In this interview, Keto Coach Lori Ballen interviews Laurie Steinberg who is just beginning the Keto Diet and is 2 weeks in. “No More Belly Bulge”, shares Laurie.
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Laurie wants to shed 80 pounds on the Keto Diet.
Lori: Tell us where you are today in weight and where you want to go.
This is the heaviest I’ve ever been in my life even when I was pregnant. So it’s big. And basically, I’m looking to shed 80 pounds.
Keto Coaching Client Laurie Steinberg
Lori Ballen: So tell everybody what you found this morning,
An Anti-Inflammatory Diet
The buckling the seatbelt and when you look down you can see your belly and that has always driven me absolutely crazy. And when I buckled my seatbelt today I went to her and I was like oh my gosh. And it’s only been, it’ll be two weeks Thursday.
One of the first visible signs that keto is working is when our stomach starts shrinking because KETO is a anti-inflammatory way of eating.
Lori Ballen: It’s been two weeks since she started Keto, it was January 1st. And today was her first significant non scale victory in that she was able to look down and do the buckle without having the protruding stomach.
The best way ever to shrink that stomach even more is to not eat dinner or not eat a late dinner.
If you really want to see a difference, close your kitchen at 6:00 PM, it’ll blow your mind.
Learning Net Carbs
Laurie, are you clear now on the total carbs and net carbs? You understand that to be total Carbohydrates minus fiber? And the goal is net 20.
You never have to have 20. You can go to zero carbs even. I had really low low carb days frequently when I was shedding my 50 pounds.
Getting In More Fat on Keto
And how about your healthy fats?
They’re hard to get in when you need to eat them the right way, right? So you have to be super purposeful about getting your fats for fuel and for making sure you aren’t overly hungry.
You do not really have to hit a minimum or maximum number of fats. You have a range. Generally, you’re going to fall in that 60 to 70 percent of your calories (being fat).
If you eat more fat, you will often find your ketones increase, your energy increases.
Watch that fat right before bed because it you could get “zooming” really quick off of that fat.
Low Carb Pancakes
This morning I made low carb pancakes. Now, just on their own low carb pancakes include keto friendly ingredients such as:
- almond flour
- eggs
- water
- little splash of vanilla
- and some cinnamon,
- but I add protein powder to get some protein in.
Lori Ballen: I add really yummy tasty protein powder. [I don’t suggest these “extras” while working towards a large weight loss goal. You’ll find more calories here for sure].
I add MCT oil, that’s a healthy fat.
I add grass fed butter, that’s a healthy fat. I add cream cheese, that’s a healthy fat. I add heavy cream. That’s a healthy fat. And then that’s going to help you to stay fuller and fuller and fuller.
You’ll start learning to drizzle that olive oil or avocado oil or butter.
Dip your meat in butter.
You never just want to sit down and eat a mount of ground beef. You want to make sure you’re having your fats.
Protein and Keto
Laurie S.: I don’t know much about protein, or about exactly what it does because I’ve been focusing more on the fat.
Lori Ballen: We just worry about net 20 carbs in the beginning and everything else that bounces around that. Once you know the net 20, this is where I start working with you on making sure that your fats and protein are a pretty decent ratio. [My macros to goal weight were 5% fats / 25% protein, and 70% Fats based on 5’7.5 and a sedentary lifestyle]
Somebody that is super athletic, really working on muscle building is probably goint to raise up protein a little bit. Some even do a 1:1 fat to protein ratio.
I prefer to keep my protein at about a 20 to 30 percent of total calories. If you overeat protein, especially in any one sitting it, your body can turn it into glucose and even temporarily knock you out of ketosis (although you will get right back in once your body is adapted so that’s not worrisome).
Now your next level is deciding if you want to count calories. I’m already doing that. You’re already doing that. Okay. So did you use our calculator to determine what your calorie count should be?
Lori Ballen: What is your calorie count goal?
Laurie S. : 1230
Lori Ballen: That’s what mine was. How tall are you?
Laurie S: 5’6
Lori Ballen: Yep.,I’m five, seven and a half and my calorie goal was 1250. So pretty close to what you’re doing. And do you understand that your carbs can go all the way up to 50 as long as you’re eating 30 grams of fiber and you still hit your net 20. Does that make sense?
Laurie S.: It does. And when I enterthings into my fitness pal, I am creating my own food and doing it with an App. Yeah.
Lori Ballen: That way you don’t get confused. Your total carbs can be: 30 carbs, 40 carbs, 50 carbs in a day as long as you have enough fiber to still make it a net 20.
Laurie S: Oh see I was doing a food by food and not daily.
Lori Ballen: You can do it all by day so you can eat any carbs in one meal if you want to do and then no other carbs rest of the day.
It doesn’t have to be per meal.
Counting Sugar Alcohols
Lori B: Alex asked, what’s your take on sugar alcohols?
[These are your Keto Sweetners such as stevia, swerve]Some say after a certain amount, you only subtract 50 percent.
I will tell you that some people subtract the total sugar alcohols from the carb categories.
Let’s just say you buy a package of Keto cookies or Keto protein bar, and you’ll look at the back, it’ll say carbs 30, and then it’ll say sugar alcohols 20.
Some people subtract that total sugar alcohols from their net carbs because your body won’t process it the same way it does carbs..I never ate sugar alcohols on my journey to goal weight.
Laurie S.: I just started seeing that on the website. Well, on the Keto groups of people talking about the sweetness.
Lori Ballen: I’m always posting recipes in our Ketodays Group Coaching group, you know, peanut butter fat bombs and Keto cheesecake and other Keto recipes that have these sugar alcohols.
I still like to count those in the total carbs.
But if you have a peanut butter Keto cookie, it might only be net three carbs.
I highly recommend to everybody that you avoid the sweet stuff while you’re first figuring out all these macros and stuff because it can get confusing.
Lori Ballen: Also, all of those are high in calories. So you had a peanut butter cookie, you’re still going to put down 250 calories, even if it’s not high in carbs.
That’s going to add up pretty quick.
So I’m glad you’re already starting to count calories because for me it was calories, carbs, 60 to 70 percent of my calories were fat, 20 to 30 percent or protein and I was right in the pocket and did really well.
So are you having any challenges or do you have any direct questions at this point? Two weeks in?
Laurie S.: I really haven’t had anychallenges. I didn’t get the Keto flu but I’ve been following you for a longtime so I made sure I had all the electrolytes (Lori uses Dr Berg’s electrolyte powder), so I didn’t have any issues withthat at all and I, I’m a carbolic so I thought it was going to be a lot more difficult than it is and it’s not.
Lori Ballen: So that’s a great observation. And the reason for that is because as soon as your body cleanses itself from sugar and carbs, you don’t have any cravings.
Now , It doesn’t mean you won’t want it. It doesn’t mean when you smell it or you pull up to your hair salon and there’s a burger king next door that you’re not going to smell those onion rings and want to go eat them.
That still happens.
I found really within the first few days, the first week, there was no need to have ice cream or cookies or any of that stuff in my house because I just didn’t need them.
And I did not crave potatoes and bread and grains.
The only thing I went through was figuring out what to eat on keto, but it wasn’t like I can’t have that and I feel bad.
Is that what you’re seeing?
Laurie S.: Yeah. Yeah. And especially now where it’s only two weeks and there’s such a change then it makes you not want to.
Lori Ballen: Yeah. Yeah. And where did you weigh in on Day One?
Laurie S.: I weighed in on Thursday, was my way in because uh, we had the problem with the login.
Lori Ballen: That’s right. Okay. Yeah. So that’s my third aside, say Thursdays? Yes. Okay. So you’ll let me know how you post for us, how you’re doing with that. Are you doing, are you doing any of the meal plans or are you just going off of the base of the food list?
Laurie S.: I’m, I’m Kinda just going off the basic thing with the super easy because I tried doing it before and I tried to plan too much and it wasn’t working for me. So I’m doing like the eggs and the bacon and the, the. Oh, the layman yon and asparagus. That’s like my go to now.
Lori Ballen: Good. I love it was my, my staple. It felt like a reward, a treat. It was delicious. It was a perfect meal before bed. Um, so on your asparagus, what are you putting on it for fats?
Laurie S.: So I bake it with the olive oil. Okay. And um, if I don’t have my mct oil on my scrambled eggs and I’ll, I’ll put some of that on it and then I do my grass fed butter when it’s plated.
Lori Ballen: Okay. Also you might try parmesan cheese or Mozzarella cheese. So starting putting Mozzarella cheese on my asparagus and it was unbelievably good. It’s so good and it adds that little bit of extra fat if you’re in need of more fat because you’re not going to get as much bad in a small meal like that. Um, so you, we make sure that you’re adding. And so I would just add topic with them. I think it was an ounce of Mozzarella cheese would add another 14 grams of fat or something like that. So it was a nice little way to level it out. And how about nuts? Are you doing nuts?
Laurie S.: The macadamia nuts, and I got some too, but it seems like the macadamia nuts are, are a little bit better than.
Lori Ballen: Yeah, you’re going to be best off with macadamia nuts. Almonds are on the okay list. They’re going to be higher in carbs, not not near as healthy as the others.
The one that I ended up settling on was, is Brazil nuts and I never have ever would have thought I would eat those.
I remember as a kid when somebody would put the can of nuts in front of me, you know the ones that are always left are the Brazil nuts.
And then the other thing I would do, and I don’t know if you’ve tried this yet, I also got sunflower seeds, salted shelled sunflower seeds, and every day I would take a little souffle cup, one portion of sunflower seeds and I would literally just kind of drink the seeds. A lot of good sodium in that too.
Lori Ballen: I’m not sure if you got into any of this material yet, but do you know that the best way to eat Keto is by eating less times throughout the day?
Because what happens is, okay, because your body’s spikes insulin every time you put food in your mouth and you cannot burn fat and spike insulin at the same time.
That’s important for you to know that. So every time you go to eat and you put something in your mouth up, you are not burning fat anymore.
So this is why so many of us start adding in the intermittent fasting and not eating as long in the morning, you know?
And, and then, you don’t want to be snacking all day long, even if they’re keto foods.
So like if you’re gonna eat that pickle, it would be better to eat it with your meal, than to have it in between meals, you know, deviled eggs or nuts.
I eat them while I’m cooking my food and it’s actually all because it’s kind of one meal rather than having them all throughout the day.
Lori Ballen: And the less you can eat you, I would rather see you just eat a great big meal all at one time than to graze throughout the day because every time you do that, you shut off that fat burning machine.
Lori Ballen: To fast, you don’t eat for a certain number of hours and then you do eat for a certain number of hours and they’re blocked together.
So for example, if your last food was at 7:00 at night and you go to sleep and you don’t eat anything all night long and then you eat at 7:00 AM in the morning, you’ve had a 12 hour fast, seven to seven would be a 12 hour fast.
So thenyour eating window is 12 hours.
We want to try to shrink down that eating window so it gets smaller and smaller and smaller. Most of us eat within like an eight hour, 10 hour window. But I’m not suggesting that you start that before your body’s ready. You’ll know.
Are you drinking alcohol, Laurie?
I’m not going to fault anybody for drinking, but I will tell you that if you don’t see progress, that’s probably going to be your culprit and cannot burn fat while your body’s burning alcoholic.
And that’s about two days after you have a drink so your body can catch up.
And by the way, you are going to be a cheap drunk because without the carbs, you’re going to get drunk really fast. So keep that in mind. That’s going to be important.
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