Some sauces are totally fine! Especially if you make your own and replace the sugar requirements with a non calorie sweetner! You might run into troubles at restaurants because there could be “hidden” carbs in anything.
Honestly I feel like if you arent sure the sugar content, its ok to indulge in moderation. But there are PLENTY of sauces that are naturally sugar free anyway.
Yeah… but what makes it worse is that those hidden carb is one of the reasons why the food is so tasty, so I cannot even bear to give it up.(Or request it to be without those sauces, as those sauces are their signature secret weapon to make the food good… <_<)
It’s possible that you are really not ready for the lifestyle transformation that most folks do when they go keto.
Sauces of unknown ingredients in Asia generally means sugar/honey and or cornstarch for thickening. So, eating proteins or vegetables from a restaurant with a secret special sauce is probably not compliant with keto.
Save your carbs for incidental carbs in your coffee, green vegetables, nuts, cheeses, etc. They’ll add up quick.
but if it is just them, then I am not yet too high from 20grams, right? Or actually it will shoot all the way up to 200grams?
You might also give this video a view, and then tell us what you think. At the time it was recorded, he was a professor of pediatric endocrinology at the University of California at San Francisco medical school, where he also ran a clinic to treat obese children.
Here’s the way I started thinking about it to make the transition bearable the first few weeks.
First some history, I’m a carb fiend. Pasta, potatoes, bread…my kryptonite. Started keto bc I didnt like weighing what I did, and my insulin was at 18 (OMG, I know. My doc told me I wasn’t pre-diabetic, yet. Scary.) No other health issues other than the freaky insulin and some spine stuff.
First two weeks, I set off to research the death out of keto (ruled.me and diet doctor are your friends). Meanwhile, I went on a meat and veggies diet. No fruits, grains, root vegetables, or sweets, to the best of my ability. All that time, I tracked everything I ate in an app (I use Carb Manager). I ate what I wanted, and I didn’t care if my carbs we’re 25 or 50 or 100. I didn’t count calories, I just ate and tracked. This trial run helped me see how the carbs added up, what foods are better, and which ones I could only have a little bit of (or should stay away from all together). Once I felt like I kinda knew what I was doing, I started really restricting carbs and adding fat. Those first few weeks, my protein intake was super high, so I had to adjust. Then I had a few bad carb days, no big deal. Just needed to adjust.
In short, there’s no keto police. We won’t shun you if it takes a bit for you to get into the swing of things. We’re here to help and support. 
It’s not a very science-y, explanation, but it makes sense to me.
Now, my opinions on sauces.
If I can’t see the nutrition facts and measure it out myself, I don’t eat it. 2 net carbs for 1 tablespoon might fit into my carb budget for the day. But 6 net carbs for 3 tablespoons may not.
Homemade sauces are your friend. No preservatives, sugar, or chemical sweeteners that will still impact your insulin (It’s important to note that there are some wonderful no-calorie and therefore no-carb sweeteners that are totally fine to eat. I’ve seen a lot of people use stevia, Swerve, monkfruit, or erythritol. The bad chemical sweeteners could include sucralose, aspartame, saccharin. Just keep an eye out)
For me, eating out on keto is an absolute nightmare. Some places don’t even use real butter, so you end up with butter flavored chemicals in your body (which weirds me out). And many chains get their food mostly premade and frozen, which usually means it’s gonna have weird stuff in it, and the cooks on the line can’t do one single thing about it. (This is from my own fast-casual restaurant employment history.)
In short: When you eat a premade sauce at a restaurant, you really don’t know what’s in it, and therefore how many carbs are in it. It could be 5 or 25.
Those sauces taste amazing. I agree. But, I’ve gone down the internet rabbit hole a few times and found out that a lot of the time these delicious things include chemicals (preservatives, bad sweeteners) that have been shown to be highly addictive. You may be addicted to some of those chemicals (and/or sugar. Sugar is addictive too). Don’t feel bad about it, most people are. That explains why you feel like you can’t bear to avoid them. So, just like any other addictive substance, you’ll go through withdrawals. And the withdrawals are hard, and you’ll want to break, but YOU are in charge. Your body can kick and scream all it wants, but YOU are in charge. (Of course, if something is really wrong, see a doctor. I am not a doctor. )
Good luck!!!
It is unknowable. You can only guess.
Measure your blood sugar, eat the food, and measure your blood sugar again 30 minutes later. If it goes up much, 10% rise is probably ok, then that food is not good for you and should be avoided.
… Erm…
Then I am wondering.
I kinda lost confidence in making the food that is as good as those outside food, that is with all those sauces.
Yes, I can make food, but when I compared my food against those foods, I lost confidence and wondered why I spent time to make those. <_<
And after making those foods, I also need to clean the kitchen, which rubs the salt onto the wound more. <_<
So just let’s say the time spent is doubled.(food prep times 2, as the cleaning is a pain in the ass also)
I already held a hard belief that the food that tasted good is the unhealthy food, and the food that is healthy tasted bad/bland…
Sounds like it’s going to take some major adjustment for you.
Being healthy isn’t as easy as being unhealthy. It’s not hard, but it’s definitely harder than eating out all the time.
Healthy food does taste different, but you will adapt and it will end up tasting better than the sugar/chemical filled stuff.
The hardest part about changing your way of eating isn’t the food. It’s the mental shift. Once you’ve mentally shifted over, and are completely committed, the food bit isn’t near as hard (including the cooking, cleaning and shopping).
Try thinking about exactly why you want to do this, and really commit to doing something good for your body.
But to shift one’s mentality, the convincing is to be done, and all the troubles are not helping for the convincing part. At least it is not helping at the moment.
Why do you want this way of life? You need to have a reason to change your way of eating – if you have no reason then there is no reason to change.
I changed because I was diagnosed with Type II diabetes and was put on insulin within two years. The shots didn’t bother me but they were a nuisance. I realized by accident that I didn’t need the insulin if I ate lowcarb and that lead me to a ketogenic lifestyle. Now at 75 years old, I take no prescription meds and my A1c is 5.9 – below the diabetic range. I had a reason to change.
However, after changing I realized that there is no reason to go back to my old way of eating – the food tastes so good. The sauces and other sugary foods that tasted good before no longer have any appeal. They taste too sweet.
I can remember as a child hearing people say that a food tasted too rich and too sweet and I could not fathom what they were talking about – nothing could be TOO sweet. Now that I don’t eat sugar or any other sweeteners I finally understand what too sweet means. The added bonus is that I get to keep my eyesight and my feet because I am no longer diabetic.
you get better at cooking by doing. Maybe take a class. I did a bit of googling for you, C
If they cook with carbs, you can still learn technique. And technique underlies everything.
This. Very much this. It’s not an easy thing to change up, so you need to have a clear reason that is vitally important to you to make the change.
I’m a day late and a dollar short. @PaulL you beat me to the punch.
Eating sugar, or even upwards of say 100 grams of carbs a day (that 100 based on some of my own research in to ketogenesis. Some people are able to stay in ketosis with as much as 100 GE a day.)
When I previously tried Keto a few years ago. I simply did 50 gr or less a day. It wasn’t very difficult, and I included sugars, fruits, as long as it didn’t go over 50 for the day. It took me about three weeks to get to ketosis.
This time around it was different. I had just been dx with T2DM. My own research into diabetes led me to abandon the standard dietary care of low fat lots of fruit and veggies. To me that was guaranteed failure. Or loss of vision, kidneys, body parts. So I went zero carb, well, as close as possible. No fruits, no sugars.
I started keto to heal my T2DM. And it worked. My hba1c was 11.8%, after four months it was down to 5.8%. No exercise. High fat diet. All my blood work improved dramatically as well. Cholesterol was high preciously. After four months of keto it was just down to the inside of normal range (high end of normal, sure, but NORMAL). That ticked off the Endo, who wants me to take statins anyway, “just in case” 
. I put those bottles of pills in my closet. They won’t get used. I plan on taking them with me at my next visit when they tell me how good my blood work is, and tell me that those meds worked great. I’ll say what? These things? Sorry, I don’t do statins.
Now, if you are doing keto to lose weight, there is something else that is extremely important, and must not be ignored. It’s not about exercise, it’s not about eating too many calories. It’s all about keeping your insulin low. To do that you need to shorten your eating time window. I had mine down to six hours. 9 am to 3 pm. No food, drinks, snacks, NOTHING but water from 3 pm until 9am. That gives a long solid down time for insulin. YOU CANT BURN FAT IN THE PRESENCE OF INSULIN. Even if you are exercising your butt off. It’s a hormonal thing. It’s the way it works.
I hit a weight loss stall. So I changed things up a bit. I shortened that window to 4 hours (noon to 4 pm) and I’ve increased my intake. I’m eating around 2,000 calories a day. Sometimes a little less, maybe 1500. Since then the weight has been dropping about 1/2 a pound a day on average. Once in a while I forget to keep my intake up. Go figure, eating less you can gain weight. Mind blowing I know. If I hadn’t lived it .
I highly suggest reading “The Obesity Code” by Jason Fung, MD. It should be required reading in High School. It’s got lots of science, but he makes it all easy to understand. I wish he were my doctor.
/Mr Verbose -off
Keto Vitae!
^^^this^^^
I know how you feel. So when I do cook, I try to cook as much as I can at one time, to last me at least three or four days. Oven fried chicken thighs, jalapeño poppers, bacon wrapped philly meatloaf, the list goes on. Don’t be afraid to google some recipes. Just remember to check the ingredients closely. I’ve seen lots of recipes touting to be keto, that are anything but. Just click bait mostly so be on guard.
Thank you for the reminder about the eating window. I’ve only been doing this for a month and tend to “forget” about the window.