New and asking ANOTHER question

(Anne) #1

(I did ask this as a reply in someone else’s thread, thought I should put it in a separate one)

I am fairly new as well. I am 5’ 4" and weigh 156lb. I want to get down to 135-140ish. I have been struggling because I did the macros calculator and it says for me to lose weigh I need 1205 calories 69g protein, 94gfat and of course 20g or under carbs. I have no problems keeping my carbs low. I am like others in love with sugar and anything chocolate but I have good will power and don’t feel the need to eat those wonderfully delicious Lintdor Chocolates in my pantry. Do I think about them from time to time? Yes, but I easily put them out of my mind. As for protein, I love to eat 2 eggs in the morning and 2 pieces of bacon. I seem lost after that. Either I don’t eat enough food or eat too much. Can anyone help me. I like to eat chicken thighs for supper but not sure how many and if I should eat chicken for lunch too as it brings my calories up so high. I really want to lose weight. Not in a sprint way but in a marathon. I love eating this way and it will be a forever thing for me. Can anyone give me some advice. I don’t know if I’m doing things right

(Katie) #2

I have not ever counted calories on the LCHF woe.

I usually avoid more than one meal of chicken because it doesn’t have enough fat content.

My typical meal (I only eat one a day) is 3 eggs. Sometimes I do that in egg drop soup with chicken bone broth as the base…and add chicken meat to it, Sometimes I eat egg scramble with cheddar cheese and diced ham. (uncured). Or just over easy with bacon.

I sometimes end with salmon fat bomb. Or salmon with 1/4 cup stir fry Chinese veggies. Or if I want sweet…a cinnamon sticky bun chaffle I use swerve for sweetener. I have tested myself…and I do not have an insulin reaction to that sweetener.

I do dry rubbed ribs a couple times a week. I found NO Noodles…so I can make various pasta dishes without those carbs.

Hope this helps.

(Scott) #3

I don’t count anything but have a protein rich (or so I think) breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage and cheese. After that I have a portion of meat or fish with lunch and dinner. Dinner portion is at least as big as a deck of cards. I have some veggies for incidental carbs and some wine. Right or wrong it has been my routine. Weddings and holidays put seven pounds on so I have been forced to remove scotch from my diet starting on Monday, down three of those seven pounds already.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #4

For weight loss I think the most important thing is cut the carbs. Stay sub-20 grams of carbs per day for a few months at least. Yes, I recommend you count/measure the carbs in all food you eat. 20 grams is not much. Guestimating carbs can be a quick road to failure. For starters, just eat as much fat and protein as you need not to feel hungry. OK to feel hungry before a meal, that’s just the normal signal that it’s time to eat. Not OK to feel hungry before, after every meal and all the time. That’s CICO and a broad highway to failure.

(Anne) #5

Thank you for your reply’s. I definitely still log all my food to ensure I do not eat more than 20 net carbs. There are times when I’m below 10 in a day. I do not feel hungry very often, if at all anymore… It’s almost like I cook the food just to eat because I need the calories, protein and fat. I am never truly hungry. I could drink coffee and that would be enough as a meal… Strange because I used to always feel hungry. So if I eat my bacon and eggs for breakfast and have a meal at suppertime, is it okay? Skip lunch? Actually it’s more like having my breakfast at lunch time… I work nightshift long hours and to try and fit 3 meals in would feel like eating every 2 hours. Is it better to have a larger breakfast/lunch packed with calories fat and protein a d have a lighter supper?

(Susan) #6

It is no wonder you are hungry – 1200 calories a day is not enough.

Just focus on keeping the carbs as low as possible, 20 grams for the max, as low as you can is the best, and eat enough proteins, healthy fats, water and keep your electrolytes up.

Try to eat within a certain eating window, with no snacking – like if you eat breakfast at 8am, lunch at noon, and supper at 5 -then no snacking or eating any calories from 5pm-until 8am by example =).

After a while you can make the window longer (like I now do TMAD on a 20:4 schedule on my eating days, so Lunch at 1pm, supper at 4:30 so no food from 5pm until 1pm the next day for 20 hours fasting a day). I didn’t do that until I was fat adapted and built up to that amount though -slow and steady is best for Keto. I wish you the best in your Keto journey =). Welcome to the forum.

(Anne) #7

Sorry if I mistyped. I’m never hungry. That’s why I’m struggling. I can eatso much less and be content. So I worry that’s why I’m not losing… Maybe I’m not eating enough and then I add more and the protien gets too high or the calories or both ha ha. Can’t keep to the macro calculations. I eat very plain. I don’t make fancy keto stuff. No deserts or snacks. Just basically salads. Eggs bacon, wee bit of cheese rarely and chicken…

(Susan) #8

I am never hungry (or rarely and I get full very quickly) so I can totally relate to that. I just know that when I was only eating about 500 calories a day on eating days and fasting a lot, for 2.5 months I didn’t lose any weight, so I learned that I have to try and eat around 1800ish or more calories a day on eating days. I am still struggling with this, but I don’t want that to happen to you, which is why I suggested the things above, as I don’t want you messing up your metabolism like I have done to mine is all =). I have lost 57 pounds since February but I still have over 100 to go, so I am totally working on this myself too, I am certainly no expert!! =).

(Davy) #9

A couple of other things Anne.

  1. Are you getting enough sodium? Try Real Salt (it’s a brand of pink/Himalayan salt) or at least Sea Salt. Believe or not, increasing your ‘good’ sodium can help you get rid of excess fluid. Sprinkle this on your meats and/or eggs. Get at least 2500mg, and up to 4000mg is okay.

  2. you might try adding more variety to your meats/protein. Bacon and chicken only may get tiresome, causing you to fall of the wagon. Try adding beef, pork ribs, oysters, sardines (in a can is okay), salmon(wild/Alaskan caught is best, canned Bumblebee is okay), hamburger or chuck in 80/20 or 70/30 is okay. There is a low carb beef jerky, called Mission Meats which is great for a snack. Adding this variety will help.

  3. okay one more…perhaps try this for 3 days, and go for matching grams of protein and fats, keeping the <20g on carbs. Sometimes we don’t want to supply too much fat, so that the body will eat the fat already in/on the body. So perhaps try 80g and 80g of protein and fat; or very close to that.
    Best, Davy

#10

It very well could be! I did that for a long time and slowed my RMR to 1700! That’s with a physical job and lifting at the gym 4-6x a week.

Unlikely, don’t fear protein.

(Anne) #11

Thank you everyone. I will do better today. I love my pink salt so I will make sure I use a bit more on my foods. I will equal up my fat and protein and see what happens. Thanks again everyone

(Jill F.) #12

Hi @Scobie I am 5 ft 4 and weigh about 150 myself. I started keto at 190 pounds and lost 40 last year doing what you are doing. You will get there!

I too struggled with eating enough. But after I ate 1400 to 1600 calories a day for a few months I plateaued and started having to mix it up some. I would do so by fasting 18 to 20 hours a day versus my normal 14 to 16 hour intermittent fasting, or I would eat just protein for a couple if days to get things moving again. I tried to do 1 24 hour fast per week but could never hang! Take pics and measurements too and look at how your clothes fit. Dont get too caught up in the numbers on the scale.

(Keto Koala 🐨) #13

Omg I only had 900 calories today but I’m not hungry at all. Plus the heat in Australia is too hard to eat much in. For breakfast I have a cup of coffee with 2 teaspoons of heavy cream, sometimes I have two cups. Then for lunch I have 4 eggs with a dill cucumber and a slice of brie cheese, then for dinner I have 35 grams of lettuce with minced beef on top with a lot of sour cream and two slices of cheese. I’m only 5ft 3. Is that not enough? Whoops. My Mum went keto and got obsessed and ended up eating 500 calories a day. She was not big to begin with but in 4 months she lost a lot of weight. She got down to 108 pounds and looked very sick. She then stopped and gorged on creambuns and put it all back on in a few months.

(Scott) #14

I think this may be worse than doing nothing at all. I think people in their desire to lose weight decide to combine keto and calorie restriction because their idea of “on a diet” has always been based on calorie restriction. I think any strict calorie deficit really messes up your metabolism and sets the stage for failure (regaining weight) whether on keto or not. Funny how keto is alway linked with “unsustainable” however caloric restriction is not.

(Liz Ellen) #15

I think that calorie restriction is seen as unsustainable. The figure thrown around is that 95% of people who lose weight will gain it back in five years. That’s a pretty alarming rate of regain. I think mainstream doctors/nutritionists continue to recommend it because they don’t feel there are other options. I’m certain the keto failure rate is quite high, too, because it requires you to eat in a way that is so different than SAD.

Just yesterday, I was in a work meeting that lasted 5 hours, from 9-2 :flushed:. No one asked about dietary restrictions, and we were fed box lunches. I hadn’t eaten all morning and was ready to eat by noon. The lunches were deli meat in croissants with chips and a cookie. It’s hard to be in situations like that and eat lunch meat and mayo with a knife and a fork while everyone around you is carbing it up. Keto works really well if you consistently chose to eat keto foods. But it’s a struggle, for me at least.

(Keto Koala 🐨) #16

Yup I agree. It happened to me. I was a severe restricter at my worst I ate a damn apple a day and chased it down with two fat blaster pills and a bottle of water. Plus I walked 12 kms to work and another 12 kms home. I lost a kilo a day but By day four I would be about to pass out and then I would binge on everything in sight. Gain it all back and start all over again. It was hell. I would literally dream of food and my hips would stick out when I layed in bed. It was hell.n

(Scott) #17

I kind of enjoy it. You can see people cutting their eyes and trying to figure out who is going to ask about the way you are eating. I get this alot at conferences when I sit down with all meat. I don’t let it stress me. I can fast or eat the meat or whatever fits my WOE. “hey, are you going to eat that butter patty?”:rofl:

#18

I struggled with eating a lot too. Because I ate quite a bit of vegs, I got full quite quickly and my calories always ended up being 900-1100 calories on an average day.

I was initially worried about this and tried to eat more food. I didn’t feel good ( am I mean my stomach and body, not psychologically) trying to stuff more food down. So I just made sure of the following:

That I was having less than 20g net carbs
That I was having at least 75g of protein (sometimes it goes up to 90g if I feel like it)
That I had enough fat to keep me satiated (anything 70g + above did the trick).
That my diet was nutrient dense (i.e I was getting my minerals, vitamins, b-vitamins, etc)
That if I wanted a bit of a keto snack (e.g dark chocolate or pork rinds, I had them)
That I was getting all my electrolytes from supplements or food.

Honestly, when I made sure of all the above, my calories averaged 1050, I was full at all times, I felt great, lost fat & seem to have gained muscle. Perhaps because I also intermittently fast, my body’s requirements may be lower.

So understand that things are different for everyone but make sure whatever you do, you have your macro nutrients and micro nutrients locked down.

(Susan) #19

Maybe if you read some of the struggles I have gone through on my Accountability thread, and a 2.5 month stall from not eating enough calories in the summer, you will see why I encouraged you to get closer to the 2000 calorie mark =). I just want you to succeed for life, with Keto, not just lose weight fast plan, is all. You are still very young, and I don’t want you doing the yoyo cycle that I did from 11-54 -I want to spare you the agony of years of dieting and I was trying to help you be on track eating the Keto way of eating.

(Keto Koala 🐨) #20

It’s all so confusing. A keto app said I have to eat less than 1200 calories to lose weight. But I’ll listen you you guys and not a stupid computer calculator. Yoyo dieting sucks. Have been doing it since I was 12. Your the same age as my Mum :heart_eyes: