For example, for dinner I am going to have some Italian sausages. I will fry them and they have fat inside, but when I look at each sausage, they are large, but looks like there is more meat (protein) in it than fat.
Just I eat a stick of butter after the sausages? I will be eating some Greek feta cheese with them.
Yesterday I was looking the the steak I ate. Again, even though it was fatty, there was a lot more meat on it than fat, at least from what I can see. Again, how do I know I am getting enough fat?
How do I know I am getting enough fat?
Voyager
(Alex)
#1
lfod14
#2
There is no minimum, just eat normally. Your fatty foods will take care of everything.
Absolutely not, thatās internet stupidity. Ketosis is from lack of carbs, not eating sticks of butter.
x-Dena-x
(Little Miss Scare-All)
#4
Iām sorry. Picturing this literally, is making me laugh.
Tbh, I bite on butter. Not for the fear of fat lackage, but because I enjoy the teeth marks.
Shinita
#5
Just because one sees all meat, it can be quite fatty 
Pork shoulders is like that, even the part with no visible fat is quite fatty and itās very apparent.
But we all need different amount of fat and different attitudeā¦ I do my best to eat as little fat as possible (almost no added fat, thatās important) and hope that it wonāt be overly much (fat is mysterious, it finds its way to my life). Some ketoers need to add fat to everything they can, apparently, some of us track (at least in the beginning of a new woe) to see if we get what we should.
And the lucky ones just eat whatever they fancy and itās perfect (I have this with protein, I donāt really need to worry about that).
I feel if my sausages are fatty (they always are, a bit too much) but seeing? Impossible for meā¦ Maybe because itās all redā¦ But as I wrote, itās not easy with fresh meat either, the full meat part can be fatty. And fat is quite calorie dense, we donāt always need a ton of it, only if we have a high energy need and donāt even want to lose fat.
By the way, no problem with eating sticks of butter if one likes that and can afford all the extra fat. I never could. But sometimes when I know that I probably will eat little for my needs otherwise, I am more bold with some fatty dairy So yes, butter has its role but most of us definitely donāt need to eat it just to raise our fat. Fat adds up wonderfully, at least in my life. I mostly eat eggs and pork. Even with leanish pork (not the leanest but not very fatty) and very little sausage and some dairy here and there I get enough fat.
Of course, itās about amounts too. 50-60% fat content works well for me, I donāt need super fatty items to get enough fat.
ctviggen
(Bob M)
#6
When I was trying to eat high fat, I could add butter to things like steak or vegetables. There are some things I could not add butter to, though, and sausage would be one of them. To me, these are high in fat.
I do add butter to fish. And sometimes chicken, particularly white meat chicken if itās at all dry.
But thatās what happens when people eat to āmacrosā instead of just eating āfoodā.
Shinita
#7
When I ate 350g fat, very little added fat was presentā¦ But I had pork shouldersā¦ And eggs.
Okay, it brought high-protein too but high-protein is given in my life. Obviously if one goes for lowish protein and very high fat, really fatty items are needed. If 75% is too low (thatās the level of pork shoulders according to my data), pork belly easily brings 90. The highest I know (that still contains meat, itās important for me) is pork yowl, 98% fat in calorie percentageā¦
But there are many, many options. I like my fatty dairies too.
My favorite sausage is 78% fat, my favorite dry sausage is 83%. Itās usually enough for everyone but I am aware there are leaner ones in other countries. Maybe here too, I just never met the <75% fat in calories ones.
Voyager
(Alex)
#8
I would like to accelerate my body fat loss. Should I eat leaner meats? After watching so many videos on keto, Iām still mystified on how I could get my calories from 75% fat of my daily intake. What does 75% fat look like 
?
Shinita
#9
As I wrote, pork shoulders is allegedly 75%. Of course itās not as simple as every slabs are somewhat differentā¦
I canāt tell you if leaner meats are right for you. Itās individual, it depends on how much protein you need or eat, what else you eat and other things.
75% is waaaay too much to me. I would overeat quite seriously at that level unless I could pull off OMAD days all the time or something.
55-65% is nice for me, it still doesnāt guarantee any fat-loss but helps, protein always was better for satiation than fat in my case. But we all need a substantial amount of both.
Some people can pull off 80%, some need 90+ %ā¦ Itās quite wrong to do 75%, no matter what just because itās a popular keto percentage. It should be right for us and thatās it.
Some people even can do low-fat keto, at least during their fat-loss. No problem with that as long as they get everything they need and donāt starve and it works for them.
I have this fresh photo, itās 86% fat according to the label (in calories as always, 40% in weight as it has a big water content), I chose the meatiest piece though so itās probably a bit less. But itās still quite fatty so I use some of the pure fat part to get some lard to fry my eggs on. The fried fat pieces are quite nice to eat. But the meat is the best. Not alone, itās a tad fatty for that but I have my eggy sponge cake muffins (100% eggs, I am an egg maniac and why overcomplicate things?) as bread with it. Wonderful.
But itās quite processed meat, not for being a staple. I just donāt have some other informative photo now.
I suppose deviled eggs easily can be 75% fat too. Not mine, those are leaner. I use way more whites and donāt use mayo, after all.
PaulL
(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing)
#10
Is your meal satisfying your hunger? Can you go for hours before you get hungry again?
If so, you are getting enough fat. If not, eat more. And you donāt need all that much fat. For instance 133 g of fat gives the same number of calories as 300 g of carbohydrate.
No, eat less carbohydrate. Carbohydrate stimulates a major insulin response, and insulin is the major fat-storage hormone. To keep insulin low, eat less carbohydrate. Fat has almost no effect on insulin secretion; it stimulates just enough insulin to keep us alive. Protein is somewhere in the middle, but on a low-carb diet, the insulin secretion caused by protein is matched by an equivalent glucagon secretion (both hormones are secreted by cells in the Islets of Langerhans in the pancreas), so we stay in ketosis.
Fangs
#11
This is exactly what I was gonna say 
Your fat intake will regulate your hunger. If you are getting real hunger more frequent, then eat a bit more fat and it tends to control your appetite. Some people will āwant more fatty meatā and if you feel you need it, eat it. Some days your body is telling you to eat a tad leaner cause you are not in the mood for fatty meats, then eat leaner. You will āfeel it from the bodyā on what your meals should be.
Agree with others, donāt be eating butter sticks HA
PaulL
(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing)
#12
Also forgot to say that some people need a bit more protein than others, and if you are not getting enough protein you will still be hungry, regardless of fat. So if fat isnāt satisfying the way we are saying, get more protein, and then the fat should be self-regulating, as @Fangs says.
Voyager
(Alex)
#13
Iām doing OMAD 3 days out of the week, I do get hungry a few hours before. Iām eating less than 20 g of carbs per 24 hours, so the carb part Iām doing good at. I guess I just need to give it more time to lose more weight. Iām not very active, I work behind a computer screen, and other than taking my dog for walks so he can do his business, Iām not getting too much exercise. I am losing weight, just not as fast as I would like, but I shouldnāt complain.
Shinita
#14
I very, very, very easily overeat fat (carbs help but I can do it carnivore, at least for one dayā¦ surely could do longer but I automatically try to keep my fat intake ālowā, itās ingrained since many years). Some of us do need to focus on leaner food (or OMAD. mine fell apart again but I will do it with more fat and we will see).
High enough protein is needed, sure but my satiation is the same even if I eat 100-200g more fat and way more protein. I have some minimum, apparently and thenā¦ I can eat in a huge range, I just need to choose the right items for the energy intake (and maybe the size of my eating window but food choice is more important).
On OMAD, most of us rather eat too little than too fat. I know I should eat fattier there as good protein sources satiate me quickly (it wouldnāt be true with more carbs) but some people can eat more and some hopelessly undereat on OMADā¦
Slow fat-loss is fine. Though some people lose fat at a decent pace and consider it slowā¦
Eating too little slows down things for some people, even fat-loss. And metabolism for everyone, we donāt want that (some people do but shouldnāt, the body has a good reason to spend so much energy on its functions).
Can you give us some numbers, how much do you eat, how big is your extra fat to get energy from? Due to the many factors it doesnāt help to say how much one should eat but in extreme cases itās obvious or highly likely that the current intake is wrong.
Rusty
#15
The rules that I go by may be useful to youā¦
I eat 20g of carbs MAXIMUM
150g of protein MINIMUM
then the rest of the food comes from fat till I hit my calorie goal, or I am satisfied.
If I am exercising that day, I eat more, but not more carbs or protein, just higher fat.
I am lucky that my needs work out that that I need roughly the same amount of fat as protein to hit 2300calories a day.
Which means that if I choose foods that have about the same amount of fat and protein that will ballence perfectly.
Pork belly, some cheese, is about 50/50
If I eat lean protein, like powder, tuna, chicken, then I add mayo, or cream, olive oil.
So if I want to have a lower calorie day, or a high calorie day, I always aim for the same amount of carbs and protein. It is only the amount of fat that I am changing.
Finishingtouches
(Diana)
#16
I think often people have issues understanding how to create the meal. Itās clear keep carbs under 20, eat protein to x grams, use fat as lever. But itās not like anyone is going to eat these items separately. What I mean is itās not as if you can eat cucumber, top sirloin and then you add butter or tallow separately until youāre full. Itās all combined and again maybe just me but this is where I find trouble with the whole concept āfat as leverā and try and stick to specific grams of each macro so that when I make the food it already has the desired fat grams. But in this case letās say youāre still hungry, it would indicate you havenāt eaten enough fat. But no one wants to eat plain fatā¦so then you end up over consuming protein as it came with itā¦. Sorry if Iām being dumb. Just what Iāve found. Finally now I just make 73% ground beef and add some extra tallow so that I know Iāll be full.
Finishingtouches
(Diana)
#17
Iāve found that saturated fat is more filling (tallow, butter, bacon drippings). Not sure which fat youāre eating, but Iād try to lean on more saturated fat just for a day or so and see how you feel. (For some reason I can eat a 20g total carb salad and douse with pure olive oil but wonāt be as full in comparison to a saturated fat on beef). Try short ribs 
or lambā¦ slow cooked and eat with the melted off fat. But start slow. Iām fat adapted and my micro biome can handle a lot more fat. Whereas initially Iād get upset stomach if too much fat was eaten in a sittingā¦.
PaulL
(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing)
#18
Overconsuming protein is not the problem many people appear to think it is. You want enough protein; it is hard to get too much.
Also, when people speak of a low-carb, high-fat diet, they are talking in terms of calories. If you are eating meat that contains an equal amount of protein and fat by weight, you are getting 31% of calories as protein, and 69% of calories as fat, because fat contains 9 cal/g, whereas protein contains only 4 cal/g.
So just eat meat, and eat enough to satisfy your hunger. Then you should be fine. (You can actually skip the cucumber, if you want, lol!) The key to a keto diet is to limit carbohydrate intake, so as to lower insulin, which is the primary fat-storage hormone.
gingersmommy
(Marianne)
#19
Hi Paul, age old question again - what do we do if we are eating zero carb and still have some body fat to lose? I just want to get these last remaining 15 lbs. off of me. The last option I can think of is exercise, which I detest. I know it would be beneficial to me, however.
PaulL
(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing)
#20
Exercise has been shown by a number of studies to be useless for shedding weight, though it has many other benefits. Over the long term, it promotes mitochondrial health in skeletal muscle, which is a good thing. The problem, as Prof. Bikman says, is that as muscles use energy more efficiently, they are not going to need as much fat to power themselves. On the other hand, over time on a low-carb diet, the adipose cells tend to become āuncoupled,ā which means that their energy use is not limited to their specific energy needs. In other words, they become able to waste energy.
How you are going to convince your body that it can be comfortable parting with even more of its energy reserves is always a challenge. I lost 80 lbs./36 kg of fat on keto, but could stand to lose just as much again. But Dr. Phinney says that the typical fat loss they have seen is about 20% of starting weight, and my fat loss was 26% of my starting weight, as near as I can figure, so I guess Iām ahead of the game. Dr. Phinney does say, however, that they do see peopleās fat loss starting up again after a few years. He speculates that the body may need some time at the new weight in order to be comfortable shedding more fat. On these forums, we used to talk about our āPhinney weight,ā which is, as Dr. Phinney describes it, āthe weight you can get to without too much trouble, and which you can maintain from then on.ā
Fasting may help you shed those last 15 lbs., I donāt know. There is so much individual variability involved that itās hard to say. Certainly, calorie-restriction (which Dr. Fung says is very different from fasting) is likely to be counter-productive.