1 year check in

blood
(Nasir) #1

Hi all,

I thought I would come back to forum (after a few months) and check in on my first ketoversary.

I started keto around this time last year. It has been quite a journey. Unlike many other people, I cheated quite a lot (71 times so far) as it is hard to avoid wheat, rice, desserts etc in my culture (a restaurant guy was so amused he showed CCTV video to other people to show that I ate curry with spoon without any roti / nan). I did do quite a few fasts though (many 3-4 days and a single 5 day, OMAD or IF everyday).

Anyway, I did lose about 50 lbs weight (from my highest of around 360) and look and feel much better. I only lost weight during the first 4 months though and have been dealing with the same ~10 lbs ever since. Few years ago, I did come down to this similar weight through exercise and calorie restriction so I guess body remembers this weight and wants to stick with it for now. Any tips would be appreciated (other than to stop cheating, know that one :grin:).

(Edith) #2

Welcome back and congratulations on your weight loss.

I can’t comment too much on the numbers. But, I will say that 71 cheats over the course of a year is more than one per week. Many of us take several days to recover from a cheat day. I would imagine cheating so often is going to keep you out of ketosis quite frequently. If you truly HAVE to cheat, skip the dessert. Sugar truly is a poison. I wish I knew how truly bad it was when my children were younger.

Also, this may not sound keto-like, but once you have been eating this way for a while you may find you need to cut back on your fat and increase protein a bit. If you are eating too much fat your body does not need to take fat from your fat stores. You can still be in ketosis but utilizing dietary fat and not body fat.

Edit: fixed a typo.

(Nasir) #3

Thanks Edith.

Agree I do need to get my cheating in control. Hopefully this number will be lower in 2020. Unfortunately, I have not been able to control my sweet tooth as much as I need to.

I followed the advice that CICO is crap and have been eating quite a lot. I have started to cut fat out and reduce portion sizes as well so hopefully that will help.

(Katie) #4

First, for that sweet tooth…switch to erythritol. It is the sugar substitute that type 1 diabetics use…no insulin spike. I make a cheesecake with it that is indistinguishable from “regular” cheesecake, yet only 2 grams of carbs per slice. If you are going to binge eating sweets anyway…at least this way it would not be sugar.

Next…do not cut back on your calories. Do not cut back on the fat.

Calorie restriction will slow your metabolism. So, you eat less to get a weight loss, and for a very short while it seems to work…but then your metabolism slows down and you stop losing weight…so you cut even more and your body slows even more…etc. you are not going to win that battle and could end up doing permanent damage to your metabolism. Bring your calories up with fat. Good fats. Remember, your liver will process to glucagon any over abundance of protein so try to keep it at about 30% of your calorie intake.

Jason Fung advocates eating every other day. Even while eating the SAD diet, he says it will still reduce weight and insulin resistance in patients. Might want to try that.

(Nasir) #5

Thanks for the tip Katie. I do use erythritol for some things.

I have been eating big portions this year and that isn’t helping so I thought I would try smaller portions. But it probably still would be quite a lot of calories (perhaps down to 3000 from 4000). I eat home made curries mostly (that are made for whole family and cooked without any measuring) so very hard to determine calories.

In November, I did fasts of 71, 46, 60, 78 and 96 hours. This resulted in my weight coming down from around 141KG to 137KG but then had a few cheats and weight is back up to 144KG!

(Full Metal KETO AF) #6

I realize that the traditional foods in your culture are problematic for KETO much the same as other ethnic cuisines that are based around carbohydrates. My advice would be to limit those meals to a couple of days a week and keep them as low carb as possible. Eat simpler food on the other days. Steamed vegetables with ghee, roasted, grilled or stewed meats. Stay away from deserts, this is just a will power issue and has nothing to do with nutritional needs. You can be part of family meals without the sweets.

Adopt this as a lifestyle change. Maybe once a month have the full spread but not 71 times in a year. I can’t believe you kept track of that number even.

If want KETO results stay with KETO eating. You talk about cheat meals which is a misleading concept. Cheating implies getting undeserved success by breaking the rules. You aren’t getting success, you’re cheating yourself out of it. The KETO diet isn’t something you can “cheat” to get success. It just does what it will with our input control. You have to have an honest relationship with it and it gives you what you want. :cowboy_hat_face:

(Nasir) #7

Hi David,
Yes it is a will power issue for me when it comes to desserts. While I am very good at not even looking at office chocolates, donuts etc or all the carbage in free hotel breakfast (many days sitting next to tables full of bakery items that I used to love but only drinking black coffee), I struggle when I am at home with guests or a guest at someone else’s home with rice and desserts (still manage to avoid roti/nan mostly). I guess I need to get my wife to not make desserts that I love. We bought a new home recently and have had a lot of guests come over for dinner almost every weekend.

I keep track of this and other numbers to help me with motivation.