Started this Sunday. Excited to see the results. Have a little bit of brain fog but besides that doing well. Not too hard to limit my carbs, but getting enough fat is difficult.

Same here, fat bombs and bulletproof coffee are helping though

That brain fog should clear soon and you will have total clarity and great focus. At least, that is what happened to me at the beginning of keto.

Anyone have any experince with MCT Oil? Just ordered some. Hoping for some quick energy and easy fat intake.

Before I started IF, I put1 tablespoon MCT oil in my morning coffee. Now that I'm not eating in the morning, I don't use it.

I use 1 tablespoon of MCT oil and 2 tablespoons of kerry gold butter in my coffee every morning around 6:30 am. I'm doing IF so I don't eat between 9pm and 1pm (except for the coffee). The coffee with MCT oil makes this very easy, as I simply don't get hungry. I also feel like I am more alert in general than I was before when I just drank plain coffee.

It's not really IF because you are now consuming calories to burn off as energy.instead of burning off the fat on your body. If you tested your ketone levels after drinking your bulletproof coffee you would see them decrease. Meaning you are not burning fat storage for energy. The point of IF is to not consume calories for a long enough period of time that it has to use stored energy instead of getting it directly from food.

This is a very broad explanation. You can definitely lose weight with or without the bulletproof coffee, but I think doing actual IF would help.

Normally I drink a protein shake and a cup of coffee for breakfast. I tried a spoonful of Onnit MCT oil in my coffee today and it was OK. Next week I'm going to skip the breakfast shake entirely and just do the MCT plus coffee until lunchtime. Not exactly IF, but carbs and calories will be lower than before.

OldAg92 said:

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I use 1 tablespoon of MCT oil and 2 tablespoons of kerry gold butter in my coffee every morning around 6:30 am. I'm doing IF so I don't eat between 9pm and 1pm (except for the coffee). The coffee with MCT oil makes this very easy, as I simply don't get hungry. I also feel like I am more alert in general than I was before when I just drank plain coffee.

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You might also try 2 tbls of Heavy Whipping Cream along with the MCT oil. Abt 2gms less fat than Kerrygold, but mixes better with coffee.

I only drink Decaf, so I can have a cup anytime...and it does leave you feeling full.

Speaking of MCT Oil, not all of them are the same. Focus on amount of C8 (Caprylic Acid), that's the better stuff. Mercola makes one that is pure C8 (online order only-my wife swears by him.)

Question for the board: How long did it take you to get into ketosis the first time? and how long after a cheat day (maybe some beers or a wedding)?

Based on the test strips I was in mild after a day, and pretty large after a week.

The longer you're on the more you can cheat.

I'd taken a break for about 6 weeks and started back 1.5 weeks ago. I was at a conference this week and cheated a few times, i.e., I'd each 5 - 10 french fries served w/my meal, yesterday afternoon I had some fries and ate over 1/2 the bun on a pit beef sandwich, and some gravy. All of that to say, when I tested this AM I'm still in moderate ketosis, and I lost 4 pounds since early Sunday AM.

The longer you are in, the more you can cheat. The first heavy cheat I had after doing it for 6 weeks was fajitas, cheese enchiladas, flour tortillas, and several margaritas. I was still fine the next day.

It took about 4-5 days the first time. It's a day and a half max the few times I've cheated after that.

Edit: My cheating is usually small, though. A cookie or a handful of chips. It might spike an sugar response, but not enough to make my body care a lot.

I need more ideas for meals. Breakfast and dinner, lunch is generally leftovers from dinners.

I love sausage balls for breakfast on the days I eat breakfast. We also make them for dinner sometimes. We make homemade pizza with the fathead dough. Once you get fathead dough down (super easy to make) then the meals open up.

We also make:
taco or fajita salad
Indian butter chicken (there are some small changes to make it perfect for keto)
bunless hamburgers
chicken salad with lettuce wraps
crockpot pulled pork with fathead buns
some soup with hamburger meat in it that's actually really good.
numerous pasta meals that we sub zucchini pasta instead of normal pasta


We have several other meals on our rotation, but that's all I can think of right now

We got a cookbook called Keto Comfort Foods by Maria Emmerich...it is awesome!

I have made these blueberry muffins. They don't keep very long, though, so you might half it. They're very good.

https://www.foodfaithfitness.com/low-carb-sugar-free-keto-blueberry-muffins-with-almond-flour/

Dinner plans this week: buffalo wings with celery & carrots, pork chops in a mustard sauce & broccoli, bunless burgers, ribeyes & ceasar salad

I made some sausage balls today w/ coconut flour, turned out really good

Yeah lots of meats....we dont cook too much but on my husband's 2 days off he usually grills steaks which we will mix up with steamed cauliflower and butter or bacon wrapped asparagus or brussel sprouts and butter or broccoli and cheese. Yum. We never tire of steak nights.

My days off I usually do a crockpot dinner with chicken or pork or a roast.

You can always do bbq and there are a lot of sugar free alternatives for bbq sauce.

At heb you can get real good pizza...a personal size one for 5 bucks. I'll do that if I will be eating alone.

Wings are good as long as the sauce isn't sugary. Parmesan garlic is yummo!

We do a seafood night here and there, crab legs when they are on sale and scallops and raw oysters are some of my faves. These are good for date nights.

Also good restaurant options are any burger joint...I go places where I can add egg avocado and blue cheese and eat that bad boy with no bun...sub fries for steamed veggies...also Mexican restaurants are easy too, just no chips or tortillas. Which reminds me, we do taco night at home, I just use low carb tortillas!!

I do IF so I really only eat one big meal a day. I drink a couple of protein shakes throughout the afternoon so those usually help me make it to dinner.

I also love breakfast foods for dinner. Tonight I made a mushroom cheese and grilled onion omelette with a side of avocado and it was so damn delicious. I've also made keto waffles (only 4 ingredients and very easy) with sugar free syrup. There are tons of recipes for any baked goods you may love like cookies cake and muffins. I find them pretty damn close in taste....just a little pricier to make.

For a dessert I mix hwc with sugar free pudding mix and yeah....takes a few minutes and I can eat on that for 2 or 3 days and it gets my fat up and cures my sweet tooth.

Snacks like guac with chiccarrones are good and I love Chile lime pistachios and those are good as a boredom snack too because you have to put a little work in for each bite lol.

Finally...if you do like to cook...any kind of protein mixed with heavy whipping cream and a couple of other ingredients is always a homerun.

So as you can see it's actually pretty feasible to eat delicious food and mix it up. Tbh it's all the same stuff I was eating just nixed all the unhealthy snack foods and pasta, which I didnt do all to often anyway. As you can see I am very dirty keto and also lazy keto...but I eat great food, I'm rarely hungry and eat as much as I want and lost 20 pounds to hit my goal weight after about 3 months. I hope this helps!

atag said:

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At heb you can get real good pizza...a personal size one for 5 bucks. I'll do that if I will be eating alone.

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What pizza are you referring to there?

That's the name brand...its called real good pizza...its okay...its no Chicago deep dish but I had been craving pizza for like 3 days and gave it a try. It sated that craving. I'd eat it again.

Dont forget the nutritional info at Chipotle is net carbs.. they don't ever state it, but confirmed it.

AGGODDESS said:

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Dont forget the nutritional info at Chipotle is net carbs.. they don't ever state it, but confirmed it.

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Really?

I'ts my understanding the fat limit is a threshold... meet your protein, if you don't meet fat that's fine.. don't go over carb.

Yes. Pisses everyone off when they find out because people have been operating subtracting the fiber all along..

https://imgur.com/a/p3frPXV

AGGODDESS said:

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Yes. Pisses everyone off when they find out because people have been operating subtracting the fiber all along..

https://imgur.com/a/p3frPXV

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That's pretty dumb.

Just started keto after doing some research & so far it's incredible...no cravings and rapid progress after the dreaded keto-flu. For the "filler" where bread/rice/pasta/potatoes typically existed, I just snack on unsalted almonds & hazelnuts for the fat totals.

Also found out about detecting ketones from acetate in the breath using cheap breathalyzers. I bought one and it seems to work, althought Amazon reviews are mixed. The BAC readings are probably not very accurate, but anything over 0.0 is a good sign of ketosis.

You really don't need ketostix or breath analyzers to be successful on keto ... unless you just love giving money away.

Are you losing weight? Congrats ... you are probably in ketosis.

I disagree somewhat. They have been helpful in figuring out how my body responds to different levels of carbs. It's$8 for 150 strips. That will get me through the first 3-5 months of testing my body's carb threshold. Seems like money well spent. However, I doubt I buy more.

Average Joe said:

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I disagree somewhat. They have been helpful in figuring out how my body responds to different levels of carbs. It's$8 for 150 strips. That will get me through the first 3-5 months of testing my body's carb threshold. Seems like money well spent. However, I doubt I buy more.

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They eventually don't work that well because your body will adjust you don't overproduce ketones by much even when you are in ketosis.