Tag: low carb information

Keto Low Carb Taco Pie Recipe
Low Carb Information, Recipes

How This Keto Taco Pie Can Help You Lose Weight

Tiffiny

You have probably heard that losing weight involves eating lots of low-fat food. For a few years there, eating fat-free was all the rage. Companies produced a mind-numbing amount of fat-free foods that claimed to be healthy and would help you lose weight.

And guess what? They were wrong! It turns out, eating fat does not make you fat!

Eating healthy means you need to eat fat. Dietary fat has lots of health benefits for your body and is necessary for you to live. In fact, eating a lot of fat can be great for you since fat can fuel your body (instead of glucose) and help you feel full.

Why Fat Helps You Feel Full

When you consume fat, you are eating a calorically dense macronutrient that plays a big role in your digestion and hormone production.

First, fat slows digestion. Your food hangs around a little longer in your body when it is full of fat. This is great news when it comes to feeling full and satisfied. You can become full more quickly and stay full for hours after you have finished eating a high-fat meal.

Fat also has an effect on the hunger hormone, ghrelin. Ghrelin tells your brain that you are hungry and you need food right away. However, fat can suppress ghrelin, which will eliminate that “I need to eat everything,” feeling you get when you follow low-fat diets.

Fat also decreases your blood sugar and insulin production. Not only is this great news for decreasing your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, but it also allows another hormone, leptin, to do its job. Leptin actually tells your body that you are full and no longer need food. When you keep your insulin levels low, leptin is not interfered with and functions properly.

An interesting fact: Leptin is released when you eat fat and protein, but it is not released when you eat carbohydrates. The only mechanism to tell your body to stop eating carbohydrates, is you telling yourself it is time to stop. Or, you stuffing yourself so physically full that you are physically uncomfortable and choose to stop eating. The other substance that has no hormone mechanism to stop you from consuming is alcohol. It is no wonder that they are both addictive…a topic for another blog.

In order to be sure that you can experience the benefits of leptin, make sure you eat more slowly so you are able to experience the full sensation that leptin provides before you have eaten too much.

Feeling Full = Weight Loss

So now that we know why fat makes you full, let’s talk about how it leads to weight loss.

We have all tried to lose weight at some point in our lives on a high carb, restricted calorie diet. And we have all realized we cannot live on very few calories! You may have some success but eventually you give in because you are hungry. So, you wind up bingeing and you gain back any weight you may have lost.

When you feel hungry, you get cranky, anxious, and lose your will power. But when you feel full, you are satisfied and not tempted to snack. Therefore, staying full is key to success in weight loss!

So, the reason is simple. If you are full, then you are much more likely to stick to your eating plan.

Eating a high fat diet is also a delicious way to eat. You look forward to your meals because they taste good and leave you full.

This is where my keto taco pie comes in. This crustless taco pie has plenty of healthy fat that will leave you full and satisfied. And did I mention that it is delicious? Both your high carb and low carb family and friends will love this one. But watch out and only eat one piece…otherwise, you will feel too full! 🙂

Keto Low Carb Taco Pie Recipe
It only takes a little bit of this pie to fill you up!

Keto Taco Pie

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Servings: 8

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 1 packet of keto compliant taco seasoning
  • 2 green onions, thinly sliced
  • ¼ cup sugar-free salsa
  • 1 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese, divided
  • 4 large eggs
  • ½ cup heavy cream
  • ½ tsp sea salt

Instructions:

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9” pie pan with coconut oil or grease with butter.
  • Heat a greased large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the ground beef, breaking up with a spoon or spatula. Stir occasionally until brown.
  • Sprinkle the taco seasoning over the ground beef.
  • Whisk together the eggs and heavy cream in a medium mixing bowl. Stir in the green onions, salsa, ¾ cup of the cheese, and salt.
  • Stir the prepared taco meat into the egg mixture. Pour into the pie pan. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.
  • Bake in the oven for 35-45 minutes or until the top of the pie is a nice golden brown colour. Cool for 5 minutes before serving.
  • You can add extra taco toppings such as sour cream, guacamole, or extra salsa and onions.

Nutrition Information:

Serving Size: 1/8th of pie

Calories: 258

Fat: 19g,
Carbs: 2g
Fiber: 1g
Protein: 18g
Net Carbs: 1g

https://www.livestrong.com/article/535414-does-fat-or-protein-make-you-full/

https://www.nature.com/articles/ejcn201390

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/ghrelin

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK53550/

Should you track your calories?
Low Carb Information

Do Calories Matter on a Keto Diet

Tiffiny
Should you track your calories?

Do calories Matter on a Keto Diet?

This is a debate that you hear quite a bit on the keto blogs. Some passionately declare that you do not have to count calories as long as you keep your carbs low and eat until you are satiated. Others count their calories meticulously, afraid that they will pack on the pounds while eating this new ration of higher fat meals.

Well, I am no doctor, but I can guess what most would say…it depends!

Here are some points to consider:

1.) Not eating enough calories can inhibit your metabolism.

One of the beautiful features of the keto diet is that your hunger goes away. This seems great on the surface. However, if you forget to eat (OMG YES! This really happens when you are on keto!!) and severely restrict your calories, your body can put itself into protective mode. Your body will start to think it is starving and your metabolism will slow down making weight loss difficult. Plus, in an effort to conserve energy, you may start losing hair as well.

People not eating enough calories is a criticism I hear often from doctors who are still concerned with the keto way of eating. If you finding yourself rarely eating but not losing weight, you may want to try taking a look at your calories.

Don’t get calorie restriction mixed with fasting. Fasting, when done correctly restricts calories for a short term but actually increases your metabolism. Dr Fung describes this best here.

2.) You can still gain weight on keto.

You need to limit your carbs, get a moderate amount of protein and have enough fat for your energy source. Some of this will come from your own fat stores, but some needs to come from dietary intake. 

Most people feel full when eating fat. Personally, I have no problem eating too much fat. When I do this, my body does not need to tap into my own stores and I do not gain weight, or I lose weight. So if you have this problem, you many need to count fat in addition to carbs…but not calories.

Check out this article from Virta Systems that explains the Top 5 Nutritional Ketosis Mistakes – And How to Fix Them to learn how to adjust your fat needs (and more!).

3.) It is the quality of the calories that matters and not the quantity. 

If you are counting calories so you can subtract the exact amount of exercise you did to make sure you are going to lose weight today, you may be wasting your time. The law of thermodynamics on keto does not work. Different foods have different metabolic and hormonal effects on the body. Glucose causes the release of insulin while fat does not. It is easier to gain weight eating glucose calories than it is fat calories. For a more detailed explanation on this, check out this article: 
https://hvmn.com/blog/keto-diet/do-calories-matter-on-a-keto-diet. 

My take on the situation:

You do need to use calories to calculate your macros (macronutrients protein, fat and carbohydrates). This is because you will have much better long term success losing weight slowly instead of quickly. Find your maintenance calorie intake and then decrease that by 20%. Use that to calculate your target macros. However, once you have the grams of macronutrients that you should consume every day…just track those and you shouldn’t have to worry about the calories. 

Some people say you don’t need to track your food at all at all as long as you keep your carbs below 20g per 24 hour period. Until you get used to listening to your body, until you understand what foods are high carbs and which ones are low carbs, and until you get into a routine where you are eating enough, but not too much, I think you should track your macros. Tracking calories is only required if you think you may be getting too few. 

My humble opinion. What do you think?