Ketogenic diet anyone?

titankyle

I am trying this for weight loss and wondering if anyone has had any success doing so?

shgcphilly

Yes, my fiance and I did a 30 day challenge for March and liked it quite well. Keto-calculator.ankerl.com (then plug these #s into MFP to help fix your goals) and dietdoctor.com (has some great recipes and info even without the membership) and definitely start with some more research. We are about to start again and work on making it a lifestyle and not just a diet. Best of Luck!

psuLemon

It depends if you are filled up by fat and dont' mind pretty much cutting out all carbs, including most fruits. Personally, I don't think I could, especially since fat doesn't fill me up and I eat a lot of fruit.

Eire228

I did it this spring for just over a month, and it didn't work for me. I lost 3 lbs, but it was just water weight, and I gained it back immediately. And I don't eat THAT many breads, most of my carbs come from fruits and veggies. Ok I'll be honest, beer too.

I also found that the meals were too high in fat for my liking. I'm ok with good fats like in avocados, but it was really hard to find filling keto recipes that didn't feel like a mild heart attack would follow. Meat seemed to be the best option for high protein and fat, and it was too much meat for my liking as well.

That said, my boyfriend has done it a few times and it worked really well for him.

I'd say just be careful about the fats you eat if you do it. If you eat all butter and bacon (that's what my boyfriend jokingly called it, the butter and bacon diet), you're going to end up with other health issues!

stickersticker

I've just begun this but I think there's enough variety of foods in this diet that I should be able to do this for awhile

brandnew222

Why would someone eliminate carbs (=energy) from their diet is beyond my comprehension.

NGC6960

Just like any nutrition program/diet. It all comes down to cals in/cals out. Eating in a state of nutritional ketosis is nice for some people, myself included but it's purpose is not for weight loss specifically. It works well if you are disciplined enough to keep your carbohydrate low (sub 20g/day) and especially well if you are able to be very honest with your caloric intake. If you're going to stick with it, you can expect your weight to be lost a few phases
-Water weight will be observed as lost first as you are no longer storing excess glycogen in your muscles. This is neat on paper, do not get excited about it. Think of this phase as getting to your real weight minus water. Currently your weight is (lean/fat/water), getting rid of water is not an accomplishment, it's just a part of adaptation.
-You will become fat adapted after x days (usually a week or so)
-If you are eating at a 500/1000kcal deficit as I assume you will be, one of two things will happen, you will either:

• Lose weight steadily at about 1-2 lbs a week
• Maintain weight and intermittently *woosh* away water weight every week or so (sometimes longer) This happens because your body replaces the burned off fat in your adipocytes with water in anticipation for the fat to be replaced...but you're not going to let that happen are you?

In a long enough timeline, your weight loss will be the same. I'm mentioning these scenarios because Keto affects people differently and when the latter scenario occurs, it can be discouraging. I am a powerlifter and when I'm cutting I experience the wooshing effect. It's irritating and leaves me feeling/looking flat for sometimes as many as 12 days. The feeling of the water dump however is indescribably satisfying though so remember to stick with it.

You can be my friend if you want to look at my diary. I cook a lot of things from "ruled.me" and I think I've been pretty successful with this eating protocol. Just be sure to go into it with the realization that keto is nothing more than an eating protocol/tool and not a magical solution...although it's really good tool if you understand what is happening to your body.

-NGC

susiemusic

My husband and I did Keto last year and although I lost a few pounds, my cholesterol went through the roof - and I've never had high cholesterol in my life! In my opinion, it is not a realistic life time way of eating, so it will be temporary. I won't do it again. I'm sticking to counting my calories and staying away from gluten and all processed foods.

Sabine_Stroehm

brandnew222 wrote: »

Why would someone eliminate carbs (=energy) from their diet is beyond my comprehension.

Not eliminate.
Not all carbs.
Not the only source of fuel.

RuNaRoUnDaFiEld

My idea of hell. I lose weight fine eating carbs and love the taste of them.

Sabine_Stroehm

OP: if you're looking for other folks following a low carb or ketogenic diet, consider joining this group:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/394-low-carber-daily-forum-the-lcd-group

Sunna_W

Love(d) it.

I lost 40 lbs.

I had to go off it b/c Norovirus followed by influenza really messed up my bowel flora biome over a 3-month period.

So, I have had to add in resistant starch (among other things).

Also, I have had to increase my carbs to 100 g. to address rebuilding certain beneficial bacteria that died (that don't normally come back without extensive nutritional support).

It's not a fun process and it took time and error before I was able to identify what was wrong and how to fix it.

nvmomketo

Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »

OP: if you're looking for other folks following a low carb or ketogenic diet, consider joining this group:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/394-low-carber-daily-forum-the-lcd-group

That is definitely the place to go for people who have use ketogenic diets well.

I used it for my health but easier weight loss was a great bonus for me.

Some find weight loss is easier on a ketogenic diet. They may be less hungry, have fewer cravings, or have steadier energy without the blood sugar swings. You'll still need to eat at a caloric deficit but a ketogenic diet may make it easier for you. It did for me. I find it difficult to overeat meat and veggies.

NewMeTomG

My daughter started a Ketogenic Diet so I researched it, listened to a bunch of podcasts, got books from the library, and dove into the published literature on it before giving it a shot. Some was *kitten*, but other sources were legit. There is some good info out there, you just have to find it.

Granted, it was not easy given our normal diet that we thought was pretty good. Removing carbs meant giving up some of our regular dinners, but they were soon replaced with new meals or old meals that fit within the Keto parameters. What I discovered, though, is we were shopping for whole foods and eliminating processed foods so that had to play a large part in it as well.

I'm not going to go into all the details of what we did here, but a combination of maintaining a 1750 calorie intake (male), carb restriction, increased fat and protein (10% carb, 70% fat and 20% protein) allowed me to lost 10 pounds, but more importantly, I lost 4-inches off my belly which was my goal.

Do I think it was all the keto? Not entirely. But the food choices we made, the exercise, and the increased fat intake made it easier to feel like I was NOT on a diet because I wasn't hungry. It was great to lose weight and not feel like I was starving myself.

That said, 10 pounds may not seem like a lot, but it was the last 10 pounds I needed to lose to get down to 160 pounds before building up muscle weight. My daughter lost 40 pounds, My wife lost 25 pounds. None of us are close to being obese (hate those charts in the doctor's office) but a friend of mine who is seriously over 350 pounds has lost 60 pounds thus far and has been on Keto diet that his doctor's at the Cleveland Clinic recommended. So not knowing where you are starting, there are a couple different scenarios for you.

I have 1.4 pounds to go and then will up my workout to gain some muscle mass but plan to continue on the Ketogenic diet for a year (it's been 6 months so far thought the first two were stutter starts) and see how it affects my cholesterol levels. There is some research that shows long-term effects of increasing good cholesterol and lowering bad cholesterol but I'm doing that under a doctor's supervision since I have borderline high cholesterol to begin with (not doing the statin route).

So lots there to think about. I'm no expert on Keto, but I did do far more research on it than most people because I was concerned with the effects of a fat-fueled diet with a borderline high cholesterol.

Hope this is helpful!
Tom

prgirl39mfp

I just started. This is all so helpful. Thanks!

stickersticker

I feel much better now that my time is spent healing my gut instead of bloated

cclark1203

I am doing it and seem to be on the slow loss path but that's ok. Easiest "diet" I have ever been on. Went from being addicted to sugar to no cravings immediately. Played with my head a bit since I am late 50's and never been able to leave sugar before. Cholesterol wise, lots of folks see an increase in Ldl and Hdl but tris go wayy down. Particle size of Ldl moves from small (sticky,bad) to large (good). I haven't done it long enough to check and have read this during my research

nvmomketo

cclark1203 wrote: »

I am doing it and seem to be on the slow loss path but that's ok. Easiest "diet" I have ever been on. Went from being addicted to sugar to no cravings immediately. Played with my head a bit since I am late 50's and never been able to leave sugar before. Cholesterol wise, lots of folks see an increase in Ldl and Hdl but tris go wayy down. Particle size of Ldl moves from small (sticky,bad) to large (good). I haven't done it long enough to check and have read this during my research

I saw a very interesting video showing that cholesterol can change within days of changing your diet. And that eating more, even excessive, fat may lower cholesterol the most.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZu52duIqno

mgholloway

Been on keto for 90 days. I seems to be a slow looser. Lost 16 lbs. but I love that I don't have any more sugar cravings.

jelizabeth713

Hello I'm Julie and I'm on my 14th week into keto. I've lost 20 lbs and have reached my goal weight. (45 lb loss total since 2013). Big thing to remember is eat less than but no more than 20g Net Carbs to start, hit your protein macro and eat enough fat to feel full on a daily basis. You don't have to hit your fat macro, but I usually get somewhat close myself. Basically if you aren't hungry at the end of the day and have some left to fill on your macros, don't stress over filling them. I mix it up when I eat meals and keep it interesting by making different keto friendly recipes everyday. Keto chicken parm with zoodles is my fav, zucchini noodles are delicious!! I fry them in a skillet with a little oil and season them. I use pork rinds for the breading on chicken, just put them in a big ziplock baggy, close it and smash them into crumbs! You can add parmesean or mozzarella cheese and seasoning to the pork rind breading, put chicken in the bag and shake to coat. They bake on the chicken so nice. Best of luck to you! If anyone wants a fellow keto friend feel free to add me for support! I make some parmesean chips. Or snack on rolled up lunch meat or pepperoni/salami, cheese and mayo or even without mayo they are tasty! I make pork rind nachos or pork rind cinnamon twists. I also snack on babybel cheese, fat bombs(sometimes), or pickles.

jelizabeth713

brandnew222 wrote: »

Why would someone eliminate carbs (=energy) from their diet is beyond my comprehension.

I have more energy now without all the carbs I was overloaded with before! Some people do better with less carbs

andrederosier

Been doing keto for almost a year now on the 25th. You don't need to do Atkin's or other promotional diets. You are either in ketosis or you are not. Your liver converts fatty acids into ketones which is used for energy. At first your liver doesn't know the exact amount so it will produce extra (darker purple on test strips). Keeping you carbs low will probably have your liver converting more fat to energy but shortly it adjusts and make appropriate use fatty acid. Sadly body will always adjust to conserve energy and same applies to ketosis.

Mainly I have stuck with it because I am Type 2 diabetic. Found out last year I had an A1C of 10.5 and of course always my high cholesterol. They put me on insulin right away and about every month dosage got lower and lower. After 5 months I was taken off insulin and glucose tests mainly in low 100s. I still have been able to stay steady under 100 for normal body so increasing exercise to see if that helps get it more normal. For at least a decade did wellness testing at job fairs and LDL was alway unknown because my triglycerides were 450+ every time. My diabetes manager wanted me to go to a lipid specialist after 2 months. Pretty sure she wanted to scare me out of eating 50-60g of saturated fat a day. To tell you the truth I was worried. Doctor gave me the speech of what I needed to be eating and where he thought my goals should be. Then got sent for a blood test and got results later that day. Triglycerides were still a bit high at 166 just short of my goal of <150. Total CHOL went from almost 300 to under 100. My LDL goal was 130 but doctor said I should be able to get it under 100 if I try because I'm pretty young. It came back at 22.

I have hit maintenance and a bit looser with carb intake but still stay in ketosis. I find 1 cheat meal still keeps me in ketosis when I use test strips to check. Unfortunately the glucose meter tells me the truth of that meal and keeps me accountable. I have been tested for lipids again recently and Tris are up to 180 and LDL went into the 60s. Total still under 100. Overall pretty happy turning into a meat and veggie eater. I try to use EVOO more than butter. Avocados are great fat source and love guac on taco salad (make own seasoning without the fillers). Almond/coconut flour works great as "breading" for chicken or mozzarella sticks. Many places serve burgers without buns so even going out is very doable and not ordering fries or soda saves lots of money. Good luck on your journey.