Need More Fats, Less Proteins

[Modean987]

i've been doing LCHF since 9 July, trying to keep my net carbs betwwn >20g and <55g. I log everything into Cronometer. I try to adhere to 70% fat, 20% protein, and 10% carbs.

My problem is that my readings show I'm doing 70% protein, 20% fat, and 10% carbs.

i'm doing cheeseburgers, bacon, lunch meats, avocados, cheese, and yogurt for the proteins and fats. I need to add something else that's more fatty, but being new at this, I can't quite figure out what it should be!

I sure would appreciate any recommendations on what I can do to add more fats without adding more proteins.

 

[Pipp]

What about adding butter to food or cream to coffee?

 

[Pipp]

Oh , and mayonnaise

 

[Lakeslover]

I agree, add butter to veg, make cream sauces, add olive oil, or consider fattier cuts of meat.

 

[MissMuffett]

Bulletproof coffee, i make it every morning, just make sure you froth it up for around 20-30 seconds, it’s so creamy. Chicken with skin on and eat the crispy skin. Lamb chops and eat the fat. Eggs cooked in olive oil then served with a knob of butter or make omelettes with a dash of double cream. I saw someone on YouTube cut butter into small cubes and eat them when they’re frozen.

 

[Modean987]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I'll try to incorporate them into my diet.

I use olive oil mainly for cooking, and I tend to go easy on the mayo so I'll have to change my habits on that. I used to do lots of butter when I did breads and see I need to find other ways to use it… maybe on broccoli. I went shopping today and 'instead of the 92% ground, I got the 80% ground.

Anyway, thank you! I do appreciate the suggestions.

 

[Modean987]

Bulletproof coffee, i make it every morning ... Eggs cooked in olive oil then served with a knob of butter or make omelettes with a dash of double cream.

I'll look up what bulletproof coffee is. I haven't had any coffee for a while, because I've been mainly sipping Ito En green tea unsweetened.

So the dash of double cream would be like substituting milk when whisking my eggs for an omelette?

 

[MissMuffett]

I'll look up what bulletproof coffee is. I haven't had any coffee for a while, because I've been mainly sipping Ito En green tea unsweetened.

So the dash of double cream would be like substituting milk when whisking my eggs for an omelette?

Yes definitely stay off milk as it has more carbs but it depends how many carbs per day you’re aiming for. I try and stick below 20g so wasting them on milk isn’t worth it. Lots of recipes for bulletproof coffee on YouTube.

 

[Modean987]

Yes definitely stay off milk as it has more carbs .... Lots of recipes for bulletproof coffee on YouTube.

The only time I drank milk was on cereal, prior to my T2 diagnosis, and that was unsweetened almond milk. It's no longer in my diet now. I will give the cream a go.

I read up on the coffee and it sounds yummy! I can't wait to try it! Unfortunately, MCT oil is not a staple I normally keep in the house, and I just did groceries today, so it'll be several days before I go again. One of the recipes I saw uses olive oil so I may give that a shot.

Thanks for introducing me to it!

 

[Robbity]

@Modean987 is your body actually telling you that it's hungry and needs more fats/fuel or is it just the Cronometer software telling you so?

Basically how much fat you need will depend on how active you are/ how much fuel your body actually requires which may well vary at different times, and it may not necessarily always be be what some software suggests. Just something to consider rather than to worry over....

 

[Modean987]

@Modean987 is your body actually telling you that it's hungry and needs more fats/fuel or is it just the Cronometer software telling you so?

Just something to consider rather than to worry over....

Please let me clarify… I'm new to all of this so I am reading up on LCHF diets, trying to learn what needs to be done.

While I do this, I'm using the Cronometer app to help me track my nutrients and macros, and to set up meal planning.

I want to stay in the 70% fat, 20% protein, 10% carb ratio. Cronometer is showing that I am doing 70% protein, 20% fat, 10% carb.
Being sedentary, I don't need all that protein, and I take your point about how much fat I need depends on my activity level. I'll do some more research on that to see what my requirements should be.

Thanks to input by the good members of this forum, I am getting to the ratio I want, and my hunger levels have gone down. I eat three meals a day at four hour intervals, seldom snack, and do the daily 12 hour fast.

 

[Modean987]

Lots of recipes for bulletproof coffee on YouTube.

I looked through those last night. People like to mix up what oils to use. I saw that Dr. Ekberg has a video on MCT oil, and decided to take the slow road into LCHF, instead of the express lane that MCT offers.

I "whipped" up my 1st cup this morning, using olive oil and KerryGold unsalted butter, and as George Takei is wont to say, "Oh my"! I don't know if it was so good because of the ingredients or because I haven't had a coffee for months, but it was delicious!

Thanks again for introducing me to bulletproof coffee!

 

[ianf0ster]

Hi @Modean987 I'm rather confused.

How on earth are you managing to eat 70% of your calories in the form of protein if you are trying to eat 70% fat? Fat provides 9 Kcal per gm weight where both Protein and Carbs only provide 4 Kcal per gm weight. Thus it's extremely difficult to eat such a huge ratio of protein. Cheddar cheese contains Fat to protein in the ratio (by weight) of 35 to 25, so by calories it's 70 to 25, eggs are about 1.5 to by calories of fat to protein, pork belly is about 12 to 1 fat to protein by calories.
Or are you measuring the weight of protein, fat, carbs?

If you are measuring the ratios in weight rather than in calories, then where was this suggested?
I just noticed that you're American, so perhaps that explains it.

Some US Keto sites have this crazy idea about maximizing fat rather than keeping carbs low, eating good traditional satisfying food and letting the ratios take care of themselves.

So far as carbohydrates are concerned, between 20gms per day and 55gms per day is not easing into LCHF. Most people consider this very low carb, with low carb starting at 130gms per day.
In here we are (mostly) T2Diabetics, not body builders, extreme athletes etc. The aim is diabetes control, or T2D remission, not a beautiful body.

We eat fat for 2 reasons:
1. It's required for life - vitamins, hormones, immune system, brain etc
2. Provides energy in absence of carbohydrates and eases transition to the body using it's own body fat for fuel so that we can normalize weight.

The amount of fat I eat is meaningless. The carbs need to be low enough to keep my blood glucose under control and the protein needs to be high enough for repairing and building my body (for most of us 1gm per 1kg of target weight is plenty). But only the combination of dietary fat plus visceral fat 'burned' needs to be enough to fuel my body. If I eat less dietary fat, then I 'burn' more body fat. That is how the body is designed to work.

 

[Modean987]

Hi @Modean987 I'm rather confused.

How on earth are you managing to eat 70% of your calories in the form of protein if you are trying to eat 70% fat?
....
Or are you measuring the weight of protein, fat, carbs?

If you are measuring the ratios in weight rather than in calories, then where was this suggested?

I just noticed that you're American, so perhaps that explains it.

Some US Keto sites have this crazy idea about maximizing fat rather than keeping carbs low, eating good traditional satisfying food and letting the ratios take care of themselves.

So far as carbohydrates are concerned, between 20gms per day and 55gms per day is not easing into LCHF. Most people consider this very low carb, with low carb starting at 130gms per day.

In here we are (mostly) T2Diabetics, not body builders, extreme athletes etc. The aim is diabetes control, or T2D remission, not a beautiful body.

Like I said I'm trying to learn all this. Much of the information you provided I am aware of, and there were several items for which I was not, so many thanks for explaining those things for me .

To answer your questions:

1) When I was diagnosed 12 days ago, my blood sugar was up in the suicidal level. I needed to do something drastic to get it down, so I went LCHF, with the goal of trying to keep it around 50 carbs a day, which is, IMO, not an unreasonable goal. I've done that very successfully, have hardly any carb withdrawal symptoms, and my hunger levels are becoming less and less. My BGL is now between 120 mg/dl (6.7 mmol/l) and 140 (7.8). I'm trying to get it down in the 'teens (6.2-6.6). It works for me. It might not work for other people.

2) My max calorie intake goal is 1965 kcal per day, which I mostly achieve 80% to 90+% of. Some days I get a bit over 100% as I experiment.

My daily macro goals are: 97 g protein, 50 g net carbs, 193 g fat. My issue was the grams eaten for proteins and fats was swapped. I've now got a handle on getting them to where I want them be, thanks to input from the kind people on this form.

3) I'm 68 years old, 312lb, with a large gut. I'm not interested in building a beautiful body.

3) I did not appreciate the parochial snub. My information is gleaned from many reputable sources, within and outside the US. We obviously have a difference of opinion on some matters, and that's OK. Things are working for me and I just wanted some advice on how to get my macros in the proper percentages.

I hope that addresses your questions and concerns, and again, thanks for your input.

 

[Antje77]

so I went LCHF, with the goal of trying to keep it around 50 carbs a day, which is, IMO, not an unreasonable goal.

Sounds completely reasonable to me, and going by your numbers it works well.

We have many members, including myself, aiming for somewhere between 20 and 80 grams of carbs depending on personal choice, but without all the complicating bits like counting fats, proteins and calories. I simply count the carbs by checking packages or asking google, and otherwise eat to satiety, I have absolutely no idea how many calories or protein or fats I eat.

Do you have a particular reason for wanting to track all the macros and aiming for specific percentages, and not just count the carbs?

 

[lovinglife]

I only count carbs 20g a day at the moment, don’t count fats or proteins, I do count calories to an extent but that’s just for me personally as I think because I’ve lost so much weight calories now matter for me. If you’re not feeling hungry and your diet is satisfying you and your happy with your numbers I wouldn’t worry too much about ratios.

 

[Modean987]

Sounds completely reasonable to me, and going by your numbers it works well.

Do you have a particular reason for wanting to track all the macros and aiming for specific percentages, and not just count the carbs?

I can't judge things by just looking at them, be it height, distance, weight, portions, etc. I'm lousy at 3-D computer games that expect me to know how high/deep something is, like mah-jongg. But hey, I'm a pretty good judge of people

So, while I can easily count the carbs off the back of a packaged item, that information does me a little good if I can't eyeball what the portion size should be be.

Entering all the information into an app like cronometer, though laborious, makes it easier for me to do what I need to do.

I do think that overtime I will be able to judge portion sizes and do away with the app completely, but for now it's useful, not only for calculating macros, but also for monitoring biometrics like BGL, blood pressure, and nutrients that I seem to be deficient in on a LCHF diet (Im looking at you, potassium), etc.

 

[Antje77]

So, while I can easily count the carbs off the back of a packaged item, that information does me a little good if I can't eyeball what the portion size should be be.

What I meant was that I measure (more or less) the carbs, because portion size is very relevant here, but I eat anything else to satiety. I have no need to know exactly how much of what macronutrient I eat because I have no need to aim for a specific goal except to enjoy my food and keep the carbs on the low side to help manage my diabetes.

Entering all the information into an app like cronometer, though laborious, makes it easier for me to do what I need to do.

A very important point!
Your approach would make me completely miserable, but if it makes things easier for you, by all means keep doing it!

 

[Modean987]

Your approach would make me completely miserable, but if it makes things easier for you, by all means keep doing it!

My wife is of the same opinion.

 

[ianf0ster]

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3) I did not appreciate the parochial snub. My information is gleaned from many reputable sources, within and outside the US. We obviously have a difference of opinion on some matters, and that's OK. Things are working for me and I just wanted some advice on how to get my macros in the proper percentages.

I hope that addresses your questions and concerns, and again, thanks for your input.

I'm truly sorry if I have snubbed you it was completely unintentional. The only reason I'm on this website(and also the other UK Diabetes forum) is because I want to help diabetics. Those on this site when I was first diagnosed helped me a great deal and I want to pass that on.
I have nothing against US websites in general, I use lots of them and the best ones are very informative. However keto seems to be treated as something for it's own sake on many and in my Twitter I keep seeing US Low Carb doctors complaining about them and all the unrequired merchandise they persuade people that they need in order to simply reduce carbohydrates.
Having worked for US company and with Americans for 25yrs I recognise that they are enthusiastic, optimistic and natural salespeople - much the opposite to me, though I am enthusiastic about what a low carb way of eating can do for health.