Yep, counterintuitive as it is. Some people do better with more fat, some with more protein. As ever, n=1. Experimenting is the key.
Confused and need help
Donnie7269
(Donnie L Wayne)
#22
Yes sir, from what I’ve noticed, it’s not a one way fits all way of eating. I’ve studied several folks methods. Just trying to find and see what is going to work best for me at this point to drop all these unwanted pounds!
juice
(Running from stupidity)
#23
And don’t forget all the other benefits we usually get along the way.
Donnie7269
(Donnie L Wayne)
#24
Yes!! My bloodwork has always been pretty good in the past. This is just the cream on top!!
CarlKeller
(Carl Keller)
#26
I’ve gone by net and total and both have kept me in ketosis. I do like vegetables so I switched from total to net. Also, more avocados is a win for me.
Donnie7269
(Donnie L Wayne)
#27
Yes ma’am. I just needed to hear I’m on the right path more than anything. I tried to reply last night. But being a new user, it said I had reached my comment limit.
Donnie7269
(Donnie L Wayne)
#29
Yes I did. It said since I was a new member, I had reached my replies for the day.
JohnH
(John)
#30
You’ve lost 20 pounds in one month. That is pretty exceptional. What you don’t want to do is to lose weight too fast, causing your metabolic rate to quickly slow down, making it harder for you to keep losing.
You and I started at about the same weight. I started in September. I am down 40 pounds so far after 3 months.
My approach was to stay at the more “balanced” end of the keto diet. I cut out all sugars, starches, grains, high-carb veggies, high sugar fruits, and artificial sweeteners.
I switched to healthy full fat products made from olive and avocado oil, and cut out seed oils. I cut out all manufactured foods.
I still try to get in fiber and vegetables. I don’t go out of my way to add fat, but I don’t avoid it. For example, I’ll have a lettuce salad, and I will use a moderate amount of salad dressing (1 - 2 Tbsp), but it’s the full fat kind, not “light”, and may sprinkle some parmesan cheese on it for extra flavor.
I’ll have steamed broccoli, but I melt a couple of pats of butter and put it on the broccoli for added flavor. I make mashed cauliflower, which is made with butter and cream cheese (or Asiago or Parmesan cheese) - enough to make it flavorful. I like yellow squash sauteed in butter and olive oil. Mushrooms sauteed in butter. You can add salt pork / fatback when you cook your greens or green beans. You can cook your brussels sprouts with bacon.
You get the idea.
I eat dark meat chicken more than white meat most of the time. Skin on or skinless, whichever. When I make tuna salad, I use full-fat (avocado oil) mayonnaise, but the same amount I would have used before if I were using “light” mayo.
I don’t trim the fat from beef or pork before cooking, and I don’t try to buy extra-lean hamburger. But I don’t go out of my way to add more fat to it, or look for the 70/30 ground beef. Usually 80/20 is good - whatever is on sale that day.
I try to eat normal-sized (meaning not extremely large) meals, 2 or 3 meals a day, with no snacking in between. I don’t have a special restricted feeding window. I work a regular day job and going out to lunch is both expensive and inconvenient, so I generally eat breakfast and dinner each day and skip lunch. If I have time to make lunch, it’s usually a salad and some type of meat that I cooked previously, or chicken or tuna salad.
I get in some fruit (raspberries, blackberries, or strawberries) 2 to 4 times a week, and eat full fat yogurt in moderate quantities. I don’t add fat to my coffee.
My goal is to keep overall carbs low, and eat other non-processed real foods to the extent that I am not hungry, and enough that I don’t get excessively hungry between meals. I keep portion sizes reasonable, including the meats.
It’s really not that drastic of a change, assuming you are already in the habit of cooking and preparing your own foods. Where it is drastic is if you are used to the convenience of pre-packaged dry foods and grain-based products.
If you normally eat the “meat and two vegetables” type of meal, nothing much changes except that rice, potatoes, corn, and carrots are gone from the “vegetables” choice on the menu but greens, green beans, salad, cabbage, broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower, etc are all still on the list, and it’s OK to cook them with fats or to add a full-fat sauce or butter for flavor.
If you normally ate pasta covered with a sugar-containing pasta sauce and a basket of bread, then yeah, it will be a big change.
Donnie7269
(Donnie L Wayne)
#31
Thank you for that explanation sir! All great advice that I’ll take to heart! I grew up on a farm, we eat " off the land " what we grew and raised. After I chose a career in plumbing, eating bad just became habit I suppose. After I had this surgery, I really ate bad, thus why I swelled up to 318lbs! My activity level drastically lowered as well. Because of all this added weight I gained, I’ve noticed the aches, pains, and just plain hurting more noticeable, almost to the point before surgery. Something had to change. So that’s how I came to this point.
I love salad! I also enjoy the typical " meat and 2 " I was raised on. Yes I ate alot of potatoes, pasta, rice, and sweet tea by the gallon every single day. The tea was the hardest thing to give up really, which I have. I drink coffee black with butter, and water now.
What I did last night for supper was, after 21 hour fast, I took some hamburger, deer burger ( we process our own deer ) and spicy breakfast sausage, added herbs and spices, and made some meatballs. I also made loaded mashed cauliflower with sour cream, Monterey Jack cheese, and bacon. I used the bacon grease to fry the meatballs, just to Brown them a bit. I found Heinz makes a Brown gravy in a jar, it has no added sugar and just 3 carbs per 1/4 cup. Used all the fat from the bacon grease and meatballs in the pan, and poured the gravy on top, and baked them. I ended up eating I’m guessing ( I don’t weigh out portions, but maybe I should ) about a cup of mashed cauliflower and 6 tablespoon size meatballs, and found myself stuffed actually.
I love olives of any kind, so olive oil is my choice for alot of the salads I eat now. The transition to this hasn’t been that bad really. I’ve always loved vegetables, but learning which ones I could have and not have was and is still kinda confusing. Like you mentioned yellow squash, we grew alot if it and zucchini this year in our garden. Eggplant too. Froze a bunch of it. I was under the impression the carb count is a bit much. Is it something we can have regularly or just every nowand then? My wife is from California, she brought a knowledge of authentic Mexican food with her. So like onions, bell peppers, was kind of bummer that they was a no no. Love me some carnitas smothered in onions and peppers!! We do eat hot peppers with almost every meal. We canned almost 8 gallons of them this year in a very simple brine ( no sugar thank goodness)!
Your meal examples is exactly what I needed to hear! Meals and meal ideas that are working for folks trying to change our lives for the good! It’s hard to listen to folks on YouTube that look like a body builder, thin as a rail, and most importantly only needed to lose a few pounds to fit back in some jeans. The real results from folks that has lost a ton of weight on this way of life is who I need and want to learn from!!
It means the world to me that each person that has commented, has taken the time to do so!! Thank you and keep the advice coming PLEASE!!!
JohnH
(John)
#34
I use this as a general guideline to choosing vegetables:
Like with anything else - portion control and moderation is the key. You want to eat some carrots? That’s fine. 1/4 cup of cooked carrots is only about 3 carb grams (2 net carb grams). Half a yellow squash (about 6 oz) is about 8g carbs (about 5g net).
Lettuce and spinach is so low in carbs I personally don’t even count them. You’d need to eat 32 cups of red leaf lettuce (almost 2 pounds) to hit 20 grams of total carbs, which is still only 12g net. Good luck eating that much lettuce in one day.