gwenedowning wrote: »

Hi all! I've been a member of fitness pal for a while now but never really engaged/used it. I really want to begin a healthier lifestyle and lose this weight. Any tips, motivation, encouragement is most definitely welcomed b/c I surely need it! So how does the group/challenge work? Do you guys share tips and recipes? Is there a menu or list of food suggestions?

CW 180
GW 165

Track everything you can. Estimations can get you in trouble, as our eyes are bad at estimating calories. Eat when hungry (within reason of course), hit your protein macro, don't overdo the carbs, think long term, and just stick with it. Artificial sweeteners can cause issues. Some are fine, some aren't. Depends on the person. I usually browse google and /r/ketorecipes if I want to find specific keto recipes. But mostly what I cooked before was something that could easily be keto friendly. Replacing bread crumbs with pork rinds that were ground in a food processor and regular ketchup with the low sodium sugar free stuff, really helped turn meatloafs back into something I could have on keto. I found out later that people call the pork rinds "Pork Panko" when used in substitution. They work better than bread crumbs whether cooking keto or not, I've found.

Almond milk, real butter, cheese, low-carb meats (sausages, hotdogs, etc, be careful and read label), spinach, greens, coconut oil, ranch dressing, and mio/aldi brand are my staples. I don't really cook sweets anymore, which is sad, since I'm a fantastic cook and baker. But the carb cravings ended after a while, and I don't miss that.

Low Carb items *can* work well for keto in a pinch or for daily use, but check those labels! Some things were good, but caused me to leave ketosis, I think. Some have a lot more carbs than they say, since they're sold as multi-serving products that are really a single serving.

Eating out fast food isn't that tough. Options are limited compared to a normal diet of course, but MFP has a great database to pull from, and most major chains will have full nutritional menus, some that you can customize with what you're getting.

Just really think about what you want to do, what you can do, what you're willing to do with or without, and get your mental state set to do this thing. Keto was tricky to get into, but 4+ months later, it's fantastic to live in.

There are tons of blogs and sites about keto cooking. Also checkout shopping lists for costco or walmart that are keto focused. Aldi is my one stop keto shop for almost everything except that sugar free ketchup. Seriously, I love ketchup, and not having any was making keto a bit tough for a while. Hotdogs, meatloaf, and so on.. mustard and mayo just do not make up for the red stuff. or green or purple, depending on the year.

Low carb ice cream from breyers was my sweet treat for a little while. It was higher than a keto diet can handle unless you're very low carb for the day, but once in a while, it was a good treat for 1/4 cup or 1/2 cup. Low carb isn't keto friendly, necessarily, but there are good options to choose from that can be keto friendly, or make good one-off treat days.

Carbs add up, so make sure you're logging. Some stuff rounds carbs down to 0, so logging as much as possible can really make a difference. Heavy cream, half and half, and almond milk used to be my goto for my breakfast. That with 1tbsp butter and 1tbsp coconut oil made up my breakfast fat bomb. Now I usually do 150-200ml muscle milk, 100-200ml almond milk, 1tbsp butter, 1tbsp coconut oil, coffee.

Protein takes more calories to burn than fat, if I remember right. Protein is also supposed to keep you sated for longer.

The hunger pangs, if you have them, should go away. Don't try anything like a 50% deficit off the bat.. start slow, plan long term, stick with it, I say.

The things I do could possibly be improved. I am flying blind sometimes and without a guide myself. But sticking with it, adjusting my macros every 10-15lbs, logging like a madman, and being honest with my diary and myself, has worked to help me lose the weight so far. I was almost 32kg/70lbs down before thanksgiving. I'm back to 67lbs down today, and back on track. That's a major win for me, considering I started tracking 15 July of this year, and started keto 18 July. Day 138, 30kg/67lbs down.

Good luck, stay active, log, weigh, measure, track, and keep with it!