First day finished ...question?

(Di Ma) #1

So, today was my first day in my keto journey to hopefully lose 30lb.
I did a 14 hour fast then drank my coffee, after that I ate one meal and I’m not hungry anymore. My eating window is 8 hours and I’m not hungry at all.
I drank 2 L of water and didn’t reach my fat goal
Is that ok or should I eat butter something ?
The only thing I reached was my carb g for the day so I don’t want to eat anything that will increase that.
What should I do

(Marianne) #2

Congratulations on starting.

I wouldn’t fast at the beginning for at least several weeks, even if you are not hungry. During that time, I’d recommend eating three meals a day, keeping the carbs under 20g/day (and lower, if you can), and meeting or exceeding your fat macro. I never ate three meals a day until I started keto. I only needed to do this in the beginning and it helped me tremendously. You want to eat to fuel your body, avoid hunger, cravings, snacking and keto flu, and allow your metabolism to switch comfortably from burning carbs to burning fat. You want to eat sufficient quantities so that your metabolism doesn’t slow. Enjoy your meals and know that this will work. After several weeks of eating three times a day, you will most likely not want to eat as often or as much. At that point, you can then comfortably morph to two meals a day or 16:8 fasting, etc.

Best.

(Di Ma) #3

Thank you for your reply
Fasting is very normal here, but it’s a little different .
I only had a 14 hour fast from my last meal the day before.
The problem when I ate my meal I ate it till I was satisfied, I had no cravings at all this day.
I can add a meal now if I have too. To atleast reach 1000 calories for the day

#4

You will probably get into ketosis faster with a fast. Most people don’t go straight into more than a 16/8 fast due to the fact that the transition from carbs will give most people fits with cravings. Personally, if I wasn’t having issues with hunger and wanted to get into ketosis faster then longer periods of fasting will not hurt you.

#5

If you are need a meal to reach 1000 kcal and you can do it, do it. Even 1000 kcal is very little unless you are tiny and not active at all or have an unusually slow metabolism for your stats.

I guess everyone is different but way below 1000 isn’t good for everyone, at least slightly longer term. A single day is usually fine so if you can’t eat on some days but feels okay, no need to force it (actually, never force it, find a way to do it differently, there are options. Different food choices, for example.)

I have lots of personal experience so I go for 1500 kcal because I know I need that. You probably will need your own experiences to figure out exactly what is best for you. I think a single low-calorie is fine for almost everyone if one can’t eat without force (and eating properly the next day is easily doable and the average food intake doesn’t get too low). Multiple low-calorie days slow down metabolism as far as I know, it’s quite logical too but there might be exceptions, they are for almost everything. I personally get really hungry earlier than that but many of us loses much control when that hungry… So I do my best to avoid undereating for two consecutive days and it sounds a good idea in general.

Fasting is quite personal, I continued IF 16/8 on keto because that was natural to me and I usually need it to feel okay. Number of meals are personal too, some people can’t eat tiny meals and some people can’t eat big ones but food choices matter too. Figure out what works best for you. Or just eat whenever you get hungry and if it’s not enough, include some extra calories when you can eat even if you aren’t hungry.

Good luck!

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #6

@Di_Ma The object of the exercise is to get into ketosis. I would guess that most people do this by simply reducing carb and increasing fat intake over the course of a week or two. I think people do this simply because they think ‘fasting’ is going to be painful and arduous and they might not make it. I started my ketogenic regimen by doing a 4-day water fast. It only hurt on day 2 when glucose and glycogen bottomed out. By the morning of day 3, I was in ketosis and the hunger went away. I think a 3-4 day water fast is a very quick and easy way to get to ketosis. Once there, you just start eating keto every day to stay there.

(Di Ma) #7

All apps I tried suggested a 1200-1300 calorie intake for my day
My job requires me to sit most of the day so my activity level is low and I’m not that big.

(Di Ma) #8

Thank you, fasting is not a big problem but I’m finding the fat % hard to achieve…

(Scott) #9

Fat is not really a goal. Think of it as fat to satiety. I think the most difficult thing for someone new is to embrace healthy fats after being told for years it will clog your arteries like a kitchen sink drain. IMO 1000 calories is too low for an adult diet. Fasting is fasting but if you don’t feast in between you can mess up your metabolism.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #10

To start on keto, I’d advise not to worry much about macro percentages. That can come later as you better adapt to keto. When you eliminate carbs, you have to substitute the energy with fat. Once you cut carbs and realize you’re going to have to make up the difference with fat, you start seeing fat alternatives. There are many. I don’t know your culture, but I think you mentioned it’s ME so coconut oil, palm oil, olives and oil, fatty fish, maybe high fat dairy. Whatever it is, it’s there and you can find it.

By the way, and thanks to @ctviggen on another comment thread, I’ve expanded my own fat horizon with cacao butter. It’s one of the pure fats that tastes good enough to eat ‘as is’, so I find it easy to eat. It has a mild chocolate flavour that blends well with lots of other stuff as well.

(Shane) #11

Looks fine to me.
Remember that carbs are maximum and not a goal to reach up to.
And fat can come from your body for weight loss or diet for maintenance. Or some combination. If you aren’t hungry, why force it.
Get plenty of protein.

#12

It’s fine for a start I suppose but you might have a much quicker metabolism, it can’t be calculated so it’s sometimes seriously off.
And some of us can’t eat at a substantial deficit and should be patient, maybe making some more changes. Hopefully you won’t have such problems.

Fat percent doesn’t matter, usually. Many of us don’t have a fat limit or fat goal (too little and too much fat is bad but there is wriggle room). It’s fine if you eat less fat and more protein, to some extent, at least but too much protein probably not a concern with your calorie intake.
Our calorie intake and food choices affect the realistic fat percentage range. You doesn’t need to meet some number that makes little sense but many people loves generalization. I am all for keeping personal differences in mind and finetuning as it works better. It’s clearly bad forcing ourself to eat fat and too little protein (and other nutrients) just because our calorie intake is unusually small, for example. 75% fat is quite much, I eat my fav quite fatty protein sources with very little extra fat (I couldn’t consume much more with them) but that’s still 65-70%. There are ways to raise it but why if it’s not needed and only would cause problems? I leave specific numbers and high fat percentages for ketoers who need those for therapy or who has some other reason (high protein is bad for them or something). I like to focus on the important things.

(Cancer Fighting Ketovore :)) #13

You don’t need to try to “max” your carbs (as in trying to make sure you get your 20g).

If you haven’t seen it yet, I recommend checking this out.

Also, I have trouble getting my fat in. My personal solution has been to drink heavy cream (gives me lots of fat without too many carbs. About 80g fat & 6g carbs in 1 cup). Also, butter on veggies is good :slight_smile:

(Jack Bennett) #14

There’s no “need” to reach a fat macro unless you’re still hungry and really want to eat something.

The usual mantra is “protein is a target; carb is a limit; eat fat to satiety”.

The idea is that you want to reach your protein goal (grams per day). Protein is believed to help with satiety (see the protein leverage hypothesis).

Carbs are an upper limit because that is needed for ketosis (people usually quote 20 grams / day but you can discover your own limit through experimentation).

All the rest of your food energy comes from fat, so if you’re hungry, eat fat up to your limit. If you’re not, don’t. Don’t drive yourself crazy - if you eat a bit more one day and a bit less another day, that’s OK. Also, your hunger may vary based on activity level and other factors.

(Di Ma) #15

I wasn’t trying to max my carbs but that’s what I ended up with carbs and protein were both maxed but not the fat.
I’ll try not to worry and see how it goes in the next few days

(Di Ma) #16

Thank you :pray:

#17

Confusing, but somebody told me here that protein will also be converted to sugar for energy, so i wouldn’t max out protein, but indeed- max out fats. I would keep the proteins limited too, unless you are doing something like a carnivore diet? When I read what you are doing, I cringe a bit, because it sounds so hard. I am eating keto with a passion, but just lost 3 lbs in 1 month. That not much. But I am Ok with this because I get to enjoy my food while slowly losing the weight… Somebody else told me that it took time to gain the weight, so I am taking my time to lose it. Most of all, because I can live well this way. Eating, when older, becomes a joy in life. I don’t want to deprive myself of this very important pleasure. On keto however, I am so much less hungry and sometimes dont need any breakfast, and with that I slip into IF on some days effortlessly. And most of all - it doesnt feel like a diet, but more like a change in the way i eat without dieting. I have been through ALL the diets and gained back more. So that’s finished for me. I love this way of eating- and cauliflower rice tastes just as good as regular rice did to me. I dont feel like I am depriving myself. Thats major for me, and what makes keto so doable as a lifestyle change. So when I read how much eifort and willpower you need to invest to maintain under 1000 cal/day, it just sounds so tedious. Why not do keto and find out that you slip into less calories and IF all on your own without force?

(Di Ma) #18

I’m not trying to be under 1000 calories, I ate when I was hungry and satisfied My hunger , after that I was not hungry
I am not putting too much effort , I’m actually enjoying the time I cook my meal and eat it. I just didn’t feel like eating more than that on my first day

#19

@Di_Ma
Oh well thats great then!
Welcome to the forum!

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #20

@Chantarella