Hi friends! I’m new here and new to keto and woud very much appreciate any advice! I am a week into keto, the longest I’ve held on to trying this after 2 unsuccessful tries. I am 5’4, 43 years old and167. I’d like to get down to 130-135 for my build seems to work best. I’ll fill you in on everything because I’m pretty bummed as I am feeling bloated and not those amazing effects people have said. SO… feel free to chime in and any advice is much appreciated as I would really like to follow through with this. Note: I"m a sweet tooth addict and for the whole week have not touched anything! so I’m really proud of that! lol
My diet for the week has been:
Mon-tues Breakfast eggs with a little sharp cheddar which said 0 grams of carbs,
Lunch: turkey burgers with same sharp cheddar with mayo and lettuce wrap
Dinner shrimp cocktails with a little garlic and butter
lunch wed and thurs same breakfast but 2 hotdogs for lunch
Wed dinner: shrimp again
Thurs dinner I wasn’t hungry
Snacks, about 4-5 sugar free jellos per day
I drink Propel with 0 carbs most of the day
Every day I have 3-4 coffee with half of a Splenda and a tbsp of half and half.
I woke up this am and had 5 slices of bacon. I can notice my hunger going down but I had cramps this am and bloating? Not menstrual related so wondering if I"m doing something wrong with my diet? I am a very picky eater, don’t eat fish or seafood except shrimp. Not a beef eater but love poultry. I really want to hope I can drop some of this weight but starting to get discouraged? I have not been counting calories just trying to stay at 20g of carbs a day? Soooo, any thoughts? Thank you kindly!
NEW KETO GIRL- first week blues!
Hi @Danielle1, welcome. In my nonprofessional opinion I would eat more fat and cut out the sugar free jello and the propel. The propel has maltodextrin and the jello has sucralose both have a big insulin response. Splenda (stevia) can also have an insulin response. If you must have a sweetener perhaps try erythritol, monkfruit or Bochasweet.
So, yeah, drop the propel and jellos. You’re eating extremely lean proteins and barely getting any fat, get more fat in there. As for the cramps and bloating, I’m guessing that, besides the propel, you haven’t been getting enough electrolytes. Propel is barely anything. (Try homemade ketoaide instead) Add more salt to your food, a lot more. Are you also trying to restrict calories?
What about the jello & the Propel? You are supporting your addiction by eating those things. And they may be the cause of your bloating. I agree you should stop them. Instead, make some fat bombs and eat extra fat at meals - that will help control your craving for sweets (which will drop to almost nothing in a few weeks).
How many calories was that most days? I can tell you are counting by your food list and how you wrote it. CICO DOES NOT WORK - it’s failed you your entire life. If you try to do keto with a CICO mentality, you will fail. I know, because I did. When I finally decided to trust the process, I started having success. It’s slow, but I’m pretty hormonally deranged after 63 years of garbage carbage. I’m never putting that crap in my mouth intentionally again.
Do you like bacon? Eat bacon with your eggs. Are the eggs fried or eaten with fat? Why turkey burger instead of ground beef (the less costly 80-20 blend)? Those options have more fat. Did you use a macro calculator to tell you how much fat to eat? Can we help you brainstorm a list of foods you like that have higher fat content? Do you like butter? It’s an easy way to add fat to almost anything.
@Dan_Dan has a very good copy-paste “beginner instruction manual” that’s under a pertinent thread HERE. Read that entire thread. Then find the keto calculator in the Newbies section, input “maintain” instead of a deficit, and see what it says you should be eating. At first, that is what you SHOULD be eating. And NO SNACKING. If you are hungry between meals, you’re not eating enough AT meals. The goal is to cut your insulin secretions and snacking increases them.
I apologize if this came off rather harsh with the beginning about the sweets. I want everyone that tries keto to succeed, & it breaks my heart to see people coming in still clinging to what’s not working, when letting it go and trusting the process will get the food/weight monkey off your back FOREVER. Please know we are here to help with whatever roadblocks you hit, as long as you want to succeed. KCKO.
oh thanks! I’m glad to have you guys because these are the hidden stuff I am unaware of! Will give that a try!
I’m going to give those up. I’m willing to do it the right way it is these hidden things that I don’t notice that I think is hindering me! thank you!!!
Thanks for the honesty! I’m very willing to do anything with this diet to be successful and I am still learning of these hidden things in say the propel and jello! So I will be giving them up at least as a daily treat. So a few things about me, one I don’t eat red meat and won’t so that is off the table. I only eat poultry and pork. So I am going to have to make it work with those which I don’t think is impossible. Fish and seafood I’m not a fan of but do like shrimp. That said I’m not adventurous in trying new things, am a creature of habit and can eat the same things over and over but just rotating things. I operate like that and like that. However I don’t think that makes it impossible to do the diet. I’m not worried about getting bored. My diet is pretty boring. and I’m good being boring. haha! Now my issue is, For instance if I eat bacon, 2 eggs and cheese for breakfast, a turkey or chicken burger and slice of cheese and mayo with lettuce on that and for dinner another piece of meat with some dressing or something how the heck do I keep up with protein grams vs carbs?? I ideally would like to get into ketosis and these little speed bumps you are all helping me with are much appreciated!
in addition, so how can I put more fat into those meal plans alone I"ve mentioned I eat? If that it typical of what I eat daily, any suggestions on additions or substitutes to those options?
And in response to the sweet tooth, I was looking for alternatives for licorice, starburst, candy galore and for that matter I haven’t touched anything of the sort. That is why I was proud I didn’t cave. Not understanding the hidden things in jello and flavored water.
@Danielle1 drink your coffee with butter, coconut oil, butter and/or MCT oil. (Be careful with the MCT oil it can cause digestive upset) . Cook eggs in butter or bacon fat. If your eggs are scrambled add HWC to them. Cook your Turkey burger in bacon fat. Saute shrimp in lots of butter 
Saute hot dogs in bacon fat.
Im not sure if your comments “splenda (stevia)” are meant to imply that they are the same thing, but just to be safe its important to know that stevia and splenda are NOT the same thing.
Splenda is sucralose and Stevia is a glycosides extracted from the plant Stevia rebaudiana
Sucralose does have a small glycemic index but not as much as maltitol or regular sugar.
One of the easiest ways to add fat at every meal is to cook all of your favorite meats in butter or oil. Grass fed butter, coconut oil are my favorites. The mayo you are putting on your burger patty, and the dressing on salads, has sugar in it, unless you are making it yourself or have found a brand in a store that I’ve never seen.
There are terrific recipes available for making your own dressings and mayo all over these forums and websites.
I absolutely believe you need to add a lot of fat to your daily life.
And salt. Lots of salt, but not white, iodized salt because it’s toxic to your microbiome. Try pink salt. I love the Himalayan salt
When done correctly this WOE is the easiest thing in the world. It’s imparitive that if you’re going to buy/consume processed foods like mayo or dressing, that you read the ingredients very closely. There are hidden carbs in all kinds of stuff.
I hope you find this helpful
Keep calm and keto on
Then this is going to be easy for you! 
Definitely, you can do this the way you describe. You can do all your meal prep on the weekend and have everything ready to go when you’re hungry. It’s a PITA, but for at least the first few weeks, until you’re fat-adapted, you should track your food in an app like Cronometer or My Fitness Pal. That way you can see how much protein vs fat vs carbs you are eating.
I think you’re doing fine on the carb front. You’re eating a low enough number that so-called “hidden carbs” won’t hurt you (do a search in the forum). Eat more bacon. 
Be very generous with the other fats when you apply them. When eating chicken, cook it so the skin gets deliciously crispy, and eat it. You’ll start adding fat unconsciously after a while.
I hope all this jabbering helps! If anything is confusing, try the search engine or just ask in the appropriate forum. And KCKO!
@MissSimon thank you, I was thinking of Truvia! Splenda would definitely have an insulin response.
You can get plenty of sugar free candy but sweeteners can cause an insulin response(as in the jello and propel). The Dudes have a podcast on it. You can test your own response to different ones. Best to just steer clear for awhile tho. Have you read or listened to The Obesity Code by Dr Fung yet? You can hear it free on YouTube. As far as fat, chicken thigh with skin, eat everything in a bowl so you get all the fats, scramble your eggs with 2tbs mct oil and 2tbs heavy cream and cook in another tbs of ghee. That’s 460 extra cal in fat! Add an avocado to a meal. Drizzle olive oil and butter on everything. You got this!
I meant a half packet with a coffee of Splenda brand. I’m almost given that up as well as I drink flavored coffee k cups so I add like a half tsp of half and half, is that good?