Someone please help me (just started, not sure if I am doing it correctly)


#1

I’ve started to try Keto today, however I’ve got a problem. I’m not sure if I’m doing it correctly.
For breakfast I just had 1 egg, but for lunch I made a tuna salad that was rarther small. I’ve had one coffee and I’ve tried counting all my carbs but it’s saying I’ve gone over 6 carbs already I don’t understand? The salad consisted of 69g lettuce, 60g cucumber, 14g red onion and 1 can of tuna. Someone please help me I feel like giving up already


(George) #2

Hi there,

First of all, what are your stats? (age, sex, weight, height)

Onions have a bit of sugar in them, so I avoid them. Are you looking at total carbs or net carbs?


(Brian) #3

6 carbs isn’t bad. If you’re trying for under 20, you have 14 carbs for supper before you go over, if you’re eating supper. Lots of us, over time, do away with 3 meals a day and go to two, or sometimes even one meal a day. Lots of us do that almost automatically as we learn to listen to our bodies tell us when it’s hungry. It takes time, more than a just a day or two. Let it come to you.

Also, please don’t beat yourself up if you eat 22g of carbs instead of 20, or even 30g. A lot of people can be in ketosis with even 40g or 50g of carbs in their daily diet.

I don’t know much about your particulars, size, activity levels, that kind of thing, but all of that plays into it. (Bigger and more active people need more food than smaller sedentary people and the first can usually handle more carbs and remain in ketosis than the later.)

There will be more people along to give you much more info. But I figured I’d encourage you not to get discouraged over tiny things, especially not in the beginning. Try to keep the carbs low for a while until your eating becomes more of a habit. You’ll get there. Things will change and evolve over the first few months. It’s OK. Relax… it’s a long journey… but it’s a pleasant one for most of us… and the food is wonderful! :slight_smile:


(Neil) #4

Completely agreed! For what it’s worth, if you compare this to a typical meal on the SAD (Standard American Diet), you’re still ingesting way fewer carbs than most people. For example, if your breakfast had been two slices of whole wheat toast, that’s 26g of carbs right there, just in the toast! Whereas 6 scrambled eggs would only be 3g of carbs.


#5

Hello, thank you so much for responding.

I’m a 19 year old female, I’m 91kg and I belive I’m around 5”5. I’ve been doing all round carb total because most things I’ve read on about Keto haven’t mentioned only specifically taking down net carbs, I thought it was 20 carbs a day.


#6

Thank you so much :slight_smile: I’ll keep trying to push through. I’ve had problems with my weight for a while now so the smallest thing pushes me over, but knowing you’ve all took time just to respond encourages me that bit further :slight_smile:


(George) #7

Ah okay.

Well, 20 or less net carbs is the goal, which is always going to be higher in total/gross carbs, but with you being so new to this I wouldn’t worry too much about that, just keep carbs as low as possible for now.

Now, with you being 91 kg, that’s about 200 lbs., you need to be eating quite a bit more than the meals you mentioned

The easiest thing to do when starting out in my opinion is to keep your meals extremely simple and skip breakfast. I would start eating around lunch time, and have a few eggs cooked in butter or ghee, maybe some cheese, and few slices of bacon, maybe an avocado if you like them (some people don’t, I love them), just eat enough to get you full. Then for dinner, I’d have a fatty cut of steak also cooked in/topped with butter, with green vegetables cooked in olive oil or butter, and maybe another avocado, and again maybe a little cheese. Again, enough to get you full. Those two meals alone will be anywhere from 12-20 ish net carbs, depending on the portion of vegetables.

Don’t overthink it, and feel free to use the forum for any questions you might have. This simplistic way of eating helped my wife get into keto (she doesn’t really know/care to know all the details/science behind everything, and just eats what I cook her), and her weight has gone from 230 to 198 since starting keto with me.


('Jackie P') #8

First, welcome, stay with us, there will be lots of help and advice for you here.
The thing that stands out straight away for me is, where is the fat? Why only one egg? A small tuna salad with no dressing? At this stage eat plenty, don’t be hungry, replace your carbs with good fat and keep your carbs low.
It seems hard in the beginning but its not really. It’s about eating real foods.


(John) #9

If you are just starting and aren’t sure what to do, this site has a good overview:


(Scott) #11

If you are just starting you may want to eat a bit more and add some fat, keto isn’t about calorie restriction. Granted I am a male but my typical breakfast is
2 eggs
1 bacon
1 sausage patty
mix eggs with heavy whipping cream and cook in the bacon grease
add butter
add cheese
coffee with a tbl. spoon of MCT oil.
Not suggesting you eat all that but I have been eating that and losing weight. Maybe add some protein and scramble the egg(s) in butter. You want your body to keep insulin low and think that the food will never end. I know it all sounds backwards now but you don’t have to do everything at once just ease into it and watch the carbs.


(Ken) #12

At the beginning, if in doubt eat more fat. Forget the veggies and salad, your goal now is to get comfortable using fat for energy. A nice breakfast would be a three egg cheese omelet and several strips of bacon. Then, don’t eat again until you feel hungry. Drink plenty of water. Eat meat and fat. Make sure you eat a ratio of two thirds meat to one third fat, with more fat being OK. You’ll be surprised at how satisfied you feel.


(Empress of the Unexpected) #13

Thanks for the reminder. I keep sticking my head in the sand on that subject.


(traci simpson) #14

One cucumber is 11g and like the rest, that doesn’t seem like much food at all even when you combine it all.


#15

ONE piece of bacon? Somebody call security!!! :rofl:


#16

You’re making me hungry, just reading this. :grin:

  1. Keep carbs low
  2. Eat sufficient protein (around 90g/day for you, more if you want)
  3. Eat fat. Lots of it for your first 10 days to 2 weeks. Then scale back to as your hunger warrants.

Here’s a sample day of what keto eating looks like (with rough estimates of the carb and protein counts):
Breakfast: 3 eggs cooked in butter. Add some cheese or bacon, etc. Coffee or tea, add some cream if you like. (The eggs, cheese, bacon, coffee, and cream all have some incidental carbs, but all of that might add up to 3 net carbs. There’s about 28g of protein.)
Lunch: Can of tuna (they’re only about 3 oz. of tuna each), mix with lots (like 1/4 cup) of mayo, olive oil or other high fat dressing, salad and other incidental veggies as you please. (Some incidental carbs, call it about 3-5g in the veggies. The tuna is about 21g protein.)
Dinner: Big steak or some chicken thighs (6 to 8 ounces), some veggies like cauliflower, broccoli or eggplant, cooked with butter or olive oil. Spices as you please. (About 40-50g protein, plus about 6-10g carbs for the veggies.)
Snacks: Whenever you’re hungry or think you’re hungry or have carb cravings eat something with protein or fat like cheese, salami, bacon, leftover steak, cream, etc. (Eventually, you’ll naturally taper off on snacks, but for now, do whatever it takes to not eat a bunch of carbs!)