Ketogenic Way of eating... (6 Viewers)

[BGinGA]

I've been intermittently on and off a low-carb/no-sugar diet for years. A lot of it is how you combine foodstuffs for consumption. It works like a charm every time I get fed up with the extra weight I'm carrying around, but giving up bread, rice, and (especially) pasta can be tough at first. Not easy when one is a chocoholic, either, but there are low-sugar ways around that mental roadblock. I quit drinking soda decades ago, haven't used sugar in cooking or coffee for years, and my go-to drink these days is water, by choice.

I'm about to make the plunge again -- plan is to drop 30-35 pounds (15%), which is a lot easier and faster -- and actually a lot less painful -- than it sounds.

 

[Tommy]

I'm about to make the plunge again -- plan is to drop 30-35 pounds (15%), which is a lot easier and faster -- and actually a lot less painful -- than it sounds.

When should I ship those M&Ms to you?

 

[CraigT78]

Congrats on the weight loss. I've not tried Keto as I wanted something I could maintain for life - and who am I fooling? Give up (good) beer? Not a fucking chance. I instead am on Weight Watchers - can eat anything I want within my point range and don't have to 'give up' anything. The weight loss is less dramatic - I've only lost 54 pounds in 6 months (since August of 2018) but have managed to change to a lifestyle I can keep up with for many years when I make my goal weight (50 more lbs). Best part is I didn't have to give anything up. I still drink craft beer, almost daily - and can have my hot dog with a bun. Keto isn't for me, but I applaud anyone who can keep up with it after the weight loss! Keep it up!

Edit to add that I have lost ALL the weight on diet alone. I had foot surgery in october and was on crutches for 13 weeks - no working out here (yet)

 

[BGinGA]

When should I ship those M&Ms to you?

Evil MF-er.

I actually quit smoking four weeks ago, so a lot of food cravings have been drastically changing lately (including a lot fewer sweets).... and surprisingly, I haven't been replacing cigs with excessive food consumption, either.

I figure if I quit drinking, quit smoking, quit eating sweets, and get healthier than I have been in years, I'll probably get hit by a bus.

 

[CraigT78]

I actually quit smoking four weeks ago

GOOD FOR YOU!! Keep it up!

 

[Sparty]

Oh, and my Girlfriend claims that I stop snoring when I get under the 177 mark.

 

[Señor Tony]

I'm with CraigT78 on this one (well not the WW part). Well done by the way, slow and consistent weight loss is hard as fuck!

My observations from friends, family and colleagues is that keto is no difference to any other crash diet. If you stick to it you will lose weight fast. Those in my circles who have the most to lose and have the worst diets to begin with seem to have the most rapid success.

Bacon, eggs, cheese, meat, seafood, avocado, cottage cheese, butter, cream ... being able to eat these foods in bulk maybe factors into the success rate for larger people who find these types of food satisfying?

Want to use keto as a tool to lose weight fast? Seems to work.
Want to use keto to maintain a healthy weight over the long term? Seems like this is the hard part (like most crash diets).

 

[DoubleEagle]

Evil MF-er.

I actually quit smoking four weeks ago, so a lot of food cravings have been drastically changing lately (including a lot fewer sweets).... and surprisingly, I haven't been replacing cigs with excessive food consumption, either.

I figure if I quit drinking, quit smoking, quit eating sweets, and get healthier than I have been in years, I'll probably get hit by a bus.

Congrats on quitting smoking. One of the best decisions you will ever make.

 

[Schmendr1ck]

I've been intermittently on and off a low-carb/no-sugar diet for years. A lot of it is how you combine foodstuffs for consumption. It works like a charm every time I get fed up with the extra weight I'm carrying around, but giving up bread, rice, and (especially) pasta can be tough at first. Not easy when one is a chocoholic, either, but there are low-sugar ways around that mental roadblock. I quit drinking soda decades ago, haven't used sugar in cooking or coffee for years, and my go-to drink these days is water, by choice.

I'm about to make the plunge again -- plan is to drop 30-35 pounds (15%), which is a lot easier and faster -- and actually a lot less painful -- than it sounds.

I eat chocolate on keto all the time. Get a good quality bar in the 80%+ range. The carbs are reasonably low, and you only need a little bit to satisfy.

There are also lots of chocolaty keto-friendly baked goods made with cocoa and almond or coconut flours.

 

[BGinGA]

I eat chocolate on keto all the time. Get a good quality bar in the 80%+ range. The carbs are reasonably low, and you only need a little bit to satisfy.

There are also lots of chocolaty keto-friendly baked goods made with cocoa and almond or coconut flours.

I also like your idea of a monthly cheat day. Although if also using probiotics, that can really screw up the digestive system plan.

 

[Schmendr1ck]

Congrats on the weight loss. I've not tried Keto as I wanted something I could maintain for life - and who am I fooling? Give up (good) beer? Not a fucking chance. I instead am on Weight Watchers - can eat anything I want within my point range and don't have to 'give up' anything. The weight loss is less dramatic - I've only lost 54 pounds in 6 months (since August of 2018) but have managed to change to a lifestyle I can keep up with for many years when I make my goal weight (50 more lbs). Best part is I didn't have to give anything up. I still drink craft beer, almost daily - and can have my hot dog with a bun. Keto isn't for me, but I applaud anyone who can keep up with it after the weight loss! Keep it up!

Edit to add that I have lost ALL the weight on diet alone. I had foot surgery in october and was on crutches for 13 weeks - no working out here (yet)

I did WW a long time ago, and it worked for a while, but for me was less sustainable then keto. Yeah, I have to limit my beer intake, but I should be doing that anyway. The beers I love are thick with empty calories.

Keto is one of many tools that can help you control calories. For me, meat, cheese, eggs and other high-fat foods are extremely satiating, so it's easier for me to hit my daily calorie target. However, carb restriction doesn't work for everyone.

 

[Schmendr1ck]

I'm with CraigT78 on this one (well not the WW part). Well done by the way, slow and consistent weight loss is hard as fuck!

My observations from friends, family and colleagues is that keto is no difference to any other crash diet. If you stick to it you will lose weight fast. Those in my circles who have the most to lose and have the worst diets to begin with seem to have the most rapid success.

Bacon, eggs, cheese, meat, seafood, avocado, cottage cheese, butter, cream ... being able to eat these foods in bulk maybe factors into the success rate for larger people who find these types of food satisfying?

Want to use keto as a tool to lose weight fast? Seems to work.
Want to use keto to maintain a healthy weight over the long term? Seems like this is the hard part (like most crash diets).

Most of us who are overweight got there because we have a problem with maintaining a healthy long term diet. There's always a high level of recidivism regardless of the diet you're eating. I'm painfully aware of that fact.

I know it's a sample size of one, but my flavor of keto with cheat days is by far the most sustainable "diet" I've ever tried, and I've tried a few. Sure, I fell off the wagon for a while, but before that I was eating keto for over three years and was extremely happy with it.

That said, keto isn't for everyone, and some people will have better long term success with other ways of eating. The key is to find what works for you and stick to it.

 

[Schmendr1ck]

I also like your idea of a monthly cheat day. Although if also using probiotics, that can really screw up the digestive system plan.

I don't take probiotics, but I've noticed that if I cheat too hard, it can definitely have unwanted digestive effects...

And for the record, my first planned cheat since restarting keto is SQM.

 

[trigs]

I've been on this diet before. It's great and not as difficult as some may think (although buying food from restaurants is hard because everything has carbs or sugar added). I easily lost about 40lbs without exercise and still drinking alcohol on the weekends. I know a lot of people who have been successful on this diet.

 

[James McGill]

I'm sure everyone has heard about the Keto diet. But would you ever try it? Cut out sugary sweets, potatoes, corn, pop, pop tarts, cakes, cookies, on and on. Then try to maintain a diet that is low carb (less than 20-25 grams of carbs a day), 60-80% of your calories from FATS, 15-25% Protein! Sounds crazy right. We've always heard that high fat diets will make you fat, give you heart disease and you die! But as I'm learning about the Keto diet it's just the opposite. Its Sugar and all its forms. Some hidden in disguise but turn into sugar that will end up killing you.

My Keto journey started about 5-6 weeks ago. I work in healthcare as a Pathologists' assistant. I see the end results of disease and cancer gone wrong. So we have weekly presentations called Grand Rounds which is a luncheon with guest speakers. So one of our local surgeons who noticed that over the years his patients kept getting more and more overweight and they were becoming harder and harder to care for. So he started to research. He concluded that carbohydrates (sugar in all its forms) is to blame. The way it triggers an insulin response which over time requires more and more insulin. Until you become insulin resistant and type 2 diabetes sets in. All this caused by the good old recommended food pyramid. Eat those carbs blah blah blah...So the next day after his presentation I began my high fat low carb journey.

I'm 6'1 fairly active and watch what I ate. Cooked most meals at home, not much pop or fast foods. Don't drink alcohol. At the start I reached 260 lbs, pretty unhappy with my weight. And have always had high blood triglycerides anywhere from 250-400. Steady 260 range from 2015-2018. Well today I went to my Dr. for a check up and to see where my blood work is after 5-6 weeks on this new to me Keto diet. My weight 237 (-23 lbs), my triglycerides went from 257 last March to 81!

Has anyone else had a similar story to share? Or know someone following this diet? Love to hear it.

It's the only diet that I've been able to stick with and consistently lose weight. The best part about this diet is you stop having the intense hunger that you would with a simple caloric restriction diet. You feel hungry, but you don't feel like you're going to pass out and die if you don't eat immediately. That mainly has to do with how our body handles carbohydrates; we use hormones (insulin and glucagon) to maintain blood sugar levels, and when we eat carbs, insulin is produced to lower the spike of sugar. It does this by driving the sugar into storage in our muscles, into adipocytes (fat cells), and our liver. On the Keto Diet, the glucagon hormone wins the tug of war with insulin and tells the body to start releasing all of the stored energy ( created by insulin mentioned in the previous sentence.) So, energy is burned instead of stored. That intense hunger you feel, let's say, one hour after eating that bowl of cereal, is insulin at work. Your blood sugar goes up after eating and insulin is secreted to drive the sugar back down to normal levels ... but it often overshoots and you become slightly hypoglycemic (low blood sugar). This is the dizzy, OMG I'm going to pass out if I don't eat a slice of pizza feeling.

 

[Daddy N]

Also, do intermittent fasting where I don't eat anything from 8 pm til 12 pm the next day

This is what I do as well. My feeding window is 3:00-8:00. It is less restrictive in macros than Keto with similar results. I have been doing this for over a year and love the way I feel. Weather doing keto or fasting it is very important to drink a lot of water.

 

[timinater]

I spoke with my doc about the diet and he agreed that the good ol' food pyramid we learned when we were kids is a major reason for the diabetes epidemic we're facing now.

Interesting that you say that, Canada just revised its national food guide. They removed lobby groups (BIG DAIRY - look out, lol) from the process, and scrapped the four food groups completely. This is a pretty good visual summary of the recommendations. More info here: https://food-guide.canada.ca/

 

[honkydevil]

How low of a carb count do you guys shoot for? Does it have to be 50/day or less or is 200/day really low too?

I quit drinking beer and started only eating meat/eggs/black coffee for breakfast as a start. No soda already.

 

[Schmendr1ck]

Interesting that you say that, Canada just revised its national food guide. They removed lobby groups (BIG DAIRY - look out, lol) from the process, and scrapped the four food groups completely. This is a pretty good visual summary of the recommendations. More info here: https://food-guide.canada.ca/

View attachment 241880

Yeah, regardless of whether you like keto or not, it's indisuptable that certain food lobbying groups in the US had a heavy influence on the development of the food pyramid and the demonization of dietary fat in this country. This is a much more reasonable high-carb low-fat diet for those who don't eat keto.

My one misgiving about keto is that I don't like the environmental impact of a diet with lots of meat. Beef is by far the worst - which sucks because I love beef. I eat a lot of eggs and pork, which aren't nearly as bad, and I'm trying to cut down my beef consumption and replace it with more chicken.

 

[Schmendr1ck]

How low of a carb count do you guys shoot for? Does it have to be 50/day or less or is 200/day really low too?

I quit drinking beer and started only eating meat/eggs/black coffee for breakfast as a start. No soda already.

My target is 30-35g of net carbs per day (net carbs = total carbs - fiber). I find that a day or two as high as 50g generally doesn't cause me any problems.

However, it varies from person to person. Some people get knocked out of ketosis when they eat more than 20g/day.

 

[Irish]

How low of a carb count do you guys shoot for? Does it have to be 50/day or less or is 200/day really low too?

I quit drinking beer and started only eating meat/eggs/black coffee for breakfast as a start. No soda already.

I shoot to keep it under 20 grams and typically call it a success if I stay under 30. I know others that do 50 with success. YMMV, it's not an exact science and varies person to person.

 

[Irish]

Anyone found a cure for keto breath?

I found that after about a month that off-taste and breath went away.

 

[DoubleEagle]

What’s the difference between the Keto diet and the Atkins diet?

 

[Daddy N]

Keto is a way of life, Atkins reintroduces carbs into the diet.

 

[Mr. Cheese]

I've been looking into this. Its encouraging to read others experiences like this.

 

[SuckoutKing]

I shoot to keep it under 20 grams and typically call it a success if I stay under 30. I know others that do 50 with success. YMMV, it's not an exact science and varies person to person.

You tracking macros and such? What app do you use? I haven't been tracking, but might start if I start slowing down dropping pounds.

 

[trigs]

Keto is a way of life, Atkins reintroduces carbs into the diet.

Atkins is high protein (which can be problematic for some people). Keto is high fat with normal protein levels. Keto puts your body into ketosis which helps burn fat faster. Obviously this is a very basic comparison of the differences.

 

[Irish]

You tracking macros and such? What app do you use? I haven't been tracking, but might start if I start slowing down dropping pounds.

I tried a few different apps but I didn't care for them, they were OK for tracking purposes but not for planning, which I think is more important. I have a couple that I kept for looking up macros for new foods. I'm an engineer, so spreadsheets are way more my thing - I use a pretty simple one to track my daily macros (carbs/proteins/fats). It's got my weekly plan with targets for each macro and a big library of things I typically eat.

Just like keto it's not for everyone and a bit of a mess (just like my brain lol) but if you'd like you're welcome to it.

 

[Irish]

What’s the difference between the Keto diet and the Atkins diet?

I usually say Keto is Atkins on steroids. They're very similar in approach (especially at the start); keto is more restrictive but has more benefits.

 

[SuckoutKing]

I tried a few different apps but I didn't care for them, they were OK for tracking purposes but not for planning, which I think is more important. I have a couple that I kept for looking up macros for new foods. I'm an engineer, so spreadsheets are way more my thing - I use a pretty simple one to track my daily macros (carbs/proteins/fats). It's got my weekly plan with targets for each macro and a big library of things I typically eat.

View attachment 241982

Just like keto it's not for everyone and a bit of a mess (just like my brain lol) but if you'd like you're welcome to it.

Interesting. Your protein % is close to your fat%? Thought we were supposed to go C 5%, F 65-80%, P 15-25%