To think the keto diet

[Tattooedmama]

Is maybe not healthy...

Ive researched into this diet (or lifestyle as others put it) alot as i have around 17lbs to lose, i did toy with the idea of trying it and gave it a go a couple months ago but i cant live completely without bread and potatoes i also found it expensive buying/cooking different meals to the rest of my family (fussy eaters)
But after seeing a post on a weight loss group of a lady who is going through tests on her heart, many people adamant that the keto diet is nothing to do with it and to carry on... surely that much high fat can eventually have a detrimental affect on your health?
Im no dietician or expert, so does anyone with more knowledge have any insight into how the benefits outweigh the negatives.
I also understand it can reverse diabetes, which is fantastic.
It seems like one of the most popular weight loss plans, but i would worry about the affects of so much bacon and high fat meat.

@TheDarkPassenger to be honest, I know loads of really over weight people who are doing slimming world and calorie counting. They generally aren’t doing the diet correctly.

I lost 2.5stone doing keto for 6 months. I can’t do it now because I’m pregnant and have awful nausea. I plan to do it once I can face any normal food again.

Keto is any way of eating that pits you into a state of ketosis. One easy way of doing this is to limit your carbs to 20g a day. Another way is to reduce calories significantly (500 cal diet for example). Another way is to exercise so much that it far outweighs the calories you eat. The old red days on slimming work wouldn’t have been far off either.

Lots of people are in ketosis on other diets without realising.

For keto to work you need to do it for a prolonged period of time, I was on it for 6 weeks before I started losing weight. But I did it for my mental health and for that it worked within a couple of weeks. The eventual weight loss was a very happy side effect.

What people tend to forget is that, as a species, we survived millennia without pasta, bread and pastry. We can live without them!

One thing we did it a lot of, which helped our brains to grow into its current state of evolution is fat!

@Girlintheframe a good point around unprocessed foods in their original form - done well, keto is a very natural way of eating. You tend to know what you’re eating and much of it is simple. Yesterday I had:

• omelette with mushrooms and Stilton (cooked in butter)
• leeks, cabbage and courgette mixed with chicken and feta
• salmon with broccoli and sprouts

Snacks: a handful of peanuts.

Keto actually supports a mindful and intuitive way of eating in the long term - I haven’t counted a calorie or weighed a piece of food in years. I know what I eat and it works - don’t even have to think about it. And I eat twice as much veg as I did before!

Some people seem to think it’s a joyless way to live, and get quite frustrated that I couldn’t care less about carbs - keto really does re-set you after a while. The idea of a piece of toast honestly mildly confuses me...

Dietdoctor.com is a good starter for 10 for anyone interested in this WOE.

Dietary cholesterol does not raise blood cholesterol. This has been cited again and again. Don't even need to link a source as there's about 35 scientific studies backed by hundreds of doctors to prove this.

It has been proved that SUGAR raises cholesterol though. It can increase your HDL (bad cholesterol) and up your triglycerides (puts you at risk of heart disease/stroke).

The World Health Organisation, and the American Health Organisation recommend that as a woman you can have about 150-200 calories per day from sugar and that's about it. For context, if you have two sugars in your tea, you can have 2 and a half cups a day. But you can't have anything else with sugar so bread/pasta/rice/sweets/junk is out.

If you are doing the keto diet, its not just eating butter all day which would be horrid, it's loads of whole foods. Avocados/olives/olive oil are all unsaturated fats. It also includes a shit tonne of vegetables so you absolutely are getting fibre. I don't know how to get clicky links but all are readily available straight from the world health organisation site.

I have done stints of keto (PCOS) and seen improvements in my symptoms, weight loss and I feel AMAZING.

I have Hashimotos and since eating Keto only, my medication has been reduced and I've lost weight. My cholesterol is perfect and I feel sooooo much better.

I really believe that my body reacted badly to carbs but I was so used to eating them that I had not noticed. I'm very happy I discovered keto.

And btw, I don't eat bacon. My high fats come from olives, olive oil, salmon, butter, cream and avocado mostly.

I also have an under active thyroid and no doctor has ever told me that i need to eat lots of carbs to support my thyroid function, as a Pp suggested.

My disease is controlled by medication.