Hitting the Macros: Newbie Question


#21

It can definitely be tricky. This WOE seriously kills hunger. Keto Cheesecake comes to mind! Was my best friend when I was bulking, was near impossible for me to hit the 3000-3500 mark without it. Fat bombs can help too. Obviously as much “real” food as possible is best. Long story short like you I was never hungry. didn’t eat if I wasn’t hungry, fasted a lot, did OMAD, slowed my BMR down to a little over 1700! Did a 20% drop from that and broke an almost year long stall. Downside is my BMR still sucks. I’ve been doing waves of reverse dieting to get it back up. Honestly given what I went through if it’s gotta be some keto junk food in there do it. Could also do a couple supplemental tbsp’s of olive oil, would jack your cals up AND it’s insanely good for you, awesome for your Omega intake! Just don’t want to do things like chug cream or eat butter like it’s a candy bar (don’t laugh, people do that crap)!


#22

I began tracking my macros and I still track them from time to time - this way you familiarize yourself with food quantities, you can monitor what and how to adjust your diet and it makes it much easier to navigate in restaurants, social events, etc. It’s not an exact math though, since nutritional values can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, so use it as an informative estimate. Tracking is still a very useful tool in figuring out a different path, if you should eliminate some items and how that elimination works.

Don’t forget, we have actual hunger and psychological hunger, you can always ask yourself if you’re actually hungry or it’s your head playing games with you. You will also notice that your hunger is different from day to day, so don’t be afraid to compare and contrast. You’re in for a wild ride, getting to know your body all over again - i’ve been on keto for over a year and a half and I’m still learning, trying to tweak, adjust…

You can always start a progress thread and write a diary of sorts, it always helps to go back and maybe a new idea pops up. :slight_smile:

Try to stick to simple ingredients, keep your total carbs around 20g (that will make you think twice about hitting those baked goods, keto replacement items, etc - they can mess with satiety signals, mine included), eat your protein and then add fat as needed. I’m OMAD and I’ve figured out that I need fat to get that satiety signal, protein doesn’t satiate me, I could eat chicken breast until I die and not feel full.

Have fun experimenting with your body, never give up, adjust, adjust some more and KCKO. :slight_smile:


(Todd Batitis) #23

As someone who was 6’ tall and reached just over 400 pounds myself, I would say you were eating a lot more than 3000-4000 calories a day. On a cheat day earlier this year I decided to take pics of my plates at an AYCE Asian Buffet. I ate WAY less than I used to do but still had 4 or 5 plates of standard food (but not heaping plates like in the past), 1 dessert plate with 5 items on it and a bowl of ice cream with 3 scoops and some chocolate sauce and that alone was 6000 calories, 286g carbs, 283g protein and around 400g fat if I recall (I can look it up as I logged it in MFP).

The reality is that you are still in a caloric deficit so that alone is going to be making a difference as your body is used to burning way more than you are giving it now. It takes a lot to power all those muscles even when you are obese.

About 4 years ago or so when I first tried to lose weight after getting down to 386 pounds via portion control, the bariatric ARPN that I saw had me doing the “eat 6 times a day, small meals with protein” and such and worked out I should be eating around 2100 calories a day and that is what I set my goals in MFP for at the time. I got down to 295 but couldn’t sustain it and 2 years later was back at 356 in March 2018 and tried again and it was then I learned about, first, Intermittent Fasting/Time Restricted Eating, and then keto when I could see how well they worked together mechanistically. In June I was at 291 and got a DEXAscan done and was 34.6% body fat. In July I started keto that was 20g or less carbs, 20% Protein and 75% Fat and keeping the same calorie range and was at 28.1%. Three months later I was at 23.1% and as of my last scan back in May 2019 I was down to 11.9% These days I am at 185 pounds and while I haven’t got my latest scan, I should be in the same body fat range. From 23.1% to 11.9% was with essentially ZERO exercise, diet only.

My point? I have likely been where you are at now. :slight_smile: I get it.

When I first started I felt, like many do, that it was important to make sure you hit the fat macro. I couldn’t imagine how I was going to get that much fat though. Most meat I ate was, at best, 1:1 it seemed. Then I found pork belly and things like doing chicken/tuna salads with avocado mayo and pickles and such. That is a great way to boost fat LOL. Eventually I got it down and for me it worked great and I had zero issues with doing the 20:4 intermittent fasting each day. The high fat was very satiating for me.

In recent months I have changed my macros to 35% Protein and 60% Fat and I can tell the difference. For me, the higher fat was much more satiating for me and not eating for 20-24 hours each day and and the one 69 hour fast was not a big deal at all. I drink a lot of water throughout the day.

Keep in mind that what it all boils down to is being in ketosis as long as you can. Keeping your insulin as low as you can as long as you can. When I was doing the high fat at the higher weight, my blood ketones would run between 1.3-2.2 by the time I ate each day. When was at the end of my 69 hour fast it was 3.6 I believe. Anything above 0.5 is considered to be in a state of nutritional ketosis and you are burning fat for fuel. Switching to the higher protein, along with the reduced body weight I am at now, I typically am in the 0.8-1.1 range. Still burning body fat.

If you aren’t doing intermittent fasting/time restricted eating I highly recommend it. Like I said, mechanistically it works great with keto.

I also highly recommend getting blood tests done to have a baseline of where you have come from. Get a fasting insulin in addition to the standard HB-A1C and that type of thing. Get an HS-CRP which is a measure of inflammation in your body typically used as a heart disease risk assessment. Those are just a couple.

In the mean time, just keep on keeping on. Do what works for you to keep you in ketosis.


(Katie the Quiche Scoffing Stick Ninja ) #24

It’s not a consistent gain though. Consistent would be over months.


(Back Row Matt) #25

So, just to follow up several weeks later. I stopped trying to hit the fat macro if I feel I can do without it that day and the weight loss began again immediately. I’m now down 45 pounds and the weight loss has continued at a steady weight without me feeling hungry nor overstuffed. For now, things are working and I’m not going to mess with it while that continues. I’m sure once I lose more weight, the situation might need an adjustment. But for now, I’m good. Thank you to everyone who offered me advice and guidance.


#26

Nicely done!


(Jack Bennett) #27

Great work! You KCKO-ed and achieved some excellent results :grinning: