Keto Diet

[Dex]

So at the recommendation of my neurologist I'll be switching over to the Ketogenic diet. I have epilepsy and apparently the keto diet was invented in the 1920s to combat the effects of the disorder. I understand the main gist of the diet and have been doing my own research but I'd appreciate any advice or personal experiences people could share. Excited to go into sugar/carb withdrawal over the next couple of weeks. Woooooo!

 

My doctor suggested I got 60% fat, 35% protein and 5% carbs staying below 20g of carbs a day. I typically do OMAD IF so I'm going to try to stick with one meal a day while going keto. It works best for me I've found.

[cookinbrak]

Everything has carbs. Water has carbs. Air has carbs. Masturbation has carbs.

[blackcat]

1 hour ago, cookinbrak said:

Everything has carbs. Water has carbs. Air has carbs. Masturbation has carbs.

Masturbation has carbs?  poo!

[Dex]

2 hours ago, cookinbrak said:

Everything has carbs. Water has carbs. Air has carbs. Masturbation has carbs.

fuging tell me about it. I was thinking "ahhh this won't be too bad" and then I started looking up my favorite foods that I thought had no carbs. fug.

[cookinbrak]

Pork rinds are your friend. There are low carb wraps, but I liked using lettuce instead. It works well as burger material.

[SmokinwithWilly]

Personal keto experience from about 2 months ago. 

First time I went on it, it was great for me for the first 10 days. Keto flu absolutely sucked ass for 3 days. After that, my energy went through the roof, I was dropping weight ridiculously fast, and I was also fasting 16 hours a day. From noon to 8pm I tried to pack in all my calories and it was a lot harder to do than I expected. That much fat consumption at once was difficult for me. My palette felt greasy, so I had to spread it out some. I used a lot of lemon/lime and vinegar to cut that fat. You have to be careful though and watch the sugar in vinegar. I chose really strong vinegars so I could use less and get more taste. I lost 18 lbs in 10 days.

Here's where it went bad for me. My arrhythmia went absolutely bonkers. My heart rate would yo-yo from 140 down to 50 bpm and it completely screwed me up physically for almost 2 weeks. It took some time working with my doctor to stabilize the rate again. I'm going back onto keto again, but I'm going to ease into it instead of the drastic change I made before. It's going to be a 3 week transition this time with my % changing every week. 

I have missed being on keto. Once on it, it really was not hard at all to do. I ate 4 eggs a day, 2 for breakfast (at noon) in a veggie heavy omelet, 1 for lunch at 3pm and one as a snack after dinner before starting fasting again. I drank a lot of water too as I flushed a lot of the garbage out of my system. It also opened me up to trying a lot of new foods and experimenting in the kitchen.

Things that made it a lot easier for me. 

Find a support group. It helps to have people to talk to through this process.

Figure out how to make your favorite foods in a keto friendly version. Lasagna was one of mine so I made a parmesan twill shell, made meatballs and wrapped them in provolone for layer one, mozzarella for layer 2, thin sliced spicy sausage for layer 3 and topped it off with a spicy homemade marinara. Add a salad with some pecans, homemade balsamic vinaigrette, and a side of asparagus. The texture of noodles was most important for me, and provolone worked really well for that. Also, get ready to start adding a ton of herbs and spices to your food if you don't already. It keeps a lot of the same foods from getting boring quickly. 

Get ketone test strips. They help you determine when you are really in ketosis. I got mine off Amazon for 5 bucks for 100.

I also got ketone supplement pills to help get me into ketosis. Little spendy, but I was in ketosis in 6 days. 

Water, water, water. Drink lots of it. Dehydration will creep up on you fast doing keto. 

Have toothpaste and mouthwash ready. The metallic taste in your mouth when you first get into ketosis will drive you bonkers. I was brushing my teeth 6 times a day and rinsing another 3 to 4. It tasted like I had aluminum foil in my mouth all the time for the first week after I was in ketosis. It died down after that. 

Overall it's a little costly to start, since I had so much processed, prepackaged food, but with Costco I was able to buy a lot of organic stuff on the cheap. Broccoli, spinach, spring mix, romaine hearts, butter (I made my own ghee), coconut, smoked salmon, avocado, etc. My weekly trip to the grocery store went down to about 60 bucks a week and my fridge turned green. 

I actually started back on keto this morning again, this time with a new plan to slowly ween my body off all the carbs and processed garbage instead of system shock hopefully with better results. Garbage food withdrawals were worse than when I quit smoking. The first week can be hell, but the feeling on the other side was worth it for me. I'm glad to be going back on it. 

 

[Dex]

18 hours ago, SmokinwithWilly said:

Personal keto experience from about 2 months ago. 

First time I went on it, it was great for me for the first 10 days. Keto flu absolutely sucked ass for 3 days. After that, my energy went through the roof, I was dropping weight ridiculously fast, and I was also fasting 16 hours a day. From noon to 8pm I tried to pack in all my calories and it was a lot harder to do than I expected. That much fat consumption at once was difficult for me. My palette felt greasy, so I had to spread it out some. I used a lot of lemon/lime and vinegar to cut that fat. You have to be careful though and watch the sugar in vinegar. I chose really strong vinegars so I could use less and get more taste. I lost 18 lbs in 10 days.

Here's where it went bad for me. My arrhythmia went absolutely bonkers. My heart rate would yo-yo from 140 down to 50 bpm and it completely screwed me up physically for almost 2 weeks. It took some time working with my doctor to stabilize the rate again. I'm going back onto keto again, but I'm going to ease into it instead of the drastic change I made before. It's going to be a 3 week transition this time with my % changing every week. 

I have missed being on keto. Once on it, it really was not hard at all to do. I ate 4 eggs a day, 2 for breakfast (at noon) in a veggie heavy omelet, 1 for lunch at 3pm and one as a snack after dinner before starting fasting again. I drank a lot of water too as I flushed a lot of the garbage out of my system. It also opened me up to trying a lot of new foods and experimenting in the kitchen.

Things that made it a lot easier for me. 

Find a support group. It helps to have people to talk to through this process.

Figure out how to make your favorite foods in a keto friendly version. Lasagna was one of mine so I made a parmesan twill shell, made meatballs and wrapped them in provolone for layer one, mozzarella for layer 2, thin sliced spicy sausage for layer 3 and topped it off with a spicy homemade marinara. Add a salad with some pecans, homemade balsamic vinaigrette, and a side of asparagus. The texture of noodles was most important for me, and provolone worked really well for that. Also, get ready to start adding a ton of herbs and spices to your food if you don't already. It keeps a lot of the same foods from getting boring quickly. 

Get ketone test strips. They help you determine when you are really in ketosis. I got mine off Amazon for 5 bucks for 100.

I also got ketone supplement pills to help get me into ketosis. Little spendy, but I was in ketosis in 6 days. 

Water, water, water. Drink lots of it. Dehydration will creep up on you fast doing keto. 

Have toothpaste and mouthwash ready. The metallic taste in your mouth when you first get into ketosis will drive you bonkers. I was brushing my teeth 6 times a day and rinsing another 3 to 4. It tasted like I had aluminum foil in my mouth all the time for the first week after I was in ketosis. It died down after that. 

Overall it's a little costly to start, since I had so much processed, prepackaged food, but with Costco I was able to buy a lot of organic stuff on the cheap. Broccoli, spinach, spring mix, romaine hearts, butter (I made my own ghee), coconut, smoked salmon, avocado, etc. My weekly trip to the grocery store went down to about 60 bucks a week and my fridge turned green. 

I actually started back on keto this morning again, this time with a new plan to slowly ween my body off all the carbs and processed garbage instead of system shock hopefully with better results. Garbage food withdrawals were worse than when I quit smoking. The first week can be hell, but the feeling on the other side was worth it for me. I'm glad to be going back on it. 

 

Thank you for this insight man! Yeah I thought I was going to go all gun hoe straight into full keto but my doctor recommended I take it slow. I've gone carb/garbage food deprived before and I got headaches and jonesed for that poo really bad. But keep me updated on your progress and I'll chime in as well. 

[cookinbrak]

Low carb pizza- just watch the red sauce, tomatoes are sugar. Look for the low fat pizza sauce. If you can't have something, a delicious alternative is king.

http://www.kitchme.com/recipes/low-carb-pizza

Same with pancakes. I added a little Splenda and a drop of vanilla to forego syrup, and they come out more like crepes than pancakes. An alternative to bacon and eggs.

https://barefeetinthekitchen.com/delicate-cream-cheese-pancakes/

If you have an air fryer, pork chops breaded with crushed spicy pork rinds are fab-o-lous. And once you get past the taste, and understand that cauliflower will never taste like potatoes, puree cauliflower with some butter, sour cream, and cream cheese. Fried pork chops and mashed "potatoes".

[SmokinwithWilly]

Another thing to save your wallet. Don't go crazy getting all the keto guide stuff right off the start. Coconut oil is great, but it is horrible in food. Everything tastes like it has coconut in it, not good IMO. Also, don't go organic right off the start until you know what foods will and won't work for you. I know organic is better, but I ended up spending about $150 on stuff I really didn't use or like too much. Once your appetite shrinks, then go organic, it will save you some coin. 

[arbnranger]

Hey Dex good luck to you. It’s always fun to start a new journey and hope this helps get any health concerns under control.  I did keto for over a year and still mainly subscribe to it. 

I have experimented (still experimenting) with many different diets, mainly for side bar entertainment because I don’t have many hobbies. 

I kept mental notes while I was hard-coring it on keto . Hit me up if you want feedback 

[cookinbrak]

Aldis has little low carb candy bars that are only 2 net carbs.

[PanthersBigD]

I recommend hiring a licensed nutritionist/dietician to help you build a meal plan and get some structure. 

[SmokinwithWilly]

I'm on day 6 and the keto flu has just kicked in for me. It's worse this time than it was the first. I'm dragging, feel exhausted and am having a hard time focusing and have a pretty nasty headache. Muscle cramps have increased from dropping so much water so I'm trying to get down more. I know I have a couple more days of this to go, and then I'll feel better but this part straight up sucks. It's strange because I'm not going as hard core as I did the first time, but it's carb deprivation is going strong. 2 more days until my first weigh in but I'm excited. My belt is already at its last hole and my pants are starting to get loose. First small goal is to lose 10 lbs. My first big goal is a pair of pants I've held onto for 4 years because I just knew I would fit into them again. 

[TNPanther]

I tried it around this time last year. It did not work so well for me.

Felt fine for the first week or so. One day, I just woke up with a high fever and almost no energy. Tried to sleep it off and attribute it to the keto flu but it got worse. I ended up going to Urgent Care and a urine test revealed the electrolytes in my liver were dangerously low to the point in which I was on the verge of entering a coma. That was the end of keto for me.

Proceeded to poo nothing but water for the next 2-3 days. Got very dehydrated and restless.

This is just my experience/how my body reacted and I likely didn’t do it right, but nevertheless be very careful as everyone’s body reacts differently.