Newbie

bridgelene

Hey all......starting kept soon (As I do enjoy it, I want to finish up all the valentine's candy in the house rather than just throwing it out and wasting it)

Best tips that you guys have?

Also, do you use ketone strips?

NerdyWhoMom

Hi Bridgelene,
I'm a noob here too. My husband and I have been doing it for about 6 weeks. The Diet Doctor has lots of good materials if you want to visit their website. That's mostly what we've been doing. That's a good start.

RedSquadronLeader

I have a bunch of tips! Sorry, I'm long winded!

After you eat all the valentine's candy, you might want to ease to lower carb/no sugar before going to keto levels for a week or so - personally I find it's much harder to dramatically cut carbs over night and leaves me with insane cravings that usually break me.

You can really easily get into ketosis if you fast for about 18 hours -- not very difficult if you sleep for 8 of them, and wait to eat until dinner. You can also speed into it by exercising. Or, if you're not in a hurry, just restrict your net carbs to < 40g/day (or so) and hang tight for a few days.

You're going to lose a lot of water really fast as your glycogen is depleted (1 g of glycogen gets 3-4 g water, and also insulin promotes water retention and your average insulin concentration will drop). With all that water go electrolytes - sodium, magnesium, potassium in particular - and electrolyte imbalances are very serious and nothing to play around with. You should salt your food, drink bone broth or soup stock (not the low sodium variety) and consider taking a potassium or magnesium supplement (or drink electrolyte water). Usually the "keto flu" that people experience is due to low sodium. The sodium effect is not as severe after the initial water losses, but in general you shouldn't restrict salt - don't use it sparingly when you cook.

For the first few days, don't restrict your calories. This really helps with getting over the carb cravings. Try looking up recipes for "Keto Fat Bombs" and having some of those on hand for a quick snack if you're feeling the cravings. Once you start feeling better, you can target what calorie level you'll need to be at to lose weight. Also, I'd strongly recommend not cheating or having a "carb-up" day for at least 3 weeks, if not more. It takes time for your body to ramp up its production of all the enzymes that help with fat metabolism, and get hormones regulated to new levels, and there's even research suggesting that gene expression in your brain is altered. If you don't let this keto-adaptation complete itself, you're cheating yourself out of the full benefits, and also potentially making yourself go through the keto flu over and over.

Friends are generally not receptive to this way of eating. I won't discuss it with most people, unless they want to actually debate. Some people will be pushing food on you - usually not out of malice, but it gets annoying. I have one SUPER pushy work acquaintance, who wouldn't give up after I'd politely said no, and finally I just said I have food allergies. Maybe not the best strategy, but effective.

Plan your meals, cook in batches if possible - you've got to put more forethought into it and be really committed because there aren't very many convenience foods that are keto. If you find yourself relying on nuts and jerky too often, you're setting yourself up for failure. Figure out what snacks you can have on hand if you get hungry (I personally like 88% dark chocolate, macademia nuts, cucumbers). If you know you'll be busy some night make sure you've got a quick, easy meal planned or leftovers. I personally love this website, the recipes are fantastic!

http://www.ruled.me/keto-recipes/

Oh also I'd recommend not to use artificial sweeteners, except erythritol (stevia) - they act like laxatives.

Add me if you like, I'm recently on MFP and looking for new friends.

leeleespee

Well said!