My family and I enjoyed some “moist brisket” from Rudy’s Country Store and Barbecue this evening.  This is one of my favorite meals.  I ordered up 2 lbs knowing that I’d have some to save for later this week.  How do you calculate up the ketotic nutritional values for this meal?  Easy.

Nutritional values can often be found on the menu or on the web (you might have to ask for it).  Rudy’s Country Store kindly places their nutritional information on the web and you can locate it here.

Now, the image above is 2 lbs of moist brisket (with extra bark) and nutritional values are calculated per 1/2 lbs. serving size as noted below.  (No, I did not eat this whole thing.)  I saved 3/4’s of it for another meal sometime in the next few days.

The Nutritional facts above can be somewhat misleading if you add up the grams of protein, fat and carbohydrate you end up with 93 grams total (the misleading part is that 93 grams does not equal 1/2 lbs.  The assumption is that the values are “pre-cooked”).   But what I am looking for is the ratio of fat per serving.  One serving size has 50 grams of fat and 41 grams of protein.  54% of this brisket is from fat.  If you eat the entire 1/2 lbs you’ll go over you protein needs for that meal (assuming that I need only 30-35 grams of protein per meal – 3 meals a day).  I only at about 1/3rd lbs. (totally stuffed afterwards) and so 54% of my meal was fat (keeps me in ketosis) and 1/3 lb of the brisket has about 27 grams protein.

Did I calculate all this up before I ate.  Absolutely not.  I just ate and amazingly, I got full somewhere between 1/4 lb and 1/3 lbs.  The key is listen to your body.  It will tell you when you are full (unless you are cheating and eating carbs with it, then all bets are off and the satiety signal is delayed).

By the way, it was delicious.