How do you track your macros?

[Sarah_Peller]

Thanks! Where do you set this up? I just opened up the app and it’s very overwhelming…

[Sarah_Peller]

Eat less than 20 grams a day of carbohydrate, and you will be guaranteed to be in ketosis. Limit yourself to leafy greens and cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli and cauliflower, in small quantities. Stay away from all grains and all sweets. Put cream in your coffee, not milk, which has sugars in it. Fruits are iffy, so stay away from them until you are certain you are in ketosis.

I thought I was doing all of this! But there must be some hidden carbs in what I’m eating or my app that I’m using is tracking things incorrectly…

[Daisytoad]

I’m not sure about every platform, but on Android if you go to the profile icon at the bottom, that is where you can set up your stats, then under settings go to “edit macronutrient targets” I have mine set to show full macronutrient breakdown, and to use net carbs. Then set the diet profile to custom and set the percentages that you would like (mine are 21, 4, 75). Then you can press the tab that says diary and it will take you to today’s log book.

[Sarah_Peller]

OMG thank you so much!! This app is waaay better than all the others I’ve tried (I think I’ve tried about 4 or 5 at this point). And I have an android, so your instructions were great!!

Can you help me with one more thing? I’m trying to figure out how to split up a recipe…

I made some chocolate pudding and cut it into 6 slices, so that I can portion it out. I created a custom food and entered the fat, protein, and carbs for the whole recipe. How do I set it so that I can add my food in a daily log that is 1 of 6 servings?

I see that there is a “Nutrients in” _____ and then there’s a drop-down menu with the measurement that I can choose. I wrote “slice” in there. I tried entering “Nutrients in 6 slice”, but when I enter it into my daily log, it thinks I’ve eaten the whole recipe… :-[

[Daisytoad]

You should be able to select either entire recipe, serving, or gram from the drop down menu when you go to add it to your diary.

[Sarah_Peller]

Ok Waaaaiiiiit a minute…

I just was entering my foods for the day into my new app, and came across something odd.

I put a tablespoon of Health Garden Monk Fruit into my tea and when I entered it in Cronometer, it said that there are 28g of carbs in 1 tablespoon?? Is that right? That can’t be… The old app I was using never registered any carbs in this particular sweetener…

I’m confused!!

[PetaMarie]

How do other people go about tracking?

I am a gigantic nerd and I kept a notebook years ago with ALL the low carb food written down with carb count and eventually memorized most of them. After a while I counted in my head and when I went keto again this time (20 yrs later) I bought a book from the bookstore with all the nutrition counts in it and used that for a while until my brain remembered everything.

Carb counting apps are nice for compiling information but I only track carbs and I can easily keep track of counting to 20 daily.

Learning the foods you’ll eat the most often is a good idea if you plan on eating this way forever. It’s much more efficient. Best wishes!

[Sarah_Peller]

You should be able to select either entire recipe, serving, or gram from the drop down menu when you go to add it to your diary.

Weird, I think something is wrong with my app… it doesn’t give me any options when I add the food…

[Ilana_Rose]

It’s 4 grams of carbs per teaspoon. It says it on the package. It’s sugar alcohols, which your last app might have been ignoring. But sweeteners mess up ketosis and weight loss for lots of people. it sounds like you use them liberally so you might want to consider a few days without them to see what happens. We’re all different, some people’s metabolisms don’t get screwed up by the sweeteners, but for many of us, they do.

[Sarah_Peller]

OHHHH, it’s been the sweeteners this whole time!!! In 3 of the apps I’ve used, they say there are no carbs in these, so I’ve of course been liberal with them! Ok, now I understand. I’ll go a few days without any sweeteners (praying I can get through that!! ) and see what happens then.

[Ilana_Rose]

Giving up sweeteners is one of the first things suggested for people who’s weight loss gets stalled out. It’s a problem for lots of people. I think if you still need to have something sweet at the beginning just limit it to once a day, maybe a teaspoon instead of a tablespoon.

[Dread1840]

You could always cut the veggies and fill up on meat…

[PaulL]

Shh! She’s new—give her some time before initiating her into the mysteries of meatarianism!

(By the way, are you coming to next week’s goat sacrifice? They say the High Priestess has a new recipe . . .)

[Sarah_Peller]

Haha…

Of all of the keto things I’ve read online, I have not come across anything about how you shouldn’t eat these sweeteners! They all say that these are perfectly acceptable to eat! And I haven’t read anything that says that some people can handle them and others can’t. I’m glad to finally figure this out!! Thank you for helping me uncover this. I’m going to go without sweeteners for a while and see what happens.

[Daisytoad]

I just was entering my foods for the day into my new app, and came across something odd.

I put a tablespoon of Health Garden Monk Fruit into my tea and when I entered it in Cronometer, it said that there are 28g of carbs in 1 tablespoon?? Is that right? That can’t be… The old app I was using never registered any carbs in this particular sweetener…

I’m confused!!

You can set Cronometer to count sugar alcohols or not. I count them, because they effect me, but you can choose not to if it works for you.

[Ketodaisy]

I agree with what’s been said about the sweeteners. Limit them or cut them out altogether. Before thanksgiving, I was fat adapted and down 18 lbs. Then from thanksgiving to Christmas, I was super generous with the sweetener based foods, completely lost not only ketosis (I don’t track ketones), but my fat adaption too!! I’ve been back strict with little to no sweetener since Christmas Day and I just returned to fat adaption status 2 days ago. Just not worth it!!!

I haven’t eaten sugar in over 2 years, but sweetener isn’t much better. I was using xylitol, monk fruit, and erythritol mostly.

[juice]

Of all of the keto things I’ve read online, I have not come across anything about how you shouldn’t eat these sweeteners!

There’s a lot of “keto” information out there that’s about as keto as honey smacks.

[AMJ]

Are you losing weight or using keto for other health benefits. I need to make some changes and am interested in hearing about other people’s approach to keto.

[RobC]

If you are still having trouble getting into measured ketosis - try experimenting.

• Zero sweet things (artificial or not or however they are being marketed) - all carbs only incidental from leafy greens.

• 1 to 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram (not pound! oops) of your goal body weight.

• As much fat as you want (without sweet flavors or excess protein - palate fatigue with be your friend).

• And now, saved the best for last, drop the dairy too (along with any nuts you may be consuming).

In a week you are likely to be deep into ketosis - add back (for example) just the dairy and see where your numbers go.

[Alex99]

I’m totally at a loss and almost ready to give up. I hope some people have some wisdom for me…

Hi,

I started off by turning my kitchen into a chemistry lab, measuring this, weighing that, family giggling in the background … but It turned out to be much easier than I thought.

Just eliminate sugar, bread, rice, pasta and replace those with veggies. I was already eating about the right amount of protein so no great change there.

Instead of cereal with milk, one big pile of sugar there! - I switched to bacon and eggs or leftovers.

For lunch instead of a BigMac, yes I had those (blush) or a “healthy” Subway - it became roast chicken or canned fish with an avocado and cheese.

Dinner became meat and veggies, something my wife was always trying to promote, so no great change there … I just avoid potatoes, corn and carrots.

I hope you can see there is nothing weird. All normal amounts of the classic “meat and veg” dinner. (Minus the industrially made toxic processed foods based on sugar and “wheat”).

The biggest hurdle was making my peace with fat - which just meant I didn’t need to fear butter. And all it takes is one tablespoon on steamed veggies. Or I’ll fry my eggs in butter instead of machine oil (er, I mean “vegetable oil”).

How do I determine what macros are left in my meal or in my day and use these apps to figure out what I still need to eat?

Either build you meal around the classic “meat and veggie” idea, you’ll probably nail it. (Just avoid sugar, bread, rice …)

Go to dietdoctor.com and check out their pictures of food. Click on the veggies you’ll see great pictures. Basically anything green and above ground is great, most things growing underground not so great.

OR
You can add food items in your app before consuming said items, see how the numbers pan out and then simply delete them from the app, cronmeter lets you delete, and try some other ideas …

OR
*just post your food plans and ideas here and we’ll crunch the numbers for you until you get use to it.

Just make sure you stay under 20g carbs. Avoid bad food. Have tons of water. And tons of salt. After that keto is very forgiving. Bit more or less of whatever, it doesn’t matter.

IF you are taking any medication or pills that can affect everything. Might have to swap things with doctor supervision. If they are anti keto remember regular doctors do not learn anything about food intake at med-school, that’s a big surprise to many people. But interestingly the greatest strides in the keto diet where all made by doctors with a personal need! Atkins, Phinney, Noakes, Atia, Davis, and many others …

Maybe your body is fighting chronic inflammation, most of us fall into that bucket, or chronic infections … keep keto’ing it gives your body a much better chance of winning those battles.

Many people loose weight straight away but many have to just have to hang in there for a good few weeks. No weight loss at all. Then suddenly “whoosh” a big drop in one hit.

Hang in there … it is well worth it.