To say that the keto (or low carb) diet is the most boring diet ever?

[Liveonyournerves]

I'm post menopausal and trying to shed the last 7lbs against bitter odds.

It's been suggested to me that I need to cut my already low carb diet to a Keto to see results.

Good god, it's dull. Dull, dull, dull.

Am I alone in thinking this?

I've not even lost any weight on it!

If you're so adverse to cheese maybe that's why you haven't seen results on keto. The whole point is cutting carbs and upping fat - your body needs something to burn for energy and if you're not eating carbs it goes for fat. There are loads of recipes out there that are super tasty and keto friendly. I previously did fast 800 and although not all of those recipes are keto they're high fat low carb and I wasn't bored at all!

I guess I don't think eating cheese for fat as the healthiest option? Lots of the keto recipes, with high fat from things like mayo, cheese etc, even cream - how good can it be for you? Far better, surely, that the fat comes from avacodo or olive oil etc?

There are just some fundamental things about Keto that feel wrong.

But honestly, I'm totally for a low, considered carb diet. I never eat pasta, bread, rice etc. Most suppers I have salad and protein. But I quite like chickpeas and seeds, lentils

@Liveonyournerves

The problem is post menopause, you become much more insulin resistant, so carbs are not your friends AT ALL. I have always had a really good diet, really 'clean', but to not be able to have any carbs, even healthy ones, is seriously hard.

I think i'll have a different approach

Totally sympathise. Have you had a look at the dietdoctor dot com website for ideas, recipes and experiences from menopausal women?

I've been doing this w.o.e. for five years (shock). Am 57 now and yes, the menopause f*cks everything up imo. I have, over those years, learned to "eat to live" rather than "live to eat" and this means I have taken away the emotional aspect of eating food and replaced with it choosing to eat for nutrition and health. I've graduated into 16:8 (sometimes 18:6) eating window - it suits me although IF doesn't suit everyone.

I love that it is now "boring" to be honest (it no longer messes with my head). I adore sugar and the sweet taste, breads of all kinds, particularly when combined with fat. No wonder I loved eating . I have lost and maintained 100lbs of excess fat and that, to me is worth being "bored".

What different approach would you try? There is no "one size fits all" with introducing the lower carb approach, everyone is different and has to find their own level. I wish you luck, anyway, @Liveonyournerves.

If you want inspiring low carb meals go and check out the recipe threads in the Low Carb Bootcamp topic.

I can't see how you could possibly be bored with the kind of foods/meals that are listed there!

Unless you can't cook or have no imagination, of course ...

@Liveonyournerves

I'm post menopausal and trying to shed the last 7lbs against bitter odds.

It's been suggested to me that I need to cut my already low carb diet to a Keto to see results.

Good god, it's dull. Dull, dull, dull.

Am I alone in thinking this?

I've not even lost any weight on it!

If you haven't lost any weight then you haven't been doing it properly.

And no excuse for it being dull. You can eat all manner of lovely things.

Today we've had a barbecue. I had:

Halloumi with garlic, mustard, lemon and coriander dressing
Home-made beefburger, with shallots, cheese slice, gherkin, ketchup and mustard
Griddled peppers with ponzu soy and chilli sauce
Home-made coleslaw
Slow cooked onions
Butterflied leg of lamb, marinated in olive oil, garlic, lemon, ponzu soy sauce, ras el hanout and oregano

Love it. I'm vegetarian and low carb rather than keto (but try and stay under 20g carbs a day). Am also gluten free.

My husband does all the cooking and is very inventive, our meals are great, definitely not boring. He also does low carb baking, the Bakewell tart he does is 2g carbs a slice and fabulous.

3 stone down since August (technically more really as came of it for Christmas and put some on that then needed re-losing).

If I eat protein with no carbs I feel queasy. Don’t need lots but none at all ugh.
I don’t eat meat and I just don’t think I could get enough protein and fat.
I lost weight just by calorie counting and upping my veg and cutting the crap with lots of exercise. Kept it off ages but lockdown has messed it up. About to start again but I’m post meno now so anticipating it being hard.

Don't do it then, OP

@Interviewedundercaution - yes, you're absolutely right! Haha!

@BIWI - it's always hard to read someone's tone right, I'm sure you don't mean to be patronising - I do have imagination and skill, I'm an ex-chef. I just struggle with the very heavy meat, diary, not exactly healthy fat element of Keto. It doesn't feel great.

@MarchXX - thank you for your post meno understanding! It really is a game changer. I've always been incredibly careful with food and exercise. For 20 years. Since I've stopped my periods, it's like trying to roll a stone up a hill. I'm 9st. I should be 8.5. So not a massive amount to lose, but I'm petite so it feels noticeable. I didn't quite understand one bit - you do 16/8 and do you calorie count within the 8 window? Or is IF enough on its own.

I will do 16/8. I don't find not eating in the morning difficult AT ALL but I really miss milk in coffee....

My friend has so many lovely things on keto. From caramel sauces made with melted sugar free Worthers mixed into cream to crispy bacon dipped into melted or soft cheeses

Carbs are amazing...give them all to me!

@Liveonyournerves

t's always hard to read someone's tone right, I'm sure you don't mean to be patronising - I do have imagination and skill, I'm an ex-chef. I just struggle with the very heavy meat, diary, not exactly healthy fat element of Keto. It doesn't feel great

I don't mean to be patronising, no. But there's a lot here that suggests that you don't really understand low carb. It doesn't have to be heavy meat or dairy and fat isn't unhealthy. Have you read much about the science of low carbing?

It a) shouldn't be boring and b) isn't unhealthy.

@Liveonyournerves arla lacto free semiskilled milk is half the carbs per 100ml and it tastes exactly like milk I can't do almond or soy milk🤮 I have been keto for three years

I love it! Did strict keto for a couple of months last summer and lost almost 10kg. Am mid 40s and weigh less now than ever as an adult. Maintaining just by doing low carb and really enjoy this way of eating. Far less bloat, varied range of foods and don't worry too much about wine carbs. Saying that, I absolutely love cauliflower and have it for lunch with leftovers almost every day at work which I know is definitely not everyone's cup of tea! Do sometimes find I have to make a very conscious effort to eat varied vegetables though otherwise just live on cauliflower and broccoli with different meats and cheeses which is not how it should be at all!

@Liveonyournerves. I don't actually calorie count. Why? Because I spent my entire teen/adulthood dieting, counting cals etc and I just can't do it any more, it messes with my head.

So, I eat lunch (today, home made chicken liver pate (dead simple to do) with cucumber sticks) then dinner (tonight was steak, two egg omelette/cheese and dry roasted cauliflower). I drink my tea with a teaspoon of double cream (5g) because it is 1.6 carbs per 100g so negligible in terms of carb load.

I try to source my proteins locally so use a butcher in the village and buy my eggs from a local lady who keeps hens.

I keep it very simple like that and because I've done it so long now I can gauge when I am full. I often stop and put the leftovers in fridge for next day's lunch. I never need to snack either. Makes life very simple.

Your comment about healthy fats is interesting. The one thing I really struggled with was adding fat to my diet. I had simply never done this as I had been indoctrinated to believe that fat (particularly animal origin fat) was evil. It was harder to add fat than to give up sugar and the sweet taste to be honest. However, animal fat is actually the healthiest because it is unadulterated by chemical processes and industrial processing. A pat of butter contains cream and maybe salt, that's it, and you can make it yourself in the kitchen. Cream contains just one ingredient, too. I render fat from bacon, pork, beef etc and keep a 'fat jar' to dip into when cooking. My nan did this, too, and now I understand why. Vegetable and soy oils are very, very processed and not healthy. I won't have them in the house now.

Hope this has given you food for thought .

@BIWI - I completely understand low carb. I've been low carb for many, many years. Keto is different. But keto requires a lot of fat, and the recipes that I see are very creamy/cheesy/dairy. I do not think that is my imagination. Some fats ARE unhealthy.

But enjoyment is so subjective. Telling me it 'shouldn't' be boring is a bit pointless and actually, using the word 'should' will always get someone's back up.

YANBU. I'm lactose intolerant and vegetarian so those types of diets are just a no go for me.

Thanks so much, @MarchXX - such an interesting reply. Appreciated.

[quote Liveonyournerves]@BIWI - I completely understand low carb. I've been low carb for many, many years. Keto is different. But keto requires a lot of fat, and the recipes that I see are very creamy/cheesy/dairy. I do not think that is my imagination. Some fats ARE unhealthy.

But enjoyment is so subjective. Telling me it 'shouldn't' be boring is a bit pointless and actually, using the word 'should' will always get someone's back up.[/quote]
Allowing fat naturally present in animal proteins means satiety for hours. You do not need to add a lot of extra fat, and there are lots of recipes which are dairy-free nowadays for people who are intolerant or just don't like dairy.

Whatever you decide to do, you have to like doing it or you won't continue. A diet of way of eating only works if you feel comfortable doing it.

Me, I hated low fat high carb diets - they just made me hungry, hangry, stressed, miserable and depressed. It did them anyway, over and over again because I hated being obese too. Low carb/keto was a revelation - I took to it immediately even though I had procrastinated for months about trying it .

You have to really like fat and fatty foods to enjoy keto. If you do the food world is your oyster.

If you are veggie/vegan/feel queasy from grease and oil then you will have a very limited and boring repetoire.

My biggest beef with keto is that everything other than basic meat and veg takes forever to prepare and is messy. You can't just get snacks out of a pack or box, you have to make them yourself.

@dividedwefall - I think that's all very true

@Inextremis - I'll never do high carbs, but I would prob naturally steer to low carbs (not ruling them out compltely) and lowish fat.

@dividedwefall

You have to really like fat and fatty foods to enjoy keto. If you do the food world is your oyster.

If you are veggie/vegan/feel queasy from grease and oil then you will have a very limited and boring repetoire.

My biggest beef with keto is that everything other than basic meat and veg takes forever to prepare and is messy. You can't just get snacks out of a pack or box, you have to make them yourself.

I agree and ditching processed packaged food is the best thing I ever did. Now I cook from fresh ingredients - meat, fish, eggs plus a large variety of vegetables. Very much like what my grandma did back in the day, before the ultra processed food industry took off in earnest.

Interestingly, as a child we never ate out either and supermarkets had not been invented (where I lived) until the 60's, we visited separate shops; green grocers, butchers, fish shop, grocers, dairy, bakery. Very, very occasionally we got a fish and chip supper. Sweets and desserts were a treat, not everyday. I wonder that we have become over-reliant on packaged food and ready meals nowadays. It is clearly not been a healthy change, that's for sure.

@MarchXX totally agree. Similar to my childhood in the 80s. We ate out once until I was a teenager - I remember it vividly! My friends had Findus pancakes and that sort of thing but we were all bone broth soup and roast dinners, never dessert, virtually no sweets.

It is strange that the normal way of living (buying fresh food and preparing it, no packages or pre-made food) is now a novelty.

@dividedwefall

You have to really like fat and fatty foods to enjoy keto. If you do the food world is your oyster.

If you are veggie/vegan/feel queasy from grease and oil then you will have a very limited and boring repetoire.

My biggest beef with keto is that everything other than basic meat and veg takes forever to prepare and is messy. You can't just get snacks out of a pack or box, you have to make them yourself.

I don’t think that’s true about fat, I’ve always had a low tolerance for grease/fat, yet I’ve lost nearly 20 pounds on BIWIs bootcamp.

[quote dividedwefall]@MarchXX totally agree. Similar to my childhood in the 80s. We ate out once until I was a teenager - I remember it vividly! My friends had Findus pancakes and that sort of thing but we were all bone broth soup and roast dinners, never dessert, virtually no sweets.

It is strange that the normal way of living (buying fresh food and preparing it, no packages or pre-made food) is now a novelty.[/quote]
I've done it for five years now, @dividedwefall and, believe me, I had always hated cooking, preparing food and 'slaving over a hot stove' (we lived on ready meals and pizzas ). It was a shock at first to get used to, but I have never regretted it. Its five years since I've had a take away, too, and we used to get them regularly - chinese was my fave, curries second fave (with plenty of peshwari naans), dominoes next fave. Sigh, those were the days. #carbheavenandhell