There is no point continuing to eat high dietary fat when we have more than enough fuel stored within our body fat.
It is important to change your macros up as you lose weight.
You wouldn’t believe how many people I speak to who are doing Keto but have no idea about fat adaption and lowing dietary fat to start using their stored body fat as fuel.
It’s just horrible word usage, just like when people have some minor cold they say they have “the flu.” Utterly unrelated.
Keto “flu” is nothing more nor less than sodium deficiency. You need never experience it if you keep your sodium intake up after going keto. The deficiency is simply the result of the kidneys’ returning to their normal, higher rate of excreting sodium once we reduce our carbohydrate intake to ketogenic levels. Recent studies have shown that people are at their healthiest when they consume 5 grams of sodium daily, or 2-1/2 teaspoons. Be sure to drink to thirst, as well, since we also excrete water more readily on a low-carb diet.
Thank you guys for all your input, even though most of what you are talking about is wayyy over my keto beginners head. You guys are talking about fasting and fat adapted and I’m over here like, “Whaaattt…?” lol No offense meant when I say this is supposed to be a forum for newbies.
A few simple questions:
My friend sent me a keto meal plan for the first week, some of the recipes I like and some I don’t. It doesn’t say in the pdf whether substitutions are ok. I would like to assume substitutions are ok, but there is no nutritional info for each recipe indicating how many grams of fat, etc. Is this something I should be measuring? Or is keto flexible enough to where I dont need to have precise measurements of meals, I should just make sure they are high in fat? I don’t want to have the opposite effect if I eat to little/too many fats and gain weight as a result. Is there a hard rule on timing and frequency of meals?
I bought cashews as a snack, but they have a lot of salt. Is that ok?
Thank you!
FYI…Just found this FAQs for newbies…very informative
It took me a while to understand too.
In a nutshell, we train our bodies to use fat as a fuel instead of carbs. By eating less than 20 grams of carbs per day, we can usually get into ketosis within a few days. Ketosis just means that we are mostly burning the fat we eat for fuel.
Fat adaptation can occur within 2-3 weeks, longer for others. This is when the body has learned how to take the fat from our bodies, as opposed to the fat in our bellies, when it needs fuel… So if you lower the amount of fat you are eating during fat adaptation, the body has no choice but to use the fat on your body. When you can go 24 hours or more without experiencing hunger and without decreased energy levels, you are there.
Fasting is something you can do after you are fat adapted. You can go for a day or longer without eating because the body has become efficient at taking the fat off our bodies, in order to fuel itself.
You can try plugging in food items into cronometer to see exactly what cards are in the ingredients you are subbing. Personally I think it’s much easier and faster to keep it simple at first. Omelettes, scrambled eggs, bacon, broccoli, cauliflower with butter, salads etc.
https://cronometer.com/
Salt is a good thing for Keto. Since you have stopped eating a lot of processed crap, you are getting much less salt that you normally did. You should try to get around 2 teaspoons of salt per day. Salt and water are important to avoid keto “flu” symptons. If you are feeling lightheaded, your heart beats too fast, have headaches, cramps, constipation or bloating, it’s probably because of low salt. So salt everything you can. It’s not easy to get 2 tsp per day.
Thanks Carl. Sounds like we should definitely be measuring the amount of carbs to put in our body. Should we also be measuring the amount of protein and fats at first? Or do we just eat as much of those as we want?
And how do you know you’ve entered “fat adaption” phase? Once you’ve reached that point, do you still eat less than 20 g carbs per day? How do you know how much to lower the amount of fat you are eating during fat adaption?
Cronometer is a great way to keep a track of all that, but the carbs <20g is the important part. Feed your body plenty of its new fuel to get is used to it.
Do you know what happens if your body can’t burn the fat for fuel, and so isn’t producing ketones, and you aren’t eating enough glucose for your brain? Is there any danger in being in that place for an extended length of time? Some people’s bodies have difficulty with gluconeogenesis, too.
Maybe that doesn’t even happen, and if not, then not to worry.
Signs of fat adaptation:
I am at the point where I eat once a day and I eat until I am full. Staying under 20 carbs is pretty easy in one meal. I’m usually 12-16 carbs per day but I don’t fret if I go slightly over 20. I am only 20 lbs (6 kilos) overweight so I am not looking for large numbers of weight loss. I am quite content with 2-3 lbs lost per week.
I do monitor how much fat I am eating and I can’t give you a specific amount that you should eat. I was over 100 grams a day before I knew I was fat adapted. I try to stay under 60-65 grams per day and it seems to work for me.
One thing about hunger. I think a lot of what we perceive as hunger is really just our inner clock saying “this is the time we should eat”. Once I was able to understand the difference between I need to eat, and I want to eat, hunger has not been a big problem. I still very much look foward to eating my meal for the day because everything tastes so much better than before.
There is lots of talk here about lowering your dietary fat intake. How do you not calorie restrict without overeating protein/carbs? It has to come from somewhere. And before you say it comes from your body, I mean doing this long term.
Today, I’m doing 62 grams of protein (some days up to 80 grams), 65 grams of fat and 20 grams of carbs. It’s only about 1000 calories but I’ve been eating like this all week and I’m not hungry after I eat. I fasted for 48 hours this week and I am doing OMAD and I’m down 3 lbs. I don’t plan on eating like this forever but I still have all day energy and don’t seem to be having any ill effects.
Thanks all, I am becoming more familiar with all of this. One thing: I drink a lot of water because I do a lot of hot yoga, but am I ok to treat myself to a few diet cokes a week?
Hi Tavajava,
I’m with you. I love butter, I love coconut oil, however together in cup of fresh esspresso almost makes me gag! I’d just enjoy the coffee and get the fat in other ways like eating half an avo or my fave (borrowed from Leanne Vogel) pork rinds in avocado Mayo.
Cheers Sunny 
