Coming from HCLF vegan/fruitarian/the other side

(Scarlett Isabella) #1

Shocking I know but here I am. I’ve been trying low fat vegan, raw vegan,frutarian back and forth for 4 years now until I’ve been fed up and decided maybe I’m insulin resistant? My mood was always up down unstable, i enjoyed the smoothie highs but it seemed i always had to eat more soon to not feel a crash. I love being vegan I love the light feeling I have and the idea I’m doing right I’m terrified to go to animal products… but here I am 30 plus pounds overweight when I should be skinny by now as I followed their plans exactly only to gain weight and my anxiety seems out of hand more and more.
Background: I appear to have leaky gut, diagnosed celiacs ,autoimmune, overall body inflammation joint pain and water retention high. I’m intolerant to wheat soy corn dairy. I think my adrenals ? are shot, I’m sleeping 12 plus hours a night and still exhausted.

I’m two days into keto now, when I do something I do it right so I’m here to give it the best shot I can. Here are my fears/thoughts so far.

*How does this not completely clog your arteries? It seems so opposite of healthy. Didn’t Atkins die of heart disease eventually? I feel weird eating this much fat and calling it healthy.
*How would this work long term? Again worried about heart health.
*Day 2 and I feel unusually calm but braindead, I realize I’m going through keto carb flu probably , does this feeling lift and mental clarity come back?
*I miss my greens powders already since they give me a mental lift does anyone supplement greens or are most counting on the cooked vegetables to be enough?

Please don’t be too harsh on me since I’m coming from the “other side” as I mean well and will follow plan, I’m desperate to fix my health and will give this a fair shot even though it doesn’t feel right to me yet.

Femal 5’4
Cw:169
Sw before vegan: 140
Gw: definitely 120s

(Jane) #2

Welcome! You’ve come to the right place if you are serious about giving this way of eating a try and need support.

My great-grandparents lived on a farm and grew and butchered their own food. Every day they ate bacon, lard, eggs, cream and meat (along with garden veggies) and were not overweight, lived into their 90’s and never had heart disease.

What are you eating for protein? What about fat? How many carbs does your green powder have in it? If you can stay under 20 gm carbs and have it, then enjoy.

Some folks will say stick to whole natural foods but that is up to you.

It takes 6-8 weeks (average) to convert your body over from being a sugar burner to a fat burner. Once you are fat-adapted the real benefits kick in. Not hungry all the time, mental clarity, energy, etc.

I am 7 months keto and lost 30 lbs and feel great.

Good luck on your journey.

(Marta Loftfield) #3

@Beachriding Dr. Atkins died of a blood clot after surgery after he slipped and fell on ice.

(Scarlett Isabella) #4

@Janie Thank you for your kind reply. Currently I am starting my day with coffee and coconut oil, following with eggs and bacon fried in coconut oil a couple hours later. I should probably be eating lunch but I’ve never felt so full in my life I hve an avocado instead. For dinner I’m currently doing fatty meats and low carb veggies in oil or the meat juices. I will be having chicken liver at some point. The greens is 3g carbs.

(Scarlett Isabella) #5

@MountainGirl Interesting did not know that was just told he died from heart disease, thanks for clarifying

(LeeAnn Brooks) #6

I did the LF thing for the past 20+ years and used to scoff at people who did Atkins.

But I failed to maintain my weight every single time and realized I needed to try something different. Then I started to really research Keto and the science behind it. More eye opening to me was the science (or lack thereof) behind LF. In particular, the faulty studies of Ancil Keys, by which the entire SAD was built. All of it based on bad experiments which results have never been able to be duplicated. That is the epitome of bad science. Everything we know, or throught we knew, about cholesterol and fat was simply not true. It’s really fascinating to read about. Try reading Eat Rich, Live Long for a good synopsis of Keys’ work and how it’s been debunked.

But what really got to me is simpkynthe overwhelming evidence that is taking place around us. Go back 50-60 years and more. There were no 24 hour gyms. No one ran for recreation. People weren’t working out with yoga, Pilates, HIIT… none of it. And their diets were natural and much higher in fats compared to the LF SAD pushed today. But people were skinner then. The biggest changes to SAD since then has been the adding of sugar to processed foods that we’ve all become so accustomed to. The extra carbs added through corn syrup which is in almost everything. It’s exploded in the food industry, and so have our waist lines.

And finally while none of Ancil Keys studies showing a link between high fat diets and heart disease have been able to be reproduced, there have in fact been studies which show quite the opposite. That removing fat from diets actually increases the risk of heart disease.

Fat gets a bad rap, but it’s a life sustaining nutrient. The same cannot be said about carbs. Carbs are the only macro not needed to sustain life, yet the daily recommended allowances by the FDA say we should eat more than half our diet from a macro that’s not needed.

(Alec) #7

Sounds like you are doing this right. Just one thing: don’t undereat. This is not a low calorie diet. Given your list of ailments, the first thing your body will want to do when it sees the fat coming in is heal itself. This may take some time, but you should start feeling better generally once you are past the keto flu.

BTW, best way to avoid keto flu: drink lots of electrolytes and eat salt. Bone broth is also a good choice.

But most important, take your time, don’t get impatient, things can take some time to happen for some people. But stick with it, cos the rewards are there.

Welcome!

(Jane) #8

I’m an engineer, not a statistician but I saw a graph once that showed the tons of HFCS in our food and the rise of the obesity rate in all age groups and it was a direct correlation! It went from practically none in the 60’s to a 45-degree slope in increased amounts added to our foods in the past 4 decades.

You look at old photos back in the 20’s, 30’s, 40’s. EVERYONE was a normal size. You can’t blame the Depression for thin people in the 1920’s and late 1940’s.

I used to love the tart, original Campbell’s Tomato soup as a kid. Now it has HFCS in it and I can’t stand it. Probably can’t have it now, but I hated the new sweet taste. Don’t know what year they added it - 90’s maybe?

(Rob) #9

Of you were, you no doubt hang with other with Vegans who have propagated the lie because they are deathly afraid of Atkins/Keto as the ultimate diet of animal “murderers”… and the ultimate denier of good science is catchy lies (and well funded bad science)

(LeeAnn Brooks) #10

I heard that too, and I’ve never been part of the vegetarian/vegan community. Im pretty sure that’s how some news outlets reported it.

(Rob) #11

Remember, the plant-based muppets control the diatetic orgs and key nutrition research universities so anti-Atkins bias has pervaded the media for decades, though I doubt reputable sources are allowed to flat out lie (or fail to fact check) but you could imagine something alluding to this being a throw-away comment in a general plant-based diatribe. No-one is going to complain or ask them to retract except maybe his family… and now ketonians but it is a bit late to put this urban myth back in the bottle.

(Edith) #12

Don’t worry about getting full and don’t force yourself to eat if you are not hungry. Your body is using up its glycogen stores and learning how to use fat for fuel. These things take time. As your glycogen stores empty and you start utilizing fat, you won’t get full quite so fast. Make sure you are getting about 400mg of magnesium, some potassium, and about 5grams of sodium per day. That’s a little over two teaspoons of salt. That will help with the “flu” symptoms. The lethargy is because your muscles need to learn how to use fat for fuel once the glycogen is depleted.

Welcome aboard!!

(Marta Loftfield) #13

@Beachriding also I forgot to say welcome glad you are here!

(Karen) #14

Here’s a baby step

http://www.veganatheart.org/vegan-ketogenic-diet-plan/

Start with this and add, say, eggs, but cage free for your health.

(Scarlett Isabella) #15

Thanks everyone!

(Wendy) #16

It’s funny, my mom had told me he was murdered by his wife and I believed that until recently. Who knows how that got started.:smile:

(Wendy) #17

Good for you! If you want a great book full of science and explainations of where our dietary recommendations came from I’d recommend Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. It may very well ease your mind about high fat, chloresterol, and bucking conventional wisdom. We’ve been lied to. And keto is scientific and has so many that can testify that it works. How many diabetics have had their meds reduced or eliminated or just people like me that were never diagnosed but have lost belly fat and weight just by changing our macros and avoiding unhealthy processed fats.
Welcome and I hope you find that this new way of eating makes you feel great and that you will see that weight finally come off.
I’m over 50 and have lost 50 lbs in about 5 months. But more importantly I believe this diet will reduce my chances of heart disease, diabetes and alzheimers.

(Ken) #18

The Atkins Heart Disease/Obesity lie (he also suffered severe edema due to his injury, it was misreported as body fat) was started by a so called holistic practitioner who somehow obtained his autopsy report illegally. The distortions and lies spread like wildfire through the vegetarian/vegan community and are now cited as Holy Writ.