@glossbones! Lol!

Food no longer controls me. I used to have a full on addiction for all things junkie - particularly sweets and salty foods. Now, I can find a eating plan compatible snack, or pop a piece of trident (find a gum you can barely tolerate - not one you love - to prevent craving triggers!). Loud angry rock music helps, too.

Oreos, ice cream, candy bars, and chips - all manner of junk can sit on my counter, in my pantry, or in the fridge/freezer - and they no longer call to me. Or they call, but the number has changed. What used to be an insane screaming voice in my head that would not let me do a single thing until I fed the addiction is now a dim whisper in the back of my head that is easily ignored. Like most addicts, the urge is still there on occasion (bad day, FEED ME, etc.), but I can ignore it or feed it with fuel my body can actually use.

That is the biggest one.

Others:
Mental clarity - I never knew I was in a fog until I wasn't
Energy - I didn't know it was possible
Food Narcolepsy (also called Postprandial Somnolence) - gone unless I mix up my supplements or have really bad sleep days several days in a row.
Gastro Distress - I'm with @glossbones as well as no more sprinting to the bathroom for the runs or trying every position/caffeine to move things along
Food - I can literally eat anything I want. It's nice to not feel like I'm dying if I want something bad for me. For the most part, I simply don't want those things anymore. Anything with sugar triggers an instant migraine, and chips taste like paste and glue to me now.
Sleep - I'm sleeping better and feeling rested in the same very short amounts.
Waking - I was always a night person - I'd rather go to bed at 5 am than be getting up - and I no longer need a forklift (or a dozen alarms) to get me out of bed.
Clothes - I'm down 2 full clothing sizes (and quickly running out of clothes that fit!) LOL
Amorous Adventure - More adventure and more easily achieved...goals
Medical - better reports across the bored
Mood Stabilization - I've always had hormonal issues (I have PCOS, among other issues) and these days I'm far more level and manageable
Fitness - I can do things I haven't done in 20 years
Life - I feel better overall than I EVER have as an adult. Period.
Potential - While life had gotten blase and felt hopeless, lately I've started to dare to dream again....it's quite scary and exciting at the same time.

I feel better eating this way. My blood sugars are stable. I'm a reactive hypoglycemic and if I go on a carb binge I will "crash" 1 1/2 hours after eating. I've fainted from low blood sugar. I've seen it as low as 28 once. With this WOE, I feel good. My sugars stay in the low 70's.

my belly is the first to go and not my BOOBS

fancyroberts wrote: »

my belly is the first to go and not my BOOBS

So many women say that!

As guys we lose the shed built over the tool as Larry The Cable Guy said



The first thing I found when I started losing weight was that I had a lap!

I'm relatively new to low-carb, but I chose it because Type 2 diabetes runs in my family, so I know that, genetically, I'm at risk.

My mom has it, some of her brothers do, a cousin is pre-diabetic, and my maternal grandmother and ALL SEVEN of her siblings -- regardless of weight -- were T2 diabetics. So was my maternal great-grandfather. And he was slender. I even have a brother who is very slim and pre-diabetic. Extra weight certainly doesn't help, but if I can avoid crazy blood sugar altogether, I'd rather do so. I also believe that I am already carb sensitive and that's why I've been struggling with weight creep and so much difficulty getting it off.

The reduction in food cravings is certainly a good side effect.

This week was at the doc. We talked about testing for gluten intolerance. She said I'd had to eat gluten for minimum 4 weeks. I realized instantly that losing FA state was NOT a trade off I was willing to pay for a diagnose atm.

Lowcarb has changed my life in so many ways:

- IBS gone.
- No hyper bloodsugar right after eating, followed by carb coma after another 15 mins.
- No more hangry. Moods are more stable, things that used to upset me terribly, are now more like «Yeah, that happened. Bummer.»
- Very practical. Food does not dictate my life. Before I had to eat every ca 4 hrs. Now I can go almost all day. Doing IF + lowcarb is match made in heaven.
- I get more energy. In a medical lecture I watched recently, the doc said glucose metabolism yields 34 ATP per molecule, but when mitochondria is adapted to fat as primary fuel it gives 51 ATP! I'd say that is a compelling reason to stay in FA.
- Less inflammation. Less injury prone. Knees better.
- I «never» run out of energy at the gym anymore. Can train longer and harder. Haven't tested the upper limits. But did a 4.5 hrs cycling session which I finished with an anaerobic sprint! Nutrient partitioning gives me the best of two worlds, the endurance of fat energy with explosive power of fast GI when I wish to use it.
- Hair glossy, nails seldom break, skin less prone to acne (inflammation).
- «Recomp» is natural. I eat what I want since November 2014 with a full diet break. I bought some undies in size 38 in January. They're falling off. Now I use size 34 in undies, which is a new alltime low for me. Goal jeans are verging on getting too big. As long as I crush it in the gym, my body rewards me.
- «Healing» metabolism ? I suspect my adrenals and hormones were out of whack. Less than 1 year ago I sat in my apt with ballooned, bloated feet, burning soles, unable to walk. Desperate times. I was slowly gaining at ca 1200 kcal (weighing everything) and BMI over 27. BMI atm is 21.3. Now, I'm cautiously testing upping calories to 1500-2000 NET. Maintaining at lower end of scale weight so far, 54.5-55 kg. So looks promising. FYI: I also exercise a lot and I truly believe that exercising works synergistically with diet macros. I've f.ex. experimented with trying to upregulate mitochondrial biogenesis.

I surely forgot something, but these are the main reasons that for ME, the trade offs eating lowcarb are worth the results. Lowcarb/keto might not suit everyone or give dramatic results, but for some of us it really is a lifechanger.

Edit: Added BMI numbers.

glossbones wrote: »

I haven't farted in 100+ days.

Then I'm apparently doing it wrong, or I'm a professional farter, because holy crap!!!

I fart non-stop. But I did that before this WOE. I blame the brussel sprouts! We eat a ton of those!

With this WOE I don't have the blood sugar crashes that I had before. Plus it seems like I'm not a slave to eating anymore--I can go longer without eating, it takes fewer calories to satisfy me, and I can look at sweets and not be terribly tempted. Weight loss has been slow but has been trending downward. Regardless, I don't think I'll ever go back to the higher-carb diet ever again.