To ask your experience of a keto diet?

[Atticusblame]

Just started this today. It's basically a very low carb diet. I have low carbed before, but not quite to the keto extreme.

Has anyone found it works well for them? And how long is it until results show? And what alcohol can I drink on it?

You need to drink lots and lots of water (or herbal teas). I could give you a complicated biochemical explanation, but basically it is about how your liver processes fats, needs water for the reaction. 3 litres a day is not uncommon. If you don't the process will be inefficient, plus you're more likely to suffer from carb flu.

I also think keto is easier if you love cooking. It takes a bit of thinking about and planning in the early days. That's why something like Bootcamp is great, you get wonderful recipes from other people and also easy things that you can rustle up quickly.

CICO is physics. Unfortunately your body works on biology. Hunger makes you want to eat more. I almost never feel actually hungry doing HFLC (I've done true keto as well but HFLC is less restrictive and still works).

My mum swears by low calorie and that's great. For her. I was stuck in binge, diet, binge, diet for years, gaining weight. A year of HFLC and I'm thinner, feel good, less migraines, much less IBS and I get to eat delicious food, rather than rice cakes. Fuck rice cakes and gaining when I can have mayonnaise and butter and lose.

I did Atkins once - sort of counts as a keto diet, doesnt it?

For me it worked very well, but was feeling constantly light and dizzy in my head due to the lack of carbs. It badly affected my mood as well.
Remember waking up in tears once during that time because I had been dreaming that I was eating apfelstrudel and was desperate for a bit of sugar.

Iris it for three months. I felt physically in tip top health BUT I was furious. All the time. About everything. And I found it far too restrictive. I really really missed fruit! AND although I def lost a couple inches I didn’t lose a single lb. weird. Since then I’ve done the 16/8 (only eating in an eight hour window) a dit’s so easy and I’ve lost nearly two stone

Losing weight isn’t about simple thermodynamics (CICO). It’s about thermodynamics PLUS endocrinology... hormones like insulin, leptin and ghrelin. They signal to your body how much energy to burn now, how much to put into glycogen storage in your muscles/liver and how much to ramp up your hunger levels so you go out and eat something. Keto works because it stabilises release of those hormones at a steady level. Insulin is the fat storage hormone and it’s released in response to sugars/starches (carbohydrate) ingested. Eat minimal carbs and your body won’t lay down any fat, it will switch to burning ketones from its own fat stores instead of carbs from the diet. Your hunger hormone ghrelin stabilises and you honestly don’t feel growly hungry on this way of eating (once over the initial hump)... just quietly anticipating and ready for the next meal.

I did not get on with the diet.
I was dehydrated and constipated, despite drinking the correct amount of water and ensuring I had lots of green leafys. I was exhausted, couldn't exercise at the level I usually do, was grumpy and had headaches. This continued past the stage where I should have "felt great". this never happened even after 6 days or so.
I had ketones yet lost no weight.
It's not for everyone.

Oh yes, and my appetite never went.

I did read about a year long experiment where dieters were put in two teams - one restricting fat and one restricting carbs. I can't find it again but the gist is:

All started with two weeks restricting both food groups (perhaps to break habits?) and they were given a course on healthy eating (of less processed foods) then they were given the choice of which team to join.

Apparently both teams did well. :) They lost weight and their various blood tests were better too.

The education and the choice were important. We are all different and probably need different approaches even to a problem we share.

Low fat/low calorie works for some people. I have seen their success! Sadly, as with some of those above, it led me to a diet/binge cycle and to gaining weight steadily as the years passed by.

High fat low carb has helped me grow an appetite that fits my bodies needs. I 've lost weight, don't crave any of the things I expected to miss, and I have been able to eat all sorts of delicious things that used to fill me with guilt.

Body's not bodies (I sometimes feel like a double-bodied person, but only have one.)

I'm a big fan, my appetite decreased. I no longer had cravings for shit food. If I did eat anything carby I'd feel awful and would have wean myself off again. I'd feel full quick. However, it's expensive and sadly doesn't fit in with my family life. I lost and loads of weight and it was easy to keep off. But I really restricted. I wouldn't even eat most fruit. I don't want a diet that doesn't allow fruit to be the norm for my toddler.

@HeresMe

Keto is just Atkins rewrapped

No. This isn't true at all. Keto is about keeping your carbs under a certain level all the time (I think it's 20g carbs per day).

Atkins starts off with no more than 20g carbs per day, in the induction phase, but after that initial (short period) you then gradually increase your carbs until you find out the daily amount that you can tolerate before you start to gain weight.

You are never encouraged to keep your carbs as low as on a Keto diet if you're on the Atkins diet.

(No-one every does Atkins properly - and no-one ever bothers to read it either - they just regurgitate whatever they've read about it - usually in media articles written to slag it off)

I do keto. Lost 2cm on my waist in 2 weeks plus a cm round my hips. I love it because I find dieting too restrictive, keto is as much meat and dairy as you like. My personal trainer also recommended carb cycling which is having one meal with carbs every 3 days if you find you're craving carbs too much. I do 3 exercise classes a week too and together it's really working for me

Headbanger's Kitchen on YouTube will sort you out! Get a few recipes under your belt and it'll be a breeze. You will still need to count calories, though: it's not an "eat all you like" diet.

I also think keto is easier if you love cooking. It takes a bit of thinking about and planning in the early days. That's why something like Bootcamp is great, you get wonderful recipes from other people and also easy things that you can rustle up quickly.

I do love cooking! I had smoked salmon on a bed of rocket, watercress and spinach topped with cheesy scrambled egg for my dinner. For tea I'm having chicken thighs roasted over sprouts, broccoli, asparagus, pepper and mushrooms, with herbs and smoked garlic. I'll have a look at Bootcamp. I love a new recipe.

You need to drink lots and lots of water I always do, but I'm definitely drinking much more today. Can I ask, although it's probably a stupid question, does drinking a lot of water not stop the loss of water weight?

Since then I’ve done the 16/8 (only eating in an eight hour window) a dit’s so easy and I’ve lost nearly two stone I usually have my dinner at 12 and tea at 8 and nothing between, except on Sundays. I always still seem to have a massive stomach though.

Had worked really well for me. Classic apple shape with PCOS. Have tried almost all diets out there and they just didn't work for me. I either gave up as I was hungry all the time or just found I wasn't losing weight.

I have lost 3 stone on it and am not really militant about it. I have a lot of veggie meals so not just for meat eaters. I find it is fine eating out in restaurants and I meal prep if I am travelling.

I lost the most weight I have on ANY diet.
My skin was fab (after a breakout in the first week)
I had tonnes of energy
My heartburn stopped
My daytime naps stopped
My cravings stopped

But I just couldn't keep up with the diet :(

I found it too hard to cook every damn day 🙈
Plus I have a large family who weren't interested so had to make 2 lots of meals each day

So it was basically laziness combined with not being a huge meat fan

Great for weight loss but fucked me up and I ended up having gallbladder out. Wouldn't go near an extreme diet again. Slow n steady, healthy lifestyle is the only true way.

Me and DH are off it at the moment as we are on holiday with the kids doing self catering it's just too hard to maintain, however we did it for 6 months this year and had fantastic results. Didn't weigh ourselves but we lost about 30 inches all over. I had more energy, was never hungry, had less heartburn

It's too extreme and unsustainable in the long term. I had awful issues with constipation, and once I went back to eating even small amounts of carbs again, put the weight back on about 4 times the speed that I lost it at.

It also sent my cholesterol level through the roof (I'm vegetarian, so ended up eating moutains of cheese, nuts and eggs). I stopped it on the advice of my GP.

16/8 works so much better and is more of a long term solution.

It's really not extreme not to eat bread, potatoes, cake, crisps, rice and chocolate.

That's true @Bluntness100, but I think the Keto diet - i.e. keeping your carbs under 20g a day - probably could be! That means severely restricting your veg/fruit intake as well

It means eating no fruit, which is full of sugar. It means unlimited quantities of green leafy vegetables. Hardly restrictive.

Expensive. Highly restrictive. Huge consequences to falling off the wagon.

Don't believe the nonsense that some keto factions say about unlimited fat being a thing. It still comes down to calories!

I did it for 6 months, I found low caring fitted better with my budget and lifestyle.