What your opinion on the keto diet?

ClockWorKitten · November 2017

I being doing it and have lost a stone. I stopped it for a bit now back on it , I feel I am either doing it right or I am more strict . Has anyone else been on it? And how did you find it?

janejellyroll · November 2017

I personally could never do it because a lower carbohydrate and higher fat diet doesn't sound appealing to me and I could never be happy adhering to it.

In the end though, my opinion doesn't really matter. Yours does. Do you find it sustainable?

ClockWorKitten · November 2017

So far yeah, I have a bread weakness so I thought I would find it difficult but I seem to be managing. Another problem for me is motivation, I have depression and anxietys so at my low point I find it difficult. But it seems to be going ok.

hopiemama33 · November 2017

I've been doing it about three months. After the first two months I had lost 16 pounds, and my A1C went from 9.1 to 6.6. I haven't lost a lot in the past month, but I've read it is common to stall every once in a while. I plan to continue this way of eating long term and see how my health markers improve.

AmyG1982 · November 2017

I've been doing it for about 2 months now and I honestly think I'll be able to do this for the rest of my life. Yes I miss bread, cereal and pasta but I've found new things I love to have in their place.

The biggest thing for me though, is that it really helps me with my food cravings and my hunger levels. I've done traditional low cal before where you eat whatever as long as you stay under your calories and I'd be hungry all day long, craving junk food like crazy, be miserable and barely losing weight because I couldn't manage to stay below 2000 cals a day. Now I'm eating 1300-1500 a day, hardly hungry at all, rarely have any cravings AND if I do have a treat I can actually have just one. I've never been able to do that before. I'd have one "bad" thing and it'd send me into a binge. I've successfully had just 1 piece of cake, 1 bite of pie or 1 chocolate without it ruining anything in this 2 months.

Also, I've lost 27 lbs so super happy about that hahaha I don't do strict keto, I never test, I just try to keep my carbs below 30g a day (net) and thats it. I eat lots of healthy meat, veggies, some fruit and nuts and I've started making these little fudge snacks that are healthy and fit in my way of eating that totally satisfies my sweet tooth. Also, my family and I eat the same stuff, they just add rice, quinoa, potatoes etc. to whatever they're eating.

Its obviously not for everyone but for me it has been life changing (so far).

kommodevaran · November 2017

Everybody has an onion... I mean opinion

I haven't tried keto, but I have lost weight, regained, lost again and maintained. I've read, discussed and reflected, learnt and aimed and missed. So I know things. To lose weight, you have to eat less, and simple as that sounds, you have to do it consistently, and for a long time, so it's not necessarily easy. You can't speed up the process, but you can make the process as pleasant as possible. So do whatever makes it easier for you to eat less, consistently, and for a long time.

lemurcat12 · November 2017

I think it's good for those who enjoy it, and healthy if you make healthy choices (as with any other way of keeping a deficit). (IMO, that means make sure to eat a good amount of vegetables, avocado, nuts, and you can be in keto eating more than 20 g net carbs).

I tried it for a while because I like experimenting with things, and found it kind of fun (experiments are usually fun for me) and not as hard as I expected for the winter/early spring months (outside of that I miss fruit or, right now, all the root veg and winter squash and potatoes/sweet potatoes that I am overrun with). As a longer term way of eating I prefer more carbs and less fat, and I didn't experiment any miraculous or life-changing results -- felt fine doing it, but same as I normally do when eating a decent diet.

I think some find it really helps their appetite or eliminates foods they find difficult not to overeat while not making them feel deprived. On the other hand, I think you certainly don't need to low carb or do keto to lose, so I would only do it if I really liked it. I'm currently trying to greatly reduce the animal products I consume, so it would be hard for me to enjoyably do keto under those conditions (for me keto was easy when it was eggs/veg and meat/veg).

HellYeahItsKriss · November 2017

If keto is your thing do it...

[Edited by MFP Staff]

toxikon · November 2017

I did it for a year and found losing weight was much easier than a standard diet. Fat and protein filled me up so it was easy to stick to my calorie goal, and I didn't experience any sugar crashes. Some added benefits were: no bloating, less flatulence, more energy, stable hunger levels.

HOWEVER -

It was totally unsustainable for me. I'm a carb-lover, and no amounts of keto pizzas and faux-bread recipes could quell my desires. I started thinking of carbs a forbidden fruit and would give myself cheat days to binge on my desperately-missed carbs and feel like absolute shite afterwards.

Ultimately I gave up the diet and regained all the weight.

I'm still trying to get out of the carbs = evil mentality. I feel guilty buying them! But a varied diet made up of foods you enjoy is sooo much more sustainable in the long run. Just some food for thought.

newmommyk · November 2017

I just started it, like today, just started. I am
Going to do my best to adhere to it until Christmas and see how I like it. I want to give it an honest 30 day try. So far so good lol. I’m going to town on Pinterest for recipes and there are tons out there. I know it will take a while to find my rhythm with it. Any good threads to follow or groups to join?

lemurcat12 · November 2017

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/394-low-carber-daily-forum-the-lcd-group

lynn_glenmont · November 2017

hopiemama33 wrote: »

I've been doing it about three months. After the first two months I had lost 16 pounds, and my A1C went from 9.1 to 6.6. I haven't lost a lot in the past month, but I've read it is common to stall every once in a while. I plan to continue this way of eating long term and see how my health markers improve.

With an n of 1 and no control group, there's no way to know whether the A1C improvement is due to 1) weight loss, 2) keto diet, 3) being in a caloric deficit (subtly different from the weight loss, as you would have to look at results in people who lost a certain amount and then went to maintenance, or (4) other factors you don't mention, such as whether you increased your physical activity over that time.

dwilliamca · November 2017

Working in a hospital all my life, I have a hard time supporting something as unnatural as purposely putting oneself in a state of ketosis. I'll feed my brain glucose not ketones. Besides I found it very hard to reduce my carbs low enough to even stay on a very low carb diet for long, and the high fats raised my already elevated lipids to extremely high levels. On the other hand, I guess it works for some, and apparently there are no long term health affects identified.

saintor1 · November 2017

Keto=good way to increase the cholesterol, including the one that you don't want high.

spiriteagle99 · November 2017

I did Atkins a couple of times, which is similar, I think. I lost weight on very low carb diets, but it wasn't really sustainable for me. I found after a while I was cheating once or twice a week and then when i had lost the weight I wanted to lose, I ended up regaining most of what I lost. I missed fruit, bread and sweets too much. It was good in breaking some habits about what I eat regularly and it made me look twice at certain foods: was I eating them because I actually really liked them, or just because I was used to eating them (i.e. French fries.)

GottaBurnEmAll · November 2017

I low carbed (not keto, though) for ten years back in the day.

I found it wasn't sustainable over the long term as a life-long dietary pattern I could follow.

Keto most definitely wouldn't work for me for a variety of reasons. I have familial hypercholesterolemia, and it's contraindicated for people with my condition. Not only that, I don't find fat satiating and I find that a high fat diet gives me indigestion and heart burn.

Just not my thing.

For people who are satisfied with the food choices and eat at the upper end of carbohydrate levels to ensure adequate vegetable consumption, I think keto can be a decent enough choice. I think for a lot of them, regular low carbing with a less strict carb level would probably be a more viable and pleasant alternative that would allow for more nutritious foods in the diet (more vegetable choices).

ptrcmcc6 · November 2017

lynn_glenmont wrote: »

hopiemama33 wrote: »

I've been doing it about three months. After the first two months I had lost 16 pounds, and my A1C went from 9.1 to 6.6. I haven't lost a lot in the past month, but I've read it is common to stall every once in a while. I plan to continue this way of eating long term and see how my health markers improve.

With an n of 1 and no control group, there's no way to know whether the A1C improvement is due to 1) weight loss, 2) keto diet, 3) being in a caloric deficit (subtly different from the weight loss, as you would have to look at results in people who lost a certain amount and then went to maintenance, or (4) other factors you don't mention, such as whether you increased your physical activity over that time.

I'm not a doctor but I do know a little about diabetes and with an A1C of 9.1, she is definitely diabetic. Now, unless she's had it since a young age and her pancreas does not produce insulin at all anymore (or very little), she is most likely a T2 diabetic which can be controlled and/or, even, reversed by following a low carb way of eating. I believe her A1C reading of 6.6 was a direct link to her cutting out the carbs and sugars. Just like you wouldn't give an alcoholic liquor, you don't give a diabetic sugar/carbs. It doesn't necessarily have to be a Keto diet but if it's working for her, more power to her.

lemurcat12 · November 2017

Lynn's comments are correct, we cannot know if the decrease was due to weight loss, the low carb, a deficit, or other changes. Low carb is not the only thing that helps with T2D.

I don't think anyone was saying she shouldn't continue with the low carbing if it is working for her.

However, to suggest that giving a T2D carbs is like an alcoholic drinking alcohol is, frankly, ridiculous. The vast majority of people even on keto diets consume carbs. To avoid carbs would basically mean a meat/oil only diet (there are a few carbs even in eggs and cheese), and many MFP T2D (many in remission) consume carbs in moderation (combine them with protein and fiber, for example). Some even find that some carbs (in some cases fruit, for example) have no negative effect on their blood glucose. Also, to repeat this point, not eating vegetables is not, IMO, healthy, period.

It's also true that people who merely lose weight will often go into remission from T2D, and that there are people who have do so by other ways of losing weight (such as low fat/plant based diets, ironically enough).

Also, LCHF for T2D is in effect managing the symptoms, not putting the disease in remission. Worth it if you can't address it in other ways, but many (again) find they can through weight loss and exercise (exercise tends to increase insulin sensitivity).

BTW, if you are controlling T2D through keto but continue to have blood glucose issues if you consume, say, some potato or pasta or even fruit, that's not reversing it, that's just controlling the symptoms. Weight loss itself often reverses it (what I'm calling above putting it in remission).

trackme · November 2017

dwilliamca wrote: »

Working in a hospital all my life, I have a hard time supporting something as unnatural as purposely putting oneself in a state of ketosis. I'll feed my brain glucose not ketones. Besides I found it very hard to reduce my carbs low enough to even stay on a very low carb diet for long, and the high fats raised my already elevated lipids to extremely high levels. On the other hand, I guess it works for some, and apparently there are no long term health affects identified.

Did you test your lipids before and after Keto dieting? I'm curious as I have genetically high lipids and wondered if this would make it worse or better, not eating carbs...as carbs increase lipids. Thanks!

JeromeBarry1 · November 2017

Keto is great for thee, not for me.

ptrcmcc6 · November 2017

lemurcat12 wrote: »

Lynn's comments are correct, we cannot know if the decrease was due to weight loss, the low carb, a deficit, or other changes. Low carb is not the only thing that helps with T2D.

I don't think anyone was saying she shouldn't continue with the low carbing if it is working for her.

However, to suggest that giving a T2D carbs is like an alcoholic drinking alcohol is, frankly, ridiculous. The vast majority of people even on keto diets consume carbs. To avoid carbs would basically mean a meat/oil only diet (there are a few carbs even in eggs and cheese), and many MFP T2D (many in remission) consume carbs in moderation (combine them with protein and fiber, for example). Some even find that some carbs (in some cases fruit, for example) have no negative effect on their blood glucose. Also, to repeat this point, not eating vegetables is not, IMO, healthy, period.

It's also true that people who merely lose weight will often go into remission from T2D, and that there are people who have do so by other ways of losing weight (such as low fat/plant based diets, ironically enough).

Also, LCHF for T2D is in effect managing the symptoms, not putting the disease in remission. Worth it if you can't address it in other ways, but many (again) find they can through weight loss and exercise (exercise tends to increase insulin sensitivity).

BTW, if you are controlling T2D through keto but continue to have blood glucose issues if you consume, say, some potato or pasta or even fruit, that's not reversing it, that's just controlling the symptoms. Weight loss itself often reverses it (what I'm calling above putting it in remission).

Keto is not about "no carbs". It's about eating healthy slow acting carbs as opposed to quick acting carbs which spike your blood sugars. And, I agree, maybe the alcohol/liquor wasn't the best analogy but you wouldn't offer a diabetic a slice of pizza and a piece of cake if they came for dinner. It would send their sugars through the roof. And, I also believe her weight loss was a direct link to her cutting out the carbs/sugars which in turn lowered her A1C. I'm sure a little bit of everything factored into it but to say there is no proof her following a Keto diet had anything to do with it is not right either. It's working for her so there is no reason to discourage it.

What your opinion on the keto diet?

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