Ketogenic diet anyone?

Yes, my fiance and I did a 30 day challenge for March and liked it quite well. Keto-calculator.ankerl.com (then plug these #s into MFP to help fix your goals) and dietdoctor.com (has some great recipes and info even without the membership) and definitely start with some more research. We are about to start again and work on making it a lifestyle and not just a diet. Best of Luck!

I did it this spring for just over a month, and it didn't work for me. I lost 3 lbs, but it was just water weight, and I gained it back immediately. And I don't eat THAT many breads, most of my carbs come from fruits and veggies. Ok I'll be honest, beer too.

I also found that the meals were too high in fat for my liking. I'm ok with good fats like in avocados, but it was really hard to find filling keto recipes that didn't feel like a mild heart attack would follow. Meat seemed to be the best option for high protein and fat, and it was too much meat for my liking as well.

That said, my boyfriend has done it a few times and it worked really well for him.

I'd say just be careful about the fats you eat if you do it. If you eat all butter and bacon (that's what my boyfriend jokingly called it, the butter and bacon diet), you're going to end up with other health issues!

Why would someone eliminate carbs (=energy) from their diet is beyond my comprehension.

My daughter started a Ketogenic Diet so I researched it, listened to a bunch of podcasts, got books from the library, and dove into the published literature on it before giving it a shot. Some was *kitten*, but other sources were legit. There is some good info out there, you just have to find it.

Granted, it was not easy given our normal diet that we thought was pretty good. Removing carbs meant giving up some of our regular dinners, but they were soon replaced with new meals or old meals that fit within the Keto parameters. What I discovered, though, is we were shopping for whole foods and eliminating processed foods so that had to play a large part in it as well.

I'm not going to go into all the details of what we did here, but a combination of maintaining a 1750 calorie intake (male), carb restriction, increased fat and protein (10% carb, 70% fat and 20% protein) allowed me to lost 10 pounds, but more importantly, I lost 4-inches off my belly which was my goal.

Do I think it was all the keto? Not entirely. But the food choices we made, the exercise, and the increased fat intake made it easier to feel like I was NOT on a diet because I wasn't hungry. It was great to lose weight and not feel like I was starving myself.

That said, 10 pounds may not seem like a lot, but it was the last 10 pounds I needed to lose to get down to 160 pounds before building up muscle weight. My daughter lost 40 pounds, My wife lost 25 pounds. None of us are close to being obese (hate those charts in the doctor's office) but a friend of mine who is seriously over 350 pounds has lost 60 pounds thus far and has been on Keto diet that his doctor's at the Cleveland Clinic recommended. So not knowing where you are starting, there are a couple different scenarios for you.

I have 1.4 pounds to go and then will up my workout to gain some muscle mass but plan to continue on the Ketogenic diet for a year (it's been 6 months so far thought the first two were stutter starts) and see how it affects my cholesterol levels. There is some research that shows long-term effects of increasing good cholesterol and lowering bad cholesterol but I'm doing that under a doctor's supervision since I have borderline high cholesterol to begin with (not doing the statin route).

So lots there to think about. I'm no expert on Keto, but I did do far more research on it than most people because I was concerned with the effects of a fat-fueled diet with a borderline high cholesterol.

Hope this is helpful!
Tom

I feel much better now that my time is spent healing my gut instead of bloated