Calories on keto, help

(Keto Koala 🐨) #1

Hi guys, I ate 2000 calories today. Even though I ate small meals, all the fat added up. I want to lose a lot of weight. Should I cut down? 2000 seems like a lot. I only had 7 grams of carbs.

(squirrel-kissing paper tamer) #2

At this point, Aimee, no do not restrict calories. You’re asking your body to make a change from glucose to fat burning. Feed it. Some people naturally feel their appetite drop off after the first week or so, this may happen. But also, if your body is sending hunger signals then eat. Just keep the carbs low.

Give this a go for a couple of weeks before you make any changes. It can take more than a month to become fat adapted.

(Keto Koala 🐨) #3

Thank you I feel better now. :heart:

#4

I agree with @PetaMarie, at least I did that and lost nothing but constant hunger would have been much worse. For me, fat adaptation brought the changes regarding hunger and satiation that many people experience way earlier in ketosis.
Keto is challenging enough first, no need to struggle with other things on top of that. It’s often different in the very beginning of a new woe, our body gets confused, their signs are different… Focus on keto first if fat-loss isn’t extremely important for your health and life (if someone must lose a lot for an operation in order to avoid almost certain near death, that’s a different situation, normally we should be a bit more patient, I think).
It may be useful to make observation about your macros and whatnot but it’s easily off in the beginning and you can expect changes. Don’t worry about this right now.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #5

This is most important and good thing you did for yourself today! Keep it up (er, I should say down :slightly_smiling_face:).

Fat and protein are your friends and will help determine how much you eat overall. If you keep the carbs down consistently, you will probably eat less simply because if you’re not actually burning 2000 calories per day, you won’t be hungry. Just let it happen. Also, avoid ‘seed oils’. They’re also part of the problem.

My personal experience for what it’s worth (which may not be much): I eat 2800 calories per day of which 2300+ is fat, mostly saturated fats. I eat <15 grams of carbs per day, and frequently <10 grams. I have to work at it to avoid losing weight. I’m 74, 6’0" and weigh 145 pounds.

(Keto Koala 🐨) #6

On average, how many calories did you consume while you were losing weight? I was very thin 3 years ago but in the last 2 years, I gained a LOT. I’m only 5ft 3 so weight shows very easy on me.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #7

It sounds like you ate just fine, I think 2000 is a healthy amount for women. But really I don’t believe in counting calories. Limit your carbs under 20g net and feed yourself till satiety occurs. Your appetite will curb itself when you become fat adapted in about 6-12 weeks usually. You will find hunger tapers off when your body starts to easily access body fat as fuel. Until then it’s super important to eat well and not to force food restriction. That’s not how KETO works. The idea is to ramp up your metabolism now by giving it extra fuel. You can maximize metabolic function this way and your body will waste excess ketones from a ketogenic diet. When carbs stay low insulin is lower and fat and protein are not easily stored in the body the same way as carbohydrates. Calories are not just calories because carbs, protein and fat all have their own metabolic pathways. Burning sugars and starches (carbs) you easily gain weight storing excess as fat. It’s much safer eating proteins and fat where weight gains are a concern. Best of luck on your journey to better health. :cowboy_hat_face:

(Full Metal KETO AF) #8
(Keto Koala 🐨) #9

Your a bloody lifesaver. Omg. Those videos, were AMAZING. I’m going to send them to my calorie obsessed Mum. Now I feel better about eating calories. Before this video I was only gonna consume 750 calories today. Your msg and video snapped me out of it. Thank you SO much. God bless you :ok_hand::slightly_smiling_face:

(Full Metal KETO AF) #10

Your very welcome Aimee, it’s a mistake so many make starting out coming from calorie restriction diets. That’s what’s so great about KETO is you don’t need to go hungry. If you had done the 750 kcals you would lose weight initially from under eating and slowed your metabolism till you bottom out ravenous. That’s why people almost always regain the weight restricting and starving until you body makes you eat until you regain the weight, the horror of carbohydrate based diets. I went from 205 to 144 lbs without going hungry in 13 months. Of course everyone is different. I have been at a stable weight for a few months now. I stopped tracking everything including carbs because I know my food and understand how to eat and keep the weight off. If I did gain a few pounds and wanted to get back I know how to do that now. You will achieve this as well if you stick with this as a way of eating when you get where you want to be.

You made me really happy just now. :cowboy_hat_face:

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #11

I’m going to presume this was directed to me. I did not start keto primarily to lose weight but rather to gain health benefits. But, I thought why not lose those 20-25 excess pounds at the same time. I knew next to nothing about anything. I guessed that my DREE was about 1800-2000 calories so I decided to start eating 1500 calories per day. Yes, calorie deficit!

I did not feel hungry at all and very soon started losing about 1-2 pounds per week. After about 2-3 months (and 25 pounds) I decided it was time to stop losing and stabilize the weight. So I upped my daily calorie intake a couple hundred per day. Still lost. Upped my daily calories another couple hundred per day. Still lost weight. Repeated for a couple of months until I finally got to 2500 calories per day. At that point the weight loss stopped at 150 pounds. I had lost a total of 35 pounds.

So really, I had started with a 1000 calorie per day deficit, lost about 35 pounds, yet felt no hunger the whole time. I think the key thing here is I felt no hunger. The big concern about weight/fat loss is not to slow your overall metabolism in the process. Available energy is the sum of what you eat plus stored body fat. If you reduce what you eat, but replace it with stored fat, you are OK. If you push it too far and feel hungry, and especially if you feel hungry all the time (ie CICO diets) your metabolism is faced with an energy deficit. It has only two ways to respond: slow you down by making you too tired to do as much (ie reduce your DREE); or, reduce it’s overall energy requirement (ie reduce your BMR/RMR). In the meantime, it reminds you that you’re in a serious energy deficit by sending hunger signals non stop.

It’s OK to feel hungry before a scheduled meal. That’s just the signal that it’s time to eat. It’s not OK to feel hungry before, after meals and all day long. That’s a danger signal. Do not ignore it.

Ketone levels and weight loss
(Keto Koala 🐨) #12

Wow, your an inspiration :ok_hand::ok_hand::ok_hand:. Thabks to you and the YouTube vids you posted, I am about to have a big dinner. Before I read your support, I had a tiny tin of tuna and a coffee with two teaspoons of heavy cream for breakfast, two boiled eggs with a tiny handful of lettuce for lunch. It only came to about 450 calories all up. Now I can relax more. I have found that today (It’s day 6) that I’m just not very hungry. I still eat but I notice that I no longer need to snack. Is that a good sign?? Thank you SO much for your support.:slightly_smiling_face:

(Keto Koala 🐨) #13

Thank you. Luckily I woke up today ( It’s day 6) and I’m not hungry at all. Only just before meals. I no longer need to snack. I have more energy and feel less stodgy. :slightly_smiling_face:

(squirrel-kissing paper tamer) #14

Sounds like it’s going well Aimee. If you want to keep that energy, eat when your body is hungry. You don’t have to intentionally make “tiny” servings as long as the carb count is low. You can eat three cans of tuna if you want to. The point is to give your body sustenance but the kind that encourages fat for fuel, not glucose.

Yesterday for lunch I had a blob of tuna salad (celery/mayo), cheese and hard salami, 1/2 cup yogurt with chia seeds in one sitting. Another was 4 eggs and bacon, both leaving me satisfied and not hungry anymore. Like, at all.

(Keto Koala 🐨) #15

Wow, your allowed salami?? I love salami but I’m scared incase I get the wrong one and there’s hidden sugars in it out something. In my supermarket, I can never find a nutrition guide on the back of meat.

(Marianne) #16

I don’t count calories (and never did on keto). I trusted what I read here about how it worked and just ate clean food, to satiety. I ate three good meals a day (even though I never had before), and in the beginning, I usually met or exceeded my fat and protein macros a day until I learned the general values of the foods I commonly ate.

For probably 8 months now, we (my husband and I) usually eat one meal a day, or a meal with a supplemental “snack” if I am hungry (hard boiled egg, bacon, cheese, pepperoni chunk) in a 20:4 window. Our (my husband and I) meal usually consists of a good sized piece of meat with added bacon fat (yum!), steamed veggie in butter (and bacon grease), and/or a heavy salad with home made keto dressing. Two-three times a week, I will also have a bowl of “keto” soup (heavy cream, butter, cheese, spices/seasonings) - “normal” people can’t do that. So delicious!

After I took my starting weight (highest it had ever been), I only weighed every 2-3 weeks. I detest the scale! It is horrible. Now, I only get weighed when I go to the doctor’s (3-4x a year). That is one of the best things I have ever done for myself (it’s not for everyone, though).

Best to you!

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #17

One thing that irks me about the USDA Nutrition Database is probably exactly what you might find most useful. That is, page after page of data on producer specific foods. So I’d suggest you look it up by producer and you might just find it.

By the way, yes most cured/processed sausages and meats contain carbs but if you do your homework you can find the ones with minimal amounts. For example I eat two brands of pepperoni: Grimm and McSweeney. Both have 1 gram of carb per ‘stick’. But a stick of Grimm’s is 50 grams and a stick of McSweeney’s is 40 grams. The difference is mostly water, since McSweeney’s are much drier and tougher to chew, whereas the Grimm’s are noticeably moister and softer. McSweeney’s pepperoni even has a fat/protein ratio that matches my macros very closely!