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Keto VS Paleo

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Replies

  • IGbnat24
    IGbnat24 Posts: 520 Member
    I'd choose Keto because there's no way I'd give up cheese and peanut butter.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,139 Member
    my answer is that neither is "healthier"

    a healthy diet is one that you meet your micro nutrient and macro nutrient goals...

  • fboosman
    fboosman Posts: 13 Member
    Wow, I've been extra tired lately and have been experiencing a lot of headaches and migraines. I thought it was just because of the time change but maybe it is because of my strict low carb diet.

    What you're going through is widely known as the "keto flu". It's the period during which your body is adapting to the lack of carbohydrates. Lots of advice out there on how to deal with it (just search for that term); what helped my wife and me the most was good bouillon, at least a couple of times a day. For most people, keto flu passes within just a couple of weeks or so and then their energy returns to normal.
  • ubermofish
    ubermofish Posts: 102 Member
    Paleo seems to be more of the "hippie BS" type of diet, where its all organic with arbitrary restrictions. Keto is just using fat and protein as your primary fuel sources rather than carbohydrates, and keeping net carbs (carbs minus fiber) under a certain threshold. The threshold is different for different people, for me I can stay in ketosis if I'm under about 50 net carbs a day, which is very easy to do. Feeling like crap is usually called the "keto flu" but as someone above mentioned, it can usually be easily remedied by upping your sodium intake and making sure you're getting the right vitamins and minerals daily.

    Also I've recently been making Keto Chow as a meal replacement thing, and then I just have some extra meats, cheeses, and veggies at night if I still feel hungry. Like last night I had some awesome sous-vide hanger steak (5oz cooked on my plate, I was nice and shared half with my wife) with bloody mary pan sauce, and asparagus sauteed in bacon fat. I had some Beecher's cheese curds as a snack when I got home from work (1.5oz), and my total calorie intake for the day was 1867.

    I can definitely say that on Keto Chow, I have never experienced keto flu symptoms, and I'm getting a decent rate of weight loss so far.
  • caurinus
    caurinus Posts: 78 Member
    nvmomketo wrote: »
    @caurinus It is possible that your lack of energy was due in part to an electrolyte imbalance that most will experience when carbs are reduced. Increasing sodium to 3000-5000 mg per day usually fixes that; possibly a potassium and magnesium supplement would have helped too.

    Also, It takes a few weeks for the body to become adapted to using some ketones for energy (which would have occurred to a lesser degree if your carbs were under 150g per day. Once people get through that, there is no difference in energy levels.

    I would feel dizzy after a workout and unable to safely drive myself home from the gym. The gym personnel recommended Powerade, which I purchased from them, and it provided instant relief from the low blood sugar. This went on for six weeks before I finally said "to hell with this BS" and went back to a diet that was healthy for me.
  • caurinus
    caurinus Posts: 78 Member
    By the way, I know Powerade also has electrolytes, but I was operating under the assumption that it was low blood sugar that was the problem since the symptoms exactly matched low blood sugar. Later I always kept an emergency apple or a snack pack of Skittles in my gym bag in case it happened again, and in each case, a little sugar fixed the problem.
  • senecarr
    senecarr Posts: 5,377 Member
    shell1005 wrote: »
    @cwolfman13 do you think it's because you're a male? I only ask this because I've notice the way women and men lose weight are differently. Men require more calories than women right? So wouldn't restricting your carbs do more harm than good solely because you're a man? If that's ignorant of me I'm sorry - I'm genuinely curious

    Men and women lose weight the same weight....by eating less than they burn.

    After I asked the question I researched and found that because men have more muscle man than us women they lose about 20 more calories than women by doing nothing. If a man was to restrict the same amount of calories and and did the same thing as a woman he would lose more weight.

    Every person has a different amount of muscularity. That tends to change the rate they burn calories at rest, but not how they burn them. The metabolic reactions are the same, just more of them going on.
  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
    caurinus wrote: »
    By the way, I know Powerade also has electrolytes, but I was operating under the assumption that it was low blood sugar that was the problem since the symptoms exactly matched low blood sugar. Later I always kept an emergency apple or a snack pack of Skittles in my gym bag in case it happened again, and in each case, a little sugar fixed the problem.

    It does sound like low blood sugar. Glucose falls, adrenalin goes up and BP falls. It doesn't feel good. I have reactive hypoglycemia so I used to experience that frequently. I had those symptoms when my BG fell to a 4-4.8, but now my BG can be a 3.8 and I still feel fine. Using a keto diet can get one past that though. It just takes a few days of not adding the sugar hit to treat the falling BG. Unless you are on insulin or a T1D, BG will not fall too low. A small handfull of nuts would work too, and without the high level of sugar.


  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,879 Member
    @cwolfman13 do you think it's because you're a male? I only ask this because I've notice the way women and men lose weight are differently. Men require more calories than women right? So wouldn't restricting your carbs do more harm than good solely because you're a man? If that's ignorant of me I'm sorry - I'm genuinely curious

    No...my wife loses weight just fine eating carbs...we're both big on oats, quinoa, brown rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, lentils, legumes, etc...the difference is that she might have 1/2 cooked cup of quinoa with lunch while I'll have a whole cup. She might eat 1/2 a sweet potato while I eat a whole sweet potato. She might skip grains and starches at dinner while I partake...etc, etc, etc.

    Men and women don't lose weight differently...we have different calorie requirements and you can move all kinds of stuff around to adjust for that.

    I don't low carb, but carbs are my flex generally. Whether I'm eating to maintain or lose weight I eat about the same amount of protein and I eat about the same amount of dietary fat in grams...so when I want to lose weight, I generally cut back on carbs but that doesn't mean I low carb...it just happens to be the macro that I focus on to adjust my calorie intake.
  • sweatinginpearls
    sweatinginpearls Posts: 17 Member
    @shell1005 no need to get sassy. I genuinely didn't know. That's why it was a question. I was simply confused and now I am not. Thank you :smile:
  • sweatinginpearls
    sweatinginpearls Posts: 17 Member
    @cwolfman13 ah I gotcha! That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for explaining it. I'm thinking I should add in more carbs than what I have been or just play around with my diet until I find a way that works for me.
  • DorkothyParker
    DorkothyParker Posts: 618 Member
    I haven't tried Paleo.

    I think, for me, Keto is more economical. Also, I like cheese and butter. Like, like-like. ;)
    I can also see myself going off the deep end with sweet potatoes (I already have to be very careful around almonds.)

    But I think both can work just lovely depending on the person. Keto fits my level of "self control."
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    I couldn't do Paleo, I love dairy too much and will never give it up.
  • Cristin260
    Cristin260 Posts: 4 Member
    Keto for me is amazing. I don't feel like I'm restricting. It's hard to get over the mind set of fats like mayonnaise and sour cream and ranch okay but the other stuff is great. I was already low carb so I didn't get the Keto flu feeling but I do have headache or dizzy every once in awhile it's so to increased blood to the brain. This is good though good brain health. Look up pod cast fit2fat2fit Keto segment. Good info. Paleo was so much work and restriction and not very good results for me. With Keto so far I'm down 5 solid pounds in two weeks which in paleo for 1 year I lost 2 pounds
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,160 Member
    senecarr wrote: »
    shell1005 wrote: »
    @cwolfman13 do you think it's because you're a male? I only ask this because I've notice the way women and men lose weight are differently. Men require more calories than women right? So wouldn't restricting your carbs do more harm than good solely because you're a man? If that's ignorant of me I'm sorry - I'm genuinely curious

    Men and women lose weight the same weight....by eating less than they burn.

    After I asked the question I researched and found that because men have more muscle man than us women they lose about 20 more calories than women by doing nothing. If a man was to restrict the same amount of calories and and did the same thing as a woman he would lose more weight.

    Every person has a different amount of muscularity. That tends to change the rate they burn calories at rest, but not how they burn them. The metabolic reactions are the same, just more of them going on.

    True. Developing more and healthier mitochondria can also increase calorie burn rate.

    bscb.org/learning-resources/softcell-e-learning/mitochondrion-much-more-than-an-energy-converter/
  • senecarr
    senecarr Posts: 5,377 Member
    senecarr wrote: »
    shell1005 wrote: »
    @cwolfman13 do you think it's because you're a male? I only ask this because I've notice the way women and men lose weight are differently. Men require more calories than women right? So wouldn't restricting your carbs do more harm than good solely because you're a man? If that's ignorant of me I'm sorry - I'm genuinely curious

    Men and women lose weight the same weight....by eating less than they burn.

    After I asked the question I researched and found that because men have more muscle man than us women they lose about 20 more calories than women by doing nothing. If a man was to restrict the same amount of calories and and did the same thing as a woman he would lose more weight.

    Every person has a different amount of muscularity. That tends to change the rate they burn calories at rest, but not how they burn them. The metabolic reactions are the same, just more of them going on.

    True. Developing more and healthier mitochondria can also increase calorie burn rate.

    bscb.org/learning-resources/softcell-e-learning/mitochondrion-much-more-than-an-energy-converter/

    Healthier mitochondria would generally have less cellular leakage, and would actually probably reduce one's metabolic burn rate, though they would potentially increase the maximum burn rate, meaning they'd allow greater exercise performance.
  • BadWolf_Rose
    BadWolf_Rose Posts: 27 Member
    I eat a mostly Paleo version of Keto. I don't tolerate dairy well other than butter and the occasional teeny bit of Greek Yogurt (I like Siggis Plain full fat, it's got a very low carb count for whole food yogurt, only 4g, and I'll eat some as a treat sometimes if it fits my carb budget for the day). I also use stevia and monk fruit, which some Paleo purists think are the devil, but idgaf, I do what I want.

    For the headaches and imbalances, I recommend taking a high quality multivitamin, one sourced from real foods, as well as drinking some bone broth. Pacific Foods makes little single serve cartons of Chicken bone broth and it's great for replenishing lost electrolytes.

    I also keep some MiO Sport (which, yes, I know this has artificial sweeteners in it, and is no where near Paleo) in my gym bag as it's a no cal, no carb alternative for Gatorade, which I use very sparingly.

    During my Keto induction, I got tired more, and couldn't run as much, but once I became Keto adapted, I felt like a million bucks and was able to workout longer and attempt more difficult routines. But as with anything, all bodies are different, and YMMV.
    Also, it seems to be the only thing that'll keep my skin clear. A few years ago, I was HCLF strict Vegan for about two years, and although I was very thin, my skin looked like hell. I got diagnosed with Celiac and Pernicious Anemia (due to extremely low B vitamin levels) and I went back to eating meat.
  • Raerising78
    Raerising78 Posts: 17 Member
    Not sure how long I've been in ketosis, maybe two or three weeks but I went through the KETO rash and the headache, that's all past and now I have crazy dry mouth and short of breath! I've read from other people need Powerade but I can't seem to find the right website that caters to this or gives you the right info to help you figure out what you need? Any other info or ideas? Please add me if you would like.