First 2 Months

Keto is more about hormonal regulation than caloric restriction.

Calories In Calories Out is great but it's elementary way of explaining it.

There's a lot more going on in your body. Ignoring all the other factors could be detrimental.

Optimally on paper, you should be working toward 20g carbs total, 90g protein total, and fat to satiety.

Will that work for you? Only you can decide. For the first month, I couldn't do under 50g total carbs for an extended time. I also tried to caloric restrict. I was hungry. I had cravings because I wasn't satiated. I ate carbs for quick energy.

It happens. No shame, just learn from it and try again.

Month 2 I started trusting the science. It was sound science, but I had a ton of dogmatic believes I also thought true. It took me a month to start breaking through them.

Needing carbs, calorie restricting, not eating at certain times. These and more were hard grained in me. They weren't easy to disrupt but eventually I got there.

Now month 3, there are days I water/electrolyte fast the entire day for no other reason than because I can discern what my body needs. My body learned to use my fat as fuel. I'm not hungry. I don't eat. I tease some of my carb fueled friends about it.

It basically comes down to this.

When your body becomes good at burning fat for energy, you start burning fat for energy all the time.

Then, you stop getting hungry and eating become optional. Your body burns instead the internal fat stores for energy.

You eat less because you aren’t hungry and you lose weight.