So just how Keto is your food? Or does it matter?

[amwassil]

Fabulous Fish Sources for Omega-3 Fatty Acids

[Finishingtouches]

This is where I get confused. Okay so in my situation if I’m trying to lean out (I.e. lose the last 3 lbs of fat (not water weight) is it okay that I dial down the fat and eat a higher percent of protein. I thought this would in essence force my body to eat it’s own fat for fuel. Example, is it okay if my macros end up closer to 55%fat, 40%protein, or should I try to get full by actually eating more fat and less protein?

Ps. I’m sorry I feel like I get the hang of keto, then I read more and get myself all confused. LOL.

[amwassil]

@Finishingtouches Keto is a metabolic normalization process, not a weight/fat loss diet. Part of the normalization generally includes an overall weight and body comp that is ‘your normal’. That may or may not end up being what you had imagined or hoped it would be. After a couple of years on keto, according to your profile, the ‘last 3 lbs of fat’ may just be part of what’s your ‘new’ normal. Could you force it off with enough time and effort? Sure, 3 pounds is doodly squat, you could probably lose it with a 7-day water fast. But you might then also have to spend a lot of time and effort to keep it off since your metabolism will continue trying to get it back. So you have to ask whether it’s worth it or not.

That said, yes, increasing your protein a little and decreasing fat correspondingly might increase your metabolic rate enough to get your ‘last 3 lbs of fat’ off and stay off. Still, it won’t happen fast. And keep in mind that eating fat does not make you fat. The problem is seldom eating too much fat. As Jason Fung says: “Eat fat to burn fat”. Are you tracking carb intake? Maybe so-called ‘carb creep’ is part of it. Zero carb for a couple of months might be useful.

[PaulL]

Our bodily systems evolved to cope with a wide range of conditions over two million years; trying to outthink those systems carries with it a high risk of unintended consequences, in my view.

The problem with weight goals is that the scale is confounded by whether the weight it measures is bone and muscle (and other lean tissue) or fat. After my initial weight loss on a ketogenic diet, my weight remained stable for the following twelve months, but I kept getting thinner. At the end of that twelve-month period I was able to comfortably wear trousers that I had initially been too fat to wear. Because my weight was stable, I was obviously adding lean mass while shedding fat mass.

A more important measure, to my mind, is the percentage of body fat. Women typically are healthiest in the range of 20-23%, whereas healthy men typically fall in the range of 10-12%. Women of childbearing age need the extra fat as a reserve for pregnancy, not to mention that is their body fat that gives them the curves that make their form so delightful (in the eyes of heterosexual men, at least). Depending on your body composition, trying to shed those last three pounds of fat might prove rather difficult. If your body is stable and healthy at your current weight and fat percentage, trying to fight it on this point might be counterproductive.

[Finishingtouches]

Thank you for the feedback, I know it’s me being stubborn and just wanting something that perhaps isn’t realistic. I enjoy keto and plan on staying this way long term just wanted to know if there was a way to tweak it to get to what I selfishly want. I’m tracking total carbs and do well during the week at around 15 but get in trouble on weekends where it creeps up to 25 (usually about 15-18 net carbs). Just results from keto snacking on weekend and some wine.

[amwassil]

Not making any judgements here just an observation about ethanol. My overall weight for the past 3 1/2+ years has been 145 pounds +/- a pound or two. I can gain 5 pounds in a week drinking as little as a couple ounces of 40% daily for each day of that week. If I decide I want to have drink or two I make sure to eat a couple hundred calories below my ‘maintenance window’ that day. Also, I used to think ethanol gets burned immediately, but apparently it gets stored as fat in the liver first then the stored fat gets burned. So I figure I give my metabolism some incentive to do so by cutting calories that day. It also helps to abstain from ethanol completely to help encourage the stored fat to be utilized.

[PaulL]

The real issue with ethanol is not to overload the metabolic pathway that handles it in the liver. The same pathway also handles fructose and branched-chain amino acids. Overloading the pathway is what causes fat droplets to accumulate in the liver.

[amwassil]

Thanks! Got it, I think. So as long as the pathway is not overloaded ethanol gets ‘burned’ quickly.