Hi all. I’ve been seeing some posts that the most important thing to do (I’m using carb manager) is meet your protein macro. That nothing (aside from keeping carb count low) matters. I was under the impression that we should not eat too much protein… keto since November and 30 lbs down. I’m doing great, but is that true? All this time I’ve been trying to keep protein under and fats up.
Protein?
anon2571578
#2
Fat should be making up the majority of your calories, which is simple considering it’s 9 calories per gram versus protein’s 4 calories. But you need to be hitting your protein goal. Eat fatty meat and stay away from lean muscle meat, and you should be fine.
Dread1840
(Chris)
#3
If you need it laid out in simple terms: Protein to whatever you deem your goal as (some say an amount per pound of bodyweight, others use lean body mass), and fill the rest with fat.
Measure by calories, not by food weight.
ctviggen
(Bob M)
#4
Personally, I’d just eat real food, keep carbs low, and let the macros do what they do. I commonly eat shrimp, mussels, lean ham (get lowest carb count I can get), and I eat lean meats a lot. Not exclusively, but a lot. In fact, fatty meats often do not taste good to me. My diet would currently smash any protein macro. But I don’t eat lean all the time, and I fast multiple days per week. So, the amount of protein I’m getting ‘per day’ is difficult to calculate.
Regardless, if you get “too much” or “too little” protein, it’s not a big deal, unless it’s “too little” for a long time. (And defining “too little” is impossible.)
Gee13167
(Jeanine)
#5
Thank you for clearing that up. I’ve been doing fine the way I’ve been doing it. So what your saying is I should meet my protein goal on carb manager. I was purposely trying to NOT eat too much protein.
Ilana_Rose
(mole person)
#6
I never count my protein macro. I’ve decided to trust my appetite for protein which is actually pretty low. In spite of only having 40ish grams a day, I have zero problems working out and adding muscle. If what you are doing right now is working for you and, more importantly, you feel well at that level then I wouldn’t increase.
LeCheffre
(Banting & Yudkin & Atkins & Eadeses & Cordain & Taubes & Volek & Naiman & Bikman )
#7
Carbs are the primary importance. Protein needs will vary. But for some, it’s the most satiating, so leveraging protein is a way to reduce total calories. Folks get bent about CICO around here (rightly, as it’s poorly understood… wrongly, because it’s at work, under everything, whether it’s well understood and factors that are not well understood at present), but honestly, folks who are successful are generally eating less stuff than they ate on SAD.
Alex99
#8
Hi, well protein is essential, simple as that. Too much makes me drowsy and I fall asleep, a waste of weekend time.
But it’s all a bit of word play - “excess” anything is “excess”. “Too much” is “too much” - so “too much” water is too much, right (yep that’s right it will kill you, it really will, dilutes your blood too much). Shall we fear too much water now?
Anyway - word games aside, yes you need to hit the protein target. Going far below is way worse than anything beyond. So nail the right amount! Doesn’t have to be to the gram.
Dr Ted Naiman has a great vid on Vimeo (sorry I don’t have the link on me, search the forum PaulL provided the link) - anyway Ted goes through the importance of protein and how the body has it’s set central limit, it knows how much it wants to have. *And it’ll keep triggering hunger signals until you get the amount of protein. He shows studies if you eat too much, pretty well nothing bad happens, you don’t die on the spot.
Satiety gets really strong with protein so it’s hard to eat 30z steaks. Ted says he eats about equal amounts of protein as does fat. And of course <20g carbs.
Hope that helps.
anon2571578
#11
That process is demand-driven, not supply-driven. It’s better to be over on protein than under, and going one gram over on protein isn’t going to change a steak into a chocolate cake. Don’t worry about it.
anon2571578
#12
I know you said you’re satisfied and I believe you, but why is your net calorie goal so low?
Gee13167
(Jeanine)
#13
That’s what it gave me. No good? It was 1400 cal but I guess as I lost weight, it decreased
anon2571578
#16
If you have it set to lose weight, reset it to maintenance mode. That seems far too low to be consistently eating at.
anon2571578
#19
Causing metabolic slowdown by consistently undereating won’t help with that. Trust the process, keep carbs below 20g net, get your protein in, and don’t worry about calories - eat until you’re satisfied.
CarlKeller
(Carl Keller)
#20
Kind of… Protein can be turned into glucose and stored as glycogen for future use through a process called Gluconeogenesis. It’s a good thing too because our body can’t run entirely on ketones and needs some glucose, otherwise our blood sugars would keep falling and falling and we would drop into a coma. Also, certain parts of the brain and body tissue need glucose too. I believe the brain needs about 100 grams of glucose per day.
But as @anon2571578 says, the process is demand driven, not supply driven.
So what’s most important, as the others have said, is to keep your carbs low and eat fat and protein to satiety. Using your hunger as a guide is far better than any macro. Eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full. This will determine precisely what you need to be successful.
Ilana_Rose
(mole person)
#21
It’s just fine. Plenty of women here are sub 1000 calories while losing weight on keto. As long as you aren’t hungry and are feeling well don’t argue with your successes. Just listen to your body. If some days it wants more, give it what it’s asking for. If some days it wants less you don’t even have to eat at all if you have no appetite for a while.