It's me again! More questions :)

(Cassandra Higdon) #1

I’m on week 3, day 3!!!
On the ketone strips, I’m at the highest level (darkest purple), no matter what time of day I check. I think 1 time it’s been In the level right below the darkest.

So today I had my breakfast (a keto bread I made with almond flour), Turkey (leftover from xmas dinner lol), mayo, and hotsauce… around 530 or 6pm I decide the family will probably be hungry soon so I start making chicken with bacon cream sauce, steamed broccoli on the side. Smells great, looks great.
I sit down to take a bite and I’m disgusted and can’t eat it. (Meanwhile my bf is scarfing his down telling me how amazing it is. Even has a second helping)
Is this normal?? I’ve only had 600 calories today, some days only 500 calories, still have tons of fat left for the day, tons of carbs left, etc.

Also!!! I have been craving milk. So my mother in law who’s also starting keto, told me to get almond milk, said that s ok for keto. I should’ve asked on here before I got some but I am drinking a glass right now for my “dinner” as I couldn’t take the chicken.
It has 0 net carb, no sugars, no sucralose or anything, but Idk?? Lol

I just wanna make sure I’m still on the right track.

Thanks in advance for any info or encouragement I know will be given!!!

(Darlene Horsley) #2

Yes as long as it’s the unsweetened version you’re good. Almond milk contains a wealth of micro nutrients including calcium, potassium, zinc, vitamin C and vitamin E too!

(Cassandra Higdon) #3

Oh yay!!! I’m so happy to hear that!!! Like I said, I’ve been CRAVING milk, and the almond milk just hit the spot for real :slight_smile:

(Consensus is Politics) #4

Don’t worry about the number of calories. Just don’t eat too much protein. Keep the carbs low. And the rest is fat, until you are full. Then just stop. If you feel full and only at a small portion of the fat side of your macros, that’s fine. Your body is telling you it only needed that many calories to do what it needed to do for energy. Later, you will notice you finished off your steak with all it’s fast, and you will be eyeballing the one next to you, ready for more!

Listen to your body. You will find at times you aren’t even hungry. I have had fasts of over 48 hours without even realizing it. I wasn’t hungry, and felt full of energy.

(Cassandra Higdon) #5

My macros for today are:

4% carb
72% fat
24% protein

Is this too high on the protein end or is that okay??

(Consensus is Politics) #6

I honestly don’t know anything about %’s or what they should be. What I do know is try to keep the total number of carbs for the day under 20 grams, per day.

In my opinion it’s also best to only eat one meal a day, make it a good one, and prevent insulin spikes for the rest of the day. Easier said than done, true, but not nearly as hard as it sounds. I often do that by default without even trying.

As for protein. I believe the formula goes like this…
1 to 1.5 grams of protein per KG of lean body mass. Another way of thinking of it would be like this (this is just me, and I could be way off in this, someone please correct me, but I doubt it’s going to be an issue if I am wrong, here goes…) You know your perfect weight should be “X”. Let’s just use mine for an example. Mine should be about 70 KG. (Times 2.2 for pounds, so that’s 154 pounds). So I should then be eating about 70 grams of protein a day to maintain my ideal lean body weight. If I’m trying to gain muscle, I’ll want to increase it a little. Too much protein will make a moderate increase in insulin. Which will stop me from losing weight, as well as cause the other insulin related problems. Heart disease being a big one.

Keeping the two main macros in check, carbs and protein are the important ones. Then eat fat until you are sated. That’s it. Enjoy your bacon! Enjoy live!

Keto Vitae!!

(Ken) #7

Your macros are fine. Especially since you’re testing dark. If you’re comfortable and losing fat, don’t change a thing. If you don’t feel like eating and are not hungry, don’t.

(Cassandra Higdon) #8

I don’t have a scale at my house lol but my tape measure says I’ve lost 3 1/2 inches around my thighs in the 3 weeks I’ve been on keto, so I assume that means I’m losing fat not just water??

My bf tried to make me eat sometimes, and I’m just not hungry. So I’ll just tell him the keto is working it’s magic haha.

(Mike W.) #9

I just drink a little HWC.

(Whitney ) #10

How much water have you drank today? The darker the strip usually means you are dehydrated and your kidneys are under stress. Do NOT let this continue. You can Google Ketoacidosis for more info since I in NO way, EVER give detailed medical info via the Internet. But I encourage you to consult your family doctor as soon as you can.
ou may also be able to take a urine test at home. For this test, you’ll place a dipstick into a clean catch of your urine. It will change colors based on the level of ketones in your urine.

What do your Ketone Levels mean??

0.6 mmol/L =Low Risk 0.6-1.5 mmol/L =Med Risk >1.5mmol/L = High Risk (call your Dr.)

Happy Holidays

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #12

You do need to pay more attention to hydration on keto, since eating carbohydrates promotes water-retention. So when you stop eating carbs, your body excretes more water and salt. Dr. Phinney recommends home-made bone broth as the best way to stay hydrated, and he also recommends increasing your salt intake quite a bit, both because we need more when eating keto, and also because recent research shows that we need a lot more than the daily recommendations provide for. (If you don’t feel like making your own bone broth, there are commercial varieties, or a stock cube dissolved in a cup of water works just fine as well.)

The risk of entering ketoacidosis is vanishingly small for anyone who is not a Type I diabetic. If you are able to produce insulin at all, your ketone levels are automatically limited by a feedback mechanism involving insulin secretion. And bear in mind that ketoacidosis involves ketone levels around 10 times the level of nutritional ketosis.

(Rita Fernandes Venter) #13

Perfect

(Cassandra Higdon) #14

So I’ve been drinking more water than is normal for me. My strips are at the 2nd to darkest, no matter when I test. I accidentally had something with extra carbs yesterday at work (I had a tiny amount of brown sauce on some broccoli) and it didn’t effect the ketone strip test.
:confused:
I’m almost finished with week 3, and on to week 4.
I feel energetic, I don’t get hungry, and am only eating 2 meals a day…
Wouldn’t I feel like shit if I was doing something wrong?:frowning:

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #15

Sounds as though you’re doing just fine, so just relax and KCKO. Here’s some virtual bacon to help keep you in ketosis: :bacon::bacon:

(Cassandra Higdon) #16

Thank you for this. You always say encouraging things and it is much appreciated. :frowning:
I do have another concern/question… it seems like reaching 1000 calories for the day is incredibly hard for me.
Again, I eat when I’m hungry, but I can’t ever really eat that much.
Is this something I should be worried about??

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #17

How long are you going between meals? Are you feeling cold, dizzy, confused, or lightheaded? Are you having trouble focusing?

(Cassandra Higdon) #18

My routine is have a coffee (either a BPC or a plain coffee in the mornings before work, lunch at 4pm (thats breaktime at work), and then i eat when i get home from work at 10pm.
I usually feel energetic, hyper/happy all day until I get home and experience normal tiredness from work and just wanna sleep. (I usually go to sleep at 1130-midnight, wake up 730 or 8am)
No to the lightheadedness and trouble focusing. I’ve actually gotten better at focusing. Lol

(Cassandra Higdon) #19

Oh, but yes I’m always cold. But I always seem to be colder than everyone else. Plus it’s 11 degrees outside here lol.