Scaling Carbs to Calories


(Windmill Tilter) #1

Straight to the Point:

I completely understand that eating should be done to satiety only, however some people are petite and sedentary, and some are large and active. When the former eats 1000kcal/day the keto rule is 20g carbs per day. When the later eats 4000kcal per day, the keto rule is 20g. That doesn’t make a great deal of sense to me. In the first case, carbs are 8% of dietary intake, and in the second case carbs are 2% of dietary intake. I find it very hard to eat 20g carbs on a 4000kcal day. The food restriction with 2% carbs is significantly different (basically just meat and oil qualify). Is 20g a real thing, or is that for practical purposes a % carbs makes more sense? Thoughts? (I’m not keen to spend $100 on a keto mojo, I’m looking for a more practical rule of thumb than 20g, e.g. 4% carbs as % of total calories)

TLDR full context :smile::

My Basic Stats:

Age: 41
Height: 71"
Weight: 234
Avg Net Carbs: 14
Avg Total Carbs: 24.5
Fasting Cycle: 3 feast : 3 fast
Feasting avg Kcal: 3,568
Activity: Body by Science workout once every 6 days. Nothing else.
Water: 5 Liters/day

I’m a keto noob (5 weeks), so all of this is pretty new to me. Some of it makes a lot of sense, some of it is counter-intuitive. One thing I am confident of is that for whatever reason, it’s working for me. On 1/11/19 I weight 264, today 2/19/19, I weighed in at 234 (30lbs!). Even acknowledging that at least 10lbs of that 30 was water, I’m completely blown away by ~20lbs in ~40 days. On top of that, I’ve been lifting heavy, I’ve gained visible muscle, and every one of my lifts has gone up. It’s probably a sorry mix of greed and hubris to petition the keto gods for more than that, but I’m going to press my luck…:blush:

For the past 5 weeks I’ve been cycling 3 days of feasting with 3 days of fasting. I’m not dogmatic about it; if I’m still hungry for breakfast the day after 3 days of feasting, I just add another day of feasting. If a fast doesn’t feel fantastic, I happily cut it short and start feasting. I lift once every 6 days for 20 minutes (Body by Science). Lifts are done for 1 set only, in a 5 seconds, up 5 seconds down cadence to total muscle failure:

Leg Press: 545lbs, Time Under Tension =92 sec
Row Lbs: 170lbs, TUT=78
Bench Press: 160lbs, TUT=62
Lat Pull Down: 130lbs, TUT=80
Overhead Press: 90lbs, TUT=64

My feast days have averaged 3568 kcal over this time span. Early on, some feast days hit 6,000kcal! My fasts have avg 85hrs. I’m finding it very hard to stay under 20g carbs on a 4000kcal day when eating to satiety.


(Carl Keller) #2

I would call it “the common advice here on the forum”, instead of “the keto rule”. Ketosis and weight loss can be achieved at higher numbers of carbs. The majority of keto friendly websites suggest a % of carbs in relation to your total caloric intake (which I’m sure you already know).

For the sake of keeping it simple, a concrete 20g is much easier to shoot for than maybe 18g today and 23g tomorrow, depending on how many total calories we might eat. I believe the perfect number of carbs or % of carbs, is whatever works best for you.


(John) #3

I am pretty sure I eat more than 20g of carbs average. Though it’s usually lighter carb and heavier carb days, rather than a consistent level. Not bad carbs, just more of the good ones.

I think the 20g rule is for people just getting started out, and for those having problems losing. Once you get into it a bit, typically around 6-8 weeks or so, you can gauge better how well you are doing and start adjusting things to create your own approach.