Keto didn't work

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  • whatalazyidiot
    whatalazyidiot Posts: 343 Member
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    nutmegoreo wrote: »
    sfstegall wrote: »
    A ketogenic diet is supposed to put your body into a state of ketosis, where you are burning ketone bodies (made from your body's fat) instead of glucose. Your body is set up right now to burn glucose, not ketone bodies, so right now it is NOT set up to burn those. Your body will naturally re-orient itself to produce and burn ketone bodies, but it takes time -- sometimes a long time -- for the changeover to happen. Your body has to re-staff its digestive enzymes with the right kind for keto.

    Think of it this way: up until now, your body has been a factory producing trucks. It's staffed with engineers (enzymes) who know how to make trucks (digest carbs). Now you're switching over to make, oh, say, dolls. Your auto engineers don't know how to do that. Now you have to go through the transition of training your auto engineers to be doll makers (burn ketone bodies). In diet terms, the research I have read says that it takes a MINIMUM of thirty days to make the switch from burning carbs to burning ketone bodies.

    This means that you must eat a strictly keto diet for at least one month before you can expect to see a change. Not ten days, not two weeks, but at least thirty days. If you've been eating a relatively low-carb diet, this MIGHT happen sooner. Maybe. But if you've been eating a carb-heavy diet, it may take up to three months.

    Transitioning to a keto diet also means you can't cheat. Ever. It would be like asking all those newly trained doll makers to go back to making trucks, which they've forgotten how to do. Your body will scramble to dump all the ketone-body digestive enzymes and re-load the old carbohydrate-digesting enzymes, which is like writing over a computer file. You've just wiped out ALL YOUR PROGRESS with one cookie. You have to start all over to get into ketosis, starting with a minimum of thirty days to transition back to ketosis.

    Final suggestion: the only way to reliably tell that you have reached a state of ketosis is blood testing strips. Urine strips won't do the job, because they aren't that accurate. Spend the money and get the test kits, while keeping in mind that some people in ketosis never show it on a test strip.

    Good luck.

    I can't imagine trying to stick to a diet where all my progress is wiped out by one almighty cookie. I can see how people would read something like this along with being told that they have to do keto to lose weight, and then feel utterly hopeless. It's unfortunate and a downright shame that people fall for this kind of nonsense.

    The thing I hated was if I went out of ketosis (because of like.. fries), it caused horrible stomach cramps and nausea. Then it takes a couple days to get back into ketosis. It works great for a lot of people, so nothing against it, just wasn't right for me personally.
  • ritzvin
    ritzvin Posts: 2,860 Member
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    @paree0808 I haven't seen another post from you. There have been a lot of posts/opinions. What did you decide to do? Are you successfully losing weight?

    For my update, I've lost 24 lb. in 11 weeks (16 lb. to go). Since the 2nd week of keto, I haven't experienced the arthritis pain I had before keto, which makes me wonder if excess carbs contributed to my pain (and farting, which quickly ended). For me, I think the keto WOE will be sustainable. Sometimes, I miss my cookies and ice cream, but the benefits outweigh the extra carbs I've given up. Occasionally, like at Thanksgiving, I had a few bites of my favorite sweets, so I don't completely deprive myself. I'll have a little more leeway when I reach maintenance and don't have to maintain a deficit, but I learned from my last weight-loss experience (not keto) that I will still need to diligently track what I eat.

    I would guess that going keto likely cut out something you have an allergy or intolerance to (wheat, milk, etc). (wheat can cause joint pain in a celiac, for instance).
  • ReneeKatz
    ReneeKatz Posts: 7 Member
    edited December 2018
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    One way I've started to look at losing weight (or simply not gaining weight), is to find a diet or a type or food that satisfies you and makes it easy to stay under your calorie goals without being miserably hungry. For alot of people, the foods on keto, bacon, cheese, cream, eggs, fatty steaks, chicken with skin, green vegetables, fill them up fast and make it very easy to resist the temptation to over-eat and they blunt the hunger pangs you can get with dieting in general. This is why keto works so well for many people.

    But, if it doesn't satisfy you, and you don't keep track of calories at all, you'll still end up overeating and you have all the same issues as a person eating a 'high carb' type of diet.
  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,754 Member
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    Keto does work. Calories in vs. calories out is key. When you first start, you'll eat more calories just trying to figure it all out, but once you do, get in that deficit. I've had tons of success! Just stick with it, and be faithful. AND work out. Your heart will thank you :)

    How long have you been eating a high fat diet? My heart is fine, thank you.
  • try2again
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
    edited December 2018
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    Keto does work. Calories in vs. calories out is key. When you first start, you'll eat more calories just trying to figure it all out, but once you do, get in that deficit. I've had tons of success! Just stick with it, and be faithful. AND work out. Your heart will thank you :)

    But my heart thanks me already without keto. 🤔🤷🏼‍♀️
    Keto does work. Calories in vs. calories out is key. When you first start, you'll eat more calories just trying to figure it all out, but once you do, get in that deficit. I've had tons of success! Just stick with it, and be faithful. AND work out. Your heart will thank you :)

    How long have you been eating a high fat diet? My heart is fine, thank you.

    I could be wrong, but my brain registered this poster's comment as "your heart will thank you for working out". ???
  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,754 Member
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    try2again wrote: »
    Keto does work. Calories in vs. calories out is key. When you first start, you'll eat more calories just trying to figure it all out, but once you do, get in that deficit. I've had tons of success! Just stick with it, and be faithful. AND work out. Your heart will thank you :)

    But my heart thanks me already without keto. 🤔🤷🏼‍♀️
    Keto does work. Calories in vs. calories out is key. When you first start, you'll eat more calories just trying to figure it all out, but once you do, get in that deficit. I've had tons of success! Just stick with it, and be faithful. AND work out. Your heart will thank you :)

    How long have you been eating a high fat diet? My heart is fine, thank you.

    I could be wrong, but my brain registered this poster's comment as "your heart will thank you for working out". ???

    You are right. Oops.
  • Chef_Barbell
    Chef_Barbell Posts: 6,644 Member
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    try2again wrote: »
    Keto does work. Calories in vs. calories out is key. When you first start, you'll eat more calories just trying to figure it all out, but once you do, get in that deficit. I've had tons of success! Just stick with it, and be faithful. AND work out. Your heart will thank you :)

    But my heart thanks me already without keto. 🤔🤷🏼‍♀️
    Keto does work. Calories in vs. calories out is key. When you first start, you'll eat more calories just trying to figure it all out, but once you do, get in that deficit. I've had tons of success! Just stick with it, and be faithful. AND work out. Your heart will thank you :)

    How long have you been eating a high fat diet? My heart is fine, thank you.

    I could be wrong, but my brain registered this poster's comment as "your heart will thank you for working out". ???

    I hope so. 🤷🏼‍♀️
  • Larkspur94
    Larkspur94 Posts: 114 Member
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    Larkspur94 wrote: »
    Are you keeping track of macros? Keto may be a high fat diet, but too much fat can actually prevent your body from using the fat stores. Starting out you want to keep it high, say at 90g a day. But later on you can focus more on meeting the protein goal (this depends on the person, how much weights they are doing, how much lean mass). But of course don't go low fat, or you will get hungry. Staying at a calorie deficit is important for any weight loss diet. Keto helps keep you full and stops craving for sugar. But it also has many health benefits that other diets don't have. Keto is a lifestyle. To loose weight requires the deficit in calories.
    You can also include intermediate fasting. Besides calorie deficit, insulin control is also important. I do this with keto. Though I got myself used to the diet first, for a few weeks. I've lost 20lb since end of September. I currently lose a pound a week at a 500 cal deficit, never hungry. Get peckish at meal time (Which is likely just because my body is used to eating at that time), but don't remember what full hunger/ being absolutely ravenous feels like any more.
    With insulin control, there are those diets that follow eating 5 or more small meals and snacking throughout the day. These aren't actually very good for fat loss. It keeps the insulin high, meaning your body doesn't get the chance to access fat reserves. So when at a deficit, instead of burning fat for fuel, it has to lower your metabolism and as a last resort, take from muscle. There are studies showing this you can look up.
    Less time eating means more fat burning. Keto makes this easier as it's the ketones that make the fat into usable energy. But again, you want the insulin down to give them access to the fat.

    So check your macros. Make sure you are at a deficit. (about 500 under you TDEE). Eat meals in a set amount of time without snacking in-between the meals and you will see results.

    links to said studies please.

    @CharlieBeansmomTracey

    Sorry for the late reply. The site doesn't notify me when I get a response.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APZCfmgzoS0

    This video sums it up. Studies are referenced throughout the video. You can easily google each study that interests you to read through.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    edited December 2018
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    Other studies suggest that keto is not muscle-sparing. Here's an analysis (from a pro keto blogger). His conclusion: "Keto works very well for many people! I’d just say it’d be prudent to increase protein and maybe even take up resistance exercise to spare/preserve lean mass."

    http://caloriesproper.com/protein-ketosis-and-lean-mass/

    Thus, if OP still wanted to do keto (I'm not sure that's the case, since it wasn't working for her), I'd recommend NOT ignoring protein, or thinking it was nothing to worry about, but making sure it was at least as high as the goals normally recommended. When I tried it I did .8 g/lb (I was close to goal weight, would do .8 g/lb of goal weight if you have weight to lose, of course).
  • jondspen
    jondspen Posts: 253 Member
    edited December 2018
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    I agree with others, CICO is how you lose weight. Keto is great for some, esp. in areas of blood sugar, feeling full, and dealing with inflammation in joints, but as weight loss you still need to keep calories lower. You should lose some water weight on a low carb initially, but that won't be 'real' weight loss (talking fat here) for a little while once you get and stay in ketosis. I'm also curious if you were actually in a ketosis state. It's pretty hard to get into it and stay; some can do 50 grams, and others can't go over 15-20grams carbs before being kicked out.