Too little calories, too much protein

(Jen) #1

I’m 49 yr old female, 5’10 and 187lbs (I begin at 196) who has been on Keto for 3 weeks. I’m okay with the weight loss, but I worry that I am not making my calorie intake. My macros are 20g carbs/ 81g protein/118g fat and 1400 calories. I’m really not doing any dairy except for whipping cream in my coffee as it causes my body to swell.

I eat basically the same thing every day as I like to plan my meals out for the week. 1-2 eggs in the morning, 1/2 avocado, bulletproof coffee. Lunch & dinner are the IBIH soup which includes onion, garlic, mushrooms, cauliflower, squash, chicken, green beans and collards. Occasionally, I add bacon to morning and/or the soup but it is not every day. If I am hungry for a snack I eat a hard boiled egg, celery or 1/4 cup of tuna or a fat bomb. The afternoon is when I am hungry, but most of the day I’m not. Generally, I’m eating 10 to 15g over my protein, only half of my fat grams, 19 carbs a day and about 900 calories. Everything I have read says you need your minimum calories with the high fat, but I don’t know what I am doing wrong to be able to make calories without increasing carbs or protein.

I’m not a supplement person either. I’d rather do this with real food than some product that needs to be purchased. I beat cancer 3 years ago, and I think my body had enough drugs and supplements for a lifetime.

Any advice would be awesome.

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coffee

(Cindy) #2

Although many people track macros, I don’t. You need to eating to satiety and NOT watching those calories. For whatever reason, I think that’s harder for women. Maybe because we tend to struggle with weight more? But at 5’10", you should be eating more. You WANT your body to increase it’s “set point” over time; restricting calories just takes it in the wrong direction.

So my advice to you would be to ditch the macros, quit tallying calories, etc. Eat <20g carbs/day, focus on proteins and above ground veggies, and don’t be afraid of fats. That means add in your avocado, olives, butter, etc…but certainly that you do NOT need to eat butter by the spoonfuls. Eat as much as you need to NOT be hungry and when you are hungry, eat.

Try to eliminate snacking. So, for example, if you’re not hungry in the am, don’t eat. Wait until you are, then eat a substantial meal. If you get hungry, eat another meal instead of snacking. It means you won’t be able to plan your meals quite as much, but you need to listen to your body’s signals instead of planning set meals and meal times.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #3

So it sounds like you know the problem and what’s right to correct it. I was consuming too much protein when I started and lost about 15 lbs in 2 months and had little change for the next 5 weeks. I tweaked my portions of food, eating more veggies and adding fermented veggies in significant quantities and cutting my meat/egg consumption by 1/3. Also limited cheese to 1 1/2 oz per day. My weight loss started again and I lost 10 pounds in 3 weeks.

I am currently continuing to lose but as you approach your goal things will start slowing down again loss wise and dietary tweaks will be necessary. When you start your losses should be rapid if you have a lot to lose but also you should be able to slowly reduce food quantities as your body gets to a healthier BMI. Your lower weight will require less food for maintenance. Remember that we eat to live, not living to eat. Stop if you’re not hungry and save the rest for snacking. I protein and fat load at breakfast, eating a lite lunch and slightly bigger dinner or lately eating my lunch as late as 4 pm and skipping dinner having a couple oz of Brazil nuts or a piece of precooked meat if I have some on hand like a brat or some roasted pork sliced thin as an evening snack.

Make sure when you’re feeling hungry at what you consider too early a time try drinking a large glass of water, might get you through till the next meal time. To get more fats just be liberal with them in cooking and on your salads. Personally I don’t like the coconut oil in coffee thing that many keto people seem to be doing, but coconut oil is my go to oil for cooking as well as bacon grease. Sometimes in combination. I’m using less butter lately since I’m trying to use more coconut oil and always have a jar of bacon grease filling up. But I haven’t felt the need for anything like fat bombs as I get plenty of fats from cooking. I wish you success and hope that my experience will help you. Remember that we all have semi unique bodies and will respond at our own rates as it takes time for damaged metabolisms to repair themselves but it will happen in time with your persistence and dedication to getting healthy. It probably took years for your body to reach it’s current state and will take time to correct. But if you’re leading your body will follow. Remember that this is a lifestyle change and not a dietary weight loss thing that you will be able to abandon and keep the results somehow.

(Jen) #4

I would like to say my body took years to get to this state, but I was in excellent health prior to cancer. I worked out 6 days a week and ate “clean” for most of my 20’s and 30’s. Cancer and forced menopause is when my body went out of control and I gained 40 lbs. My hormones are better, but still way out of control and because my cancer was related to producing too much estrogen, there is no magic pill I can take as adding estrogen could bring cancer back.

(Bob M) #5

Based on all that you changed, why would you imply that decreased protein caused your weight loss? You changed calories and decreased dairy (a known stall for some people), yet you say that protein was at fault for not losing weight.

Personally, I don’t think it’s possible to eat too much protein for some of us. I typically eat 80-160 grams of protein PER MEAL, and usually eat 2 meals a day when I’m eating.

(Carl Keller) #6

Hello Jen and welcome to the forum.

It’s so difficult to let go of the “watch your calories” mentality. I was guilty of it too but there are a lot of factors that are more important to watch:

… these being probably the most important. Keto is about retraining your hormones and doing what Cindy Ward says will get you there! It might mean you eat 900 calories one day or 1800 next but if you simply listen and respond to your hunger (eat when hungry, don’t when you are not) and stay below 20 carbs, good things will happen. In fact they already are. You’ve lost 10 pounds in 3 weeks, granted much of it is water. Still, try to focus on the positives since you’ve started doing keto and as @PaulL likes to say (quoting Dr. Westman): Calories do matter, but we shouldn’t count them. .

That’s awesome, congrats! :slight_smile:

*edited to give proper credit to PaulL for the Dr. Westman quote.

(less is more, more or less) #7

I’m flattered to be confused with @PaulL, who quoted Dr. Eric Westman, here, on calories.

(Carl Keller) #8

My mistake. It’s easy to confuse you with @PaulL. The both of you make fantastic and intelligent (as do many others) comments.

(Jen) #9

Thank you Cindy!

(Jen) #10

Thanks to all of you for the wonderful advice. I’ll implement these changes and let you know my progress.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #11

I’m not saying my experience will or should be everyone’s solution Bob, I at the time considered cheese a protein source. I cut down from 4 eggs, to 2 or 3. I ate 6-8 oz of meat at dinner instead of 10-12. I didn’t consciously reduce fats. I may have but cooking more veggies s equals using more fat for me. Sure lots of things change when you switch ratios. I just think I went from an “Atkins All You Can Eat” mentality towards becoming satisfied with less, and realized I should make further tweaks to my food choices and portions. But the biggest cut was definitely protein. Dairy was probably cut by 30%. I’m still getting results now, my target for protein is 93 grams but I am frequently under and sometimes way over that. :cowboy_hat_face:

(PSackmann) #12

Good morning and welcome!

One thing that stands out to me is that you’re eating soup twice a day. Soup can give you an artificial feeling of fullness, which could also explain why you’re hungry in the afternoon. Switch it up for a week and instead of the soup, eat protein and veg for lunch and dinner to satiety. I think you’ll end up with an increase in calories when you no longer have that extra liquid in there filling up space.

(Norma Laming) #13

To be fair to Atkins, he specifically said that the diet is Eat All You Want: NOT Eat All You Can

(Full Metal KETO AF) #14

@Hermione Maybe a poor word choice on my part, I just remember seeing Atkins diet recipes like “All you can eat ribs”. Wasn’t implying grossly overeating, but I was used to eating large portions and that was part of the appeal of the diet, not limiting food. I wasn’t knowing a lot about it other than what you get from reading some internet articles. But I was eating a lot more meat than I did with carbs included in my meals. I think I’m eating more reasonable portions now. :cowboy_hat_face: