What is keto? 3st to lose initially, then likely 2more

[Lockdownsnackathon]

Did SW very successfully a long time ago.
Now I'm fatter than ever and experiencing achey joints, chest pain/breathlessness etc. I don't own scales but i hazard a guess I'm around 16st and 5'2/3.

I'm a shift worker, a binge/emotional eater and I lack energy and willpower hugely. I have kids too. Im exhausted.

But I'm starting to feel scared about by health. My size 10 days are long gone, but if i can get to a small 14 I'll be pleased. Currently upper end of size18 now.

I don't know any other diets and i am scared to be hungry. Someone has mentioned keto.

Please help? When i google it keeps requesting my email address then signing me up to shit then requesting payments for eating plans and making outlandish claims like it slows ageing and thay I can loose 4st by september

I’ve never had keto flu, if you’re eating enough veggies as well you should be fine.

Tofu is amazing cooked properly! The firm stuff marinated and baked is delicious, low carb but healthy. Don’t knock it all! If you like Quorn the Quorn roast is great, low carb and easy to just stick in the oven, have on salads or for dinner.

Order the Fast 800 book from Amazon and give it a read. It’s intense but it works well and fast, it’s low cal too for a short period but it’s a balanced approach to keto. Fast results also make people stick to it. I didn’t find it hard and I didn’t put weight back on because I kept up the principals whilst adding carbs back in. It’s a quick easy read

I've been getting back into keto in the last week. I lost c.4 stone doing it a couple of years ago and have a LOT to lose having gone back to eating carbs whenever I feel like it. I've had a couple of false starts recently and have accepted that I need to ease into it over a week because I find it really hard to balance having the headspace to plan and stick to it whilst working ft at home with the family around. Both kids (7 and 16) and my DH are all athletic, slim and never overeat carbs BUT they all like them in moderate quantities and I find it so hard having stuff in the house for them which I can't turn to.

There are some fantastic posts up above and I've even picked up a few meal ideas (thanks!). I got the Instagram app on my phone specifically for the keto feeds as they're so good for ideas and inspiration.

Anyway my way of 'easing in' is that I've had a couple of days having a keto friendly breakfast, then I've had two days having a keto friendly breakfast and lunch (and keto snacks) and now today I'm going fully into b, l and dinner. The reason I did it that way is I needed the reminder of how good I feel when I drastically reduce carbs. So I'm obviously not in keto yet but it has been a great motivator to feel more energetic. Going into keto for me last time was OK, I did take paracetamol for the headache and I did try to have a quieter day ie so I didn't just grab something carby to give me that short lived burst of energy. Ditto today as I'm going full keto!

OP I'm like you in that breakfast is probably my biggest challenge. I like it to be no fuss and very, very quick. The egg muffins mentioned above are a total lifesaver for that, if you're not using Pinterest you can just Google for keto egg muffins. Super flexible too so you can use up whatever you have in your fridge that's keto friendly. Other really quick breakfasts are cheestrings and ham (with avocado and spinach if you're not out and about!) Or I cube cheese and have a boiled egg and either spinach/avocado or a small portion of strawberries (berries obviously do have carbs but they're much lower than other fruits and can be eaten in moderation).

Do you shop at sainsburys? They do a 85% chocolate bar which is prepackaged into 5 mini bars of two squares. I found those a lifesaver last time! It always seems to be hidden on the very bottom shelf underneath the single large 'posh' bars

Sorry OP just realised you're mainly veggie, ignore the ham suggestion above!

We went mainly veggie for environmental reasons, so its not that i don't like meat, but having not eaten much for a while things like ham give me the heeby jeebies and I can be funny with chicken now too.

But unfortunately if the environment has to have one less veggie to save my actual life for a while then i can reconcile that.

Fucking love cheesetrings

Wish me luck. Need to buy some weighing scales at the super market too because I threw everything out in a rage about 18mo ago..

OP, a Keto diet is based on putting your body into a metabolic condition, ketosis, where the diet dies not provide enough carb to run, so ketones are produced to use body fat even to kick start metabolism.

That’s why it had to be exact. If you eat all that fat but enough carbs to run your body, you will just put on more weight.

Can i drink diet lemonade or sugar free squash?

You can have sugar free drinks if you are doing 'dirty Keto' but I honestly wouldn't for the first month at least. It brings back the cravings for sweet things.

I'm so sorry, i must be incredibly frustrating. Is the squash ok? I've stuck to water for now incase.

I've been shopping, spent so much

Today I've had:

Bacon x2 with scrambled eggs made with olive oil. (Needed to shop so nothing else to go with)

I've just made a salad; spinach, butterhead leaves, 3 cherry tomatoes, 4 slices of cucumber, 7 walnuts and 33g of brie, some slices of red onion and the tiniest bit of cesear dressing, maybe a tbsp at best.

I've downloaded the app mentioned previously.

We have a pork joint to roast later, I'm unsure what veg to have with it?

Gonna order the book buffalo mentioned, but it sounds like I really need to get my head around "macros"

Sorry misread. I see squash is 'dirty'

I’m a big squash drinker but tend to avoid it when low carbing as

a) sugar free drinks/things made with sweetener can confuse your body because it tastes sweetness and presumes energy is coming, but it doesn’t so it gets hungry which can make you overeat

b) low carbing can really kill sweet cravings, having sweet flavours can confuse that and make things harder.

But if you really fancy the odd sugar free squash or lemonade it’s not the of the world.

That salad sounds great but could have been bigger, don’t scrimp on things like lettuce and cucumber that are mainly water. Fast 800 involves calorie cutting as well which basic keto doesn’t, but I think it’s important to think about portion control for long term success

What veg have you got? Anything green is generally easiest to keep on track, generally the brighter the veg the higher the carbs

For some reason I thought cucumber wasn't mentioned as it isn't listed on any of the lists on pinterest!

I panicked at dinner time, Wasn't sure how to do a roast in this way!

Roast pork, carrots (equiv to one big one chopped up) and I cooked a big leek in a veg stock cube and chunk of boursin - conflicting things on internet, its full fat cream cheese which seems to be deemed ok but no definite OK on boursin, watery bisto beef gravy.

Theres the worlds thinnest round of sausage stuffing, i think that was a no 😳

That all looks great Boursin is great, all cheese is really. Honestly I’d give yourself an adjustment week as you figure out what’s what.

I found it helpful to plan the next day of food (even roughly) by inputting it into Cronometer and seeing what would be what. So if you’re aiming for 50g of carbs or less, which is sensible as it will let you let you get enough fibre in (some will day you need less than 20g carbs but you don’t, at least not all the time) you can set that limit in Cronometer and input different menu options so you can see what makes sense. So ‘if I have this breakfast that’ll use more carbs, if I just have scrambled eggs I can see that’ll leave me more carbs for dinner veg’ and fiddle with it so you can see the numbers, takes the guesswork out. Does that make sense?

Tried keto from Jan 2020 to Easter. Ate simple keto: meat, eggs, very low vegetables. Was hard for the first week, but then I was not hungry at all. It was great! Used Carb Manager App to check carb content in everything- you have to have no more than 20g of carbs a day. I found it very easy to follow. I lost 5kg in first 4 weeks and nothing at all afterwards:( Stopped keto around Easter, but still do not eat sugar, pasta or bread, also, eat smaller portions and lost another 3kgs without trying. I must say I am 48, so, maybe, peri menopausal, so keto was not a success, as younger people report loosing a lot of weight. Find keto groups on FB. I was a member of Keto for Beginners UK- it is fab.
Don't pay any ££ for 'special eating plans'- it's simply just stopping carbs and sugar. Good luck!

@ChangeMeAlready sounds like you were going for the less healthy, low fibre style of keto. It’ll work but it’s not very good for you. You can still get great weightloss on 50g carbs without reducing fibre to unhealthy levels. Such little fibre will upset your gut microbes which could be one reason why your weightloss plateaued so early. Have a look at Fast 800/Blood Sugar Diet

Lockdown, 1 green pepper is 4gr carbs, 1 white potato- 14gr, baked potato- 26gr, and so on :(
Crunchy veg- a lot, too, as it probably involves carrots (5gr 1 carrot). On keto you have to be careful with vegs- keep to dark green, mostly. No fruit!
It is doable and easy once you get in to it. I just wish it worked for me.

Buffalo, thanks, I think I am on higher fibre keto at the moment. Will look at the diet you have so kindly recommended. Thank You!

Buffalo you've been a godsend today.

I'm using the app you suggested.. I've a rough plan for food for the week. I set the carbs to 25g but didn't fiddle with anything else as don't understand it.

My only concern is how much fat I ate as it says i went over?

@Lockdownsnackathon no problem, happy to help I wouldn’t worry about the fat tbh, I’d also suggest not going straight for such low cane as you’re more likely to get keto flu and feel shite, which might put you off! 50g for a week and then reducing will be less of a shock to the system if you’ve been eating lots of pasta! I never went lower than an average 50g carbs to be honest, I wanted balance and fibre too and as a veggie it gave me more scope. But up to you!

@ChangeMeAlready that’s great! Fibre is so important! Keto can be balanced and healthy