Please help, any advice is appreciated, I'm desperate!
Fitness_is_dope
Posts: 16 Member
After never having to worry about my weight or any health issues my whole life, I have been on a steady decline for the past year after getting out of a very toxic and stressful relationship. I gained somewhere between 10-15 kgs very quickly and developed a very bad rosacea acne all over my face - its got to the point none of my clothes fit and i dont leave the house or if i do i drive to shops completely across the other side of town so i wont run into anyone i know as im so embarassed about how bad things have gotten. i feel like just giving up on everything and my family dont know what to do to help me anymore as ive tried all manner of things and invested lots of time and money. i dont expect a miracle cure, but i do think my hormones are playing a big part in how im feeling mentally, and my inability to shift weight or even just get my face rash under control.
With regard to keto, so many people including my GP have recommended it to me because i feel it will not only assist with weight loss but also help to balance my hormones and improve my gut health and mental state. I experimented with it earlier in the year, managing to produces ketones within 2-3 days due to fasting, and counting macros but unfortunately I had to give it up after 3 weeks as I was experiencing terrible insomnia, and apart from a drop in water weight, didn't experience any other benefits and may have even gained weight trying to get lots of fats in and eating fat bombs etc, whilst it was also taking a toll on me physically that was not sustainable.
A few things i have reflected on since and maybe need to change if I attempt it again - your opinions and experiences greatly appreciated...
- i did not give up coffee, nuts/seeds and had some dairy (high fat, low lactose/sugar eg. heavy cream, parmesan cheese)
- i was consuming maybe too much fat ie. i was tracking macros (80%F,15%P,5%C) but not watching calories so closely as I had read this didnt matter so much during adaptation
- i did not supplement with micronutrients
I was following YouTubers like Stephanie Person who says to eat up to 200g of fat initially, which seems ridiculously excessive? She also does not promote eating nuts, seeds, dairy or coffee.
I also have watched Primal Edge Health channel which I like a lot more, and he was saying that its not necessary to maximise dietary fats because we can use our body fat stores, protein is the most important to get right and we can literally survive without carbs altogether but obviously we need fibre and micronutrients from veges.
Anyway sorry for long post, when you dont write enough people always have lots of questions so im trying to include everything. Should I give keto another crack or just stick to a calorie restricted diet plan of 1200 calories?
I am 34 year old female, weighing around 80kg up from 65kg is my normal weight i have always been. and yes the weight gain was from a combination of medications, overeating and depression from PTSD. normally i am good with the gym and go 4-5 times per wk and do cardio or weights training, although i want to drop the weights for now because i think its making me look bigger with all the extra weight im carrying.
i would like to give keto another try but i dont think i can cope with another disappointment of being so disciplined with it only to find ive lost nothing after 4 weeks, and struggle with no sleep and feeling crap. its a mentally tough diet IMO and i marvel at people that make it look and sound so easy and get such great results from it. at least with a 1200 calorie diet and exercise i am guaranted to lose probably a couple of kilos over the course of a month.
With regard to keto, so many people including my GP have recommended it to me because i feel it will not only assist with weight loss but also help to balance my hormones and improve my gut health and mental state. I experimented with it earlier in the year, managing to produces ketones within 2-3 days due to fasting, and counting macros but unfortunately I had to give it up after 3 weeks as I was experiencing terrible insomnia, and apart from a drop in water weight, didn't experience any other benefits and may have even gained weight trying to get lots of fats in and eating fat bombs etc, whilst it was also taking a toll on me physically that was not sustainable.
A few things i have reflected on since and maybe need to change if I attempt it again - your opinions and experiences greatly appreciated...
- i did not give up coffee, nuts/seeds and had some dairy (high fat, low lactose/sugar eg. heavy cream, parmesan cheese)
- i was consuming maybe too much fat ie. i was tracking macros (80%F,15%P,5%C) but not watching calories so closely as I had read this didnt matter so much during adaptation
- i did not supplement with micronutrients
I was following YouTubers like Stephanie Person who says to eat up to 200g of fat initially, which seems ridiculously excessive? She also does not promote eating nuts, seeds, dairy or coffee.
I also have watched Primal Edge Health channel which I like a lot more, and he was saying that its not necessary to maximise dietary fats because we can use our body fat stores, protein is the most important to get right and we can literally survive without carbs altogether but obviously we need fibre and micronutrients from veges.
Anyway sorry for long post, when you dont write enough people always have lots of questions so im trying to include everything. Should I give keto another crack or just stick to a calorie restricted diet plan of 1200 calories?
I am 34 year old female, weighing around 80kg up from 65kg is my normal weight i have always been. and yes the weight gain was from a combination of medications, overeating and depression from PTSD. normally i am good with the gym and go 4-5 times per wk and do cardio or weights training, although i want to drop the weights for now because i think its making me look bigger with all the extra weight im carrying.
i would like to give keto another try but i dont think i can cope with another disappointment of being so disciplined with it only to find ive lost nothing after 4 weeks, and struggle with no sleep and feeling crap. its a mentally tough diet IMO and i marvel at people that make it look and sound so easy and get such great results from it. at least with a 1200 calorie diet and exercise i am guaranted to lose probably a couple of kilos over the course of a month.
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All I really know is my own experience. Having said that, keto has been like a miracle drug for me. I have gotten blood glucose under control without meds. I have lost the weight I was looking to lose. FWIW, I am reasonably active, but I don't go to the gym or anything. Having said that, exercise is a good thing, and I would encourage you to keep at it. It has just not been part of how I have followed keto. I have been doing keto for about 2 years.
I am in maintenance. Yesterday my actual logged macros were 2% Carbs, 55% Fat, and 43% Protein. You want the body to be using your stored fat for fuel, so you need to eat enough fat to satisfy, but you can get that just from the food you would be eating. I don't do fat bombs. I don't want to lose muscle mass, so I am pretty deliberate about meeting protein goals. I have protein set at 35% in the macros.
I have always watched calories in keto, and I still am in maintenance. I am also very intentional about getting my sodium in. Yesterday was high (even for me), and I had over 6600 mg logged. I had canned salmon and kimchi for lunch. The bratwurst I had with supper was higher in sodium than expected. I salt things liberally and don't try to estimate or log that. There seems to be a link with lower sodium intake and poor sleep for me, but I am still trying to figure all this out. On keto, I have gone through phases of very vivid dreams which wake me up.
You are thinking that with 6600+ mg of sodium, the scales would show a jump in water weight on the scales this morning. Counter-intuitively, they recorded me down a pound from yesterday. Go figure...
I drink coffee, so that has been part of my keto from day one. I said I don't do fat bombs, but my first cup of coffee has HWC in it, so maybe that counts as a fat bomb - dunno.
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If you're looking to lose weight, avoid the fat bombs and focus more on protein. Even in ketosis, calories still count. The Ketogains calculator is pretty good for helping with macros. I'm a slow loser too, and it can be frustrating, but it's working. Good luck!!!2
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thank u guys for responding. its so good to get encouragement and feedback.1
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I am in maintenance. Yesterday my actual logged macros were 2% Carbs, 55% Fat, and 43% Protein.
omg 2 per cent carbs? what veg do u eat? i guess it depends on your total calories...but i find this the hardest thing to limit because i was raised vegetarian and really love them and they offer so many benefits and we're conditioned to think they are healthy low cal and great for weight loss, whereas i struggle with high fat and fatty proteins by comparison...all so counterintuitive to traditional dieting advice
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•Losing weight is only possible in a calorie deficit. It doesn't matter what your diet consists of, if you are calories in<calories out you will lose
•Losing takes time. Focusing on the process of getting healthier instead of the process of weight loss helped me. You will find many more satisfying non-scale victories that way.
•Separate in your mind the weight loss from the other health benefits of a keto way of eating. You are keto to help with the depression, rash, etc. You are eating in a caloric deficit to lose weight. If I go to taco bell because I feel like I can't be bothered I am going to feel like poo the next day. That is a given. However, I will not gain weight (real weight, not water) unless I am eating over my maintenance calories.
•Learn about why keto helps with hormones and depression and you can make better choices about your vegetables. Talk to your doctor. For me, I had to figure out what causes inflammation. That is what helped my depression. Sugar-no, potatoes-no, wheat flour-no, dairy-depends, salad-yes, etc. I was keto for several months and now I am technically low carb because I know beans don't cause inflammation and I eat them. You can't figure this out unless you strictly follow keto for a while and then systematically test out swapping foods.
•Find a mental health regimen that works. Keep looking until you find it. Diet is part of it but your weight is a product of your pain; it is not a root cause. Treat the root cause.
•The best thing that worked for me was staying off that scale. I weigh once a month. That way I don't get shook over water, hormones, etc. If the scale hurts your progress, stay off it. Look for other indications of weight loss and health.
•Be kind to yourself. I wish you the best on your journey.3 -
Fitness_is_dope wrote: »
I am in maintenance. Yesterday my actual logged macros were 2% Carbs, 55% Fat, and 43% Protein.
omg 2 per cent carbs? what veg do u eat? i guess it depends on your total calories...but i find this the hardest thing to limit because i was raised vegetarian and really love them and they offer so many benefits and we're conditioned to think they are healthy low cal and great for weight loss, whereas i struggle with high fat and fatty proteins by comparison...all so counterintuitive to traditional dieting advice
If you like vegetables and they don’t give you any digestive trouble there is no reason to limit them.
Unfortunately you originally learned a very common form of keto where all the focus is on the fat and even limiting vegetables and meat which is where all of your nutrients come from. Doesn’t make sense does it?
Assuming your vegetables are non starchy, eat all you want of them. Same with meat. Fill up on it and don’t add fat unnecessarily. Use only what’s necessary for cooking.
No drinking fat or calories. No fat bombs. Protein is priority and don’t worry about carbs from non starchy vegetables.2 -
Fitness_is_dope wrote: »[. . .] protein is the most important to get right and we can literally survive without carbs altogether but obviously we need fibre and micronutrients from veges.[. . .]
Protein is important. There's almost no such thing as too much protein if you are eating whole foods. Figure out what your minimum is and then eat that much or more. Fiber and micronutrients are both debatable. I get absolutely 0 grams of fiber. That's intentional. My gut has never been better. As for the micronutrients, they are more easily absorbed and in easier to utilize forms in your meat. Veggies are more "taste, texture, and variety" foods than they are necessary ones.
Calories count, but if your carbs are low enough then you shouldn't need to count calories. Your body will moderate your hunger and the weight will take care of itself.1 -
Fitness_is_dope wrote: »
I am in maintenance. Yesterday my actual logged macros were 2% Carbs, 55% Fat, and 43% Protein.
omg 2 per cent carbs? what veg do u eat? i guess it depends on your total calories...but i find this the hardest thing to limit because i was raised vegetarian and really love them and they offer so many benefits and we're conditioned to think they are healthy low cal and great for weight loss, whereas i struggle with high fat and fatty proteins by comparison...all so counterintuitive to traditional dieting advice
The 2% carbs was from kimchi and broccoli slaw. Those were probably net percentages, so it is the carbs left after subtracting fiber.
Eat all the leafy greens you want and you won't be piling on the carbs. It is the starchy ones that are problematic. I typically eat a serving or two of leafy greens of some sort every day, but they are a small part of my diet. I am a fan of collards and turnip greens. I like cabbage and broccoli. I eat cauliflower mashed, etc. with some frequency.0 -
You do not have to give up coffee or nuts to be keto.
You do not have to eat all the fat. You do need to track your calories if you are wanting to lose weight.
Eat a minimum amount of protein, don't worry if you eat more grams of protein as long as your calories are within goal.
Eat a maximum amount of carbs and don't go over. I don't know what your calorie goal is, but most people can eat up to 50g of carbs a day and be in ketosis without a problem.
If sleep is an issue there are two things you can try. First, eat some of your carbs right before bed, many people find this helps even if it's only 10g carbs. Second, try some topical magnesium (or oral, but I find topical easier because it's fairly instant). LC/Keto tends to make you lose water and that is where your body stores magnesium. You body cannot uptake melatonin without sufficient magnesium. Your body needs to uptake melatonin to fall asleep. If those don't work you can also try adding in melatonin.1 -
@tcunbeliever is that 50g after fat adaptation or as part of the process? (at least as far as your experience goes)?
And thank you for the higher number...looking forward to getting back that high
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Do you mean 50g of carbs?
The adaptation process is fairly individualized. The "keto flu" is not really part of the adaptation process, it's a lack of salt and electrolytes cause by the initial loss of water when reducing carb intake. Keep salt levels up, and this should not be a problem.
In a normal healthy metabolism there isn't any real need for an adaptation period. The human body was designed to switch between carb and fat metabolism naturally and mitochondria will exist in the cells for both glucose uptake and ketone uptake. This is a survival mechanism to protect against starvation, which for most of human history has been a bigger issue than the abundance of food we have today.
In the presence of metabolic dysfunction it's possible that there are insufficient mitochondria for ketone uptake, and that can take up to 6 months for those to fully develop across all the cells. But I would say that severe metabolic dysfunction is probably not common and not something that happens fast. If you were a healthy weight until recently, then this is probably not you. This is more likely to be people who have struggled with their weight (or other health issues) their whole life, or at least for a very long period of time.
If you are overweight and having hormone or other health issues, then there is reason to suspect at least some level of metabolic dysfunction, but it's probably not severe, and your body will adapt, hopefully quickly and without any worsening of symptoms.
As for me, I definitely noticed within the first few days of keto a benefit in terms of reduction of migraines. I would still get migraines sometimes if I had a trigger, but not as frequently as pre-keto. Then, after about 100 days on keto, I noticed I didn't get migraines ever, not even when I had a trigger. However if I went off keto for over 3 days, then I would get a migraine again. At this point I'm nearly a year keto (9/29 is my ketoversary) and I haven't tried to go off it for more than a day or a meal since about day 120, so I don't know what would happen if I went off for 3 days or 5 days or a week. I suspect the longer you are keto the longer the neuroprotective benefits remain even after you go off keto. But, I don't think anyone has studied the permanence in adults, so that's all just speculation based on my own observation of myself.
I also definitely noticed a reduction in exercise performance for about the first 3 weeks I was keto. I was sluggish and fatigued faster than usual. I just did my best to slug through it, but it was way harder than usual. After that time period, my performance actually exceeded what it was before and virtually all my weights increased all at once, which doesn't happen for me very often, usually I can just increase one or two in any given week or month.2 -
Thank you for taking time to reply; yes, I meant 50g carbs.
I could probably go higher than I am now (7 - 20g); but I also know those are my trigger foods and I am not yet ready to test my self-control when I am trying to watch how I eat (there are times I will choose to ignore it, like at the fair last month or next month for at least one trip to Olive Garden's never-ending-pasta bowl). But, day-to-day, I am trying to find a way to keep under 25.
So far I have been able to miss the "keto flu" (in fact the descriptions I have read about it sound like my daily routine pre-keto) and was afraid that I was doing something wrong (hopefully not; sounds like probably not as I have read more, including your post above).
Thank you again; glad to hear the migraines have gone away.0 -
@Fitness_is_dope ... keep lifting weights - weight lifting is good for bone density, ensures you retain lean muscle while losing weight and muscles look much leaner and smoother than fat does! It takes serious hard work over months with lots of calories to gain muscle and look bigger due to weight lifting - particularly for a female. Most females look muscley because they have low body fat over the top of their muscles, not because they’ve ‘bulked up’.
Also the psychological benefits of exercise sound like they’d be really important in your current state.
Lots of other good advice above - keep on keeping on x0 -
23rochelle23 wrote: »@Fitness_is_dope ... keep lifting weights - weight lifting is good for bone density, ensures you retain lean muscle while losing weight and muscles look much leaner and smoother than fat does! It takes serious hard work over months with lots of calories to gain muscle and look bigger due to weight lifting - particularly for a female. Most females look muscley because they have low body fat over the top of their muscles, not because they’ve ‘bulked up’.
Also the psychological benefits of exercise sound like they’d be really important in your current state.
Lots of other good advice above - keep on keeping on x
Love this advice. Keep lifting weights. It makes so much difference in the long run. This month is my 2 year keto anniversary. I eat nuts pretty much every day. I've enjoyed BLT's with garden tomatoes, strawberries, greens, etc. I started out with higher carbs but keto works best for me. You can play around with the carbs and see what works best for you. Hang in there. 0 -
I will echo to stay with the weight lifting. Keeping up your muscle tone helps appearance wise as well as metabolism. I've got plenty of fat on me but even so, my arms and legs look better when they're strong - my skin feels firmer and smoother. And I feel a great sense of achievement when I am able to increase what I can lift.
I'm a turtle too - I've been keto for a month and lost nothing, not even water weight. I know I've got something wrong with my hormones and thyroid but it's very difficult to get a diagnosis. I'm working with my doctor. Until then I'm keeping on because keto is helping my skin look much better, inflammation is down and I feel generally better on it. Be patient. Has your doctor checked your adrenals and thyroid? Long term stress is highly corrosive to your body, inflammation and cortisol can mess with your insulin and sex hormones, which all ties back into how your body stores and uses fat.4 -
It sounds like your rosacea is an autoimmune response to the stress. I have autoimmune disease and have been on keto for 3 weeks with no weight loss, not in ketosis, and getting worried about my own success chances. FWIW, I think that for people with autoimmune and/or metabolic malfunctions, it's just going to be more difficult to see results. Stick with it and maybe your body will decide to respond favorably. That's what I'm hoping for.1
