…other than avocado there seem to be very few foods with moderate protein and high fat. how are you all doing it?
i am basically existing on a diet of ribeye steak, belly pork, cheese, eggs, and mackerel …and my protein is still a very significant part. i can’t see how somewhere around 20-30% is possible with actually drinking olive oil…any clues appreciated.
Oli.
I just don’t worry about it. I stick with fatty protein, cooked in some type of fat, and I know for a fact that fat will outnumber protein. The only lean protein I eat is organ meat, but again cooked in fat. No problems whatsoever. You don’t want protein to be “low,” you want it to be adequate to your needs.
You can have low carb veg with butter and oils on it. Any low carb, low protein food with fat on top, really.
Mind your daily carb count. Are you counting or using an app?
…carbs aren’t an issue - i’m hardly eating any.
It kind of depends on why you’re doing keto. If you’re doing it to lose fat, you don’t have to add a bunch of fat because, technically, you’re high fat already. Your body will burn your fat stores for energy.
If you’re doing keto for other reasons and you don’t have body fat to spare, then you can, yes, use more butter, mayo, cheese, oil, etc, in what you eat.
You’re going to get fat adapted though if you’re cutting way down on carbs. I honestly don’t believe you have to “force” fat to turn on the fat burning machine. Without an excess of carbs, your body HAS to start burning fat.
The body isn’t going to start burning its own fat until insulin levels are low, and newbies won’t be able to get their insulin low until they start to learn how to go longer between meals. To do that, they need to add fat to their diet. I think telling new people right out of the gates to rely on their own body fat is potentially setting them up for failure, because they’ll think they’re doing something wrong and wonder why they’re so hungry on their 16/8 fasting because they skimped on cooking with animal fat or fruit oil due to somebody telling them to just rely on their own fat instead.
Fat bombs. Olives. Broccoli or zucchini with lots of butter. Coconut cream in tea or broth.
Notice that I didn’t say to eat LOW fat. Just that it’s not necessary to force fat. I think it’s just as bad (in terms of setting newbies up for failure) to imply that they need to eat excessively high amounts of fat.
Oli has already said he (or she? I don’t think you’ve said whether you’re male or female) is eating minimal carbs, so insulin will be low, glycogen scores will be low, so dietary fat (then body fat) will be used for energy.
I also don’t think a newbie is going to go directly to a 16:8 eating schedule…that usually happens AFTER hunger signals are dampened. Unless, of course, someone is saying you have to skip meals to be successful (which also isn’t true).
So I stand by my opinion. 
Eat minimal carbs, add fat where you choose and in the quantity you choose (don’t be afraid of carbs), but you don’t HAVE to eat excessive amounts of fat to be in ketosis and be doing it “right.”
I envy you that you’ve never had to deal with beginners in the Keto forums on Facebook.
I do agree that people shouldn’t force fats. As long as we have the same definition of forcing fats. In my opinion, cooking with fats isn’t forcing, but swallowing a tablespoon of oil of anything that isn’t cod liver is (again, thank you, Facebook forums).
These days, it is entirely appropriate to say “they.” It kills the editor in me, but my firm even put out guidelines to this effect, and I can barely resist anymore. Le sigh.
As someone whose pronouns are they/them/their, I just want to point out that singular they has existed at least as early as the 14th century.
Not that I consider myself an experienced Ketoer, but there’s enough newbie posts here that I definitely don’t feel the need to find more on FB. There are plenty of ways to “do Keto” wrong, or in a way that makes it unsustainable. Telling people to not be AFRAID of fat, to add it back in for flavor and satiety, goes back to a more normal way of eating (vs taking out the fat and adding in the sugar that the food industry has done). So yes, I think we agree on what is meant by forcing fat.
As for the fasting…many people have taken that to the extreme, too. Thinking that you have to eat on some kind of schedule (20:4, 16:8, 4 day fasts, etc) or telling people that they have to do that, is also setting up a problem. That should happen when they’re listening to their satiety signals so that fasting happens naturally and is sustainable.
I had this issue as well. I am one of few who doesn’t like avocado, so the struggle was real. That is until I discovered macadamia nuts! They are super fatty with little carbs. I also found that eating a hot dog or two does the trick to add grams to my fat intake.
tl;dr: Some newbies don’t enter keto with heightened hunger signals, and already can easily intermittent fast without being fat adapted. So, sometimes different cues are warranted.
I was already able to intermittent fast before coming to keto (actually, probably since I was a teenager, 30 years ago, if I think about it). I’ve not had strong hunger cues until, ironically, now crossing the threshold into fat adaptation. I actually did a 91 hour water fast 4 weeks after I started keto. This may work for me because I quit wheat several years ago. That stopped me from feeling like an addict when it came to carbs. Wheat just makes me feel bad and like an out of control addict and that is a serious deterrent. I think the extended fast helped me along towards fat adaptation because of my insulin issues, but I’m not recommending that for anyone else.
My signal that I’ve crossed into fat adaptation territory is not about having lack of hunger, but more about feeling more energy. My blood ketones are also lower, around 1-2. Before, they would be around 3-4, meaning my body wasn’t able to use much of it. And, aside from when doing the extended fast, I feel physically better when my blood ketones are below 2. My body sometimes hits a wall in trying to use them and I can feel this during my walks at times. So, still fat adapting.
That’s fine, just not in my editing realm, until recently. I’m fine to use whatever people want, and was pointing out that it’s ok to use they if it’s not clear which pronouns should be used.
I also use the Oxford comma. 