Critique My Food

food
(Little Miss Scare-All) #1

Hope everyone is having a great day. One more day till Friday, w00t w00t!!

This is day 18 on Keto for me. I’m doing OMAD IF 20/4. I’m currently 230 lbs (maybe less now, I honestly don’t weigh myself because I don’t enjoy crying). I workout 4 days a week, HIIT 2x a week, Strength Train 2-3 times a week, and on the days I’m not doing HIIT, my cardio is in the form of either the Stairmaster or Incline intervals on the treadmill.

Can I get some advice/tips/critiques on an example of what I’m eating today. I’m not looking to have my ears tickled here, I’m honestly picking the brains of people who know better than I do:

Tuna w/Mayo - 8oz (about 2.5 Tbps of mayo in there)
Skinless/Boneless Chicken Thigh - 3oz
1 Cup Broccoli
2 Cups raw leafy greens
Mozzarella Cheese - 3.5oz
Butter - 3.5 Tbps
Sugarless Almond Milk in my coffee - 3 Tbps

That’s all she wrote. What can I alter? Opinions? Thoughts? I know tuna’s mercury factor, I do keep that in mind. I at least get the Wild Caught.

I honestly dont know if I’m eating enough calories or not. I feel satisfied, or am I so used to feeling crappy that “satisfied” is actually still feeling mostly crappy? lol I’m trying to not get into starvation mode. I honestly don’t know how fast or slow my metabolism is or isnt. I’m a little afraid of stalling progress.

Very looking fwd to any responses :slight_smile:

(Jennibc) #2

If you are fat adapted, then your body will break down fat and you won’t go into starvation mode. If you are not then that’s when you worry about too few calories. I am not sure how you figure out whether you are fat adapted. I came to this way of eating so slowly that it was pretty easy for me to start IF (I was already sugar and grain free and ate plenty of healthy fats) so I don’t think I was slowing my metabolism. Perhaps some more experienced people can jump and comment on how long we should wait before we are typically fat adapted.

(Little Miss Scare-All) #3

I honestly don’t know if I’m fat adapted or not. I don’t know/think there’s an exact science that I’m available to that can tell this for me. It’s hard to go by how I “feel”, because I’m very often a depressed person and that feeling of depression can manifest in crappy physical sensations.

I was in Ketosis by day 1, at least according to the not-extremely-accurate tinkle strips. I don’t know if easiy getting into Ketosis necessarily means that you’ll fat adapt quickly as well.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #4

Ketosis begins practically immediately, fat-adaptation takes longer. Six to eight weeks, possibly more, is what we tell people. If you noticed a drop in your exercise performance, a return to your pre-keto level would be a good indication of fat-adaptation.

@x-Dena-x My only critique is that doesn’t look like a lot of protein. The foods themselves seem fine, except try to find a mayonnaise that is made with a healthy oil instead of vegetable oil—or make your own, it’s very easy.

How much to eat is a good question. If you’re eating under 1500 calories, try to eat more and see how you feel, otherwise, keep on listening to your body. That would be my advice, anyway, FWIW.

(Little Miss Scare-All) #5

Right and I’m not near that yet, only day 18 here. Odd thing is, the past week my workouts have been fabulous. I tore my HIIT sessions up. Now the first week into part of the 2nd, I felt like I was a zombie at the gym, I could barely get through my conventional cardio. I can’t possibly be fat adapted this quickly. Nothing my body ever does is quickly lol. But maybe that’s just me being negative, I may have a better metabolism than I think. I noticed my tinkle strips are lighter, though I know my carb levels are way down.

I’m DEFINITELY eating under 1500 cals. I struggle to get to 1200-1300! It’s hard to down 1300 cals in OMAD. 1500 even tougher. Of all things, I’m slightly fearful of protein because I’m afraid of insulin spikeage. I’m doing OMAD to keep spikes at the absolute minimum. I’m just stumbling my way through this even being aware of some of the science behind it. Thinking myself into confusion lol.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #6

Prof. Benjamin Bikman has shown that the insulin spike is prominent when we eat too much protein on a high-carbohydrate diet, but his hypothesis is that the ratio of insulin to glucagon controls what happens. On a high-carb diet, excess protein spikes insulin but not glucagon, so the ratio goes up dramatically. On a low-carb diet, however, excess protein leaves the ratio unchanged from its already-low level, becaue glucagon secretion rises commensurately with insulin.

There is a video of his lecture at a recent Low Carb Down Under event, in which he shows the results of an experiment in which, on a high-carb diet, the insulin/glucagon ratio jumped from something like 13 to something like 70 with the addition of extra protein, but on a low-carb diet with the same amount of protein, the insulin/glucagon ratio remained something like 1.7 or 2.7.

(Little Miss Scare-All) #7

@PaulL Thank you SO much! That’s such awesome information. I’m going to watch the video tonight before bed. That’s really cool. Perhaps one less thing to worry about! Thanks so much for taking the time to respond to me and give me some great tips and advice. :slight_smile:

#8

Thats more than enough protein for her, to maintain muscle mass people often recommend 1g of protein per kg of weight for men and 0.7g per kg of weight for women, so for her, maintain is around 73g of protein. That 200ish grams of tuna alone is 60grams of protein, then + chickens, mozzarellas and broccolis. From the foods shes eating rn id prolly switch up the chicken for some other meat with more fat on it as chicken doesnt really have any.

(Little Miss Scare-All) #9

Was thinking this myself, switch out the chicken thighs. I’d love to get some nice rib-eye steaks. For some reason my brain says that it wants this.

Thanks, ODE! :slight_smile:

(Charlotte) #10

Steak with gorgonzola or goat cheese and butter on top is delicious.

(Little Miss Scare-All) #11

So agreed there. I’m also a fan of compound butter with gorgonzola melted over the top. :heart_eyes::heart_eyes::heart_eyes:

(Charlotte) #12

That sounds good. I’ll have to try that.

(Carl Keller) #13

The questions you need to ask yourself so that you can tell if you are fat adapted are:

Do I have consistent all day energy?
Can I go long periods of time without being overly hungry?
Are my cravings gone?
Do I sleep well?

It took me about six weeks before I could say this. I was sure of it when I could go 24 hours without food and not be anxious to eat.

At the sake of sounding redundant, I think your food is fine as long as it leaves you satisfied. It can be a little alarming to see that you might have only eaten 1000 calories on a particular day and not really feel like eating more. All I can say is that learning to trust your hunger might seem like a great leap of faith, but that’s only because we are so used to screwed up signals. Now that your hunger has finally come to its senses, it’s time to start trusting it.

On the other end of that spectrum, your hunger should give you plenty of warning that you are not eatting enough, your energy levels will plummet and you might feel colder in your extremities if starvation mode is at hand.