Hello everyone, I am a newbie and I just started keto about a week ago. Prior to keto, my calorie and food intake is and always has been low however, I have/had a bad habit of snacking on chips/popcorn at night when I finally get some downtime( when my 4 year is asleep) As of last week I have cut that out and I’m learning more about keto as I’m going. I just need a little help to see if I’m eating ok, I guess I’m still not getting the hang of adding fat. I am uploading a sample meal. Please guide me so I can do better. Thank you.
First time keto a week into it, -guidance needed
anu123
#1
EZB
(Ethan)
#3
Welcome! I am glad you are starting this journey. A little background information may be useful for us if you could provide it. What re your goals? Is it diabetes management? Health? Weight loss? Brain gain? What foods are you eating? How tall are you? Based on the information here, it looks like calories are a bit low, but you have done an impressive job of keeping fat high compared with protein. What are the sources of fat and protein?
David_Stilley
(Full Metal KETO AF)
#4
Hi @anu123 and welcome to the forum. Your meal print out didn’t work, maybe you could give more info. Let’s start with age, sex, height, current weight and what you’re reason is for doing keto, goals. Also I can’t tell if what you posted is a meal or a day. If you’re not a large woman or man that might be perfect for a day macro wise but we need to talk foods you’re eating. If you’re larger than say 160lbs you might be under eating which is not good for many reasons starting out. I have never had problems getting enough fat with keto, I think some food choices and cooking techniques could take care of that. 
anu123
#5
Thank you for the response. 34 years old female, 5”4, started keto last week at 134.8 and as of this am its 131.2. Work out 3-4 times a week for hour. No weights just cardio. My reason for keto is that all though I didn’t eat much through out the day, I had lots of bad carbs and snacked all day. I gain easily but losing it has always been hard especially by chubby face. Trying to disciple myself and hope to get to the pre baby weight at 120-125 and eat clean. Per carb manager, I am doing a 1150-1200 calorie diet. I don’t always meet the calories. 14-15g carb. I’ll see if it lets me add the pics.
EZB
(Ethan)
#6
This is good information. I can see some interesting items here and maybe can help with some insights. First, you may find it useful to track Calories, but I personally advise against it. You don’t know how many Calories you burn. The machine or app says something, and it is almost certainly wrong. Try to train your body to sense when it is full, and then stop eating. After all, nobody tracked Calories in and Calories out (CICO) even 500 years ago; besides, the CICO model is largely misleading or even false without hormonal information.
One thing I did notice is that your sources of fat seem to be from butter and cheese. Some people find cheese can set them back on a keto diet, while others are fine with it. I just advise that you keep an eye on it. While butter is great, I recommend getting fat from meat. The meat I see you are eating is boneless (likely skinless) chicken breast. Chicken is ok, but you will find that you get more nutrition from red meat if you are good with eating it. Also, if you do choose chicken, boneless breast is probably the least keto-friendly cut. It has no fat at all, which means all the fat you eat has to come from someplace else. These are common “newbie” eating decisions that people often reverse when they are more comfortable on this way of eating. You will almost certainly find more nutrition, satiety, and better energy from fatty cuts meat. And then you won’t rely solely on added fats, such as butter, heavy whipping cream, or cheese.
anu123
#7
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anu123
#8
This makes so much sense. I am definitely having a hard time with cheese. I don’t care for it lol. So this journey is harder than I thought. I’m a big red meat person, ground beef steak fajita but have cut down because I just thought it’s so much fat and it sometimes exceeds my allowed carbs, protein and fats for the day. But I will start and add it again. Thank you
EZB
(Ethan)
#9
The good news is that the journey is actually simple! It feels hard in the beginning because it adjusts your definition of and redefines your relationship with food. Most people seem to start out with a preconceived fear of fat, especially saturated fat. They often are used to eating 5-10 times a day. To bridge the gap, many will substitute keto versions of their familiar foods (e.g., keto bread, cereal, deserts, and snacks). At some point, you discover that you don’t need all of that–you don’t even want it. Food becomes so simple. Get some meat, prepare it in one of several ways, choose some green, leafy vegetables (or don’t!), and enjoy. I used to struggle shopping as carb burner. I had to think of all my meals and what would go bad after what time. Now, I don’t even think. I get fresh fish, keep some stocked meats, and eat!
Red meat shouldn’t increase your carb intake, either, so I wouldn’t worry there, unless you are adding a lot to it (e.g., too many peppers and onions).
David_Stilley
(Full Metal KETO AF)
#10
So it’s about food choices I think. You don’t have a lot of weight to loose. Ethan’s suggestions about food are correct. Fattier cuts and ground meat choices. I do eat leaner meats like chicken breast without skin sometimes but I am way adequate as far as fats go. If you don’t like cheese don’t eat it but a tablespoon isn’t much to worry about as far as stalling you IMHO.
You seem to be coming from a low fat lifestyle maybe, it’s hard to put aside habits we are used to. I would suggest things like bacon, ribeye steaks or any fatty beef like brisket, tail, chuck, pulled pork shoulder meat, chicken thighs and legs, dark meat turkey, duck, lamb, low carb sausage. Also good fats like animal fat, coconut oil, avocado oil, EVOO, and butter or ghee.
I don’t know if you’ve seen this but I would suggest just tracking carbs for now and not stressing about the rest.
Also you might want to stop cardio for a while even though it’s counter intuitive probably. Weight loss and exercise do not particularly go hand in hand like we’ve been taught. A good brisk daily walk will be more beneficial for you for a few weeks while you totally adapt to burning fats. Excess exercise creates cortisol which spikes insulin which delays weight loss. Many people exercising here seem to be doing resistance training short workouts about three times a week for body recomposition during weight loss.
I hope this is helpful.
anu123
#11
Okay that makes sense. I think I was definitely overthinking this whole process and daily getting stressed about wha to eat. I will tone down the cardio and continue the brisk walk and add in strength training. Thank you for all this information.
anu123
#12
Thank you so much! This totally makes sense, I was overthinking this process on daily basis and coming from low carb this is transition. Just going to have to eat more fatty meat and make it in fatty oil to get my fats in.
EZB
(Ethan)
#13
It’ll come naturally eventually. Also, remember that some oils are better than others–especially when frying or cooking.
CarlKeller
(Carl Keller)
#14
Hi anu123.
@EZB and @David_Stilley have given you some good advice. I just want to stress one thing about your fat and protein macros. Don’t worry about hitting those targets so much. Relax and eat real food in the amount required to quench your hunger… no more and no less.
Macros are not stretch pants and one size does not fit all. As you continue to make the right food choices, your satiety hormones will start working how they are supposed to. Trusting those hormones and making the correct response is the key to healthy weight loss and healthier metabolism. How much protein and fat you really need is best determined by your hunger. If you follow it correctly, you will probably discover that those macros will gradually lower themselves. 
Taka
#15
Keto is a really interesting way of eating. All you need to do is keep the carbs low. If you overeat a couple days in a row, you’ll just lose appetite for a couple days after. Letting your body get used to eating is much better than counting calories. It can take a few weeks, but when you let your own body decide when you’re hungry and how much you eat for your meals, you’ll find that snacking is easily forgotten.
Actually, it’s possible to regulate weight by eating one more or less meal per day instead of making meals smaller or bigger, when on keto. It took four weeks of getting used to keto, but then I could skip lunch without losing energy later in the day. And now my body is starting to tell me that I don’t really need food every single day. Even after over two months, I’m still learning to eat right, and how to eat when doing exercise, so I don’t concern myself with weight loss. It will come naturally when my body is ready for it.