Keto diet, perform less

BattleTaxi

Ketosis has no fat loss advantages to a normal caloric deficit.

I have tried a lot of diets, also normal Paleo but this seems to be the only diet which works for me.

Yes, because you are cutting out an entire food group, in turn lowering your calories.

If you are tracking calories accurately, you do not need to remove carbohydrates from your diet.

It is the same as a vegetarian losing weight because they don't eat meat, so in turn the consume less calories..

QFT! +1

kenzietate

So, for some it works when they increase the carbs, for others when decreasing it. I guess that I have to figure out myself. But when you got only 5% carbs a day, how about vegetables? What do you eat a day?

This around what I usually eat. I get my veggies in:

I try to stay between 1500-1600 calories per day.

Breakfast - shake with low carb whey protein mix, 2 frozen strawberries (flavor), 2T heavy cream, 3/4 unsweetened vanilla almond milk, 1T peanut butter
Snack 1 - Iced coffee with 1T heavy whipping cream, no sugar (could use Truvia or similar)
Lunch - I don't like lettuce very much so I have 2/3 of a bell pepper + 1 ripe plum tomato or medium other tomato cut up. Add 2T creamy full fat dressing of some type, 1/4c. shredded cheese, 1T sunflower seeds and sometimes a grilled chicken breast.
Snack 2 - 1 oz extra sharp cheddar cheese, 1oz hard salami or other lunch meat
Dinner - Fresh Brats, roasted chicken, grilled burgers w/ no bun, hot dogs w/ no bun, really any meat that you enjoy + 1c. of veggies (usually broccoli or green beans for me)

This day would be around 1575 calories, 20 net carbs (29 carbs- 9 g fiber), 113g Fat, 108g protein. This would be an almost perfect 5% carbs/65% fat/30% protein day (my macro settings)!

Eating full fat cheeses, heavy cream, real butter, avocados, coconut oil (I don't personally use this) and almonds are all great ways to get more fat!

kenzietate

It are mainly the legs with hiking, climbing, etc. Further I have noticed I am less bloated, even my face looks better, sacks under the eyes are gone, hamster cheeks gone, skin less dry, hair more ferm and stopped falling out. So at least there are some good things going on for sure! I also don't feel so tired over the day anymore, it's just that the performing became way less.

My husband had this happen. His energy levels were way high but his muscles didn't want to cooperate. I would make sure that you are getting enough magnesium, potassium, and sodium. Once he started getting those levels right the issue cleared right up.

ryry_

I am on a keto diet for about 4 weeks now and I have noticed I can't perform less then like I used to. When I go for a walk in the hills for example, I notice my legs feel heavy and naggy quite rapidly. Does anyone recognize this and does anyone know what to do about it? This is my food intake:

1586 kcal Daily Calorie Intake
40 g Carbohydrates (10%)
90 g Protein (23%)
118 g Fat (67%)

Thanks in advance!

Mina.

Well all have do what we have to. I was on the low carb bandwagon for many years, and I honestly believed it was the only way my body could lose weight.

I now eat around 150-200 grams of carbs a day, and I can still lose weight fine. The biggest difference I notice is what you are describing. Even though I'm losing my energy levels are 10 fold with carbs then what they were without. My recommendation would be to drop the fat and up the carbs and keep the cals the same and see if your energy level improves.

As an FYI, if you do this, you may notice a slight uptick in your weight, this is normal and a result of replenished glycogen/water.

kenzietate

Seriously?? As a health professional, I have to say that this 'diet' is about as unhealthy as you can get. Putting your body into Ketosis is not a state you want to be in. Very damaging to the kidneys. I realize that this and the Paleo Diet are just another rung in the huge ladder of diet fads promising quick weight loss and 'permanent health and wellness,' but did you ever research the authors of these programs? Have you ever researched the long-term health effects?? I think not, otherwise you would not be eating this way.

No wonder you are having issues with your work-outs. And wait until your hair starts thinning and the gallstones appear (one of the main causes of these painful little stones is HIGH FAT diet). Why not just eat a healthy, BALANCED diet and monitor your portions? You may not lose quickly but you will lose. And guess what? You will be able to sustain that loss because all you would be doing is eating less of everything. I'm losing average of 1 lb. a week. I'm not starving, *****y, or miserable. My workouts are not fatiguing. Doesn't even feel like I'm dieting. I've made a few tweaks here and there but nothing drastic. Try it...you'll be alot happier. And healthier.

Good luck

I'm not sure where you are coming from here. These all sound like symptoms of ketoacidosis which most often happens when you have Type 1 diabetes. This is not a diet recommended for those with Type 1 diabetes. Eating too much protein is also bad and that is what causes kidney stones. This won't happen if you stick to the recommended ratios (70% Fat/ 25% Protein/ 5% carbs) or in that range.

That is great for you that you can lose with a "balanced diet" I can not. It is health professionals like you that caused me to gain 60lbs in the last 5 years. I can not tolerate carbs. I do not have diabetes. I am pre-diabetic now because I was put on "balanced diets" by every doctor out there. One doctor put me on a diet of 1000 cals per day, exercising 5 days a week (5k 3x/week, cardio home dvd's the other 2 days). I still continued to gain weight and almost killed myself in the process! Cals in vs. cals out does not work for everyone. So butt out and educate yourself.

sue12252000

"I don't mean to be rude here, just honestly puzzled why people who apparently didn't really care much about their diet for quite a while suddenly wake up and are so quick to judge and ridicule every other approach as a fad."

Really?? You assume I don't care just because I have alot of weight to lose at the moment? I happen to have health issues that necessitated the use of a steroid medication that precipitated weight gain. Most of my life, I have been either underweight (eating disorder and illegal/legal speed) or at healthy weight. After my cancer treatment 12 years ago, I've been on various medications (including anti-depressants) that have caused weight gain. The anti-depressants were short-term and I'm only needing to take Prednisone every once in awhile. Before joining MFP, I had lost 50 but was starting to revert back to my former binge/purge or starve routine because once the actual 'medication weight' came off, I was still stuck with the poundage from my steroid-elevated appetite. No drugs though. I needed accountability because I've never 'dieted' the right way - so here I am.

I tried the low/no carb routine myself for about 6 weeks. I was tired, cranky and battling hypoglycemia (48 is not a healthy blood glucose level). Not to mention the kidney stones. Yeah, lost 18 lbs. but the minute I started eating carbs again (no, not fritos and white bread, but fruits and grains), I gained the bulk of it back. And before I'm accused of eating more than I think, etc., I weighed and measured everything and counted every condiment. Gallstones are a direct result of a high fat diet, such as the one the OP is on. Look up high fat and gallstones and see what comes up.

The idea behind weight loss and exercise is to be fit and healthy. Our bodies need proteins, carbohydrates and fats in order to function properly and severely limiting (or eliminating) any one of these 3 OR totally over-doing one of these, such as protein loading on a long-term basis, is doing our bodies more harm than good. For years I did it the wrong way and really messed myself up. Now I'm trying to do it right.

Just for the record, go into any bookstore and look at all the diet and fitness books. There are hundreds, no thousands, of self-proclaimed fitness and/or diet 'gurus' hawking the latest and greatest weight loss phenomenon. I've tried many. They all work for awhile but not one of them is really anything one can use as a life-long 'life-style change.' All I'm saying is check the credentials of these so-called diet experts. Just because somebody is a doctor doesn't mean they have the knowledge to write a diet book. A podiatrist is a doctor but would you consider them a credible diet expert?

Good and bad can be said about any diet - Atkins, Zone, Paleo, Scarsdale, South Beach, Keto, etc........and people looking into these will usually pick and choose what information they want to process about it. It's amazing the health dangers people will overlook just to achive that ultimate "bikini body." I did just that. Now I'm trying to do it right. And don't assume that just because a person is overweight that they don't give a damn or are looking for excuses. For some, that is exactly it but for the rest of us, there could be other issues - medication, food addiction, ignorance, emotional/psycological. I hope everyone who walks this road is successful - and healthy.

pluckabee

I'm not really eating at normal keto levels, but am eating low enough carbs to be in ketosis often.

I know this feeling, and really, I think it's some days you are just tired.

Sometimes I have energy to do really intense workouts and sometimes just walking feels like a slog. I just take recovery when I need it and do my exercise when I feel like it.

kenzietate

"I don't mean to be rude here, just honestly puzzled why people who apparently didn't really care much about their diet for quite a while suddenly wake up and are so quick to judge and ridicule every other approach as a fad."

Really?? You assume I don't care just because I have alot of weight to lose at the moment? I happen to have health issues that necessitated the use of a steroid medication that precipitated weight gain. Most of my life, I have been either underweight (eating disorder and illegal/legal speed) or at healthy weight. After my cancer treatment 12 years ago, I've been on various medications (including anti-depressants) that have caused weight gain. The anti-depressants were short-term and I'm only needing to take Prednisone every once in awhile. Before joining MFP, I had lost 50 but was starting to revert back to my former binge/purge or starve routine because once the actual 'medication weight' came off, I was still stuck with the poundage from my steroid-elevated appetite. No drugs though. I needed accountability because I've never 'dieted' the right way - so here I am.

I tried the low/no carb routine myself for about 6 weeks. I was tired, cranky and battling hypoglycemia (48 is not a healthy blood glucose level). Not to mention the kidney stones. Yeah, lost 18 lbs. but the minute I started eating carbs again (no, not fritos and white bread, but fruits and grains), I gained the bulk of it back. And before I'm accused of eating more than I think, etc., I weighed and measured everything and counted every condiment. Gallstones are a direct result of a high fat diet, such as the one the OP is on. Look up high fat and gallstones and see what comes up.

The idea behind weight loss and exercise is to be fit and healthy. Our bodies need proteins, carbohydrates and fats in order to function properly and severely limiting (or eliminating) any one of these 3 OR totally over-doing one of these, such as protein loading on a long-term basis, is doing our bodies more harm than good. For years I did it the wrong way and really messed myself up. Now I'm trying to do it right.

Just for the record, go into any bookstore and look at all the diet and fitness books. There are hundreds, no thousands, of self-proclaimed fitness and/or diet 'gurus' hawking the latest and greatest weight loss phenomenon. I've tried many. They all work for awhile but not one of them is really anything one can use as a life-long 'life-style change.' All I'm saying is check the credentials of these so-called diet experts. Just because somebody is a doctor doesn't mean they have the knowledge to write a diet book. A podiatrist is a doctor but would you consider them a credible diet expert?

Good and bad can be said about any diet - Atkins, Zone, Paleo, Scarsdale, South Beach, Keto, etc........and people looking into these will usually pick and choose what information they want to process about it. It's amazing the health dangers people will overlook just to achive that ultimate "bikini body." I did just that. Now I'm trying to do it right. And don't assume that just because a person is overweight that they don't give a damn or are looking for excuses. For some, that is exactly it but for the rest of us, there could be other issues - medication, food addiction, ignorance, emotional/psycological. I hope everyone who walks this road is successful - and healthy.

"Gallstones are a direct result of a high fat diet, such as the one the OP is on. Look up high fat and gallstones and see what comes up."

So I did this and these are the ones I found on the first page of Google:

http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/gallstones.html#.Ufq49_Xy9I0 - "Low Fat diets are the Cause of Gallstones"

http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/uncategorized/carbohydrates-and-gallstones/ - "If very few fatty meals come down the tract—for example, if the owner of the GI tract is following the Ornish or other low-fat diet—the bile sits around in the gall bladder, unsquirted. The liver continues to make bile, but slows down a little in its production. The cholesterol component of the bile tends to become more concentrated with time and can ultimately become supersaturated and precipitate as a small cholesterol gallstone (cholesterol accounts for 80-90% of gallstones). If the stone stays in the gall bladder, it typically doesn’t pose a problem. The problem arises when the stone makes its way into and occludes the bile duct, or, even worse, if it travels further and blocks the common duct. In either case, terrible, colicky pain ensues ending up with a trip to the surgeon.

If one eats fatty foods often, then the gall bladder constantly empties itself and generally stays free from gall stones. If a one doesn’t eat much fat because one is following a low-fat diet or one is on one of the modified fasting programs (Optifast, Medifast, etc.), then one’s gall bladder doesn’t empty and the bile sits around supersaturating."

http://lchfhealth.info/diseases/gallstones.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9665682 - "In the obese during rapid weight loss from a very low calorie diet, a relatively high fat intake could prevent gallstone formation, probably by maintaining an adequate gallbladder emptying, which could counterbalance lithogenic mechanisms acting during weight loss."

I'm not saying that low carb is the only way to be healthy. You are saying the opposite. That it is extremely unhealthy. I am simply showing you where your errors are. The low fat mantra has been preached for so long and through so many situations that it is completely inundated the entire world. But new evidence is coming out that no one had access to when low fat became the thing. So whether or not it worked for you does not mean it won't work for other people. I don't know how well you did on your attempt, I also don't know what program you followed. But I will say that you need to back off a bit and learn about the benefits of it for some people. I would start here:

http://eatingacademy.com/

http://www.dietdoctor.com/lchf

http://josepharcita.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/guide-to-ketosis.html

Wilhellmina

It are mainly the legs with hiking, climbing, etc. Further I have noticed I am less bloated, even my face looks better, sacks under the eyes are gone, hamster cheeks gone, skin less dry, hair more ferm and stopped falling out. So at least there are some good things going on for sure! I also don't feel so tired over the day anymore, it's just that the performing became way less.

My husband had this happen. His energy levels were way high but his muscles didn't want to cooperate. I would make sure that you are getting enough magnesium, potassium, and sodium. Once he started getting those levels right the issue cleared right up.

I have been thinking of potassium indeed and saw my sodium intake is not that very high either. Magnesium I take every day as a suplement (500 mg)

Thanks all for your responds. I will try first what will happen when I lower my carb intake a bit (maybe the hopping in and out ketosis makes me feel like lead in the legs), if that doesn't give any improvement I will increase it! I guess which levels works best for me I have to figure out myself.

Ow and I have had gallstones in the past, in an era when I thought all fat was bad and feared it so much, I was extremely low fat! + if anyone responds very bad on a diet doesn't have to mean the diet is bad. We are all different people and what works for one, doesn't have to work for someone else.

Thanks all! :flowerforyou:

Wilhellmina

Okay, so the first day with lower carbs (5%) went fantastic, felt more energetic, but I started to develop a headache. Then I looked into my food diary and saw that my over all sodium intake is extremely low. I have been drinking some water with a pinch of Himalayan salt and also added it to my diner and the headache is about gone! Maybe that has been the cause...

mrmagee3

Okay, so the first day with lower carbs (5%) went fantastic, felt more energetic, but I started to develop a headache. Then I looked into my food diary and saw that my over all sodium intake is extremely low. I have been drinking some water with a pinch of Himalayan salt and also added it to my diner and the headache is about gone! Maybe that has been the cause...

Drinking chicken broth works, too. Keep with it and keep letting us know how you're doing!

trudydelbrocco

Seriously?? As a health professional, I have to say that this 'diet' is about as unhealthy as you can get. Putting your body into Ketosis is not a state you want to be in. Very damaging to the kidneys. I realize that this and the Paleo Diet are just another rung in the huge ladder of diet fads promising quick weight loss and 'permanent health and wellness,' but did you ever research the authors of these programs? Have you ever researched the long-term health effects?? I think not, otherwise you would not be eating this way.

No wonder you are having issues with your work-outs. And wait until your hair starts thinning and the gallstones appear (one of the main causes of these painful little stones is HIGH FAT diet). Why not just eat a healthy, BALANCED diet and monitor your portions? You may not lose quickly but you will lose. And guess what? You will be able to sustain that loss because all you would be doing is eating less of everything. I'm losing average of 1 lb. a week. I'm not starving, *****y, or miserable. My workouts are not fatiguing. Doesn't even feel like I'm dieting. I've made a few tweaks here and there but nothing drastic. Try it...you'll be alot happier. And healthier.

Good luck

I'm not sure where you are coming from here. These all sound like symptoms of ketoacidosis which most often happens when you have Type 1 diabetes. This is not a diet recommended for those with Type 1 diabetes. Eating too much protein is also bad and that is what causes kidney stones. This won't happen if you stick to the recommended ratios (70% Fat/ 25% Protein/ 5% carbs) or in that range.

That is great for you that you can lose with a "balanced diet" I can not. It is health professionals like you that caused me to gain 60lbs in the last 5 years. I can not tolerate carbs. I do not have diabetes. I am pre-diabetic now because I was put on "balanced diets" by every doctor out there. One doctor put me on a diet of 1000 cals per day, exercising 5 days a week (5k 3x/week, cardio home dvd's the other 2 days). I still continued to gain weight and almost killed myself in the process! Cals in vs. cals out does not work for everyone. So butt out and educate yourself.

Well Said Kenzietate!!!

trudydelbrocco

Seriously?? As a health professional, I have to say that this 'diet' is about as unhealthy as you can get. Putting your body into Ketosis is not a state you want to be in. Very damaging to the kidneys. I realize that this and the Paleo Diet are just another rung in the huge ladder of diet fads promising quick weight loss and 'permanent health and wellness,' but did you ever research the authors of these programs? Have you ever researched the long-term health effects?? I think not, otherwise you would not be eating this way.

No wonder you are having issues with your work-outs. And wait until your hair starts thinning and the gallstones appear (one of the main causes of these painful little stones is HIGH FAT diet). Why not just eat a healthy, BALANCED diet and monitor your portions? You may not lose quickly but you will lose. And guess what? You will be able to sustain that loss because all you would be doing is eating less of everything. I'm losing average of 1 lb. a week. I'm not starving, *****y, or miserable. My workouts are not fatiguing. Doesn't even feel like I'm dieting. I've made a few tweaks here and there but nothing drastic. Try it...you'll be alot happier. And healthier.

Good luck

I'm not sure where you are coming from here. These all sound like symptoms of ketoacidosis which most often happens when you have Type 1 diabetes. This is not a diet recommended for those with Type 1 diabetes. Eating too much protein is also bad and that is what causes kidney stones. This won't happen if you stick to the recommended ratios (70% Fat/ 25% Protein/ 5% carbs) or in that range.

That is great for you that you can lose with a "balanced diet" I can not. It is health professionals like you that caused me to gain 60lbs in the last 5 years. I can not tolerate carbs. I do not have diabetes. I am pre-diabetic now because I was put on "balanced diets" by every doctor out there. One doctor put me on a diet of 1000 cals per day, exercising 5 days a week (5k 3x/week, cardio home dvd's the other 2 days). I still continued to gain weight and almost killed myself in the process! Cals in vs. cals out does not work for everyone. So butt out and educate yourself.

I find that health professionals are taught one thing and one thing only when it comes to nutrition(ie. the defunct Food Pyramid) and that's all they know about nutrition and balance, and usually all they are willing to learn. They tend to dismiss everything else as nonsense or "unhealthy".