I can't get into keto with way less than 20g of carbs over 4 weeks

(James Gough) #1

I was eating 80% fat for a week or more and then for 3 weeks approx I have been on something similar to this:

1800-2000 calories
130-150g g fats
15-20 g carbs
90-130 g protein

I got strips yesterday and I was almost negative. This morning when I woke up I was just over trace level at 1.5. I then went for a walk and sprint along the beach to burn any glycogen and got home at 10am and I am back to negative. I haven’t eaten since 8 pm previous night.

I’ve been trying to u my protein and reach:
Protein 30%
Fat 66%
Carbs 4%

Typical days food:

|weigth| |cals|protein|fat|carbs
|100|Salmon coop |148|19|7|2|
|100|Salmon coop |148|19|7|2|
|50 g|cheddar |208.0|12.0|17.0|
|x1 tin|tuna |113|27|0.5|1|
|50 g|cheddar |208.0|12.0|17.0|
|x1 tin|tuna |113|27|0.5|1|
|50 mil|apple juice |25|||6|
|100g|yoghurt |122|4.6|10|3.2|
|100g|yoghurt |122|4.6|10|3.2|
|25g|Peanut butter |161|6.57|13.5|1|
|25g|Peanut butter |161|6.57|13.5|1|
|25g|Peanut butter |161|6.57|13.5|1|
|171|Cauliflower |40|5|0|6|
|Mayonnaise |94|0.13|10.33|0.08|
|Mayonnaise |94|0.13|10.33|0.08|

I tried for a month a while back to get into keto and couldn’t. Any ideas where I am going wrong?

(Chris) #2

Pee strips? Useless. If you mean the blood test strips, less useless but again, considering the content of the diet it may not be something to lose sleep over. Keep your carbs under 20 and you’ll get there, this is causing you too much anxiety if you ask me.

Couple tips:

  1. Apple juice is all fructose, and is terrible for you. Drop that crap!
  2. Peanut butter - check the ingredients. If there is anything other than peanuts and salt, you’re hurting yourself. JIF and Skippy are made with processed seed oils, see next tip.
  3. Mayonnaise is made with processed, inflammatory seed oils and these cause a lot of damage to the body’s systems. Palm oil, canola, rapeseed, vegetable, frying oil, many olive oils, soybean oil, all of them are very bad for human consumption.
(James Gough) #3

Thanks dread1840.

I’m not anxious about it.

Yes, the juice is fructose but only 10g carbs. The peanut butter is 100% peanuts. The mayo is less than 0.5g of carbs.

(Chris) #4

On fructose:

Regarding the mayo, please reread what I said, I did not mention carbs whatsoever.

On seed oils:

(Sheri Knauer) #5

Doesn’t matter that its “only” 10g carbs. It’s pure sugar and eating keto means avoiding sugar.

Again, doesn’t matter that there is “only” 0.5g carbs per serving. Ingredients matter and most store bought mayo have non keto ingredients that are pro inflammatory.

(James Gough) #6

Wow! OK. So, it isn’t just counting the carbs and keeping them under 20g then?

Why would my system show medium keto in the morning and then nothing hours later even though I didn’t eat and did a lot of exercise?

#7

As stated above.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #8

Your liver is most likely making ketone bodies, because (a) your carbohydrate consumption is low, and you are able to post, so are therefore (b) not dead. You are most likely not fat-adapted yet, as that is a conversion that takes place at the cellular level.

The idea of a well-formulated ketogenic diet is to minimize insulin levels, that is true. However, there are other factors involved in metabolic health. Seed oils (which is the internal industry designation; the marketing term is “vegetable” oils) are very high in polyunsaturated fatty acids, most of which are foreign to the human body and cause problems (leaky gut is one) when incorporated into cell walls. When they become oxidized at high temperatures, they are even deadlier.

It so happens that the two essential fatty acids are both PUFA’s, the ω-3’s and the ω-6’s (some are better than others for the human body), but they are not needed in great quantity. Ω-6 fatty acids cause inflammation when consumed in quantity, so you want to keep your intake low. When cooking use fats that are mostly saturated and monounsaturated, such as butter, lard, tallow, bacon grease, and the fruit oils: avocado, coconut, and olive.

As for fructose, in anything over a rather small quantity, it damages the liver in the same way as ethyl alcohol does. It also affects the brain’s dopamine receptors the same way, which means that some people are just as vulnerable to sugar addiction as others are to alcoholism. Even one glass of fruit juice, with the fiber destroyed by processing, contains far more fructose than the liver can handle at one go, so you are setting yourself up for hepatic insulin resistance, visceral fat deposits, and fatty liver disease—which can, if unchecked, progress to cirrhosis, and eventually, death from liver failure. You couldn’t possibly get as much fructose from eating whole fruits as you can from a glass of fruit juice, and even if you could eat that many apples or oranges, the fiber in the whole fruit would help slow down the absorption rate of the fructose to something the liver would be much more likely to be able to handle.

If you’d like to learn more, watch this lecture, by Dr. Robert Lustig:

(James Gough) #9

Thanks again Dread1840. I watched those videos. I did know of the bad health affects, but I guess I needed reminding and I was very interested to hear of the marketing history surrounding them.

Thanks PaulL I’ll watch that video later.

Thanks all other replyers.

Juice is out, although I was mixing it with my yogurt and peanut butter smoothie :frowning:

I’ll make my own mayonnaise.

Is stevia OK to use?

(Chris) #10

We’re glad you’re here man.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #11

For some people, it causes an insulin spike. For other people, if the stevia is cut with something else, such as erythritol, the something else can cause an insulin spike, even if the stevia doesn’t. It’s totally individual. Give it a try, and see what happens.

Also, a word of warning: Check very carefully both the nutrition label and the list of ingredients on the package before you buy. The Truvia brand, for example, has varieties that contain table sugar (sucrose, which is a glucose molecule linked to a fructose molecule), maltodextrin (another form of glucose), as well as the variety that is sugar- and calorie-free. If you’re not using the pure stevia drops (which are extraordinarily sweet, about 200 times the sweetness of table sugar), then make sure you get the variety cut with erythritol.

And I would stay away from anything made by the “In the Raw” brand—they all seem to be sugar blends, no matter that they claim to be calorie-free.

Sorry to go on like this, but you can’t bee too careful around marketers and marketing.

(James Gough) #12

All good. Thanks.

(Raj Seth) #13

Eliminate apple juice & yogurt - adding sugar for no reason.
20 g / day is not a carb target, but is a limit. 0 carbs, even better…

As for ketosis: If you are not eating carbs, and not dead, then you are in lipolysis - and ketogenesis is a side effect of lipolysis (fat burn). Do not worry about what your pee strips, keto breathalyzer, keto finger prick etc. are showing. Just KCKO and let the body heal.

Spend your new found keto clarity brain energy on something else.

(Scott) #14

Yeah, I was like “apple juice”? There’s one problem.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #15

Try to make 15 of your 20 carbs from vegetables if you can. I go over 5 grams quite often on non vegetables but it’s an ideal to shoot for. Don’t go crazy with dairy or nuts. Opt for higher fat dairy like butter, HWC, sour cream, and hard aged dry cheeses or blue cheeses. Look for 1 carb per ounce or less. Keep nuts to 1 ounce servings. Peanuts are legumes and not recommended for keto, try macadamia, almonds, walnuts, Brazil nuts, hazelnut, and pecans. They all sit at less than 2 carbs per ounce. Cashews are fruits and have about 9 grams carbs per ounce.

This pdf is a great thing to have handy on your phone, lots of carb info on a variety of foods. I find it very useful.

(Cindy) #16

I think you already have most of your answers, but I’ll repeat…pee strips are useless. They measure ketones that aren’t being used, so you can be in ketosis and still show negative on ketones in your urine. That’s because your body is using up all it’s ketones, which is what you want.

So yes, if you’re keeping carbs very low, you’ll be in ketosis, despite what a pee strip might show.

(KCKO, KCFO 🥥) #17

Apple juice but not greens, of any kind, kale, cabbage, lettuce, collards??? Since you mentioned apple juice I assume you are not doing a carnivore diet. And no avocado either.

Is the yogurt full fat Greek Style, no junk added, if not get the real thing.

As Chris mentioned watch the seed oils. For mayo make your own, recipes in the Food subforum here for that and other dressings as well.

There are tons of beginning meal plans on the web, I suggest you look at some of those and come up with something that will work for you.

Good luck on sorting it out. KCKO

(Running from stupidity) #18

Well, I was asleep.

(James Gough) #19

Thanks all.

I made my own mayonnaise. It wasn’t so good and more like a mustard sauce. :smiley: great consistency, but I used olive oil.

Thanks for mentioning the recipe fourm. I’ll look there.

Thanks for the tips about pee strips. I’m only using them out of fun and a slight indicator.

Juice is out completely.

The days food I listed was just one day. I have lots of avocados and good keto food from a site.

(Allie) #20

Peanut butter massively messed with my ketone levels even after four years keto. As others have said, lose the apple juice. Be mindful of the yoghurt too as that will be problematic for many.