Ketogenic Diet

I have been doing it for a little more than 30 days. Things I learned:

1) When consuming carbs, prioritize fiber. I use a bran toast called GG Scandinavian Bread that is low carb and has a lot of fiber. I eat it with dollops of mayo or cream cheese - more spread than toast. It tastes like cardboard with dollops of mayo or cream cheese.

2) Find what fat you like: mayo, cream, butter, olive oil, etc. This is where most of your calories are coming from.

3) Experiment with fatty sauces, like garlic butter, etc. You'll be tired of eating plain meat soon enough.

4) There are two books - Dr. Bernstein Diabetes Solution and Dr. Bernstein Diabetes Diet that have useful recipes for very low carb food when you get tired of eating olive oil by the spoon

5) Some people find the first week or two very painful, some do not. Regardless, once you get to it you cruise - you don't feel tired or hungry as much, it is kinda weird.

6) It works and that matters a lot

My doctor recommended it for migraines. I actually take epilepsy meds for my migraines too, so there may be a similar interaction there. Anyway, the diet eliminated the migraines almost immediately, and I had a nice side effect of losing weight quickly without hunger. It's HARD to eat that much fat/protein.

I ate eggs, seafood, whole dairy (baby bels ended up being a staple), veggies (lotta guacamole-wait, is avocado a fruit??), some meat (less than you'd think), nuts, seeds, and a small amount fruit. I felt like I was incorporating mayo or coconut oil into everything. I was still able to eat a very small amount of dark chocolate (yay!). I think there was enough fat and fiber in it to avoid spiking. I did not use artificial sweeteners of any kind or eat any processed special low carb/atkins things, since I read those can pop some people out of ketosis and I was trying to maximize nutrients since my food selections were so limited. Some people don't have problems with those, but I didn't really think they were worth the chance, they didn't look appetizing anyway.

I used the urine test strips to check if I was in ketosis or not. Some people say you have to use a blood analyzer but my doctor said the urine test strips were good enough so I went with it.

I did go through a cranky period and had some muscle cramping early on that was alleviated with a mineral/electrolyte supplement. After that period (I believe it's called the "keto flu") I felt great! I had a lot of energy and was able to work out, felt amazing. I actually had a lot more endurance. I'd say it took about 2 days to get into ketosis and about a week or two to start feeling really good. I have much more endurance during workouts than ever before and I didn't have energy slumps during the day. I could also go hours without eating, I wasn't a big deal to skip a meal if I was busy. There were no crashes.

This website was helpful for figuring out my macros and set my MFP goals accordingly.
http://keto-calculator.ankerl.com/

Mark's Daily Apple and Paleo websites are good resources for finding some keto-friendly alternatives to your favorite recipes. Be warned, they are not all keto, there's a lot of inherently low carb/high fat stuff in their diets and they are pretty creative with their recipe substitutions. There's a group on here called Reddit/Keto or something (or the reddit site itself) that's a good resource for all this stuff too.

I speak in the past tense because I haven't been very compliant lately. I pushed the limits to see how many carbs I could tolerate before I went out of ketosis (109 net - much higher than I thought, actually!), and when I did, the migraines came back right away Well, I learned. This diet is certainly a commitment but offers great symptom relief. I am working my carbs back down again.