How did you find Keto?
WholeFoods4Lyfe
Posts: 1,518 Member
What made you decide to give it a try? How long have you been following it? Are you Lazy, IIFYM, Clean, VLCHF, etc? Do you think you can eat like this forever?
I just love hearing everyone's stories, they are always so inspiring!!
I just love hearing everyone's stories, they are always so inspiring!!
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Replies
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My name is Tiffany!
I've been Keto since January 2017. Keto is the last thing I tried and the only thing that has worked.
I've struggled with obesity my entire adult life (I'm 45 years old). When I was 42 years old I was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. Cancer doesn't run in my family. When I went into remission in January 2016 I vowed to once and for all beat obesity at any cost! I felt like my eating a crap ton of sugar and carbs on a daily basis and being morbidly obese was a leading factor to developing breast cancer. I started my weight loss/healthy journey at 250 pounds. I hired a coach and did the if it fits your macros way of eating. In 2016 I lost 25 pounds, I felt TERRIBLE, I had horrible joint pain, horrible plantar fasciitis (PF) in my feet, very depressed, horrible brain fog/chemo brain, always hungry, etc. In December 2016 I threw up my middle fingers at weight loss and just took the month off and enjoyed food wise with my family. Due to my lack of weight loss my IIFYM coach was frustrated with me and no longer wanted to work with me. I was so sad and depressed and felt helpless. I asked my Oncologist if I was a candidate for gastric sleeve and he told me no due to my body needing ALL the nutrients and with a small stomach I wouldn’t be able to absorb what’s needed, I asked if I could try Metifast again no due to the protein being soy based and soy creates an estrogen production and my cancer was estrogen fed so I couldn’t do that.
I was lost… a high school friend won a national fat loss competition through her gym and I reached out to her and said what did you do and she told me about Keto. I BAWLED my eyes out. I’ve known about keto but never wanted to do keto because of the no carbs. I knew I had to try it. If I didn’t try it then I would have to surrender to the fact that I was going to live out my days in extreme pain, extreme inflammation, brain fog, depression/anxiety, probably develop cancer again, etc. Sounded like a pretty miserable existence and I thought I didn’t survive cancer to live like this. I fought and survived cancer to LIVE and live life to the fullest. I have a husband that deserves a happy and healthy wife, kids that need the same… I want to live to see them graduate and live a full life of their own. If I continued the way I was going none of that was going to happen.
So reluctantly I started keto on January 21, 2017. I started keto so that I could prove to my Oncologist that the only “diet” that will work for me is gastric sleeve and he would sign off on me moving forward with weight loss surgery.
In the beginning of my keto journey I did have mild keto flu but not too terrible. My friend kept telling me when I feel like crap eat more fat, eat an avocado and take in lots of salt. By the 5 day I felt my brain fog starting to lift, by day 10 I could literally feel my brain working and moving. It was the weirdest thing. I felt like my brain was on fire but in a good way. I had more energy than I ever had. My joint pain and PF was starting to go away. Best of all I was seeing the scale go down. Within a month I knew this way of life was for me! When I went for a follow up visit with my Oncologist he congratulated me on my weight loss and symptoms being so much better and asked me what I was doing. I reluctantly told him I was Keto and he was so happy to hear this. He assured me that if I stay keto long term I’m drastically reducing my changes of a cancer reoccurrence. That was enough for me to know that this was now my forever way of life.
Today I weigh 166 pounds. I’d like to get to 145 but if I’m in the 150’s I’m good with that too. Today it’s about being strong and healthy. Since I started keto I’m down 59 pounds and since I’ve committed to being as healthy as possible once I went into remission I’m down 84 pounds.
I don't do a "clean" keto. I need to keep it budget friendly. I try to keep it as clean as possible but I don't obsess about it being clean. I've tried many different variations of keto and what works best for me is to not eat in a deficit.
I'm still losing weight and inches. It might be slower than most however I'm willing to sacrifice that slow loss for total health. I track everything...I weigh all my food just about. Counting macros and making things fit my macros brings me great joy... I'm a nerd when it comes to tracking. If you'd like to follow me feel free to friend request me. I open up my food journal to my mfp friends.
This is a way of life… KETO IS LIFE!!!23 -
I found keto AFTER weight loss and gave it a 52 week trial for my neurological movement disorder, Cervical Dystonia aka Spasmodic Torticollis. I though if it helps some with Epilepsy then perhaps CD/ST also. No luck there but I did find that the gnawing hunger I had during weight loss and the following year...ended. So did the horrible cravings. My version of keto was the classical medically therapeutic approach that was low in both carbs AND protein. That is how I know/learned it is fat that brings satiety for me.
That was 2016. Very low carb and very low protein. In 2017 I upped carbs to ~50 per day and that is where I remain. I also eat higher protein than when eating MTKD but I don't push the protein. Not. At. All. Protein and fat fall...wherever...daily.
I have no trouble keeping carbs low with ample vegetables daily. It is the cookies, cakes, pies, candy, ice cream, Cheetos, Fritos and Doritos that I refrain from eating to keep carbs in check.
I'll "flex" on my foods on special occasion. This week I'm at the beach with 6 friends. Girl's week.
I skip most of the appetizers and can make just about anything fit into my 50 carbs. Tonight will be an ear of fresh corn and coleslaw with my ribs.
To paraphrase something I read just yesterday: the point of eating healthy is to support your aliveness, not encroach on it.12 -
I have stayed within a healthy weight range my entire adult life, but my pattern hasn't really been healthy. I was either gaining or losing weight, not actually "maintaining." In recent years, I've lost weight following Weight Watchers, the 21 Day Fix, South Beach, a gym trainer's plan...and whenever I got to my goal, I'd slowly creep it back up until I needed a new plan. Because of cravings, really. They would overtake discipline. So it was a battle of physical desire vs. self-control.
Like any of those other diets, keto was just one I hadn't tried yet, and something a few friends of mine were on. I started in in February and lost the 10 lbs I wanted to, plus an additional 5 lbs. I don't crave sugar/carbs on keto--and I mean that physically, I just don't want to eat sugar, it tastes differently now--so I have not had any issues with nibbling mindlessly. I'm hopeful at this point I can figure out the right calories to maintain ( am still very slowly losing each week) and make this one stick! This has been the longest I've stayed on a plan without significant backsliding. With only really a 10-12 lb range, it's pretty easy to hit your goal and then slowly backslide, so more than 6 months on one plan is a very big deal to me.8 -
Oh, the migraine saga...it's so boring.
I started having migraines around age 30...they started as just once every month or two...then around age 35 they became dramatically worse and I was having them 5 days a week every week. After about a year of THAT hell and watching Forks Over Knives, I went totally vegan. FOK is mostly about meat consumption and heart disease/cancer, however, in the other special clips on the DVD they also talk about "other illnesses" that are not usually assumed to be related to heart health, but really are, like erectile dysfunction, diabetes, and other things. It occurred to me that maybe migraines were related to heart health and maybe no one had figured that out yet. In any case, the vegan thing was almost a cure, and after I cut out wheat it was a total cure. It was also a totally restrictive diet. 5 years later I was really struggling to keep up with it and get enough protein. I did NAET and was treated for allergies and that seemed to stop many of my food triggered migraines. It was so nice to eat eggs and dairy again - missed those, totally. However, once I started introducing meats into my diet again, the monthly migraines came back...again. Then last year, about 10 months ago, I decided to try keto. So far it's mostly been a miracle cure, though I did discover a few weeks ago that it doesn't stop my stress induced migraines. It does stop all my food triggered migraines, and all the monthly migraines, and it's so much easier to find food than eating vegan and gluten free.
I do carb/calorie cycle. So I eat about 1900 cal and 95g carbs on weightlifting days (Tu/Fri/Sun), but only about 1200 cal and 30g carbs on other days.
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I started suffering migraines as a child. It's rare for young boys, but they ruled out brain cancer and everything else. The migraines were constant at the start. I missed over 30 days of school in a semester that year. They got less frequent, as I got older, but I would have them every month or so.
When I went keto, they stopped. Then I went zerocarb and they stayed gone for that also. I had one migraine in the last five years. That was when I cheated. When I stick to zerocarb (and probably keto also), I don't get them any more. It is one benefit that I almost forget about, these days. I never think about migraines, because I just don't get them.10 -
Inspiring stories!
I came to keto in the spring of 2015 for two main reasons:
1. Autoimmune problems and inflammation that was causing me some health problems like arthritis, migraines, and fatigue. I was already gluten free due to a celiac diagnosis a few years earlier, and that took care of many problems, but I still had thinning hair, poor skin, and I developed a couple of years earlier some serious arthritis in my hip that I wanted to slow down - hip arthritis moves fast and usually ends up in hip replacement within 3 years. I knew plans like the AIP and Wahl's protocol could help.
2. I had discovered that I was developing prediabetes through an oral glucose tolerance test for a different health issue (a suspected pituitary tumor - I first saw the word keto for treating brain tumours) and I was massively failing at trying to lose weight using moderation. When I discovered my higher BG levels I was barely overweight at 165-170 lbs at 5'8", but then I tried following doctor's advice of "eat more fruits and veggies and lean meats" while cutting back on calories, which led to overeating and gaining 20 lbs in a year. It didn't help my BG, to say the least.
Eventually I found the book Dr Bernstein's Diabetes Solution, which was a LCHF/keto plan to reduce insulin needs. I found it complimented AIP and the Wahl's Protocol, as well as my already GF diet. I googled more support of the idea from Peter Atta and videos like My Perfect Human Diet, and then took the step.... TBH, thinking about starting was way harder than actually beginning.
I started LCHF and dropped refined and processed carbs. I felt so much better that I kept dropping carbs to about 20g after 2-3 weeks. My BG improved almost immediately, although my fasting BG drifted back up after about 6 months keto. I started losing weight almost effortlessly and no longer had to fight feelings of deprivation that having only a little bite gave me.
I kept going and after a month my skin had cleared up and I had hair re growth. I also stopped having migraines and found that my reactive hypoglycaemia and postural hypotension disappeared. I was sleeping less but better and had steadier energy. And around the same time I noticed an alarming improvement in my cognition - my memory was better and I was more focused. What's really disturbing is that my husband even noticed.... Quite scary.
My arthritis is still there but it is slowed. I've had bone spurs and arthritis in my hip for over 5 years now and I'm just starting to think about surgery. It could be luck, but the progression of this is slower compared to what most people experience. It got noticeably worse this winter when my carbs crept up, and I was gaining a few pounds again. I don't think it is coincidence.
Now I am mostly carnivore. Most meals are just meat, and I seem to do better this way, even if it is boring. I can feel it when I add back carbs, from constipation, to fatigue and changing BG levels, to pimples again. I like to splurge on carbs, but I do pay for it with my health and well being, so I try not to do it too often. My splurges are pretty boring anyways, like half a cup of tree nuts. LOL
I think those of us that stick with keto seem to have gained to most from this woe - we have a bigger pay-off. If I did not have such dramatic improvements, I doubt I would have stuck with it, or continue to do it, because it can be limiting.6 -
I found Keto through a friend on Facebook who coaches. I couldn't afford to pay for a coach, and due to lots and lots of lovely gastric and hormonal issues, I was already eating pretty clean and felt fairly confident I could achieve the macros and nutrition on my own.
I was actually vegan for years, which was wonderful for about two of those, then suddenly the thyroid issues started and I felt TERRIBLE. No amount of tweaking my vegan would work. I even tried vegan Keto for the first month, and I just felt worse. I think I lost two pounds, but I could barely even remember a four-item grocery list.
So I took on the meat, I cut gluten years ago because of the gastric stuff, and I do my best to stay as raw veggie-wise as possible, eat only grass-fed or cage-free animules that I source myself (hormonal issues have been SOOOO MUCH BETTER staying away from anything from a factory farm.) I'll eat dairy if I know it's clean. I basically eat like I did as a vegan, but I eat the meat and dairy in small amounts. Just enough to amount the protein I'm supposed to have, and the cheese because it's freaking delicious.
So I guess I'm clean? Or whole foods? Or something. I don't know. LOL.
I don't choose to eat clean because I'm fanatic or judgmental. It's expensive, and I have to seriously weight and portion EVERYTHING I eat. I was just willing to do whatever I could to fix my hormonal issues. I was tired of being sick for no reason, and it's seemed to solve that.
I do feed my kids this food, as well, because I'm so afraid of them growing up with the same issues I have. They aren't keto, but I keep them as clean as I can with junk stuff for treats VERY VERY OCCASIONALLY. I know most of what I've dealt with was from eating total crap my entire childhood and my body and hormonal system just not developing in a healthy way. Nobody likes poopin' blood. HAHA.
Keto is amazing. I can remember things. I have more energy. My skin is so soft, and my hair has grown back where it had fallen out from thyroid. I've lost 20 lbs so far, but even if that stopped, I wouldn't. It sounds crazy, but I can even see more clearly again. My vision had started to become fuzzy for some reason, and I was just ready to hit the optometrist, but oddly enough...that has gone away now. Which is a huge and pleasant relief!
I will be glad to get through this phase of weight loss so that I can, at the very least, cut back on the meat. It's not something I truly enjoy after going so many years without it, but clean protein sources on a vegan diet tend to be high in carbs. I do look forward to the carb cycle days (if they ever come) when I can choose to eat beans instead of meat. I'm not sure I'll ever give up that delicious bone broth, though, omg.4 -
I feel like a vegan brain with a carnivore body. Made myself add chicken (B.King nuggets did the job) to exchange a piscavegetarian WOE for the Atkins craze. It worked and I lost 50 pounds. Then I thought "just one candy bar won't hurt" at Halloween and couldn't stop. I regained 130 pounds not knowing why I couldn't go lo-carb again. The temptation was just overwhelming.
At 317# I had bariatric surgery and lost 175. Then it started sneaking back again. I fought it hard but that just limited it to about 10#/year, but it kept climbing. After 4 years I was afraid to end up almost chair bound again, and could see it approaching.
I found this and the LoCarb group and started reading all the posts. Got a feel for what needed to change and gradually eased into it. I intended to be just lo-carb wth 100gm/day carbs. But The fewer carbs I ate, the fewer I craved and it dropped down into Keto,range. Now I've lost half of those 40 pounds, about 4-5 pounds per month, very reasonable.
So how did I find keto? By finding this group. I owe you such a debt of gratitude.6 -
Started Keto as a way to end the yo yo dieting. Carbs and sugar made me binge. Remove the things that make you binge and you are left with thinking what the hell do I need to be eating. Then I researched keto, watched some documentaries, and decided to take the plunge.
All the other side effects/bonuses of switching over to a keto diet is what will keep me a fat burner for life. I see no reason to go back to eating the way I was.5 -
My husband and I tried Keto about 2 years ago on a whim. I have been trying to control my weight pretty much my whole life...and not always in a healthy way. When I joined MFP back in 2011, I lost weight quick just from calorie deficit and exercise. I am not one of those who thrives on exercise though and I slowly started to gain it back once I started skipping the gym. The calorie deficit wasn't enough. So I struggled for years before deciding to try something else. We tried Keto for only a couple weeks but immediately became discouraged because I only gained weight and all the cheese was making my husband sick (who's lactose intolerant or sensitive, at least). Some of my friends decided to start doing it off and on. I watched their successes (and failures) over the next 2 years. Finally when my BFF and I went on vacation in May, I saw how easy it was for her to manage it, even when we were out of town, having a great time. When we got back from vacation, I decided it was time I tried it out. It took me a month to actually start, but I finally did on June 21st. So I'm 1 month in and while I haven't lost as much weight as I thought I would by this time, I'm feeling better about myself, my progress in size, etc. I have to remind myself this is not a race and just because she's lost so much weight, doesn't mean I will. She's been doing it a lot longer than I have, she's much better at water intake than I am, and she actually works out. LOL - something I do very little of.
I currently do strict Keto, but once I get to my goal weight, I plan to do lazy Keto to maintain, as well as stop restricting calories so much. Honestly, the calorie deficit is what kills me, but the moment I increase calories or go over even a little, I gain the next day. So I'm trying to find my balance.
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I tried tracking carbs as part of an effort to manage blood glucose after a T2D diagnosis. The Diabetes Association diet was really not working. I found that the lower I kept my carbs, the better my numbers were. Initially I settled on 50 carbs a day as a goal, but then I found the groups in MFP, and lowered my carbs to 20 in October 2016. That is where I have been since.
I have lost weight - about 100 lbs on keto and 40 lbs before that. I am off diabetes and cholesterol meds. Numbers are good. My last A1C was 5.6 after being off metformin for 6 months.
I am about to start maintenance and plan to stay keto but increase my calories a little. We will see how this phase of things goes.5 -
Hi. I found Keto through Dr. Carolyn Dean who helped me figure out how to get rid of my heart palpitations. As a side, she suggested I try Keto to help heal my leaky gut.
I started watching youtube videos to learn about it, and talking about the fact that I would be starting it soon to my family. The day before I started keto my daughter sat down with me in the kitchen and began asking questions, "What's this diet thing you're starting soon?" She'll be 19 this week and has been overweight her whole life. After sitting with her in the kitchen and watching some Dr. Ken Barry videos with her, she declared she wanted to do this diet with me! I was shocked! So, for the past 6 weeks she and I have taken this journey together. She's down something like 22 lbs and I'm down about 11. We don't IF or workout, just eat <25 carbs/day and whatnot. We DO meal prep for the week ahead and that feels vital to me. Happy to have found this group. 7 -
I've struggled with my weight since I was in high school; once I wasn't super active every day, I just kept gaining a little more every year. I managed to drop about 40 pounds in 4 months before I got married by going on South Beach, but I backslid and just kept creeping up and not bothering to diet until I woke up and weighed 270 lbs at 5'6". I found Keto through a few friends who had converted because of medical issues - they were so happy and felt so great, and lost a ton of weight almost as a side effect. Talked with the husband, who also has been struggling for years, and he had a friend at work who did the same and loved to talk about her diet tricks and recipes. We started just over a month ago, I track everything I eat, he mostly just kind of wings it, and we've both lost over 20 pounds! I'm loving the food we're eating, I have so much more energy than I used to, I just feel so much BETTER that I really don't think I'll ever go back to the way I ate before. My goal is to get down to 170, so 100 lbs overall - still "overweight" by BMI but I've always had a "generous" build - some things don't go away even with diet haha. Wish me luck!6
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fyrechild83 wrote: »...and lost a ton of weight almost as a side effect. ...I'm loving the food we're eating, I have so much more energy than I used to, I just feel so much BETTER that I really don't think I'll ever go back to the way I ate before.
First, I definitely wish you good luck! But, I don't think you'll need luck. YOU GOT THIS! I quoted a few things you said that I totally agree with. I feel so great. 6 weeks into this and my allergies are gone (complete side-effect). My allergies used to bother the crap outta me! I feel great lugging around less weight than I had been, too. But yeah, I like this way of eating enough that I will probably stick close to it the rest of my life after reaching my goal weight.
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Last year, I started to gain more weight and couldn't go on low fat diet any more because I was hungry and snacked all the time.I felt sleepy and sluggish all the time. I thought I had emotional problem or lack will power.Then I watched Netflik and You tubes about sugar and food addictions.I understand the working of human bodies better.The more you eat sugar and carbs the more you will be hungry for it. So, you will be fat and hungry for the bad foods that make you fat in the first place. I learn that the only way to stop food addictions and food cravings is to quit it.So, I quit sugar and carbs,I've been on keto diet for only 2 months so I still miss it a little but I don't want to eat it. I'm losing weight on Keto diet like never before. I feel better ,more happy.I have more positive outlook on life. Keto works for me . My husband quit sugar now which is good because he is T2D. He still eat too much carbs.1
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I saw it mentioned on reddit when i was looking at weight loss info on there, and did some reading. The thing that prompted me to try was someone saying you can make it as easy or hard as you like. I started easy, then got more careful logging etc.
Broke a very long plateau and did it for a few months. My weight loss stopped and I got disillusioned but in hindsight, I was cycling a lot and my body comp was changing. I am back at it 5 years later, 6 months in now. Still cycling and not worried about the scale, but noting the extra belt holes etc as indicators it's working.
I think it's a WOE you need to discover and research yourself, not just do it because some d-list celebrity tried it for a week.2
