Keto Diet?

feleciag09
feleciag09 Posts: 24 Member
edited November 17 in Motivation and Support
So I guess I have been living under a rock my whole life because today is the 1st time im hearing about a Keto diet. I read a little bit about it but it leaves me with some questions. How does lowering your carbs and significantly upping your fats actually help you lose weight? I have 11 weeks until my wedding and im trying to get 30lbs off. Im scared to try a new diet with only a short time to get results because if the diet fails theres no time to try a new one. Is 30lbs in 11 weeks possible with Keto? How long should this diet be used? If it helps, I am obese and have a crap ton of weight to lose to be healthy..but as of now im just trying to get off as much as possible before the big day.

Replies

  • jntwn
    jntwn Posts: 1 Member
    edited April 2017
    Funny how I saw your post randomly, here's my opinion. I started keto 24 days ago on the 18th of March, and counting calories a couple days later after a long hiatus from attempting weight loss. I've never had a diet that worked, I always fell off the bandwagon after 3 days when I'm *kitten* starving. In the past 24 days I've lost 15 pounds, that's .6 pounds per day, and I attribute that to keto.

    Weight loss is all about calories in, calories out. That's all. The whole point of keto is that carbs has your body primarily finding energy from glucose, which is processed quickly, leaving you hungry sooner. I don't know about you, but I can demolish a box of kraft dinner and be hungry 3 hours later. Keto allows you to feel fuller, longer, making it easy to reach your low cal goals, because fat as your primary food source curbs hunger. People have lived keto diets for years and had no problems, some great food channels on youtube with tons of recipes. The main drawback of keto and the reason in my opinion most people don't stick with it, is because the first week when you're starving your body of carbs it fights back, days 3 and 4 of no carbs I had a killer constant headache.

    Eating keto means you miss a lot of things, pasta, ice cream, soda, bread, even sauces. But for me, I'm keeping this going until at least mid summer, it's been a great time. Hardest thing for consistency is cooking, basically everything preserved has sugar or simple carbs in it, I find myself shopping for groceries and preparing fresh food almost every day. This doesn't mean you have to, some places are very accommodating when eating out. It was hard kicking a lot of what I loved to eat, man I can punish a pint of hagen daz like nobodies business. I still get cravings for sweet stuff and pasta, but it's easy when your feeling peckish to just fry some bacon.

    Like seriously, my diet food go to is bacon. That's pretty awesome.
  • feleciag09
    feleciag09 Posts: 24 Member
    jntwn wrote: »
    Funny how I saw your post randomly, here's my opinion. I started keto 24 days ago on the 18th of March, and counting calories a couple days later after a long hiatus from attempting weight loss. I've never had a diet that worked, I always fell off the bandwagon after 3 days when I'm *kitten* starving. In the past 24 days I've lost 15 pounds, that's .6 pounds per day, and I attribute that to keto.

    Weight loss is all about calories in, calories out. That's all. The whole point of keto is that carbs has your body primarily finding energy from glucose, which is processed quickly, leaving you hungry sooner. I don't know about you, but I can demolish a box of kraft dinner and be hungry 3 hours later. Keto allows you to feel fuller, longer, making it easy to reach your low cal goals, because fat as your primary food source curbs hunger. People have lived keto diets for years and had no problems, some great food channels on youtube with tons of recipes. The main drawback of keto and the reason in my opinion most people don't stick with it, is because the first week when you're starving your body of carbs it fights back, days 3 and 4 of no carbs I had a killer constant headache.

    Eating keto means you miss a lot of things, pasta, ice cream, soda, bread, even sauces. But for me, I'm keeping this going until at least mid summer, it's been a great time. Hardest thing for consistency is cooking, basically everything preserved has sugar or simple carbs in it, I find myself shopping for groceries and preparing fresh food almost every day. This doesn't mean you have to, some places are very accommodating when eating out. It was hard kicking a lot of what I loved to eat, man I can punish a pint of hagen daz like nobodies business. I still get cravings for sweet stuff and pasta, but it's easy when your feeling peckish to just fry some bacon.

    Like seriously, my diet food go to is bacon. That's pretty awesome.

    You had me at bacon
  • ladipoet
    ladipoet Posts: 4,180 Member
    jntwn wrote: »
    The main drawback of keto and the reason in my opinion most people don't stick with it, is because the first week when you're starving your body of carbs it fights back, days 3 and 4 of no carbs I had a killer constant headache.

    @jntwn ...you were experiencing typical symptoms of "Keto Flu"...that is to say, your electrolytes were out of balance and this can be easily and quickly corrected by simply upping your salt intake asap. Most people who go Keto of LCHF soon learn that their bodies require a minimum of 3000mg-5000mg of sodium every day.
    feleciag09 wrote: »
    You had me at bacon

    @feleciag09 ...I will totally admit to having a love affair with anything bacon-related! <3 lol ;)

    I suggest you both check out the following main low carber daily forum group here in MFP. It's where most of us Ketophiles tend to hang out:

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/discussions/394-low-carber-daily-forum-the-lcd-group
  • RedSquadronLeader
    RedSquadronLeader Posts: 84 Member
    In addition to the low carver daily forum mentioned above, check out ruled.me - it has amazing recipes and all the info and whats and whys you need to get started doing keto.

    I followed your last thread about losing weight for your wedding dress - I think you know you might not quite hit your mark and I'm glad you know a seamstress also =). But, with keto you'll drop a lot of water really quickly, and that can seriously make you a size smaller almost instantly. I mean, it's not fat, but it'll do the job of getting you closer to fitting in the dress, so who cares?

    Also keto is healthy and safe to do for mostly everyone forever, if you make the basis of your diet "real foods" and don't develop a reliance on highly processed Atkins meal bars, or something like that. (Also, I wouldn't recommend those or anything that contains a lot of sugar alcohols, as these tend to produce serious bloating and gas issues). Make sure you get salt. Don't limit sodium at all when first starting, because you lose water so rapidly from a combination of glycogen and downregulated insulin levels that your electrolytes can get a bit out of whack (that's the primary cause of the "keto flu").

    Also be aware that if you eat a bunch of carbs one day you'll see a very shocking overnight weight gain...it's just the water coming back with the glycogen, but given your goals make sure you don't make that mistake in the week just prior to your wedding.

    Finally, check out the blog Mark's Daily Apple (just google it) - it takes a similar approach to the Paleo diet with a few differences, and while I don't agree with all of the things Mark Sisson has to say (for instance I think legumes are mostly fine), it's really what started the shift in my whole perspective towards nutrition and fitness and has been an incredible resource to me in the last 5 years or so. I've lost 50 lbs and kept it off, seen immense improvements in my mental health, and become a competitive athlete since then, which I attribute largely to finding that site. I can't recommend it enough.

    Good luck, I hope you have an amazing wedding no matter what size you are at the time! =)
  • feleciag09
    feleciag09 Posts: 24 Member
    ladipoet wrote: »
    jntwn wrote: »
    The main drawback of keto and the reason in my opinion most people don't stick with it, is because the first week when you're starving your body of carbs it fights back, days 3 and 4 of no carbs I had a killer constant headache.

    @jntwn ...you were experiencing typical symptoms of "Keto Flu"...that is to say, your electrolytes were out of balance and this can be easily and quickly corrected by simply upping your salt intake asap. Most people who go Keto of LCHF soon learn that their bodies require a minimum of 3000mg-5000mg of sodium every day.
    feleciag09 wrote: »
    You had me at bacon

    @feleciag09 ...I will totally admit to having a love affair with anything bacon-related! <3 lol ;)
    I joined the group just waiting to be added.
    My biggest problem right now is finding stuff to eat. Im a super picky eater so spaghetti squash sounds terrible lol. Guess ill just incorporate bacon into each meal plan lol

This discussion has been closed.