September Nutritional Ketosis Thread!

[Bernsy]

Originally Posted by shelley

OK...today is my weekly measure, weigh day. Every Sunday morning. Weight for the week is down .6# (I weigh daily and add all 7 days and divide by 7 to get an accurate "average"). Measurements were pretty close, but a few were down by 1/8 and 1/4". I'll take it!

I will post my foods on the new daily food thread for the newbies to see another persons intake.

Buffy, great synopsis...Amy, hooray on the change of brain thought and not having pie (I hope it was you!)

For those doing the fat bombs. Almond (milk, flour, butter) makes me crave carbs so I bought some sunflower seed butter and it's awesome. Peanuts are a legume and low on the Atkins ladder so I don't use it at all. Next batch will be using my own homemade macadamia nut butter. But I make mine 1/2 size (1 TBSP instead of 2) and one is just right for me. Also, I use MCT oil AND HWC in my one cup of coffee in the morning. But Phinney/Volek do NOT like the use of MCT oil...have to do more research to find out why.

What is wrong with mct oil? I take mg1tbsp per day

[marriedtothearmy]

Somewhere I saw a recipe for a smoothie/milkshake that had a base of 12 oz almond milk (unsweetened) and 4tbsp heavy cream. But I can't remember anything else in it and I can't find it. Does that sound familiar to anyone? Trying to replace my protein powder shake!

[reddarin]

Originally Posted by 3Kids4me

I'm wondering if I should be losing faster. I'm still around 190 lbs (dropped to 188.4 as a low for the week, but up a bit today with TOM impending). I'm consistently at 1500-1600 calories, less than 20 carbs, in good ketosis (3+), and exercising 3+ times a week. It *seem* like I should be losing faster than I am. I guess technically I lost over 2 lbs this week. I guess I just thought it would be faster if I nailed nutritional ketosis and kept calories in a good range.

Not planning to change anything, just need more patience I suppose. I'm happy with my food and energy.

--Jamie

Jamie, I looked back at a couple of posts you made with your calories, fat grams and protein grams and both had your fat at about 75%.

You might try increasing the fat percentage to 80%+. You can do that with just a little more fat leaving your protein the same which will increase your calories just a tad or you can reduce your protein just a little and leave your fat the same which will keep the calories about the same.

[3Kids4me]

Originally Posted by reddarin

Jamie, I looked back at a couple of posts you made with your calories, fat grams and protein grams and both had your fat at about 75%.

You might try increasing the fat percentage to 80%+. You can do that with just a little more fat leaving your protein the same which will increase your calories just a tad or you can reduce your protein just a little and leave your fat the same which will keep the calories about the same.

You're right about the protein %, it is about 75 usually. I will try that, Red, thanks for the idea. This week I'll aim for 80% fat. I really don't want to push protein under 70g for now. I'd rather up fat and calories a bit.

Good to have something to tweak a bit this week.

--Jamie

[3Kids4me]

Okay, so looks like I should aim for 1800 calories to get my fat to 80% and still have protein close to 70g and carbs under 20g. The calories in/calories out based weight loss model of the tracker says I'll only lose .6lbs a week eating this way. I guess we'll see.

[mom2zeke]

Originally Posted by 3Kids4me

I'm wondering if I should be losing faster. I'm still around 190 lbs (dropped to 188.4 as a low for the week, but up a bit today with TOM impending). I'm consistently at 1500-1600 calories, less than 20 carbs, in good ketosis (3+), and exercising 3+ times a week. It *seem* like I should be losing faster than I am. I guess technically I lost over 2 lbs this week. I guess I just thought it would be faster if I nailed nutritional ketosis and kept calories in a good range.

Not planning to change anything, just need more patience I suppose. I'm happy with my food and energy.

Jamie,
I'm going to give some slightly different advice. If you don't feel that you're losing fast enough I would not increase calories just to get to 80% fat. Phinney and Volek do not advise this. If you are in NK (you are) and are not losing, they advise to lower fat. There is nothing magical about 80% fat that makes you lose more if you're eating more. Some people need to go that high to get into NK, but you're already there.

I was averaging about 70% fat when I was losing well. You want to access your body fat for fuel, not your dietary fat. With this in mind, I would suggest keeping your protein and carbs the same and lowering your fat slightly.

I think you might also consider reducing your exercise intensity. Your workouts seem very intense and long. This may increase cortisol and interfere with weight loss.

The other thing I would advise is patience. Not everyone loses at the same rate. Especially if TOM is on the way I wouldn't expect that you'd see great losses.

[reddarin]

Originally Posted by mom2zeke

Jamie,
I'm going to give some slightly different advice. If you don't feel that you're losing fast enough I would not increase calories just to get to 80% fat. Phinney and Volek do not advise this. If you are in NK (you are) and are not losing, they advise to lower fat. There is nothing magical about 80% fat that makes you lose more if you're eating more. Some people need to go that high to get into NK, but you're already there.

I was averaging about 70% fat when I was losing well. You want to access your body fat for fuel, not your dietary fat. With this in mind, I would suggest keeping your protein and carbs the same and lowering your fat slightly.

I think you might also consider reducing your exercise intensity. Your workouts seem very intense and long. This may increase cortisol and interfere with weight loss.

The other thing I would advise is patience. Not everyone loses at the same rate. Especially if TOM is on the way I wouldn't expect that you'd see great losses.

I like Kristn's advice Jamie. It makes a lot of sense. I believe I'd go with her approach first. You can always do it the other way around if it doesn't pan out.

The only thing I'd add is are you hungry at your current levels? Not just mild hunger that you can easily ignore but really hungry? If that is the case, bothersome hunger, then I'd go higher fat first.

=)

[reddarin]

Originally Posted by 3Kids4me

Okay, so looks like I should aim for 1800 calories to get my fat to 80% and still have protein close to 70g and carbs under 20g. The calories in/calories out based weight loss model of the tracker says I'll only lose .6lbs a week eating this way. I guess we'll see.

Hmmmm.

Tracker says 2300 calories is maintenance for you? Is that right?

[reddarin]

Originally Posted by marriedtothearmy

Somewhere I saw a recipe for a smoothie/milkshake that had a base of 12 oz almond milk (unsweetened) and 4tbsp heavy cream. But I can't remember anything else in it and I can't find it. Does that sound familiar to anyone? Trying to replace my protein powder shake!

I searched for it and I couldn't find it. Do you remember anything else about it? Maybe the name of who posted it or if it was a new post? Or what the thread was about?

[3Kids4me]

Originally Posted by reddarin

Hmmmm.

Tracker says 2300 calories is maintenance for you? Is that right?

Yeah somewhere in there. 2100-2300 with lifestyle activity. I don't add in the exercise as part of that.

I'm *really* hesitant to cut time exercising much. It's less than 3 hours a week total and it does so much for helping me stay compliant and seeing myself as a fit, active person and it helps with stress and mood in general for me. I can dial back intensity to walking more though, particularly once I'm done with my 5K on October 6th. But I'm committed to that with a friend.

Okay. So. Lowering fat a bit so I'm not taking in too much dietary fat means dropping calories some. I can do that. I'm not hungry, I add food some to hit my calorie range. But I can play around with numbers and practice more patience. But even if I need to be a little bit hungry, I can do that, I've done it before when trying to get to the next goal and stuck on a plateau.

With 30 lbs still to lose, i just feel like things should move a little faster. And Kristn is probably right that my ketones are in a good range but I'm not steadily losing, so it may be calories are just still a bit high for my metabolism to lose.

I'll shoot for 1400 and see if that's more of a sweet spot for me.

It looks like 1400 with my carb amounts 18g and protein amounts 70g, still leaves me at 75% for fat. So...raise carbs or protein a bit? Or ignore the percentages and trust dropping calories a couple hundred lowers total dietary fat enough to burn more of *my* fat?

Thanks guys!

[reddarin]

Originally Posted by 3Kids4me

Yeah somewhere in there. 2100-2300 with lifestyle activity. I don't add in the exercise as part of that.

I'm *really* hesitant to cut time exercising much. It's less than 3 hours a week total and it does so much for helping me stay compliant and seeing myself as a fit, active person and it helps with stress and mood in general for me. I can dial back intensity to walking more though, particularly once I'm done with my 5K on October 6th. But I'm committed to that with a friend.

Okay. So. Lowering fat a bit so I'm not taking in too much dietary fat means dropping calories some. I can do that. I'm not hungry, I add food some to hit my calorie range. But I can play around with numbers and practice more patience. But even if I need to be a little bit hungry, I can do that, I've done it before when trying to get to the next goal and stuck on a plateau.

With 30 lbs still to lose, i just feel like things should move a little faster. And Kristn is probably right that my ketones are in a good range but I'm not steadily losing, so it may be calories are just still a bit high for my metabolism to lose.

I'll shoot for 1400 and see if that's more of a sweet spot for me.

It looks like 1400 with my carb amounts 18g and protein amounts 70g, still leaves me at 75% for fat. So...raise carbs or protein a bit? Or ignore the percentages and trust dropping calories a couple hundred lowers total dietary fat enough to burn more of *my* fat?

Thanks guys!

I wouldn't think of cutting the exercise if you like it =)

Keep carbs and protein constant and lower the fat a bit to shoot for 70% or a little under.

Keep us posted on how the tweaks work.

[Flavia]

Wait, did u say the 1400 is your intake and u didn't deduct the exercise from that????
If u were to deduct ur exercise from 1400 that would put u into starvation mode ....

[mom2zeke]

Originally Posted by 3Kids4me

I'm *really* hesitant to cut time exercising much. It's less than 3 hours a week total and it does so much for helping me stay compliant and seeing myself as a fit, active person and it helps with stress and mood in general for me. I can dial back intensity to walking more though, particularly once I'm done with my 5K on October 6th. But I'm committed to that with a friend.

My mistake, for some reason I thought your were doing more. 3 hours a week seems pretty reasonable.

And I know what you mean about exercise. 11 years ago I was a total couch potato, but now I love feeling like a strong, fit, active person!

[3Kids4me]

Originally Posted by g3rmanchik

Wait, did u say the 1400 is your intake and u didn't deduct the exercise from that????
If u were to deduct ur exercise from 1400 that would put u into starvation mode ....

Nah, I don't trust exercise counters much anyway. I've been closer to 1600 calories most of the time, occasionally higher days, with about 3-400 burned from exercise 3 times a week.

[3Kids4me]

Originally Posted by mom2zeke

My mistake, for some reason I thought your were doing more. 3 hours a week seems pretty reasonable.

And I know what you mean about exercise. 11 years ago I was a total couch potato, but now I love feeling like a strong, fit, active person!

Exactly!

My trainer has me doing a bodyweight circuit 3 times a week, that takes about 15 minutes, then I do 20-30 minutes of walking/running/intervals after that, whatever I feel like to take me to 45 minutes. Then another 1 or 2 days a week I work on 5k goals, but I'm very slow. ;-) There are probably speed walkers faster than my running speed.

But I'd rather lose like a turtle and keep pushing toward the fitness goals, they just motivate me to really change from the inside out and KEEP THE WEIGHT OFF for good!

[3Kids4me]

Okay. I crunched all the numbers. I think I'm going to be miserable on anything less than 1400 just playing with a few reasonable menus for me. And I need a place to go when I get closer to goal and really have to get tough.

Maybe I'll push carbs up since I pretty easily got into ketosis and protein to bring that fat % down, I really hate being below 1500 calories just for enough variety and decent portions of the foods I like in my menu.

I can ditch the extra fat in coffee easily, that's 200+ calories right there.

Let's see how this week treats me, can I lose during TOM?

[melisa82]

Wasn't there a recipe thread for HFLCMP?

[mom2zeke]

Originally Posted by melisa82

Wasn't there a recipe thread for HFLCMP?

Here it is: High fat, low to moderate protein recipes?

[mom2zeke]

Originally Posted by 3Kids4me

Okay. I crunched all the numbers. I think I'm going to be miserable on anything less than 1400 just playing with a few reasonable menus for me. And I need a place to go when I get closer to goal and really have to get tough.

Maybe I'll push carbs up since I pretty easily got into ketosis and protein to bring that fat % down, I really hate being below 1500 calories just for enough variety and decent portions of the foods I like in my menu.

I can ditch the extra fat in coffee easily, that's 200+ calories right there.

Let's see how this week treats me, can I lose during TOM?

Good luck Jamie! I have found that if I'm on plan during TOM I will see good losses the week after TOM leaves.

[theLossgirl]

Originally Posted by g3rmanchik

Wait, did u say the 1400 is your intake and u didn't deduct the exercise from that????
If u were to deduct ur exercise from 1400 that would put u into starvation mode ....

She actually isn't. Our bodies go into starvation mode when it realizes it doesn't have enough calories stored by way of our body fat.

We're still putting some food in every day, and our bodies know we have plenty of calories (energy) stored to get us through the winter, lol. Most of us will never have to worry about starvation mode because our body fat will never be extremely low.

Starvation Mode – Why You Probably Never Need to Worry About It

[Flavia]

cool thanks Deb.....I was worried about her....no need to now...

[theLossgirl]

There is a good reason not to go below 1200 calories though. It's very difficult to meet basic nutritional needs on fewer calories than that. I'm sure it could be done, but every single calorie would have to count.

[JMacB]

Whew! This is new way of thinking for me. I've been reading for a week and trying to follow along, but I'm jumping in now.

I'm 5-7, so i think that translates to 67 g of protein daily. Since it can be +/- 10% I'm going with 60 g daily. It makes the math on carbs and fat easier, too - 30 and 150.

I'm still figuring out what all to eat. Going to explore those threads next.

Dumb question but making sure I understand: make sure to eat the protein, stay under the carbs, and use the fat to satisfy.

For today I was:
protein 59
Carb 15
Fat 147
Calories 1597

I morphed a fat fast into NK, and I'm down 6 pounds in a week. I feel like this is something I can do for a while.

[3Kids4me]

Originally Posted by mom2zeke

Good luck Jamie! I have found that if I'm on plan during TOM I will see good losses the week after TOM leaves.

That's what I want to see!

[amlyjo]

Originally Posted by marriedtothearmy

Somewhere I saw a recipe for a smoothie/milkshake that had a base of 12 oz almond milk (unsweetened) and 4tbsp heavy cream. But I can't remember anything else in it and I can't find it. Does that sound familiar to anyone? Trying to replace my protein powder shake!

I have posted this. I found it around here poking around somewhere. Can't remember though.

12 oz (1 1/2 c) almond milk (unsweetened vanilla)
4 oz (1/2 c) HWC
vanilla SF syrup or some kind of sweetener
dash of cinnamon

I put it in an empty water bottle and shake it up. Then I only use it for a meal replacement, otherwise the fat and calories are too high. But it's also good warm, so one time after a great breakfast of protein, I took this for lunch and was amazingly full all afternoon. It's not too thick but is reminiscent of melted vanilla ice cream.

[3Kids4me]

Originally Posted by theLossgirl

There is a good reason not to go below 1200 calories though. It's very difficult to meet basic nutritional needs on fewer calories than that. I'm sure it could be done, but every single calorie would have to count.

Very true. And a metabolism can still be slowed and who wants that!

I still have 30+ lbs to lose after losing 60 lbs. I need to have somewhere to go when I get to those last 5-10 lbs, so I'm hesitant to drop too much now.

And I need to watch for over-restricting since that has set me up for binging in the past.

[zay]

Hey what do you all think of this?
I took a BS reading - 104. I thought that was high and rechecked it right away - 94. For the heck of it I checked it again, right away - 88. Three readings within 4 minutes or so.

[pantograph]

Average daily consumption for the week (through Saturday)
Carbs: 38.1 g (7%) (incl 14.1 g fiber)
Protein: 108.7 (21%)
Fat: 174 g (72%)
Calories: 2,143 (burning 2,807)

Seven-day moving averages (with weekly change)
Weight: 178.1 (down 1.1)
Ketones: 0.74 (up 0.29)
Glucose: 94 (down 1.7)

Glad to hear about everyone's success.

Keep clam,
Terry

[JMCM1]

The places you pricked for blood were pristinely clean? (no fruit juice or anything else to skew the result)

[marriedtothearmy]

Originally Posted by amlyjo

I have posted this. I found it around here poking around somewhere. Can't remember though.

12 oz (1 1/2 c) almond milk (unsweetened vanilla)
4 oz (1/2 c) HWC
vanilla SF syrup or some kind of sweetener
dash of cinnamon

I put it in an empty water bottle and shake it up. Then I only use it for a meal replacement, otherwise the fat and calories are too high. But it's also good warm, so one time after a great breakfast of protein, I took this for lunch and was amazingly full all afternoon. It's not too thick but is reminiscent of melted vanilla ice cream.

Thank you so much! I'm definitely planning to use it as a meal replacement...that's generally what I end up doing with the protein shake now. Sometimes I do it as a snack but then the next meal is much lighter because I'm too full.

Thanks!