Recovering Carbaholic [Keto]

Step 1 drink whipping cream
Step 2 lots and lots of coconut oil

I'm pretty fond of vegetables.

Fellow carb-lover here... I tried keto for a year but ended up returning to carbs. Lost all the weight with calorie counting alone and it's been much more sustainable. I don't think I could realistically stick to a diet that forbids fruit, potatoes, beans, lentils, pasta, rice, bread... I prefer enjoying all of them in moderation.

I would only do Keto if it already fit my previous lifestyle. It doesn't, it is not simple, and it limits variety which are all things I don't need in my life unless I had a medical reason for it.

I love my vegetables and still eat them in large quantities, but don't miss the cookies, oatmeal, pizza or anything else I used to crave pre-keto. It's not right for everyone, though and it's not the only way. I did feel like keto was a good option for destroying carb cravings, if that along with weight loss is your end goal.

FlyingMolly wrote: »

Running_and_Coffee wrote: »

I love my vegetables and still eat them in large quantities, but don't miss the cookies, oatmeal, pizza or anything else I used to crave pre-keto. It's not right for everyone, though and it's not the only way. I did feel like keto was a good option for destroying carb cravings, if that along with weight loss is your end goal.

Same. You can take quite a lot of the carbohydrates out of the typical American diet and still have plenty of room left over for fruits and veggies. It’s true that I don’t sit around munching on a whole apple as a snack on keto, but let’s face it: that wasn’t something I’d actually do before keto, either.

Now, instead of having a big salad once in a while and feeling so virtuous that I decide I deserve a cookie to go with it, I eat an avocado, heaping plates of leafy greens, and moderate portions of berries pretty much every day, along with whatever else is lying around that I can squeeze in.

And I have actual self-control around food, which just...was not the case six months ago. It’s not the case when I take weekend breaks, either. People can scoff all they want at the idea of carbs as an addiction, but for some of us they really do seem to function that way.

But the examples you use don't really support the idea of "carb addiction." An apple is pretty much all carbs, so if you weren't craving apples, it wasn't just a carb craving. If you were eating cookies, remember that most cookies are as much fat as carbs.

I think low carb and keto can be good choices for people (I eat somewhat low carb much of the time and tried keto out of curiosity), but it's a pet peeve that people going on about "carbs" when they don't really mean they are unable to control themselves around carrots or apples or plain potatoes or oats or what not (yes, some people are exceptions, but even so I suspect it's rare to just crave "carbs" and not some specific food item which is more often than not NOT mostly just carbs).

I also think very often people don't realize that going from a poor, uncontrolled (eat what I want when I want it, only control mechanism is occasionally thinking "man, I should try to eat less today") diet to a more planned and healthful one very often DOES result in not feeling so out of control. It's not necessarily "carbs" at all.

And when I briefly tried keto I absolutely stopped doing it mostly because it was late spring and I was thinking about all the in-season fruit I wanted to be eating soon, and missed being able to fit in things like roasted potatoes and a very healthy dish with pasta (and lots of vegetables) and, especially beans and lentils. I was hitting my limit daily with just vegetables and some nuts and plain greek yogurt sometimes, and was doing so despite eating fewer veg when doing keto (and no fruit), but I did eat lots and lots of vegetables before keto.

Anyway, like I said, I agree it can be a pleasant way to eat for some and that it might be more filling for some than other options, but grouping all "carbs" together and framing them as the enemy or problem IMO makes no sense. If someone really does crave "carbs" generically, eating vegetables is not a bad idea or problem to have.

If the issue, instead, is feeling out of control around some specific foods, or overindulging in them, and they often are as much fat as carb, or are very specific carbs and not others, I think it's worth being more precise about that.

Nothing to do with whether or not keto is a good approach. Personally, I like low carbing for the opposite reason, though -- most starchy carbs and sweets are to me easy foods to cut back on and sensible ones for me to cut back on, as I don't miss them much and am satisfied with small portions and they don't satiate me all that much. A meal with just a small portion of starchy carbs or none is just as satisfying, so if cutting calories it's a good way. If I loved carbs (meaning starchy carbs or, I guess, sugary foods, even though they are often high fat too) most of all, I would probably find a different strategy worked better. (And unlike with keto, I can get in all the vegetables I think are desirable plus some fruit or smaller servings of starchy carbs or both without problem when low carbing, as I do it. Couldn't with keto, although that doesn't mean it's not right for others. I tend to have different ideas about how much veg is ideal in a diet than some do, and that was a frustration when I tried keto.)

I could easily over-eat oatmeal, or really any carbs in a bowl, and I can do things to an apple that make it cookie-like, such as slicing it and soaking it in vanilla-flavored stevia and adding cinnamon to it. I love apples, still would eat a small one every now and then, and think apples are healthy. However, it's the apples/sweetness slippery slope that gets me tripped up and going for more caloric and less vitamin-packed choices. I am NOT saying that apples are bad and that people should not eat them. For me, personally, though, reducing sweeter fruits and veggies and avoiding grains has had an impact on my hunger levels and cravings.

I don't want to get into what "addiction" means as eating cookies is hardly injecting heroin. It's more about the impact certain types of food have on my feelings of satiety that I'll say is the reason why I do keto and not just avoid sweets.