Brand Spanking New & Confused

(mole person) #11

So true.

(Jane) #12

If you have made it to Day 5 water/coffee fasting and feel ok then don’t give up! I was keto for 6-7 months before I tried fasting and I saw my greatest improvements in skin and hair after I fasted for 3 days, 2 weeks in a row.

I would recommend you transitioning to keto when you break your fast to continue to get the benefits of running on ketones like you are now.

Welcome!

( Keto-Peeps Rock! ) #13

Thank you for the encouragement. I am experiencing more itchy skin than usual though (my legs of all places :woman_facepalming: but my hands have slowly been clearing up and this is where my skin was crusty - so much so i could not open my one hand fully or the skin on my little finger tore. I can open my hand now even though the skin is till very taut. The leg itching is freaking me out a little must admit.

Good to know that i may be skipping keto-flu… this is the second night in a row that i am having a battle with sleeping through the night. I’ve read that this is also an indication of ketosis. Will this stop? (Sleeping is one of my favorite things, i am horrible without sleep!)

( Keto-Peeps Rock! ) #14

Thank you for replying :slight_smile: I quite like Thomas DeLauer. Rod Stuart is a bit intense, but also interesting to watch. And Dr Boz has been very helpful too. I’ve read up so much about this this past few days, i cant keep all my info straight anymore - Info Overload of note. Should have made notes to reference back to LOL.

Sounds pretty simple - cut out ALL the foods you (i) Love, and you are following a Keto-diet, basically - or almost? :frowning: Suppose this is why so many find it difficult to maintain keto - my tastiest dishes are italian based. And Sushi :frowning_face: ohmegosh how to do without this. Why are the Japanese all so skinny if they consume this regularly?! ><

Not to mention carrots and corn. At least my all time fave veggie is (barely) on the keto-grocery list - being cauliflower. :wink:

@Janie
Thank you, going to stick with it! :smiley:

I’ve tried to find more on how to come out of an extended fast and stay in ketosis, and only found Rod Stuart’s video on this subject, but it was difficult for me to follow.

How do you recommend to transition over (without avo-soup :nauseated_face:) ??

(mole person) #15

This sounds like it could be keto rash, which some people have some trouble with early on. I had a small amount of it a few times while working out but it was barely anything. But I had a girlfriend who go it so badly that she went to her doctor who knew nothing about ketogenic diets and he told her to get off the diet and she listened to him :confused:. It may indicate that you are taking the wrong route into ketosis.

Keto rash happens because when you go into ketosis at the start of a keto diet your body is still terrible at using ketones efficiently. So you have all of these ketones being pumped out but they aren’t being used for energy very well at all yet. So your body gets rid of them in other ways. They can come out with your breath which can smell sort of bad, they come out in your pee, and they come out in your sweat.

Some people have a skin reaction to this last one and, for a few, it can be seriously itchy and even lead to a rash. Luckily it’s not permanent and there are ways to deal with it in the meantime. But what you absolutely should NOT be doing if you have keto rash is fasting. Keto rash means you have to sloooooow ketosis initially until you become more fat adapted but fasting puts you into the deepest possible state of ketosis.

I recommend you start a keto diet but at 50 grams of carbs and see if you are in ketosis at that level and how your itching is. If you itching continues add a 1/2 cup of berries (not blueberries though) twice a day. It usually helps. after a few weeks you can try cutting the berries and later the carbs too if you need to.

Keto rash is only a problem for people at the beginning of fat adaptation but if they don’t know what to do they can be freaked out by it and bail on a diet that may have helped them immensely if they’d just worked through it with techniques that are generally very successful.

I hope this helps. Good luck.

(squirrel-kissing paper tamer) #16

Welcome! I have been a smoker and it may not be the most popular advice, but I think I’d do one thing at a time: fast OR start a new way of eating OR stop smoking, etc. Life changes are tough to get going. Might be more successful if you don’t pile two on at once. Keep up the good work!

Meal Frequency and Times
( Keto-Peeps Rock! ) #17

Okidoki :expressionless: I dont have a rash, but will definitely halt the fast should i get one. For now it’s just light itchiness - and could be caused by a lot of things (like the new bed sheets i got for Christmas! LOL). But no, will definitely stop if it gets worse.

As i may be going over the hump now, i am excited to see what i will feel like in the next 2 to 3 days. Really am enjoying fasting in itself, it’s honestly the most pleasant experience in the sense of not one cramp or gassy moment in the past week - i also battle with IBS from time to time (another incentive to let my digestive system rest).

But i do feel a bit nervous now, as my body might be a bit dim with what to do with ketones :laughing: Will definitely keep an eye on this and begrudgingly let go of the fast if need be.

( Keto-Peeps Rock! ) #18

Thank You <3

(Robbie Ettehad) #19

Some years ago I quit smoking and went on a low carb (not Keto) diet. Drinking water was very helpful to me in stopping the smoking as it gave me a substitute to reach for or hold in my hand. But I tended to do most of my smoking while commuting in my car, and didn’t smoke at home.

(mole person) #20

Don’t worry, nothing bad comes of this other then being a little lower energy for a few weeks and maybe having a bit of brain fog. it’s actually interesting that you are finding fasting so easy and feeling so well. It may be that your body is dealing with ketones quite well right off the bat. We’re not all the same in this respect at all.

( Keto-Peeps Rock! ) #21

@Rob1 - this is the plan :smiley: i am going to Set My Mind and Keep it SET!! :wink:

@Ilana_Rose Oh no, i meant i find it easy in the sense of being able to resist eating. Mentally it has been a challenge… i fell asleep (for the 1 hour that i slept) fantasizing about frying up some broccoli, sprouts & cauliflower in a bit of butter and spices. :rofl:

(mole person) #22

Oh that reminded me…I meant to address your question about sleep. I’ll save that for tomorrow though because I’m sleepy! Suffice to say I had some big sleep problems for a while but they’ve worked themselves out. I’ll say more on this tomorrow.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #23

Good night! Sleep well! :sleeping:

#24

Miranda

Don’t sweat no Keto flu. I did low carb <30-40 for 4 months (lost 20 pounds) before finding extended fasting via Dr. Fung’s Obesity Code. I read it to bust through a month-long stall.

I learned to do extended fasting first but kept coming across Keto eating. That had me stumble across this forum and that opened a treasure trove of information.

Now I combine several days of Keto eating between extended fasts (usually 3-4 days) and the weight is melting away. Keto/EF has peeled off another 41 pounds in 4 1/2 months.

Like you, having tinkered with low carb previously, I never suffered any bad symptoms. Did experience some palpitations early on but salt, magnesium and selenium calmed that. Some insomnia is still present but improving.

Unlike you, I have never smoked a cigarette in my life. So I can’t offer advice there but I did successfully kick opioid dependence — 44 kidney stones and a horribly arthritic knee that required full replacement led me there. I never abused the pills but boy did I need my daily dose to keep functioning.

Yes, you and I may have started this whole thing bass-ackwards but we do have a leg up on everyone else — the hardest part is behind us.

#25

Hmmm, well back in the day when food was normal the flavour was said to be in the fat. For example the chicken skin was the most tasty part …

But then some bright spark got the idea we should remove fat from our diet (that would be Ancel Keys) but then the flavour was lost - so they stuffed food with sugar (and even worse high fructose corn syrup) out right toxic.

So my point is don’t feel too deprived. We have the power of F on our side, F for fat and F for flavour. Just explore some nice recipes.

I’ve been scoping out Pailin’s YouTube vids on Thai food I reckon with some minor tweaks I can make those those dishes perfect keto food (I can live without rice). Few people would argue Thai is bland. There’s also butter chicken which I used to love, I reckon I can salvage it as well.

I think you’re right, some people drop out because just eat is bacon and eggs with ZERO exploration.

Cauliflower is definitely a good keto food. As is broccoli.

Check out this web site, https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb.

Find the heading “Visual low-carb guides“. I dare say you should find something interesting there : - )

( Keto-Peeps Rock! ) #26

@Ilana_Rose Thank You <3 hope you rested well. I managed to sleep 3 hours now :slight_smile:

@GentleBen How often do you do these EFs? (Thank you for your kind response, by the way, i am feeling way better about my profound silliness, haha).

I was thinking of trying to come of this fast and staying in ketosis, if i can find a manageable way to do it (and if you guys think it’s advisable).

Or alternatively to break it like normal, with fruits and fruit juices first few days, and then the soft veggies & yogurt, then some solids, then meat, etc. Well, if that is the right order - admittedly i must still do my thorough research here.

But then doing a 48 hour fast once a week, eat Thursday night - fast till Saturday night. (Reason for that is Friday nights are junkfood nights i hardly ever cook!) And then 24 hour fasts daily from Sunday through to Thursday. With a LCHF diet, although i am not so sure on keto and all these measurements, i still have a lot to learn there with all these percentages everyone keeps mentioning.

Gosh, i can ramble. Woke up feeling very shaky this morning (idiotically did some running around the house cleaning last night). Nervous energy is flowing :slight_smile:

@Alex99 I will check out these sites for sure (lots of time to read up on stuff lately LOL).
I am pretty sure i can manage to make keto foods tasty. What discourages me is all the negativity on the net about how easy it is to get kicked out of ketosis, especially if you eat too much meat - and i love my meat <3 Also love my veggies, and luckily was never big on fruits anyway. But i sure have time now to learn about macros and micros and minis and what not and how to measure all these things :rofl:

How often do you find yourself getting kicked out of ketosis? And how do you measure whether you are in / out, if i may?

#27

Yeah, sorry information overload I know.

But I meant just look at the pictures of what you can eat at that dietdoctor site. It’s a super fast way to see what is okay. Then if you click on a category, let’s say veggies or meat, it’ll drill down and you see another picture I reckon those pictures paint a thousands words. Items on the left of each picture are the best, items on the right not as good.

As for kicked out of ketosis. I’m afraid I’ve never been kicked out so I don’t know. Probably come close a few times…

I have been asking the same question myself, people are saying “I feel sick”, “hunger, cravings…”, stuff like that. There seems to be direct way to know, only indirectly via counting carbs. Hence the need for a good carb counting app.

After a couple of weeks of number crunching you’ll get the idea. It turns out to be very easy.

(Jane) #28

Just keep your carbs under 20 net grams a day, eat your normal amount of protein (don’t be afraid to eat too much - blown way out of proportion on the net because some people have a much higher insulin response than normal to protein) and enough fat to keep you from getting hungry in between meals.

(Jane) #29

Don’t worry about being “kicked out”. Just a bunch of drama queens on the net. It can happen if you eat something with a lot of carbs you didn’t know about - like at a restaurant where you don’t have control over the ingredients. You will be back into ketosis as soon as the carbs are burned up - hours usually.

More important is to make that a rare exception until your body is running efficiently on ketones. For most this is 4-6 weeks.

Btw, I sleep like a baby now but not when fasting. Usually have insomnia when I fast.

(Jane) #30

And you can measure ketones with a blood meter, but not necessary. I was keto for nearly a year before Santa brought me one and I test when I am fasting out of curiosity. Some people use it to find their own personal carb limit. 20 g will guarantee you are in ketosis - some people can go much higher because of their metabolisms. My husband who has never had a weight problem can stay in ketosis eating 75-100 carbs a day. Good thing I love him or I would kill him! :laughing: