The Keto diet
primesuspect
Beepin n' BoopinDetroit, MI Icrontian
I think it's time to share my struggles and successes with the community that I love.
Almost a month ago, I decided to take control of my diet. There are a lot of factors that contributed, but something just snapped (as they say it always happens). At 34 years old, I am on the fast track to diabetes, as it runs strongly on both sides of my family, I am extremely overweight, and my lifestyle is entirely sedentary. I had a blood pressure scare earlier in the year, I suffer from sleep apnea, and I'm just generally miserable with my body.
I read a post on Reddit from a guy who was 800lbs, and lost 300. His thread was about his depression at still being extremely overweight even after the struggle that it took to lose that crazy amount of weight. To sum it up, "Yeah, I lost three hundred pounds. People look at me and I'm still 500 pounds."
I know I could never get to be that out of control, but I knew where this guy was, mentally; many of you will remember that a couple of years ago I went a bit nuts and started nightly walks and blogged about it every day to keep myself motivated. After months of that, I lost about 20 pounds, but I was highly discouraged because it didn't really look like I lost 20 pounds. I lost it in my thighs and around my groin; areas that didn't show when I had clothing on. The amount of effort to lose those twenty pounds was incredible for me. Maybe it's the sleep apnea, maybe it's my thyroid disorder, whatever... I grew to loathe the walking so much that I would literally wake up in the morning and ALREADY have anxiety about the walk I would be taking that night. It was unsustainable, and I stopped. The weight came back.
At any rate, through Reddit I found the Keto subreddit and started doing some research. The more I read, the more sense it made. I decided to try it. I was highly encouraged by how successful the community members were.
So it's been almost thirty days. I've lost a bit over twenty pounds already; needless to say, it works. Besides the dramatic weight loss in such a short time, I also feel much, much better; both mentally and physically. My freaking teeth feel healthier. I'm sleeping a little better. My allergies which normally plague me heavily during autumn have entirely disappeared. It's almost like a miracle diet.
Keto is not a healthy lifestyle for the long-term. What it is is a short-term plan to lose weight; it can be rotated in and out with other smart food choices. I don't want anybody to be concerned about my liver or kidneys or brain or whatever; believe me, I've read (and heard) all the criticisms and "Oh, that's quack medicine" and whatnot.
For me, Keto hasn't been much other than eliminating grains and sugar entirely from my diet. It sounds simple, but it limits your food choices remarkably. Going to a grocery store, it's amazing to see it with Keto eyes; there's almost nothing in the entire store you can eat that's not fresh produce or meat. 85% of the store shelves are useless. The western diet is absolutely inundated with all kinds of sugars and wheat. It's no wonder we are the unhealthiest people in the world (and cultures that adopt our diet are finding out the same things. Diabetes. Obesity. Heart disease.)
At any rate, my "fat" pants are now starting to fall off of me. My belt is now at the tightest notch and I'll probably need to drill a new hole soon. Six months from now, I'll probably need a new wardrobe.
Keto is 65% fat, 30% protein, 5% carbs. I've been keeping extremely strict, under 20g carbs a day, and have been ensuring my ketosis with urinalysis. I have not had one single cheat day (as cheating would knock me out of ketosis and it may take 5-7 days to get back into it. Not worth it.) The only downsides so far have been remarkably smelly urine and occasional complaints of slightly off body odor (the body excretes acetone during ketosis).
I've been cooking a great deal more (I don't really have a choice). I've been planning meals ahead, and I've been eating MUCH better. I eat a lot of fresh meat and a ton of leafy greens, most notably spinach and kale. Eating keto is very difficult in certain situations (most sauces, etc, are loaded with carbs), but I'm used to it now and can eat correctly with little effort. It's becoming a habit.
For the long term, I am heavily considering moving into a paleo diet. I think I'll be able to cut wheat entirely from my diet for life; I really don't miss it. When I am transitioning away from keto I'll be adding healthier carbs to my diet; namely rice, potatoes, and carrots. Eating sugar-free is not as hard as I thought it would be.
At any rate, I hope my struggles and successes encourage others who are trying to lose weight. I truly gave up hope that I'd ever be able to lose weight, but this is actually working for me, and I'm reasonably certain I can make a lifestyle out of this.
Almost a month ago, I decided to take control of my diet. There are a lot of factors that contributed, but something just snapped (as they say it always happens). At 34 years old, I am on the fast track to diabetes, as it runs strongly on both sides of my family, I am extremely overweight, and my lifestyle is entirely sedentary. I had a blood pressure scare earlier in the year, I suffer from sleep apnea, and I'm just generally miserable with my body.
I read a post on Reddit from a guy who was 800lbs, and lost 300. His thread was about his depression at still being extremely overweight even after the struggle that it took to lose that crazy amount of weight. To sum it up, "Yeah, I lost three hundred pounds. People look at me and I'm still 500 pounds."
I know I could never get to be that out of control, but I knew where this guy was, mentally; many of you will remember that a couple of years ago I went a bit nuts and started nightly walks and blogged about it every day to keep myself motivated. After months of that, I lost about 20 pounds, but I was highly discouraged because it didn't really look like I lost 20 pounds. I lost it in my thighs and around my groin; areas that didn't show when I had clothing on. The amount of effort to lose those twenty pounds was incredible for me. Maybe it's the sleep apnea, maybe it's my thyroid disorder, whatever... I grew to loathe the walking so much that I would literally wake up in the morning and ALREADY have anxiety about the walk I would be taking that night. It was unsustainable, and I stopped. The weight came back.
At any rate, through Reddit I found the Keto subreddit and started doing some research. The more I read, the more sense it made. I decided to try it. I was highly encouraged by how successful the community members were.
So it's been almost thirty days. I've lost a bit over twenty pounds already; needless to say, it works. Besides the dramatic weight loss in such a short time, I also feel much, much better; both mentally and physically. My freaking teeth feel healthier. I'm sleeping a little better. My allergies which normally plague me heavily during autumn have entirely disappeared. It's almost like a miracle diet.
Keto is not a healthy lifestyle for the long-term. What it is is a short-term plan to lose weight; it can be rotated in and out with other smart food choices. I don't want anybody to be concerned about my liver or kidneys or brain or whatever; believe me, I've read (and heard) all the criticisms and "Oh, that's quack medicine" and whatnot.
For me, Keto hasn't been much other than eliminating grains and sugar entirely from my diet. It sounds simple, but it limits your food choices remarkably. Going to a grocery store, it's amazing to see it with Keto eyes; there's almost nothing in the entire store you can eat that's not fresh produce or meat. 85% of the store shelves are useless. The western diet is absolutely inundated with all kinds of sugars and wheat. It's no wonder we are the unhealthiest people in the world (and cultures that adopt our diet are finding out the same things. Diabetes. Obesity. Heart disease.)
At any rate, my "fat" pants are now starting to fall off of me. My belt is now at the tightest notch and I'll probably need to drill a new hole soon. Six months from now, I'll probably need a new wardrobe.
Keto is 65% fat, 30% protein, 5% carbs. I've been keeping extremely strict, under 20g carbs a day, and have been ensuring my ketosis with urinalysis. I have not had one single cheat day (as cheating would knock me out of ketosis and it may take 5-7 days to get back into it. Not worth it.) The only downsides so far have been remarkably smelly urine and occasional complaints of slightly off body odor (the body excretes acetone during ketosis).
I've been cooking a great deal more (I don't really have a choice). I've been planning meals ahead, and I've been eating MUCH better. I eat a lot of fresh meat and a ton of leafy greens, most notably spinach and kale. Eating keto is very difficult in certain situations (most sauces, etc, are loaded with carbs), but I'm used to it now and can eat correctly with little effort. It's becoming a habit.
For the long term, I am heavily considering moving into a paleo diet. I think I'll be able to cut wheat entirely from my diet for life; I really don't miss it. When I am transitioning away from keto I'll be adding healthier carbs to my diet; namely rice, potatoes, and carrots. Eating sugar-free is not as hard as I thought it would be.
At any rate, I hope my struggles and successes encourage others who are trying to lose weight. I truly gave up hope that I'd ever be able to lose weight, but this is actually working for me, and I'm reasonably certain I can make a lifestyle out of this.
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Comments
Keep going, you have my full support,
You doing any exercise?
Q: No exercise yet. I may start exercising when I drop some more weight.
I was looking back; I had gained 50 pounds since 2007. That was an eye-opener. I'm now having to make major lifestyle changes to get back to a weight that I thought was very overweight back then! My heaviest was 285. I was pretty much disgusted with myself; no way I was going to let myself get to 300. That was a magical number in my head; if I was 300 pounds (at my height), well then, it was just over. I would be forever a fat guy.
I'm down to 260 now, and I still need to lose another 25 pounds to get back to my 2007 level. That was when I made the "Short Media 30 pound challenge". Hah! Now it's more like the 100 pound challenge
Glad you're doing this again, Brian.
Huge congrats, Brian. I'm glad it's helping you to feel better.
In the unlikely event the question crossed anyone's mind, no. Nothing to do with me.
I'm 'genetically blessed' and, at 48, can eat what I want when I want...I'm 6' 175lbs, out of shape and about 15lbs overweight that my doctor laughs at me when I suggest it. My brothers, my dad & mom, most of my aunts and uncles on both sides are healthy...and they almost all live to be OLD, though cancer did get my dad at 66. His mom is still alive, his dad was 84, mom's dad & mom were 104 and 97.
My only weight loss story involves quitting smoking, eating like a pig 24/7 for a few months, stepping on a scale and seeing 199...which is just ridiculous for my build. So, I cut a few things out of my diet (soda, specifically Pepsi, was the big one), pushed my plate away when I was reasonably satisfied instead of stuffed, and 3 months later I was 175 again. 0 exercise. Most of my reading says that, while exercise is excellent for your health, it's only a small contributor to weight loss, diet being by many times the larger factor.
Hey Brian - good luck man.
http://www.nutritionj.com/content/10/1/112/abstract
A lot of people ask, "If this diet is so magical, why aren't more people doing it?"
The answer is complicated, but mostly it has to do with how absolutely ingrained (pun!) carbohydrates are in the Western diet. Eating ketogenic is giving up a great deal of treats and common foods. A single can of soda, a single cupcake or Twinkie, a single bottle of beer? Say goodbye to ketosis.
The other reason is that fat has been extremely vilified by society; the very word itself is both the name of a macronutrient AND a condition that is associated with being out-of-shape, lazy, slovenly, obese, and unhealthy. Everybody thinks "fat is bad" and "Must eat low fat". Low-fat foods are common. Low-carb? Not so much.
I've been eating a lot of high-fat foods. I use heavy whipping cream in my coffee. I put butter and sour cream on everything. I eat a pound of bacon at a sitting. I'm losing weight, my blood pressure is much better, my headaches are reduced, I'm sleeping better, and I feel better. This goes against everything we're taught from childhood.
My doctor, the other day, said "You must have decreased your salt intake and started exercising! Good for you!"
Nope. Did neither. Increased my salt, actually. Quite a bit.
Medical science? There is no actual scientifically proven correlation between salt and high blood pressure, yet every doctor in America will tell you to lower your sodium intake. It's almost craziness.
As an aside, I recognize that the way I eat, I'm getting more sodium than I'd ever need to survive, fast food, potato chips, canned/pre-prepared foods (yes, I am slowly poisoning myself, I know). Just none ever from a salt shaker.
I also eat a fair amount of fat in my diet - nothing better than a big mouthfull from the edge of a nicely done pork chop or a good prime rib
Anyone ever try raising their metabolism by eating 5-6 meals a day instead of 2-3? I eat 1. Breakfast 2. lunch 3. afternoon snack, light 4. supper, early 5. evening snack, usually fairly substantial, sometimes twice. At 48, I still burn it all off despite being pretty sedentary.
The drawback is, if I miss a meal, I'm getting dizzy and faint pretty soon :P
King Curtis approves.
Today was rough; I'm staying at Nicole's mom's place in northern Michigan for a few days; today the power went out for hours. We went to a nice restaurant on a golf course, and the menu was superb. There were so many things I wanted, but I ended up getting the "back of the menu for non-adventurous eaters" standard american bacon cheeseburger and took the bun off. I ate my sad patty and slice of cheese.
On the plus side: It was way cheaper than anything else on the menu!
MY WILL IS STRONG
well I'm proud of you all the same, some day I will join you.
Glad you found something that will help get you going down a healthy path
This chart (not mine, someone else's) illustrates nicely my exact experience:
A typical meal for me is something like this:
That's a giant bowl filled with baby spring green mix from Costco, a bunch of pork tenderloin (with the fat on) that I made with nothing other than garlic and ginger (in a crockpot), a bunch of shredded cheese, sour cream, and no-carb hot sauce (most Mexican brands have no sugar; this is Tapatio. Basically vinegar and chili peppers and a few other seasonings).
Ingredients.
I made a pork tenderloin in the crockpot, and that will feed me for about three days' worth of meals.