Keto Diet for a Beginner

Status
Not open for further replies.
LittleSunflower

LittleSunflower

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Having being told I’m prediabetic a few months ago, I am still struggling to change my diet for the better. To begin with, I cut out all of the sweet stuff but have found myself going back to that during the lockdown period.
I have been researching the Keto diet and would really like to try it. Is there any advice/recipes that I could follow to get started? FYI, I do not need to lose weight, in fact would benefit from gaining some so weight loss recipes are not advisable.
Thank you in advance, hope you are all well
 
It is more an exclusion diet than something requiring recipes.
Getting rid of rice bread pasta etc, and potatoes, replacing them with low carb veges, and not having fruit more than a couple of times a week - I have frozen berries for whenever I want them.
You can eat meat, fish, eggs, cheese, nuts, Greek yoghurt as they are all low carb, and I have lots of salads and stirfries, or roasted veges. I put cream in my coffee and on the fruit.
 
I agree with Drummer. Looking for recipes isn't really necessary, I just adapt the ones I used to follow and substitute other things for the carbs and increase my fat intake..... Like Drummer, I start my day with coffee made with double cream.... sometimes 2 cups. I buy large 1 litre buckets of Creamy Greek natural yoghurt (not low fat)and have that with a few berries and mixed seeds and chopped/ground nuts. Or I have a 2 egg omelette with a variety of fillings usually involving a combination of onion, mushroom, courgette, aubergine, bacon and cheese... sometimes all of them with a side salad and a good dollop of creamy coleslaw or cheese coleslaw. Cottage pie gets topped with mashed cauliflower and lots of cheese and made with the cheaper higher fat content minced beef. Cabbage, kale and leeks all get cooked in butter, spinach with cream cheese. I make ratatouille with a very generous glug of olive oil rather than just a tablespoon. It is about finding ways of incorporating more natural fats into your diet and removing the carbs. Use full fat mayonnaise on your salads etc.
Some people use celeriac to make chips. Courgettes spiralised and fried in oil or butter instead of pasta with your bolognaise sauce etc.
 
Not sure what "macros" are but I don't really track anything. I just record which foods I eat and keep the carbs low and being Type1 I have to guestimate how much insulin I need each meal, but because I eat very few carbs, I also have to factor in some of the protein, so it is very much trial and error and I learn roughly how much I need for each particular meal and when I need to inject and then it becomes a part of the routine. The only thing I have weighed so far was low carb granola or oats for porridge, because that is the only high carb foods I have had, although not recently. Or with sweet potato, I know roughly how many/size pieces I need for a set number of insulin units and whilst I could break that down to carbs, I just see the foods as so many units of insulin rather than actually counting the carbs. I am working in units and half units of insulin and I use my ratio as 10g carbs to a unit and I eat so few carbs that the odd bits from onions and a couple of cherry tomatoes or a few berries or a dollop of yoghurt just round it up or down to the nearest half unit, or my basal might take care of any other fluctuations or my BG will go up a bit high and I will need to inject a correction later.

Not really sure I can see the point of tracking anything, but then I record how much insulin I use so that gives me an idea of how many carbs I have had and I like to keep my insulin intake low.... Of course I also need to eat carbs when I go hypo which has been quite often recently, so whilst I am following a low carb way of eating, I then have to eat a small portion of high carb items like a couple of jelly babies once or twice a day (at the moment) and I tend not to think of those as carbs that I have eaten, because they were necessary not voluntary if that makes sense....I kind of see those as medication!

I think being Type 1 might mean I have a slightly different mentality towards it. I just find it easy to avoid carb rich foods in my diet and not worry too much about anything else....
 
No, I only pay attention to the amount of carbs I am eating.
As I only eat twice a day it is easy enough to keep to around 10 gm of carbs in a morning and 25 in the evening as I have meals which are based on protein and fats rather than the carbs.
 
rebrascora said:
I agree with Drummer. Looking for recipes isn't really necessary, I just adapt the ones I used to follow and substitute other things for the carbs and increase my fat intake..... Like Drummer, I start my day with coffee made with double cream.... sometimes 2 cups. I buy large 1 litre buckets of Creamy Greek natural yoghurt (not low fat)and have that with a few berries and mixed seeds and chopped/ground nuts. Or I have a 2 egg omelette with a variety of fillings usually involving a combination of onion, mushroom, courgette, aubergine, bacon and cheese... sometimes all of them with a side salad and a good dollop of creamy coleslaw or cheese coleslaw. Cottage pie gets topped with mashed cauliflower and lots of cheese and made with the cheaper higher fat content minced beef. Cabbage, kale and leeks all get cooked in butter, spinach with cream cheese. I make ratatouille with a very generous glug of olive oil rather than just a tablespoon. It is about finding ways of incorporating more natural fats into your diet and removing the carbs. Use full fat mayonnaise on your salads etc.
Some people use celeriac to make chips. Courgettes spiralised and fried in oil or butter instead of pasta with your bolognaise sauce etc.
Click to expand...
What Greek yogurt do you recommend?
 
Ketogenic and low carbohydrate diets are very popular at the moment, and there is a lot of information available on -

YouTube
Amazon books; their used books are good value
The help sections on the Home Page for this forum

In fact there are so many videos that things can get rather confusing, but this channel manages to inject a bit of fun and liveliness into the business of keto diets - 'Headbangers Kitchen'

However, most advice about keto diets is for weight loss
All I can suggest is that you Search YT for recipes that have high levels of fat & protein, and use those as a basis
Search YT for gaining weight on a keto diet
I have found this video, though I haven't watched it -

4 ways to gain weight for skinny people on a healthy keto diet by Dr Sten Ekberg

Try asking your GP for a referral to a dietician
 
Gruers said:
What Greek yogurt do you recommend?
Click to expand...

The lowest carb (3.2g/100g) yoghurt I have found so far and the tastiest is Lidl's Milbona Creamy Greek Natural Yoghurt. It comes in a litre bucket and although it says that once opened it should be consumed within 3 days, a bucket usually lasts me 10 days without a problem. They do it in a smaller 500ml pot as well if you prefer to stick to the consumer guidance. You do have to be aware that they do a low fat version in almost identical buckets but the graphics are paler blue, so you need to look out for the wording showing that it is the creamy version. The only drawback for me is that it is not made with British milk, other wise it would be perfect!
 
rebrascora said:
The lowest carb (3.2g/100g) yoghurt I have found so far and the tastiest is Lidl's Milbona Creamy Greek Natural Yoghurt. It comes in a litre bucket and although it says that once opened it should be consumed within 3 days, a bucket usually lasts me 10 days without a problem. They do it in a smaller 500ml pot as well if you prefer to stick to the consumer guidance. You do have to be aware that they do a low fat version in almost identical buckets but the graphics are paler blue, so you need to look out for the wording showing that it is the creamy version. The only drawback for me is that it is not made with British milk, other wise it would be perfect!
Click to expand...
Thank you
 
I second the Lidl one - it does last quite well, though I always keep it in the coldest part of the colder fridge (I have two) and they are useful buckets too.
 
Gruers said:
I’m off to Lidl today to get some
thanks guys
Click to expand...
Good luck!
I hope you are more successful than me.... my shopping trip produced a lot of disappointment with empty shelves everywhere including my favourite buckets of yoghurt although I did manage to find the last pack of 4 individual pots of the same stuff.... didn't realise they sold it like that as well.
It was worse that at the start of lockdown with hardly any fresh veg and meat. Thankfully I got plenty of cream and peanut butter though and some toilet rolls .... the first I have bought since before lockdown......and my favourite JD Gross dark chocolate was on half price offer so I stocked up on that as it will keep..... 6 bars stashed away with my 3 jars of peanut butter!
 
@rebrascora tell me more about the chocolate! What’s the percentage?
 
rebrascora said:
Good luck!
I hope you are more successful than me.... my shopping trip produced a lot of disappointment with empty shelves everywhere including my favourite buckets of yoghurt although I did manage to find the last pack of 4 individual pots of the same stuff.... didn't realise they sold it like that as well.
It was worse that at the start of lockdown with hardly any fresh veg and meat. Thankfully I got plenty of cream and peanut butter though and some toilet rolls .... the first I have bought since before lockdown......and my favourite JD Gross dark chocolate was on half price offer so I stocked up on that as it will keep..... 6 bars stashed away with my 3 jars of peanut butter!
Click to expand...
I found the yogurt and bought a large tub, couldn’t find chocolate with more than 70% cocoa
but got other bits that I needed
thanks
 
@Gruers @ColinUK
I buy the JD Gross 70% raspberry or salted caramel and break each large square roughly into 4 pieces and have each piece with a spoon of crunchy peanut butter and usually limit myself to a half a square a day. They do an 85% plain chocolate bar in the same range but you have to rummage through the assortment to find them. Personally I don't enjoy it so much and prefer to have less of the 70% bars which I do enjoy.
The Meribel Whole Nut peanut butter at Lidl is the lowest carb I have found at 9.1g/100g. The carb value can vary quite significantly between brands. Lidl nuts in general are very good value but they all come in large bags so you have to be disciplined about portion size. The bags of mixed unsalted nuts and whole brazils are both really nice and excellent value.
 
Last edited:
I also buy the bags of mixed seeds from Lidl as they are good value too.
Eating low carb is all about finding the right foods to buy and working out what goes best with what. Once you get a regular shopping list of low carb items and the cupboards and fridge stocked with them, it all becomes so much easier.
 
Thanks for this I now have a list of things to pick up at Lidl, it’s a little out of our way so we don’t usually go there but I will go there again shortly
thank you
 
I am now at the stage of shopping only once every 2-3 weeks for most things and then just picking up essentials like milk at the local shop after that.
 
Hi @LittleSunflower

As others have said it is the carbohydrates that we all need to focus on. This is not just the sweet things. Carbs are in everything. A good stat could be to familiarise yourself with the sources and start counting how many you are eating in each meal. This will include counting fruit and veg as well as the more obvious sources from pasta, bread, potatoes. By knowing how much you are currently eating you can start to reduce this by changing portion size or doing swaps to lower carb options. This may be easier to manage than switching to a completely different diet and you can gradually work out how many carbs your body can manage with the insulin that you have available.

If you are looking for sources of lower carb option you can see above that someone will have an idea of where to source these.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top