Keto made easy

How to 'Eat Fat to Satiety' in Month One

Quick answer: "Eat fat to satiety" means that in your first month, after you've kept carbs low and eaten your protein, you eat enough fat to stop being hungry, without counting it. It's a temporary setting for the adaptation weeks, when your body has lost its easy carb fuel but isn't yet good at running on fat. Once hunger settles, usually somewhere past week five, fat stops being a tool for hunger and becomes the macro you trim.

In this article

Why month one is different

When you first cut carbs, your glucose and stored glycogen run down. Your body hasn't yet built up its ability to use fat and ketones well, and insulin takes weeks to come down. KetoDick says that combination leaves you feeling "legitimately flat" and still hungry (from the video 7Aixw4uRksI).

That's why he treats month one as a learning and adaptation period, not a weight-loss period. You're learning labels, recipes, oils and sweeteners, not trying to push "some oppressive painful hunger inducing diet" on yourself in the first thirty days (from the video 7Aixw4uRksI). Fat is what makes the adaptation bearable. More in month one.

Step by step: eating fat to satiety

  1. Keep carbs low. That's the one thing that makes the diet keto. KetoDick's 2018 simple rule is under 50 g of total carbs a day, mostly from green vegetables (video UygKGoP_BtA).
  2. Eat your protein first. Protein is the first goal, he says, then limit carbs, then fat if you're still hungry (video 7Aixw4uRksI). His rough targets are about 80 g a day for women and 100 g for men (video UygKGoP_BtA).
  3. Set your tracking app to maintain, not lose. His most common beginner fix: set MyFitnessPal to maintain weight, and in month one count only carbs (video DoSUgIr2rNo). A "lose 2 lb a week" setting builds in a big calorie restriction from day one. See MyFitnessPal for keto.
  4. Choose fattier versions of what you already eat. Swap lean chicken breast and lean ground beef for thighs, chuck roast and fattier ground beef, and cook vegetables in butter (video DoSUgIr2rNo). This is how you get fat with food, not from a spoon.
  5. Add fat at meals, not between them. A sauce, butter on vegetables, olive oil on a salad, the skin on the chicken. If a meal leaves you hungry an hour later, add a little more fat to that meal next time.
  6. If you're hungry between meals, eat. Protein or a fatty whole food. He's clear: in month one, if you're hungry, eat fat, "eat lots of fat" (from the video 7Aixw4uRksI).
  7. Ignore the scale and calories for the first couple of weeks. He says to ignore both for at least the first two weeks (video DoSUgIr2rNo). Early loss is mostly water anyway.
  8. Watch your hunger, not your fat number. No fat target to hit. The test is whether you're hungry.

What satiety actually feels like

Satiety isn't "stuffed." It's the point where you could stop eating and wouldn't be thinking about food for a few hours.

A useful check from KetoDick's own experience: about a month in, he described not feeling really hungry in the morning or at night, with cravings that felt psychological (potato chips) rather than physical (video 9Hk0jRb_9Es). Learning to tell those two apart is part of the month-one homework.

He also sets a simple test: "if you willpower your way through keto you're probably doing it wrong" (from the video DoSUgIr2rNo). In month one, white-knuckling hunger is a sign to eat more, not a sign of discipline.

When to turn the setting down

"Eat fat to satiety" is a phase, not the plan forever. KetoDick's three-phase picture is fat high to adapt, lower to lose, and higher again to maintain (video NUJNFG6lLWw).

Signs you're moving out of month one:

At that point, if weight loss is slow, his suggestion is to cut about 20–30 g of fat a day, roughly 180–270 calories, and keep protein where it is (video NUJNFG6lLWw). The calories you stop eating should come from fat (video 8Jk5ShSUpFY). Details in should you eat less fat on keto?

If you're still hungry past week six, he says to look for hidden sugars, hidden triggers and psychological factors before reaching for more fat (video 7Aixw4uRksI). See always hungry on keto.

What the research says

There isn't a trial of "eat fat to satiety" as an instruction. The evidence that applies is about fullness and early weight loss:

So the literature fits the shape of his advice: eating to fullness on low carb can produce a deficit early on, and protein carries more of the fullness than fat does. Where it's thinner is on fat specifically; the studies here don't test fat as the satiety tool.

KetoDick's take

His month-one line, from the hunger video: "hit your protein targets keep the carbs restricted but eat the fats that you need so that you don't feel hungry" (from the video 7Aixw4uRksI). He says cutting fat or calories in month one is "kind of cruel" because people will just feel fatigued (from the video NUJNFG6lLWw).

He also flags the other side. If you later choose to accept some hunger to speed things up, do it healthily and involve your doctor, because in the race for results on social media, some people "flirt with anorexia" (from the video 7Aixw4uRksI). If you have a history of disordered eating, read eating disorders and keto and talk with your doctor before starting. If you take diabetes medication, tell your doctor before you cut carbs, since doses may need to change; see medications.

Key takeaways