Introduction To The Strict LCHF Diet

The Strict LCHF diet is preferable if you must loose weight. My lifestyle is more liberal, and a lot of my recipes allows carbs to exceed 20 grammes a day, which is the maximum if you are on the Strict LCHF.  If your family all are following the LCHF lifestyle, one of you can have the Strict version while others follow a more liberal diet.
Basic meals can be composed as Strict LCHF, and you simply add sides and dips for those who are not counting carbs. When you start the Strict LCHF diet, you should expect two weeks for your body to adapt to the new fuel.

The Strict LCHF main purpose is to bring your body into ketosis. A  body in ketosis has an extremely high fat-burning rate. To achieve this the amount of insulin in the bloodstream must be low. The lower your insulin, the higher your ketone production.
Obtaining a well-controlled and sufficiently large amount of ketones in the blood is a proof of a low level of insulin.
You are enjoying the maximum effect of your low-carbohydrate diet. This is the optimal ketosis, and your blood sugar will be stable in-between your two-three meals a day. No snacks.
Ensure your fat intake is 75% of your meals and be aware that your protein intake will not be too large. Keep your protein intake moderate such as maximum a 120 grammes meat a day. A high intake of protein will lower the effect of  your ketosis.

In fact you are teaching your body to eat its own fat. At the same time, the ketone production often has the side effect as being appetite suppressant. Anyway, I recommend the more liberal LCHF lifestyle on the long run, as diets generally are not my cup of tea, and because many people react to this as to any other diet; after a period they fall back and start eating the wrong thing and feel bad about it. This is about changing lifestyle.

What is a Strict LCHF diet?

If you decide to loose weight or if you have specific chronic disorders, I recommend that you contact your doctor before starting a diet respectively gather more information about the LCHF diet.
On a Strict LCHF diet you ought to measure your level of ketones, which you can do at home. Blood ketones are best measured in the morning before you have your breakfast. The way to measure this is one needle prick typically at your finger tip, and in a few seconds you can see your blood ketone level using the right test strips. This is how to interpret the result (source www.dietdoctor.com)

• Below 0.5 mmol/L is not considered as ketosis. You are unfortunately far away from maximum fat-burning
• Between 0.5-1.5 mmol/L is light nutritional ketosis. You might get a good effect on your weight though not optimal
• Around 1.5 – 3 mmol/L is the optimal ketosis recommended for maximum weight loss
• Values above 3 mmol/L are not interesting as you will achieve the best results at the 1.5-3 level

Basic rule no 1: Do not have more than 20 g of carbohydrates a day.
Basic rule no 2: Be aware that you get the right fat, avoid fat free products and sunflower oil.
Basic rule no 3: Be suspicious of sugar intake, that is hidden sugar, and sugar in fruit, and processed foods and drinks.

Breakfast
Have an omelette of two eggs, butter and fat cheese either fried together with the eggs or served on the side. Have a coco-butter coffee and a little vegetables such as mushrooms, spinach, cucumber.

Lunch
A big portion of salad with a piece of meat or fish, which likely could be leftovers. Maximum 80 g meat/fish. The most important thing here will be the fat. Have a good mayonnaise or olive oil with you salad or put coconut oil in you coffee. Do not feel embarrassed about the amount of fat. This is your new fuel!

Dinner
Meat or fish like 120 g with vegetables on the side. Again, the most important thing here is – except from the lack of carbs – the amount of fat, so have a lot of oil, mayonnaise, butter, sauce or dips made of healthy fat.

If you however should feel hungry during the day, have spoonful of coconut oil, a piece of hard, fat cheese or the coco-butter coffee. For further information, please find detailed examples of dishes in my list of recipes.