Why are some WOE more acceptable than others?

nvmomketo wrote: »

@Quieau I have been keto (mostly) for going on 3 years. I have had about a 10 lb fluctuation after losing my weight (not 100+ lbs) but it continues to work best for me.

Thanks for your response! So if you don't mind my asking: how many pounds did you lose (gross and net)? And do you cycle or stay keto all the time? And finally, when you say it works best for you ... compared to which? What other ones were tried and can be compared?

I ask because the general consensus is that it "works" because of the net calorie restriction, not because of the specific carb macro restriction (1000 calories intake will make you lose weight like crazy regardless of macros; I know someone claiming Keto is the only way to lose weight, but she's eating 800-900 calories a day on Keto). And the concern that the weight lost is a lot of water and muscle (compared with other less restrictive WOE).

So do you track body composition, or just weight on a scale? And what others diets were tried for comparison? Do you exercise? What type and how much?

I'm not asking to challenge you at all; I'm trying to learn and the info is VERY sparse beyond, "Wow! Keto works!" and "Wow, Keto sucks!" ... thanks!

Quieau wrote: »

nvmomketo wrote: »

@Quieau I have been keto (mostly) for going on 3 years. I have had about a 10 lb fluctuation after losing my weight (not 100+ lbs) but it continues to work best for me.

Thanks for your response! So if you don't mind my asking: how many pounds did you lose (gross and net)? And do you cycle or stay keto all the time? And finally, when you say it works best for you ... compared to which? What other ones were tried and can be compared?

I ask because the general consensus is that it "works" because of the net calorie restriction, not because of the specific carb macro restriction (1000 calories intake will make you lose weight like crazy regardless of macros; I know someone claiming Keto is the only way to lose weight, but she's eating 800-900 calories a day on Keto). And the concern that the weight lost is a lot of water and muscle (compared with other less restrictive WOE).

So do you track body composition, or just weight on a scale? And what others diets were tried for comparison? Do you exercise? What type and how much?

I'm not asking to challenge you at all; I'm trying to learn and the info is VERY sparse beyond, "Wow! Keto works!" and "Wow, Keto sucks!" ... thanks!

I lost about 40 lbs in around 5 months. I regained about 10 lbs when my health issues flared up and I was eating too much as I tried to raise my carb level a bit. I lost that 10 again but about 5 have crept back on this winter.

I maintained for about 2 years now.

I stay mostly keto. While losing it was all keto. When I maintain well, I am keto. When my carbs hit 50 g or so, I start gaining. It triggers my appetite. Plus I have reactive hypoglycaemia so when I rely on carbs for fuel, I experience fatigue, lightheadedness, shaking and a lot of hunger every 2-3 hours after eating. If I keep carbs quite low, it never happens and it makes eating less easier.

For most of my adult life I followed moderation. I was slowly gaining weight doing that. About 25 lbs in 20 years.

I lost all of that extra weight once when I followed Tosca Reno's Eat Clean Diet. I felt good and lost weight. In hind site, it was low carb. I still remember starting maintenance. I'll just have the one muffin. Pfft. Increasing carbs = weight gain for me. I regained my weight.

Once I developed insulin resistance, I gained another 15 lbs in just over a year while failing at trying to lose weight with moderation. I can't handle moderate carbs and my health was suffering.

I switched to keto to address my IR and other health issues. It worked. It became easy so I will stay with it.

Keto works for weight loss due to calorie restriction. Some people with IR, like me, may lose slightly faster on aLCHF diet but it is not a large difference. For those without metabolic problems, I have not seen anything that shows a LCHF has an edge over regular diets. Some might be less hungry eating keto, but for healthy people, that is the only weight loss benefit.

Keto is fairly muscle sparing after the first few days, but a really low calorie diet is not smart. When I lost, without exercise, I was eating about 1500kcal a day.

nvmomketo wrote: »

Poweredbycoffee06 wrote: »

Bahaha I got wooed... I'm taking it as a woo hoo good for you for finding a sustainable plan for yourself.

Lol. If it is a keto thread, you can expects woos.

Oh, I didn't expect anything less.

kommodevaran wrote: »

GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »

youngmomtaz wrote: »

kommodevaran wrote: »

youngmomtaz wrote: »

Thanks for all the thoughts everyone! The ethical standpoint of vegetarian/veganism is actually, embarrassingly, completely honestly, something I had forgotten. Of the IRL people I know who eat in those styles only one does so because she can’t stand the texture of meat. Not a love for the animal but just a dislike of meat. The rest do it for “health”.

I still don’t think that having a moral standpoint on it should make it “more ok” and less questioned than Keto eating. Not saying either should be questioned. It just feels like there is a mad rush to be the first person the tell them that they don’t have to eat that way instead of actually helping them.

No, it's just a mad rush to be the person to convince them
Do you really think NOT telling them that they don't have to if they don't want to, is helping?

I do actually. Once they have made a decision, why make them question it every step of the way? That just screws with people’s self worth. Maybe I just assume a basic level of research, comprehension, common sense. Etc. On what they are choosing. Naive on my part I guess. In real life I don’t flat out tell grown adults they are wrong if their choices don’t affect me. Unless they want my opinion. Asking for an opinion about the Keto diet vs asking how to set their macros for the Keto diet warrant completely different answers.

I'm coming into this a few days late, but I'll offer my perspective.

On threads where newbies are suffering on keto and unsure, I offer perspective from 40 years spent dieting. Ten of those years were spent eating low carb. I never once got closer than 15 pounds above the upper range of overweight BMI.


I have some unique perspective to offer on sustainability to conversations about this. If someone is starting off and struggling, I think it would be foolish not to share it.

I know everyone is different and my experience is unique to me, but if you're going in with doubts, having more information on board is always a good thing. I wasted ten years never reaching goal because of lack of information.

This is what I told myself too, only it was twenty+ years. But the information was provided to me, I just chose to ignore it and stick to what I believed was necesssary (low fat, low sugar, low salt, high fiber, low taste). I have spent a few years being bitter, "why couldn't someone have explained this to me", and trying to explain "losing weight doesn't have to feel like torture" to newcomers; while at the same time being perfectly aware of the adage "I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you", even pressing that "you have to do the job yourself". I don't think the most common problem is a lack of information - it could have been that for you though - I think the overarching problem is too much information and lack of judgement. What I've really been trying to do - but now aiming to stop - is to understand something for someone else, do the job for them. That doesn't work. I didn't make the connection until a few days ago! I had to do the job myself, and a big part of that job was to change my attitude and challenge my beliefs. All I can do is present the facts I believe to be true and as I understand them, as clearly and neutral as possible, and let the other person use that information as they see fit and to the extent they are able to. Noone could have done more for me either.

Oh, I dieted for 40 years. That ten years was spent low carbing being told it would magically regulate my intake and make me as thin as I'd always wanted to be.

But the thing is, I started falling for the misinformation and never had a lot of success.

I knew the general "eat less, move more", but it was all somewhat vague to me how to quantify my intake, and I was a very credulous person back then. If it wasn't some silly crash diet, it was eat hardly anything. There was no middle path.

Quite silly of me. Yes, I had to do a lot of belief challenging and responsibility taking. But I also had to learn a lot about exact numbers and how all the puzzle pieces fit together to make "eat less, move more" work.

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Generally, I think a lot of people (me included) are more likely to notice/remember when their own pet beliefs are - in their view - criticized or countered, thus to think that it occurs more frequently than it actually does.

I think this is a good point about perception of frequency.
People who post that they are drinking meal replacement shakes, expensive diet meals, nutritionists/coaches, avoiding processed foods, drinking an ocean of water, spending hours at the gym are told those things are not absolutely necessary for weight loss every time they come up. I don't think keto is targeted negatively more than other things.

I think a major reason you will continually see posts saying this or that isn't necessary only calorie deficit is that many of us have been through plans that promised weight loss without talking about calories and did not have consistant or sustainable results. We have collectively spent lots of money and time on these things. I'm glad people point it out so often in this community that weight loss boils down to CICO because I did struggle in the past more than necessary trying to stick to things that were not a good fit for me and hating myself for failing. Calorie information is out there but there are more books, videos, celebrity diets, etc telling you to do some diet of the day. It is easy for someone new to weight loss to think they need to do what they hear about most.