# Do you drink olive oil?



## Lurch (Jan 5, 2014)

Hi,

Wondering what others on a low carb diet do to get the extra (good) fat needed? Sorry to seem a wimp, but is spooning down extra virgin olive oil a good idea?   And if so how much is sensible? 

Never drunk oil before now but have just started soaking it into Dark Rye Ryvita cripsbread with a coating of soft cheese to lessen the weirdness.  Edible enough but contrary to a life-time's indoctrination about fat.

My meter tests keep me to an average 70g CHO a day.  According to Jenny Ruhl's calculator, while still losing weight I therefore need at least 66g fat a day and when I eventually need to maintain weight, fat will need to be 150g+  to balance the 70g CHO.

I count all nutrient intake and during this ongoing weight loss stage, which is going well, I struggle to get up to 50g fat a day without either overdoing cals or protein.  Walnuts etc work but also increase protein and carbs so I need to spare the nuts.

I have no idea what I'll do when I need 150g or more fat a day!

10ml of my EVOO brand claims 9g fat and 82 cals, so I calculate I need 30ml daily now (can't pour that much on rye bread).

Lurch


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## Redkite (Jan 5, 2014)

Not a dilemma I've ever been faced with!  But my thoughts are that it shouldn't be hard to eat sufficient fats and oils without having to resort to drinking olive oil!  Make salad dressings with it, toss pasta in it, use Bertolli olive spread instead of butter, etc etc.  Eat fresh olives.  Don't forget you will be eating plenty of fat in dairy stuff, oily fish and meat.  If you go to extremes, you'll sap all the pleasure out of eating and make it a nothing but a chore!


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## Bloden (Jan 5, 2014)

A nice Spanish breakfast is toasted French stick, with a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, and then they rub half a tomato across the bread. It's lush. Make sure it's a good quality oil, cos they taste better than the bog standard cooking olive oils. I'm hungry now!


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## AlisonM (Jan 5, 2014)

I don't drink it but do use a good deal of it in cooking and in dressings on salads.


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## Lurch (Jan 5, 2014)

Thanks for responses.  Don't really fancy having spoonfuls of olive oil either.  Mind you, googling tells me that a tbspn of EVOO a day is a cure for everything except maybe rust...

I'm no cook so since DX I've discovered a whole new culinary world... tonight had scallions, young cabbage (I think), and other veg all steamed then pan-stirred in hot, not smoking, olive oil added with crumbled crispy bacon.  Had to watch the portions but couldn't believe I cooked something that tasty.   

+1 hr reading was 6.1.  

Volek and Phinney's "Art & Science of Low Carb Living" mentions clinical studies that included 5 tbspns of olive oil a day in a 12-1500 cal diet.  No need to drink it either. 

Lots to learn still.


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## cherrypie (Jan 5, 2014)

Warm the olive oil and mix with lemon juice.  It is lovely on fish.


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## Bloden (Jan 6, 2014)

Stop it! Just had lunch and you're making me hungry!


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## HOBIE (Jan 8, 2014)

Hi Lurch i was olive picking in Cyprus a few year ago & learnt what the locals do after a pick. They take them to the spinning factory, pips & skin go one way & oil another.  THEN they have lightly done toast,lemon,oil & salt.         I have it regular for brecky


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## Pattidevans (Jan 11, 2014)

Lurch is T2, so may not be able to consume large amounts of bread.  Also what is wrong with butter?  It's a natural and nutritious food.


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## Lurch (Jan 11, 2014)

Bread?  Never touch the evil wheat now except for Ryvita dark rye crackers and a few small portions of Bran flakes a week.

In OP I was struggling to reach 50g of fat.  Turned out I'd under-calculated my calorie needs: I need 100g of fat at present.   Tweaked more walnuts, blue cheese and some honest to goodness butter (haven't had that in years), but mainly have acquired a taste for extra virgin olive oil on everything.   If my calorie-calcs are right, if/when I reach maintenance goal, my fat intake will double again to stay down at ketosis ... on other hand I've read that actual calorie intake to maintain weight loss can be far less than the theoretical figure (per Dr. Robert Baron, Professor of Medicine, Univ of California) so maybe I won't have to pour down a pint of EVOO.

Lurch


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## LeeLee (Jan 11, 2014)

I must admit this thread has me somewhat puzzled.  I haven't added more than the tiniest smidgen of fat/oil to anything since I started losing weight (except for the occasional lapse).  My health has only improved.


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## Lurch (Jan 11, 2014)

Hi LeeLee. Fat intake is proportionately big for me as I'm on a low carb ketogenic diet.  

Eg. Carbs give me around 280 kcals a day.  Protein gives under 300 kcals.  The rest must come from healthy fats (or booze).  I found the best folk to explain this high fat/low carb malarky are Volek and Phinney in their Art and Science of Low Carb Living.

Their website also has info and videos:

http://www.artandscienceoflowcarb.com/


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## HOBIE (Jan 12, 2014)

Pattidevans said:


> Lurch is T2, so may not be able to consume large amounts of bread.  Also what is wrong with butter?  It's a natural and nutritious food.



Its the TASTE of olive oil thats good you should try it. The better the oil & bread the better. & who said you have to have a lot of bread before you go to work


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