Critique My Macros

(Jim) #1

I’m one week in. I’d say this is pretty typical. How am I doing?

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(Carl Keller) #2

Hi Jim and welcome.

The numbers look ok but numbers only tell a very small part of the story. How do you feel? How is your hunger and cravings? How is your energy? How often are you eating? Are you eating real food? Are you having any problems?

The answers to those questions is more telling of your progress.

(Jim) #3

For most of my life I haven’t been a breakfast eater. Occasionally I’ll have breakfast or go out for brunch on weekends. So I’ve been doing IF where I don’t eat between about 7:00pm and noon the next day.

For lunch an example would be a spinach salad (about 2 cups of baby spinach), crumbled blue cheese, blue cheese dressing, a whole avocado. Sometimes I’ll put in some leftover bacon or, yesterday I tore up pieces of mortadella.

For dinner, usually some sort of meat keto recipe. Last night was million dollar spaghetti squash casserole, the night before bacon wrapped pork tenderloin. Usually with a roasted veggie (asparagus, brussel sprouts, broccoli) side.

If I need a snack, so far it’s been Brie.

I feel pretty good. Not terribly hungry. While I don’t feel overall fatigued, my muscles seem to get fatigued faster. But I don’t feel all that different really. I wouldn’t say I experienced anything that could be called keto flu.

TBH, I’m not feeling much of anything. Perhaps I should get one of those ketones testing things?

(Carl Keller) #4

Sounds like you are doing fine Jim. I would only suggest that you try to stop snacking and eat more at meal time. The idea is keep our insulin levels low and that’s key to getting our insulin to behave properly when we do eat and it encourages the burning of body fat, if weight loss is your goal.

The muscle fatigue is normal while your body is still trying to adjust to using ketones for fuel. That should improve in the coming weeks.

The pee strips are fairly useless since they monitor ketones we are wasting. They might confirm the presence of ketones in your body but that’s about it. I would just be patient and keep doing what you are doing.

I will say that IF may not be the best thing for a beginner but since you say your hunger is not terrible, I won’t say it’s causing you harm. It’s just very important to not allow yourself to get too hungry. One of the keys to keto is to learn how to trust your hunger and respond appropriately to it.

(Jim) #5

Thanks. Well I went ahead and ordered the pee strips after my last post. They were only $6, so I figured what the heck.

I rarely feel the need for a snack. Yesterday I probably had too small of a lunch and had a small 2oz bit of Brie. But in general I feel fine having the two large meals. I’ve been diligent about tracking everything and I use a food scale. Im trying to keep my calories up even though it sometimes feels like I’m overeating at meal time. Those spinach salads are HUGE!

The IF doesn’t bother me. I drink coffee and water in the mornings and I don’t really start to feel hungry until around 11:00. It’s pretty easy to wait that extra hour.

My main issue has been the fact it’s been harder on my wife. I posted about her vomiting in another thread. We’re fairly convinced there was something else going on now. But still, she’s been very lightheaded and has struggled. We COULD have her drop it and me continue but that would definitely make meal times more complicated. We already are making different foods for our kids.