Starting Keto Diet tomorrow

[JustMoved123]

Hi, I’ve not tried Keto before so any advice welcome.

Anyone else just starting out, we could support each other.

Hi JustMoved123, I need to lose about 12 stone which seems completely impossible so just thinking of it as half a stone at a time. I’m going to start tomorrow (Monday) by cutting right back on carbs and sugar. I’m definitely not well at the moment and constantly feel tired and weak. I had a recent blood test and it came back with high blood glucose, something wrong with my liver and a very high white blood cell count. Am due to have bilateral knee replacement at some point in the future so got to shift some weight!

Welcome @chocpott

It seems insurmountable at the moment, but truly is possible with this way of eating. You really can do it.

This FAQ page is really good.

virtahealth.webflow.io/faq/ketosis-ketogenic-diet-faq

If you are on Facebook, join the ‘keto uk community’ group, you’ll see loads of people who have lost similar amounts of weight.

Also r:keto on Reddit has loads of people posting their losses and improvements to health

I think it’s really important to see these stories to reinforce that it’s possible.

Good luck for Monday. Once you are through the first few weeks you’ll never look back

“cutting right back on carbs and sugar.”

@chocpott

I would recommend being more specific about this. When you do your research about how keto works, you’ll see you are trying to get a status of nutritional ketosis in your body. This means you have to lower your carbs to such a point that your body has no choice but to produce ketones.

The bare minimum to do that is fewer than 50g of carbs a day. But really for the first few weeks, you should aim for fewer than 20g of carbs.

It’s really important you think about what target you set. Just lowering carbs may not necessarily get you into ketosis which is where you are aiming for with your blood sugar level results and fatty liver results.

Using an app helps - Carb manager and MyFitnessPal both do it. Although MyFitnessPal will constantly tell you your fats are too high 🤪

To give you an idea as to why this is important...on the standard high carb diet people are consuming an average of 225-335g of carbs a day....so ‘reducing’ may only take you to 150g and you won’t be anywhere near ketosis.

@KetoIFWinnie my Nan had gout. I remember my Great Uncle making a big thing of her using comfrey leaves wrapped round her feet! Not sure how you'd wrap around your knee though!

Could I have some breakfast and lunch ideas please? I'm fed up of salad and 'picky' lunches and can't face eggs atm. Leftovers very rarely occur with teenage boys so I can't rely on that either. Needs to be simple and quick!

Thank you hamstersarse. I’m just beginning with this and starting to realise research is the key! I will check out the pages/sites etc you mention and today is all about acquiring knowledge! I’ve got a couple of books from Dr Moseley to start with but the websites look great, thank you. I feel like my life depends on this; not just my physical but mental too. My whole life is crumbling and it’s now or never with change so Im going to do this and start living again.

Thank you.

@chocpott I agree, get all mathematical on your targets and macros.

For the first few weeks I was vaguely doing keto, I thought, it took a few weeks for me to really look in to ketosis properly! Even though I was allegedly doing keto.

I recommend listening to Dr Jason Fung on audible. You'll really understand the myths we'll all been sold over the last thirty years. I listened to his obesity myth and fasting books on audible.

I get so annoyed now when I want to listen to a book and it's not on audible and I have to READ!

@daisychicken luckily it went as soon as it came! But I did a bit of googling and about 1-3% of people doing keto have a susceptibility to gout but that's because of a predisposition to inflammation, which long term, Keto and IF help with. Learning curves learning curves

Thank you KetolFWinnie. An audiobook in the car would work fir me, thanks I’ll look into it 👍🏻

@chocpott

You really can do this. Do the research, understand the science. If you need to delay by a day to get your ducks in a row, do that so you can start fully prepared because it is a big shift in the way you will eat. But I promise it will be worth it....and will work, it will repair your body and health.

You really can pull back your health. And this is the very best way to do it.

Right behind you!!

@chocpott welcome! The first week is the hardest but then it becomes second nature and you will feel amazing! Great to have you on board :)

Sorry to hear about the gout @KetoWinnie ouch! My DPs dad suffers a lot with it and it sounds so painful!

@daisychicken we’ve gotten into a bit of a rut with lunches. We have either eggs scrambled with chicken, onion and soy sauce, omelette with mixed veg, bacon, sausage and eggs or cooked chicken, for a ‘treat’ we go to Tesco’s and get cooked chicken legs from the deli counter. I’m trying to get hold of keto granola which I’ve heard is delicious.

Weekly weigh in day for me- another 2lbs off (woohoo!).

@KetoIFWinnie hope it doesn't come back. Interesting to see though how diet can afford our bodies.

@Turkeydrumstick same here with the rut. I do find I have to think more about food with keto than I did if I ate bread or potatoes!

I can't complain, it was very sore but only for a day. Then it disappeared. I had a few meat free days. Might risk having meat again tomorrow. I cannot imagine doing a vegetarian version of Keto, now that would be challenging!

On the subject of the effect of food on our bodies, I'm reading Leslie Kenton's ''Passage to Power'' and it's a good read for anybody age 50 ish who is interested in food as medicine staring down the barrel of the menopause. I'm taking a progesterone mini pill back to back (because of heavy periods) and that oral progesterone only helps with periods and none of the other reasons that your body needs progesterone. Leslie Kenton explains how your body's receptors spot that 'pill progesterone' and stop making progesterone. So I'm going to try and introduce a few beans, turmeric (to balance oestrogen and progesterone) and a bit of yam root for plant progesterone in to my diet. I'm only 70 pages in to this book and loving it.

Hi everyone, hope you're all doing ok. I've had a tricky week of staying up too late with a needy dd and consequently making bad food choices. So I don't expect to have lost tomorrow.

I downloaded CarbManager today, just to see if I could get on with it, But I don't know how you do 20g. I think I'm going to struggle that low. Would it be wrong to have it higher? I've had 35 today.

Has anyone found a good barista almond milk? The Alpro one has agar next it as far as I can see.

I couldnt figure out how to use carb manager easily either. Myfitnespal does show the fibre content if you go the bottom of the page so i have been using that.

@justgoingforanap did you take off about 2/3rds of your carbs for vegetables? ( approximate)
I use Alpro unsweetened almond milk. I like it in coffee but not in tea.

@KetoIFWinnie

I couldnt figure out how to use carb manager easily either. Myfitnespal does show the fibre content if you go the bottom of the page so i have been using that. *@justgoingforanap* did you take off about 2/3rds of your carbs for vegetables? ( approximate) I use Alpro unsweetened almond milk. I like it in coffee but not in tea.

Do you mean because of the net carbs?

If we are using UK products the carbs is already net carbs isn't it?

This is what I have had today. And have just let carb manager calculate it. I guess beetroot isn't a good idea!
Brunch, dinner and snacks.

And nuts and lentils are high too!

Are you vegetarian @justgoingforanap?

I believe carb manager is a step ahead of myfitnesspal, but i found my way around it on mfp, you can get a fibre report. So to be very approximate here, 2/3rds of the carbs in your total carbs that have come from above ground vegetables get deducted.

I couldnt do this without some kind of tracker that is for sure!

@hamstersarse I'm not strictly vegetarian but mostly only eat fish and the occasional bit of bacon/pancetta/chorizo.

@KetoIFWinnie So far I've found carb manager relatively easy to navigate, and not having to take off the fibre is good.

Will be weighing today 🤞

🤞🍀

Just lost a long comment...

I like carb manager but do watch which foods you pick, some recorded values are very inaccurate! I keep to roughly 20g but it does require thinking about! I find that some days I will be below 20g and other days slightly over but I am fine with that.

Craved chocolate yesterday with AF on the way and making darn sure I know about it so I allowed myself a small amount as compensation for added pain and fatigue. Was quite impressed at my willpower at keeping to the small quantity! Back on with keto today.

Hey everybody, so I completed my first week. I kept it to 20g carb per day and also did 3XHIIT sessions. I have 17 kilos to lose as a minimum. 23 would be optimal.

The positives:
I lost 1.8kg, my bloating is way, way down. I feel more energised through the day, and motivated to do things. My sleep, when I do sleep, is deep. Dreams are vivid though!

My appetite is better. I am never starving, and have missed a couple of meals without thinking about it, and I am normally a three square meals a day girl.

I also drank a fair bit over the weekend. I stuck to vodka and slimline tonic, and that was fine, and the hangover much better.

Negatives

I struggled to get the protein/fat ratio some days but it seems to have not affected anything too badly.

To days work out: I struggled to maintain the high intensity for the full 30 minutes. My trainer told me off a few times for slacking. I can go all day doing stuff without feeling tired, but have to keep it at moderate pace.

I don't know if it is the vodka or the diet but when I drank, my sleep was severely disrupted, but I haven't felt as awful as I normally would, thr next day. Saturday night I had about three hours sleep for various reasons, but was actually okay.