Fat vs calories

(Leigh Dillon) #1

I have been on the plan 2 1/2 days now and what I struggle with is keeping my calories down with keeping my fat intake at 75%. I am finding this is very difficult, any suggestions? Or does it even matter what my caloric intake is as long as I’m staying around 20 net carbs and 75% fat intake?
Thanks

(Kellie) #2

In the beginning don’t worry about calories - focus on the 20g or less of carbs and eating lots of fatty foods. I wouldn’t calorie count. I don’t most of the time and definitely didn’t at the beginning and have lost weight

(Leigh Dillon) #3

Okay that will make it a lot easier for sure. I worried about the calories because the app that I have tells me to set a calorie limit so I set it at 1250. But if just staying below 20% carb and keeping my fat intake up there works, then I can do that. Thank you for the support.

(karen) #4

@Ketokellie has the right idea. The easy way to start keto is to keep your net carbs below 20 grams, don’t load up on protein (like, don’t eat half a chicken or 20 ounces of steak, just stick with a “deck of cards” or a little more), and eat until you are full (“to satiety”) by adding fatty foods to the plate that don’t have a lot of carbs or protein. Hard cheeses, butter, oil (olive, coconut and avocado are all good to drizzle on food or cook with), whipping cream, avocados, homemade creamy dressings or mayo, macadamia nuts are all good, tasty sources of filling fat that don’t have many carbs or protein.

(Straight outta ‘Straya’) #5

1200 kcals is insanely low for your needs. Please don’t do less than 300-400 than your BMI needs on an average daily basis.

Otherwise fast.

You just confuse your body otherwise and trash your metabolism.

(karen) #6

It’s not necessarily that low, it depends on her height, age, activity level and starting weight.

https://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmr-calculator

  • this is a guestimate of basal metabolic rate, so it doesn’t include motion, but an older person who’s not up and about very much doesn’t burn that many extra calories. Mine’s barely over 1000 calories a day and I’m quite sedentary, so 1200 isn’t out of range for no-low weight loss for me, it’s a reasonable maintenance level for quiet days.

(All of which is not really that relevant on keto, it’s just a pet peeve of mine that people of a certain size, sex, height, weight or activity level carry on about 1200 calories as it were some sort of starvation insanity. Could be for you, for me not so much. :slightly_frowning_face:)

(Katie the Quiche Scoffing Stick Ninja ) #7

Calories are irrelevant on Keto. Keto is not CICO. Its about controlling insulin levels, not calories.

(TJ Borden) #8

Thank god for that because I have 3 lbs of pork belly in the smoker right now and I’m hitting it HARD tonight

(LeeAnn Brooks) #9

yes, it’s possible the BMR is that low, but only for a very small amount of people. For the vast majority, even for a 5’2” 130 pound person like me, even if you don’t add in any of my activity, 1200 would be too low.

And when people post how they are stalled and can’t figure out why, 8 times out of 10 it’s at least partially caused by consuming too few calories and slowing ones metabolism.

So when people ask for advice and they give height/weight/age where the calories they say they are consuming don’t even reach BMR levels, I will always say they are eating to starvation levels.

(Leigh Dillon) #10

Thank you all for the input, to add a bit more information, I currently weigh 137 and am 5 feet tall. I average walking about 12,000 steps each day at a moderate speed. I chose the 1250 calories because I work with a girl who is doing Keto, and that is what she said she choose, and she is much taller than I am. It makes the program so much easier to do if I don’t have to worry about how many calories I’m taking in each day. It is hard to eat that much fat and keep calories low, or at least not something I can master in my first week. Thank you all for chiming in and giving me some great support. I welcome all tips and tricks anyone is willing to share and hope that I can be the one sharing in the not too distant future :slight_smile:

#11

Definitely best not to count calories; I did that the first week, it was horrifying! I was eating over 2,000 cals per day to ‘eat to satiety’ (although I am a bit messed up in that department!), & I’m only 5’1" & wasn’t up to doing much exercise. I ignored it, kept under the 20g carbs & lost weight. I think others have suggested putting in to maintain on the apps rather than to lose weight, but I just ended up counting the carbs & ignoring everything else… I’m at goal weight now & still don’t calories count, but do a couple of short fasts every week to maintain. Good luck with your keto journey- the first few weeks were tough for me but I feel so amazing now I’m so glad I stuck with it!

(Allie) #12

Please do not restrict calories… it won’t help at all. Carbs low, meet protein, fat to hunger. Simples.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #13

You are bound to feel as though you are overeating at the beginning, before your satiety signaling straightens itself out. This is not a problem, however, because at the beginning the body needs to be assured that there is plenty of food, so that it can ramp up the metabolic rate and start healing.

What happened to me is that, a few weeks after going keto, suddenly—in the middle of a meal—I had enough. I had to put half a plate of food away for later, and I wasn’t hungry for hours. (What a weird experience, lol!) The point is that it took a period of time of having a low insulin level before my satiety signaling could straighten itself out. I also believe that my body needed all those “extra” calories in the beginning to kick off the healing process.

These days, I often skip meals, because I am simply not hungry, and I eat a lot less than I did during those early days. As long as I eat enough fat to go hours between meals without getting hunger pangs, I am good.

(karen) #14

I know. It’s just a peeve of mine, like I’m sure it would annoy some people if I were to say it’s impossible for “people” to lift 400 pounds. It’s not impossible for people, it’s just impossible for some people, including me. The OP is female and 5’ tall. She may well do much better on no-count satiation that amounts to 1900 calories, but 1200 is not totally unfathomable.

(Leigh Dillon) #15

I have set the calorie count on my app to zero an am no longer counting them. I feel much better about what I’m doing now. I had a net carb count yesterday of 7 so not 100% sure that is okay to have such a low carb count? But other than that and the fatigue I feel, it is going good. Not sure I have lost any weight yet, and won’t weigh myself until I have been on it for 2 weeks, I want to give it a good 2 weeks and that should give me a good indication of whether or not this is going to work for me.

(Allie) #16

No such thing as an essential carb, doesn’t matter how low you go.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #17

There is no minimum requirement for carbohydrate in the diet. You could eliminate carbohydrate entirely and be completely fine.

The reason we specify a low limit of carbohydrate on these forums is simply that it guarantees that virtually everyone can get into ketosis. It’s an upper limit, not a goal to achieve.

(Leigh Dillon) #18

So essentially if I don’t eat any carbs (not that I think I could do that lol) I don’t need to be concerned. Good to know - thanks