Eating enough macros

(Gawie) #1

Morning all, I have no trouble keeping my carbs under 20g and protein under the required threshold but struggle to eat enough fats. I find that when I try and eat more fats with the foods recommended then those foods also contain carbs. Is it absolutely critical that I hit each of the 3 categories every day or is it ok to not? rather under than over I suppose but can you guys with experience advise? Thanks

(Susan) #2

Welcome to the forum, Gawie =). Butter is a great way to add fats, I cook my eggs, meats, and vegetables in it. I also use HWC in my tea, and use Chosen Foods Avocado Oil Mayonnaise on foods, and as a salad dressing. If I am cooking bacon, I pour the bacon grease on top of the fried cabbage that I often eat bacon with as well =).

(Cancer Fighting Ketovore :)) #3

You don’t have to max out your carbs every day. Its perfectly fine to be under (the lower the better). But, you should try to get your protein in and then fill the rest with healthy fats. As @Momof5 said, butter is great. I use it when I’m cooking broccoli. I also liberally drink HWC. Depending on the brand you can get about 6-8 grams of carbs per cup of cream for 80g of fat (totally worth it in my mind, but others may disagree). Olive oil dressing, with some vinegar (be careful with balsamic as its carby) is also a good option. So is adding cheese :slight_smile:

(Gawie) #4

thanks, problem I have is that if I am already close to carb limit with the normal food then adding something with high fat takes me over the carb limit. everything has carbs in. so 6 of one and half dozen of the other I feel.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #5

I’ve just discovered cacao butter thanks to another discussion on the forum. It has an excellent fat profile and suits ketogenic eating very well. I find it handy because it’s solid, therefore easy to weigh, melts slowly in your mouth, therefore easy to ‘chew’, and tastes a lot like chocolate. I eat it before/after a meal, and it mixes well with lots of other stuff, especially dairy. I’m using it now in my creamy bone broth instead of MCT.

(bulkbiker) #6

Well not quite… meat for example has fat and protein but zero carbs so maybe eat more meat?

(Jack Bennett) #7

I have some in transit. Can’t wait to try it out :grinning:

(Susan) #8

Mark’s idea is fantastic. I am not carnivore, but I definitely get the bulk of my calories from meats and healthy fats. I find even with Keto, it is not that hard to keep your carbs below 20. I often have mine at 10 or below. There are a lot of vegetables that are delicious fried up in butter, that are very low carb. My favourites to do this with are bok choy, cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli. I eat the first two the most. I also enjoy chopping up 1-2 cups of romaine lettuce, and adding meat to that (a package of cooked bacon, drizzling the fat over top, or a can of tuna, salmon, or chicken) and adding some Chosen Foods Avocado Oil Mayonnaise (the only one I have found that doesn’t contain any bad ingredients). You can also chop up a pickle into the salad, to add a bit more flavour, but it is a great meal and tastes delicious.

For a breakfast or lunch meal that is delicious, filling, and low carb, you can cook some bacon, and then add 4 eggs to the pan and cook them in the bacon grease, even add some butter as well if you want, it is a great meal. If you check the thread on here called “What did you Keto today?” you will see a lot of great meal ideas =).

#9

Nope. I understand you can snack on lard as I do but even my eggs has not very much carbs and meat usually contains even less. Some plants have very little too, cheese, and so on, there are options.
20g isn’t extremely low/hard if you don’t eat too much vegetables, nuts and whatnot. I don’t eat processed food, that helps as well.
Of course, practice helps, it’s way easier for me now than years ago.

About macros. You need to eat adequate protein at least and keep your carbs low. Everyone needs some fat on every diet. And you need enough food to get your nutrients and avoid starving. But that’s all, usually. Therapic keto is different but normally there is no fat intake you must meet. I don’t care about mine at all, it does whatever it does. Satiation is important but it isn’t sure you need lots of fat for that. I need lots of protein and enough calories, less if I eat less carbs, that’s all. Some days are quite low in fat (rare but happens) and it’s perfectly fine for me.
I think many of us experience our fat percentage stays the same almost every day. I surely did. All my food tends to have the same fat content and my lard snacking has its limits :slight_smile: So I almost inevitably end up with 65-70% fat. My fat grams vary more as I don’t eat the same amount of food every day.
It’s usually fine to eat less fat and more protein unless your protein intake is very, very high, I can’t imagine that is good (and personally dislike wasting lots of protein just to get energy) but it’s individual, I won’t decide what is healthy regarding protein.
If your fat is really too low, try to eat fattier protein. Lots of added fat may or may not work, it’s worth a try. While I ate vegetables, it was very easy to eat lots of fat with them (I usually fry everything), it’s different on carnivore though the type of added fat and even its state (liquid or solid) matters. But it’s way easier for me to eat the fat that is naturally in my food. Experiment with fattier food, what you can and can’t eat comfortably. Or eat less carby food so you can consume more of it.
I always can drink some fat (and protein) in my coffee… Heavy cream is very fatty and tasty and traditional in coffee. I don’t want so much lactose though and love my eggs in everything so it’s eggs for me, usually yolks. Others use butter or pure fats/oils in it.
Chocolate (homemade, unsweetened) can help with my fat and calories but I don’t want to consume it just for that reason. But I do that in a pinch, in moderation.

(Marianne) #10

We reuse our bacon grease and put a dollup of it in the pan when cooking eggs, on steamed vegetables, on top of cheeseburgers or any meat we eat. Bacon grease doesn’t have any carbs. Like others have said, butter is your friend, too. Have you tried a “bulletproof coffee”? Very delicious and you can get your fat in with very little carbs.

#11

The carbs and fats macros should be treated as upper limits, while the proteins macro should be treated as a lower limit. Your body needs adequate protein.

The fats macro can be satisfied by either ingested fat or stored body fat. If you’re trying to lose weight, obviously the latter is preferred.

But if you do get hungry, eat fats and proteins, but as few additional carbs as possible. But there no reason to eat more fat, just to meet a guesstimate of a macro, if you’re not hungry.

(bulkbiker) #12

But only when you are fat adapted?

#13

No, one can lose body fat before fat adaptation as well. If there is lots of excess body fat, we can get away with less food, theoretically at least, sometimes one still gets hungry…

(Davy) #14

Gawie, besides Kerrygold butter, I use Cod Liver Oil by Carlsen and Virgin Cononut Oil, both daily. Both high sources of almost pure great fats. No problem to just quickly chug down a tbsp.
And yes, pretty important to get close to hitting 70% fats at first, every day. Later, after fat adapted, you can lower that to around 60% for more weight/fat loss.

(PJ) #15

Gawie you do know that you subtract the ‘fiber’ number from the ‘carbohydrate’ number to get ECC (equivalent carbohydrate count) right? I ask because my best friend went keto and somehow did not know this and it sure made a difference. :smiley: