Hellobee Boards

@gotkimchi: I think that’s awesome! My husband wants to still eat meat, I decided not to eat pork and red meat for ethical/environmental reasons but still eat chicken... I wish I could say it was truly ethically raised!

@nana87: no real advice about your kids and family dynamic, but wanted to tell you that Gretchen Rubin wrote about the moderation personality type vs the all-or-nothing personality type AND how it applies specifically to the keto diet in her book Better Than Before. I think it might be illuminating to you to read at least that section. after reading it I read the book she recommends which sounds like a fad diet book but is actually an evolutionary nutrition book--Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes. it blew my mind and totally changed the way I think about food and nutrition, which is not something I was raised to think about at all. I know your post is more about the extreme nature of your husband's approach than about the nutrition philosophy itself, but maybe it'll be easier to understand why he wants this for himself after some lite reading?? It's hard when everyone in a family doesn't have the same habits and inclinations, esp since we work all freaking day and it IS nice to sit down to a communal meal.

@IRunForFun: Sorry, things were hectic yesterday and I couldn't respond!

There are lots of people who eat keto who are not in it to lose weight. A lot of people talk about just having the consistent stamina and mental focus as the attraction. For others, its the simplicity - but that's a lot of the same reasons people are Whole30 or Paleo - its easier to eat whole foods if you limit the universe in some way. Keto just became popular because people WANT to lose weight and it works if you're overweight.

Generally, if you're happy with your current weight and want to support your existing muscle mass, then you would calculate how many calories you need based on BMI and activity level to maintain your weight, then eat enough protein to support your lean muscle mass (determined by your BMI). Since we assume you will limit your carbs to a certain level (let's say 20 net carbs), its a matter of filling up the remaining calories you need to maintain your current weight with fat. Generally, research shows you need about 0.8 to 1g of protein per pound of lean muscle to support existing muscle mass. Then you assume 20 net grams of carbs (which is what you have left after subtracting the fibe content of your food, so it can be more like 40g-50 of total carbs). Then the rest would be fat. If you're eating cheese, nuts, full fat dairy, eggs, avocados, and meat with naturally occurring attached fats, and sauteing your veggies in olive oil, you will likely hit that fat number very easily.

The fad-ish keto world will say the magical ratio is to get 75% of your calories from fat, 20 from protein, and 5 from carbs, or just to eat as much fat as you want, but that's way too simplistic. You need to figure out your BMI, how much lean muscle mass you have, and then eat enough protein to support that muscle mass, because you don't want to lose weight by sacrificing your muscles. So for instance, in my case, while I'm in weight loss mode, my macros break down to roughly more like 5% carbs, 33-35% protein, and 60-62% fat.

Atkins and people who follow more of a Primal approach to eating will often shift to a higher carb situation - maybe 50-100g of carbs a day. This is largely determined by your own insulin resistance and the SOURCES of your carbs. (Sugar from sweet potato and sugar from white cane sugar are going to affect your body differently.) Some people can eat 100-150g of of complex carbs a day, do workouts that burn that sugar off, and just because of overall great insulin response, be just fine. Some people who are more insulin resistant will gain weight the second they go up in carbs or it will trigger sugar cravings so hard that they cannot deal with it. Maintenance is hard for people on low carb diets because of that reason - they need to figure out what their sweet spot is through trial and error. Some people just stay keto at 20 net carbs or less forever just because they feel great and don't want to deal with the guessing.

FWIW, the month before I went on keto, I just did a sugar-elimination diet. I didn't eat processed sugar, but did eat whole grains and what not, and just doing that made me feel 100000% better. I had done low carb diets in the past that had led me to very slow and steady results (like 1lb a week), but I wanted to see how eliminating most carbs made me feel because I did feel like I was addicted to carbs (hello, I'm Asian, I love rice) and I wanted to get some more control. So you don't have to be keto to enjoy the benefits of just being less dependent on sugar and carbs for fuel. But I do personally prefer how I feel on keto over everything else I've tried (and I've basically tried most things).

Sorry to threadjack!