I didn’t read all the comments are usual, it’s just too much.
Well, I must say I can relate to almost everything. But I did on/off keto. I went keto zillion times and got off zillion times. It was nice but not enough and now I do a carnivore month and we will see the future.
On carnivore, I managed to go below 20g net carbs (unlike on all my keto days, I think) and maybe it’s the I have some of your problems while I hadn’t them on keto. But maybe not. And as I solved most of them or didn’t have some others, I write about them now, maybe it helps something.
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I never was picky but as time passed… Yep. I am a hedonist so I don’t eat food I don’t like (only if I am starving and have no options. I mean, I am very hungry. A longer fast is better than eating stuff I really have problems with). I wouldn’t touch avocado, always disliked mayo (but I can make my own if I want: 1 egg yolk, 5-10g tasty lard from a farm, mustard. it’s probably not mayo but it’s almost too fatty already)… Avoided almost all green vegetables (not green peas :))… And until a year ago, I didn’t eat meat (on keto. off keto a few times a year happened, insignificant). Yeah, I had a bigger carb allowance and it wasn’t hard but it’s restricted too. Especially because…
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I did my somewhat restricted vegetarian keto on a budget and I do my carnivore trials on a budget too. I obviously didn’t use the insanely expensive almond flour (it’s not even so great IMO. maybe useful, IDK but I only pay this much for some super tasty item that is great in tiny amounts) and while I do use butter, I do it sparingly. Like, 10g a week. But usually less. I love good lard and it’s way cheaper and tastier and if it’s not a dessert, lard should do a better job if you ask me. But I avoid added fats as much as I can so the amount is very tiny. I had coconut oil on vegetarian keto, it’s not expensive either.
My old keto was my cheapest woe ever - until I tried carnivore, it is even better. I can’t afford beef or not much but I don’t like beef anyway… I eat way less than on my original keto, carbs made me hungry and I had way more whims, desires… It was only tricky, well, quite impossible a bit longer term while I only accepted farm or home-raised meat (the kind I couldn’t afford). I relaxed these now and wow, some pretty nice meat is dirt cheap! Why poor people don’t eat lots of chicken? (I get super bored of it so I rarely eat it too. I went vegetarian when I was forced eating chicken every Sunday as a kid. I loved vegetables more anyway. But it might not happen if I got pork and salmon and beef… Variety is important!) Now I have turkey and some pork. I can’t afford tuna so it’s useful I dislike tuna (and poor animals aren’t enough numerous anyway). Sometimes a tiny taste is good for variety but that’s it.
I actually find choosiness very useful for keto and simplicity to some extent. I don’t get why people has a problem with not liking vegetables. Those are so carby, it’s such a relief I avoid them now, it made a huge impact to my carb intake… But I understand it’s not the same for everyone. I was a HUGE veggie lover so vegetables brought 10 times more carbs than my important daily fruits (banana and berries). It’s such a relief not needing them… Or in super tiny amounts, that’s nice.
Cooking is the same for me: I LOVE if I have only a few things to use, it makes the vast possibilities a bit less intimidating. I like challenges and being forced to be creative. Maybe you don’t… And it may took a lot of time to figure out how to eat, yeah, that’s a downside, maybe.
You surely can eat zillion things even if you don’t eat many food groups, can’t afford the expensive ones and you are choosy… Find them. I don’t even have the option of forcing down things I dislike, well, one or two times I used some subtle force but I still must not dislike the stuff too much, it’s still a creative thing. Like, I can dislike even my main staple, eggs. But I still can eat them in certain forms. As many people realized, I did it too, drinking calories is way easier. And I almost always can eat certain items, desserts so it was more like for keto… But reinforcing my decades old “dessert in the end of every meal” habit might have been not the greatest idea. But I did what I could. Now I can eat sausage, almost any time. Or sour cream or cream but I should be careful with the sugar in it. Some people just drink some heavy cream and voila, zillion calories. That’s not my style, fortunately but they still can help. It’s useful if some kind of fats don’t satiate you when you have problems with eating enough…
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You don’t need to wait for hunger or appetite (it’s 2 very different and not really correlated things. appetite is my desire, hunger is well, hunger, my body wants food using those hunger signs. I have “need for fuel” feeling too, very easily without hunger and appetite. I usually eat when I have that).
I eat even when satiated sometimes though that’s usually just tasting something, it was freshly made turkey liver now and I need the calories. Eating multiple times help too with calories though it’s not convenient, I dislike that. But if I must, I eat 5 times. I can’t starve… That’s not healthy or hedonistic.
If you have cravings due to low calorie, can’t you grab some super dense stuff? Like my beloved sausage. It’s usually hard to want carbs when you are stuffed with something like that though I can imagine that too but then the case isn’t mere lack of food.
- I am a very serious food addict, I mean the topic itself. Even if I can’t imagine eating at the moment, it’s nice to think and read about food… I can’t offer any advice here as I am in the middle of it myself. But I am sure it will help me finding an even more interesting, joyful and useful hobby will help (I do have such ones but I should focus on them more, immerse myself into drawing, for example. I went off this forum for DAYS, it’s a huge win in my life). I like OMAD and carnivore because at least I think less about what I will eat myself when I am perfectly satiated for a long time. It’s still much but less. I would be doomed if I had to eat all day! Even my occasional 5 meals is IF.
Food is fuel but it’s much, much more for most of us. And it’s fine. I accepted I am a huge hedonist so I never will eat stuff I dislike or super rarely and in insignificant amount. So I eat what I like (or in the worst case, what I can endure somehow. what I least dislike. but it should be extremely rare). True, it’s hard sometimes but there are always options…! Even with very very limited ingredient options. I can make many very different things from eggs. Only eggs. And I can add something and the varieties are endless. Right now, I am very bored of boiled eggs. So I eat them in different forms, piece of cake (sometimes literally but I ate so much cake on keto that I got bored of them in general. but I still like pancake and sponge cake. they aren’t sweet or very similar to other people’s as you know, carnivore but they are still good).
And I need my eggs for different purposes. Fatty meat is extremely satiating to me, I would have more serious undereating problems depending on it too much, probably. And it would be boring too. And you can pry my precious eggs from my dead, cold hands anyway. I am just not into them all the time but it’s fine, I have so much more options! Various dairy (just not too much lactose), various meats, even spices! You do only keto so you have much, much more.
Your numbers, OMG! I can’t even imagine. Do you get full with 200 kcal or do you have too few meals for your super tiny portions? Poor soul, EAT more somehow. Why is it eating so hard for people? And I tend to undereat myself sometimes but that’s 1300 kcal… And not every day… My body sometimes realizes it wants more calories so it gets its calories.
What if you raise your protein? I am no good with a high fat/protein ratio, it doesn’t come naturally to me… I almost always eat somewhat high-protein as I can’t eat any other way and it feels nice. It works well for many of us. Maybe it would be better if it comes to your food options too… As far as I love the mentioned and quite fatty sausage, it’s just some bites, I need a lower fat content in my diet. I eat it with less fatty stuff. I am sure many people eat way less fatty than me, even on keto. I love fat, after all and the vast majority of my protein sources are quite fatty. Just not fatty enough to give me a realistic chance of eating way more fat that protein. I should do something about it when I want to maintain or bulk on an active lifestyle but 83g is so little, it’s very probable you can raise that.