, and eat a bit more at mealtimes.

If all goes well, you will soon find yourself eating at a level that will allow your body to burn both the fat you eat and the excess in your fat tissue. You may have to overeat for a week or two first, but given normal satiety signaling, you are likely to find yourself suddenly losing interest in food at a certain point. (With me, it happened between one bite and the next, in the middle of a meal—it was weird!) That is satiety. At that point, you can let satiety be your guide to the proper amount of calories to eat.

(Running from stupidity) #31

Well, every third post from them is a before/after selfie…

(LeeAnn Brooks) #32

Not really sure why that’s so common, but I can attest to trying desperately to adhere to it myself when I was LF. Horrible time all around.

(Kema V) #33

I’ve read on many diet sites/ calorie counters that 1200 is the lowest you should go calorie wise. This always confuses me because we can’t all have the same minimum.

(TJ Borden) #34

:clap::clap::clap: absolutely correct. Plus, even the calculators that take into account: age, weight, height, gender, activity level (as though that’s a precise measurement with a few boxes to check as options), can’t really know what your needs are, or more importantly, what you’re pulling from storage.

The biggest factor, and one that NO calculator can take into account: HORMONES.

Someone on a SAD diet with insulin resistance and/or T2D can’t easily pull from stored fat because insulin is preventing it. Someone following a low to zero carb way of eating and/or is insulin sensitive can easily pull from stored fat.

I don’t know of any macro or calorie calculators that have a box to check for insulin resistance.

(Running from stupidity) #35

Yep, so straight up that tells you that they’re clueless. It’s like an early-warning system to let you know that they should be avoided.

#36

@Anniegirl9 yep, I’ve been there, low fat diet ~1200 kcal/day, lasted for a couple of months, tracked EVERYTHING I ate, lost weight and then “failed” and gained it all back and more. :frowning:

(Daisy) #37

I find all of this very interesting and need to continue exploring this forum and Keto in general. I have been a lifelong dieter/non-dieter/yo-yo/ nutrition enthusiast. Every time I try to go over 1000-1200 calories I gain weight and every calculator (from Keto to others) say I need to keep it at 1200 or less to lose weight. Have I been screwing myself over all these years? I had cut sugar out for over a year and a half and since going Keto, I’ve added back sweeteners (mostly erithritol) to detrimental effects to my sweet tooth that had completely gone away before. I’m trying to cut them back out, but have fallen back in love with cheesecake and all things sweet, thanks to not being doubled over in pain from eating sugar. None of that probably makes any sense to anyone who doesn’t know me (which is everyone here lol) but point being, I’m going to do more experiments with how my body handles food. Thanks for the info!

#38

@Ketodaisy I am on the same page as you with the sweetners. If I eat anything sweet it can trigger me into cravings and eventually a binge episode. So I have to cut everything out unless it is a special occasion.

As far as the calories go. If you have been restricting for a long period of time and start eating more your body may initially gain some weight thinking that at any time you may restrict food severely again. It holds on to as much as it can to help survive the famine. If you gradulally increase to a healthier amount of food intake it will realize it is ok to let go of the stores it has been hanging onto for dear life. It sounds weird and counterproductive to the CICO way of thinking we have been taught most of our lives. Trust that it works! Eat more food and make your body happy.

#39

I’d say no. Have you posted a sample diet of a day or two? Are you tracking what you eat with an app like cronometer? Somethings definitely not right.

#40

@lfod14 I track on and off with the Carb Manager app, usually within 15-20g net carbs per day. I think I need to do a fast and detox from the sweetners that might be messing with my insulin or brain.