ABOUT TASHA
Hi there, I’m Tasha Metcalf, author and recipe developer of Ketogasm.com which features delicious, healthy, keto-friendly recipes, meal plans, and nutrition resources.
As a longtime low-carber, I started this website to share my favorite recipes and tips for people making the switch to keto. What began as a small little passion project has grown into a major resource for people choosing not to fuel up with carbs. Hundreds of thousands of readers visit the site each month to find answers to their questions and enjoy the growing library of recipes.
I am a nutritionist and multi-published author with a master of science degree in human nutrition and functional medicine. As you might imagine, I love to geek out on nutritional science and strive to share my knowledge in an evidence-based, albeit lighthearted, manner. I hope to break down complex ideas into simple tidbits and strategies you can implement––without boring you to tears or making your head spin. Keto doesn’t have to be complicated! Pinky promise.
If you'd like me to show you the ropes, I'd be happy to do so. Sign up for my free Hello Keto course here. Over 75,000 students have learned how to be successful with keto via the Hello Keto course!
Raised in the Pacific Northwest, I currently live near Seattle, Washington with my partner and two kiddos.
RECIPES
All recipes published here are carb-conscious and suitable for a ketogenic dietary pattern––they also taste fantastic. My goal is to publish practical, easy to follow keto recipes that people actually want to cook and eat.
I embrace a minimalist cooking style with whole food ingredients to save time and effort in the kitchen, keeping shopping lists short without sacrificing flavor.
My cooking philosophy is simple: you don't need a ton of fancy ingredients or elaborate recipes to make excellent food!
Regardless of keto protocol or cooking ability, you will find something delicious for you here.
I rely on nutrition software to calculate the nutrient composition of each recipe to highlight the individual macronutrients and calories yielded per serving. The data is sourced from the USDA nutrient database, however, your numbers may vary slightly depending on brands used, deviation from the recipes as written, and variance in your personal nutrition apps.
FEATURED IN
COOKBOOKS
Author of three best-selling nutrition guides and cookbooks.
Keto: A Woman's Guide (Fair Winds Press, 2019)
Keto: A Woman’s Guide and Cookbook (Fair Winds Press, 2020)
Keto Cocktails (Rockridge Press, 2020)
Medical Disclaimer
All content published on Ketogasm.com is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this Website.
Hi. My name is Tamara and I am inspired by your journey thus far. I started keto in November and have spent countless hours educating myself on what to eat and how much but I have not seen any weight loss. I started at 155 and I go between 153 and 155. I bought a special scale that measures body fat and I have gone from 34.8 to 33.2. Not much difference. Any tips? Thx
One of the tips I was given that I've found to be really helpful is weighing my food and tracking EVERYTHING I eat. Don't get discouraged! Some people are slower to lose weight; there's a great subreddit called 1200isplentyketo for people who have more success tracking carbs and limiting calories. Might help! Also, it sounds like I had a lot more weight to lose than you as well... hard to compare the progress of someone who had started at 250 and someone who started at 150! 150 is below my goal weight to put it into perspective. Hope that helps!
I love your blog and videos. Are you making any more videos? What has been your progress till now? I'm lost with recipes. Any new ones in what you eat in a day? What did you eat when you first started keto?
Yes! I will definitely be making more videos. I've been doing a lot of cooking and recipe stuff since I'm so camera shy, but I will try to be more consistent with updates to my journey to good health.
Hello Tasha !! my Name is Benetta and i have been watching your videos and I'm going to join you on this journey and I have a ways to go right now my starting weight is 264 but i feel inspired!! I am a stay at home mom of two girls 3 and 4 so i am still working on baby weight plus some lol but i just need to fig out how much fat to have ,is it just carbs and fat that you count I am a little confused on this part Thank you for your help 🙂
Keto is a low carb, high fat, moderate protein way of eating. You keep your carbs to a minimum - I stay below 20 grams net carbs per day personally. Protein is important for maintaining your muscle, so you need to identify how much to consume for your personal body composition. The rest of your nutrition will come from fat.
To determine how many grams of each macronutrient you should aim for, there are several really handy calculators to use.
I really like this one:
http://ketogains.com/ketogains-calculator/
I am a total newbie, I'm going to start tommorrow. My sister has been doing it since January and just raves about it. I found you on YouTube and you seem super down to earth and I've decided to use you as my guide haha. I weigh 170 and I'm pretty active. Let's see what kind of energy this gives me!
That's so cool! Having your sister for support will be awesome too! Thanks for coming to say hi, I love hearing from people. Be sure to stay hydrated and drink broth/include salt in your diet as you are first starting out. The first couple of days are notorious for "keto flu" or "low carb flu" as your body adjusts to your new way of eating. Good luck and let me know how it goes! Excited for you! 🙂
hi i am so glad i found you on pinterest! i have pcos and have been having problems with loosing weight but gaining like crazy! we have had lots of problems with trying to conceive. i am getting on the keto train and im needing all the help i can get! PLEASE!
Hi Jordan,
Keto has been a wonderful way to help me heal my PCOS. There are many studies and peer reviewed journal articles that investigate the cause and effect relationship between diet, PCOS and ketogenic nutritional therapies. Although the literature is a bit dense, I would recommend starting there because it is chalk full of facts and data instead of anecdotal information... which is exactly what you will want when you discuss the diet with your doctor or healthcare practitioner. It's very objective information; always a good thing when dealing with something so emotionally taxing as infertility and weight gain. So I guess that's my number one piece of advice: gather as much information and educate yourself on PCOS/ketogenic diets.
If you have access to an article/journal database through a college or university, that would be an excellent place to start your research. If not, google scholar actually has a pretty solid reach on full text journal articles and at the very least an abstract of the full text for a general overview. Here's an example of an article access via google scholar on the topic: http://nutritionandmetabolism.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1743-7075-2-35
I always point back to the reddit keto community, but I had such an awesome experience there getting my questions answered, people sharing different resources, etc. As a social support, it is pretty amazing. I found https://www.reddit.com/r/xxketo (Ladies on Keto) to be more helpful with PCOS specific questions/issues/etc than the general keto thread there.
I've also met lots of wonderful women on Instagram that use the social network as accountability/support/advice/food sharing/etc for weight loss and PCOS. I've noticed some even put PCOS in their profile description. I'm addicted to Instagram, favorite social network by far to connect and engage with others that have similar interests. Just follow the hashtags and you will find like-minded ladies going through the same thing you are. #pcos #pcosdiet #ketogenicdiet #keto #pcosfighter #pcosweightloss #ketofam
Thank you for reaching out and introducing yourself. I really hope this helps you! I feel your pain. PCOS sucks, feels unmanageable and can be heartbreaking when trying to start a family. Sending positive vibes your way!
Hi Tasha! Many thanks for sharing your story - it truly is inspirational in a very casual down to earth manner. Just started keto 6 days ago and finally getting over the carb withdrawal. I also have pcos and hypothyroidism with severe insulin resistance so I have been yo-yo ing all my teen and adult life between 150 and 220 lbs.
Excited to keep tracking your progress and hope to have some of my own to share soon!
Hi Tasha,
I've started my keto diet but wanted to ask some questions. I'm at 216 pounds and hoping to lose 80. I hate to even type that myself, so terrifying too. I looked up and hope that I've got my macros right. 1663 calories, 20 net carb, 78g protein and 141g fat. Does that seem about right with 40% body fat. I had my son 101/2 months ago and need to get this weight off so I can try for #5. Hooray! I was wondering about mayonaise, can you eat Hellmans regular mayo? Drink Crystal light? I noticed you said you eat Mission tortillas low Carb, can you eat anything as long as you stay below 20 net carbs. There is so much info on the internet yet so many people say different things. I like your style and appreciate how you eat normal things unlike some other posts I've seen out there. Any advice or feedback is greatly appreciated! I hope I can have the success you have had, seeing your video inspired me to keep going. Thank you so much!!! Keep up your awesome work, you look great!!!
Thank you for the kind words! You're right, there are TONS of conflicting opinions, advice and information regarding nutrition and diets. As far as your 20g net carb question... yep! That's exactly what I do! I am not as militant as some folks are about certain ingredients unless I have a negative reaction to it (xylitol would be one of those - hurts my stomach so bad). Some folks count total carbs instead of net... all personal preference. I'm of the mindset that if it fits your macros, it's okay. Regular mayo is totally fine, but miracle whip should be avoided because it has sugar in it. I do eat those low carb tortillas (they are so good!), but it's one of the higher carb things I allow myself to have.
As far as macros go, I personally go by the ketogains calculator because it has the option to adjust by activity level, dietary goals (fat loss, maintenance, and muscle gain), and allows you to adjust your macros if you want to tailor it further. I really like their emphasis on maintaining or gaining muscle... it's incredibly important to keep your metabolism up (and look good).
I plugged in your stats and those numbers look consistent with their output if you are trying to lose fat and "moderately active", e.g. constant walking in a fast paced environment like waiting tables. Cals: 1705, Protein: 89g, Net Carbs: 20g, Fat: 141g. For a sedentary activity level (desk job with no exercise), those numbers are actually a bit high. Results were Cals: 1354, Protein: 89g, Net Carbs: 20g, Fat: 102g.
That's based off of your body composition NOW. Once you lose weight, change your activity level, build muscle (etc, etc), you will need to update your macros to reflect your current body composition. If you don't update, you will end up eating at more of a maintenance level. You'll note that your protein and carb levels stayed the same in both examples. For carbs, that's generally going to stay the same in order to induce ketosis unless you can tolerate higher amounts or decide to go lower. The protein requirements are calculated based off of your lean body mass to preserve it. You need enough protein in your diet to prevent muscle loss, so that will stay relatively constant unless you decide you want to actively build muscle at some point (in which case, your protein intake would increase a bit). That leaves fat, which is where you will see the numbers fluctuate depending on activity, weight, etc. As you lose weight, your body won't require as much energy to operate so your fat intake will gradually lower as you continue on your weight loss journey.
I hope that makes sense! I always direct people to the calculators to get an idea of what their macros should be starting out to make it easy, but that is the idea behind the numbers you are getting! Thank you for your questions, let me know if there's anything else I can help you out with!