New here & new to Keto:)

CountryMom03

Hello everyone!:) Im a 35 yo mother of 3. I am 5'0 and my starting weight was 160, Im 153 now. For the past couple of weeks I have been trying a healthy diet along with keeping my carbs on the low side..tried to keep them down no higher than 100 a day. I had read so many good reviews about low carb so thats what got me interested. It seems to be working pretty good...at least a bit faster than what I was doing as far as losing weight. Then a friend of mine introduced me to the Keto diet.

I have done some reading on it but I still have lots of questions lol. Since hearing about this I have tried to incorporate even less carbs in my diet because I know thats key, the rest Im unsure on. Can you still eat fruits and other kinds of veggies besides the green ones? Does Keto go along with high fat also...kinda like atkins or can you do Keto with a regular amount of fat or low fat and still be ok?

Also, I read on some website on Keto that there are certain days that you load up on carbs and its done on a certain day into your diet?? They had a name for it but I dont remember it and frankly I got all confused by it all

And I guess one of the biggest questions I have is, after you get to your goal weight and go into maintance of that...can you slowly increase your carbs back some to a more "liveable" amount and not gain the weight back?? I have heard from others that just solely with low carb that you can but Id like to make sure that thats true and that it would hold true for this also. Because I can make myself tolerate very low carbs for awhile to lose....but I honestly dont think its something I could keep up, at least not that low. I could easily manage with 120 a day but not 20 or 30 or not even 70 or 80.

I guess Im just looking for help and answers and I def cant ask in the forums cause I know Ill get my head chewed off the minute I mention low carbs lol. Googling on the Keto has helped some but I tend to find myself more confused than I was before reading on it:) Apparently they have diff versions of the Keto diet?? and depending on what your wanting to do dictates which one would be best? And then theres that whole increase your carbs day on this day thing lol

Help Please!!:)
~Carrie~

P.S. Forgot to mention that I need to lose about 55 pounds:)

kimberlyjane1990

Hi! I am very new as well and may not be able to answer your questions as thoroughly as most others in this group. Your last paragraph suggests that you may not have found a supportive keto forum yet. Have you been to www.reddit.com/r/keto ? If not, I highly recommend it, (as well as reddit in general, but only if you have a lot of time on your hands and/or really like cats.)

Welcome!

dunnweb

100% on /r/keto

bacitracin

Hello everyone!:) Im a 35 yo mother of 3. I am 5'0 and my starting weight was 160, Im 153 now. For the past couple of weeks I have been trying a healthy diet along with keeping my carbs on the low side..tried to keep them down no higher than 100 a day. I had read so many good reviews about low carb so thats what got me interested. It seems to be working pretty good...at least a bit faster than what I was doing as far as losing weight. Then a friend of mine introduced me to the Keto diet.

Good so far.

I have done some reading on it but I still have lots of questions lol. Since hearing about this I have tried to incorporate even less carbs in my diet because I know thats key, the rest Im unsure on. Can you still eat fruits and other kinds of veggies besides the green ones? Does Keto go along with high fat also...kinda like atkins or can you do Keto with a regular amount of fat or low fat and still be ok?

"Keto" is short for Ketosis, which is when your body tears apart fat molecules to use for energy, instead of using carbohydrates. A byproduct of this alternate chemical process is having "ketones" in your blood and urine. When your body runs out of carbohydrates to use for fuel, it will use protein and fat to keep you going, and even more efficiently than before! There is, of course, an adjustment period while your biochemistry changes and your body gets used to it. The commonly accepted "proper" ratio is 65% calories from fat, 30% calories from protein and 5% of your daily calories from carbohdyrates. Normally, this leaves out a lot of fruit and some vegetables. Berries and leafy vegetables are usually pretty safe as far as carb count to fiber goes, but tree fruit and root vegetables are starchy and sugary. The abundance of these in easy availability and low cost is one reason for our obesity epidemic.

What I'm trying to say is that the Keto lifestyle is low-carb HIGH-FAT. Fat makes you full. Eating dietary fat means you will eat and be sated by smaller portions and not want to eat as frequently. This leads to overall lower caloric consumption, and not feeling cravings or feeling that you're "restricted" by "points". I hear it's similar to the induction phase of Atkins, but I never followed that diet, so I don't know.

Also, I read on some website on Keto that there are certain days that you load up on carbs and its done on a certain day into your diet?? They had a name for it but I dont remember it and frankly I got all confused by it all

You *CAN* do this, but it's mostly recommended for when you reach a weight-loss plateau, or if you're heavily into building muscles. This is called "Cyclical keto". You eat keto-friendly for 6 days, then binge on carby stuff on the 7th day, and lift a bunch of heavy things over and over for a couple days. There's another method called "Targeted keto dieting" where you eat 50-100g of carbohydrates an hour before or after working out hardcore. I do this sometimes, but I feel like crap afterward. I'd rather burn 400 calories and not eat a doughnut than have a doughnut and go burn 800 calories. Y'know? I admit it lets me indulge in the occasional seasonal treat like the Pumpkin Pie or the Eggnog shakes at Jack-In-The-Box, knowing that I'm gonna have to go running for an hour to work it all off, hahaha. I don't sweat the decision to have it, I just know that the monetary cost is not the only cost there is to it. There's a bodily cost to that as well.

And I guess one of the biggest questions I have is, after you get to your goal weight and go into maintenance of that...can you slowly increase your carbs back some to a more "liveable" amount and not gain the weight back?? I have heard from others that just solely with low carb that you can but Id like to make sure that thats true and that it would hold true for this also. Because I can make myself tolerate very low carbs for awhile to lose....but I honestly dont think its something I could keep up, at least not that low. I could easily manage with 120 a day but not 20 or 30 or not even 70 or 80.

You can try. You can also go with the Paleo diet. Personally, I've lost about 50lbs on keto and I'm never going back. I used to be a hardcore devotee of the South Beach Diet, but I was never able to lose the weight I needed, was hungry a lot, and so on. People are different. Some people, like my girlfriend, can eat under 20g of carbs a day and not be in ketosis, but I can probably have upwards of 60g a day and still be peeing ketones.

You might surprise yourself, once you're in ketosis, at how happy you'd be with under 120g of carbs a day.

I guess Im just looking for help and answers and I def cant ask in the forums cause I know Ill get my head chewed off the minute I mention low carbs lol. Googling on the Keto has helped some but I tend to find myself more confused than I was before reading on it:) Apparently they have diff versions of the Keto diet?? and depending on what your wanting to do dictates which one would be best? And then theres that whole increase your carbs day on this day thing lol

OMG, I get so ANGRY at the posters in the general forums. They are RETARDED. I've taken biology and organic chemistry courses, I know how the body works. They apparently disregard science in order to push anecdotal friend-of-a-friend "evidence" and pseudo-"broscience".

I first got into keto after reading these:
http://nuclearfuzzgrunge.com/tlcm/
http://www.dietdoctor.com/lchf
and watching this: http://www.hulu.com/watch/196879

P.S. Forgot to mention that I need to lose about 55 pounds:)

You're 5'0" and want to weigh 98lbs? That doesn't seem too healthy to me, personally. My girlfriend is 5'0" exactly, and started at 135 (I didn't even think she needed to lose anything) but is now about 120 after following me on my diet, and she looks GOOD. ^__^