Carbs and Fiber?

[dlc96_darren]

I can’t do better on advice than @JohnH, @Shortstuff, and @CarlKeller have given you.

Add @MarkGossage to the list!

[juice]

It was in response to the OP’s original question… a bit bad to answer a question with a question

And that was a good example of why that is so

No it means you don’t actually need any.

Yep.

Why would you be eating a lot of fiber, if you’re trying to be in ketosis?

Yep.

start with 20g net carbs and adjust if need be

Yep.

One more question I have is - how does calorie counting on a keto diet work?

Very badly, especially in the beginning.

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1. Clear the house of carbs (if possible - not essential but if you can, it really helps)

2. keep carbs under 20g/day (vital to make sure you do this)

3. track your food intake (this teaches you what is and isn’t sensible to eat in terms of carbs, and is great for planning your food for the day)

4. eat plenty of real food (keto is not a calorie-restricted eating system) and don’t worry about “eating enough” fat or “eating too much” fat. Your body won’t let you eat too much, trust me. Smash the protein (assuming you’re not diabetic/insulin resistant).

5. Take supplements (or at least extra salt)! Super-important to stay feeling good!

6. Ketone numbers are not an arms race. If you’re in, terrific. If you’re not, time to get the carbs down, most likely, or start searching for other solutions (see above point about tracking).

[PaulL]

One more question I have is - how does calorie counting on a keto diet work?

Not very well, actually.

The key to a ketogenic diet is to keep carbohydrate low enough to prevent the pancreas from secreting too much insulin. Too much insulin causes the body to store the sugar and fat we eat in our fat cells, preventing the body from making use of all that energy. We don’t want to eliminate insulin entirely, or we’ll die, we just want to keep it low enough so that the extra stored fat can leave our fat cells and be burned by the body for fuel. Our insulin level needs to be low enough to make that happen, which means that we have to eat carbohydrate below a certain level in order to avoid stimulating insulin prodcution. On these forums, we recommend less than 20 grams a day, because practically anybody can get into ketosis at that low a level.

Protein also stimulates insulin production, but at half the level of carbohydrate. Protein is also essential to the human diet—without it, we sicken and die. So we want to eat enough, but not too much. You are probably getting enough, so don’t worry about it. We recommend getting somewhere around a gram to a gram-and-a-half of protein a day per kilogram of lean body mass.

That leaves fat, which stimulates insulin production very little. This makes fat a very good source of energy, since without all that carbohydrate we were eating before, we are going to be short of energy if we don’t increase our fat intake. Fat is more calorie-dense and more satisifying (not to mention very tasty), so we recommend eating as much fat as it takes in evey meal to stop being hungry. Yes, we realize that eating fat to lose fat sounds counter-intuitive, but this is the way the human body works.

At first, eating fat to satiety means you are going to be eating a lot of food, but as your insulin drops and your satiety signaling starts working again, your appetite is likely to drop significantly. Let your body tell you how much to eat, and don’t worry about it. Restricting calories will happen automatically if you let it, whereas restricting calories intentionally usually leads to serious trouble.

The ultimate goal of all this is what we call fat-adaptation: a state where your muscles are burning fat instead of sugar, your brain is happily consuming ketone bodies, and only those organs (such as your red blood cells) that absolutely have to have glucose are burning it—and your liver very happily makes all the glucose those organs need, along with the ketone bodies that the rest of your organs are happily consuming.

Where does fiber fit into this picture? Nowhere, really. Many people feel that, since fiber is indigestible, we don’t need to count it when we consider how much carbohydrate we are eating (“net carbs”), while other people feel safer counting fiber toward their carb limit (“total carbs”). If you eat carbohydrate, you probably need to eat fiber in order to keep your digestive tract functioning properly, but fiber is unnecessary to people eating a ketogenic diet. In fact, some ketonians find that fiber actually messes with their digestion, and they are better without it.

All of the information I have put in this post is available throughout these forums. I would strongly advise making use of the search function. It is pretty good, and will turn up a lot of useful information. You will find it fascinating reading, and you might also find that you no longer need to ask as many questions once you have done some reading.