Anybody else on a keto diet?

[VladtheImpaler]

2nd day worse. Really weak today by the afternoon after similar exercise routine as yesterday. Brain fog definitely an issue. Need to get more cold cuts to snack on. Hopefully, can get the adaption over with quicker than 2 weeks.
P.S. Managed to reach 1700 calories today and kept it to 45g carbs, so pretty happy about that. Feeling a bit less stupid after dinner - egg, beef and cheese casserole. Had lots of nuts today.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by Nyah

Warning: Long winded, probably TMI post below but hey, may as well share my experience.

Here’s an update as I’m now just about a week in. I bought a couple different types of urine strips to test my ketone levels before I started the Keto diet on Monday last week. Oddly, both strips indicated that I had low levels of ketones in my urine (0.5-1.0 mmol/L) on the Sunday before I started. That day (last Sunday) had a bunch of wine, sandwiches and other things that were definitely not low carb, and technically I was already in ketosis. Very odd, but I chalked it up as a joke like “my body is already getting into the spirit!”.

The first day by noon (Monday), I was already at 1.5-4 mmol/L in my urine (again, testing with both strips), and by the end of the day on Wednesday (day 3) I was up around 9 mmol/L on both separate tests. At this point I started to do some research because I know that ketone levels that are too high can be dangerous and typically it takes the average person 2-4 days to get into ketosis. My husband at the same time was still showing no signs of ketones in his urine using the same test strips. I added some carbs back into my diet that day for dinner, 1 cup of rice which should have put me way over my daily carb limit but my ketones barely went down at all. On the Thursday I bumped my carbs up to about 30%, and again I sat at about 4 mmol/L. I've been off the keto diet since then and my levels are ranging between 4-8 mmol/L. Everything I’ve read said that if you go overboard on carbs, it’ll bump you out of ketosis. This is not the case for me. In fact, it seems like I need to incorporate carbs in order to keep my ketones between 1-4 mmol/L.

Some background: I’m a 37 year old woman, I’m not overweight at all, I just wanted to get into shape and feel better. A few years ago I went to the doctor for an unrelated issue and needed to give a urine sample. She noted that I had ketones in my urine then, thought it was odd, but as I wasn’t experiencing anything weird besides the issue at hand she packed it away into my file. I have an appointment booked for Tuesday to run some tests, but I’m under the impression that this isn’t the right idea for me.

Does anyone know if it’s normal to be in a state of ketosis as a norm? I’m wondering because I’ve generally struggled to gain weight my whole life. The biggest reason I wanted to try keto in the first place was to drop a few pounds and get better mental clarity (which I’ve read is really a thing). Overall, I felt sluggish and light headed the whole time.

TLDR: I guess Keto probably isn’t for everyone. I’m curious to see what my doctor thinks. I did lose 6lbs, but I didn’t sleep, could barely concentrate and overall felt like garbage the whole time

That being said, it’s working wonders for my husband. He loves it and is shedding weight like crazy. His energy level is high and he feel really good. Go figure.

A few friendly pointers from a past and present ketoer:
- Ketostix aren't a useful way to measure if you're in nutritional ketosis, blood ketones are. Ditch the 'stix and focus on carb control.
- With respect to dangerously high ketone levels: unless you're a diabetic or an alcoholic, you aren't going to hit ketoacidosis levels just from a ketogenic diet.
- You're a first-time ketoer and only a week in, which means you're in the thick of 'keto flu'. Keep with it, you should be fat adapted by week 2-3 and be feeling a lot better similar to your husband. This is often the hardest part, especially if you've never done it before. Also, people who have used ketosis in the past report having an easier time getting fat adapted again if/when they take a break.

It's tough to get started, but goddamn does it work a treat once you get into the groove.

[Canadianman]

Originally Posted by VladtheImpaler

2nd day worse. Really weak today by the afternoon after similar exercise routine as yesterday. Brain fog definitely an issue. Need to get more cold cuts to snack on. Hopefully, can get the adaption over with quicker than 2 weeks.
P.S. Managed to reach 1700 calories today and kept it to 45g carbs, so pretty happy about that. Feeling a bit less stupid after dinner - egg, beef and cheese casserole. Had lots of nuts today.

Get more electrolytes into you. that should fix the weakness and brain fog.

[TSXCman]

vega brand electrolytes are nice to slug back around lunch.



verrrrry hard to get enough magnesium and potassium, but that product helps.

[csnarpy]

Originally Posted by VladtheImpaler

2nd day worse. Really weak today by the afternoon after similar exercise routine as yesterday. Brain fog definitely an issue. Need to get more cold cuts to snack on. Hopefully, can get the adaption over with quicker than 2 weeks.
P.S. Managed to reach 1700 calories today and kept it to 45g carbs, so pretty happy about that. Feeling a bit less stupid after dinner - egg, beef and cheese casserole. Had lots of nuts today.

Originally Posted by Canadianman

Get more electrolytes into you. that should fix the weakness and brain fog.

Powerade Zero is perfect for this. You're definitely getting the ol' Keto flu. Cold cuts, fyi, not the greatest meat for Keto. that is, if your looking to go clean.

[VladtheImpaler]

Update a week into it, if anybody is interested.
Got over the keto flu/weakness/brain fog after a couple days - was basically fine by WED. Would not say I feel super-powered yet - I definitely had more energy for workouts before this. Morning workout is fine, but afternoon is sluggish to an extent.
I have settled into about 1,650-1,800 calories per day with about 40 g carbs and good proportion of fat and proteins. Drinking about 4 L of water per day.
Thanks to my wife's baking have had a chance to check out a bunch of recipes... The keto buns mentioned earlier in the thread are ok, and I can eat them with eggs or soup, but would never touch them otherwise. My wife basically dislikes them altogether. Tried a keto pizza recipe - crust from coconut flour, eggs, cream cheese and mozarella; we had pesto with ham and mushrooms on it. It is not bad, but I think putting more mozzarella on top is a mistake - I would use different cheeses on top (say, provolone, cheddar, parm) and more toppings in terms of quantity, plus some arugula for more contrast. All in all, a pretty decent substitute. The best thing my wife found was keto granola - coconut, butter, almonds, pumpkin seeds, pecans, salt, Swerve brown, and vanilla extract, baked into a granola sheet. Genuinely good, and you can crumble it into Greek yogurt for breakfast, and have it with sugarless Devonshire cream (just cream cheese and whipping cream, blended into a cream) for dessert - fantastic. Brie is also great. All in all, quite happy with the food so far - brussel sprouts have been meh, might go with bok choi and such this week...

[ken0042]

That’s great Vlad! You are doing better than I did to start off with. Took me about a month to get to that point.

I think you are on the right track. Follow some tips and find what works for you. No two people mare going to be the same.

[Wastedyouth]

Legit question and honesty appreciated.

Who has actually kept the weight off post Keto?

Who has kept it going long term? (I have read and believe that this is not healthy for anyone).

Beyond the fad-y-ness of the it, does anyone think the effort and pain actually worth it and does it promote healthy eating and habits with food?

In the end, people who have done it once or multiple times, have you kept the weight off or did you have to go back onto keto to get back down to whatever your goal is/was?

[Esoteric]

Originally Posted by Wastedyouth

Legit question and honesty appreciated.

Who has actually kept the weight off post Keto?

Who has kept it going long term? (I have read and believe that this is not healthy for anyone).

Beyond the fad-y-ness of the it, does anyone think the effort and pain actually worth it and does it promote healthy eating and habits with food?

In the end, people who have done it once or multiple times, have you kept the weight off or did you have to go back onto keto to get back down to whatever your goal is/was?

I've only used Keto to shed weight quickly (done it twice).
I'm not discouraging people from trying keto out, as it definitely worked for me, but I feel like there's a better way to lose weight, if you want to keep it off.

For me, Keto is not sustainable - there are too many foods with carbs in them that I like. I also believe that any sort of restrictive diet is not healthy to commit to for life, as it's quite likely that you're going to be missing out on vitamins/minerals.

Keto works for weight loss because you're normally going to be eating fewer calories than you were before starting it. At the end of the day, it's just calories in versus calories out. Keto also helps because of the fact you feel full longer, and don't have any high density sugary foods to boost your calorie counts. A short term keto diet causes mass weight loss due to water loss, but there's no benefit to such a diet in the long term, over any other sort of diet, eating the same number of calories (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19439458/)

My fiancee and I started this year with a goal to lose weight, and this time we decided to count calories and watch what we eat. While this way is easier to slip up and cheat on (with Keto, certain foods were simply not an option), the overall weight loss journey has been just as successful. Logging our food every day has given us insight into what we're eating that we really didn't consider before.

Understanding what you're eating, learning portion control, and coming up with healthy food choices is going to win out over doing a permanent Keto diet.

[Wastedyouth]

Originally Posted by Esoteric

I've only used Keto to shed weight quickly (done it twice).
I'm not discouraging people from trying keto out, as it definitely worked for me, but I feel like there's a better way to lose weight, if you want to keep it off.

For me, Keto is not sustainable - there are too many foods with carbs in them that I like. I also believe that any sort of restrictive diet is not healthy to commit to for life, as it's quite likely that you're going to be missing out on vitamins/minerals.

Keto works for weight loss because you're normally going to be eating fewer calories than you were before starting it. At the end of the day, it's just calories in versus calories out. Keto also helps because of the fact you feel full longer, and don't have any high density sugary foods to boost your calorie counts. A short term keto diet causes mass weight loss due to water loss, but there's no benefit to such a diet in the long term, over any other sort of diet, eating the same number of calories (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19439458/)

My fiancee and I started this year with a goal to lose weight, and this time we decided to count calories and watch what we eat. While this way is easier to slip up and cheat on (with Keto, certain foods were simply not an option), the overall weight loss journey has been just as successful. Logging our food every day has given us insight into what we're eating that we really didn't consider before.

Understanding what you're eating, learning portion control, and coming up with healthy food choices is going to win out over doing a permanent Keto diet.

For sure. I am a huge proponent of conscious eating and calorie tracking.

I started on Noom in Sept of 2019, I lost 65 pounds over 6 months.

I haven't gained a single pound since. I have also stopped tracking my food about 1 month ago (after tracking every day for over 18 months) and haven't gained or lost anymore weight.

Everyone I know who has tried Keto lost weight. But then packed it all back on and more after they stopped doing it.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by Wastedyouth

Legit question and honesty appreciated.

Who has actually kept the weight off post Keto?

Who has kept it going long term? (I have read and believe that this is not healthy for anyone).

Beyond the fad-y-ness of the it, does anyone think the effort and pain actually worth it and does it promote healthy eating and habits with food?

In the end, people who have done it once or multiple times, have you kept the weight off or did you have to go back onto keto to get back down to whatever your goal is/was?

Lost weight and kept it off? Me, only had to do it once to get where I wanted to be. I put on muscle weight once I lost my fat weight, I was as low as 150 lbs and now I'm holding at 168 - 170 lbs.

Kept it going long-term? I did for a couple years, but found even with /r/ketogains guidance, I really needed the extra carb load for some of my workouts, so I went off keto for a while. I'm back on right now to shred down a little before going back on mass building again.

Effort and pain worth it, does it promote healthy eating / habits? Certainly, although that depends on your approach. Understanding roughly how much energy in the form of calories you need day-to-day, what macronutrients are invovled in roughly what quantities, and being able to estimate how many calories you're taking in based on what you're eating is a huge leg up that most people don't have. It's the educational aspect that I found really helpful. Doing lazy keto won't have this benefit as you're flying blind, but using MFP or another calorie/carb tracker will.

For the purposes of energy in vs energy out, calories are calories, period. But how the individual macronutrients make you feel, that's where it changes for people. Eating 2,000 calories will make you feel full or satisfied in different ways based on the underlying macronutrients comprising the 2,000 calories.

Then again I've had a coworker who swore up and down that he tried everything and the only thing that worked was when I mentioned keto to him. That was a result of his insulin resistance and keto being a good way to combat that. I've never seen someone happier.

[Jay's Beagle]

I hunkered down and tired Keto for the month of February which ended up bleeding into March. For my wife and I, like others have said, we used diet doctor. It was a great tool to give us really tasty recipes which made it super easy to follow.

Our bigger issue is trying to go back to normal as we do love our carbs (pizza, pasta). For the most part I have kept off most of the weight, went up a few lbs. My wife has seen more of a bounce back in her weight. Now with that said we have gone HAM on carb foods come April which has not helped. We are planning on going Keto again.

[D as in David]

Originally Posted by Wastedyouth

Legit question and honesty appreciated.

Who has actually kept the weight off post Keto?

Who has kept it going long term? (I have read and believe that this is not healthy for anyone).

Beyond the fad-y-ness of the it, does anyone think the effort and pain actually worth it and does it promote healthy eating and habits with food?

In the end, people who have done it once or multiple times, have you kept the weight off or did you have to go back onto keto to get back down to whatever your goal is/was?

As I posted earlier, I did Keto about 2.5 years ago - I'm going to guess I stayed on it for 8 - 10 months. Went from 195lbs to 170 in pretty short order. As 170 was a little too low for me, I upped my calories so I could get to 175, which seems to be just about right on my just over 6 foot frame. The key win was that I lost the excess weight I carried around my waist. Went from 35" inches to 32 - 33.

Since I went off Keto, I've stuck to a low carb diet including IF. I don't track my macros anymore so I can't say how low my carbs are but if I notice some extra fat starting to accumulate around my waist I will lower my carbs for a few days to get my waist back to where I want it.

One of the big things that changed for me by going Keto is that it forced me into a whole diet - which is probably good for anybody regardless of whether you do Keto or not. Plus, I used to have a massive sweet tooth and I have that pretty much under control now. The other positive thing for me was that upping my fats effectively eliminated cravings which made IF very easy.

[D as in David]

Originally Posted by VladtheImpaler

Update a week into it, if anybody is interested.
Got over the keto flu/weakness/brain fog after a couple days - was basically fine by WED. Would not say I feel super-powered yet - I definitely had more energy for workouts before this. Morning workout is fine, but afternoon is sluggish to an extent.
I have settled into about 1,650-1,800 calories per day with about 40 g carbs and good proportion of fat and proteins. Drinking about 4 L of water per day.
Thanks to my wife's baking have had a chance to check out a bunch of recipes... The keto buns mentioned earlier in the thread are ok, and I can eat them with eggs or soup, but would never touch them otherwise. My wife basically dislikes them altogether. Tried a keto pizza recipe - crust from coconut flour, eggs, cream cheese and mozarella; we had pesto with ham and mushrooms on it. It is not bad, but I think putting more mozzarella on top is a mistake - I would use different cheeses on top (say, provolone, cheddar, parm) and more toppings in terms of quantity, plus some arugula for more contrast. All in all, a pretty decent substitute. The best thing my wife found was keto granola - coconut, butter, almonds, pumpkin seeds, pecans, salt, Swerve brown, and vanilla extract, baked into a granola sheet. Genuinely good, and you can crumble it into Greek yogurt for breakfast, and have it with sugarless Devonshire cream (just cream cheese and whipping cream, blended into a cream) for dessert - fantastic. Brie is also great. All in all, quite happy with the food so far - brussel sprouts have been meh, might go with bok choi and such this week...

Glad to see that you're getting some positive results. Just my $0.02 but is it possible that your caloric intake is too low? When I was counting macros when I first started Keto, I set my calories intake equal to what I burned, which was around 2,450 calories (according to my fitbit). I never felt any energy deficits and lost 25lbs in two months (my target).

I did find it a challenge to get my fats up high enough with that calorie target so I started having a Bulletproof coffee before my workouts in the morning. This massively increased my energy for my workouts.

Just a thought to consider.

[TSXCman]

Originally Posted by Wastedyouth

Legit question and honesty appreciated.

Who has actually kept the weight off post Keto?

Who has kept it going long term? (I have read and believe that this is not healthy for anyone).

Beyond the fad-y-ness of the it, does anyone think the effort and pain actually worth it and does it promote healthy eating and habits with food?

In the end, people who have done it once or multiple times, have you kept the weight off or did you have to go back onto keto to get back down to whatever your goal is/was?

I lost 40lbs in 4 months. gained 10 back after a couple months and maintained from their up until this christmas (many years later), due to stress, xmas foods, covid, etc. Now 20lbs over my lowest number, but I'm also almost 60 days in for boarding, golfing, biking, or lifting daily.



The education from keto will last a lifetime for maintaining. people need to eat more veg, not be afraid of fat, and stop crushing burgers, sandwiches, and pizza daily.



It seemed unbelievable pre-keto and I feel smarter and healthier post-keto.

[VladtheImpaler]

So... I am on my 4th week now. Lost 12 lbs, though that was not the goal, but I dont know that I am actually in proper ketosis... I am IF like before, and I have this suspicion that I lost weight just because I am naturally consuming less calories by cutting out pasta and bread. I dont feel like I have more energy. My carb/fat/protein balances have been good, though protein intake might actually be a bit high. Maybe i am just being pessimistic. I have been reading Mark Sissons and he says you need to do keto for 6 weeks and you dont really get into proper ketosis until after 3 weeks. We shall see i guess. My wife is bailing on me - she lost about 10 lbs and has no fat left. I think she is just not enjoying food. I cannot say i am thrilled by it either, though will try to persevere.
Incidentally, Sussons says that cooked white rice eaten cold (such as in sushi rolls) is actually keto friendly, as it is not processed like a carb - not digested in the stomach and converted to sugar, but goes into the colon and feeds the gut biome. Says the same applies to russet potatoes eaten cold. Before I dive into research, anyone look into this?

[Wastedyouth]

Originally Posted by VladtheImpaler

So... I am on my 4th week now. Lost 12 lbs, though that was not the goal, but I dont know that I am actually in proper ketosis... I am IF like before, and I have this suspicion that I lost weight just because I am naturally consuming less calories by cutting out pasta and bread. I dont feel like I have more energy. My carb/fat/protein balances have been good, though protein intake might actually be a bit high. Maybe i am just being pessimistic. I have been reading Mark Sissons and he says you need to do keto for 6 weeks and you dont really get into proper ketosis until after 3 weeks. We shall see i guess. My wife is bailing on me - she lost about 10 lbs and has no fat left. I think she is just not enjoying food. I cannot say i am thrilled by it either, though will try to persevere.
Incidentally, Sussons says that cooked white rice eaten cold (such as in sushi rolls) is actually keto friendly, as it is not processed like a carb - not digested in the stomach and converted to sugar, but goes into the colon and feeds the gut biome. Says the same applies to russet potatoes eaten cold. Before I dive into research, anyone look into this?

Lol

This sounds horrible. Why are you putting yourself through this?

[VladtheImpaler]

Originally Posted by Wastedyouth

Lol

This sounds horrible. Why are you putting yourself through this?

I still think it's good health-wise on a macro level. I will not stay on it long-term, but I think it's pretty good clean-out once in a while. Had a great quiche for lunch today, so feel sunnier.

[TSXCman]

Originally Posted by VladtheImpaler

So... I am on my 4th week now. Lost 12 lbs, though that was not the goal, but I dont know that I am actually in proper ketosis... I am IF like before, and I have this suspicion that I lost weight just because I am naturally consuming less calories by cutting out pasta and bread. I dont feel like I have more energy. My carb/fat/protein balances have been good, though protein intake might actually be a bit high. Maybe i am just being pessimistic. I have been reading Mark Sissons and he says you need to do keto for 6 weeks and you dont really get into proper ketosis until after 3 weeks. We shall see i guess. My wife is bailing on me - she lost about 10 lbs and has no fat left. I think she is just not enjoying food. I cannot say i am thrilled by it either, though will try to persevere.
Incidentally, Sussons says that cooked white rice eaten cold (such as in sushi rolls) is actually keto friendly, as it is not processed like a carb - not digested in the stomach and converted to sugar, but goes into the colon and feeds the gut biome. Says the same applies to russet potatoes eaten cold. Before I dive into research, anyone look into this?

My recommendation would be stick to your plan and use your tools:


- use a calculator for your calorie intake. my goal was 1700/day
- use an app to track the calories

- use an app for your macro break down and stick to you distribution
- get ketone pee test strips. they aren't crazy accurate, but I used them accurately as an in or our of ketosis indicator

- eat awesome foods. I was eating like a king! so much good meats and veg with all the best fats and salts on them to flavor them up
- have some vodka/gin/tequila with lime/bitters and soda for rec drinking

[Canadianman]

Originally Posted by VladtheImpaler

...
Incidentally, Sussons says that cooked white rice eaten cold (such as in sushi rolls) is actually keto friendly, as it is not processed like a carb - not digested in the stomach and converted to sugar, but goes into the colon and feeds the gut biome. Says the same applies to russet potatoes eaten cold. Before I dive into research, anyone look into this?

I have no idea who Sussons is, but whoever they are, they are an idiot.


Food doesn't change how it is processed based on its temperature when you put it in your mouth. If at any time you thought this might be true, then you are also an idiot.