@megandhight and @NikaChartrand

I did a keto diet for about 18 months. I'm still lower carb, but not back to keto levels again yet...

As far as not being hungry, take advantage of it while you can. Especially in the beginning, your body will go through phases of not being as hungry, because it's going to burn your existing body fat to fill in the caloric gap...

With keto, protein should always be aimed for. It's a minimum limit to reach - this will save your existing muscle and allow you to grow more - and it's great for skin health, etc. If you're lower one day, and over the next, that's fine, you just don't want to be consistently low.

Carbs are a hard limit. Don't exceed them. Within reason. If you go over by 5 carbs because you want more broccoli or salad, I'm sure you're fine....

Fats fill in only to satiety. So fats is where to leave off if you're not as hungry. You don't want to intentionally restrict this if you are hungry, because we can't trick the body...but you only want to use this until your appetite eases up. The body will burn whatever else it needs from your stored fat. The super high fat content is only for a MEDICAL KETOGENIC DIET - for folks with epilepsy or other medical issues specifically needing a medical diet.


That being said, at first, you might get a little more hormonal chaos, as burned body fat releases stored estrogen... But once you get fat adapted, for me, it was like I dialed back my periods to a point about 10 years back or 10 healthy steps back... I'm sure that affected my fertility, too, because it kept trying to "fix" my periods that were medically suppressed (due to other issues)...

For me, the biggest change was in my insulin resistance. It improved dramatically. That and the binge/craving cycle...

A number of us are over in the Keto group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1143-keto

Or the general low carb group (it covers everything from reducing only grains or sugars, from 150 grams of carbs to "zero carb" diets, keto, and everything between): http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/394-low-carber-daily-forum-the-lcd-group


Feel free to join us over there.


One of the things that I've recently understood is that the percentages of dietary intake are mean to be taken BEFORE your deficit... And then the deficit is removed from the fat calories... To demonstrate what that looks like, and why it's important to calculate it this way, is that the macro breakdown is different significantly. I"m going to use a 2000 calorie maintenance number, 1 pound per week loss rate (so minus 500 calories per day). I'm going to use 5% as the carbs, 20% as the protein, and 75% as the fat CALORIES.... Reminder: 1 gram of carbs is 4 calories, 1 gram of protein is 4 calories, and 1 gram of fat is 9 calories.


So, example 1: how MFP calculates the breakdown, AFTER the deficit...

2000 daily calories - 500 calorie deficit = 1500 daily calories

5% carbs = 75 calories of carbs = 18.75 grams of carbs

20% protein = 300 calories of protein = 75 grams of protein

75% fat = 1125 calories of fats = 125 grams of fat



Example 2, How the percentages are broken down during fat loss, per Phinney and Volek, in "The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living." (This changes as you move from losing weight to maintaining...which they call adapting, adjusting, building, and maintaining - adapting to keto, adjusting to weight loss, building new muscle, and maintain new healthy weight, or something like that... I'll attach the chart at the end - their explanation and numbers are different - I just wanted to use a KNOWN example).


So, example 2 - calculating the macros BEFORE the deficit, the removing the deficit calories from your fat intake, because your body will burn stored body fat for the balance of calories...

2000 daily calories

5% carbs = 100 calories of carbs = 25 grams of carbs

20% protein = 400 calories of protein = 100 grams of protein

75% fat = 1500 calories of fats - 500 calorie deficit = 1000 daily fat calories = 111.11 grams of fat



So, if you were using 5/15/80 -- or 5/10/85...this would be bigger differences (C/P/F)

Ex 1 (5/15/80) - 18.75 grams carbs / 56.25 grams protein / 133.33 grams fat

Ex 2 (5/15/80) - 25 grams carbs / 75 grams protein / 122.22 grams fat



Ex 1 (5/10/85) - 18.75 grams carbs / 37.5 grams protein / 141.67 grams fat

Ex 2 (5/10/85) - 25 grams carbs / 50 grams protein / 133.33 grams fat


So that is a difference of at least 25% (with these numbers) and up to 33% differences. And if you under-ate protein, you'd miss the mark even more. Holding on to your existing muscle mass is important. Protein helps your muscles, hair, skin, cartilage, etc. If we don't get enough protein, we'll continue to be "skinny-fat" where you'll likely lose the weight, but you'll lose a lot of it from muscle loss -- when the body needs protein, it will break down the existing muscles to get what it needs, etc. -- not from FAT loss, which is where we all want to lose weight, right?!


I hope this helps... Come over to the other groups - they've got great support, too! Also, feel free to ask any questions here, too. If I can answer them, or get others to help, I'll gladly do so... Best of luck...

Oops, almost forgot the chart link: https://bluejeanwellness.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/fb_img_1454689621190.jpg

I've been doing keto for only about a month but I've seen amazing results for what little time I've had both in losing weight and in mood swings, hair growth, and bloating. Doesn't seem to be helping my regularity, but I wouldn't expect that much of a change just from diet. I'll be meeting with my doctor about that next week.