Eating fat to satiety - but not enough?

(Jo) #1

I’ve been doing Keto since April 1 and have lost a modest amount of weight. I need to lose about 30 lbs. My question is the following:

Most days I struggle to get in more than 1200 calories. My nutritionist recommended 1600-ish. I have no problem eating fat but if the mantra is : Eat when you’re hungry, don’t eat when you’re not – I am eating at a starvation level (about 1000-1200 calories). I know counting calories is not necessary per say, but I started doing it because I thought I might not get everything in.

So should I force myself to eat even if I am not hungry, to reach the calorie goal?

Secondary question
If I am not hungry, I’d been contemplating going for the OMAD model. How many calories can you stuff in one meal? Or is that not the point? Isn’t that then not the same as just eating a calorie restricted diet. I’m struggling to understand what is different here.

(Karen) #2

Sometimes it becomes that on OMAD it’,s used more for maintenance.

K

(Liz ) #3

What is different with Keto is that especially at first, and after you are fat adapted (for most 6-8 weeks) you will draw some of your daily calories from your own body fat, unlike when you were a glucose burner and had to get all your energy from your food. So maybe you are satisfied eating 1200 calories on your plate, it’s possible your body is getting the rest of what it needs from your stored fat, the ratio depending on how much you have. So the suggestion is don’t eat if you are not hungry.

But as you lose weight (if that is your goal) keep in mind you will be able to draw less from your stored body fat and need to increase your plate fat. That’s what I’m doing. I lost 45 pounds over a year’s time, I have about 20-25 pounds to go so I am increasing plate fats to rev up my metabolism and make sure I’m not eating too little. I know it’s the right thing to do because I definitely have an appetite for the additional calories and I am not gaining weight.

(Jo) #4

Thanks, very helpful! I have a followup meeting with the nutritionist in two weeks when she will have the results of my bloodwork. I will discuss with her too, but I was also a little worried that I was lowering my metabolism by eating too few calories.

If I was burning my own fat, should that show on the scale?

I’ve been hovering around the same weight for about 2 weeks now. But I also stopped my BP medication so my body is also restoring the balance in water and electrolytes that the meds were messing up. So I guess it’s a rather confounded situation.

(Liz ) #5

It may or may not show on the scale. For a lot of folks going Keto suddenly gives their bodies a new full nutrition budget after years of basically malnutrition from a SAD diet and the first thing the body does is heal things; regulates hormones, reduces inflammation, removes fat from organs, builds lean body mass, etc. Things it couldn’t do before. This means you may be putting on lean body mass as you lose fat (even without exercise) and also the body prioritizes healing above weight loss so scale results can be delayed. Definitely take measurements.

If you are burning your own fat it shows in your lack of hunger cues.

One way to make sure you don’t mess up your metabolism if you feel you are undereating calories is to be sure not to snack. Keep your meal times (1-3 times a day) within a window and you will keep your metabolism humming along.

(Jo) #6

That’s interesting. I hadn’t considered that before. I will give that a go. My intake window is usually from 5am till 5 pm. I go to bed by 8 pm, so most of the non-eating time is sleeping. Sometimes it is 7 am (if I don’t eat before leaving the house to go to work) till 5 pm.

Maybe I should try a 16:8 schedule. Eat three meals between 9 and 5. With them so close together there’d be no time for snacking!

(Jay AM) #7

If you’re eating fat to satiety then there is no need for snacking. What is your current height and weight? Just because your body might get some calories from body fat, doesn’t mean you can’t still be eating too little. A lot of people coming from a history of dieting and restriction tend to have a lowered BMR and would subsist on less but, it’d be like maintenance and not actually losing well. Consider upping your fat to up your calories in small amounts. A hundred extra, 50 extra. Keep that up for a while and see what that changes. Remember, fat though. Up that and not protein or carbs with it.

(Jo) #8

I am female, 58 years old, menopausal, 5’2", CW 173.6 Goal Weight 150 (I have a more than average muscle mass, and a good mount of bone weight - heavy boned, I guess).

(Jay AM) #9

Because of your height, 1200 might be an alright amount. I’d personally still try to up it if it were myself so I could get the BMR boost. Or, I’d try to do high days randomly. But, if you feel fine and are doing fine, 1200 is probably doing alright for you.

(Rob) #10

Your nutritionist is probably right (how often do I say that?? :exploding_head:). Your TDEE should be about 1600, sedentary. The body is great at adapting to what you force it to. That applies to fat adaptation in keto but also to lowering BMR under calorie restriction. If you have adapted to that pre-keto it is quite possible that your energy requirements and satiety signals are no longer valid or reliable. Eating more generally tells the body to burn more (switch on dormant systems like skin, hair, nails, thermogenic processes for body heat, etc.) so you might want to “encourage” your body to do more in the same way you’ve encouraged it to switch to ketones or survive on lower calories.
You could be a rare case but since keto seems to be working slowly switching it up is a reasonable strategy.
IMO OMAD is likely to compound the issue of undereating since it will be harder to raise calories in one meal rather than 2.

Otherwise, keep doing what you are doing until you don’t like the results.

Help! plateau and are my macros right? AND constipation
(Jay Patten) #11

A lot of people say that OMAD is more for maintenance, however everyone’s body is different.

I have experimented with IF and EF and I have found that eating OMAD daily helps me lose the most weight.

I “restarted” Keto (formally a strict Atkins user) after years of trying LFHC (because everyone told me the Atkins was so horrible). About 4 months after my youngest was born I stopped going to the gym and around a year and a half later I was 287 pounds (December 29th, 2017). I’m just shy of 6’2" for reference.

Since the first week of January I have gone from 287 to 217 pounds. The last couple of months I have settled into daily 24 hour fasts eating very strict keto.

I know that this model does not work for everyone, but it happens to work for me. I do stall sometimes, but never for longer than a week. I do a moderate to high amount of walking for work- between 10,000 and 20,000 steps per day- which helps, I’m sure.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #12

Sixteen hundred calories sounds highly unrealistic as a figure for total daily energy expenditure. Most people expend 2000-2500 calories. On the other hand, 1600 calories sounds about right as a total daily energy intake for someone with lots of stored fat they want to lose, since on a low-carb diet the body can easily make up the difference from body fat.

Since I have no idea what my energy expenditure is, I let my body tell me what my intake should be. For me, this is the beauty of keto: no calorie counting. Eating fat to satiety has caused me to lose sixty pounds, and no matter how much or little I eat these days, depending on my level of hunger, my weight has been within the same ten-pound range since around December of last year. Since I have no idea how much I “should” be eating, keto has been a blessing by not requiring me to think about it.

Even though I’d like to lose quite a few more pounds, I am already seeing so many benefits that I am quite content to let my body have its way (or “weigh,” if you prefer, lol!). :bacon:

(Jo) #13

Thanks for all the replies. They were very helpful. I decided to go ahead and up the calories. At first it was hard but, guess what – my appetite returned and I am now comfortable at about 1650 cal a day, with perfect macros. And… wait for it … I started losing again, slowly. So I think I was just in time to give my metabolism a jolt in the right direction.

I have definitely more energy and went for a hike in the woods this morning. It started raining half way through with thunder in the distance so the second half was a rather forced march as I didn’t want to get soaked. Just as we were back in the car it started pouring! The last half mile or so of that hike is a long 17% slope uphill that just doesn’t seem to end. I didn’t slow down for that and made it in double time with breath to spare.