Hello 👋 MyFitnessPal

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Back in 2019 I lost 75 pounds with Keto, calorie restriction, intermittent fasting and cardio training. Unfortunately I gained it all back due to medications. May 1st of 2023 I started back on my journey and I’ve lost 21 pounds so far. I started at 243 pounds and I’m down to 221 pounds. I aim to get down to 170 pounds or 10% body-fat by Christmas with the help of running and trail running in the Mountains of Appalachia. If you want some insight for losing weight fast with Keto let me know. Remember to always talk with your doctor first though.

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  • kimoliviad
    kimoliviad Posts: 3 Member
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    Hi. I have been dieting since march had got down to 209lb from 242lb but last 2 months have been a reverse and have climbed back to 221lb. I would really like to integrate keto into my diet and reduce carbs....i just cant get motivated to avoid carbs. Any advise to get started would be helpful.
  • MacLowCarbing
    MacLowCarbing Posts: 350 Member
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    Hello & welcome; low-carber here myself. I don't follow any specific diet plan but it most resembles 'lazy, dirty, budget keto' lol. I just try to keep my macros in the right balance, everything else seems to fall into place. I'm 80 lbs down, still got like 100 to go... I'll see where I end up when I start getting close to what's right for me. My dr's totally on board thankfully, and I've gotten off a lot of meds & am close to reversing diabetes so it's been great.

    Friend me if you want a low-carb pal. There is also a low-carb and a keto group, but groups don't seem to be super active for the most part these days. I try to check in there though, and a couple of other people check in.

    Appalachia is gorgeous; I'm originally from Brooklyn, NY but a few yrs ago I settled on the KY/TN border, and I'm here for life. I love it here. Wish I could do the trails, but I have some mobility impairments so I mostly have to settle for views close to parking spots. I have another round of PT coming up and hopefully with enough PT and weight loss by next year I'll be able to at least hike some parts.
  • MacLowCarbing
    MacLowCarbing Posts: 350 Member
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    Hi. I have been dieting since march had got down to 209lb from 242lb but last 2 months have been a reverse and have climbed back to 221lb. I would really like to integrate keto into my diet and reduce carbs....i just cant get motivated to avoid carbs. Any advise to get started would be helpful.

    Hi Kim. Carbs were always the biggest part of my diet from childhood so frankly I thought giving them up was unfathomable and restricting them too much felt torturous-- until it didn't.

    I started doing the American Diabetes Association balanced plate-type diet, but I was still having trouble with blood sugar spikes, weight loss stalls, food cravings/binging/going off plan, etc. The problems always seemed to trace back to the carbs, so I lowered them, then after a while lowered them some more, etc... and over almost a year I went from like 60-75 g of carbs per day to under 20 g.

    The lower I went the better everything was going. Once I got down to >20 g and stopped eating all grains, added sugars, and high-carb fruits and veggies, plus I stared restricting artificial sweeteners to occasional use, it really helped. And when I stopped being afraid of fat, and stopped eating everything low-fat, and added more fat to my diet, everything fell into place-- I'm off blood pressure meds, cholesterol is healthy, went off insulin and most other diabetes meds, am on the verge of reversing diabetes, and finally, finally-- no cravings. No temptations.

    I rarely eat my full 1500 calories per day, I'm so satiated I only eat twice per day and don't think about food anymore between meals. And when you don't get cravings, temptations, or hunger pangs, it just makes it easy to stick to it.

    Your sweet spot might not be as high fat/low carb a diet as mine is, I don't believe it's one size fits all. But that's one way to ease into a LC diet-- just keep cutting portions or cutting stuff out until it's working for you. If you're missing bread or pasta or rice, there are low-carb versions that can give you the satisfaction of having those things (I still eat things like grilled cheese, lasagna, pizza, etc., I just learned how to make low-carb versions that give me the satisfaction without the carbs).

    Our culture is so used to our grains and we love them, but we don't as humans actually need them. Cultures throughout history have lived without grains-- as civilization and technology advanced they were simply the cheapest and most convenient food source to have control over. All grains are processed grains (even the "whole" grains) because we can't digest them if they're not processed, we weren't meant to. And there is not one thing in a grain that we can't get from other veggies, fruits, legumes, or animal products. So they're more of a comfort thing than a nutritional requirement.

    Some people can handle them better than others; but if you're one of those people for whom they trigger cravings, screw up diets, increase inflammation, spike blood sugar and increase insulin resistance, raise triglycerides, etc.-- my attitude has become good riddance to bad rubbish lol.

    Another way to start LCing (and probably better, but I was too stubborn to let go of grains and sugar until I started reaping the benefits from lowering them lol) is to start low, like 5% of your intake from carbs, do that for 2-3 months. And if after a while you feel it's too low you can gradually raise it till you find your sweet spot.

    So I'm rambling as I tend to do at night when it's quite... feel free to hit me up too if you want any good youtube drs. who support LC diets, need any recipes, or have any questions.