How to find 50g fat, 30g protein, <10g carb meals?


(Door Girl) #1

Hello all, I’m back!

I fell off keto because excuses while pregnant. Too much going on to right the ship for a while, but I am back.

Messing around with different meals for breakfast/lunch/dinner was just too much work last time around and gave me restart inertia.

What I’m doing now is aiming for 3 meals a day of 30g protein, 50g fat and minimal carbs. It is a reasonable amount, and I’m I unafraid of adding a snack (1/2 meal) or extra meal if needed. Or skipping a meal or two.

I have been off to the races since I took this approach Monday, water weight is off and the strips are purple! I’m also realizing that my insulin response to overeating protein is something I need to accept, hence the 3 meals of 30g protein vs a mega meal. Though I can have a second “meal” an hour or so later, so I can cluster feed when it helps.

Does anyone here know of a place where I can look up meals or recipes based upon the intended macros?

I’m slowly building out my own, but a resource would be great!

PS the Chick Fil A grilled club stripped of all but Colby Jack, bacon and lettuce plus 5 packets of mayo is right on point and nice and filling! Next I need to figure out my burger “recipe” so I can customize wherever offers burgers.


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #2

I’d be curious to know how you are measuring your insulin response to protein, since I don’t know of any way to measure insulin outside of a laboratory. In any case, while you refer to “overeating protein,” you don’t give your weight, so it’s hard to tell whether 90 g/day is excessive or not. Our usual recommendation is 1.0-1.5 g/kg lean body mass/day. Your lean mass could be as low as 60 kg/132 lbs., and that would not be overeating, so far as we are concerned.

The key to a ketogenic diet is to keep insulin low by minimising carbohydrate intake. This is because the insulin response to carbohydrate is twice the response to protein, and not only that, but eating carbohydrate inhibits glucagon secretion, thus driving the insulin/glucagon ratio high. In the presence of dietary carbohydrate, the insulin response to protein works similarly, though at half the level.

In the absence of dietary carbohydrate, however, the insulin response to protein is matched by a compensatory glucagon response, thus keeping the insulin/glucagon ratio safely low. And fat, of course, elicits no insulin response, beyond the minimum required for survival, so it thus becomes a safe source of energy. This is why our advice is to control carbohydrate, prioritise protein, and fill in with fat to satisfy hunger.

There are plenty of keto recipe books in the shops, but the easiest way to prepare a keto meal is to cook a fatty cut of meat and accompany it with a salad. A gravy made with heavy cream and a blue cheese dressing on the salad will add enough fat to satisfy your hunger. (I use cornstarch in my gravy, because of its greater thickening power; some people avoid carbohydrate altogether by using xanthan gum.) If you feel the need of meal plans, the Diet Doctor site supplies them for a modest subscription fee.


#3

GNG is beyond over-hyped! You eating protein and having multiple insulin tests done? Seeing blood sugar hit the floor? Pee strips are beyond useless, hopefully that’s not what you’re basing anything on.

Gonna be near impossible to find meal ideas based on specific macros since serving sizes can make almost anything fit if you eat strange amounts of things.


(Door Girl) #4

Thanks guys. I used a Dexcom G6 for a year, and I guess I should say that the patterns of glucose response and the way I felt with higher than expected BG responses suggest that I am one of the hyper responders.

I weigh 185, down from 190 at the start of the week, and I’m a 41yo 5’7” female. “Ideal weight” for me is 135, so I focused in on the protein needs there and compared it to where I am today. Setting the numbers off 135, then eating more if needed for my “extra” 50 pounds allows me to build meals that hopefully won’t need revision after revision.

I have extremely quick gastric emptying, and the CGM showed me my own unique quirks. The best part of that is some “hunger” type feelings showed up when on the BG downslope, and the impact was far more dramatic when I had significantly more than 30g protein in a meal, or ate with the grams of protein to fat close to 1:1.

I feel best at p:f of 3:5, and constructing meals of 30g protein, 50g fat and some greens or other friendly veg of no more than 10g total carb kept me on point.

If there is no resource for meals that fit particular macros I’ll keep building them from scratch.

It was just a terrible burden to build meals in excel way back when, and I was hoping for a shortcut. Getting in a too busy to think so I eat “the best I can” loop is part of what tossed me from the wagon before. Just trying to plan ahead this time.

Thanks for all the insight.


(Door Girl) #5

If you leave me to my own devices I’ll eat an obnoxious amount of protein (16oz rib eye, sure!!!) but my BG will crash from just that plus salad. Add a bunch of butter or blue cheese dressing and it still goes down but not as much.

I’m also a weirdo who gets a bigger BG spike from sweet potatoes than white potatoes… the CGM was worth its weight in gold.

I also know the gnawing “hunger” that makes me want to literally shovel food into my mouth even though I ate an hour ago is strongly correlated with that response.

A slice of cheddar for (a very light and snack-y) lunch just body slammed me with the gnawing. Hence my ask.


(Bob M) #6

I wonder if you’re a glucagon over-responder? (If there is such a thing.) First, insulin goes high, and this causes blood sugar to drop. To prevent this from going too low, glucagon kicks in and raises glucose. Maybe your glucagon over does it?

One thing you can try is eating fat first, then protein. I saw a post by Amber O’Hearn where she recommended this, as this (she said) helps the insulin/glucagon ratio.

Another thing is look into meats first. For instance, ribeye is almost what you need:

If you mapped out some of the more common meats you eat, then you’d just need to add the fat to make it up.


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #7

Okay, so your responses are a bit off the usual that we are accustomed to. Since you know what works best for you, my advice is to go for it. In a sense, we are all an N = 1 experiment regardless, but you more than most of us.

As for recipe sources, Maria Emmerich has published a lot of keto cookbooks, which generally give a macro count for each recipe. It’s been a while since I’ve visited a bookstore, but I remember seeing other books there besides Maria’s. You can also get recipes off the Net, from such sites as Headbanger’s Kitchen, Ketogains, Harlan Kilstein (though his focus is not exclusively keto) and Diet Doctor. Some or all of these sites will require a subscription. We also have a Recipes forum on this site. Moreover, Tim Noakes has been promoting a ketogenic diet in South Africa, under the name of “banting” (named in honour of William Banting, Queen Victoria’s undertaker, who embarked on a low-carb diet about 170 years ago, and wrote about his experiences). I have forgotten the name of Dr. Noakes’s Web site, but if you do a search on “banting south africa,” it is sure to turn up. As I recall, they, too, offered meal plans and recipes, for a very modest fee.


(Butter Withaspoon) #8

Good luck with your plan, and with a CGM you have such a great tool for inspiration and keeping on the healthy track.

The big swings, whatever the reason, will hopefully settle down as your metabolism adapts. Listen to your body and respond with intuition as well as your plan. Ultimately its great to get to the point if choosing a bit of meat, maybe having a sauce, some vegetables on the side and no longer needing to count anything. It sounds like you’re pretty in tune anyway!

Sorry I don’t have recipes - I make everything up as I go and don’t track macros


(Door Girl) #9

Thank you all!

I haven’t had rib eye in over a year, I need some soon. 6oz with 2T of good salted butter (maybe share that butter with acceptable veggies, but usually not) is perfect.

I’ll check out those recipe sources. I don’t do alternative sweeteners and I’m not big on xantham gum and the like, so sometimes there is a mismatch for recipes that are trying to meet a sweet-seeking palate. And cookbooks that don’t seem to have a harder time.

If this crew doesn’t know of a place to find recipes by macro they don’t exist! Now I can stop hoping for that resource and just tune in the bones of my meals. I have The Flavor Bible to help me shift cuisines off a backbone recipe.