Day 2 if Keto and frustrated. Help please!

(Maria Blanco) #1

Hi everyone :slight_smile:
This is my first post here and from what I’ve read, everyone seems very friendly and super helpful and insightful so I’m hoping to get some advice!
I started keto 2 days ago.
I’m a 22 year old female, 5’4 and I currently weigh about 124 lbs. I know this sounds like an average weight but, I’ve gained those 4 lbs and I’m trying to lose them, along with getting better eating habits and just have a slimmer look to my body.
I’m having issues bloating. I’ve noticed bloating throughout the recent years but someone recently suggested I try keto to help weight loss and bloating.
Does anyone have any tips on how to reduce this bloating I’m getting?
This morning I had
2 eggs with hot dogs mixed in them and 2 bacon strips
A cheese stick

For lunch I had
A salmon patty with some salad and little tomatoes although I didn’t eat much of them with some light dressing (6g of carbs total I believe)
For dinner, hours later I had a chipotle bowl:
Half chicken half steak,
Bed of lettuce
Pico
Sour cream
And guac (12g carbs total)

Got home and had just two turkey slices.
Annnnd of course, I’m bloated!
Does anyone have any tips on reducing this and if you guys have any tips on what I should be eating, please please don’t be afraid to drop a comment! I’m super super new to this, so I’ll gladly take any advice!!! Also- what do you guys eat when you guys go out?! That seems to be another issue for me because I feel like I can’t have anything!

Thank you so much:)

(LeeAnn Brooks) #2

First, what you’re eating:

I’d watch hot dogs. Anything processed really. Not that they are completely off limits, but they can hide extra sugars. So make sure it’s ones with no or as little sugar added possible.

Stay far far away from light dressings. They eliminate fat and add flavor with sugar. You want the opposite of this. I find it’s best to make my own dressings as I can control the ingredients and it’s very hard to find commercial dressings that don’t add lots of sugar.

Other than that, it looks like you’ve got an okay base. You just need to add more fat in there.

Bloating is something I can’t help you as much on. It’s a very individual thing on Keto. Some people bloat when they get too much salt. I bloat when I get too little salt.
Some people have mild digestive issues and find that adding fermented foods does the trick. Others have to avoid all artificial sweetners.
It could be a sensitivity to dairy or some other foods. You could try an elimination diet where you experiment and take away a food or food group one by one and see if there’s any significant change.

Or it could just be a part of your monthly cycle.

I’m sure there are others here who could give you better suggestions on what to try.

And welcome by the way.

(Steve) #3

Bloating could suggest that you have food sensitivities that you’re not aware of. You may want to go ask your doctor about getting tested for food sensitivities - it could make a world of difference in your health (there could be other symptoms that you think are unrelated).

It also sounds like you’re eating out a lot. I understand the convenience of that. Most people have very busy lives and it’s hard to cook all of your meals. That’s one thing about keto - as it isn’t mainstream (yet), to really get the most out of it and ensure that you’re not getting sabotaged by hidden carbs in your meals, you need to be vigilant at the front end - measuring, counting all of your macros. Sites / apps like my fitness pal certainly help. If you can get to preparing more of your meals, you’ll be able to have consistent results. (casserole recipes are a god-send - as they usually are for several portions - cook once, bundle up the extra portions for the fridge / freezer!!) :slight_smile:

This site has fantastic sharing of information - including recipes!!! :slight_smile: Lots of foodies here that are making foods that are keto-friendly!!! :slight_smile: Start collecting them and it will be SO much easier, once you have a ready supply of foods that you know are ok to eat!!

It really doesn’t sound like you need to lose much weight at all - and that’s a good thing - as it means that you’ll focus more on Keto as a way to being healthier - and not obsessed with the scale. It isn’t a “quick fix” to lose a few pounds…it’s a way of eating / life to heal your body from decades of toxic damage from the carbohydrate/glucose overload that we’ve done to our bodies.

Welcome to the forums!! :slight_smile: It’s a fantastic community (only been here a few months myself!) :smiley:

(Consensus is Politics) #4

Indeed, welcome!

I’m afraid I haven’t enough information about bloating. If it were me I’d just do some standard troubleshooting by looking at all the meals, the times, and see what the commonalities are. And as @Anniegirl9 suggested begin eliminating them. Be sure to give them time when eliminating as well. It would be easy to get false positives since you don’t even know if it’s caused by a food yet. It could be a good additive, that’s not always used.

But I have a suggestion for taking the weight off. You were correct to try keto. I lost 40 pounds in two weeks when I started. That might be fringe, but it happened. I went from 245 to 205 in 14 days. Also reversed my diabetes in less than 4 months. Currently I’m at 188 pounds, and slowly dropping.

The best way from this point is when you eat. It’s called intermittent fasting. It’s really just a fancy way of saying “extend the time when you aren’t eating”.

The “fasting” part of that always threw me. In my mind, fasting ment not eating at all for days at a time. Intermittent fasting is more like resting you digestive system between dinner and breakfast. Making the overnight non eating time as long as possible. And it’s easy than you think. When you are eating keto, your hunger signals will pretty much go away. As your body will always have access to energy in the form of fat.

Here is what my typical day is like. I get up around 0500 hrs. I have my coffee with butter, coconut oil, and heavy cream. Sometimes a second cup. So that’s typically 500 to 1000 calories in the morning. I eat lunch around 1200 hrs now. I usually eat another 1,000 calories or so in meats and cheeses. Avocado, celery with cream cheese, chicken thighs wrapped in bacon.

I don’t normally eat again until the next day. I have on occasion still had dinner because it was something special. Maybe the wife cooked up some Kalbi (Korean style ribs) oh, so, delicious. I’ll eat a lot of those, so once in a while i’ll Hit about 3,000 for the day. And I’m still losing weight.

I’ve gone zero carb, as much as possible, but it’s more a guideline than a rule. I just don’t count my carbs at all, if anything I err on the low side. I can keep a running count of them in my head, and pretty much know when I’m getting close to just 10 posssible carbs, and nip it in the bud.

So, here’s what happens when you eat. Your body is in a “fed” state. In this state your insulin rises. Insulin can be triggered by several things. Sugars, hormones, even taste. So even chewing gum can cause high insulin levels. The insulin part of this is key.

Concerning weight loss, here is insulin’s role. It shuttles the sugar around your body, everyone learns this about insulin first. What most people don’t know is insulin also turns off fat burning, and puts the body into fat storage mode. This is the reason you want to keep your eating window in the day as short as possible. When insulin is elevated, YOU CAN NOT LOSE FAT.

So shortening your eating window will lengthen the time your insulin is low, allowing for the body to use fat reserves. It really is that simple. It works exceptionally well with the keto diet because of the lack of carbs to raise insulin. It’s a win win.

So feel free to ask as many questions as you like.

Keep calm, keto on!

Keto Vitae!

(Maria Blanco) #5

Thank you so much for replying first!
May I ask how you make your own dressings? I tend to look for dressings that just have 1-3g of carbs but perhaps I should be looking out for other things as well!
I’m glad you mentioned the hot dog thing and keeping an eye out for that, I definitely would’ve had more tomorrow So thank you:)

(Maria Blanco) #6

Steve, thank you for your comment!
You’re definitely correct, I love eating out and that’s terrible! :pensive: the fact that I don’t know how or what to cook makes it all that much harder but I’m definitely going to browse around this site to search for some recipes on here before going grocery shopping!
May I ask what are your favorite ones to make?

Thank you so much!

(Maria Blanco) #7

Robert,
Wow! Thank you so much for your lengthy comment!!! I took a screenshot to remind myself of all of your tips!
I have a few questions for you,
How often were you eating (and what) when you first started keto? I imagine with time, it’ll get easier for me but as of right now, it seems like I’m having issues figuring what is okay and not okay to have.
Considering I only wanna lose about 15 pounds, I imagine that I really should be counting my calories Just a bit to be at a deficit?
Also- how often were you eating at first? Were you snacking or just having a good breakfast and not eating til dinner time?
I find myself getting VERY hungry (and hangry) rather quick and I’m not sure why that is! I want to learn how to curb that or just get accustomed to having two big meals a day packed with meats!

(Steve) #8

I’ll do you one better. If you have an Android phone, I think the Paprika app may be a bit cheaper, but I’ve also done an HTML export - so there may be a bunch of recipe manager apps that will support importing in HTML.
Paprika Recipe Manager is available for just about every platform (and has a cloud feature to sync your recipes between all of your devices) - amongst a plethora of other features that make it pretty awesome! :slight_smile:

You can grab all of my recipes here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aiQMn6XWsbF4U51wsuX7tNuscxcZmrbx?usp=sharing

You can grab the entire catalog (currently 365 recipes) or just the Keto category (110 recipes) :slight_smile:

I’ll do additions / changes as I go along - anything with a star rating, I’ve actually made…if there isn’t a star rating, I haven’t gotten around to it yet. :slight_smile:

As I cycle through my recipes, I keep trying to make more of them keto-friendly. :slight_smile:

Cheers!!

Edit: Oh…and in case you haven’t found it yet - the recipes section of this site:

https://www.ketogenicforums.com/c/food/recipes-recipes-recipes

:slight_smile:

(Consensus is Politics) #9

In the begging I was eating just one meal a day. I had just been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. The AMA suggested diet was making it worse. So I figured I’d troubleshoot it myself and decided zero carb was the way to go. Carbonongrata.

I would have what is often referred as a bullet proof coffee (I have no idea who named it that or why. I’m pretty sure it’s a brand name too. But it is a very tasty coffee). My coffee is on the large side and has about 500 calories to it. I’ll then eat lunch between 1200 and 1600 (12 to 4). Lunch is often 4 chicken thighs wrapped in bacon. Maybe bacon and eggs. Steak and eggs. Steak wrapped in bacon with eggs. Maybe even some bacon wrapped bacon with a side of bacon. There are a lot of recipes on this site. Browse through those. Many of them I have tried. I haven’t had a bad experience yet. I would highly recommend @carl ‘s bacon wrapped philly cheese meatloaf. Wow it’s good. I can’t get it to roll up very well line he does. So I end up making a sort of, meatloaf soup. :cowboy_hat_face:

Keep your carbs low, your protein to your LBM (lean body mass. About 1 gram of protein per KG of LBM) eat fat to satiety. I’m never hungry anymore. Even when I forget to eat, my body just pulls energy from body fat and I just continue on unawares. It’s my Keto superpower. I can miss several days meals and not notice. I did a three day fast one by accident. I just forgot to eat because I wasn’t hungry. I still had my appetite, it just wasn’t in control of my hunger.

(LeeAnn Brooks) #10

I have several Keto recipie books, and they all have a dressing section.

For creamy dressings like ranch or blue cheese, they start with mayo. Now you can make your own mayo (search here for recipies- there’s lots of mayo ones) but I found one I really like that I bought. Chosen Foods Avacado Oil Mayo.
It’s got a tang like Miriclw Whip. You can find mayos a bit easier than dressings, but you still need to be careful.
If you do buy the mayo, make sure there’s no added sugar and it’s only made with avacado oil (no vegetable oil). There’s one or two others that people here have said fit the bill, but not many. So you might want to make your own. They say it’s really easy, but I haven’t tried yet because I ended up buying 7 jars of the CF’s when my Costco was selling them out, so I haven’t had the need to yet.

Also, as far as calorie deficits go, don’t worry about calories at all until you are fat adapted (and maybe not even after). Don’t put yourself in a deficit until your over that hump. It can take 6-8 weeks to adapt for most people. You’re going to need to fuel that process.

#11

Troubleshooting bloat can be pretty tricky. First thing I’d do is pay attention all day to what you’re eating and seeing WHEN you notice the bloat. Is it shortly after a meal? Coming on throughout the day? Just seem to come out of nowhere? Don’t forget to pay attention to what you’re drinking as well. Many people will have some bloat initially going keto from swapping real sugar for sugar alcohols. Many of them take getting used to. Also water retention is also a common cause, many times water retention comes from not drinking enough as backwards as that sounds. Also, make sure your salt intake is up to keto levels, electrolyte balance is very strongly connected to that as well as how you feel overall. Dairy can also bloat people even if you’re used to eating a lot of it.

If your bloat is a general bloat that’s just slightly noticeable then it could just be what you ate last meal or possibly too much food at a sitting. If you swell out to the point where you look slightly pregnant and literally feel your midsection pressing outwards in record time, than that’s typically gas. Easy was to tell is when you feel like that take something like Gas-X, if it goes away within the hour (usually 15-20 min) than you know it’s a gas issue which points you in a direction to troubleshoot vs over eating or water retention as that wouldn’t help in the other two cases.

#12

This is just me (51 y.o. male) but hot dogs and sour cream are on my no-bueno list. Especially hot dogs. I eat two hot dogs, and I am bloated for a full 24 hours. Also you should try IF (if you haven’t already). Knocks the bloating down real quick.

#13

I am also a newbie, and I was bloated the first several days, too. This was partly because I doubled my sodium intake. I hated how my face looked those first days, ugh. But my body adapted, I kept drinking tons of water, and MCT oil was sooo helpful. Beginning 4 days ago, I replaced my breakfast with bulletproof coffee (1 T blended butter and 1 T MCT oil) and it has cleared everything up. I’m prone to constipation, so I can easily take 2 T at a time. I’ve heard that a lot of people have to start with 1 tsp and work up.

I’m happy to report that I’m currently less bloated than I’ve been in a long time even though I’m still consuming a bunch of salt.

(Adam Foard) #14

In this episode the dudes talk about an elimination diet for identifying food sensitivities. Otherwise, bloating is usually a function of sugar more than anything. Electrolyte imbalance can cause it too; if electrolytes are the cause that should clear up rapidly.