Hello,
My name is Steve and I am new to both this forum and Keto in general. I have been on keto for 11 days and have lost 8 lbs, I know most of this will be water weight and am fully expecting things to slow down in time - but a good start. I am looking to lose 60 lbs in total and am also expecting to make some mistakes along the way as this is all completely new to me. One thing that I a little confused by is the UK labels on food - I am not sure what I should be looking for on the labels and what more importantly what I must avoid at all costs. For instance some foods said to be good for keto have ingredients that I have no idea what they are. So what am looking for on the ingredients labels apart from the carbs, and on that, brussels are said to be good but the carbs for 100g comes out at 9g which seems high to me.
Hello and Label confusion
H Steve!
I always subtract fiber from the carbs. For example:
Brussels have
Carbs 9
Fiber 3
So you do
9-3 = 6
Thats 6 NET carbs which are the ones that count 
Thanks for your reply. I thought that was only true of US labelling, the 9g is coming up from myfitnesspal app and also from a Google UK search for “brussels nutrition”. Hence the confusion - how do you know which info is being given ?
I would have thought a UK label would be showing net carbs, but 9 grams sounds like total carbs.
From what I see here in the USA, an 85-gram serving of Brussels sprouts has about 7 grams of carbs, but about 3 of it is fiber, so the net carbs would be about 4 for that slightly small serving size.
There are two schools on carbs, net and total. Following Dr. Westman’s guidance, I follow counting total carbs. It will limit your veggies, but you don’t need to eat as many as we’ve been told. Total carbs are far easier to live with, and the definition of net carbs depends on who you ask. So the values are always shifting.
Finally, I see a lot less complaining about weight or fat loss stalls from the total carb crowd.
Agree but I generally I buy my brussels loose so they don’t come with a label so I have look up the nutrition as “generic nutrition values” which comes back as 9g and then the MFP app seems to back that up as I entered 100g today and it came back with 10g net carbs not total as I have the script set up to show net carbs.
OK so total carbs would seem easier to follow but very restricting, wouldn’t that mean next to no vegetables.
I have my satisfying share of vegetables. Last night’s dinner include baked riced cauliflower with cheddar cheese, sauteed mixed greens with spicy shrimp. I’m not suffering here. 
I am careful about those I eat, yes, but after 19 months of this, it’s worth the effort.
Steve, don’t over think it. If you’re eating more protein and fat, you might be surprised at how few vegetables you want or need to fill you up. The protein and fat (especially the fat) is a longer lasting fuel source. So if, in the past, you’ve tried to restrict calories or “round out” your meals with vegetables, you’re used to eating larger amounts of them.
Try, instead, for a while, to think protein/fat with low carb veggies as a supplement…NOT a main portion of your meal. So have a 6-9 oz ribeye with a mixed green salad. Add some cheese, olives, and avocado to your salad, top it with a full fat dressing. Or have the salad and a small serving of brussels sprouts.
Broccoli and cauliflower are good “keto” veggies, so fix a couple of hamburger patties, use two lettuce leaves as the bun, add cheese, tomato, pickle, mayo, and then a side of broccoli with butter.
You’ll be surprised at how full and satisfied you feel that way. Then you don’t have to take time and energy to look at carb counts for everything you eat.
Welcome Steve. I also count total carbs, just to be sure. I eat broccoli, brussels sprouts, avocados, cauliflower, green beans fairly regularly but I limit myself to one cup a day of one of those. If I push my total carbs to 25-30 gram carbs because of it, I am not bothered. The nutritional benefits of those things, outweighs a few carbs that don’t kick me out of ketosis anyway.
What I look for in nutritional labels is the total carbs, how much protein and how much fat. If it has an ingredient with and “ose” suffix, it means sugar and I won’t eat it. Cronometer.com is very useful for figuring out what’s really in a product. Nutrition labels are not always as honest as they should be.
Yes to this. I stopped tracking a couple of months ago and don’t miss it. Know your carbs. They’re everywhere. There’s sugars in horseradish sauce. Yes, nothing’s sacred to the sugar industry. They inject that crap into everything
Look at either the labelling on the pack or a decent supermarket website like Waitrose or Tesco.
MFP I’m afraid is a combination of UK and US amounts and I find it impossible to use… hence I have my own spreadsheet that everything gets recorded in. You could try putting brussels sprouts UK into MFP and see if you get a better answer, But according to the McCance and Widdowson table (on which the UK supermarket values are based and govt recommended) sprouts have 4.1g of carbs per 100g.
…is a dog’s breakfast, because anyone can add anything. I use Cronometer, which draws from a well-regulated database, and I can therefore trust it.
I’m in Australia, which I believe has similar nutrition panels to the UK, and I use net carbs, and one of the reasons is that our nutritional panels show net carbs, so it’s just easier. Also, I’m usually WAY under 20g anyway.
OK well I will take a look at Cronometer as MFP is beginning to be more trouble than it’s worth, as I say I am new to this whole Keto thing and although my first 10 day results have been positive I need something that is not going to take up most of my day tracking macros, counting calories, weighing every piece of food passing my lips and sifting through recipes for what I’m going eat at any given time. Something simple in other words. I am happy that unlike any other “diet” I have ever been on that I am never really hungry on this and the food I do eat is pleasant to eat - not your usual lettuce leaf and carrot stuff. I know there will be a learning curve but I need to trust the values that I’m given and not get different values from every source I look at - the brussels issue is just one of many as you see from MFP from yesterday - go easy, as I say I’m new - brussels is now showing as net carbs - 0 and total carbs - 4 which is in line with info from this thread but before this I choose a generic brussels value and it gave me net carbs -10g hence my confusion. I have been getting very close to my macros on most days and have lost some water weight so something must be right but I say again simple is what I’m after at this early stage.
Eat once or twice a day… no snacking
Keep carbs below 20g per day
Base meals around fattier cuts of meat with some green veg (if you like… not essential)
Cream in coffee (or black)… lactofree milk in tea (or black)
You won’t go too far wrong… but mainly just track carbs and minimise as much as humanly possible.
I have spent all my life snacking on things like crisps, biscuits, bread etc hence I’m now 18+ stone, I have cut out all sugar, 99% of carbs and now when I sit down at the end of day with my coffee to watch a film I can’t have a 1/4 serving of a keto friendly treat with it ? blimey strict don’t cover it it’s POW rations. I do already eat only 2 meals but will 40g of nuts and some cabbage really knock me of ketosis?
Dunno you’ll have to try… macadamia nuts are the best… highest fat… I was 23 stone now 14st 10 so it’s kind worked for me I find it so much easier not snacking but everyone has to find their own way.
Green veg is fine but I’m veering towards carnivore at the moment after 2 1/2 years of keto. Food has become fuel after a lifetime of “reward” eating…
Dr. Ken Berry has a handy list of nuts here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5Fqe9G5E_o I love and crave maca nuts BUT the cost is exorbitant. Luckily for me, pecans are lower carb than macas, and a helluva lot cheaper. However, as Dr. Berry warns, nuts are easy to over-eat. I keep my pecans frozen, which, for some bizarre reason, keeps me from mindlessly over-snacking on them.
Compared to the standard American diet, sure, keto/LCHF is strict, but that’s a meaningless point, given how unhealthy the SAD is. As I approach my second year of LCHF, I no longer miss potato chips, bread, tortilla chips, and all that carbage that merely left me more obese and insatiably hungry.
The “freedom” to snack whenever and whatever I wish is inversely enslaving to self-destruction.
Not so sure he’s correct on the pecan /macadamia carb count… My macadamias are 4.8g per 100g and pecans are 5.8g per 100g according to the UK nutritional tables…the again walnuts are apparently only 3.3g per 100g… The macadamias however have the highest fat content so I’d probably still go for them. Pili nuts don’t appear at all!
If it’s keto friendly it won’t kick you out of ketosis. You’re just starting, less than two weeks in and you’re probably not fat adapted yet. Don’t worry about IF (intermittent fasting) and definitely not recommended to EF (extended fasting). Eat when you’re hungry. Look up some fat bomb recipes, grab a jar of olives, one of my favorite snacks for sitting down and watching a movie is to grab a quarter of a small wheel (3") of Brie or other soft ripened cheese (not cheese spread) and spread it on slices of pizza pepperoni. It’s so [spoiler]damn[/spoiler] tasty!
As you become fat adapted you’ll find it easy to not eat, you just won’t be hungry. Mindless grazing while watching TV or a movie can be a bad trap to fall into, grab a small handful of nuts leave the bag in the cupboard. For the first ~6 weeks or so eat plenty of healthy fats. Protein will come naturally, just don’t overdue it and keep your carbs to leafy greens and cruciferous vegetables like brussel sprouts, broccoli, and cabbage. And asparagus! If you don’t like those types of veg you’ve never had them cooked properly or you’re not adding enough fat to them. Look up some oven roasted veggies recipes.
Keto snacks will not kick you out of ketosis, they will stop your body from eating through your stored fat and slow your weight loss if you overdue them.
Your body won’t eat your stored fat until you’re fat adapted anyway, so don’t stress over it now.
Congrats on your progress so far and welcome to the forum.