Keto Diet

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One thing to note on keto as i see people are noting weight loss early on. Most of this is just excess water weight that your body flushes out from having less glucose. Some ppl use this as a point to discredit keto - I'm simply stating it as matter of fact. 

This is my third time doing keto. Tried it the first time a little over 2 years ago. Did it for about 3 months and lost close to 30 pounds. (240 to 210). This time i convinced my wife to do keto with me and she's all about it. So we've been LCHF for 8 months now almost and we couldn't feel better. Anymore I'd classify my diet more as carnivore (meat and greens only) than keto, but i have many of the same results. As of now, i haven't been doing it for weight loss - more for overall health and weeding out highly inflammatory foods completely. 

I do a refeed once every 2-4 weeks which for me means I'll hit the mandarin buffet by my business and eat whatever the hell i want for one meal every 2-4 weeks. If you're trying to lose weight, I'd recommend not doing a refeed any more often than every 3-4 weeks. 

Main benefits that i like aside from aiding in weight loss: 

1) mental focus - brain runs very efficiently on ketone bodies

2) no dips in energy thru the day - since i don't pound my gut with carbs like most ppl, i don't get the constant insulin spikes and subsequent lulls in energy 1-2 hours later like i used to on traditional diet

3) less bloating and inflammation - my body just feels better in general

Additional info: 

Personal opinion - much of the dogma around red meat is mainly garbage. Eat steak, it's good for you. 

My net carbs (total carbs minus fiber) almost never exceed 25g unless I'm refeeding.

I never liked seafood either until i tried the salmon fillets from Costco. If you haven't tried that, you should with steamed broccoli. Put it on a pan, sprinkle salt and pepper on it, and broil at 550 for 8 minutes, and it's insanely good. 

Another good idea when eating LCHF diet is to increase your sodium intake. I over salt all my foods. The reason is, i like to play basketball, and I'll cramp if i don't overload the salt to help with hydration. 

I don't know everything, but I'm happy to help anybody that needs info on keto or carnivore diet. 

 
I wouldn't say much of the dogma around red meat is 'garbage'. It's like a lot of different foods out there - consuming it in excess quantities is probably a bad idea.

I only do red meat once a week, if that. I mostly do fish or seafood, turkey and chicken for protein, especially now that I've been muscle building the last few months.

Interesting update for my previous keto journey though: I'll probably never do it again. I enjoyed the weight loss results, but there can be negative side effects that result from the removal of whole grains and those types of carbs from the body for an extended period of time. Everybody's different of course, but when I switched to the Mediterranean Diet after the keto, I actually ended up losing more weight.

 
Enhance said:
Interesting update for my previous keto journey though: I'll probably never do it again. I enjoyed the weight loss results, but there can be negative side effects that result from the removal of whole grains and those types of carbs from the body for an extended period of time. Everybody's different of course, but when I switched to the Mediterranean Diet after the keto, I actually ended up losing more weight.
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Was it the smell? I read an article that said keto can make all of your bodily fluids smell bad

 
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Enhance said:
I wouldn't say much of the dogma around red meat is 'garbage'. It's like a lot of different foods out there - consuming it in excess quantities is probably a bad idea.

I only do red meat once a week, if that. I mostly do fish or seafood, turkey and chicken for protein, especially now that I've been muscle building the last few months.

Interesting update for my previous keto journey though: I'll probably never do it again. I enjoyed the weight loss results, but there can be negative side effects that result from the removal of whole grains and those types of carbs from the body for an extended period of time. Everybody's different of course, but when I switched to the Mediterranean Diet after the keto, I actually ended up losing more weight.
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What type of side effects did you experience? 

 
ActualCornHusker said:
What type of side effects did you experience? 
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Generally speaking, not as much energy and had some issues with consistent/healthy bowel movements. Also started to get some acne popping up on my body which hadn't happened in years.

Part of it was just a mental thing, too. My diet mostly consisted of lean proteins and a ton of vegetables while on keto, but the increase in the amount of fats I was eating just didn't make feel healthy even though I was shedding some weight.

 
Anything low carb can give you hard stools. I had that problem when I fisrt cut back on carbs a few years back. Your basically removing a significant portion of dietary fiber, so the poo is going to be rough.

As for red meat, I'm a little skeptical of the research showing it's bad for you. From what I remember a lot of the studies used processed red meat, like lunch meat, which is high in sodium and other preservatives. Obviously not good for you. A low fat burger or lean steak that you prepare at home, is probably pretty healthy.

 
Red meat was making me physically sick within an hour of consumption.  Didn't matter what it was or how lean.  Beef, bison, venison, whatever.  It took me several years to figure this out.  One day I got sick after eating a burger.  So I decided to go a week with no red meat consumption.  I started feeling better.  So I went a month and didn't have any issues.  I'm now almost 2 years without eating red meat and I am in the best shape of my life.  Pork is also considered a red meat.  I've reduced my intake of that as well.  I can't give that up completely because bacon is the best food on the planet.

With regards to diets, I went on a bit journey with my weight at the same time I gave up red meat.  I weighed 217 pounds.  I wasn't fat but I also wasn't carrying the weight properly.  I didn't do any fads.  I basically managed portions, stopped eating late at night, and exercised more.  I dropped to 191 in about 10 months.  It might have happened sooner but I allowed myself to indulge when I felt like I needed to.  especially on weekends.  

After that 10 months and losing the weight, I looked in the mirror and realized that even though I was lighter, I didn't necessarily look better.  I looked thinner, not fitter.  I was listening to a fitness podcast when i took some of their tips to being more fit.  I (try very hard) not to eat carbs after 5PM.  So I changed things up and put on pounds to get back up to the 205-209 range.  I lift more weights than I have in the past, and I do different forms of aerobic and cardio every day.   I'm leaner, stronger, and look fitter than I have ever been.

The one thing that stuck with me in the podcast was they said your weight is whatever you tell someone it is.  It doesn't really matter if you're fit.  You could look at me and I could tell you I weigh 220 and you'd believe me.  I could tell you 195 and you'd believe me.  It's because of how i carry the weight.  

All in all, I plan to eventually go back up to the 220 area.  I'm doing a lot of muscle building training right now so I am consuming more calories in order to feed that.  But now that i am mostly (weekend beers notwithstanding) watching when I eat as opposed to what, within reason, I think I will be able to carry the weight properly and look better doing it.

 
Enhance said:
Generally speaking, not as much energy and had some issues with consistent/healthy bowel movements. Also started to get some acne popping up on my body which hadn't happened in years.

Part of it was just a mental thing, too. My diet mostly consisted of lean proteins and a ton of vegetables while on keto, but the increase in the amount of fats I was eating just didn't make feel healthy even though I was shedding some weight.
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Every person is different, and a lot of that is predicated on where a person's ancestors lived and what their diets looked like, as our guts adapted to whatever our ancestors ate 1000s of years ago. However, I consult with lots of people trying the keto diet that say the same things regarding bowel movements and lack of energy, and with most people, it's just simple tweaks to what they're eating that solve these issues. Like I said, I've been LCHF (not exactly keto, just more carnivore with meat as the primary food) for about 8 months. My bowels are extremely regular, and I've got 10x as much energy as I did eating carbs all the time, and no dips in energy throughout the day unless I'm REALLY lacking sleep.

 
The only diet I've seen that has been backed by science and lasted more than a decade is a high vegetable diet. That includes minimizing meat, breads/pastas, and dairy and eliminating processed foods.

 
RedDenver said:
The only diet I've seen that has been backed by science and lasted more than a decade is a high vegetable diet. That includes minimizing meat, breads/pastas, and dairy and eliminating processed foods.
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As long as someone is getting adequate protein with the proper amino acid profile, I'd back it. 

If you're interested in the science behind LCHF, find the YouTube channel LowCarbDownUnder. Lots of great videos with scientific info. 

 
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