What do you eat Daily?

(Jimmy Lock) #1

Just curious… I’m trying to work this keto diet all out where I can write some stuff down for me to follow as I learn what to do… so I can’t have to rely on memory.

Can some of you that have been doing well on the keto diet please post some examples of what you eat eat day? Like specifics that I can get idea from for my written instructions?

Also, any info about intermittent fasting folks are doing would be appreciated too… as well as is it OK to fast for entire 24 hour periods sometimes or not.

(Bob) #2

This is all fine. I intermittent fast, eating my first meal between noon-1pm and my second meal between 6:30-8pm. And then on after dinner on Friday I don’t eat again until dinner on Saturday (24hrs) or breakfast on Sunday (about 40 hours).

Currently I am doing carnivore, so it’s beef, butter, bacon, and eggs, all cooked in butter or tallow. I would have no issues with reverting back to clean keto, which would basically mean low carb veggies like green pepper in my omelets or brussel sprouts, asparagus, or broccoli on the side, and sometimes a salad. However, I would never touch any store bought product that says “keto” on the wrapper or bag (bars, tortillas, bread, etc).

#3

Food is trickier as that varies a lot and I don’t even do keto all the time, let’s talk about fasting first.
(I apparently can’t not going into details and you probably don’t need those but who knows, maybe you are interested how other people work and behave, I am.)

Gong low with my carbs damaged my fasting abilities (the opposite what most people experiences) so no EF for me (I hope I will be able to do it eventually, I want enhanced autophagy and other things!) but I still do IF most of the time. The eating window is individual, I rarely eat before 3pm especially on workdays and it’s true for my days with a huge eating window too, actually.
I eat 1-5 times a day, my frist meal is usually at 3pm (usually later on OMAD) and the last varies, my number of meals have little to do with it as smaller meals make me hungry in 1 hour. I believe 1-2 meals is best for me as I like and need bigger meals and they last wonderfully long especially if I choose my food well. I enjoy not being hungry, rather perfectly satiated and the less meals I have, the easier I get this. If I can eat enough to begin with but it’s not a problem if I choose my food well, again.
My meals are always close to each other (except on OMAD), nothing can change that. So it’s fine if you don’t last very long after a meal, some of us are like that.
I personally really try to finish my day around 6pm for reasons. Like I become a gremlin if I am fed after that time, satiation and satisfaction and good dietary decisions face problems there. So it’s quite personal. ~6pm is good for dinner as enough time passed since lunch (I may or may not be hungry yet but I surely can eat a decent sized meal again) and it’s not far enough from my bedtime for me to get hungry again as long as I ate properly during the day.

I can write a typical (albeit simplified) good day of mine:
400-600g not very fatty pork (but ruminants are great too, I just have multiple reasons to eat mostly pork. I do eat fish and fowl but they aren’t very satiating so it’s just some addition, red meat is needed), a few to several eggs and dairy in moderation. I can handle other things (plants) in little amounts without a noticeable change but it’s better to stay as close to carnivore as I comfortably can.

My off days are sometimes keto, sometimes not (the latter is rarely a good idea for me nowadays, my body likes my non-animal net carbs being super low), my keto ones are very similar to my carnivore-ish ones but with a little extra fruit or grain or walnut pancakes (the dough is carnivore)… I enjoy myself and non-carni food pretty much loses its charm for several days again. But it may be a slippery slope, it depends on the season a lot…

My old keto days were half sweet desserts and no meat, pretty far from my current diet. Still high animal protein, I ate 7 eggs a day on average for more than 10 years (I continued to do it on carnivore too) and I really love dairy. I am fine with dairy, the sugar is okay too (40g sugar on a carni day? feels like I had 2g! so different from plant carbs!) except it easily triggers overeating in me. Many of us are like that. I don’t overeat cheese or any other dairy item, actually but I consume various items and the fat easily adds up while I don’t get more satiated. Many of us need to be careful with dairy for various reasons. My main pillars are meat and eggs but I try to focus on (red) meat more as that is what satiates me best and what my body misses if I eat too little of it.
I eat organs as they are cheap and nice. I eat as much liver as I dare (it’s too nutritious). 500g per 2 weeks seems okay.

I used to avoid added fat but now that I base my diet on lean meat (green ham, the fattiest I can find. not super lean but pretty lean) and don’t eat a ton of fat from dairy, I can snack on butter IN MODERATION :smiley: (It is dairy but I consider it ‘fat’, another group for me.) Scratchings too :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:
I need my super tasty fatty items for my mental health :wink:

My food choices may not be typical but it’s because I need and love protein so I need a lot while my energy need isn’t much (and I am in love with high-fat since I was born. or a bit later, I am not a seal, I surely didn’t get fatty food as a baby). Very nicely fatty food gives me way too much fat (as no way I stop eating below 130g protein. I am hungry there) hence I eat as lean as I can and I can do it WAY better than before carnivore, yay!

I don’t know if you want to eat sweeteners… It’s better for some than for others… I never noticed my sugar alcohols would be a problem (I hate the other options or never tried them) but I love sweets so they may trigger unnecessary eating. Not a very serious one, my sweets have too much protein and fat and satiation effect for that.
But some people avoid sweeteners and even sweet things for good reasons.

Even I don’t consider eating a lot of sweetener good in my case (others may do whatever suits them or want), it’s not food! So I trained myself to keep it low. It completely disappeared from my coffee, even from my cocoa, at some point from my chocolate… Then carnivore came and after a few years I noticed that I almost never even think about sweetening my food even on my off days… One can change a lot.
I eat plenty of sweet things though, even on carnivore as there is all that lactose :wink: Our sweet perception tend to change a lot when quitting added sugar, it happened to my family members (even if they kept eating a lot of natural sugar and sweeteners), it quickly happened to me on low-carb then it stayed there for several years, keto did nothing to it - but carnivore did. No wonder. Having sweet off days can’t stop this and I still feel things with sugar (like most dairy items) sweeter and sweeter.
But I don’t expect sweetness from my food nowadays so that helps too.

Oh and I find it important that sometimes being stricter is easier. When I tried out carnivore for the first few (or several) times, it was so much easier than keto! I couldn’t even do keto back then, if I added more than minimal plant carbs, they messed with me and I couldn’t stay on track. Carnivore is simpler too and that may feel quite nice. (Not like I don’t tend to overcomplicate it but it still not as complicated as my keto. And I am getting better anyway I think… Baking is especially simpler. Well. Less items to choose from :wink: )

Good luck, I stop myself already…

Oh, nutrition wise I don’t know if I lack something. Cronometer says I do but my body doesn’t tell me to change something. I supplement nothing. I don’t think my off days help much with nutrition but I hope I can see what happens during/after a mostly carni winter.

(Chuck) #4

Real food, no highly processed food/carbs, no fast food. It it is grown in the ground, it is beef, pork, lamb or wild game, chicken, turkey, dairy, in other words whole fat dairy. Fruits, vegetables, nuts, and yes at times potatoes white and sweet. But I also fast an average of 19 hours daily.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #5

If you are new to keto, wait until you are through the adaptation period (usually six to eight weeks) before attempting to fast. If you get to the point where you start to forget to eat, because you’re just not hungry, that’s a good point at which to start to fast.

One form of intermittent fasting that even carb-burners do (except they generally don’t benefit from it) is the nightly fast between the last meal of one day and the first meal of the next. I soon found, after starting keto, that I no longer wanted a morning meal, so that I would end up breaking my fast around 2:00 o’clock in the afternoon.

As for what to eat, I found it very easy: meat and a vegetable or salad. The meat would often have gravy, the salad would have blue cheese dressing, and the vegetable would often have cheese sauce. My first meal the next day would be some of the left over meat. Bacon and eggs also make for a great meal at any time of day.

These days, however, I am carnivore, so it’s just the meat, usually without any kind of gravy (although my sister makes a delicious carnivore gravy out of the pan juices and heavy cream). Lately I have been wanting a lot of eggs with my meat, either soft-boiled or fried. (If I make scrambled eggs, I mix heavy cream into them, instead of water or milk, as my mother taught me.)

(Marianne) #6

I think once you are fat adapted or eating sufficient quantities to satiate, “intermittent fasting” becomes an almost natural window without any trying. After about a couple of months, I naturally reverted to eating within a 16:8 or 18:6 window. That holds pretty much true to today, although if I am hungry in the morning, I will eat something (usually eggs and/or bacon). I just naturally have never wanted to eat after dinner, so I don’t. I also used to do a 24-hour fast once a week but stopped because I just didn’t like it. It wasn’t difficult, but I just enjoy eating. Fasting is not a requirement.

The foods I consume are simple, clean and limited in scope, just because those are the things I like - beef, hamburger, pork, bacon, some chicken, eggs, mayo, some cheese, HWC, butter/ghee, brussels sprouts or cole slaw. That’s pretty much it. I’ve been doing that for years and I still find those things satisfying and delicious. A lot of people eat more fruit or nuts and other things. I’ve found that I don’t really want to do that. Food is a slippery slope for me. Nuts, especially, can be a binge food for me, so I just don’t go there. Some fruit is so sweet, it opens up a door - cantaloupe, watermelon, bananas, etc. As long as I can go without and it doesn’t bother me, that’s what I’m going to stick to.

The longer you are on this, you will discover the foods you gravitate toward and what is most comfortable for you. I love that about keto - it changes as we go along and discover new things. Highly individual with just a few main principles (for me - eat clean and keep the carbs under 20g/day).

(Edith) #7

In general, my meals consist of fatty meat such a chicken thighs with the skin, pork shoulder, 80/20 ground beef, eggs, bacon, and one side such as leafy greens, non root garden vegetables, avocado/guacamole, lowish carb fruit like berries. I don’t add extra fat except for what is needed to cook the meat or vegetables unless the meat is low fat like fish, pork loin, or chicken breast.

If I need a snack, I’ll have nuts or pork rinds spread with bacon fat or liverwurst. I did recently discover the nori seaweed snacks. I enjoy a package of those once or twice a week.

(Bob M) #8

I’ve been eating some dried seaweed sheets. Don’t know how else to get iodine. They do have sunflower oil, though. Bummer.

This week, my lunches are end round with A2 cheese. Some tomatoes, the last of my “harvest”. No more tomatoes in a day or at most two. Raw milk with collagen peptides and whey protein. Dinners are whatever my wife or I have time to make. Salmon from Costco last night. Probably chicken from a local farm tonight. Taco Wednesday.

#9

Many high-carbers do IF too, it’s a thing. I had it myself. IF suits some of us. I never wanted and barely could eat in the morning (except as a kid as I had to but I hated it) and when I skipped breakfast, I was satiated until about 2pm. Convenient.

But keto (fat adaptation) diminished my eating window further. It doesn’t necessarily happen, not everyone can eat big enough meals especially on keto but it happens often.
Then I lowered my carbs (carnivore), my meals often got smaller and my eating window got bigger again - or not, I can eat 5 times in 5 hours, after all.

I consider these very, very individual. Some people never eat breakfast, no matter the diet. Some people skip it later and some keep it even on OMAD.
We should figure out what floats our boat, I am against being forceful :slight_smile: A tiny push may be needed, I can’t do automatically what is best for me. But no real force is applied. That wouldn’t work on many of us anyway.

(Chuck) #10

I am also someone that never wanted to eat in the mornings. With the diet I was fed while in the Navy I believe it was the fact I didn’t eat before noon was what kept my slim as I was, it sure wasn’t the diet I was eating in the Navy Mass Hall. I really didn’t run into real trouble weight wise until I became an IT professional and was setting at a desk and on the phones all the time. Way too many days my only meal was a candy bar and Coke.

(Edith) #11

That’s one of the reasons I’m eating them, but I do think they are tasty. If I make tuna or salmon salad, I will eat it with the seaweed sheets.

(Pete A) #12

10am breakfast:

2 hard boiled eggs
2 Oz cheddar
5 slices of bacon, with the grease
4 pieces bakers chocolate

2pm lunch:

6 OZ Meat (chicken, beef, pork, ground turkey, or fish)

1/4 cup veggies with 2 tablespoons butter

Blue cheese mayo

Dinner at 6ish:

Salad greens, almonds, berries, grated cheeses, mushrooms,apple cider vinegar

#13

Salt with iodine is very common in my country, we always have two kinds of salt at home, fine sea salt with iodine and Himalayan Pink. I eat both.

(Bob M) #14

@VirginiaEdie They aren’t bad; in fact, they may be one of those things I have to limit, like bacon and nuts.

@Shinita The sea salt and Himalayan pink salt we have don’t have iodine. And, supposedly, iodine will sublimate from salt so that the amount of iodine in salt isn’t correct anyway. I can’t verify whether or not that’s true.

(KM) #15

I suppose I’m successful? 60 yo female, modestly active but no specific exercise regimen at present. I went from 153 lb to 118 lb over 2 years, still losing maybe 1/2 lb per month. 5’1", current BMI 22.3, waist 26.75. No overt health issues. No scripts. Haven’t had bloods done in a decade. Anti big med, so far not an issue.

“Breakfast” typically a big cup of organic coffee with about 1/4 c organic no-additive whipping cream around 8 am. Lunch, around noon, typically nibbling on assorted cheeses - mostly aged cheese and sheep’s milk cheese, 2-3 oz, plus a pint cup of water with lemon juice or acv. Other possibilities include pickles or sauerkraut, plain yogurt, canned tuna, salmon or sardines, a “quiche” without crust, bacon & eggs, or possibly cold meat if I didn’t finish the night before. If I’m hungry afternoon, 1/4 cup of nuts or a Chomps beef stick - not my fave, too processed, not enough fat. About the only processed vacuum packaged food I eat. Dinner, around 6 pm, 8-16 oz meat with fat and skin if possible - beef, lamb, chicken, pork, seafood. Usually a low carb side - cauli, salad, cabbage, broccoli, green beans etc. Depending on my carb intake for the day, I may have a glass of dry red wine, or berries, as my end of day treat.

I do mix it up a bit. On occasion I will try to squeeze my eating window down to 8 hours. Maybe every two weeks I will go with a high carb whole food, like potato, sweet potato, beans, or wild rice. I will occasionally skip lunch. Occasionally I have organ meat. Every few months I do an extended fast of 48 to 160 hours. If I have fresh food in season, for example tomatoes from my garden, I will include those. Today: my coffee and cream, missed lunch so I am eating homemade roasted pumpkin seeds at 4 pm. Tonight I’ll have butter/ghee sauteed walleye and a lettuce salad with 2 salvaged garden tomatoes, olive oil, balsamic and tamari dressing, some cauli “rice” and mushroom sauteed with the fish and probably topped with a dot of yogurt, about 3 oz fresh raspberry, and probably more pumpkin seeds.

I make an effort to eat the ‘best’ foods IMO - pasture raised, wild caught, organic etc. Depends on price and availability. I question any food that’s been gm from its Paleo roots. I eat to satiety, and my firm standards are whole foods with no additives, no wheat, no seed oils, and limit all carbs to ordinarily 35 whole / 20 net… Plenty of salt, added fat (animal) if wanted or needed. I’d probably skip alcohol, but it’s an effective anti-divorce medication on occasion. :laughing:

#16

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I take these, when I remember…for Iodine. Most people in UK are deficient in Iodine.
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(Jimmy Lock) #17

Lots of great ideas in all these replies guys, thank you! :sunglasses: