Keto: Scales, A Useful Tool

My scales... 

Trust... but verify.  You are eating only 20 grams of carbs a day.  Are you really?  Let's find out.  

Weigh the foods with carbohydrates and confirm how many carbs you are eating.  It is too easy to allow your eyes to be the judge rather than a food scale.  I discovered this the hard way one day on my Keto path.  And... it is usually those almonds in my case.  

I keep my Keto levels at 1.5 to 6 mmol/Ls.  I measure using Keto urine strips.  I do know they are not the most accurate method of measure.  A Keto blood meter, more accurate I am told, but those meters are expensive and the strips even more so.  So, I use normal Keto urine strips and they work well for me.  

One day, after some 'low carb' eating I noticed only a trace amount of Ketones from my Keto strip.  I investigated.  It was frustrating to be sure, so I got out the old kitchen scale, popped some batteries in it... and set out to track every carb I ate for the next few days.  

What I discovered is, it is very easy to allow the carbs to creep up on you unless you keep an accurate carb count, using an accurate scale.  30 grams of almonds... come in at 5 carbs (using a brand I often eat).  Now, 30 grams of almonds is less than you would expect.  It is 1/4 cup by dry measure.  It is very easy to eat much more than that.  You pour yourself a couple of palm fulls, next thing you know you are at 20 carbs, then add to what veg you ate that day, and maybe a Miller Lite (3.2 carbs), and pretty soon you are pushing 30 carbs or worse.  

It was not only the almonds that caused my carb creep.  Using the scales I found several other low carb foods, that when I actually weighed the serving size, I found issues.  That 1/2 avocado came in at a whopping 12 carbs.  Even my beloved Brussels Sprouts and fresh red tomatoes, where too high in carbs in the amounts I had been eating.  Low carb foods are good, but Do Not use Super Sized Servings. 

I took action to get back to a firm Brutal 20.  The affect of measuring all carb foods by weight grams was instructive and effective.  I could have the same foods, just not in the quantity I had been eating.  After a day my Ketones were back at their normal levels.  Kitchen food scales are inexpensive and accurate. 

Use a good kitchen scale to measure your carb intake.  If you do, you will stay under the Brutal 20 carbs and have success.  The scales are inexpensive, easy to use.  You can calibrate using Standard American Measure or Metric.  I use Metric as I find it more precise and I am able to use finer units of measure.  The scale can zero out the weight of any plate, cup, etc., so only  the weight of the food is measured.  Easy to use and clever. 

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Keto: the Brutal 20

Gary Cooper circa 1950

A man's average weight in the 1950s was circa 166 pounds.  A man's average weight in 2018 is circa 196 pounds.  Men were more healthy and looked better before the great shift to the 'modern American diet' in the 1970s.  One way, perhaps the best way, to return to dietary sanity is to go Keto and this means grinding those carbs down to the Brutal 20.  This method of eating is very traditional and old fashioned, it is based on a diet of vegetables and meat. 
 

Normal size man 1950s

I find Keto easy to do myself. I began eating Keto almost three months ago. My initial reason was a neurogenesis protocol for health reasons, but I can say that I enjoy the added health benefits on Keto. Namely, my tummy is flat and I enjoy all my old clothes fitting me well again. That trying had to look like Gary Cooper phenomenon (or in my case more like a fit Father Christmas).


My technique is simple, I count how many carbs I eat a day and cut them off when I reach 20.  I use an accurate food scale to count the carbs.  I find a digital scale useful.   I use metric units of weight measurements instead of the US Standard units, as they are simpler, and I can do finer increments of measure with metric units.  I measure the food in grams.  Most scales allow you to switch from US Standard to metric. 

typical lunch, 'my' slaw and country style rib, 3 grams of carb

So, if you want to eat some almonds and yet stay under the coveted Brutal 20 grams... weigh your serving size. 30 grams of almonds comes in at 5.92 grams of carbs. One Miller Lite beer, 12oz, comes in at 3.2 grams of carbs. 50 grams of raspberries comes in at 5.97 grams of carbs. 50 grams of  'my' coleslaw is only 2.92 grams of carbs.... by my I mean made with no added sugars. And for that treat, 70 grams of an off the vine fresh tomato is only 2.74 carb grams. 


Many of the foods I eat now are carb free, or have little or nominal amounts of carbs.  This includes the wonderful Manchego cheese (0 carbs), the various cuts of beef, pork, and fowl, I enjoy.  Salads are an easy metric, just weigh by grams any vegetable that includes carbs and total up the carbs.  Most other items, such as olives, have the carbs per serving writing on the can or package.   The goal is to stay as close to 20 as you can get.  I do occasionally, exceed 20... but only by a couple of grams, so on some days I will come in at 22.5 or so, and on other days, I will come in at well under 20.  

I have been on this regimen and in Keto for almost three months and it is going well.  I do stick to the Brutal 20 rule.  I measure my Ketones via the urine strips.  I measure early afternoon each day, and clock in between 1.5 to 6 mmol/Ls.  So, the magic is working.  

Keto is simple, do not complicate it.  Just measure carbs, keep them under 20.  

Dionysus

For you wine lovers, if you select the right brand, vintage, etc., there are some great wines that are very low carb... Malbec, Pinot Noir, Carbernet Sauvignon, and similar wines, are very low carb, circs 3 carb grams per 5 oz serving. You have to research which ones, as some wines, usually cheaper ones, are high carb, so do your research and choose well. A Spanish dry sherry, a Jerez, is under 1 gram per serving and is a particular favourite of mine. So, the gods are indeed kind.


© 2018 Barry R McCain

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