There was talk about starting this up in another thread. My wife has been recommended to go Keto by her doctor, so obviously that means I am going Keto. We have a week to make the transition. Ketogenes, teach me.
I’ve been doing it about two years. I did not experience “keto flu” but I supplemented sodium, potassium, and magnesium to counteract the constant peeing that eventaly went back to normal. I think I dropped 13 pounds the first week. I’ve lost and kept off around 50 total for almost the two full years. It’s just “the way I eat” now, I don’t consider it a temporary diet. The only time I’ve “cheated” on the diet was when i was in the hospital after surgery last month with surgery related ischemic bowels (unrelated to keto, just bad luck after laparoscopic surgery). Don’t overthink it, and in my case, when in doubt I go full carnivore. Sometimes it’s hard to tell how things are prepared around the holidays so I just snack on ham or turkey. The upside is I feel better and think clearer than i did when i was half my age. I’ve noticed enough of a difference I don’t really even feel tempted to cheat.
Made it 9 months before falling off the Keto wagon. Did these meals and snacks. https://www.ibreatheimhungry.com/week-one-ketolow-carb-7-day-meal-plan-progress/
My dad is diabetic and uses a ketogenic diet to control it. It’s been remarkable. He doesn’t take any medication or insulin and his blood tests consistently fall below “pre-diabetes” now.
Just thought of the most important bit: I get my lipid panel done annually and before eating ketogenic my numbers were always in the pre-danger yellow section on cholesterol. Triglycerides etc were never bad but hdl and ldl were typically in the “let’s talk about statins at your next visit” zone. Now I’m comfortably in the normal range eating eggs, butter, red meat, and cheese.
Simply put, keep your carb intake under 20 g a day. Save money and don’t buy pee sticks or meters. Just get your calories from protein and fat (get more from fat than protein). If you’re really interested pick up a copy of “Why We Get Fat” by Gary Taubes or just listen to his episode on Joe Rogan if you do podcasts. Granted, he’s biased and a zealot but it works for many so try it out if you’re interested.
I bought them and don’t use them. Here’s my daily routine. Breakfast: melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a skillet and scramble 4 eggs. Cook 2 sausage patties. Consume with 2 cups of black coffee. MCT or coconut oil is optional but it runs right through me. Lunch: bone in chicken wings (there’s no breading on bone in typically and that’s what you want to avoid), a triple patty bacon cheeseburger from 5 guys with no bun, or a steak. Add green leafy vegetable salad if desired with a full fat dressing. Dinner: see lunch. My lifts and cardio at 50 pounds lost did not suffer at all. I still can’t lift now due to medical issues, but for over a year after the weight loss i was expecting a wall. Gluconeogenisis is covered in a lot of literature, but basically you body can replenish glycogen in muscle by converting protein to “sugar.”
I was reading some article the other day that I can’t seem to find now that was downplaying the role dietary cholesterol have in terms of your actual serum cholesterol. So this makes a lot of sense based off of that.
On keto AMA Edit: I do OMAD (one meal a day) usually around 11pm and get about 1100 calories in that time. 17 lbs lost in 2 weeks. Mostly water though. Done this a lot. It works though
No bread, limited carbs, no sugar...All protein. My dad did it when I was younger and lost a bunch of weight but as soon as he quit it came rushing back.
Neither is being extremely overweight. Like I said, it’s a lot of water weight though. You have to drink a ton of water on keto
Nope. Just a night owl. I go to bed around 5am most mornings. It sucks, but I’m never hungry throughout the day.
I get tons of info from reddit. Here’s a start to anyone who wants more information https://www.reddit.com/r/keto/wiki/keto_in_a_nutshell?st=JOXVXHYU&sh=7f195b91
Spoiler That is correct. This sounds like a sales pitch, but Taubes also has a longer book called “Good Calories,Bad Calories” where he explains why we use HDL and LDL as a proxy for heart health (it has to do with a bribe...to the same doctor at Harvard who took another bribe from cigarette companies to say cigarettes were safe). It also has to do with researchers inability at the time to actually look at VLDL. VLDL is a much better proxy for heart health, but the researcher who discovered it only knew how to do advanced centrifuge techniques because of previous work in the nuclear race. The other doctors he included in the second round couldn’t isolate VLDL so they mistakenly and lazily went with the HDL and LDL hypothesis. The final piece of information is Ancel Keys published a study that has been cited by basically every nutritional paper published since where he points at dietary fat as the culprit to heart disease. The problem with his “Seven Nation Study” is it started out as 22 nations. He cherry picked and forged data along with his bribes so he could be first to publish. Subsequently, we’ve phased fat out of our diets in favor of low fat foods that usually add sugar back to add flavor (check the sugar content of fat free dressing). Mix that with the added baggage high fructose corn syrup brings to your liver that other more expensive sugars don’t have and the obesity epidemic starts making perfect sense. Tangentially, understanding metabolism on a biological levels can help people understand why the calories in = calories out is not a sustainable model. There is an accumulation term for body fat that is accelerated by insulin spikes. Essentially your body can store calories derived from simple carbohydrates faster than you can burn them at times. This leaves you feeling hungry and/or without energy shortly after eating.
It’s perfectly fine. Once your are burning ketones for energy instead of sugar your body burns its body fat much more readily for energy. Dom D’Agostino is a keto researcher out of USF and he studies SEAL team guys etc and their performance in and out of ketosis. He even personally did 500 lb deadlifts for reps on day 7 of a fast. I do a 16/8 fast once or twice a week at a minimum. Once you’re in ketosis, you eat to fuel your body instead of feeding a sugar craving. At least that was my experience. Also, going out to eat at dinner is no longer the main event to me. I want to eat so i can go live life and do other interesting things.
i started on friday and have had the flu symptoms bad. yesterday was okay but today i was sleeping a lot and felt like shit. i know the benefits will be worth it so i’m not getting discouraged or anything been eating burger patties smothered in cheese and avocado, scrambled eggs with cream, cheese and bacon, smoothies with almond butter, kale, yogurt. basically stuff i already like to eat
There’s plenty of literature on both sides of the ketogenic diet debate. If it works for you, and you’re working with your physician to monitor your bloodwork, who’s to tell you not to keep at it? My gut tells me that the success rate is tied to the fact that it’s actually a meal plan that is simple and still includes an abundance of high-reward foods (red meat, fats, more meats, cheese, etc.) Any plan that restricts food intake in any capacity (causing you to be more conscious about food) will yield positive results. Just sticking with something is way more important, so if it’s cutting out carbs and it’s working, why not.
It’s worked well for me. I fell off the wagon this weekend which sucks because I did get the “keto flu” when I started. It really sucked but think I can avoid it better this time with plenty of broth some some supplements. The key for me is that includes plenty of things I like to eat anyway and my sugar cravings completely died after about a week.
I occasionally wish throw in a few weeks of Keto as part of my intermittent fasting that I have done for years. I have eaten only one or two meals per day for several years now and love it. Within the last 8 months I’ve almost entirely switched to one meal per day. Occasionally within that sphere I’ll do a more Keto 1-3 weeks. Honestly feel somewhat better on it but it’s too restrictive of a diet to me when my fasting allows me to do whatever I wish really. That said I know it’s easier for a lot of people to change what they eat instead of when so anyone thinking about going Keto should try it for 3-4 weeks and see how you feel. If it’s too hard to avoid carbs (keeps it under 20g for Keto) try to ease into fasting.
This was my go-to site for recipes -- does a good job of categorizing everything while also breaking down the nutrition facts (devine it also has a good informational section) https://www.ruled.me/ I still eat these snacks even though I am off the diet:
This is a huge thing. People get caught up in the strips and all the bullshit products. Just keep it simple and don't worry about making "keto " desserts . Those cravings will go away
I fast and mix in a lot of keto/carnivorous meals during the week. Love the feeling of no crash after a keto type meal.
the pee strips are like $7 for 100, i didn’t think that was ridiculous. helps to see where you’re at and make adjustments if necessary
Fyi, you can do keto and lose a bunch of weight even eating fast food. I did it last year at a time when I was super busy and lost 30 pounds eating chicken tenders from zaxbys and burgers from McDonald's without the bun. Ideally you meal prep but in a pinch you can manage.