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    Sugar-free Keto Taco Seasoning Mix

    May 20, 2021

    tablespoon scooping taco seasoning from mason jar

    This low-carb keto taco seasoning mix is delicious, quick, and just as convenient as the pre-mixed commercial seasoning packets you'll find at the grocery store. This recipe gets two thumbs up from keto dieters all over the world for two main reasons. One, it tastes excellent. And two, it's not loaded with sugar, starch, or fillers, unlike its store-bought counterpart. 

    That's right––just pure, unadulterated spices to take you to taco meat paradise. It's incredibly flavorful, smells heavenly, and the nutrition aligns with a ketogenic dietary pattern. What's not to love? 

    Going the DIY route is well worth the (very minimal) effort it takes to whip up a big batch of homemade keto taco seasoning. Not only does it make the best keto taco meat ever, but it's fantastic for burrito bowls and healthy taco salads.

    [feast_advanced_jump_to]

    This recipe was originally published November 18, 2017 but has been updated with new photos, video, and answers to frequently asked questions, including instructions for single batch mix for 1 pound ground beef, bulk batch mix, and how to make taco meat.

    🥘 Ingredients

    Taking a peek at the ingredients list of a commercial taco seasoning packet reveals some of the primary spices and expected flavors (not to mention the additives that you're probably trying to avoid).

    The main ingredients in taco seasoning include: 

    • Ground cumin
    • Chili powder
    • Garlic powder
    • Onion powder
    • Paprika 
    • Salt

    Sea salt, Kosher salt, Himalayan salt, or table salt are all acceptable––use what you prefer.

    Overhead view of ingredients in small dishes placed in straight line.

    🧪 Variations 

    You can also add in extras or make swaps if desired to suit the dish you'll be using it in. 

    Standard paprika is fantastic if you're going for a traditional flavor profile, but opting for smoked paprika adds a subtle layer of complexity with smoky undertones.

    Oregano is a popular herb that works well in taco seasoning to add an earthy, peppery flavor with a beautiful touch of color.

    Black pepper is another spice that makes a great addition to the mixture if you're looking for a sharp flavor with a bit of extra bite.

    For a spicy version, consider mixing in cayenne or ground chili peppers.

    These spices are all keto-friendly and can add to the complexity of your planned dish. Don't be afraid to play around with the quantities or new herbs and spices to switch things up, and leave a comment down below if you find a keeper!

    🥄 Single batch 

    If you're running low on spices, the single batch recipe is perfect for one pound of meat. It's also an excellent place to start if you want to test the recipe before committing to a bigger batch or trying out variations.

    In a small mixing bowl, combine the following:

    • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
    • 1 teaspoon chili powder
    • ½ teaspoon garlic powder
    • ¼ teaspoon onion powder
    • ¼ teaspoon salt
    • 1/12 teaspoon paprika (a decent-sized pinch will do if you don't have a measuring spoon this small)

    This mix is ready to use for browned meat or other taco-flavored dishes.

     Collage of seasoning recipe steps.

    ⚖️ Bulk batch 

    If you have enough spices to go around, I recommend making a big batch of taco seasoning. The bulk recipe is a make-ahead time-saver––just as convenient as the store-bought taco seasoning packets but without all the sugar! 

    We're using all the same ingredients as before, just scaling the recipe up. 

    The big batch recipe makes 12 tablespoons of taco seasoning mix. However, you can adjust the scale if you'd like in the interactive recipe card below.

    To keep things simple, use a storage container with a lid, like a mason jar.

    Add the following to your container:

    • ¼ cup ground cumin
    • ¼ cup chili powder
    • 2 tablespoons garlic powder
    • 1 tablespoon onion powder
    • 1 tablespoon salt
    • 1 teaspoon paprika

    Secure the lid and shake until the spices are well mixed. The seasoning is ready to use or store for later use.

    Spices for taco seasoning on plate.

    📦 Storage

    Spices are considered a shelf-stable product, meaning they have a naturally long shelf life and don't expire in a way that affects food safety if stored properly. However, the flavor tends to decline over time.

    To keep the flavor of your spice mix fresh, store in a sealed, air-tight container in between uses for up to 1 to 2 years.  

    Mason jar filled with seasoning and tablespoon scooping mixture out.

    🌮 Taco Meat 

    To make keto taco meat, brown your meat in a saute pan over medium heat and break into smaller pieces as it cooks. 

    There may be a good amount of fat that renders out, depending on the protein you choose. Once the meat has browned, drain most of the fat from the pan.

    Add one tablespoon of taco seasoning for each pound of meat used.

    Add ¾ cup water to the pan.

    Photo collage of taco meat preparation steps.

    Stir ingredients to evenly distribute the seasoning and bring the mixture to a boil, continuing over medium heat. 

    Simmer for 3-4 minutes, or until the liquid cooks down into a thicker sauce, then remove from heat.

    Now you have rich, flavorful taco meat that's ready to serve immediately or store for later use.

    You can use it on keto tacos, lettuce wraps, soups, casseroles, burrito bowls, meal prep, you name it. The possibilities are endless!

    Keto taco meat in lettuce leaf wrap on plate.

    ❓FAQ

    How much taco seasoning do you need per pound of meat?

    This recipe works great for keto taco meat! For best results, use one tablespoon of seasoning mix per pound of meat or protein of choice. 

    One tablespoon of the homemade seasoning mix can be used as an equivalent replacement for a 1-ounce commercial packet.

    What protein should I use to make keto taco meat?

    While ground beef is the most popular choice, ground chicken, turkey, or pork are all great options for omnivores.

    If you don't have ground meat on hand, you can season chopped or shredded meat with excellent results. Just be sure to brown or cook the meat before adding the seasoning mix.

    For the plant-based crowd, extra-firm tofu can be used in place of animal protein while still keeping carbs relatively low. Cauliflower florets can also make a tasty taco meat replacement!

    Is taco seasoning keto?

    It depends. Store-bought taco seasoning packets are loaded with sugar and starch, increasing the number of carbs per serving. This has the potential to add up if used in large quantities, which may negatively influence ketosis. These high carb ingredients are best kept to a minimum when eating a ketogenic diet.

    When you make your seasoning mix at home, you can omit the ingredients that boost your carb count and use only low-carb herbs and spices to ensure it is keto-friendly.

    A good rule of thumb is to avoid pre-mixed seasoning packets and use a homemade recipe instead.

    How many carbs in taco seasoning?

    For the keto taco seasoning recipe, one tablespoon has only 2.5g net carbs. 

    When used for taco meat, these carbs are distributed throughout an entire pound of meat or protein of choice. That means you will have less than 1 net carb for a quarter pound (4 oz./113g) serving size of the seasoned meat. 

    Net carbs for keto taco meat serving = 2.5g / 4 = 0.63g

    Let's compare that to the popular commercial brands, McCormick and Old El Paso. 

    McCormick Original Taco Seasoning Mix nutrition label lists 3g carbs per serving. Many incorrectly assume a serving size is an entire packet, but the label specifies there are 6 servings per 1-ounce packet. This yields a whopping 18 grams of carbohydrate per packet.

    3g carbs x 6 servings = 18g carbs

    Depending on how you use the seasoning and how big your portions are, this could significantly impact your daily carb count. 
    The Old El Paso Original Mix has the same nutritional values and serving sizes. 

    nutrition label from McCormick Original Taco Seasoning Packet

    If your goal is to keep carbs low to support ketosis, consider avoiding the commercial blends and stick to a tried and true homemade keto taco seasoning mix.

    Spilled seasoning near mason jar and salad.

    📖 Recipe

    tablespoon scooping taco seasoning from mason jar
    Print Recipe
    4.45 from 25 votes

    Keto Taco Seasoning Recipe

    Boost the flavor and skip the sugar packets with this delicious, easy homemade taco seasoning mix.
    Prep Time2 mins
    Total Time2 mins
    Course: Seasoning, Spices
    Cuisine: American, Mexican
    Special Diet: Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free, Keto, Paleo, Vegetarian
    Servings: 12 tablespoons
    Calories: 22.86kcal
    Author: Tasha

    Equipment

    • Measuring cups
    • Measuring spoons
    • Mason jar with lid

    Ingredients

    • ¼ cup ground cumin
    • ¼ cup chili powder
    • 2 tbsp garlic powder
    • 1 tbsp onion powder
    • 1 tbsp salt
    • 1 tsp paprika
    US Customary - Metric

    Instructions

    Taco Seasoning Mix

    • Combine cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and paprika in a lidded storage container.
    • Secure lid on storage container and shake until well mixed.
    • Store with lid sealed between uses.

    Taco Meat Option

    • Heat a large saute pan over medium heat. Add ground meat to pan and break into smaller pieces as it cooks. 
    • Once the meat has browned, drain any excess fat that has cooked off from the pan.
    • Sprinkle the seasoning mix over the cooked meat, adding one tablespoon of taco seasoning for each pound of meat used.
    • Add ¾ cup water to the pan and stir ingredients to evenly distribute the seasoning. Bring the mixture to a boil and continue cooking over medium heat. Simmer for 3-4 minutes, or until the liquid cooks down into a thicker sauce, then remove from heat.
    • Use immediately in your favorite keto taco recipes or store covered in refrigerator.

    Video

    Notes

    Seasoning to meat ratio: 1 tablespoon per pound of meat. Adjust to taste if needed.
    Nutrition information is based on a single serving and is provided as a convenience for Ketogasm readers. Data may vary based on brand and recipe variation. Click here for more detailed nutrition information.

    Nutrition

    Serving: 1tablespoon | Calories: 22.86kcal | Carbohydrates: 3.94g | Protein: 1.07g | Fat: 0.87g | Sodium: 670.77mg | Potassium: 117.14mg | Fiber: 1.44g | Sugar: 0.33g | Magnesium: 13.5mg | Net Carbs: 2.5g

    How to Do Keto Without Tracking Macros [19]

    March 4, 2020

    How to do keto without tracking cover art image

    How to Do Keto Without Tracking Macros [E19] transcript powered by Sonix—the best automated transcription service in 2020. Easily convert your audio to text with Sonix.

    How to Do Keto Without Tracking Macros [E19] was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the latest audio-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors. Sonix is the best way to convert your audio to text. Our automated transcription algorithms works with many of the popular audio file formats.

    Hey there, Tasha here. Welcome back to the show. I hope you guys are having an awesome week so far because I have been! I've been having such an amazing week because the sunshine has actually been showing up in the Seattle area. And if you know anything about Seattle, all the rumors are true. It's rainy, it's dreary, it's gray. And this week, the sunshine is out. And it's been wonderful actually getting outside. Any excuse to get outdoors? I am there. So I hope things have been going as good for you on your end as they have for me on mine. And now the last couple of weeks we really focused on keto macros. A pretty deep dive, actually, to cover how to calculate, what to make of the numbers, what they mean, and what to actually do with them. Right. And we talked all about tracking macros last week, where you have your macronutrient goals and tally them through the day as a way to measure them out and help align with your goals. If you listened to those episodes, we all know by now that tracking isn't 100 percent necessary for keto, and it might not actually be a good fit for everyone either. So if you're unsure of who is a good candidate for tracking and who's not, you might want to check out last week's episode just for a little bit of clarity.

    So as promised, this week, I'll be sharing strategies for how to do keto without tracking. And I have plenty to say about this. So I'm actually going to break this up into a two episode series as well. And really, these are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to nutrition and eating habits, because there's no cookie cutter way to go about this stuff. There's no right way or wrong way to do these things. So I just like to talk about it all and give perspective to the situation, because that will help you uncover what works best for you. Right. You'll go through your own process of trial and error and find the sweet spot. Find the Goldilocks: just right. I talk a lot about macros because that tends to be the language of ketogenic diets. It's just what most people tend to emphasize when it comes to keto. That's because when it comes to getting into ketosis and staying in ketosis, the carb macro drives this all. So when it comes to carbs, fat and protein, altogether, all of those macronutrients together.

    Some people do really well with various specific numbers to target and goals to stay with it. So calculating and tracking macros is a really popular option for keto. But for many, many, many, many people, these numbers become obsessive. Right. They're treated like law or rules that can't be broken and ultimately create unnecessary stress around eating a keto diet. And if any of that sounds familiar to you, I want to offer insight into alternative approaches. If low carb, keto eating makes you feel great, but the tracking makes you feel horrible, there are ways to reconcile the conflict without driving yourself crazy.

    My first suggestion is to simply stick with keto-supporting foods. So we know for keto in general without any specific numbers we're working towards, that we have this general dietary pattern that's low in carbohydrates with adequate protein and it's a bit higher in fat compared to most high carb dietary patterns. And based off of this general keto pattern, we can find foods that fit within those parameters, right? Foods that support ketosis are low carb foods. Foods that support your body composition are rich in protein. And then you have a little wiggle room left over for foods that are higher in fat. So you choose these types of foods, build your meals around them and boom, you're probably doing something pretty pretty close to keto.

    And if you think about it, that's the same thing you would have done with tracking, too, right? You would have selected foods that you understand to be supportive of a ketogenic state. You'd opt for the low carb versions of things, and those all tend to be higher in protein and fat. Then you'd log it into your little tracking app and it would give you the exact breakdown of everything you ate for the meal. That feedback from a little calculator that just reinforces that you ate something with carbs, fat and protein. Now those numbers of carbs, fat and protein could potentially help you choose your next meals for later on in the day. Or they could send you spiraling into some sort of panic mode because it was way more than you thought or not nearly enough. Whatever your reaction to the feedback, the macronutrient breakdown of the meal would be pretty much the same for that meal, whether or not you logged it into an app, right? Like be real with yourself. How different would it be if you chose to log it in your app or you chose to go with your gut instinct? Now, remember, I'm not saying that tracking is bad for everyone. I'm just saying that tracking isn't necessary for everyone. And if that feedback loop that happens every time you eat something makes you feel like a garbage person instead of driving positive behavior change, then consider taking a break from tracking or ditching it altogether. Instead, select foods that are lower in carbs and eat to satiety. Those two things are key. Selecting low carb foods and eating to satiety, or basically just eating until you get full. OK. So in this scenario, instead of technology-based feedback mechanisms like your app, you have a built-in mechanism in your body.

    You already have a feedback loop that you were born with. OK. When you eat and get full, that's your body sending you signals for you to stop eating. OK. You do not need an app to tell you that. You don't need an app to tell you how much to eat and what you're eating. And if you're doing a good job, you need to listen to your body.

    Ok. The problem, though, is that most of us in today's society are not really actually tuned into the feedback that our body is giving us. So we eat really fast while we're driving or sitting in front of a TV. We barely chew our food before we swallow it and gulp it down. Seriously. We're supposed to chew our food 30 times before we swallow it. And most of us are nowhere near that. Be honest with yourself. Like next time you sit down for a meal, chew your food and count how many times you're actually chewing before you swallow. And you're going to be really surprised because it's probably nowhere near 30 times. Especially if you have a habit of eating really fast. And we're just really out of touch with how we're supposed to actually be eating. So we're barely chewing our food. We're totally zoned out doing other things at the same time, you know, we shove food in our mouth, swallow it before we're supposed to, then we head back for second helpings, thirds even. And before we know it, we're so full that we hurt. We're in pain because we're not just full, we're stuffed to the limit.

    You know, we're just completely stuffed. And then we do it again and again and again and again until that's just how we eat. Right? And we eat well beyond our bodies needs when we do this and how we gain weight. And then we go on all sorts of diets to try to correct it. And tracking macros is kind of an intervention for this. Right. Like it can be a huge wake up call to see how it all adds up. Like how many carbs are we actually eating or how much protein in comparison to the fat and the the energy balance of our days and whatever. Right. So tracking can be helpful and it can really be eye-opening for a lot of people. But if we just worked on tuning into our body's hunger cues in the first place, we probably wouldn't need a little computer telling us what to do. We wouldn't need to track macros. We wouldn't need to go on diets.

    So instead of tracking feedback, I would say that listening to the feedback that your body gives you at a meal is a superior intervention. And I really do think that everyone should do this, honestly. You can do both, of course. Of course you can. If you're tracking macros, you can also do this. But if you really struggle with the numbers and you're hoping that keto will deliver results for you, then you especially need to focus your attention on the elements of your meal beyond just the low carb foods you're choosing, right? The who, what, when, where, why, how, how much? All of it. And this practice is called mindful eating. People sometimes refer to it as intuitive eating, but there's actually a whole anti-diet philosophy that accompanies that phrase. And honestly, both really resonate with me to a certain extent. But mindful eating is what I think we're missing from our eating behaviors as a whole. And actively practicing mindful eating can be a great way to align your food intake with your goals without the tracking. Developing an awareness of what's going on with and around your meals can be an incredibly effective way to change your eating habits--keto or not.

    But if you select foods that support keto and apply those mindful eating practices to your meals, you'll see a difference. You'll be able to do keto without tracking macros. Low carb foods are the guidelines that direct your initial food choices and the mindful eating practices guide your intake. Now it takes practice, but if you listen to your body, it can give you all the feedback you need to make healthful decisions about your food. And you can do this with any dietary pattern. Like I said, keto or not. So if you have yet to start keto, but you want to make changes to your eating, consider starting here. If you can take charge of your eating in this way. Who knows? Maybe you won't need to subscribe to any kind of diet at all. It really depends on what your goals are. But if you're struggling with your weight, a lot of times our food behavior is just as much at fault as the foods that we're eating.

    I really love this approach because it also reinforces that we're choosing to eat healthy because it makes us feel good, as a practice of self-love. And dieting? Obsessively tracking and counting and measuring and you know the drill. That doesn't always feel like a practice of self-love. Right. That kind of feels like self-hate and loathing and a weird compulsiveness--that's generally how that tends to manifest itself. OK, so with overly restrictive diet mindset and habits, you can go kind of in a terrible direction with all of this.

    And I know that's not always the case, but I have to bring it up. And I want to discuss it with you here, because if it does ring true, then it's better to hear it now than continue on down that path, OK? And you could honestly make things a heck of a lot easier on yourself instead. Now, mindful eating can be kind of challenging in our environment where we're constantly distracted and we're always on the go and we're so busy and we're always trying to multi-task and do things. Just being in the present here and now can be a little tricky. I won't lie, it takes practice. But to become a more mindful eater, you really need to start paying attention to your hunger and eating patterns first and foremost. So just ask yourself these questions. How often do you get hungry? Can you tell the difference between hunger and an appetite craving? When are you hungry? Are you actually hungry or are you eating because it's lunchtime or dinnertime? Are you truly hungry or are you eating because you're stressed, bored, sad or tired? Why are you eating? Are you eating because you're hungry? Or are you rewarding yourself or celebrating? Are you just thirsty? Right. Are you eating just cause maybe there were bagels in the break room or a free candy in the dish at the register? Why do you stop eating? Do you stop eating because you're full or because you're stuffed? What are you eating? Are you eating foods that support your health and align with your goals or something else? And how are you eating it? Do you scoop the spoonfuls of peanut butter straight from the jar to your mouth? Did you scoop out your halo top ice cream serving into a little bowl and eat it like that? Or is that straight to the container until it disappears completely? Are you paying attention to your meal or are you distracted? Are you talking on the phone while you eat? Are you watching TV? Where are you eating? Are you on the couch? At your desk? In the car? Are you sitting at a table with a plate of food or are you somewhere where you're not actually supposed to be eating? Do you know how many peanuts you ate during the movie? Or are you elbow deep into that container? And finally, how many times did you actually chew your food? You see where I'm going with this?

    Now instead of tracking something like macros, consider keeping a food journal about your food awareness. Take notes on your answers to some of those questions I just asked and you'll learn a whole lot more about your eating behavior. Just jotting down the who, what, why, when, where, how and how much, will give you so much insight into your eating. And that awareness will help you build better habits. That feedback will help you improve and work towards better nutrition as a form of self-care and breakaway from that diet habit and mindset. All right, guys, I hope you found that to be helpful. That's all I have for this week. Next week, I'll be diving in to meal planning because that's another strategy that you can use to align your goals with your eating habits without actively tracking every bite you take throughout the day.

    All right. I'll see you next week. Bye.

    Thank you so much for tuning into this episode of the Ketogasm podcast. You are awesome. I really hope the shows added value to your keto journey. Making big changes to your eating habits can be a little tricky, but if you're taking the time to listen and learn about keto, you're well on your way. You got this. Be sure to visit Ketogasm dot com for the show notes with full transcripts, references and resources to help you out. Including a totally free course called Hello Keto. It's helped over seventy five thousand people start keto with confidence. I'll see you in the next episode. Bye.

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    Hi, guys! Welcome back to Easy Keto with Tasha. As you know, macros have been our hot topic lately. We’ve covered what macros are and how to calculate them in Keto Macros Demystified [E17], and we broke down what to do with those calculations in Tracking Macros 101 [E18].

    It’s safe to say you’re set on macros. But what about those of you that realized macros aren’t a good fit for your lifestyle? Have no fear; today’s episode is all about strategies for doing keto without tracking macros!

    Can You Actually Do Keto Without Tracking Macros?

    Despite what the keto police might say, there really is no right or wrong way to do things. It’s much more important to find what works for you and your goals as opposed to what everyone else is telling you to do.

    Macros are heavily emphasized in conjunction with keto. But this is more so because restricting your carb macro is necessary for achieving and maintaining ketosis. 

    However, tracking all of your macros is not mandatory. Some people love using specific numbers to help them meet their goals. But many other people treat macros like law and end up causing themselves a lot of unnecessary stress.

    How to Eat Keto Without Tracking Macros

    If you’re looking for the easiest way to eat keto without tracking macros, just focus on consuming keto-supporting foods! As you recall, keto generally consists of low carbs, sufficient protein, and slightly higher fat. The goal is to choose your foods based on these guidelines.

    Opt for foods that are low in carbs to support ketosis. Support your body composition with foods that are rich in protein. Round out these meals with a bit of fat. Use your gut-instinct and understanding of keto to decide your meals.

    This approach is very similar to tracking your macros. You would have selected foods that supported keto, then added the macro values up to determine what else you could eat during the day. Tracking might have helped you stay on track, or it might have sent you into a panic because the numbers did not meet your expectations.

    Listening to Your Body’s Feedback

    You are born with a feedback loop. When you eat and get full, this signal tells you to stop eating. You don’t need an app to tell you this! You can trust your body to guide you.

    Unfortunately, many people practice behaviors that make it a lot harder to listen to the feedback their body is sending. Eating fast while driving, being distracted during meal times, and barely chewing are food can all contribute to missed signals. 

    To test yourself, count how many times you chew your food before swallowing. We’re supposed to chew 30 times! Realistically, most of us are nowhere near that. This is contributing to getting stuffed, eating beyond our bodies’ needs, and gaining weight.

    Tracking macros can help cut down on this missed feedback loop. But remember, this is something you were born with! You don’t need to track your macros to listen to what your body is telling you. To do keto without tracking macros and the feedback it provides, you have to practice tuning into your body’s hunger cues and listening to that feedback.

    Mindful Eating for Keto

    Mindful eating, also known as intuitive eating, is the ultimate anti-diet philosophy. Truthfully, it is something most of us are missing. Through actively practicing mindful eating, you can align your food intake with your goals. It is the perfect way to do keto without tracking anything!

    Select foods that support keto and practice mindful eating behaviors. Low carb foods are the guideline that direct your initial food choices, and mindful eating practices guide your intake. With practice, you will be able to listen closely to your body and utilize what it tells you to make healthy decisions about food.

    This approach also reinforces the idea that choosing to eat healthy because it makes us feel good is a form of self-love. Meanwhile, dieting and obsessively tracking and getting upset when things don’t align does not necessarily feel like self-love. For many, restrictive diet mindset and habits can turn into a form of self-hate, which we absolutely do not want!

    Like everything else, this is specific to the person. Some people flourish with tracking macros and following stricter guidelines. Others would do better in a lenient setting. If this rings true to you, it’s better to start now than continue down that path any longer!

    Mindful Questions to Ask Yourself

    It can be difficult to navigate your diet in our easily distractible environment, especially when you’re attempting keto without tracking macros. This is especially true if you are practicing to be more mindful. To combat this, consider asking yourself these questions while you eat:

    • How often do you get hungry?
    • Can you tell the difference between hunger and appetite craving?
    • When are you hungry?
    • Are you actually hungry, or are you eating because it’s lunchtime or dinnertime?
    • Are you truly hungry, or are you eating because you’re stressed, bored, or tired?
    • Why are you eating?
    • Are you eating because you’re hungry? Or are you rewarding yourself or celebrating?
    • Are you just thirsty?
    • Are you eating just because there were bagels in the break room or a free candy dish at the register?
    • Why do you stop eating?
    • Do you stop eating because you’re full or because you’re stuffed?
    • What are you eating?
    • Are you eating foods that support your health and align with your goals or something else?
    • How are you eating it?
    • Do you scoop the spoonfuls of peanut butter straight from the jar to your mouth?
    • Did you scoop out your Halo Top ice cream serving into a little bowl and eat it like that? Or is it straight from the container until it disappears?
    • Are you paying attention to your meal or are you distracted?
    • Are you talking on the phone while you eat? Or are you watching TV?
    • Where are you eating? Are you on the couch? At your desk? In the car?
    • Are you sitting at a table with a plate of food, or are you somewhere where you’re not actually supposed to be eating?
    • Do you know how many peanuts you ate during that movie? Or are you elbow-deep into that container?
    • How many times did you actually chew your food?

    Food Journal

    Consider keeping a food journal about your food awareness. To start, take notes on some of the previous questions. This will help you uncover your eating behavior.

    Writing down the who, what, when, where, how, and why will provide tons of insight into how you eat. This awareness ultimately will help you create better habits and break down your diet mindset. 

    The best part is that there is no right or wrong answer. You’re doing keto without tracking macros; there’s no specific values you have to stay within. Instead, you’re sharing feedback with yourself and practicing some self-care.

    Further Resources

    How to Read a Nutrition Label on Keto [E15]
    Keto Foods List: What to Eat on the Keto Diet
    Keto: A Woman’s Guide & Cookbook

    Timestamp

    Intro
    1:52 - Can You Actually Do Keto Without Tracking Macros?
    3:44 - How to Eat Keto Without Tracking Macros
    6:38 - Listening to Your Body’s Feedback
    9:38 - Mindful Eating for Keto
    13:02 - Mindful Questions to Ask Yourself
    14:46 - Food Journal
    Outro

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    Tracking Macros 101: Easy Starter Guide [E18]

    February 26, 2020

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    Hey there, Tasha here! We are talking all about tracking macros today, and I think this is going to help a lot of people out there because it's not something most people naturally tend to do in their daily lives. And a lot of people feel like they really need to do this in order to effectively do keto, which isn't necessarily true. And I'll get into that later on. But tracking macros can be a bit confusing at first, and that's because it's a whole new habit you're trying to tackle on top of changing your eating habits. So instead of just focusing on one thing at a time, it can feel really frustrating and overwhelming. So I'm gonna talk about tracking macros today, including how to get started with tracking, the best app for tracking macros, and even what you can do instead of tracking macros. If it's just not your thing. Now, if you're wondering, "What the heck are you talking about, Tasha, what are macros even?" Then, I want you to hop back over to last week's episode to give that a listen. I also have several resources over at Ketogasm dot that will set you straight on macros. And naturally I have a couple chapters in my book, Keto: A Woman's Guide and Cookbook dedicated exclusively to understanding macros, including how to set them up for different scenarios beyond just a standard keto diet if you're doing more advanced strategies. But in a nutshell, macros are macronutrients. They provide the calories in your diet. They're the source of energy from your food. And macros are the carbs, fat and protein from your food. OK, from all of the ingredients that you eat, macros are the carbs, fat and protein.

    And ultimately macros are important for keto because the macronutrient composition of your diet influences your metabolism and whether or not you're in ketosis. And for keto, we just really need to make sure that carbs are low enough to induce ketosis. Right. So carbs are one of the macronutrients and carb restriction is key here. And if all you are concerned about is being in a state of nutritional ketosis or not, then you really only have to worry about that one macronutrient: carbs. Right? But the other macros are important, too. And depending on your personal context, your activity, the reason you're doing keto, your goals, and what you want to do with your weight and body composition in the long run, that's going to help determine the other macros--protein and fat. OK, now again, we talked about this for quite some time last week. So if you want more of that context about what macros are and how they influence your body, I would really recommend jumping back to last week's episode. But today, I'm talking about how to actually track those macros, the carbs, the fat and the protein. OK.

    Who should track macros? I don't actually recommend that everyone tracks their macros 24/7, 365 days a year. Full disclosure, I definitely do not do that. And honestly, most people who end up doing keto for any length of time don't do that either. But some people do find the routine of macro tracking to be helpful. And there are plenty of reasons why tracking macros could be a good fit, if not permanently, than at least temporarily.

    So here are the main scenarios where busting out the macro tracking app is a good idea. The total newbie keto dieter. But I have a caveat to this one! If you're just getting started on keto and you're not familiar with the nutrient composition of your foods. If you have no idea what the nutrients are in the food that you're eating, then keeping tabs on at least the carbs is a good idea in the beginning of your diet. If you're going it alone, you're not following a predetermined meal plan from a nutritionist or a dietician. If you're just trying to figure out what you can and can't eat on keto, then tracking can be a good way to tally up the carbs. OK, but if you're just getting started, then don't fuss with the protein and fat macros just yet. Let your body adjust to eating low carb. Decide if you find tracking macros to be a helpful habit and let that guide your decision to add more complexity to your tracking effort.

    If it works for you, the other people who might really benefit from tracking macros are people who have a good relationship with food and they're working to improve their body composition. Now, these people generally tend to be at a healthy weight and there aren't stressing and assessing over each little bite that they take. They're not afraid of food and they don't have any extreme eating habits. Right. Tracking macros to ensure that you're in the ballpark of your goals can help you make progress. And these are the people that understand that even if they're tracking macros, that it's all ballpark estimates and they don't have to do it all perfectly. Right? People who are working to resolve nutrient deficiencies could also benefit from tracking apps. Some of the tracking apps out there, they give you so much detailed information about the nutritional composition of the food that you eat that you get a breakdown of like every little detail. You have your micronutrients or macronutrients, amino acids, fatty acids, all of these kind of things in this really granular, detailed way. So if you are low in iron or low in calcium or magnesium or any one of those micronutrients that are commonly low in people, then tracking your food intake can help you identify the foods that are giving you the most bang for your buck, so to speak, and help you make better decisions about your food.

    Not just the macro side of thing, but the micronutrient side, the vitamins and minerals. OK. Now, those are the people that I think could benefit from tracking. I know there is a lot of people out there that are really data minded and analytical and they might get a kick out of tracking, too, just for the sake of statistics and metrics and data. But I think there's a lot of people who shouldn't track OK. And I think people who find tracking to be stressful or unsustainable are people who shouldn't be doing this. If you're experiencing a lot of stress and resistance when you're trying to track, then forcing yourself to do it probably isn't the best use of your energy. Remember, perceived stress is not going to help you reach your goals. It's going to sabotage you. And if tracking macros is one of the things that's causing you to stress, then maybe you should ditch it. OK. Tracking macros is just one strategy of many strategies, so don't feel like you have to force something that doesn't really work for you. Shift your focus to something that is more sustainable. OK. Because that's where you're gonna start to shine. And that's where you'll really see progress in the long run. People with disordered eating habits or those who feel triggered by tracking are also not good candidates for this. If you have a past of disordered eating, then thinking about your food in numbers or laying food out in a highly detailed metrics and goals is not the best way to home a healthy relationship with food. I definitely do not recommend even opening this can of worms. Do not go down this rabbit hole if you have an eating disorder or a history of disordered eating habits, ok. In fact, I would even go as far to say don't think about dieting.

    And diet perfectionists... I will also include as people who should avoid opening that can of worms that goes into macro tracking. OK, this goes along the same line as before. A mindset of diet perfection goes hand-in-hand with disordered eating habits. And I know for many people that are diet perfectionists, you probably don't identify with eating disorders or disordered eating habits. So I want to frame this in a different context. Something that you can actually relate to, and that's perfectionism. If you are a perfectionist and everything needs to align perfectly with your plans or you deem yourself a failure. If you set a goal or a target and your brain goes, "man, I blew it." Instead of "I'm close enough," then I don't think that tracking is a good fit for you either. Seriously, because all the nutrition data from the nutrition facts on the food labels to the data in the app databases and so on to the macro goals set out by these calculators. These are all ballpark estimates, their averages.

    Ok, so getting super caught up in the minutia of hitting your macros and being over or under a certain number is not only going to drive you totally nuts. It is a huge, absolutely huge waste of your energy. OK. So many of you know that I'm a recovering perfectionist and I'm gonna be the first to tell you that tracking macros was one of those things that really brought out the worst in me for a time there. So is tracking for everyone? No. Is it the only strategy? Absolutely not. But is it an effective strategy to consider? For sure. If you see tracking as totally objective data, that's going to help you work towards your goals and your efforts, then go for it. But if tracking is emotionally exhausting, mentally draining, or your self-worth is somehow tied up with the outcome of the numbers, then it's probably in your best interest not to track. And that's the same with the scale, right? If you come out of your bathroom in tears every morning after seeing the number on your scale, maybe you don't weigh yourself every day. Tracking can be an on-again off-again kind of thing too. It doesn't have to be every day. Like I said, it could be something you do just to calibrate your portions and eating like a periodic check in to say here's a typical day of what I'm eating. Here's where I'm at compared to where I want to be, that kind of thing. Right. Just to kind of get a check in. It doesn't have to be a huge part of your life. Take up all your time or anything dramatic. You will have a much better idea if it's actually going to be a good fit for you. Once you know what all it entails or even after you try it for a little bit.

    So now that you know who tracking macros is a good fit for, I'm going to tell you how to track macros on keto. And the first thing you need to do is calculate your macros. OK. Last week we talked about the nitty gritty details behind what all these keto macro calculators should be doing--limiting carbs, making sure you get adequate protein based on your lean body mass in determining your energy needs to fill the rest with fat. And this fat macro is the real variable in the equation. This will be the thing that adjusted up and down to either eat at maintenance or create a calorie deficit. So if you're eating to maintain your weight, your fat macro will be higher. And if you're eating to lose weight, your fat macro will be lower. OK. Now, whatever calculator you decide to use to determine your macros, remember, you need to pay attention to the grams, not percentages. OK. You want macros and grams. Not percentages, not ratios. The grams--how much carbs, protein and fat that you eat in grams--are going to be really important for tracking purposes. The ratios and percentages are pretty much pointless when it comes to tracking your macros. So just focus on grams and use a calculator that actually provides your macronutrient goals in grams instead of percentages, instead of ratios. OK, the calculator at Ketogasm dot com will do this for you. It's geared towards female body composition and will give your results in grams. But if you decide to use something else, just make sure that you hone in on the grams. And don't worry about percentages. Don't worry about the ratios. They don't really matter.

    Ok, now that you have the results from the macro calculator, here's what you do with them. You use them as goals to guide your eating. OK, so the carb fat and protein goals in grams can be used to make decisions about your food when you're looking at a label or deciding what to cook. OK, and in the context of keto these macros are necessarily fixed targets that you need to lock in on and hit necessarily, OK. For carbs, I want you to think of these as a limit. OK, so if the calculator says 50 grams of carbohydrate or 30 grams net carbs as your macro goal, that doesn't mean that you need to hit that goal to be successful. That's the limit that you should aim for to get into ketosis and stay in ketosis. OK, so think of your carb macro as the number of carbs that you can eat up to. You could be at or below 50 grams, at or below 30 grams net. OK. So if you're trying to stay at, or below 30 grams of net carbs per day, but you only eat fifteen grams of net carbs...

    You're still totally within your goal, right? You don't have to eat 30 grams just because the calculator said to. All right. That's a limit, because you're limiting carbs to that amount. You're not trying to get up to that amount. And even then, there's going to be wiggle room with how many carbs you can eat and stay in ketosis. We're dealing in general averages here. OK. That's the idea behind the carb macro for a standard keto diet. Basically stay at or below that number. For protein, that one is actually more of a goal. Eating adequate protein ensures that you're preserving your lean body mass. So if you have a protein goal, you should try to target that. OK. Think of that as a goal to reach. You don't have to laser focus in on that exact amount of protein and grams, whatever that number that the calculator said day after day. Honestly, you just want to be in the general vicinity of your protein goal.

    And in terms of going over or going under, you actually would be better off being consistently over your protein goal than consistently under. Because if you're not eating adequate protein and if you're consistently shorting yourself on protein, this can lead to muscle loss overtime and your metabolism will suffer. So when in doubt, aim for higher protein intake, especially if you're eating at a calorie deficit or you're physically active. Now, for fat, this is the variable. And then the whole big picture. The fat is what can shift the most. So your carbs are going to be low. Your protein is going to be pretty much fixed based on your lean body mass and the fat goes up or down.

    Ok. Some people in the keto space prefer to fat as a lever that you move up or down, adjusting for your goals. And that can be kind of helpful to think of visually. But basically, this is just the main source of your calories. OK, so if you eat lower fat, then you have a higher calorie deficit and if you eat higher fat, you have a lower calorie deficit. And a lot of people think when they're counting their macros that they have to hit their fat macro, that they have to hit all of these macros perfectly. Right. So they'll start pouring heavy cream on stuff, melting butter into their coffee, eating fat bombs, just to bump their fat content up in their diet without really affecting their carbs or their protein. But you do not have to do this, OK? You don't have to hit your fat goal. Really, think of fat as a limit. OK. And you're just adding more energy for your body to burn through before it gets to use your body fat for fuel. OK, so fat can come from your plate or it can come from your body. And the number of fat grams that the macro calculator is telling you how much fat to eat, it's just based off whatever you plugged into it. OK, whatever calorie deficit that you said, oh, maybe a 10 percent deficit or a 15 percent deficit or whatever. So if you don't eat all that fat, you're just increasing your calorie deficit. And that's all that's really happening. OK, so you don't actually have like a special fat content that you need to reach in your diet, especially if body composition improvements align with your goals. OK, if your goal is fat loss than you do not need to eat all of the fat, ok.

    You're just increasing your calorie deficit if you don't eat all of the fat. All right. Think of it as the limit. The fat macros a limit as well, especially if weight loss is your goal. It's similar to the carbs. So carbs and fat are more like limits where you can eat at or below those macros, whereas protein is the goal. You want to make sure you're eating adequate protein everyday. Okay. Now once you have all of these macros figured out and your eating foods and letting it guide your choices, now you just have to tally up your carbs, protein and fat from the food that you're actually eating. OK, and you can do this manually in a journal. You can make an Excel spreadsheet or you can use an app, whatever is going to be the easiest for you to do. Whatever makes it feel less like work and resistance, then that's going to be the thing that you're most likely to stick with. So find what works for you. Find what feels the best if you want this to be a long term sustainable habit that you're building. You'll get all this information about macros from the food labels and nutrition databases. That's one of the reasons that tracking macros in grams versus percentages is a lot more helpful. OK. All the data is already in grams when you look at a label or you look nutrition information up online. OK. And basically what you're doing is taking that information, all of that nutrition data for whatever serving size you're eating, you account for that ingredient by documenting the carbs, fat and protein. For each thing you eat, each ingredient, everything gets tallied up over the day. So if you're just doing carbs, just be mindful of carbs.

    That's not too hard to track in a physical paper journal by writing everything down. But when you start to track all three of the macros, that's a lot of math to do. So something like Excel or an app can do the math for you and keep tabs on all of the different macronutrient content in the food that you eat. OK, now apps are by far the most popular way to do this because they source information from all the nutrient databases. And honestly, it's just a matter of looking at up selecting your serving size and logging it into the app as part of your diet journal. And there is barcode scanners, so if you're eating packaged foods, it can be a quick, convenient way to log that food into your journal with all the nutrition data built into it. Including your macros, it's basically it just takes a picture of the barcode and it pulls all the nutrition data from the manufacturer or from the user generated entries in the database. And it's really easy to do. Then as you go through the day, you just log what you're eating. And by the end of the day, you have a total tally of the nutrition information for everything that you've eaten. As long as you actually took the time to log what you ate, then you'll have a good comprehensive picture of what you ate throughout the day. So your macros from the food that you ate will all be added up and then you can compare that to your goals. Or you eat something, look at the nutrition information once it's logged and say I have this much room left for carbs, protein and fat. So you can kind of guide your decisions throughout the day if you kind of like to wing it. If you're not a planner, OK, if this is kind of one of those things that works more for people who like to wing it throughout the day versus planning ahead in proactively building their meals and meal prepping and stuff like that.

    Ok, so when you're looking at your macros as they're adding up throughout the day and you're making decisions about your food and saying, I have this much room left for carbs, protein and fat, it's a lot like counting calories in that you have a budget to spend. Right. But instead of coming out of one big wallet, it's coming out of three separate wallets with different amounts. And technically, you are counting calories as well when you're tracking your macros in grams, because macros are where your calories come from. Right. Carbs have 4 calories per gram. Protein has four calories per gram and fat has nine calories per gram. So when you add all the grams of carbs, protein and fat from your diet, you're also tallying your overall calorie intake. And you don't have to separately count calories while you're counting macros, they're intrinsically tied together. Right. And if you use an app, all that math is going to be done for you already. So what's the best app for tracking macros? There's a lot of nutrition apps that help you track your macros out there on the market today. And not all of them are created equal, but most of them tend to do the same thing.

    Ok, so I have two nutrition apps that I personally really like, but the one that you choose is really going to depend on what you want to get out of the app. OK. What is your goal for using the app? Is it just to track macros or do you want a more in depth nutrition analysis? Do you want something that's really easy to use or do you want something that's going to let you spend some more time in it to geek out on all of the information? OK. So for super detailed nutrition information, you really can't beat Cronometer. Now Cronometer details pretty much everything you can think of. Macros, fiber. It counts net carbs if you want it to details all the vitamins and minerals and even the breakdown of the macro nutrient components themselves like amino acids. So for people who want that kind of information, that level of detail, you know, you really can't beat cronometer. You can build out recipes and a meter and. Get the nutrition data for the whole recipe or based on individual serving sizes. You can save the recipe and use it for later. Or just different food combinations that you use on a regular basis so you don't have to individually select ingredients every time you log what you're eating. Now you can do whole recipes and re-use them for later. That's actually what I do when I develop recipes for Ketogasm.

    I like cronometer because it is probably the most accurate and in-depth information out there as a database that's easily available for people and for the people who want that. And they're tracking their macros and other nutrients in their diet. I want to provide that for people. So personally I used cronometer when I calculate all the recipe information for Ketogasm. So if you want my personal recommendation for the nitty gritty details, cronometer is where it's at. You can also log your supplements and any kind of like vitamins or anything like that that you're taking and it gets logged alongside your food so you can get a comprehensive big picture view of what your nutrient intake looks like for your diet overall. And it's free. It's free to use cronometer. But if you do opt for the paid version, I think they call it gold's version or something like that. You also track your nutrients over time so you can see the trends that are happening over time, which is pretty cool. So if you're taking the time to log all the information and all of your food and every bite that you're taking throughout the day, then being able to see the patterns over time is really helpful. Because if you're consistently low on something like, say, you are consistently low on B12, then you could see that that's an opportunity to supplement and boost your nutrition.

    Right. So it's more of fine tuning it. And if you have any specific targets or some kind of really individualized goal, then you can set that up in cronometer. So you can set up your macros, you can set up if you maybe you are deficient in B12 if you need to get that into your diet, you can set a specific goal to do that. So it's kind of helpful as a visual guide as well because it has little bars that track every single one of these nutrients. So as you log your food intake or your supplements or anything that you're eating and ingesting throughout the day, these little bars fill up and show you how close you are to reaching your goal. So it can be kind of motivating if you're using it for that purpose. And just a nice visual guide to help you out. But the problem with cronometer--I love cronometer and I use it for a lot of things--but there's so much data that it can be really super duper overwhelming for people. Especially if people are only interested in counting carbs or they only want to know their carbs, protein and fat macros. Right. I didn't really realize how overwhelming and daunting it is to look at that information until I tried to show my mom how to use cronometer.

    This is like, I don't know, a month ago or something. It was pretty recently. And my mom has zero interest like zero interest in nutrition. And she totally doesn't like the science. She doesn't like the details. She just wants things to be she wants it to be healthy and easy and it doesn't need to be complicated. And I get it. I totally get it. So when I was showing her cronometer, she totally glossed over and immediately lost interest. OK. So I started showing her all these features that I thought were so cool and she didn't think they were cool. OK. Nutritionists think these are cool. But if you don't geek out on nutrition, you might want to consider using something else because it can be overwhelming. The amount of detail and information that you get when you log into cronometer, it's kind of like drinking water from a firehose. Okay. If you don't know what you're looking at especially, then you might want to opt for something that's a little more user friendly.

    Now, the most user friendly tracking app that I have found is called Nutritionix, and it's nutrition with an I X, Nutritionix. And it doesn't do the level of detail for tracking that cronometer does. So if you want that detail. Like I said, cronometer is where it's at.

    But if that does not appeal to you at all and you want something that's incredibly user friendly, Nutritionix is something to look into. And honestly, it kind of strips away all of the extra fluff and it just shows you the basic stuff that you would find on a standard nutrition label. OK, it has your macros and your energy, so it shows you your protein, carbs, fat, fiber, all of that kind of stuff and the calories, right. And it does show some additional micronutrients if you start digging around for them. But but the lay out and the presentation is really simple and straightforward. OK. Now you can set calorie goals in Nutritionix and you can also set macro goals in percentages, but you can't really set them to grams unless you start to tweak the percentages to make them align just right. So that might be frustrating for you, but it's not the same as cronometer where you have the bars that you're like building up to fill the bars. So it doesn't really matter. It's just tracking it. If you know your macros, then you don't need to enter them into an app. Right. And there's not really a whole lot of customization in terms of the goal setting and everything, but it still tracks and tells you all the things that you need to know. And you can enter custom foods and build recipes out as well.

    And it's free. It's free just like cronometer as. So it's easy to use and it's free. So you can't beat that. Right. But the logging process, that's what I love most about Nutritionix. Because it has the barcode scanner just like cronometer does. But you can also type or speak the quantity and what you're eating. And it just automatically fills all that information into the logging portion of the app. So I think that's really cool because the other tracker apps, you have to find the food in the search bar. Then you dig through the lists of ingredients and then you manually adjust the serving size. OK. And I know that probably doesn't sound like too big of a deal, but it's actually a huge timesaver if you can just speak directly into the app or directly type the quantity and the number like what you're actually eating directly into the search bar instead of just the ingredient. But like how much of the ingredient into the search bar? OK. It's just a little bit less steps to go through. Even shaving off just a few seconds off of the process can be a huge difference. OK. That could be the difference between choosing to track your macros or choosing not to track your macros.

    Because I know a lot of people that say, "I can't do that. That's too time consuming." You know, even if it's not like stressful, it just seems like it's taking up a lot of their time. So having something that has the timesaving features is really, really good in my perspective as far as being a user friendly tool to use. Now they have a couple more timesaving features. So it's that free-form speed sorry, the free form feature that lets you speak or type directly into the search bar. So whatever you want to enter and then it just does it like magic. It automatically logs your food based off of whatever you type in and it has the smart search feature which takes your history, all the common foods, restaurants and grocery items and shows you results as you type into the search bar also. And then it has predictive features based on your history and the time of day. So it's actually like recommending different things. And it's kind of smart and it learns with you as you go. So it's definitely awesome. And they claim that you "track what you eat in 60 seconds per day using our app." And honestly, I do think it feels quite a bit quicker than other apps. I always have used cronometer or I've tried Myfitnesspal. I've tried a lot of different apps and I don't tend to love apps. But when I saw how easy and quick this was--and I'm not sponsoring this guys like they're not sponsoring this, like this isn't a commercial for them.

    I had to use this for a project recently and it was amazing. And I was like, I'm going to talk about this. So if you don't track your macros because it felt too time consuming, then nutritionix might be a decent option to checkout. OK. Now do you have to track macros on keto? Nope. You don't. And next week I'm going to dive into the different strategies for doing keto without tracking. But until then, I have a few pointers for you. And number one is to just focus on eating foods that are naturally low and carbs. Back in the portion control episode, I showed you how to build simple keto meals using your hands as guides. And if you focus on eating protein and non-starchy veggies, then you don't really need to worry about macro counting because it's naturally keto. OK, a palm sized portion of protein two cupped handfuls of veggies like leafy greens and a thumb or two of fat. OK, it's keto. It's easy, no tracking apps required. The second pointer is mindful eating or intuitive eating. And if you know you feel better eating foods that are lower in carbs and you build meals accordingly, just listen to your hunger cues, eat when you're hungry and stop when you're full.

    Then getting into those super granular details doesn't really add a lot of value. If you're nourishing and fueling your body in a way that feels good without the stress, without the obsession, that's leaps and bounds better than running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Worried that you went over your calves or you didn't hit your macros. OK. keto is wonderful, but so is flexibility. Remember, macros are just ballpark estimates anyway. And my final pointer is to meal plan because meal planning is a great way to proactively work out meals that align with your goals. If you're running around at meal time getting super stressed about what you're going to eat, or you're worried that the macros won't magically align when you haphazardly throw things together, then you really should consider meal planning.

    You're going to save time energy. You'll save money. It's amazing. OK, honestly, it's a game changer for people who don't love tracking too, because you can meal plan in a way that sets you up for success to meet your macros. I was so excited when I had this revelation, you guys. Even if you're really focused on specific macros, you can essentially reverse engineer your macros to align with your meals. OK. Or your meals to align with your macros? Right. It goes both ways. So that's what the master your macros meal plan on my site is all about. You just plug your macros in and all the recipes adjust to fit your macros. And it's pretty cool. The people who have used it have been super surprised. They're like, "Oh my God, this is genius!" And I thought I was a genius when I came up with it. So it's worth mentioning here, but there's options. Guys, there's strategies that you can use to make keto work for you without tracking. And like I said before, I am not a tracker myself. I'm more of a meal planning, mindful eater kind of type, OK. And I run a keto website. I literally wrote the book about keto for women, I have this keto podcast and I've been doing keto for years myself. So no, you don't have to track macros on keto, but you can if you want to. All right, guys, I hope this was helpful for you all. And I will see you next week.

    Thank you so much for tuning into this episode of the Ketogasm podcast. You are awesome. I really hope the shows added value to your keto journey. Making big changes to your eating habits can be a little tricky, but if you're taking the time to listen and learn about keto, you're well on your way. You got this. Be sure to visit Ketogasm dot com for the show notes with full transcripts, references and resources to help you out, including a totally free course called Hello Keto. It's helped over seventy five thousand people start keto with confidence. I'll see you in the next episode. Bye!

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    Hi, guys! Thank you for joining us for this week’s Easy Keto with Tasha! As you recall, last week was all about demystifying keto macros. Today’s focus will tackle the next step: tracking macros! 

    What are Macros?

    Macros are short for macronutrients. They are the carbs, protein, and fat from your food, and they provide your calories.

    Macros are important to keto because the balance of macronutrients in your diet affects whether or not you are in ketosis. Carb restriction induces ketosis, and carbohydrates are one of the macros.

    If your only goal is nutritional ketosis, then you can focus solely on carbs. However, the other macros--protein and fat--are still important for achieving weight and body composition goals! 

    For a more in-depth breakdown of what macros are, check out last week’s episode, Keto Macros Demystified [E17].

    Who Should Track Macros?

    I do not recommend tracking macros 24/7. I don’t do that, and most people following keto don’t do that either. However, many people find the process of tracking macros to be beneficial to their goals. 

    Not sure if tracking macros is right for you? Ask yourself this. Are you:

    • Total keto newbies. While you’re figuring out what you can and cannot eat on keto, tracking can help you stay mindful of your carbs. Don’t stress too much about protein and fat at this point.
    • Someone who has a good relationship with food and is working on body composition. You may already be at a healthy weight. There is no stress about each bite of food you eat. You don’t fear food, nor do you have extreme eating habits. Tracking macros to keep you in line with your goals can ensure you’re making progress.
    • People working to resolve nutritional deficiencies. Tracking your food will provide you with a detailed nutritional breakdown that allows you to make positive decisions about your food.
    • People that are data-minded and analytical. You enjoy having the statistics and metrics purely because you like data.

    Who Should NOT Track Macros?

    Just as there are some people who benefit from tracking macros, there are also people who would do well to avoid it. People who associate tracking with stress and resistance, or have struggled with unsustainable tracking previously, would do well to avoid it.

    Forcing yourself to track macros when you find it to be extremely stressful is not helping. Perceived stress will not help you reach your goals; it will sabotage you. If that’s how you feel about tracking macros, then it’s okay to ditch it!

    People with disordered eating habits and those who feel triggered by tracking are also not good candidates for this. The most important thing is that you create a healthy relationship with food. If you have a history of disordered eating habits, I suggest you do not even think about dieting.

    Finally, diet perfectionists should avoid tracking macros. The diet perfection mindset also goes hand-in-hand with disordered eating habits. Frequently, perfectionism requires that everything be perfectly aligned or it is a failure. Nutrition facts and data are just estimates and averages. Getting caught up in the minutia of hitting macros will only add stress and waste your energy.

    Tracking Macros on Keto

    The first step to take in tracking macros is to calculate your macros. Ensure that your keto macro calculator is limiting carbs, providing adequate protein for lean body mass, and utilizing fat based on energy needs. Remember, fat is variable. Also, make sure your calculator provides macro data in grams, NOT in percentages or ratios. Check out our macro calculator and tutorial!

    Now that you have your results from the calculator, you can use them as goals to guide your eating. Use this information to make decisions when looking at labels or deciding what to cook. For keto, your macros are not fixed targets.

    With carbs, think of your macro as a limit. You don’t necessarily have to hit your macro goal to be successful. Instead, that’s the limit you should aim to maintain ketosis. 

    With protein, your macro is more like a goal to achieve. You can preserve your lean body mass by ensuring that you’re consuming a sufficient amount of protein. If you have a protein goal, you should try to hit it. With protein, you would be better going over goal rather than being under it.

    Fat is a limit, especially if weight loss is the goal. Many people look at fat as a lever that can be adjusted up or down, depending on your goals. Fat is the main source of your calories. Eating lower-fat will create a higher calorie deficit; eating more fat will create a lower-calorie deficit. Fat can come from your plate or your body. 

    Recording Your Progress

    You’ve calculated your macros. You’re eating food and letting it guide your choices. It’s time to tally up your carbs, protein, and fat from the food you’re actually eating. Do it manually in a journal, create an Excel spreadsheet, or utilize a food tracking app. Choose something that works for you that you will stick with.

    Use information from food labels and nutrition databases for tracking macros. This is one reason why it’s so important to track your macros in grams instead of percentiles or ratios. 

    Take the nutrition information for your serving size. Document the carbs, protein, and fat. Do this for everything you consume. Tally these values throughout the day. From there, you can compare the values that depict what you actually ate to your macro goals.

    Counting Calories and Tracking Macros

    Tracking macros is very similar to counting calories. You have a budget to spend. However, where calories come from one wallet, your macro budget comes from three separate wallets with different amounts.

    When you track your macros, you’re also counting your calories. This is because your macros are what make up your calories. They’re tied together. You’re also tallying your overall calorie intake when you add your carbs, protein, and fat together. 

    Macro Tracking Apps

    There is no shortage of nutrition apps. If you find a quality app, it can make tracking macros extremely easy. While not all apps are created equally, they do tend to provide the same thing.

    To find the best app for you, ask yourself what you want to get out of it. Is your goal to simply track macros, or do you want an in-depth nutritional analysis?

    Cronometer: An extremely detail-oriented app. This is the most accurate and in-depth database that is easily available. The free app provides tracking and detailed nutrition information. The premium version also tracks trends that occur over time.
    Nutritionix: The most user-friendly, free tracking app. This app provides basic information that would be found on a nutrition label. It also has a barcode scanner. This app would be good for someone who already knows their macros, but they need a resource to track their diet.

    Keto Without Tracking Macros

    Tracking macros might feel a bit overwhelming. If you feel like tracking is too time-consuming and that it doesn’t fit within your diet, don’t stress! You do not have to track your macros.

    We’ll explore strategies for doing keto without tracking in a different episode, but until then, remember these pointers.

    • Focus on eating foods that are naturally low in carbs. Eat protein and non-starchy vegetables, and utilize the portion control suggestions from Portion Control Made Easy [E13].
    • Follow mindful/intuitive eating. Listen to your hunger cues, eat your lower carb meals when you’re hungry, and stop when you’re full.
    • Meal plan. Proactively work out meals that align with your goals. Check out the Master Your Macros meal plan that adapts the recipes to your unique macronutrient input!

    Tracking macros can be a great thing, but you should follow what works for you!

    Further Resources

    Keto Macros Demystified: Everything You Need to Know [E17]
    Portion Control Made Easy: A Hands-On Approach [E13]
    Keto Calculator: Macros for Women
    Keto: A Woman’s Guide & Cookbook

    Timestamp

    Intro
    1:39 - What Are Macros?
    3:17 - Who Should Track Macros?
    7:10 - Who Should NOT Track Macros?
    11:14 - Tracking Macros on Keto
    19:09 - Recording Your Progress
    22:49 - Counting Calories and Tracking Macros
    23:50 - Macro Tracking Apps
    24:23 - Cronometer
    29:26 - Nutritionix
    34:18 - Keto Without Tracking Macros

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    Keto Macros Demystified: Everything You Need to Know [E17]

    February 19, 2020

    Keto Macros Explained - Podcast Cover

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    Hey there, Tasha here. I hope you're excited for today's episode because I'm going to be talking all about macros. And I think this is gonna be really super duper helpful for people because over the years, I have got to say that this is quite honestly the biggest source of frustration for most people getting started on keto. I'd even go as far to say it's the biggest source of frustration for most people doing keto for a long time. And if I was to lump all the questions I get into different categories, I'd say that the macronutrient category would be right at the top, bursting at the seams from all the different questions I get about this topic. So keeping that in mind, I'm going to be breaking this into a couple of different episodes. Because instead of just one giant lump of information, I want this to be actionable, manageable stuff that isn't overwhelming. Okay. If you guys have lots of questions about it, then breaking it down into two smaller parts seems a little better. OK. So this week we're gonna learn about what the heck macros are and why they matter for keto. And next week, I'm going to talk all about tracking macros, including tools to consider and the good, the bad and the ugly side of it. OK. So first, what are macros? The term macros is just short for macronutrients. And I know that some of you guys already know this stuff. So bear with me because we'll get into some of the more advanced stuff and just a bit.

    But macronutrients are the nutrients in your diet that make up a significant portion of your intake. That's opposed to micronutrients. Macronutrients, yield energy, which you need in pretty significant amounts. Right. While micronutrients, the vitamins and minerals in your diet are essential, but they're only required in small amounts in comparison. OK, so macro, micro, big versus small in the nutrient supply in regards to your dietary needs. That's where the term "macros" comes from. OK. Now when I say vitamins and minerals, people know what I'm talking about. That's vitamin C, the B vitamins, calcium, iron, whatever. The micronutrients are always emphasized when we learned about nutrition growing up. Right. Eat your fruits and veggies. All that good stuff was reinforced. But when it comes to macros or macronutrients, that's where a lot of people start to get fuzzy. They don't really know what these things really are without more context. OK. So that's one of my goals today is to put macros into context for you. How do they work in the big picture in your diet? The macronutrients are carbs, protein and fat. So these are the big players in your diet. You're getting a lot more carbohydrate, fat, and protein in your diet than you are getting calcium and vitamin A. And you also need quite a bit more, right, macro versus micro. And macronutrients, as I said before, those yield energy. So in terms of nutrition and food, energy is just really another way of saying calories.

    So essentially macronutrients are just where your calories are coming from. Carbs have four calories per gram. Protein has four calories per gram. And fat has nine calories per gram. The body processes each of the macronutrients differently. We're not really going to go into the nitty gritty on this one today, but each macronutrient group influences your metabolism a bit differently and it can be used by your body for different purposes. So in the context of keto, why are macros important? Now, if you're just focusing on keto alone specifically, then macronutrients are important to support ketosis. We shift where we source our energy and how our body is metabolizing it based on what we fuel our body with. So fueling with a high carb diet influences the metabolism to be a sugar burner, right? While fueling with a low carb diet forces the body to alter the metabolism, and it quite literally changes your metabolism to primarily burn fat for fuel. OK, and if you listen to this, you know this. You guys know this already. So by restricting carbs, one of the macros, you're able to induce ketosis. So that's the main reason for the hyper awareness regarding macros on keto rather than simply counting calories, which would represent a total of all three macronutrients grouped together. You partition them out into separate groups and by breaking them apart into these three separate groups instead of total calories, that allows you to keep an eye on your carbs to ensure ketosis by keeping them low.

    How low? About 50 grams total or lower. OK. If carbs are low, then where's the rest of your energy coming from? Fat and protein. So that's where these macronutrient ratios all stem from. And this is where you start to hear low carb, high fat, moderate protein and see the pie chart type of graphics. And it's basically just showing you this big pie is your total calories. And each slice represents different macronutrients that you would be eating. Right. And if you're keeping your carbs low for ketosis, then in that big pie chart, it's going to be just a tiny little sliver of a pie piece. And protein needs stay relatively consistent between a low carb diet and a high carb diet. And this is going to be a medium sized piece of the pie on the graph. Right. So then that big, huge slice of pie is representing your fat. And when most people think "ketogenic" or especially if they're not really super familiar with keto already, they think of that keto macronutrient ratio of something like 75 percent fat, 20 percent protein, 5 percent carbs or something very similar to that. And they get really super duper hung up on this ratio as if that particular ratio was somehow magical. Right. Or that the particular ratio of macros relative to each other was the driving force behind ketosis, when in reality, actual real life keto macronutrient ratios are divided into a variety of different ways.

    So long as the carbs are kept low enough. OK, carb restriction drives ketosis. Not necessarily the high fat, not keeping things in specific ratios. OK, so real life keto macros are divided into anywhere from around 50 to 80 percent fat, 20 to 50 percent protein and around 5 to 15 percent carbohydrate. OK, so that's huge variation, right? These are huge ranges and it really doesn't give you a lot of insight into how to set your diet up, what to target or anything like that. And most of the time, if you aren't doing a medically therapeutic ketogenic diet or if you aren't eating to maintain your weight, then your diet won't actually look like that typical 75/25/5 ratio. OK, that's just kind of this textbook standard thing that doesn't really fit into most people's diet. In fact, the only way to get that specific ratio if you are trying to lose weight by eating at a calorie deficit would be to sacrifice your protein. And remember, your protein needs are pretty fixed. You don't really want to decrease your protein in order to cut calories. You want to eat adequate protein in order to preserve your lean body mass, keep you full, keep your metabolism revved up. OK. So if carbs are kept at a minimum to support ketosis and your protein intake is adequate to support lean body mass, then that wiggle room in your diet to create a calorie deficit is really left up to the fat macro.

    So you'd actually be decreasing fat intake to create a calorie deficit in a well-formulated ketogenic diet. And of course, when you drop your calories a bit, then visualize that lower fat content in a pie chart. The fat slice gets a little bit smaller while the protein and carb portion start to take up a little bit more space. Right. But that's only because you're accounting for the fat from your meals while the fat that's being burned from your body isn't represented in that pie chart. A more accurate picture of what's really going on would be four slices of pie: one for carbs, one for protein, one for dietary fat, and one for body fat that's being burned. So thinking in macro ratios or percentages and building your meals around these concepts is actually pretty misleading. It's overcomplicating something and it's not going to give you the best results. I think that keto macro ratios and percentages are honestly a bit pointless in the context of weight loss in particular. And you'll find that it's a pretty unanimous conclusion among other nutritionists or coaches that understand how this all works, and they see the best results with their clients. OK. And I've seen this happen time and time again. People really miss the mark with this like scarily miss the mark. So I do want to talk about it. I've seen people post their macros and ratios after eating only like 200 calories for the day as a celebration post and Facebook groups for having "perfect macros." Like, "I nailed it!" because they hit that 75 percent fat, 25 percent protein, 5 percent carbs or whatever specific ratio they were trying to hit. But they only ate like 200 calories.

    I've also seen the extreme opposite of people sharing their "perfect macros" after eating 4000 calories--well over their body's needs. So it goes both ways. And the ratio itself doesn't determine how much you should be eating. Your body's energy expenditure and your body composition determine that. OK, so what should you be doing instead of sweating the ratios and percentages of the macros in your food and hoping that they magically align with these super specific ratios? Which spoiler alert: they are not going to. There's two things that you can do, OK? One is just focus on carb restriction alone. Eat intuitively beyond that. Listen to your body and nourish accordingly. Or two, you can calculate your macros in grams. Now I have a whole episode about just focusing on carb restriction alone and I would recommend going back and checking that out. If you're just getting started, if you find keeping tabs on your macros to be mentally exhausting, or if you just want to keep it simple, then definitely check out episode number one of the podcast. It's called "The Easiest Way to Start Keto." And it really is the easiest way, guys. OK. And if you've been doing keto for some time and you want to fine tune your efforts, maybe you've had a weight loss style or a plateau.

    Maybe you really want to focus on improving your body composition, increase your muscle, lose fat. Or maybe you just want to have more metrics and data and you just do well with those kind of statistics about your body and you love geeking out on nutrition information. OK. I totally get it. So whatever you decide is the best fit. I have been both people, believe me. And ultimately focusing on what feels best to you is going to be the thing that you're most likely to stick to in the long run. Like I said, next week we're going to dive into how to actually track macros and what to do instead if you absolutely hate tracking. But first, you need to know how to calculate your macros instead of breaking your energy needs down into a completely useless pie chart. Here's what I want you to do instead. Figure out your energy needs. Set a carb limit to support keto. Set a goal for protein to target adequate intake that supports your lean body mass and then fill in the rest of your energy needs with fat from your plate or from your body. OK. That's it in a nutshell. For most people, the keto carb limit is going to be under 50 grams total. Remember discount fiber for net carbs. If you're eating whole foods instead of a bunch of processed convenience foods, then that's going to bring you close to the 20 to 30 gram net carb range.

    So if you're doing total carbs, a limit of 50 grams of carbs per day is a good place to start. But if you're doing net carbs, set the limit between 20 to 30 grams net carbs per day. Your protein needs will depend on your lean body mass. OK. So how much bone and muscle and tissue you have. And generally to support your lean body mass, the adequate protein range is between 0.6 grams to one gram per pound of lean body mass. So some people go even higher if they're really athletic, if they're super active, or if they're doing body recomposition. But for the people who aren't very active at all, then you can set the protein goal lower. The lower end of the range is just fine. OK, but if you're engaged in any kind of activity, then targeting the higher end of that range, like at least one gram per pound of lean body mass is a really good idea. And honestly, I think that even sedentary folks could benefit from the middle range instead of the low end, especially when they're dieting. Because increased protein helps keep you full. It helps keep you satisfied. So that's something to consider, too. But if you have a tough time eating high protein, then 0.6 grams per pound of lean body mass is totally fine. It's totally adequate. So for someone with 100 pounds of lean body mass, a range of 60 to 100 grams of dietary protein would be pretty standard.

    You just want to target what range you fall into. Right. So the sedentary person that has 100 hundred pounds of lean body mass would be able to get away with 60 grams of protein per day, where the really active person with 100 pounds of lean body mass would probably need more like 100 grams of dietary protein every day. Now that you set your carb limit and your protein goal, figuring out how much fat to eat is based on whether or not you want to be eating at a calorie deficit. So if weight loss is your goal, that's going to be you. But if not, then you just take your energy needs based on your body's energy expenditure. Then the energy from the carbs and protein is subtracted to arrive at the fat content. And if weight loss is your goal, then you just decide how many calories you want to take off from that. OK, so set a calorie deficit, subtract carbs, protein and all those extra calories that you want to burn. And whatever leftover energy there is between your needs and all of that stuff you've just subtracted? That's going to be your fat macro for weight loss. And I know this is all probably sounding complicated because I'm talking about math and you can't see what I'm talking about. But don't worry, because I have a tool that you can use to do all the math for you.

    So hang in there. So out of that leftover energy, that's where your fat macro is going to be at. OK. And that fat macro to get the number in fat grams, you just need to divide the number of calories by nine. Remember, fat has nine calories per gram. So that's how you get any of these calorie numbers into grams. You would divide it by nine for fat, or four for carbs or protein. OK. So let's say you're left with a thousand calories after you subtract your carbs, your protein in calories that you want to burn for weight loss. You divide that one thousand by nine. And that's a hundred and eleven grams of fat. OK. So this is going to be different for everybody. And unless you're a nutritionist fine-tuning specifics, going through this process manually is not at all necessary. OK. So don't worry. There's tools that will do the math for you. And I'm just explaining what any keto calculator worth using is going to do for you. OK, so what you want to look for is a calculator that will give you your results in grams rather than percentages. That is step number one in looking for a keto calculator worth its weight in salt. Because percentages aren't going to set you up for success in the same way that grams will, OK. It's not going to tell you anything very special. And not only are macro grams specifically tailored to your body composition versus some arbitrary ratio, they are going to be way, way easier to find and figure out when looking at a nutrition label or a nutrition database or any kind of app that you might be using for tracking.

    Right. All of our macronutrient nutrition data and information is communicated by manufacturers in grams. So it makes a lot more sense to set your goals up this way in a way that's actually labeled specifically on all the food that we eat instead of overcomplicating it. Now I do have a keto calculator on my site over at Ketogasm dot com and it's set up exactly the way I described here. It's specifically for females and it's been developed as a supplement for my book Keto: A Woman's Guide and Cookbook. So if you're a woman interested in calculating your macros in grams, or if you have a female client that needs their macros setup, that is going to be a really great tool to use. I highly recommend it. I really can't recommend it more. Shout out to my brother Trevor, who actually developed it for me because I could not figure out the coding. It was way beyond me. And I've wanted a decent calculator on my site for years, but it was just not my skill set to make it happen. OK. I had the math down. I knew what I wanted. I could not for the life of me, figure out how to code a calculator so well over my skill set.

    And Trevor made it happen, so thank you, Trevor. I was before that I was always recommending other calculators with caveats and tweaks that you still needed to make. Or jumped from one calculator here to the next and sending people to like three different links to calculate their macros. OK, so this has all of those kind of features that I wanted from different things all built into one. So I am so happy to have the tool up for you guys because it will give you so much detailed information about your energy expenditure, your body composition and your keto macro goals that are actually useful and relevant to your body. OK, so I know that's going to help for those of you who are interested. And for those of you who are not interested in calculating your macros, please, please don't overcomplicate it. Just focus on one macro, okay? You don't have to juggle all three to see results and do keto effectively. OK, I promise. It's simple. If you make it simple and episode 1, "The Easiest Way to Start Keto" is gonna be a great resource to help you get started by just focus in on one macronutrient at a time. And even if you've been doing this for a while and you're feeling burnt out, calculating macros, counting macros, whatever it is, you can go back to that first step, square one and just focus on that one thing. OK, you have my permission. I hope this was helpful for you guys. I will see you next week.

    Thank you so much for tuning into this episode of the Ketogasm podcast. You are awesome. I really hope the shows added value to your keto journey. Making big changes to your eating habits can be a little tricky, but if you're taking the time to listen and learn about keto, you're well on your way. You got this. Be sure to visit Ketogasm dot com for the show notes with full transcripts, references and resources to help you out, including a totally free course called Hello Keto. It's helped over seventy five thousand people start keto with confidence. I'll see you in the next episode. Bye.

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    Hi, everyone! Welcome back to this week’s episode of Easy Keto with Tasha! Today, we’re going to be talking all about keto macros.

    Why macros? Over the years, I’ve noticed that this is where people struggle the most when starting keto. Even people who have been doing keto long-term still have difficulties! 

    Because there are so many questions circulating around macros, this will be a two-part topic. This week, we’ll focus on what macros are and why they matter for keto. Next week, we’ll focus on tracking macros and everything that comes along with it. 

    What Are Macros?

    Macro is short for macronutrients. These are the nutrients in your diet that make up a significant portion of your intake. Macronutrients produce a substantial amount of your body’s energy; macros are not only relevant to keto. 

    On the other hand, micronutrients are essential vitamins and minerals. Our bodies require a small number of micronutrients compared to macronutrients.

    Macronutrients consist of protein, carbs, and fat. These macros are where your calories come from. 

    • Carbs have 4 calories per gram
    • Protein has 4 calories per gram
    • Fat has 9 calories per gram

    The body processes each of these macros differently. They also influence metabolism differently and provide different uses for your body.

    Keto Macros Demystified

    When it comes to your keto macros, they are vital in supporting ketosis. The goal of ketosis is to shift where we source our energy from and how our body metabolizes it; we do this by changing our fuel source. 

    Fueling with a high-carb diet with influence your metabolism to be a sugar-burner. Fueling your body with a low-carb, keto diet forces a metabolism shift; this allows your metabolism to become a fat-burner. 

    Breaking Down Keto Macros

    Carbs are one of our macros. By restricting carbs, you can induce ketosis. This is why there is a hyper-awareness over keto macros, as opposed to calorie-counting. Instead of looking only at the overall calorie intake, you break it down into the three sections of macros. This helps people keep an eye on their carb intake to ensure ketosis is maintained.

    Ratios for Keto Macros

    Typically, carbs are restricted to 50 grams or less to maintain ketosis. The rest of your body’s energy will then come from protein and fat. Carbs will make up a small portion of your calorie intake.

    Protein intake should stay relatively consistent between a low-carb and high-carb diet. This keto macro will provide a medium amount of energy.

    Finally, fat will make up the rest of your caloric needs. Fat will make up a large portion of where your calories come from.

    Remember, it is the restricted carbs that ultimately drive ketosis, NOT the high fat. There’s also no real perfect ratio (such as the popular 75/20/5). The actual ratios for keto macros vary per person.

    • Fat: 50-80%
    • Protein: 20-50%
    • Carbs: 5-15%

    Utilize Your Fat

    Protein needs are mostly fixed. Eating a sufficient amount of protein is key to preserving lean body mass, keeping you full, and ensuring your metabolism is revved up. Carbs must also stay restricted to support ketosis.

    This leaves fat. This is the keto macro that you can manipulate to meet calorie deficit goals. Decreasing fat intake will create a calorie deficit when your other keto macros are accurate. 

    While the fat macro pertains to dietary fat, it is also important to remember that your body will be burning stored body fat as well, once you are in ketosis!

    Do Perfect Macros Exist?

    Thinking about your diet in terms of macros can be misleading. The keto macros and percentiles are not one-size-fits-all. Not only do they frequently overcomplicate your diet, but they also fail to provide the best results. This is something that many nutritionists and coaches can agree on.

    When people only focus on meeting the “perfect” keto macro ratio, they can get completely off track. I’ve seen people excited to hit the 75/20/5 ratio; at the same time, they fail to realize that they’ve only consumed 200 calories. Just as frequently, I’ve seen people consume upwards of 4000 calories and not blink an eye because their macros met that perfect ratio.

    The keto macro ratio is not what determines how much you should be eating. This is determined by your energy expenditure and body composition. 

    Moving Beyond Percentages and Ratios

    There are two things you can do for your keto diet.

    1. Restrict your carbohydrates and eat intuitively. Once again, carb restriction is what determines ketosis! If you want to go back to basics, or if you’re just starting out on keto, check out The Easiest Way to Start Keto. It’s an episode dedicated entirely to carb restriction.
    2. Calculate your macros in grams. You will be able to track your macros, but first, you need to calculate them. This means looking at your keto macros beyond a simple ratio or a pie chart.

    Calculate Your Macros

    Before you can track, you have to calculate the values you’ll be tracking. To calculate your macros, you’ll need to do the following:

    • Determine your energy needs
    • Set a carb limit that supports ketosis
    • Create a protein goal that ensures adequate intake while supporting lean body mass
    • Fill the rest of your energy need with fat from your plate or fat from your body

    For most people, the carb limit will be under 50 grams of total carbs. This translates to a limit of 20-30 grams of net carbs if you are discounting fiber.

    Your lean body mass determines your protein needs. The adequate protein range is between 0.6-1 gram per pound of lean body mass; this value will be more if you are extremely athletic, active, or focused on body recomposition.

    Finally, the amount of fat you eat is determined by whether or not you wish to eat at a calorie deficit. If you’re not interested in losing weight, you can take your energy needs based on your energy expenditure; from there, the energy from the carbs and protein is subtracted to provide the fat needs.

    If weight loss is your goal, then you’ll want to eat at a deficit. Set a calorie deficit; then, subtract your carbs, protein, and extra calories that you want to burn from your energy. Your fat macro is the amount left-over.

    To figure out the amount of fat in grams, just divide it by 9! 

    Keto Macros Calculator

    Don't want to calculate your keto macros yourself? You can always use a macro calculator! There are plenty available for free online.

    To find a quality calculator, look for one that provides your results in grams NOT percentages! This provides you with values that are tailored to your body composition. Plus, it’s way easier to use when looking at a nutrition label!

    Macro Calculator for Women

    Before you start your hunt for a macro calculator, I have one available! This keto macro calculator was designed specifically for women as a supplement for my book, Keto: A Woman’s Guide & Cookbook. 

    You can access this free calculator here, at Keto Calculator: Macros for Women. It provides detailed information about your energy expenditure, body composition, and keto macro goals that are actually useful and relevant to your body! 

    Further Resources

    Weight Loss vs. Fat Loss: Are They The Same? [E12]
    What are Macros? What They Are & How to Calculate
    Keto: A Woman’s Guide & Cookbook

    Timestamp

    Intro
    1:36 - What Are Macros?
    4:08 - Keto Macros Demystified
    5:13 - Breaking Down Keto Macros
    7:51 - Utilize Your Fat
    9:42 - Do Perfect Macros Exist?
    11:15 - Moving Beyond Percentages and Ratios
    13:17 - Calculate Your Macros
    17:49 - Keto Macros Calculator
    18:59 - Macro Calculator for Women

    Subscribe & Review in iTunes

    Are you subscribed to my podcast? If you’re not, I want to encourage you to do that today. I don’t want you to miss an episode. I’m going on an epic podcasting spree and if you’re not subscribed there’s a good chance you’ll miss out on the new episodes. Click here to subscribe in iTunes!

    Now if you’re feeling extra loving, I would be incredibly grateful if you left me a review over on iTunes, too. Those reviews help other people find my podcast and they’re also fun for me to go in and read. Just click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” and let me know what your favorite part of the podcast is. Thank you!

    Low Carb Smoothies [Keto, Sugar-Free]

    February 15, 2020

    Low Carb Smoothies

    Low-carb smoothies can be a great way to pack nutrient-dense ingredients into your diet. However, the traditional variety can be packed full of sugar and carbohydrates. By choosing the right ingredients, you can keep the carbs down and make smoothies a part of your keto routine. This smoothie recipe is from my latest book, Keto: A Woman’s Guide & Cookbook.

    Keto: A Woman’s Guide & Cookbook

    If you haven’t picked up your copy of the book yet, be sure to check it out. I fill you in on all the details required to succeed on keto, from beginner to advanced strategies. There’s nothing out there quite like it, as it’s geared towards optimizing body composition based on female physiology and hormonal balance. Complete with recipes to boot (including this low-carb smoothie!), so you’re not completely lost in the kitchen. If you’ve tried any of my other recipes before, you already know these are delish!

    And if you have picked up a copy, then I want to extend a heartfelt thank you. Having the opportunity to write about my passion has been a dream come true. I genuinely appreciate your support! If you could do me a quick favor and take just a minute to leave a review on Amazon letting me know your favorite part of the book, that would be incredible. It really helps to spread the word and gives others insight into whether or not the book will be a good fit. It also helps the book appear in search results instead of drifting off into the depths of Amazon’s millions and millions of titles. This is hands down the best way to support the book! Thank you for taking the time to leave your thoughts!

    Make yourself one of these low-carb smoothies, grab your copy of the book, and get to reading!

    Real Reader Review

    Here’s what one reader Marissa A. had to say: 

    “Great recipes, refreshing perspective! I've been following Tasha since the beginning of my keto journey. This book is honest and clever, just what her readers have come to expect from her. However, she offers a fresh perspective on keto that many others overlook; dieting is different for women! It just is and she gets it. Recipes are delicious. Don't miss out!”

    GRAB YOUR COPY!

    Very low-carb smoothies

    To keep the carbs super duper low, it’s all about selecting low-carb ingredients for your smoothies. I have an entire keto smoothie guide for more ideas to experiment with, but here’s the gist: low sugar fruits, fibrous non-starchy vegetables, and unsweetened liquids. 

    What is the lowest carb fruit?

    Olives, avocado, rhubarb, and starfruit are fruits that are all extremely low in carbs. However, they are a bit more savory than your typical smoothie fare. If you're looking for sweeter low-carb smoothies, you have some options!

    Berries are quite a bit sweeter, but they still have a relatively low amount of carbohydrates. The berries with more seeds (think: blackberries, strawberries, etc) are a particularly good option for keto as they tend to be more fibrous, in turn lowering the net carb count and contributing to satiety. Plus, they taste great in a low-carb smoothie!

    Check out the keto fruits list for more options!

    Are bananas good for keto?

    Not exactly. Carbs in banana quickly add up, which is not conducive to ketosis in higher quantities. Skip the banana for your low-carb smoothies and consider an avocado instead! 

    Filling Low Carb Smoothies

    Smoothies certainly aren’t well known for their filling, appetite suppressing qualities. But that’s because most smoothies are heavy on the sugars and juices. If you want a smoothie that will keep you full, consider bumping up the protein or fiber. 

    Also, adding low-carb protein powder or high fiber ingredients like flaxseed or psyllium husk can help make your low-carb smoothies feel like a satisfying meal.

    Other Low-Carb Smoothie Recipes to Try

    Keto Smoothie Recipe
    Avocado Smoothie Recipe

    Low Carb Smoothies
    Print Recipe
    5 from 3 votes

    Low Carb Smoothies [Keto, Sugar-Free]

    Smoothies can be a great way to pack in nutrient-dense ingredients, but they are often full of sugar and carbohydrates. Choosing low sugar fruits, fibrous veggies, and unsweetened liquids will help you keep carbs low. Feel free to experiment with your low carb smoothies!
    Prep Time5 mins
    Total Time5 mins
    Course: Breakfast, Dessert, Drinks
    Cuisine: American
    Keyword: low carb smoothie, protein powder, smoothie
    Special Diet: Dairy-Free, Keto, Low Carb, Vegan, Vegetarian
    Servings: 2 servings
    Calories: 164kcal
    Author: Tasha

    Equipment

    • Blender

    Ingredients

    • ½ avocado
    • 1 cup spinach
    • 1 cup blackberries fresh or frozen
    • 1 cup almond milk unsweetened, plain
    • 2 cups ice
    • 1 scoop low-carb protein powder optional

    Instructions

    • Add ingredients to blender and close lid.
    • Pulse until ingredients are smoothly blended and serve.

    Notes

    Carbohydrate content and ingredients vary dramatically between brands and product lines of protein powder. Be sure to read the ingredients and nutrition facts to ensure the protein powder aligns with your needs and goals. Alternatively, feel free to skip the protein powder altogether!

    Nutrition

    Serving: 2.5cups | Calories: 164kcal | Carbohydrates: 11.6g | Protein: 15.3g | Fat: 7g | Fiber: 6.5g | Net Carbs: 5.1g
    Low Carb Keto Berry Smoothie
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