Planning........does this seem right?

#1

I’ve just come back from a holiday in Ontario and had many happy hours with a new friend who has lived ketogenically for a year and recommended this forum for support and information.

So here goes…

This is me - female, 63; height 1.63 m; weight 69.5 kg; activity - well yoga three times a week, looking after young children three full days a week, lying in bed reading maybe two days a week, walking a fair bit most days (over 60 and free public transport in London), a bit of gardening, hardly any housework; recently diagnosed with ADHD (to be celebrated - trying to hone in on the strengths) and so taking Concerta; treated for high blood pressure - but when BP measured with a mercury sphyg at the ADHD clinic it’s within the normal range - so I’m watchful.

My plan is based on the Keto Calculator, zero deficit, recorded on the free My Fitness Pal, and an adaptation on the first week of the Diet Doctor two week challenge.
It is:
1730 kcal Daily Calorie Intake
20 g Carbs (5%, 80 kcal)
76 g Protein (18%, 304 kcal)
150 g Fat (77%, 1346 kcal)

I’ve had a happy morning in bed putting the Diet Doctor first day’s recipes into the MFP recipe calculator and tweaking the ingredients to get macros (see I’m learning the lingo!!) to fit my ‘needs’. eg I changed chicken thighs to belly pork to reduce the protein and increase the fat.

So my first question - I’m going to see my mum and staying overnight this Thursday, I can modify but not opt out so my carb and protein will be way above my keto targets. Do I just do as well as I can and continue keto-normally when I get home or would a fasting window help? This isn’t a problem as I did 5:2 for a while.

Many thanks

(Jay AM) #2

This is the most thorough newbie post ever. It’s beautiful. To answer your question, it depends. Normally we don’t recommend that a newbie fasts but, do you anticipate the carbs to be significant like over 100g? Honestly, I’d just go for it if it were my situation. You only get to spend so much time with certain people and you’ll only be there for that time. Eat mindfully but don’t let keto control the time with your mom and then get right back to it the first chance you get.

These situations will come up for people in life and it’s always going to be a matter of if you can’t modify, do what you can.

My friends were invited to a fancy art auction where the wife’s work was one of the available pieces and they’d just started keto. Who is there to cater but a full course Italian place. They decided that it was important they stay keto since they struggle with getting back in the saddle if they fall off and actually picked noodles out of sauce and ate salad. However you handle it will be marvelous and you’re off to a wonderful start in keto.

#3

Thank you.
And thank you very much for the praise.

#4

Do what you can with what you have. I’m faced with this today at a baby shower. I have two other restaurant meals coming up the week and I just can’t afford to fall out of ketosis. However, I can’t afford to insult my friend, either! So I’ll eat what’s there that works for me and push the rest around my plate. I’m planning to fast until the shower or maybe have a fat bomb before I go. At her bridal shower, it took 2 hours before they finally served some food, and people were starving! Hopefully they learned from that experience! The bride was still opening gifts 4 hours into the shower. Ugh.

Common advice here is to eat on special occasions and just get back to it the next day. Maybe it’s just me, but “special occasions” come up way too often in my life to go off keto every time

#5

It’s mildly weird, but I’m watching myself in a different way.
My Ontario, keto friend had a headache, he put some salt under his tongue.
I’ve not eaten today and have drunk only a cup of Marmite tea (I’m in London) and a glass of water so I had two glasses of homemade kefir with lots of salt and some spices - lassi I suppose.
The headache is fading.
All interesting.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #6

Headache and an achey, flu-like sensation can be from not getting enough sodium. Insulin, prompted by the high carb intake, pushes the kidneys to retain sodium and water, so once you stop eating all those carbs, it’s important to keep up your salt intake and to make an effort to drink to thirst. (BTW, constipation is another symptom of sodium deficiency, and another good reason to eat salt.)

#7

Thank you Paul.

I think I’ve upped the salt (with iodine) a bit. I’m now eating my late breakfast of belly pork, mushrooms, ginger, garlic and sesame oil - and it’s salty.
I’ve bought a jar of Magnesium Citrate pills 400mg/mcg (who knows they’re not in front of me) and I aim to have two a day.

So my question is - rather than making an electrolyte drink, is it ok to drink more (yesterday it was about 2.5 ptrs which is four or five times times my normal amount of fluids), add more salt than normal and take Mg Cit pills?

Many thanks

#8

And another question - does anyone lick their plate when they’e eaten everything to get the remaining fats and oils?

(Alec) #9

Absolutely. Compulsory for me. :stuck_out_tongue:

My advice on your family visit: just bear keto principles in mind as you eat your meal ie keep potatoes low, eat lots of meat (“oooh, Mum, this steak is delish, got any more??”), eat any fat anyone else leaves (does anyone else do this??), and beg forgiveness that you ate too much steak to eat much dessert.

Staying keto our and about is actually easier than it is sometimes portrayed (IMHO).

Good luck and welcome to the Team!
Cheers
Alec

#10

Thank you.

#11

I got ‘hungry’ after a perfect day of matching macros… I drank 250mls of double cream and ate 25g of 100% chocolate.

And so was +1343 calories (I know these are not considered in keto-land), +9g, +7g protein. and +147g fat.

Comments please.

Would more water and salt have helped?

Ta.

(Alec) #12

Nope, just more fat. If you are hungry, eat fat. And forget about the calories, just don’t count them.

#13

I’m guessing…
that eating +10g protein and eating -10g carb
end up as the same amount of ‘sugar’ in the body once it has been broken down.
I’m mainly just at the fat/protein limits.
My fats have been over by a lot - say 750 calories - I’m guessing again from reading the advice here that this doesn’t matter.
And I’m feeling slightly nauseaus and a little headachy this morning…keto flu…? But wouldn’t this be a bit quick as I’m older?
With thanks.

(Alec) #14

This is not right, but just focus on keeping the carbs low for now. Carbs increase insulin the most, and it is this that we want to reduce. Eating a bit more protein is not an issue. Just keep the carbs low.

This is not a problem if you are eating fat because you are hungry.

Probably keto flu, get more electrolytes and salt in. I don’t think age has a bearing on whether and how bad the keto flu is. Just stay hydrated, get more electrolytes and ride it out.

Good luck!
Cheers
Alec

(Lonnie Hedley) #15

Wait, you mean there is an alternative to not licking your plate?

#16

A straw?

Kissing your chap if he has a beard?

#17

May I use this as a sort of keto diary?

On Friday I went to see my Mum to celebrate her birthday. She eats, and feeds my Dad, a traditional unprocessed English diet of all sorts of veg and fruit, potatoes, meat and cheese and biscuits: cake and pudding are mainly for guests. If it can be made she makes it, so Marmite and tonic water are bought but not much else.

She had some crap advice from the cardiac nurse following my Dad’s heart valve replacement but he’s hail and hearty five years later: she was 89 and Dad is 93. But I did wrangle watching “The truth about carbs” and she seemed engrossed. If she takes it on board there’ll be more veg and less bread.

But keto me: as advised I ate fewer carbs and it was very easy to restart yesterday evening. I was asked if I had let down the hem of my skirt as it seemed so long…and I swear it was a good three centimetres lower on my hips. My daughter said my jaw was sharper!!

So the advice I’ve not followed is to measure: so the tape measure and I have a date this afternoon.

I’ve just put a kilo and a half of pork belly into the oven to slow cook to make pots of rillettes.

And very many thanks to you all for your posts and your replies, for the links, advice, knowledge… and to my Ontario guru…

#18

The quote at the bottom of this post is from the beginning of this article:

Surely it’s wrong - if this should be in the science category please move it.

“After digging through the research, It becomes clear that people lose weight on keto because of one thing — the fact that keto dieters tend to eat much fewer calories than they did before without noticing.”

(Alec) #19

The author, Craig Clarke, is clearly a CICO jockey, and he is wrong. It is clear he hasn’t done enough research yet. Some of the advice in there I thought was pretty dire. His meal plans were a recipe for breaking your metabolism.

I would take that article for what it is. The author’s opinions on how to keto, nothing more. Just because it is wrapped in a nicely laid out website doesn’t make it right.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #20

Mr. Clarke is right that people eating fat to satiety, as Dr. Phinney advises, automatically adjust their caloric intake to a suitable level without having to count calories, but that is far from being the point of a well-formulated ketogenic diet. The key to the science underlying the concept of nutritional ketosis and fat-adaptation is the body’s hormonal response to the foods we eat, and there is where his understanding breaks down. He obviously hasn’t done any “digging through the research,” or he would know that. The endocrinology behind fat deposition in adipose tissue is pretty settled science, at this point.

Keto 6, Clarke 0. :bacon: