low carb diet and having LOW appetite

Yes this is one of the side effects of eating very low carb.....sure you will lose the weight but after awhile you will feel like total crap, eating becomes no fun anymore because as great as it sounded at first to be able to eat all the meat you want, you can no longer stand the sight of it.....oh and just try working out on this diet without passing out....low carb means low energy. That being said, it's a great tool for losing weight fast but it's not a lifestyle, have a plan for transitioning into a sensible diet once all the above happen. (I speak from experience doing Atkins, etc years back)

Could you please let me know when I should expect to start feeling like total crap? I've been in ketosis for the past two months and have never felt this energized or had such mental clarity. Further, I lift 3 times per week and do cardio 3 times per week and have yet to pass out from the exertion.

I didn't start this WOE to eat unlimited meat nor do I eat excessive amounts of protein (since that could throw me out of ketosis). I eat real, minimally-processed, home-cooked foods daily. This is a lifestyle, and an extremely healthy and sensible one at that.

You should expect to feel like crap in about 2 to 4 months based on my experience.....that's what happened to me, after 2 months I was pumped up! Lost a boatload of weight, had great mental clarity, etc....then about 2 months later the bottom finally started to drop out.....I felt and looked like hell-skinny fat, drawn eyes, zoned out, just blah. Energy and mood went to crap and it just wasn't worth it anymore......I eventually binged and gained all the weight back. I would sincerely like to talk to you in year or two and see if you have the same view....I personally feel that any diet that restricts whole categories of healthy natural food choices because they have carbs is a recipe for failure sooner or later.....great for cutting short term weight (I lower my carbs here and there-carb cycle, etc) but not a valid life long diet plan. I am not attacking you, just my personal view. I lift 5 to 6 times a week HEAVY and do about 3 to 4 hours of cardio a week.....there is no way in hell I could do all of that without evil carbs.

How confident are you that you weren't undereating on calories if you lost a boatload of weight in such a short period of time? Are you sure you weren't experiencing carb creep where you inadvertently were slipping into/out of ketosis, causing you to feel sluggish? You mention looking skinny fat at the time - I'll assume your protein intake was adequate if you got sick of eating meat, but were you lifting while cutting? Were you using a food scale, tracking your macros, logging everything you ate, and so on? I can think of lots of reasons why you started feeling that way, but honestly none of them have to do with the diet as a whole.

And honestly our exercise routines sound pretty similar. It's doable.

I respect your well thought out response.....I have to admit I did the diet when I was younger and not as knowledgeable about general health and diet.... I did the diet hardcore, pretty much NOTHING but meat....did the keto strips and I can assure you I was in ketosis nonstop....I was also eating low calorie 1200 to 1400 calories a day so no doubt that played a role as well. Exercise was nonexistent because I was really just trying to lose a lot of weight as fast as humanly possible, again it was another fix, not a permanent lifestyle change. I definitely did not use a scale, think about macros, etc. I do this all now religiously (a lot easier with MFP than it was 20 years ago).
How long have you been doing it? I am truly curious what people thoughts are that are able to stick with it for years and years.....the different variations of low carb have existed for 30 plus years now but you don't seem to see people that are still doing it after many years and stand by it....that to me is telling in itself. I do appreciate your thoughtful point of view on the subject.....not enough of that on MFP. :-)

I respect your well thought out response.....I have to admit I did the diet when I was younger and not as knowledgeable about general health and diet.... I did the diet hardcore, pretty much NOTHING but meat....did the keto strips and I can assure you I was in ketosis nonstop....I was also eating low calorie 1200 to 1400 calories a day so no doubt that played a role as well. Exercise was nonexistent because I was really just trying to lose a lot of weight as fast as humanly possible, again it was another fix, not a permanent lifestyle change. I definitely did not use a scale, think about macros, etc. I do this all now religiously (a lot easier with MFP than it was 20 years ago).
How long have you been doing it? I am truly curious what people thoughts are that are able to stick with it for years and years.....the different variations of low carb have existed for 30 plus years now but you don't seem to see people that are still doing it after many years and stand by it....that to me is telling in itself. I do appreciate your thoughtful point of view on the subject.....not enough of that on MFP. :-)

Currently on TKD since October 2013, although I've used it to cut in years past with a lot of success. I don't know that I will continue it for years to come, but I really enjoy it for fat loss, as it's very muscle sparing and helps keep my otherwise voracious appetite in check and I hate feeling hungry (I'd much rather deal with food restrictions than feel hungry, but I know most people are probably the opposite). I plan to continue cutting until December this year and hopefully take a break (at least from dropping weight) at that point, but we'll see. That all assumes I've hit my current goals by then, haha, but I'd love for 2015 to be a slow bulk.

8-900 calories per day,seriously?
Go back to 1700. Losing weight faster isn't worth
Eating UNHEALTHY.

I totally understand it's not enough, that's why I posted asking about it. I have NO appetite and am forcing myself to eat even that much. My motivation isn't to lose fast, it's to improve my diet (which previously included a lot of *unhealthy* carbs), and this is what my DOCTOR recommended. I'm trying to make improvements to what I'm currently doing.

So is this something you are planning to stick to long term? Sounds miserable to me. You say you feel pretty great, but you actually don't right? You feel sluggish and don't have energy? How is that healthy? I would have some bread/carbs and just count calories. This sounds awful and not worth it to me.

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I aim for a keto (high fat, moderate protein, low carb) diet and find that the issues you are experiencing (low energy, trouble getting enough calories) are improved with more calories from fat.
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This advise on fat is one of the most important things about any low carb or Keto diet! Most people take a long time to learn it. Meet your protien and carb macro's, then add fat to satiety. Fat is your energy, be liberal at first then adjust as needed.

Also if your feeling fatigue/cramps you should read the keto faq over at http://www.reddit.com/r/keto. It's photo - friday over there right now and it's always fun to see results!

There's a ton of information there about getting your electrolytes in, which was a problem for me at the start with fatigue. Eat the suggestions for salt/potasium and magnesium. Those recommendations are good for anyone on 20-30 carbs a day.

Yes this is one of the side effects of eating very low carb.....sure you will lose the weight but after awhile you will feel like total crap, eating becomes no fun anymore because as great as it sounded at first to be able to eat all the meat you want, you can no longer stand the sight of it.....oh and just try working out on this diet without passing out....low carb means low energy. That being said, it's a great tool for losing weight fast but it's not a lifestyle, have a plan for transitioning into a sensible diet once all the above happen. (I speak from experience doing Atkins, etc years back)

It sounds like you briefly tried an Atkins diet years back, but so much of what you've said is wrong for the vast majority of people. Some people feel groggy at first on a low carb diet but this goes away after a few days. Most people don't feel like "total crap" after a while - most feel just fine after just a few days, provided they actually stick with it, and not everyone has "keto flu" symptoms. The notion of you can't stand the sight of meat after a few days... wow. Perhaps if you're a flexitarian eating mostly vegetarian meals and you switch to an Atkins diet you'll struggle from eating more meat, but I'd say a lot of low carbers don't eat a lot more meat than non-low carbers. As for working out, performance does tend to suffer a bit at first (e.g., you might see lifts decrease slightly) but recovers after a couple of months, and adapted individuals hardly suffer from low energy. Quite to the contrary, energy levels tend to be decoupled from your carb intake and many people find they have ample energy and have an easy time with endurance activities, even when fasted. Glycogen depletion is a potential issue for some people but an addressable one.

There are downsides to a ketogenic diet - namely, it's very restrictive and eliminates a lot of food choices. That's not a good fit for many people, and I'd probably say it's a poor fit for most people. But so much of what you've said is simply transitory in nature or flat out incorrect for the majority of people. Personally, it sounds like you just didn't stick with it long enough or kept your carbs at a level where you constantly went into and out of ketosis.

You...I like.
Very well explained.

I am on the lo carb as well, but I limit it to no more then 25g in a 4 hour period. So I am getting more then just a certain amount a day. When I first started, I dropped fast, but have slowed with the weight loss. I find it very easy to keep track of what I am eating and I make sure I get my calorie goal.

Do some research there are healthy recipes out there that are low carb and are balanced. I do have a free meal on the weekends. I also supplement with Protein shakes, it helps get more calories and more protein with out the fat and carbs. They do have low carb ones out there, again more research. I had a hard time at first getting everything in, but found ways to work my meals so that they were balanced and healthy, kept me full and gave me the calories I needed.

What I do is more of a cycling where I will eat close to my carb limits per meal some days and on others I go low. It works for me. I feel everyone is different in what they can do or want to do.

Yep. I am commenting on this old thing. This has happened to me more than once. This is usually a horrible time for me so I try to make an effort NOT to accidentally hit ketosis. The times that this happened to me it was so that not only was I not hungry, the idea of food was down right repulsive. So how in the world do I get back to eating when I can't even stand the sight of food? Well, the way I did this was with a liquid carb source. No soda mind you, but things like tomato juice, carrot juice, coconut water, maybe some sort of hot or iced tea with a little honey stirred in. Sipping on something like that a few times a day was enough get me right again. If I slip on keeping track of my carbs and dip too low this is always my red flag. I try to get out of ketosis before the dragon breath hits.

It honestly kind of scares me when the appetite disappears like this. It feels like I am stuck hanging with my feet on a window sill and my hands clinging to a tree and I can't get the nerve to go this way or that. When it first hits I feel terribly anxious and restless. If you don't want to go into ketosis try to jot down your carbs in a list each time you eat. You will eventually have a list that you will have memorized from looking at it so often. This make sit easier to just do it mentally if you don't want to always be doing the math for serving sizes, writing it down or entering it online somewhere. Sometimes I just scribble it down on the white board I have stuck to my fridge. each meal or snack. Or I just decide in advance how I want to distribute the days carb intake. I like to eat the most at dinner so my sleep doesn't suffer. So if I were taking 100 g carbs a day I would do 20 g for breakfast and lunch, 10 g for snacks and 50 g for dinner. I don't stick to totally low carb, I tend to do carb cycling more because it feels better to me than just going completely low carb. Hope this helps someone! Have a great day!