Ketogenic Way of eating... (2 Viewers)

SuckoutKing

SuckoutKing

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I'm sure everyone has heard about the Keto diet. But would you ever try it? Cut out sugary sweets, potatoes, corn, pop, pop tarts, cakes, cookies, on and on. Then try to maintain a diet that is low carb (less than 20-25 grams of carbs a day), 60-80% of your calories from FATS, 15-25% Protein! Sounds crazy right. We've always heard that high fat diets will make you fat, give you heart disease and you die! But as I'm learning about the Keto diet it's just the opposite. Its Sugar and all its forms. Some hidden in disguise but turn into sugar that will end up killing you.

My Keto journey started about 5-6 weeks ago. I work in healthcare as a Pathologists' assistant. I see the end results of disease and cancer gone wrong. So we have weekly presentations called Grand Rounds which is a luncheon with guest speakers. So one of our local surgeons who noticed that over the years his patients kept getting more and more overweight and they were becoming harder and harder to care for. So he started to research. He concluded that carbohydrates (sugar in all its forms) is to blame. The way it triggers an insulin response which over time requires more and more insulin. Until you become insulin resistant and type 2 diabetes sets in. All this caused by the good old recommended food pyramid. Eat those carbs blah blah blah...So the next day after his presentation I began my high fat low carb journey.

I'm 6'1 fairly active and watch what I ate. Cooked most meals at home, not much pop or fast foods. Don't drink alcohol. At the start I reached 260 lbs, pretty unhappy with my weight. And have always had high blood triglycerides anywhere from 250-400. Steady 260 range from 2015-2018. Well today I went to my Dr. for a check up and to see where my blood work is after 5-6 weeks on this new to me Keto diet. My weight 237 (-23 lbs), my triglycerides went from 257 last March to 81!

Has anyone else had a similar story to share? Or know someone following this diet? Love to hear it.
 
Congrats on the weight loss, thanks for sharing.

I’ve looked into the keto thing, but I’m too fussy of an eater to manage it, though I can certainly see the benefits. I made my mum try it and she saw some great benefits too.

I agree that most carbs are definitely to be avoided, but these days I stick to complex carbs such as sweet potato, brown rice, oats etc.

So i didn’t do keto, but by cleaning up my diet, I was able to drop from 183 lbs to 160. Annoyingly I’m back up to just about 171lbs.

I’d be interested to see what my blood triglycerides would be. I might look into that.
 
Those are amazing results after just 6 weeks! Keep up the good work.

I’ve had some modest results myself trying to go “keto” but just haven't been disciplined enough to reach my goals... I do great during the week but fall off the rails on the weekends :oops:
 
I would like to try it. First I need to stay away from the bread and the sweets. If I can find a something to pack for breakfast and lunch I should be okay. Coming home to dinner will be a challenge.
 
SuckoutKing said:
I'm sure everyone has heard about the Keto diet. But would you ever try it? Cut out sugary sweets, potatoes, corn, pop, pop tarts, cakes, cookies, on and on. Then try to maintain a diet that is low carb (less than 20-25 grams of carbs a day), 60-80% of your calories from FATS, 15-25% Protein! Sounds crazy right. We've always heard that high fat diets will make you fat, give you heart disease and you die! But as I'm learning about the Keto diet it's just the opposite. Its Sugar and all its forms. Some hidden in disguise but turn into sugar that will end up killing you.

My Keto journey started about 5-6 weeks ago. I work in healthcare as a Pathologists' assistant. I see the end results of disease and cancer gone wrong. So we have weekly presentations called Grand Rounds which is a luncheon with guest speakers. So one of our local surgeons who noticed that over the years his patients kept getting more and more overweight and they were becoming harder and harder to care for. So he started to research. He concluded that carbohydrates (sugar in all its forms) is to blame. The way it triggers an insulin response which over time requires more and more insulin. Until you become insulin resistant and type 2 diabetes sets in. All this caused by the good old recommended food pyramid. Eat those carbs blah blah blah...So the next day after his presentation I began my high fat low carb journey.

I'm 6'1 fairly active and watch what I ate. Cooked most meals at home, not much pop or fast foods. Don't drink alcohol. At the start I reached 260 lbs, pretty unhappy with my weight. And have always had high blood triglycerides anywhere from 250-400. Steady 260 range from 2015-2018. Well today I went to my Dr. for a check up and to see where my blood work is after 5-6 weeks on this new to me Keto diet. My weight 237 (-23 lbs), my triglycerides went from 257 last March to 81!

Has anyone else had a similar story to share? Or know someone following this diet? Love to hear it.
Click to expand...

I’ve tried every diet under the sun and they all work if you stick to them. Problem is, I always gain it back and then some. However, I’m going to give this a try, after the super Bowl party! :ROFL: :ROFLMAO:
 
Perthmike said:
Congrats on the weight loss, thanks for sharing.

I’ve looked into the keto thing, but I’m too fussy of an eater to manage it, though I can certainly see the benefits. I made my mum try it and she saw some great benefits too.

I agree that most carbs are definitely to be avoided, but these days I stick to complex carbs such as sweet potato, brown rice, oats etc.

So i didn’t do keto, but by cleaning up my diet, I was able to drop from 183 lbs to 160. Annoyingly I’m back up to just about 171lbs.

I’d be interested to see what my blood triglycerides would be. I might look into that.
Click to expand...
Thanks for sharing! Yeah get your blood levels checked. My HDLs (good cholesterol) have always been super low, hereditary? 10-19. Last year 19. Today went up to 26.
 
realcdn said:
Those are amazing results after just 6 weeks! Keep up the good work.

I’ve had some modest results myself trying to go “keto” but just haven't been disciplined enough to reach my goals... I do great during the week but fall off the rails on the weekends :oops:
Click to expand...
Just gotta stick to it. Around the clock. Toughest for me is I started 2 weeks before Christmas. Christmas parties were hard and very tempting. But I did it. Just gotta dig deep. And keep an eye on the prize!
 
My wife and 21-year-old son did this, starting in October, 2017. My wife has lost over 60 lbs., dropped her BP to healthy levels, and feels better in every aspect.

My son, while not on a strict keto diet, cut out all sweets and most carbs, and lost over 100 lbs. in a year.
 
I started keto in 2014, lost 120 pounds over about 14-15 months, and kept it off for another two years. I looked and felt great, blood chemistry was good, and it was reasonably easy to maintain.

I got laid off from my job of 15 years and let that, plus some other life stressors, knock me off the wagon. When I stopped eating keto, I put most of the weight back on. I felt like crap, but for a while I got caught in that cycle of "I'll go back on keto next week, but now I'm going to have a beer and a cupcake."

I finally snapped myself out of it and got back on keto about 3 weeks ago. I'm already feeling much better, and I've lost about 12 pounds - mostly water as my body reacclimates.

I don't really miss bread, potatoes or rice much. There are plenty of low carb sweets and tortillas (two things I do miss). The one thing that has no low carb substitute is good beer.

Some ketoers don't like this idea, but one of the things that helps me is the cheat day (AKA planning to fail occasionally). I will allow myself 1-2 days each month to eat what I want. This allows me to occasionally enjoy (beer) those high carb foods (beer) that I really don't want to give up (beer). And a little ironically, it makes it easier to be strict - if something sugary tempts me, I add it to the list of things to enjoy on my next cheat day. Often that momentary craving gets forgotten or just isn't that important by the time the cheat day rolls around.
 
I’ll let @ChaosRock chime in here if he wants but I believe he is on a similar diet and I have to say he looks great. I gave up sweets for lent last year and pretty much have not looked back. I have also traded most sugary drinks for water. But alas there is still the demon alcohol and I still have a long way to go to get near a true Keto diet.
 
For the beer drinkers looking to KETO. Found this Beer Carb guide!

241811
 
Been thinking hard about it. I have high cholesterol and just seems to go against everything I was taught and or learned in every nutrition class I took
 
100% agreed on everything in the OP, I spoke with my doc about the diet and he agreed that the good ol' food pyramid we learned when we were kids is a major reason for the diabetes epidemic we're facing now. I gained a good deal of weight after we had kids and shortly after started having problems with diabetes. I had been on the traditional low-fat diet and would make a little head way here and there but always gained it back. I've now been on Keto since last may when my doc recommended I give it a try. I lost about 40 pounds in the first 3 months (the first 10 lbs is water weight), my A1C dropped from 6.8 to 5.4, and the cholesterol dropped from 185 to 100 (I forget the triglyceride/LDL breakdown, but they were all very good, best lab report I've had in 10 years). After 6 months I dropped ~70lbs total. I leveled off a bit between Thanksgiving and New Years (wasn't as strict during this time, was dealing with some BS medical issues with my wife plus all the holiday parties ), but I'm back on it now and losing again.

With the exception of the week between Christmas and New Years where I purposely treated myself, it's surprisingly been a relatively easy diet to stick to, for me at least. I don't think it's a good diet for everyone, but if you can check a few boxes, I'd highly recommend trying it:
  • Do you like eggs? I mean really like eggs. Like eating eggs every fuckin day for breakfast like them? Yes? The good news is there's bacon with all those eggs.....
  • You have to have to have to have to - plan your meals, track your macros (especially at the start), and check the labels on everything. IMHO this is the biggest drawback to keto, there aren't a lot of "grab and go" options for last minute meals except for a burger without a bun, and there are hidden carbs everywhere. Like ketchup. And breath mints. You really have to have a good idea of how many carbs you're eating to guarantee you're in ketosis.
  • You can't cheat (much) if you want to see results. It typically takes a couple of days to clear your system of carbs and get into ketosis, where the fat burning really starts. If you're cheating even as in frequently as once a week, your body is constantly flipping back and forth between burning sugar and fat, and you just won't lose the weight.
And that's it. Honestly, the most difficult part I had with the diet was the mind fuck in convincing myself (and the wife) that the foods that have always been deemed "bad" were now my primary fuel source. Eggs, bacon, sausage, steak, meat, cheese, ranch & blue cheese dressing - all diet foods, right? o_O As long as you're not consuming carbs with them, all those things are good. For the 1st 6 months, I pretty much ate bacon and eggs for breakfast, a nice salad (with either chicken or salami/provolone and ranch/Caesar dressing) for lunch, and rotated between a half dozen different dinners - bacon cheeseburger casseroles, Mexican casseroles, crack chicken, cheesy sausage skillets, and usually with a side of broccoli or cauliflower. Snacked on cheese, almonds, and pepperoni occasionally at night. All very tasty things, just no bread/pasta/sweets.

If you're serious about trying it, take a week or two and really do some research. I was hugely skeptical during my prep and had very tempered expectations, but I found that pretty much all the benefits that are often associated with the diet - weight loss, reduced blood sugar, appetite suppression (especially for carbs & sweets), increased mental sharpness - all were applicable in my case. Do the research before you start - find a half dozen dinner recipes and plan 2 weeks worth of meals. I found the sites below to be really good resources, the first one especially has tons and tons of details and data.
https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/keto
https://www.ruled.me/guide-keto-diet/

Good luck to those willing to give it a go, and feel free to shoot me a PM with questions. :tup:
 
Last edited:
I did this last year. Went from 231 to 196. I now live keto during the week and cheat a slight amount on the weekends and have maintained my weight. Did go through a period around Thanksgiving where I blew the diet, but not enough to regress.

Barely exercised anymore than I already did before starting the diet.
 
Couldn't ever do no carbs. That said I've been doing Whole30 which is mostly Paleo and similar to keto, but I get potatoes. For me that's the difference between sustainable, and not. Down 26lbs in four weeks.

Have tried zero carb diets and I just get rubber legs anytime I play hockey or a similarly intense activity. That's a non-starter for me.

Oh and give up booze or enjoy it very rarely. I've had one glass of wine this month from a bottle that was a gift. Easiest weight you'll ever drop.
 
Last edited:
sem0030 said:
I did this last year. Went from 231 to 196. I now live keto during the week and cheat a slight amount on the weekends and have maintained my weight. Did go through a period around Thanksgiving where I blew the diet, but not enough to regress.

Barely exercised anymore than I already did before starting the diet.
Click to expand...
Also, do intermittent fasting where I don't eat anything from 8 pm til 12 pm the next day
 
Irish said:
100% agreed on everything in the OP, I spoke with my doc about the diet and he agreed that the good ol' food period we learned when we were kids is a major reason for the diabetes epidemic we're facing now. I gained a good deal of weight after we had kids and shortly after started having problems with diabetes. I had been on the traditional low-fat diet and would make a little head way here and there but always gained it back. I've now been on Keto since last may when my doc recommended I give it a try. I lost about 40 pounds in the first 3 months (the first 10 lbs is water weight), my A1C dropped from 6.8 to 5.4, and the cholesterol dropped from 185 to 100 (I forget the triglyceride/LDL breakdown, but they were all very good, best lab report I've had in 10 years). After 6 months I dropped ~70lbs total. I leveled off a bit between Thanksgiving and New Years (wasn't as strict during this time, was dealing with some BS medical issues with my wife plus all the holiday parties ), but I'm back on it now and losing again.

With the exception of the week between Christmas and New Years where I purposely treated myself, it's surprisingly been a relatively easy diet to stick to, for me at least. I don't think it's a good diet for everyone, but if you can check a few boxes, I'd highly recommend trying it:
  • Do you like eggs? I mean really like eggs. Like eating eggs every fuckin day for breakfast like them? Yes? The good news is there's bacon all those eggs.....
  • You have to have to have to have to - plan your meals, track your macros (especially at the start), and check the labels on everything. IMHO this is the biggest drawback to keto, there aren't a lot of "grab and go" options for last minute meals except for a burger without a bun, and there are hidden carbs everywhere. Like ketchup. And breath mints. You really have to have a good idea of how many carbs you're eating to guarantee you're in ketosis.
  • You can't cheat (much) if you want to see results. It typically takes a couple of days to clear your system of carbs and get into ketosis, where the fat burning really starts. If you're cheating even as in frequently as once a week, your body is constantly flipping back and forth between burning sugar and fat, and you just won't lose the weight.
And that's it. Honestly, the most difficult part I had with the diet was the mind fuck in convincing myself (and the wife) that the foods that have always been deemed "bad" were now my primary fuel source. Eggs, bacon, sausage, steak, meat, cheese, ranch & blue cheese dressing - all diet foods, right? o_O As long as you're not consuming carbs with them, all those things are good. For the 1st 6 months, I pretty much ate bacon and eggs for breakfast, a nice salad (with either chicken or salami/provolone and ranch/Caesar dressing) for lunch, and rotated between a half dozen different dinners - bacon cheeseburger casseroles, Mexican casseroles, crack chicken, cheesy sausage skillets, and usually with a side of broccoli or cauliflower. Snacked on cheese, almonds, and pepperoni occasionally at night. All very tasty things, just no bread/pasta/sweats.

If you're serious about trying it, take a week or two and really do some research. I was hugely skeptical during my prep and had very tempered expectations, but I found that pretty much all the benefits that are often associated with the diet - weight loss, reduced blood sugar, appetite suppression (especially for carbs & sweets), increased mental sharpness - all were applicable in my case. Do the research before you start - find a half dozen dinner recipes and plan 2 weeks worth of meals. I found the sites below to be really good resources, the first one especially has tons and tons of details and data.
https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/keto
https://www.ruled.me/guide-keto-diet/

Good luck to those willing to give it a go, and feel free to shoot me a PM with questions. :tup:
Click to expand...
Excellent post! Love hearing success stories on this way of eating. Just think how disrupted the entire Food industry will be once the science of low fat, high carb diet is leading people to all the different metabolic conditions.
 
I do a lot of weight training and I notice that anything under 190 grams of carbs per day and I start feeling weaker and weaker by the session.

I know that the fat takes over as the fuel, but I would miss my carbs so much.

Any of you guys get the keto flu during the transitional period?
 
For me I had no downsides as my body transitioned. I am a very picky eater and mainly eat meat, cheese, potatoes, and bread so I just had to cut out the bread and potatoes. Perhaps that is why I had very little issues.
 
I've been pretty successful maintaining a healthy weight following basically this (Keto) diet.

ALTHOUGH I did go totally off this the past 5-6 months of 2018 and saw my weight climb back up. But I'm 9 pounds back down since Jan 1 following this.

A few thoughts:

i find that weight control is about 80% what you eat, 20% what you do (exercise, and active lifestyle) - you cannot out work a bad diet.
Stay away from sugar, sugary drinks, sweets and processed carbs (pasta, bread, crackers, chips, etc).
Read the labels. if it has over 20g of carbs per serving (if the food has fiber, subtract the number of grams of fiber from the carb total - grams of fiber is good for you), you probably shouldn't be eating it.
Eat as many vegetables as you want. Eat almost as much fruit as you want.
I find that Protein, Fiber and Fat satisfies me (makes me feel full), so try to eat at least a little of one of those at every meal/snack.
Drink lots and lots and lots of water.
snack when you start to think you might be getting hungry (grab one or two large handfuls of mixed nuts and drink some water), then 15 minutes later you should feel satisfied for a while.
If you are new to this diet, the first 20 days WILL be very hard. You'll find that (even after you've eaten lots of food), you'll get cravings for snacks or sweets. But after 20+ days, it gets easier - your snacks/sweets cravings aren't nearly as bad.
I like the idea of a cheat day once in a while once you've gotten things under control; but BEWARE - part of it is like giving an alcoholic a beer. It can start the cravings all over again.
You WILL fall off the wagon and have some bad moments...or even bad days, Don't beat yourself up. Replay the day in your head and figure out what you could have planned differently next time.
Have many Keto choices in the house and nearby that are easily accessible. and find some staple meals that you plan on for the week (healthy omelets or something).
Remove any unhealthy foods from the house.
Weigh yourself every day and write it down. You will gain momentum. Some days your weight will go up, that's ok....but you want to trend down.
Don't think about this as a food restriction for the rest of your life or even the next month or week; just get through today.

I also don't eat after about 7:00 pm and don't eat again until about 11:00 am. That's about 16 hours of intermittent fasting every day. I find it EASY to do this. Perhaps some people will struggle with this, but i have no problem at all with it. In fact I almost NEVER wake up hungry.
 
Last edited:
Perthmike said:
I do a lot of weight training and I notice that anything under 190 grams of carbs per day and I start feeling weaker and weaker by the session.

I know that the fat takes over as the fuel, but I would miss my carbs so much.

Any of you guys get the keto flu during the transitional period?
Click to expand...

I used to lift a lot as well and I did notice a small down tick in power. For me it was worth the trade off.

With a little prep it's really easy to avoid/mitigate the keto flu symptoms, you essentially just need to drink a ton of water and up your salt the first week. It comes primarily from being dehydrated as your body is losing all the water from shedding the sugar stores.
 
Sparty said:
I've been pretty successful maintaining a healthy weight following basically this (Keto) diet.

ALTHOUGH I did go totally off this the past 5-6 months of 2018 and saw my weight climb back up. But I'm 9 pounds back down since Jan 1 following this.

A few thoughts:

i find that weight control is about 80% what you eat, 20% what you do (exercise, and active lifestyle) - you cannot out work a bad diet.
Stay away from sugar, sugary drinks, sweets and processed carbs (pasta, bread, crackers, chips, etc).
Read the labels. if it has over 20g of carbs per serving (if the food has fiber, subtract the number of grams of fiber from the carb total - grams of fiber is good for you), you probably shouldn't be eating it.
Eat as many vegetables as you want. Eat almost as much fruit as you want.
I find that Protein, Fiber and Fat satisfies me (makes me feel full), so try to eat at least a little of one of those at every meal/snack.
Drink lots and lots and lots of water.
snack when you start to think you might be getting hungry (grab one or two large handfuls of mixed nuts and drink some water), then 15 minutes later you should feel satisfied for a while.
If you are new to this diet, the first 20 days WILL be very hard. You'll find that (even after you've eaten lots of food), you'll get cravings for snacks or sweets. But after 20+ days, it gets easier - your snacks/sweets cravings aren't nearly as bad.
I like the idea of a cheat day once in a while once you've gotten things under control; but BEWARE - part of it is like giving an alcoholic a beer. It can start the cravings all over again.
You WILL fall off the wagon and have some bad moments...or even bad days, Don't beat yourself up. Replay the day in your head and figure out what you could have planned differently next time.
Have many Keto choices in the house and nearby that are easily accessible. and find some staple meals that you plan on for the week (healthy omelets or something).
Remove any unhealthy foods from the house.
Weigh yourself every day and write it down. You will gain momentum. Some days your weight will go up, that's ok....but you want to trend down.
Don't think about this as a food restriction for the rest of your life or even the next month or week; just get through today.

I also don't eat after about 7:00 pm and don't eat again until about 11:00 am. That's about 16 hours of intermittent fasting every day. I find it EASY to do this. Perhaps some people will struggle with this, but i have no problem at all with it. In fact I almost NEVER wake up hungry.
Click to expand...
Sparty, how much weight did you lose? Great write up, really nice tips! Thanks
 
SuckoutKing said:
Sparky, how much weight did you lose? Great write up, really nice tips! Thanks
Click to expand...

I've never been obese. I was about 195 at one point many years ago - about 5'10" tall. I've always been active and LOVE food. I'm about 174 right now (like i said, i went crazy with bad food choices for about 6 months to finish 2018)....i will get to 168 or 169 by spring break.
 

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