Getting Really Confused

#1

Maybe i am getting research over load but it is starting to discourage me… I started my way towards keto about a month ago.
I was a crazy carb eater,pasta no less than 3 days a week,sometimes 4.Lasagna,fettuccine,mac n cheese,spaghetti,goulash,chilimac,beef and noodles,chicken noodles,macaroni salad,stuffed shells…yea basically anything with any kind of pasta.
I also ate everything chocolate,every single day,snack cakes,cookies,candy bars,ice creams,pies whatever.With these i drank about 1-2 gallons of milk a week!
We ate out at least 3 times a week,fast food,pizza,subs,pretzels.About a case of soda a week.Lots of lunch meat and a couple loaves a bread a week.Pancakes,waffles,french toast and on and on…
As you can see,i was as bad as it gets.On top of that,i am 58,i weighed 288 lbs and am about 5’10".My body fat around 38%. As bad as that all that was,i baffle my doctor because i am not diabetic,i have average blood pressure and my cholesterol is on the higher end of the acceptable range. He keeps telling me i have to make a change.
I finally took his advice,he sort of pushed me towards learning about eating and i came upon lchf/keto diets or woe as they are called. :slight_smile:
At first i was like cool,all the meat i want,i could do that.My big thing about diet was i didn’t want to always feel hungry.I ate a lot on emotion and boredom.
So first thing,cut the carbs and snacks,upped the meat.After a week,i found i wasn’t really missing the snacks.Still missed my pastas but it wasn’t overwhelming.I wasn’t counting anything,i was just eating lots of eggs,bacon,meats and chef salads.After 2 weeks i had lost about 15lbs but people were saying i had to count,Ugh i hate counting!At first i wasn’t going to do it but i started messing with it and found it wasn’t as hard as i thought it would be.
I found a youtube channel that talked about lchf and downloaded his app.Here is where i started learning about the differences between lchf and keto.I entered all the information and got my calorie information needs.I bought pee strips so i could check ketones.I bought magnesium and potassium supplements.I don’t have a gall bladder so i bought some ox bile supplement to help digest all the fat i was eating.My maintain calories came out to around 2500 i did a 20% reduction which brought me to 1900 cal a day.following a calculator i found online this broke down to 142g fat,20g carb and 133g protein. The stuff i was eating was strip steak,chicken wings/legs,ff cottage cheese,tacos with cheese shell,Fried cabbage with butter and bacon,hamburgers,lots of eggs,boiled,fried,deviled,bacon,made meatloaf with pork rinds,green beans,peas,small amounts of corn and muscle milk protein drinks.I was drinking cold brewed tea with half packet sweet n low,coffee with other half packet and wylers strawberry lemonade packets.For snacks i was eating sf jello,pork rinds,peanuts and of course more bacon! I rarely drink milk and if i do it’s full fat. My last numbers for my daily count was 1600 cal 111g Fat, 13g Carbs, 135g protein
In 2 weeks i lost another 15 lbs.Now i am down 30lbs and my weight is now 258lbs!I am starting to level off.I felt i was in ketosis maybe once for a couple days at least according to how i felt and pee strips.So now i am going to get even more serious about trying to get into ketosis.I have heard pee strips aren’t a very good way to check ketones,so i bought a Precion Xtra.I did a test first thing yesterday morning and unfortunately found what i expected,no ketosis. My glucose was 95mg/dl and my ketones were at .3.
I found this forum and found out pretty quickly,i was most likely getting to much protein,i know right away i have to quit the muscle milk protein drinks,i was only doing them once a day and they weren’t meal replacements but still…So i started researching meat nutrition only to find most all of the meat is about equal parts protein/fat.
This is where i am starting to wonder about the whole woe.I tried going to other keto calculators and got different numbers from each sight with the same input on questions,they were like this,

168 gram fat
24 g carb
95 gram protein

keto buddy
fat 223g
carb 20g
protein 94g

keto connect
fat 154g
carb 20g
protein 131

ruled me
fat 149g
carb 20g
protein 99g

keto calculator
fat 143g
carb 20g
protein 104

Ruled Me and Keto calculator seem like the best bet but 1 8oz strip steak has 37g fat and 48g of protein,so that’s not good but i am finding this is the case with about all meat,steaks,roasts,bacon,chicken other porks.I do not care for organ meats so what am i to do?
So after all of this long drawn out post,we are down to my issue.I am going to try a few different things for a higher fat like bulletproof coffee,not sure about the fasting thing.I have learned a lot about food and nutrition and would like to continue.I have given up so much and would like to drop at least another 50-60 lbs but i cannot give up my other love,meats. :frowning:
Can i get a little advice maybe some words of encouragement or am i overthinking and doing something else wrong?Thanks and sorry for such a long first post.

#2

Hi and welcome!
I’d have to re-read your post to make sure I got all of it but the basics are:
you’ve had wonderful success on keto (congratulations!); you want to keep going and make sure you’re really in ketosis but are worried that the protein/fat ratios in meat will mean too many grams of protein?

The part I can’t tell is whether the protein is already a problem or you’re just thinking that it will be. It does seem -from the reading I’ve done - that even aside from gluconeogenesis, we don’t really want to make muscle meats the basis of our diets all the time. In any case just looking at the ratio question, here are a few suggestions:

  • Can you come up with some meals that put your favorite meats at the center but also have low-carb veg on the side that you can slather with butter (or salad dressing);

  • Take a look at the many recipes on here and the thread “What did you eat today” (I think that’s what it’s called) to get some ideas;

  • take a few of your favorite dishes and make them with a higher-fat cut of meat

Just replacing breakfast with the BPC you mentioned will shift the protein/fat ratios for the day for you, and you might find that eventually you naturally move toward dropping breakfast altogether.

(Allie) #3

Forget the calculators and trust your body. Keep carbs below 20g, protein around 75 - 85g, and plenty of healthy fats. See how you go, adjust if needed.

There’s no calculator or formula or other person who can give you the exact numbers you need to aim for, only you can work that out by listening to your body.

I don’t count anything these days but did for over three years (first year wasn’t keto) and am very happy to be free of it now. My weight has stayed stable and my body is still changing the way I want it to.

#4

1 8oz strip steak has 37g fat and 48g of protein,so that’s not good

Melt a pat of butter on top of that steak and revel in the deliciousness.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #5

This is the deal.

Keto doesn’t need to be all that complicated. Don’t try to restrict calories; be sure to eat enough fat so that you are satiated. Your body will tell you when it’s had enough. You’ll probably end up cutting calories without thinking about it, because fat is very satisfying. The key to keto is to lower the carbohydrate to the point where your body produces an absolute minimum of insulin, so that it can start burning fat instead of carbohydrate. You only need a moderate amount of protein for cell repair, etc. (too little and too much protein both cause problems), and your body can make all the glucose it needs from protein and fat, so you don’t really need carbs at all.

(Sjur Gjøstein Karevoll) #6

I agree with the simple solution being posted. Worry about your carbs and try to get them below 20g. Protein should be about 80-120g depending on body weight (about 1-1.5g per kg lean body mass, use target weight if you don’t know) but going over is not something I would worry much about. Fill the rest up with fat and listen to your body’s own hunger signals.

Some people won’t get into that deep of a ketosis without a very restricted diet or extended fasting, but unless you have a medical condition requiring it you don’t need to be in deep ketosis. The amount of ketones in your blood is the amount you have made but not used yet, so if your ability to use ketones is good you’re naturally going to have lower levels. Being at 0.3 is not an issue, that’s a fairly expected number depending on when you’re measuring it.

#7

thank you all for the advice,i will try to worry less about facts and work on keeping carbs down.For the most part,since i started this,i never really feel hungry or crave any one thing.

(Allie) #8

Sounds like you’re on the right track already :grin: