So You Want To Know More About Keto?
Eat fat to burn fat and you don't need carbs. Read that line again. Memorize it. Let it become your mantra because that is truly what Keto is about. Sure, there are other guidelines to follow but that is truly the basis of the ketogenic lifestyle. My favorite part of Keto is that I always feel full and satisfied. That alone has helped me stick to it and its due largely to the high fat intake which keeps me both mentally and physically satiated. From a young age we have it ingrained in our heads that we need carbs for our bodies to function, if you've read anything about Keto you will already know that this is not entirely accurate. While our bodies are well adapted to converting and using carbs as glucose for energy, we also have the ability to convert and use fat as ketones for energy as well. The human body is a truly marvelous creation, imagine a car that can run on gas or water? That's the way I see it anyway, our body is capable of using its internal "computer" to change fuel sources. When our fuel source changes to ketones our metabolism does something incredible, it starts to use all our fat for energy. I'm not kidding, since our body burns our fat stores during ketosis, you begin to see crazy changes happening before your eyes. You know that problem spot you have, the one that you just can't get to go flat no matter how much dieting and exercise you do? Ya, well imagine that spot, gone! Seriously. You know that unspeakable cellulite? Also gone! It sounds too good to be true, but give it a month and you will see that I'm not making stuff up. Of course for great rewards one must exercise great self discipline. That means, for that first month of keto you should be SUPER on point about things. Seriously, be obsessive about it. Count and log every little thing you p Continue reading >>
Keto Macros: How To Calculate Your Optimal Ketogenic Macronutrients
Following a keto diet means paying attention to your macros so you stay in ketosis. While you can find a few online calculators for this, it’s more than possible to calculate your optimal ketogenic macronutrients without one. This article will break down, step by step, how you can determine your own personal needs regarding calories and macros on a ketogenic diet. Here are the things we’ll calculate: #1 Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) This is the number of calories your body needs just to support its vital functions (without taking into account extra energy needed for things like exercise). This is important because the more of you there is, the more energy (calories) you need to support daily processes. While it’s tough to get an EXACT calculation of basal metabolic rate, we can get really close by using the Harris-Benedict equation below. (If you’re in an area that uses metric, the Mifflin-St. Jeor equation will be easiest for you.) BMR for men = 66 + (6.2 x Weight in pounds) + (12.7 x Height in inches) – (6.76 x Age) BMR for women = 655.1 + (4.35 x Weight in pounds) + (4.7 x Height in inches) – (4.7 x Age) Let’s break each of these down a little more. Calculating Height and Weight Measure your weight in pounds. This step is easy. Calculate your height in inches. Multiple the feet by 12, then add the additional inches. For example, someone 5’ 8” would be a total of 68 inches tall. Your Age Since muscle mass gradually declines as we go past age 30, BMR decreases over time as well. That’s why age is factored into this equation. Your Gender Since body composition is typically a little different between men and women, gender factors into the equation. So, again, use these equations to get your basal metabolic rate: BMR for men = 66 + (6.2 x Weight) + ( Continue reading >>
Ask The Nutrition Tactician: What's The Difference Between Low-carb And Keto?
The words "low-carb" and "keto" get thrown around a lot. Are they the same thing? At first glance, it may appear that if you eat one less cup of rice, you can transition from a low-carbohydrate diet to a ketogenic diet. After all, both nutritional strategies place an emphasis on reducing carbohydrates, and both are often followed for their fat-loss potential. Pretty much the same thing, right? Not so fast, ketobro. Although both diets are considered low-carb compared to the standard Western diet—you know, the one made up mostly of processed carbs and mystery ingredients—the similarities stop there, both in philosophy and execution. Here's what you need to know about low-carb and ketogenic diets so you can make an informed choice! The Low-Carbohydrate Diet Defined A low-carbohydrate diet is a pretty vague description in and of itself. After all, "low" is a relative term. But in the most effective versions of this approach, the priority is being more selective about your carbs and where they come from. In many cases, you can still eat fruit, vegetables, and beans, while eliminating or cutting back on grains, baked goods, and processed sugars. This shift from carb-dense sources to low-density ones naturally reduces the daily amount of carbs you take in. However, a low-carbohydrate diet lacks specific classifications of what "low" means, and often neglects protein and fat recommendations. Technically, if you're used to eating 300 grams of carbohydrates per day, and drop to 200 per day, you're following a lower-carbohydrate diet. If you don't replace those lost calories, you'll probably lose some weight, but it may have been the lower calories that caused it, not the lower carbs. Conversely, if you replace those missing calories with either more fat or more protein, you Continue reading >>
Personal Keto Macro Calculator
If you are trying to lose weight or struggling to maintain your weight, chances are good you have considered a Ketogenic Diet. While we have believed for years that fats are bad and grains are good, some of us are finally starting to face the facts that the government may have led us astray with the famous food pyramid (gasp…can you believe it). Changing the way you eat can be a scary thing, especially when you have feared certain foods (like fat) for so many years. My suggestion is to take baby steps and learn all you can about how the body processes foods. If you’re interested in learning how many macronutrients you need in your diet, I’m going to share a tutorial you can use the keto macro calculator to find your personal ketogenic diet recommendations. You can modify these results based on your weight loss goals, and as you lose weight, you can go back and edit your results to start maintaining and stop losing weight. I like the Keto Calculator found here, so today we are going to learn how to use it. How To Use The Personal Keto Macro Calculator: 1) The first thing you need to do is weigh and measure yourself. While BMI calculators are not the best means for figuring out your body fat, most of us don’t have the money to have this done professionally. You need to know these stats: Weight: It is best to weigh first thing in the morning, fully nude. This will help you keep up with your exact weight before eating and without clothing. Height: Hopefully you know this, but who knows, maybe you’ve grown! Hips: Stand with your feet about 4 inches apart and measure the widest part of your hips. Calf: Place your weight on your dominant leg and measure your calf at its widest part – about halfway between your knee and ankle. Thigh: Stand with your feet about 12 in Continue reading >>
Keto Calculator – Low Carb Macro Calculator
Are you eating a low carb or ketogenic diet or want to start? Perfect! We’re going to guide you through the steps you need to take to figure out how much you should be eating depending on your goals! This is a highly individualized macro calculator and will be tailored to you and only you! Using this Macro Calculator Knowing how many calories you need to eat as well as your macronutrient numbers is important for your success in weight loss or weight gain goals! Generally, you want to keep below 50 grams of carbs to stay in ketosis, but how about your fat and protein? Use our macro calculator to find out exactly what your daily macronutrients and calorie intake should look like. After all, calories are not created equal! You can read more about Calories vs. Macros if you’re interested! Know your Body Fat Percentage To use this calculator you’ll need a rough estimate of your body fat percentage. This is important because the macro calculator uses your lean weight (total weight minus body fat) to calculate the macronutrients you need on a daily basis. Use our body fat percentage guide to understand how to get this number. Recommend to a friend: Continue reading >>
Macro Calculator
Body Composition Set your current weight, in pounds or kilograms, and your bodyfat percentage. (How to visually estimate bodyfat %) Activity Level (not counting exercise): Set your usual activity level. This does not include additional exercise like gym, running, etc. If not known, choose Sedentary. Choose "Custom" to set your TDEE manually. Multipliers for activities are taken from Chapter 8 of "Advanced Nutrition and Human Metabolism, 5th Edition" Daily Calories Set your goal to get your recommended calorie intake. If you used the Exercise Info section above, then you can compare calories for those days that you exercise and those that you don't. It is not recommended to go over 25% deficit for fat loss or over 15% surplus for muscle gain. Daily Exercise Info If needed, set your exercise information for those days that you will be exercising. (Click here for Kcal / min calculations). This will allow you to compare calorie limits on those days that you exercise against those that you don't. Activity Minutes Kcal burned / min Total Kcal burned Weights Cardio Other Daily Macros Adjust your protein ratio: To maintain muscle, leave protein ratio between 0.69 to 0.8. It is not recommended to drop below 0.69 or muscle loss may occur. To gain muscle, the protein ratio should be between 0.8 to 1.2. There is normally no advantage to consuming more than 0.82g/lb (1.8g/kg) of protein per day to preserve or build muscle once you're past the novice level as a natural trainee. Source. Adjust the carbs and fat grams to reach daily calorie goals. If doing a Standard Ketogenic Diet, carbs should be set lower than 30g: It is suggested you count carbs as TOTAL for all foods, except for green veggies and avocado, on those count as NET. Protein Ratio Macronutrients Macro Grams Kcal per gra Continue reading >>
Tracking Macros On Keto: Should You Always Do It?
I have had quite a few questions about counting macros on the keto diet so wanted to do a quick post about it! First of all, in case you aren’t aware, macros are fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. If you are eating a ketogenic diet then your macros are going to be something like 5-10% carbs, 20-25% protein and 70-80% fats. Sometimes people talk about these percentages in terms of grams – so it would like 30g carbs, 70g protein, 170g fat per day (for example). When I first started eating keto I tracked everything using myfitnesspal. It’s an easy to use app that is free. In the beginning, it really helped me to track my macros because I had no idea what a high fat, low carb diet looked like! But the thing about tracking your macros is, it can send you a little crazy. Well, it did me anyway. You end up spending quite a lot of time every day writing down what you eat and totaling up the macros of every bite of food that passes your lips. There were times were I’d sit there letting my food go cold while I furiously typed in every little thing on my plate. Or I’d try to map out everything at the beginning of the day and end up feeling like I was eating like a robot. So although tracking was helpful in one way, I also knew that it was not how I really wanted to be spending my time in the long run. A huge reason for starting eating keto was that I wanted freedom in my diet – freedom to enjoy delicious food, feel satiated, lose weight and be able to focus on other, more important things in life. So here’s the deal with tracking macros on the ketogenic diet: I highly recommend moving away from tracking your macros as soon as possible, or even better, simply not tracking them at all. But how do you do this? There are various ways that you can stay on top of your macr Continue reading >>
Configuring Mfp
Note: New to keto? Check out the eBooks section for more info on what its all about! Update: The latest working script is by /u/Surye on Reddit and its located here: Calorie counting websites are a great tool for the low carb or keto dieter. They are utilized to track the number of calories that you are putting into your food and therefore into your body. There are the obvious benefits such as knowing exactly how many carbs you have eaten or how many calories you have consumed. There are also other side benefits of using these sites like learning more about food, how it affects your body and whether it is beneficial to your health. A few websites that ketards often use are: MyFitnessPal – One of the most popular and the one I personally use. Has the ability to track calories, exercise and measurements such as weight, hips, legs, etc. Also incorporates mobile apps The Daily Plate (Livestrong) – Similar to MFP Many others on the internet So, why use a calorie counter? Here are a few things that are common before counting calories: Hidden Carbs: Items that you incorrectly believe have 0 carbs because why would they put carbs in them? Portion Size: That ice cream really was good! Too bad one pint was actually 4 servings! Manufacturers intentionally list small serving sizes to get the numbers low. Lying to yourself: Sure, I only ate 1/4 cup of almonds MFP is a great tool, but you only get what you put into it. Lets first look at how we should setup MFP for the ideal Ketogenic diet: Create an account at www.myfitnesspal.com Set your macros properly: My Home -> Goals -> Change Goals Select Custom and hit continue Set the Macros for keto. AKA Carbs to 5%, Protein to 30% and Fat to 65% Set the total calories relative to your total burn. Their estimate is decent but you can s Continue reading >>
A Breakdown Of The Fat/protein/carb Ratio For A Ketogenic Diet
When on the ketogenic diet, one of the most important things you’ll have to pay attention to is your macronutrient breakdown. This means you’ll be getting a certain portion of your calories form carbohydrates (a very small portion) at 5%, a larger portion of calories from protein (35%), and the largest number of calories from fats (65%). There are many online sites that can help you figure out how many calories you need on a daily basis, based on your height, weight, measurements, age, gender and level of activity. From there, you can also use online calculators to help you figure out the proper breakdown, in grams, for each macronutrient percentage you’ll be eating. You’ll multiply your total daily calories by each percentage to get the grams of each macronutrient that you’ll need. For example, if you need 1200 calories per day, and your carbohydrates are 5% of that total, then multiply 1200 by 5% to get the number of grams of carbohydrates you’ll be allowed to eat each day. In this case, 5% of 1200 calories is 60 calories. You then divide the calories by the grams per unit of carb, protein or fat. Carbohydrates and proteins both have 4 calories per gram and fats have 9 calories per gram. Again, in this example, 60 calories divided by 4 grams per carb leaves you with a total of 15 grams of carbs per day. There are several great phone apps that will do the calculations for you. My personal favorite is Carb Counter. This also makes restaurant eating a breeze. One last note on food and nutrient tracking applications—you can typically also use these to plan your meals ahead of time. Just plug in the proposed foods for the day to see where your calorie and macronutrient values will lie, and make adjustments from there. Then, you build your meals around those n Continue reading >>
Keto Calculator
This calculator will help you figure out how much fat, carbs, and protein you should eat every day. All you need to do is answer 6 easy questions... All recommendations are tailored 100% to you and the information that you enter into the calculator. And all recommendations are designed to keep you in ketosis and to help you reach your goals (whether you want to lose fat, gain muscle, or stay put). Continue reading >>
An Introduction To The Ketogenic Diet
If you haven’t been living under a rock for the past year or so, then you’ve most likely heard of the ketogenic (or keto) diet. If you have been living under one, I’m going to need you to crawl out from under it and take a seat because Ketogenic Dieting 101 is about to begin. So, Like, What Is It? Keto is a diet with high fats, moderate protein, and restricted carbohydrates. Initially designed to help children with epilepsy, it’s garnered attention for its effectiveness in regards to fat loss. The traditional ketogenic diet (also known as the therapeutic ketogenic diet), mimics the effects of starvation by forcing the body to burn its own fat stores rather than glucose. When you restrict carbohydrates, the body enters into a metabolic state known as ketosis, where the liver converts stored fat (triglycerides) into ketones. These ketones are what the body uses to fuel your brain, organs, and muscles. On the therapeutic ketogenic diet, the macro breakdown looks like this: However, as the ketogenic diet’s grown in popularity, especially among people who are looking to lose fat and build muscle, a new form of the diet’s emerged. While the traditional ketogenic diet is an extremely high-fat diet with sufficient protein intake, the physique ketogenic diet is a high-fat diet but with adequate protein intake. Huh, Sufficient and Adequate Protein Intake? This is where a lot of the confusion arises around the ketogenic diet, and it’s important to understand the difference. When the goal is fat loss, the concomitant goal is to preserve muscle mass. On a therapeutic ketogenic diet, protein is set to around 10-15% of total calorie intake. This is the sufficient amount of protein required to keep the body functioning and you healthy – basically so you don’t die. The Continue reading >>
What Are Macros? What They Are & How To Calculate
What are macros? If you’ve been reading up on the keto diet, you may have stumbled across the term “macros” and wondered what all the fuss is about. It’s thrown around everywhere by well meaning ketoers giving advice to newbies: “If it fits your macros”, “track those macros”, “your macros may be off”, ad nauseum. I’m guilty of it myself. But to someone trying to get started, this can be completely mind-boggling. A quick Google search doesn’t even really help. Is this an advanced function in an Excel worksheet? A fancy camera lense? What in the hell are people talking about? Exactly what are macros? Let me clarify. The term “macros” is short for MACRONUTRIENTS in the context of nutrition and the keto diet. Macronutrients are the energy-giving components of food that fuels our body. They include carbohydrates, protein, and fat; this is where your dietary calories come from. Grasping the concept of macros is important for the keto diet because you need to find the right balance of carbs, protein, and fats to get into ketosis, stay in ketosis, and turn your body into a fat burning machine. Carbohydrates Carbohydrates are the only macronutrient that is not essential for survival. There are essential fatty acids and amino acids (the building blocks of fats and proteins), but there is no such thing as “essential carbohydrates”. Carbs are made up of sugars and starches. In order to successfully reach ketosis, you will need to limit your carbohydrate intake. Fiber is also considered a carb, but it doesn’t count towards your total carb tally. The reason for this is that we can’t really digest fiber so it has a minimal impact on your blood sugar. So, what does this mean for you? When you are looking at a nutrition label, look at the line that sa Continue reading >>
Eating “keto” Part I: Macronutrient Ratios For Ketosis
If you are new to Keto Sister, then welcome. In my series titled Keto Basics, I have explained so far how ketogenic (keto) diets came into being and why the body prefers to be fueled by ketones (fat) rather than fueled by glucose (carbs). This next post will cover the basics for eating keto. A study that was published in Endocrinology and Metabolism (2011) fed rats various macronutrient ratios of a high fat, low carb ketogenic diet to compare the effects of diet on ketosis. In simple terms, they fed rats three different high fat diets that differed by the amount of fats, protein and carbohydrates calories. Those rats who received 75% of calories from fats and 10% from protein were in deeper ketosis than those fed either 65% fat/20% protein or 55% fat/30% protein. As I discussed in the last post, the body fuels its activities with either glucose or ketones. In the absence of one, it must use the other. Thus, all three groups were fed a high fat diet, which means that they used ketones in place of glucose to some extent. This begs the question: is being in “deep ketosis” the primary goal of eating a ketogenic diet? The answer is that it depends on your ultimate goals. When I started my ketogenic journey on June 1, 2015, I did everything in my power to maintain high levels of blood ketones. Using a glucometer, one can test blood ketone levels. I thought that the higher amount of ketones I found when I tested (up to about 4.0 mmol/L), the “better” my ketosis was. I wanted to help my body heal from its history of postpartum hormonal imbalance (which I will write about in a future post). But like almost everyone who finds low carb living, I also wanted to drop the extra body fat I was still carrying from my pregnancies. Keto calculators told me that I needed to limit Continue reading >>
Macros Explained
Macros? What kind of alien planet have you landed on, and what language are we speaking? Here you were thinking this Keto thing was supposed to be simple and people are talking about MATH? I hope this might go some way to explaining what we’re going on about. Macros is short for Macronutrients, which is the basic breakdown of the food we eat. There are MACROnutrients which are Protein, Fat, Carbohydrates, and then there are MICROnutrients which are the vitamins, minerals, amino acids, sugars and other things we get from our food. A Ketogenic Lifestyle concentrates on changing the body’s fuel system from burning carbohydrates as primary fuel to burning fat as primary fuel and allowing the body to utilise its most effective fueling mechanism, ketogenesis: the process of utilizing stored body fat to produce ketone bodies for energy. We look at the levels of Macro-nutrients in a Ketogenic Lifestyle in order to maintain a state of nutritional ketosis (as opposed to ketosis derived from starvation or malnutrition), which is the stable, fat-burning, ketone-fuel state that maintains optimum health, body-fuel-efficiency, and brain power. If you are first starting out in your Ketogenic journey, this is helpful information to know. You don’t need to do much with it at this stage, except to understand what you are doing with your body so, when you are a little less hangry, you can have fun with the formulas! Now here are the numbers. If you are like me, generally allergic to exercise, and haven’t started any official heavy lifting yet (except your functional fitness- lifting your groceries, chopping wood, digging in the garden, chasing the kids or in my case, the dog), then your Macro numbers will look like this: To lose weight and maintain your muscle mass: Macros Ladies G Continue reading >>
Ketodiet Buddy Easy Way To Calculate Your Macros On A Ketogenic Diet
Net Carbs Protein Fat 25 grams 92 grams 171 grams 100 kcal 366 kcal 1534 kcal 5 % 18 % 77 % Net Carbs Protein Fat 25 grams 92 grams 144 grams 100 kcal 366 kcal 1294 kcal 6 % 21 % 73 % Net Carbs Protein Fat 25 grams 92 grams 117 grams 100 kcal 366 kcal 1054 kcal 7 % 24 % 69 % Net Carbs Protein Fat 25 grams 92 grams 91 grams 100 kcal 366 kcal 814 kcal 8 % 29 % 63 % We have open-sourced KetoDiet Buddy, you can now find it on Github. What is the Ketogenic Diet? Ketogenic diets are high in fat, adequate in protein and low in carbohydrates. Generally, the macronutrient ratio varies within the following ranges: 60-75% of calories from fat (or even more), 15-30% of calories from protein, and 5-10% of calories from carbs. The exact amount of fat and protein is a matter of individual body responses and activity levels. However, most people on ketogenic diets don't consume over 5% of calories from carbohydrates. In most cases, you won’t need to count calories on a ketogenic diet. However, if you find it hard to lose weight or you are relatively fit and trying to lose a small amount of fat, you may also have to count calories. If you just started following a low-carb diet, don't forget to read my free Guide to Keto & Paleo Diet which includes a print-friendly PDF version! You will find all the information you need, including the keto food list and tips on how to follow the diet to achieve your goals. Maintenance Level Maintenance Level, also known as Total Energy Expenditure, is a level at which you maintain a stable bodyweight. According to Lyle McDonald: Maintenance Level = BMR + TEA + TEF where: BMR is the Basal Metabolic Rate, TEA is the Thermal Effect of Activity and TEF is the Thermal Effect of Feeding Basal Metabolic Rate is the amount of energy expended daily at rest. BMR Continue reading >>
