Very confused!

#1

Hello. Have been doing keto for a month. Lost 3 lbs. I have tried many calculators and they all give me different calculations. I an definitely under 20 carbs a day. But seem to be going over on calories and fat. And almost always can’t meet my protein. Any help would be appreciated!

(Cindy) #2

Get rid of the calculators. Keep your carbs < 20 g/day, eat moderate protein and fat until satisfied. Don’t eat if you’re not hungry, eat if you are. If a meal doesn’t keep you satisfied until the next meal, then you need to eat more at meals. If you have to snack, them make it a protein/fat snack, like salami and cheese.

A calculator doesn’t know you…doesn’t know how much exercise you do, what your body composition is, if you have any health issues, how much stress is in your life, etc. You need to listen to your hunger signals and NOT a calculator.

#3

What about calories? I’m going over on them also. If I just had to calculate carbs I’d know what I was doing but all this macro calculating has me very confused.

(Jennibc) #4

Don’t worry about calories the first few months. Only worry about calories after you have the hang of it down, you are fat adapted and you are not seemingly losing any weight. Then try to keep them low enough that you are using your fat stores for your energy needs but not so low that you move into starvation mode which lowers your metabolism. That said some people can survive on fasting and/or one meal a day which means their calories aren’t going to be very high, but I think at that point, because they have been doing this for a while, their bodies get what they need from the fat stores that they don’t have to worry about lowering their metabolisms. I am guessing one month probably wouldn’t be long enough. Don’t eat between meals.

(Consensus is Politics) #5

I have yet to calculate macros. I just familiarized myself with what how much fat and protein should roughly look like, and skip carbs completely. Doing that i went from 245 pounds to 205 pounds (mostly water weight, but still 40 pounds).

This method has worked well for me since October 2017. :cowboy_hat_face:

#6

I think you aren’t fat adapted yet. You will know when you are because hunger goes away and you naturally eat less. That’s where the weight loss comes from, your body gets its deficit of calories from fat. When I started I ate 3 meals and 2 snacks, now I have a fat coffee, small lunch and dinner till full. I’m on the leaner side too so less calorie reserves. Until you become fat adapted don’t worry about calories. Keep carbs low, moderate protein and then fat until you are satiieated. Protein varies but is typically 1-1.5 g/ kg “lean” body weight. After that just focus on the quality of what you are eating. Keep calm and keto on!

#7

Human body calculations are and not as simple as 1+1 = 2.

For example you will see here 20 g total carbs, 20 g net carbs, 50 g total carbs … all different. Confusing. The there are so many numbers is none of the above are correct the correct answer is to avoid insulin and you need lab equipment to measure that, too much fuss, so we use grams of carbs as a decent approximation.

The same goes with protein there is a range and formulas for this that and everything else.

Besides all that not all calculators are keto adapted, some of them use CICO thinking.

To keep it simple just make sure you have no more than 20 g carbs. And for protein I just eat a steak or similar nothing too big or too small and some veggies. Bingo correct numbers

The best instrument is you.

When you eat decent amounts of protein and fat you will experience “satiety“ that your body saying “hey that is what I’m looking for and yep I’ve had enough you can stop eating now“. I know this signal can be garbled especially after years of carb abuse but it’s worth paying attention to it. And works for most people

#8

Thank you all for the info. I am not going over 15 carbs. So I’ll just focus on keeping them low. Just over analyzing. Lol

(Little Miss Scare-All) #9

These are all great suggestions and tips. Im 20 days in, and it finally sunk in, just keep carbs below 20 net (Im going by net because Ive noticed I very easily stay in Ketosis).

I was driving myself banana sandwiches about percentages, macros, grams, ounces, to the point where I was stressing about it stress just hinders health.

I realized that a keto diet is simply a way to eat that puts and keeps you in ketosis. If you stay in ketosis long enough, youll brcome fat adapted. End of story. Listen to your body. Youll know when youve eaten far too much fat of you start to feel really sluggish. We dont need to be adding huge amounts of fats to meals after the first induction period because most of us have our own fat to lose and use for energy. At first it may be helpful to get to your next meal, but after that, fats are important but no need to have 3 avocados in one sitting. Ita not fat that gets us or keeps us in ketosis, its how many carbs were eating.

I started just listening to my body, when its hungry, when its not, how i feel after meals and how I feel the following day. If im legit not hungry, I dont force myself. If I am hungry, I eat. When O eat, I eat till Im not hungry and not so stuffed I could die. Im doing OMAD 6 days a week and TMAD 2 1 day a week. But thats just me. Its not required, but I have a lot of insulin resistance healing to do, so I do OMAD to spike it as little as possible.

Keep it simple. Dont overthink. Trust the process and pay attention to.the signals your body sends. After a bit you will know whats best for you and how your body responds to what youre putting in it. Just focus on carbs for now. Under 20 net or total. Cant go wrong with either.

#10

Thank you! I’m keeping my carbs between 8 and 15 a day so hopefully I’ll start to see some loss in weight or inches. Will be happy with either!

(Little Miss Scare-All) #11

Yeah Im no pro and just a beginner myself with all this, and learned a lot so far from people on these forums. Just trust the process and let your body do what it will do. I find it better for my mentality to not get caught up in certain expectations. Especially when it comes to weight and inches. I think thats the main place people place an expectation because we see these.people losing 40lbs in a month, but thats atypical. We get excited like hey I found the magic bullet here, and.expect some similar results in a similar time period. Maybe some.of us are genetically lucky and that wil be the case, but for a lot of us, its trusting the process and realizing that the body is.going through major changes at first, so things are happening behind the scenes but not measureable with the scale and tape measure.

Best to go by how you know you feel physically. If you learn about the.science behind it, it gives you something to anchor to when the storms of doubt roll in and you dont see the scale move as much as youd like, or the inches to not fall off as quickly as youd like. Its a patience thing, bolstered with understanding. Without good knowledge, we are building a house on mud and sand. One good storm comes and knocks the whole damn thing down.

Ive been queen of unreasonable expectations through all my years of trying to get healthy, so its kinda new for me to just chill and let my body do what it does, in whatever time it takes, and set some good habits while the process pans out. I get days where Im like “yo my stomach still looks like crap”, but I let the thought enter and leave. Stick on the path. Educate. Everything will fall into place.