Need Advice on Upping Fat


(Cindy) #10

I had a really hard time getting my fat up when I went keto, so I can really relate! My favorite “fat bomb” is my evening dessert - 1 square of 80% chocolate sandwiched between 2 slices of butter that are thick enough to hold in my fingers. YUM!!!

I put a tablespoon of coconut oil or butter or heavy cream in my coffee twice per day. I put cream cheese or peanut butter on all kinds of things, like celery, or even just on a spoon. If you start experimenting, you’ll find those things that taste really good to you. Sometimes, I just just take a swig of heavy cream right out of the container, as uncouth as that sounds!


#11

I see it now. Thanks! :drooling_face:


(Diane Trail) #12

OK. New here and I am having a hard time getting my fats up. Thanks for any suggestions here. I have read what has been already posted, and still having a hard time wrapping my head around drinking heavy cream and eating dark chocolate with butter or cream cheese. It’s hard to untrain the brain that has been told to eat low fat for all these years!

Also I don’t really like organ meats and am not convinced that bacon and other processed meats are actually healthy because of the processing, though I am open to being convinced, if someone has evidence.


(Carl Keller) #13

Hello and welcome Diane.

It’s difficult to seperate fat from fiction (pun intended) when doctors have been taught for years that fat is bad for us and then they preach it to us. It’s actually fat and sugar that’s bad for us and if we eliminate the sugar part of that equation, saturated fat is not the demon that most of the public believes it is.

We can blame Ancel Keys for starting the campaign against fat back in 1958. He did a study that concluded that countries where people ate more fat—particularly saturated fat—had more cases of heart disease. The problem with this study is correlation is not causation, and Keys neglected to account for many factors that could also contribute to heart disease. Keys cherry-picked his data, conveniently excluding whatever didn’t fit his hypothesis. In fact, the countries he studied that had the highest rates of heart disease also were the countries with the highest intakes of sugar and refined carbohydrates. Was it the fat or the sugar? Turns out it was the sugar!

Not only did the AHA buy into this saturated fat theory, they soon started warning the public and we still hear those warnings today.

Dr. David Diamond PHD has a very interesting video on this subject.


(Running from stupidity) #14

Nutrition’s Stalin, you mean?


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #15

Several studies have been done to show that saturated fat increases cardiovascular risk and failed to show it. One of them was the Minnesota Coronary Study, with Ancel Keys as one of the researchers. The results were “so disappointing,” according to Ivan Franz, the principal investigator, that Keys took his name off the study, and Franz failed to publish the results for 16 years. When he finally did, it was in an obscure journal that very few nutrition researchers read. The data tapes from that study were found in Franz’s basement after his death, by one of his sons. Malcolm Gladwell did a very interesting piece for public radio on the discovery and the reanalysis that was run on the tapes.

Other large studies that have also failed to show a correlation between saturated fat intake and cardiovascular disease are the Women’s Health Initiative, the MRFIT study, and the Framingham study.

And yet we still hear “experts” claim that not only is a ketogenic diet unsustainable, but it will kill us, lol! #ARTERYCLOGGINGSATURATEDFAT

I’ve been keto for nearly two years, so far. #NOTDEADYET


Will the fear-mongering ever stop?
(Diane Trail) #16

Thanks. I will listen to these when I have the time. Do I really need to try to get to the suggested fat macro? Or is it more important to keep carbs down? I’m having trouble with that as well.


(Carl Keller) #17

Macros aren’t stretch pants. One size does not fit all. Use the macro to get an idea of what you should eat but let satiety be your guide. Eat until you are full, try not to snack but make it a fatty snack if you must. Where ever your macros end up, they end up.

Absolutely, that’s the most important thing. Here are some other tips to make things go smoothly:

Keep net carbs under 20.
~You can likely start a bit higher and work your way down but 20 is a good honest number that will allow you to eat plenty of vegetables along with fat and protein.

Use a carb tracker like cronometer.com
~so you can accurately track your carbs. It tracks many other things but this is the most important

Feed yourself plenty of fat and fairly moderate protein
~These two things are your best friend in regards to keeping hunger and cravings in check. You should not gorge yourself on these things but eat until you are not hungry. It’s very important to not starve yourself, so eat when you are hungry.

Keep your electrolytes up.
~At least 64oz (2liters) of water and 2+ teaspoons of salt per day. We don’t retain either of these very well on a ketogenic diet and those two things are paramount for reducing/preventing the Keto Flu

Don’t stress and get plenty of sleep.
~Growing, healing and losing weight work best when we are relaxed. So try to get 7-9 hours per day and don’t obsess with what keto is not yet doing. Most likely it is doing plenty of good things for you that you’ve yet to notice.


(Diane Trail) #18

Thanks for the advice. I really think vegetables are important so I want to incorporate a lot of those in my diet. I started using Fitnesspal.com to track my carbs, etc. Is cronometer better? Do you have any suggestions for fat snacks? And, one more thing can we subtract our fiber grams from our carbs? If so, that will help my carbs be lower.


(Scott) #19

I agree it is difficult to move from low fat. Its like your world gets turn upside-down. I was like this is to good to be true. I eat a fatty breakfast but also add a table spoon of mct oil to my 1st cup of coffee for an instant 100 fat boost. I even do this when fasting now. It’s colorless and tasteless. Now I have a question. I don’t carry mct oil when I travel because I am afraid of a leak. Does anyone just place butter in their coffee? I like black coffee so the heavy cream is out for me.


(mole person) #20

One teensy like isn’t enough. Love, love, love this. Also, sorry, but I’m gonna have to steal it!


(Cancer Fighting Ketovore :)) #21

I’ll get back to you on the snacks. Yes, you can subtract the fiber. I didn’t like cronometer, but I use carb manager. I’ll get the link later.


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #22

Some people do, but I too prefer black coffee, so I’ve never tried it myself.


(Carl Keller) #23

You are most welcome to steal it. I don’t mind a bit. :slight_smile:


(Carl Keller) #24

Agreed. The overwhelming majority of my carbs are from veggies… good carbs. Just try to avoid veggies that grow below the ground like carrots and potatoes. Rice/grain is another one to try to avoid. Starch isn’t the villain that sugar is but if our aim is to lose weight, starch can complicate the process.

Hard for me to say. I’m biased toward cronometer since it’s the only tracker I’ve used. I really like that I can share my data there for the Mercola study and Grassroots health. There’s an option in your profile to share the data and my hope is that my success will help better inform the public about keto. While I think keto is becoming more visible, it still has a ways to go before it’s credible as sustainable and safe. Keto gets a lot of bad press that originates from ignorance and interest groups that stand to lose profits if keto goes mainstream.

Yes you can. Net carbs is what slightly more than half the people in the forum use to measure their diet. It does allows us to eat more veggies. I can say from experience that both do work for me. Here’s a link to a poll where people discuss why they prefer one over the other.


(Full Metal KETO AF) #25

CORNED BEEF HASH RECIPE

Corned beef, especially all the fatty cap you might trim off and meat scraps chopped up. Finely diced onion and plenty of salt and white pepper and msg if you’re not harboring a food prejudice against it like many have about nitrates. This is all to taste. I like to process a portion of it in a food processor to really mince some of it into a paste and then mix it all back together. This gives some bond to it so it’s not just a bunch of chopped up stuff and will cook into a patty. I then use diced daikon radish or red radishes chopped up as the “potatoes”. I fry them on their own first and they will brown up like potatoes and loose much of their pungent flavor. Then I mix those with the other stuff and put what I want back in the pan to fry. No extra oil is needed if you put in a fair amount of cap fat into the mix. It keeps for several days refrigerated in a container so you can fry it up fresh next time.

Some possible things to add; bell peppers, mushrooms, celery, oregano or whatever you might think is a good idea. If you’re opposed to radishes try cauliflower but radishes really do mellow with cooking. Not a fan of them raw but cooked is cool. :cowboy_hat_face:


Best Fatty Proteins
(Full Metal KETO AF) #26

@KetoCancerMom

Are you eating avocados? An ounce of nuts if you like? Sour cream? Taking fish oil?

Nitrate in meats like bacon has been demonized as much as fat. Nitrate is completely natural and our bodies manufacture it as well as it being in lots of veggies at higher amounts than you’ll find in bacon. Celery is a huge source of nitrates and is used for so called “uncured” bacon and ham. It’s really cured as much as any bacon but they can’t call it cured if it doesn’t have sodium nitrate salts in it. Don’t fear the bacon!:bacon::bacon::bacon::bacon::bacon::bacon:.

Best luck to you for ketogenic success :cowboy_hat_face:


(Jennibc) #27

If you use coconut cream instead of coconut milk that will seriously up your calories and fat content.


(John) #28

I have never tried to intentionally increase fat, I just stopped avoiding it. There are lots of great recipes and sauces that have pretty much always been around that have fallen out of favor because of fat-avoidance.

SOOO many veggies that you may not have liked before taste wonderful when prepared with a little fat - sauteed in olive oil, butter, or a combination. Or with melted butter poured over them. Or in a creamy casserole or gratin-type dish. Or cooked with meat, pork, or bacon. Plenty of full-fat salad dressings too. Stir-fried riced cauliflower or broccoli. Mashed cauliflower with butter, cream cheese, and asiago. Cook your greens with salt pork or fatback.

Don’t choose the leanest cuts of meat. Ok to do the 70/30 or 80/20 ground beef. Skin-on chicken. Dark meat chicken instead of chicken breast meat. Turkey or pork sausage. Fatty fish like salmon.

Really just go back to a 1960s diet minus the bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, and sweets and you’re there.


(Doug) #29

John - wow, this is good stuff. So true. One recipe that my wife and I both love, and that can stand to be tweaked a lot of ways:

https://www.diabetesdaily.com/blog/low-carb-broccoli-bacon-smothered-chicken-437161/?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=facebook_page&utm_medium=Diabetes%20Daily&utm_content=Low-Carb%20Broccoli%20Bacon%20Smothered%20Chicken