Ketogenic Way of eating... (6 Viewers)

[Irish]

I would love to do just bacon and eggs for breakfast, but they dont reheat very well, my problem with bfast is I leave the house at 7 and get to work then eat at 830ish. If I eat at 615 it wont hold me over very long so I try to bring something to eat at work, on the weekend I am all about bacon and eggs.

I wonder if there are any no carb shakes or alternatives I could do for breakfast at work with some bacon on the side.

No microwave at work? It's obviously not as great as fresh, but when I'm in my typical groove, I typically make eggs at 6am (I bake a pound of bacon on Sunday evening and just grab 3 strips every morning), throw it in a Tupperware, hit the gym, and I'm at work by 8am and reheat for breakfast. A quick nuke and breakfast is served. Or:

I sometimes will make small "quiches" to take to work - scramble some eggs, mix in crumbled bacon or sausage and cheese, then bake in a well-buttered muffin pan until done. You can stick these in the fridge for several days, take one or two to work and reheat them in the microwave.

^this^ Here's the recipe I use. The kids love these as well, especially with the hint of pesto.
https://www.dietdoctor.com/recipes/keto-egg-muffins

What are some great recipes you guys use and if anyone is willing to share what a typical full day of eating looks like for them that would be awesome also!

My typical work day is:

Breakfast: 2-3 eggs (sometimes with cheese) and 3 slices of bacon or all beef sausage, coffee w/ cream & splenda (~4 carbs)

Lunch: Salad (romaine/spinach with varieties of cheese, cucumber, pepper slices, grilled chicken, and salami & provolone wrapped and sliced) w/ranch, caesar or blue cheese dressing. Cheese stick or 1/2 an avocado on the side (~5 carbs). On the rare day I eat out, I'll grab a burger (no bun)

Dinner: One of about 20 different 8-12 carbs meals, primary a meat or meat casserole with a veggie (salad, broccoli, cauliflower).

Snacks: Almonds, sliced cheese, pepperoni, peanuts.

These are some of my go to recipes for dinners:
https://www.tasteaholics.com/recipes/dinner/one-pan-italian-sausage-dinner-skillet/
https://www.tasteaholics.com/recipes/video/ultimate-mexican-casserole-video/
https://www.ditchthecarbs.com/keto-bacon-cheeseburger-casserole/
https://www.dietdoctor.com/recipes/keto-chicken-casserole
https://theketoqueens.com/keto-crack-chicken-recipe/?cn-reloaded=1
https://www.lowcarbmaven.com/malibu-chicken/
https://peaceloveandlowcarb.com/beef-stroganoff-burgers-low-carb/
https://elanaspantry.com/low-carb-cornbread/

 

[Schmendr1ck]

I don't think the Keto diet would work for me. I'm a type 2 diabetic, and I fear a change as drastic as this would cause my sugars to just flat out crash. Crashing sugars can be recovered with a quick high sugar blast (I usually have orange or apple juice). Having that kicks the carbs through the roof. Still going to try some of these ideas, and create a food plan that works best for me.

Actually, a ketogenic diet is a very effective treatment for type 2 diabetes. Of course I'm Semi-Anonymous Internet Guy, so don't take my word for it. There are quite a few studies out there that support this, though. Here's one to get you started, and others can be found with a little googling:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1325029/

But obviously, talk to your doctor first and get them in on it.

 

[Irish]

I don't think the Keto diet would work for me. I'm a type 2 diabetic, and I fear a change as drastic as this would cause my sugars to just flat out crash. Crashing sugars can be recovered with a quick high sugar blast (I usually have orange or apple juice). Having that kicks the carbs through the roof. Still going to try some of these ideas, and create a food plan that works best for me.

I have had type 2 diabetes for ~10 years. I had it mostly under control for the last 3-4 years, but with 2 different medications (thankfully no insulin yet). Last year my A1C started creeping up from 6.4ish to 6.9ish. This was the diet my doc finally recommend after years of failure with the low-fat diet. After 6 months it dropped to 5.7. Just had my latest blood work and it was 5.5 and we're now talking about starting to reduce my medications. Talk to your doc about it.

 

[T_Chan]

Great info here. Thanks for sharing those recipes Irish. Sometimes trying to find what to cook can be the toughest part.

I'm planning on heading towards a more keto way of eating. I'm already a lightweight so I have no desire to lose any weight, but I'm very drawn towards the health benefits of keto. I'm also going to be starting intermittent fasting, eating dinner around 6pm, skipping breakfast and not eating anything until lunch other than water and coffee.

Cutting out all carbs is great, but cutting out most carbs is still better than not making any change at all.

 

[Osciee]

I'm sure everyone has heard about the Keto diet. But would you ever try it? Cut out sugary sweets, potatoes, corn, pop, pop tarts, cakes, cookies, on and on. Then try to maintain a diet that is low carb (less than 20-25 grams of carbs a day), 60-80% of your calories from FATS, 15-25% Protein! Sounds crazy right. We've always heard that high fat diets will make you fat, give you heart disease and you die! But as I'm learning about the Keto diet it's just the opposite. Its Sugar and all its forms. Some hidden in disguise but turn into sugar that will end up killing you.

My Keto journey started about 5-6 weeks ago. I work in healthcare as a Pathologists' assistant. I see the end results of disease and cancer gone wrong. So we have weekly presentations called Grand Rounds which is a luncheon with guest speakers. So one of our local surgeons who noticed that over the years his patients kept getting more and more overweight and they were becoming harder and harder to care for. So he started to research. He concluded that carbohydrates (sugar in all its forms) is to blame. The way it triggers an insulin response which over time requires more and more insulin. Until you become insulin resistant and type 2 diabetes sets in. All this caused by the good old recommended food pyramid. Eat those carbs blah blah blah...So the next day after his presentation I began my high fat low carb journey.

I'm 6'1 fairly active and watch what I ate. Cooked most meals at home, not much pop or fast foods. Don't drink alcohol. At the start I reached 260 lbs, pretty unhappy with my weight. And have always had high blood triglycerides anywhere from 250-400. Steady 260 range from 2015-2018. Well today I went to my Dr. for a check up and to see where my blood work is after 5-6 weeks on this new to me Keto diet. My weight 237 (-23 lbs), my triglycerides went from 257 last March to 81!

Has anyone else had a similar story to share? Or know someone following this diet? Love to hear it.

I just lost 55 pounds on the same diet. Starting at 353 pounds in October, currently at 297. I love it

 

[saleen121212]

I use myfitnesspal as my daily tracker. It's a great tool with a huge database of foods and is pretty easy to use. One thing you have to be careful of though: the database is populated by users, so individual entries can sometimes be unreliable.

I try to eat by hunger, so I don't really have a typical day. I do tend to eat a bit more on the weekends and a bit less on work days, but I try to focus more on weekly trends rather than "HOLY CRAP I ATE 100 CALORIES AND 3 GRAMS OF CARBS TOO MUCH TODAY!"

This is Friday (about 2300 calories and 34g net carbs):
View attachment 249873
Note that I had half a beer and about a quarter ounce of dark chocolate - high carb foods, but very small portions to keep the impact low. I also had a couple of Quest bars, where I normally try to have no more than one per day. I must have been dealing with some cravings this day.

Here's a typical work-day log for me: no breakfast, under my calorie target and net carbs in the 20-25g ballpark.
View attachment 249874

For some reason I thought my fitness pal didnt show net carbs, but if it has Fiber right next to Carbs that makes it pretty easy. Maybe people were talking about sugar alcohols like Swerve?

 

[saleen121212]

No microwave at work? It's obviously not as great as fresh, but when I'm in my typical groove, I typically make eggs at 6am (I bake a pound of bacon on Sunday evening and just grab 3 strips every morning), throw it in a Tupperware, hit the gym, and I'm at work by 8am and reheat for breakfast. A quick nuke and breakfast is served. Or:



^this^ Here's the recipe I use. The kids love these as well, especially with the hint of pesto.
https://www.dietdoctor.com/recipes/keto-egg-muffins



My typical work day is:

Breakfast: 2-3 eggs (sometimes with cheese) and 3 slices of bacon or all beef sausage, coffee w/ cream & splenda (~4 carbs)

Lunch: Salad (romaine/spinach with varieties of cheese, cucumber, pepper slices, grilled chicken, and salami & provolone wrapped and sliced) w/ranch, caesar or blue cheese dressing. Cheese stick or 1/2 an avocado on the side (~5 carbs). On the rare day I eat out, I'll grab a burger (no bun)

Dinner: One of about 20 different 8-12 carbs meals, primary a meat or meat casserole with a veggie (salad, broccoli, cauliflower).

Snacks: Almonds, sliced cheese, pepperoni, peanuts.

These are some of my go to recipes for dinners:
https://www.tasteaholics.com/recipes/dinner/one-pan-italian-sausage-dinner-skillet/
https://www.tasteaholics.com/recipes/video/ultimate-mexican-casserole-video/
https://www.ditchthecarbs.com/keto-bacon-cheeseburger-casserole/
https://www.dietdoctor.com/recipes/keto-chicken-casserole
https://theketoqueens.com/keto-crack-chicken-recipe/?cn-reloaded=1
https://www.lowcarbmaven.com/malibu-chicken/
https://peaceloveandlowcarb.com/beef-stroganoff-burgers-low-carb/
https://elanaspantry.com/low-carb-cornbread/

Thanks for sharing all the great recipes! We do have a microwave, just friend eggs and scrambled eggs do not microwave well. I do like the quiche idea!

If you don't mind me asking, how many calories do you aim for in a day?

 

[Schmendr1ck]

For some reason I thought my fitness pal didnt show net carbs, but if it has Fiber right next to Carbs that makes it pretty easy. Maybe people were talking about sugar alcohols like Swerve?

Yeah, in MFP I just count (total - fiber) for my net carbs. If you pay for the pro version you can actually configure your diary to display net carbs directly.

Sugar alcohols can be tricky with keto. Some (e.g. erythritol) have virtually no calories or impact on your blood sugar and can be ignored. Others (e.g. maltitol) do have calories and a higher glycemic index and have to be used with caution. Some folks have, er, "GI issues" with sugar alcohols in quantity, so caveat emptor.

Labeling can be confusing too when sugar alcohols/derivatives are involved. US law requires that they be listed on the nutritional info labels as a carbohydrate. My Quest Hero bars, for instance, have 27g total carbs, 11g fiber, 12g sugar, and 1g erythritol. However, the sugar is allulose, which is almost entirely indigestible (about 0-10% the calories of the same amount of sugar). I don't count allulose or erythritol, so I record a bar as 4g net carbs.

I typically use and have no problem with erythritol, sucralose (Splenda), or allulose. I avoid maltitol and most other sugar alcohols because of concerns with knocking me out of keto or putting me in the bathroom. I rarely use aspartame (Nutrasweet), saccharine, or natural stevia because I don't like the way they taste.

 

[Irish]

Thanks for sharing all the great recipes! We do have a microwave, just friend eggs and scrambled eggs do not microwave well. I do like the quiche idea!

If you don't mind me asking, how many calories do you aim for in a day?

What I actually track are grams of each macro (carbs / protein / fat). I have my macros set at 20g of carbs, 138g of protein, and 145g of fat. Those can be converted to calories by multiplying each by 4, 4 & 9, respectively, to get 80 / 552 / 1305 calories each, for a total of 1937 calories. I've found I don't often hit that, I'm usually around 1800. I track grams and not calories because most food labels give you the breakdown of carbs/protein/fat in grams, with a combined calories up top. If you're staying within your target macros, you're automatically also staying under the minimum calorie ceiling, so I don't bother with counting calories too.

For comparison, I'm 6'-0", started at 320 lbs and I'm down to 255 lbs. I'm hoping to eventually drop another 20 pounds or so to get down to 230 lbs (high school football weight ).

 

[saleen121212]

Yeah, in MFP I just count (total - fiber) for my net carbs. If you pay for the pro version you can actually configure your diary to display net carbs directly.

Sugar alcohols can be tricky with keto. Some (e.g. erythritol) have virtually no calories or impact on your blood sugar and can be ignored. Others (e.g. maltitol) do have calories and a higher glycemic index and have to be used with caution. Some folks have, er, "GI issues" with sugar alcohols in quantity, so caveat emptor.

Labeling can be confusing too when sugar alcohols/derivatives are involved. US law requires that they be listed on the nutritional info labels as a carbohydrate. My Quest Hero bars, for instance, have 27g total carbs, 11g fiber, 12g sugar, and 1g erythritol. However, the sugar is allulose, which is almost entirely indigestible (about 0-10% the calories of the same amount of sugar). I don't count allulose or erythritol, so I record a bar as 4g net carbs.

I typically use and have no problem with erythritol, sucralose (Splenda), or allulose. I avoid maltitol and most other sugar alcohols because of concerns with knocking me out of keto or putting me in the bathroom. I rarely use aspartame (Nutrasweet), saccharine, or natural stevia because I don't like the way they taste.

Swerve is Erythritol and something else. Currently that's all I have tried. It is great for baking and such. Some nice treats we made this weekend:

1/4th cup heavy cream whipped into whipped cream, some whipped cream cheese (watch carbs in this stuff), some 100% pure coco powder, tiny bit of swerve to sweeten. This was my favorite, but flushed my face (made it feel hot and tingly) almost like a diabetic blood sugar rush or something, not sure why other than maybe my body thought the sweet flavor = sugar???

Fake Reeses - Used Lilly's chocolate chips (they are sweetened with Erythritol already) and a natural peanut butter with only peanuts as the ingredient. These are great and super small, I limit myself on these to like 1 or 2 every day or so

Peanutbutter cookies - 3 ingredients, these were only OK, same natural peanut butter, an egg and some sweetener (ended up only eating 1 or 2 of these over 9 days as I accidentally burned most of them)

 

[WedgeRock]

Macros were good for breakfast...

Went to crap after I started lunch with three pieces of fruit.

Is the sugar fruits an acceptable form of carbs?

 

[Irish]

Is the sugar fruits an acceptable form of carbs?

Negative, the only acceptable form of carbs that don't count toward the daily limit are carbs from fiber. Most fruits are no bueno on keto.

 

[WedgeRock]

I see that now.

I thought someone said you can eat all the fruits and veggies you want on keto... So it's just veggies? Did I read that wrong, or was someone giving advice on their own keto-ish plan?

Picked some of these up...

 

[ohio3302016]

Eat #NDWFs.

IF.

Don't drink your calories.

Lift weights.

Sleep 8 hours a night.

 

[SuckoutKing]

Stick to these veggies for Keto.

 

[SuckoutKing]

Cauliflower is very cool. Can be used to make pizza crust and imitation mashed potatoes. Both which taste great. Pizza I made with Cauliflower crust. Super easy to.

 

[James McGill]

Eight of those items are fruit, for what it's worth. ;-)

Stick to these veggies for Keto.

 

[Irish]

I thought someone said you can eat all the fruits and veggies you want on keto... So it's just veggies? Did I read that wrong, or was someone giving advice on their own keto-ish plan?

Must have been an alternative plan, there's technically not much you can "eat all you want" with keto. A lot of veggies are good on keto, the general rule of thumb is leafy greens & greens that grow above ground are best - those the grow below ground (potatoes, onions, carrots) are higher in sugar and should be limited. The graphic @SuckoutKing posted is very helpful guide.

 

[WedgeRock]

Piss off, hummus.

 

[WedgeRock]

Oh, crap! Almost forgot. Here's the recipe:

2 eggs
1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon avocado oil. (heard of people using butter and stuff too, this works well for me though as its easy to mix in)
1 packet of sweetener (optional)

Get a small "loaf shaped" foot storage container. mines like 4" x 2.5" or something. smaller works well because it makes the loaf thicker and you can slice it like bread

Beat eggs till they are uniformly yellow, then add ALL other ingredients and mix thoroughly.
Microwave for 2 minutes.
plop out your "loaf"
Slice very thin if you want to use as pizza crust (1/8" maybe?), maybe a little thicker if you want to use it for toast.

kinda need a toaster oven to toast (they might fall apart if you try it in a slot toaster).

Theres a lot of moisture in these, so, they can take a full "dark" toasting cycle, and then maybe even some more.

Heres some step by step instructions with pics:

https://imgur.com/a/cMzZJzf

Lets face it, it's not bread. But, after being on keto for a while, if you haven't tried a bread replacement recipe like this... you'll quickly work it into your diet It scratches the itch, no doubt.

I LOVE French Toast. I made this with butter instead of avocado oil and nixed the sweetener then grilled it. It makes a pretty good French Toast substitute. You can taste the eggs and it has the mouth feel of bread. I like my French Toast with just butter (no syrup or powdered sugar) so even better.

6g of carbs, so not perfect.

 

[WedgeRock]

How much of the initial weight loss is just water (%age or number)? How long after starting a K diet does the water loss end and the fat burning begin?

 

[Undream]

First couple days eating Keto is a shock to anyone who eats a "normal" diet .. some people get some odd side effects from the change... Bad breath, headaches, flu like symptoms or dizziness. Might last a few days. For me I am a bit exhausted /no energy foe the first few days.

Safe to say up to 2% of your body weight might immediately fluctuate due to water loss and adjustment to the diet.. I know when I go off Keto I gain 3-4lb almost immediately. So, I try not to count that weight as part of my progress

 

[Irish]

How much of the initial weight loss is just water (%age or number)? How long after starting a K diet does the water loss end and the fat burning begin?

Usually water loss is only the first week or so. Once your body has expended all your sugar reserves and you're in ketosis, you're burning fat.

 

[saleen121212]

The biggest factor that helped my finally start dropping pounds left and right was to track with an app and adjust calories, I didn't believe not eating enough was a thing, but then I increased my calories by 3-400 a day on Sunday and since then I have literally lost a pound a day. Maybe it took two weeks to get fat burning, maybe I wasn't eating enough, either way tracking/adjustments are important.

 

[WedgeRock]

I'm probably around 1800 kcal per day. Carbs intake is higher than I would like, but only because I'm still finding out what foods to avoid. It's been a week. Three days in was a brutal headache (solved by Gatorade Zero). Down about 2% now.

Things are definitely different. Satiation wouldn't last more than an hour past a meal. Now, I still feel full hours after eating. I got caught at the office last night until 10 but I didn't feel that hypoglycemic crash like normal. There's been a few times this past week where the thought of just skipping a meal crossed my mind. Definitely burning some of those carb reserves now.

 

[WedgeRock]

I didn't believe not eating enough was a thing, but then I increased my calories by 3-400 a day on Sunday and since then I have literally lost a pound a day.

I've read that if you eat too few cals, your body will adjust as if you are starving and start conserving stored energy as much as possible. The extra 300-400 cals probably told your body you weren't starving and it was okay to start burning reserves.

 

[Schmendr1ck]

Is the sugar fruits an acceptable form of carbs?

I avoid most fruit, but limited quantities of some berries are okay on keto. I'll have strawberries (9g per cup) and blueberries (9g per half cup) sometimes - just go easy and don't add additional sweetener.

 

[Schmendr1ck]

Cauliflower is very cool. Can be used to make pizza crust and imitation mashed potatoes. Both which taste great. Pizza I made with Cauliflower crust. Super easy to.

View attachment 250865

I've tried this a couple times, and I've always had trouble getting enough water out of the cauliflower so that it becomes crispy.

Fathead pizza FTW. The calories are a lot higher so you have to be careful, but it's easier and tastier IMO.

 

[saleen121212]

I've read that if you eat too few cals, your body will adjust as if you are starving and start conserving stored energy as much as possible. The extra 300-400 cals probably told your body you weren't starving and it was okay to start burning reserves.

That's what the internet says. Stupid complex smart bodies, why can't they just burn all this perfectly good fat in reserve instead of going into starvation mode lol. Oh well, now I get to eat more, which is actually been more challenging than fun, when eating health it's hard to hit the caloric intakes this app is telling me I need.

 

[Schmendr1ck]

Piss off, hummus.

Remember that hummus has a lot of fiber, so your net carbs for 1/2 cup is going to be more like 10g. Still on the high side if your daily target is 20-30g but not out of the question.