Starting Week 3, Macros Hard to Reach

(Dexia) #1

Hi guys! First time doing keto and first time joining a forum but all the keto people I have met have been awesome so decided to take a chance.

I’m on Week 3 of Keto and feeling great. Beginning to lose weight (which is why I started) and overall not as hungry anymore. Unfortunately that’s where I’ve been hitting a snag. I can’t seem to hit my macros because of my loss of appetite. I’d like to point out that I’m stationed in a 3rd world country so a lot of keto products aren’t available here but I do what I can to get by. Any appetite boost recommendations or anything of the like?

(Autumn) #2

I’m having the same problem… week 5.

(Ron) #3

The only macro you really need to be strict with is 20g carbs. You can try to keep your protein around 1 to 1.5g per KG of LBM but this has some flexibility and isn’t critical. Eat fat to fill you up to satiety (it doesn’t have to hit any number).

(Chris W) #4

I would say the first 6 weeks for most is a getting used to the diet area. Don’t stress to much about not hitting the macros, they are guides you don’t need to count calories. Age, sex, metabolic dysfunction all play into how things sort out in the end and how hungry you get. Dexia If you are young enough and fit enough you may be starting to fat adapt already. For me at first I had a hard time actually hitting the fat macro, the protien was never an issues and sometimes I was way over. As I got more keto adapted I started to crave the fats more and more, once fat adaption hits then your hunger gets turned on its ear. Now I have to watch the fat macro(as in I east too much sometimes) and I don’t hit the protein all the time anymore. The real important thing is to make sure you up your salt intake, and just in general make sure you are feeling good.

(Rob) #5

The standard advice is 0.6-1.5g of protein per KG of lean body mass… which is less than half that if you used lbs of LBM. Not that too much protein is necessarily bad but some really struggle with that and there is some evidence that it is better to minimize protein to the lowest level that preserves lean mass. n=1 experimentation would help to define what protein level is right for you.

(Ron) #6

You are right sir, I used the wrong measurement value. Will edit post.
Thank you for the correction.

(Jay AM) #7

My keto progession was like that, it’s not uncommon to lose your appetite early in.

I started off eating 3k-4k calories a day for 2 weeks. I tracked but didn’t restrict anything except carbs. Lost 10 lbs of water weight. The next 2 weeks I could barely reach 1k calories in a day. Still lost 10ish lbs. Now I’m evened out and naturally get about 1800-2000. There’s no need to force yourself to eat, just eat when hungry.

(Dexia) #8

Thank you everyone. I was seriously worried because I’m supposed to be around the 1200 calorie range but I found myself full at 800 and totally not hungry the entire day. You guys have really reassured me :slight_smile:

(Chris W) #9

It has a a lot to do with age, sex, and overall health. Long term you should be higher, so don’t stay at that level or you will end up in starvation mode.

(Aaron R) #10

I wouldn’t say you used the wrong value. @Capnbob just used what appears to be more inclusive information.

(Rob) #11

It isn’t so much more inclusive though it is certainly more conservative but more importantly, it is the standard advice based on the objective medical research which found the broad limits of human capacity to manage protein levels from 0.3g (freakishly low) to about 3.3g (getting towards ammonia poisoning levels) per Kg of LBM.

You could translate those into g/lb but then you are at 0.13g - 1.5g per lb and then you need to be sure you use the correct scales for your goals. 0.8g/lb is at the upper end of the scale while 0.8g/kg is near the lower end. As you said, neither is right or wrong.