More power to you! It's a journey for everyone. The one thing I can say is "keep going". There are always bumps and things to be tweaked but you won't really know how it feels until you get a few weeks (3?) into this LCHF way of eating and your body "keto-adapts" which is where the real benefits begin. Even if you have already lowered your carbs and feel that this is a similar way of eating to what you have been used to, I hope you might be pleasantlyl surprised by experiencing the new rush of energy and freedom from cravings that I have experienced when decreasing carbs to a very low count. For me, who has dabbled in low-carb for years, the switch low-carb/highprotein to high-fat/moderate protein has been really life changing. The extra protein I kept adding to stop from being hungry, or experiencing sugar lows, may have contributed to my overall cravings by being burned as sugar, and to my cyclical desire to break out,..which I did all the time. It was crazy replacing this extra protein with fat but it is working! Of course others are different.

I hope that after you give it a try, and get your blood ketones into a higher zone (1.0-2.0) it will become clear to you pretty quickly whether or not this is a good way of eating for you. If you like research, you may enjoy reading "The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living" which has a bunch of studies cited. Good luck!

Welcome to the group.

During the first few days of induction you wont have much lethargy, but as your body starts to run out glucose and switches to ketone sources you'll start to feel it. The Keto flu... It'll last a few days, but then you'll be hit with a sudden burst of energy when you know you've become keto-adapted. Be sure to stick with the induction for 3 weeks if this is your first time doing it.

I completely agree with tru2one...i've gotta have sweeteners here and there, they are my vice. I have found that some can trigger cravings if I have too much, so you might need to experiment to find out. I have successfully used *small* amounts of Erythritol and Xylitol which are delicious in things like dark choc fat bombs and mascarpone cheesecake balls (or see Dana Carpenders recipies and books). LuoHan (monk fruit/nevella/nectresse) has more possibly absorbable carbs. These all may be healthier than the dreaded sw'nlow, splenda and aspartames out there, but with just a little more volume they set me craving. So I must stay within approx 1/2tsp-per sitting to avoid a craving. The other day I discovered appletini flavored crystal light and gorged on about 20oz of it xtra sweet..I was craving for hours. boo. Also, combining sweeteners usually makes them sweeter than just one so you can find yourself adding a bit of this or that like a chemistry project. :-) The rule of thumb for me is if I become aware of a craving (sometimes hard to tell) , then it was probably too much of some carb in my day, although hormones, sleep, feeding schedules and other factors contribute. I can sometimes have really good days when i'm coasting and things are easy, and then more challenging days when it's like walking a tightrope of getting the right balance (sleep, water, supplements, food, feeding schedule, excercise, planning, etc). But this LCHF is still SOO much less stressful physically for me than any other attempt at dieting because of the loss of cravings that used to rule my day. It's still not effortless but making decisions about food seems a lot better. But I am off topic which was about sweeteners. :-)