How come, @rgcainmd? I regularly eat 1200 calories max. I go lower if I want to lose fast (like an event or something) short term, of course. I think it depends on your weight/height/age/exercise level. I don’t think that amount is too low for everyone.
@Jenni_Bean since last spring, over six months now. Im wondering if yall consider yourselves LCHF? Also i wonder why people are focused on fat, and what benefits you have seen from eating fat? I’ve witnessed absolutely no benefit in myself from eating fat. Fat has no affect on my blood sugar so i dont restrict it per se, but i also do not seek it out by any means. I understand fat assists children in development, so i do make sure my son gets it in sources like fish and eggs etc, but its not on my required list for sure.
I’m at 30 - 40 carbs a day so not ketogenic but as an overweight woman most of my life prior to T-1 D I’d like to share a couple of things that have been a great help to me lately. First, I stay off the scale. I’m weighed at any dr visit for their medication calculation but i tend to react emotionally to that number (up or down). I do notice I’ve dropped more than one clothing size since cutting all bread, pasta, rice, fruit, high carb vegges…my BG is very stable and my last HBA1C was 6.1. I’m relying on vinegars and mustards to make up for the sweets I’ve cut out. I don’t worry about salt - use a garlic sea salt and other spice combos (watch out for hidden carbs in the blends). Eat on a fairly regular schedule and if I’m terribly hungry before a meal I’ll make a cup of low carb boullion with an extra pinch of salt and a pat of butter to get me to meal time. Lastly, I was diagnosed with a serotonin deficit about 10 years ago and take an anti- depressant which probably helps me avoid reaching for carbs when I’m feeling emotional. Try to go easy on yourself in the moment and play the long game instead 
I think the point is that humans can’t eat really high proportions of protein without getting, essentially, poisoned. If you are eating low carb, you need to replace your carb calories with something, and while some of those calories can be replaced by protein, most of them need to be replaced by fat in order to avoid things like “rabbit starvation.”
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if you are not starving, are not losing weight, and are eating very few carbs, then by default you are eating a lot of fat…you may just not realize it.
I dont think you understand the purpose of the meal plan. To refer to this as a diet is a bad idea imo, as it often coincides with terms like weight-loss and temporary. The purpose here is minimize my insulin requirements first, and second to rebuild muscle that is destroyed either in the gym or by normal wear and tear.
Tonight we had ahi tuna and zucchini for dinner. This consists of about 25g protein, 6g carb, 1g fat. This is a very typical meal, maybe can substitute salmon or chicken, but the end numbers are similar. Where is all the dietary fat youre talking about? Every meal is high protein low carb, very low carb. True often dietary fat comes with fish, eggs, and meat, but its signficantly less than the protein. We’re not eating cheese or nuts or snack foods like that, these are whole meals.
Im not hungry, im also not full, and im slowly gaining weight as is my intention. My insulin requirements dropped by about 30%, and if i forget or underestimate the bolus for a meal i goto a bg of 120 or even 140 mg/dl. Not 300 or 400 mg/dl. I am also working to reverse severe complications, so eating strict is not a sacrifice.
Hi Backwoodstx:
I’m going to be really pedantic here, and hope you don’t mind. 
I guess i would wonder where your calories are coming from:-
25 g protein x 4 calories / gram = 100 calories (25 g of protein is not high protein: x 3 meals = 75 g protein: only moderate protein).
1 g fat x 9 calories/ gram = 9 calories
6 g carb x 4 calories / gram = 24 calories
This would give your total meal calories of 133 calories if I’ve added up right. IF this was a typical meal and you ate 3 such meals a day, then you’re only eating 399 calories in a day. Even us people with disgustingly efficient metabolisms need about 1200 - 1400 calories /day… regular metabolism people more…
Let me be the odd one out here…
20g of carbs…a day?
…speechless…
I don’t know that I could do that, am I bad for how much I take in a day, and how would I even start to lessen the intake?
I mean I’ve been trying to work out more, and lessen what I eat in general but man, maybe I am doing somthing wrong.
Maybe this is a good read I came across, I’ll take as a sign that I need to get cracking on lessening my carb intake.
~Sarah
I agree, just plain fish and zucchini is woefully deficient in healthy fats. I would eat this, but I would top it with my Garlic Aoili (serves 4) which adds 50g of fat and 450 calories. It also makes it taste wonderful.
I think you need to do what works for you. I wouldn’t aim for a specific number goal on the carbs…just aim for more regular BGs and figure out the carb intake that gets you there.
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Where is the cutoff point on the “High but not yet Poisoned” scale? I workout a lot, and have been eating a lot of protein as part of my now-officially-ketogenic diet (i.e., less than 30g net carbs per day). I still get more than 50% of my daily calories from fat, because of calorie density, but I actually eat more protein than fat or carbs by weight. Should I be worrying about my kidneys?
Average of last week’s daily macros:
Protein: 143g
Carbs: 53g gross: 25g fiber: 28g net
Fats: 118g
Eating anywhich way doesn’t make you “bad!” It is worth noting that majority of people describing macro-goals on Ketogenic and similar diets are talking about net carbs. I average between 25-50 net grams of carbs per day, but that actually translates to 50g-60g of total carbs. I eat a fair amount of fiber because of my veggie and protein bar choices.
Most important thing about diets is figuring out what works and sticking to it. Doesn’t really matter how much or little you eat of protein, fat, or carbs, as long as you’re happy and your BG is controlled as well as you’d like to.
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I think it’s somewhere around 40% of calories from protein, if I remember correctly. I think it has something to do with too much urea building up than the body can excrete (from all that nitrogen in the protein – since carbs and fat don’t have that.)
Here’s an interesting and only slightly tangential article that mentions rabbit starvation and the protein ceiling.
These numbers are pretty close to what a 150-lb man could eat in his diet without exceeding the protein threshold. I think it’s pretty hard for the body to naturally choose starvation foods when other options are available, so I wouldn’t worry too much about hitting the protein ceiling unless you’re taking a bunch of protein supplements or something.
It is extremely hard to eat that much protein without ingesting enough fat to evade that condition. And even people like the infamous “Bear” (Owsley Stanley) who only ate meat and seafood for decades apparently did not suffer from rabbit starvation.
yes, I agree! other than maybe downing a bunch of protein powder, I’m not sure how you’d accomplish this in every day life. Now, if you were stranded on a boat somewhere and could only eat fish, etc, this could happen. Then you would have bigger problems. like SHARKS!
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20% protein or 1.2-1.5g per kg is about right
http://www.ausport.gov.au/ais/nutrition/factsheets/basics/protein_-_how_much
I’m having total carbs less than 20. Seems to work great for me. My carbs come mostly from leafy veges, and the few that come with the fat such as with cream, macadamias, etc.
That’s great! Just, the “20g” or “30g” carbs called for in keto diets are usually net carbs. It’s important to get at least a bit of fiber in the diet Helps to regulate various important functions. But, the key is to do what works.
I suspect it’s also relative to size. I’m an enormous man with a high percentage of lean mass, so I suspect my “under 30g net” is plenty strict enough to keep me in nutritional ketosis consistently. I finally went full-keto because I was already skirting the line by “eating to my meter.” WHen I realized I was in ketosis about half the time from eating around 50g net carbs, I figured why not drop that to 30g and see what happens. So far it’s working well for me. I’ve lost a couple of pounds (although that’s not really a goal for me at the moment), my BG is very stable, and I don’t seem to get any serious hunger cravings, which isn’t generally true if I’m eating “moderate carb.”
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I follow a 1g of protein per 0.453kg of lean body mass in order to maintain/gain muscle mass while eating at a very slight caloric deficit. While that 1.5g/kg goal is fine for a maintenance diet, it can be on the slight side if you work out a lot. I’ve found that being at 2g per kilo is just about perfect to make sure I don’t lose muscle mass or strength.
My average is just shy of 30% calories from protein.