The keto is the really low carb diet, correct? My doctor wants me on an extremely low carb diet, like less than 10g per meal. I don't know if I can do that. Or afford all the veggies and meat for that matter. And I have high cholesterol so I am extremely limited on what I can eat. Obviously I have to go low fat. It appears I am going to be on a mostly vegetarian diet, but I don't know if I can afford that either. There's always the food banks but most of their produce always looks pretty sad.

It is very important for us to lower our carbs, but I think the key for me is to follow a plan that I can maintain for life. That means a balance of fats, proteins, fiber, and carbs. It is not a "diet". It is the healthiest (for ever) approach to losing/controlling my weight and diabetes. My doctor agrees with me. I have tried the South Beach "diet" several years ago and felt awful on it. I have friends who constantly yoyo on Atkins diets eating very high fat and restricting carbs for a while. Then they 'cheat" with an overload of carbs off and on and before you know it they are eating high carbs and high fats! Needless to say their weight gains are inevitable. I know there are several people on MFP who do Keto but I know it is not a lifetime approach for me. Find what is best for you.

My doctor doesn't want me to follow extremely low carbs because he doesn't want me to be in a ketogenic state ... he says it's dangerous for the kidney in diabetics, and we already have too much stress on them from the disease and from protein digestion.

I have a close friend who lost weight eating a lot of protein and low carbs and now she has gouty arthritis and kidney impairement. Not worth the chances for me.

That said, I do keep my carbs in check. I have found that under 60 for dinner, under 45 for breakfast and lunch, and no more than 15 for a snack works great for me. That works out to 8 to 9 servings of carbs per day, depending on if I have one or two snacks. .. carbs from fruits, veggies, starches. Most of my starchy carbs come from my breakfast oatmeal and whole wheat Arnold Sandwich Thin bread.

tngram2seven wrote: »

I have friends who constantly yoyo on Atkins diets eating very high fat and restricting carbs for a while. Then they 'cheat" with an overload of carbs off and on and before you know it they are eating high carbs and high fats! Needless to say their weight gains are inevitable. I know there are several people on MFP who do Keto but I know it is not a lifetime approach for me. Find what is best for you.

As the same poster who just made a very pro-keto post above this one, I'll reply here and say that this is extremely important as well. The reality is that different things work for different people, and you *must* find something sustainable. There are folks on the various keto reddits who have been doing keto for 10+ years. I absoultely belive it, or a close variant of it to be sustainable for a lifetime for me, and I'm treating it that way. I currently limit my carbs to 20g/day. Once I hit my goal weight I may experiment with small increases, but I find it very hard to imagine that I'll ever consistently eat more than 50g carbs/day for the rest of my life. I am not just content with this, I am happy. I feel better than I've felt in literally decades. This is right for me.

There are a lot of people who see keto as a short term solution, and the weight gains/yoyo does feel inevitable for most of those people. If you see very low carb/keto as something you don't want to do, but feel like you have to, and want to "get off of" as soon as possible, don't. There are many other people who have success doing other things. If you see it as something that can help you make a lifetime change for the better, you can absolutely do it, do some reading to get over that fear of fat, its not uncommon, don't worry, dive in, and good luck!

I've been on Keto for almost 2 years now. I was diagnosed with a 10.7 A1C and haven't had anything above a 5.1 since and all my labs are extremely good. My body doesn't believe in Net Carbs (so says my blood sugar meter), so I try to keep total carbs under 30 grams per day, protein under 66 grams per day. My meter also disagrees with high protein because excess turns into sugar.

It was really hard in the beginning because it's not like you can go to the store and say, "I'd like chocolate cookies that are sugar free, sugar alcohol free, made from liquid stevia only, wheat free, and under 2 carbs per cookie). Ha! But, that is my latest recipe, and it's positively delicious. I also make my own fortified Almond milk and blanched almond flour now. Currently, I'm writing a recipe book for my family because we are just riddled with diabetes. It is just filled with all sorts of meals, breads, sweets and treats, drinks, etc.

The ADA says that although Keto works well for diabetics, they do not recommend it because it is unsustainable. Well, they are obviously wrong because if you put your mind to something it can be done. I will say that there is a lot of cooking involved. But, there's a way to get around that, too. I prepare a few meals, breads, and a few sweets and treats on Saturdays, basically. That way, I only have to heat things up, if necessary, make a fresh salad or cook some extra veggies. And, I can make sandwiches for lunch, etc. So, it makes my week super easy.

Keto was really hard for me the first 6 months (before my 2-year streak). Not only was it difficult to get over the carb flu because I kept cheating every once in a while and had to start from rock bottom every month, but the loss of my favorite foods, even ethnic foods, and the loss of the convenience of just being able to run to the store and pick up something quick was so hard. Holidays were especially hard,.. It wasn't so much the food as the tradition. I had not realized how emotionally and mentally attached I was to Food. And, I missed that happy carb high and sugar high which brought this false sense of happiness and joy. Carbs act very much like a drug in the brain. As a diabetic, my body no longer processes sugar well. Ketones burn much more efficiently and much cleaner. The brain runs much better on ketones, as well; it prefers it. Of course scientists have known this for decades, but from what I've witnessed and experienced, giving up the majority of carbohydrates (going from feast mode to famine mode) is exactly like quitting a drug addiction. People will invent any reason to hold onto their precious carbs. We actually do not need it to survive. And, it is only in recent history that they have been in such abundance as they have been today. We are in continual feast mode. The body was not designed for that,.. so we break down.

I also like the protection that Keto brings. As cancer cells cannot get nutrition from ketones, a ketogenic diet actually starves cancer cells.. Same goes for things like yeast infections, etc.. They feed on sugar. Those are a diabetic's breeding ground. No thank you.

One thing is true, however... You don't want Ketones in your body if you are a high carber with high blood sugars. That's a recipe for disaster. You just can't have it both ways. It's either a high carb, moderate protein, very low fat diet (which is terrible for a diabetic), or a very low carb, moderate protein, high fat diet. You can't have it both ways.

And, yes, it also works for weight loss -- which is a nice benefit. A diabetic with a high carb diet means a lot of sugar in the blood.. which means a ton of insulin required to clean it out,.. This insulin is used inefficiently in a diabetic,.. so insulin kind of gives up trying to get the glucose out and does it's second primary function --STORES FAT! Bad, sad news.

People argue that you can't forget nutrition thinking that Keto is actually not nutritious. Nothing could be further from the truth, however.. I have to argue back.. We have a broken system.. If you think our bodies have trouble getting glucose into our cells, how do you think it does with nutrition? It does very poorly. That is the reason they call diabetes the Disease of Starvation because no matter how much you eat, you always feel hungry. Well, of course you do.. You're starving. You can't use the nutrition you intake effectively with high blood sugar. So, it all goes to waste. Another recipe for disaster.

And, so, I'm writing my recipe book for my family. But, I already know that most of them will not abide by it no matter how delicious the food.. Because they are addicts. I totally understand. I was one, too. It took quite a few scares to finally get on board the Keto Train. And, then, I got to work creating recipes. Taste buds change. Now, even if I were not a diabetic, I wouldn't want to eat any other way. I just love, love, love my food. It's decadent and delicious and healthy and well-balanced. And it keeps my weight normal; I'm so thankful that I am no longer obese. The withdrawals and the grief were challenging, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. And there is a lot of support getting there. The best of luck.