Discouraged, what I am doing wrong?

#22

Simple bearnaise sauce without the need to “reduce” anything
Melt 2 sticks of (sweet not salty) butter on low heat in a pot.
Put 4 egg yolks ( only the yolks) in a bowl on the side
When the butter is melted, add chopped up fresh tarragon and about 2 teaspoons of wine vinegar, and some salt and pepper to taste.
When the butter has cooled a bit ( because otherwise you will get scrambled eggs), slowly - very slowly - add it to the egg yolks while using a hand mixer on high speed. Use mixer until the sauce becomes creamy. Eat on a steak or fish or whatever right away.
Eat all of it and measure your ketones later! :hugs:

(Natasha) #23

How about giving the Megan Ramos ‘fat fasting’ a go for 2 weeks?

https://thefastingmethod.com/what-is-fat-fasting-and-when-should-you-do-it/

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#24

@NAtascha
To each their own, but if I had to eat with such limited choices, I would never have succeeded with keto. Besides which it doesnt teach me how to count my macros.
It is not THAT hard! And one has to put SOME effort into losing weight - so I spend that in the kitchen. If one says from the start “This is too hard for me” or “I cant do this” one will get no where. Keto is by FAR the easiest way of dieting I have ever encountered- in the end. Because there is so much I can do with it.

(Natasha) #25

Yes, I agree with you, such limited choices in the long term would make keto unsustainable for me too! One of the things that makes the keto WOE so wonderful for me is the wide range of food choices and delicious meal creations available - the recipes are endless! I love cooking (and eating!) and I couldn’t stick to something that was too limited or boring in the long term. However, the fat fast is only suggested as a 2 week starting point - something simple and short-term to kick start ketosis and debunk the myth that keto is super complicated!

#26

@Natascha
Yeah, I get that. It is to induce ketosis. But for me it would just induce the flight reflex.:rofl:

(Natasha) #27

:joy: hahah! I feel that way about maybe needing to give up dairy one day!

#28

@Natasha
OHHH Dairy!!! DONT!!!:stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

(Gord Glinka) #29

Chantarella, thank you so much for taking your time and writing such good advice. With yours and everyone’s else’s suggestions etc. I feel better about this. I have been doing what everyone has been saying, for the last few days. I have only been paying attention to the carbs, eating fats (I saved the bacon and pork chop fat), putting fats on veggies, bullet proof coffee in the morning etc. I have done like you say, eat a good satisfying meal and then no snacking. I found after a good meal I don’t get the craving for a snack. It may be too soon to tell but I do thing you a d the others have got me on the right track. Thank you.

#30

@GordG
The question is whether you need the BPC at all. I use BPC if I want to fast ( IF ) and I cant stand it for the hunger. BPC will not raise insulin levels which is good. I dont think you need the BPC in the mornings unless it keeps you from snacking. I never understood fat bombs either. They are kind of for snacking when you cannot stand it anymore for hunger. Because they are pure fat they dont affect our insulin excretion. So what I have understood is that they are for those emergency situations where I am hungry and dont want to upset the ketosis I am in.
From the “Simply Keto” cookbook although a bit modified by me:
CEASAR DRESSING
170 g mayonaise
2 tsp Dijon
Juice of half a lemon
1 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves mashed
5 heaping tbsp parmesan grated
pepper to taste

Mix well

You can adjust it a bit by tasting while making it to match your own taste, but this is by far the best ceasar dressing I have ever made. It turns into a kind of paste and is not liquid. But you put 1-2 tbsp ( or more) on your salad and mix so the leaves are all coated. I like it with endive salad leaves, red bell peppers, avocado and tomatoes. Then I top it with either tuna or hard boiled eggs or chicken or shrimp. The most carby thing about it are the tomatoes. LOL OH yeah and then I put the portions of each ingredient in cronometer to calculate my carbs. i dont calculate for the garlic- too little to mention for me.

(Jill F.) #31

Welcome Gord! I lost 40 pounds last year doing keto and I only gain weight back when I get lazy and start eating too many carbs again.
When I was losing weight my typical day looked like this:
Breakfast. Coffee with heavy whipping cream and Splenda, 2 eggs with cheese, 4 to 6 bacon.
Lunch. Salad with chicken bacon lettuce, cucumbers, spinach, low carb dressing. Or left overs from dinner.
Dinner. 4 to 5 days a week was either rib eye, pot roast, shredded pork, grilled chicken all smothered in butter and garlic. Large portions of meat 8 to 10 oz. Steamed green veggies again smothered in butter. Sometimes cauliflower but I avoided onions, carrots, anything that grew underground until I lost to my goal weight.
Snacks. If I snacked it was cheese like string cheese, mini Bells, pimento cheese and celery. Or dill pickles. I also love Slim Jim’s and snacked in those a lot.
Now I know a lot of people will say I ate too many no gos like Splenda or Slim Jim’s because they are sweetners or processed foods. It worked for me, I lost the weight and almost as many inches as pounds. Like I said I only regain weight now in maintenance when I go above 50 carbs a day and I have only regained 4 pounds in around 9 months, not too bad! While losing I tried to keep it under 20 carbs a day.
Be sure to measure your body not just weigh. Also give it some time, once I became fat adapted I was able to skip breakfast and just went down to lunch and dinner.
Come here often for advice and think of it as a lifestyle change. Every once in a while I will eat candy or something sugary in small quantities and it AMAZES me how crappy I feel. Once we take all of that out of our bodies we start to feel so much better!

(Edith) #32

I would suggest using total carbs and not net carbs. If I recall correctly there is some type of fiber that we can actually digest; so, unfortunately, fiber really can‘t be subtracted 1 to 1.

Also, using net carbs could possibly keep your carb intake high enough to keep the carb cravings from fading.

Carbs are sneakier than you think.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #33

You got that right, Edith! :+1: Doubly so when guestimating amounts, i.e. wishful thinking.

(Kenneth) #34

Does anyone have any experience with Dr. Berg’s book? He talks about the Four Body types, how to identify yours and apply keto accordingly. It makes me think that Gord Glinka might fall into a strong body type, that the Keto diet needs to be tailored accordingly.

A Warning on Dr. Berg. I like most of his content, but he does come across as quite dogmatic … Meaning he says or implies, “you have to do …” a lot. Also, his “6-8 cups of leafy green” he claims as necessary, has been debunked by various other sources.

(Kenneth) #35

Hi there. Just a word of encouragement to keep up the journey! I have simple advice and complex advice … the simple first. Do not Stave yourself!!! But if you want to pro-long fast check out Megan Ramos and their Fasting program

Exogenous Ketones have their place, but I would argue, not for you. Dr. Benjamin Bikman talks about the importance of Ketone utilization vs high ketone levels. If your body is produce ketones, it is producing on what the body needs and will utilize. Extra ketones in the blood stream will just end up in the toilet.

Based on what you have written above, a high impact adjustment you can make is to move towards a time-restricted eating window. Only eating within an 8hr time frame; say 11am-7pm, zero calories before or after (16hrs not eating/8hrs eating window). Five days each week; with limited snacking between meals. Zero-Calories means no bullet-proff coffee (440cal), no cream (1 tbsp 29cal), ideally water only.

The complex advice/reasoning. Dr. Jason Fung & Megan Ramos, Dr. Peter Attia, Dr. Rhoda Patrick all talk about the Hormonal dimension of weight loss. Insulin and cortisol (stress related) are two hormones that put the body into Energy Storage mode - makes us fat. Consistently eating in a time-restricted eating window (16/8) will take stress off of the body digestive system allowing it to rest and recover. It will also, help your relationship with food. (For me, i felt like I was missing something if I was not eating at every meal. Now I can just be at a meal and enjoy peoples company.) The reason for the water only in the 16hr window is, according to Dr. Rhonda Patrick, though coffee does not cause an insulin response, it does activate a handful of things in the gut that affects the bodies ability to rest and recover. The goal of 16/8 is to allow the body to restore and heal.

Hope this helps!
I’ll be praying for your success.

(Gord Glinka) #36

Hello all, the key thing I have taken from everyone’s great advice is to concentrate on keeping carbs (I have even doing net carbs) below 20g and eat full meals with good amounts of fat. Don’t go nuts with the portions but eat enough to feel full and less inclined to snack.
My snacking has reduced to almost nothing and in the first collection of weeks I have lost 14 lbs, however that is it. I have budged since then. My meals are very basic and paying attention to carbs and fats. I tried a ketone strip twice today and it barely indicates anything. Everyone I talked to before starting this, it didn’t seem difficult to get themselves in ketosis. I feel better than I used to but that’s it, I am starting to wonder why I’m doing this.
I have read and heard various things but don’t know why it has to be complicated. It seems so much easier for others.
Things told to do:
Go for 20g real carbs not net (that seems almost impossible)
Start watching calories as well
Exercise more
Do the intermittent fasting
Do the 16 hour/8 hour method
Have a cheat meal, that will kick start it
And so on and so on.
I just seem to be stuck and don’t know what to try next.
Any ideas?

#37

Well first off, go to cronometer.com and track your macros. Its free. Because in the end when you eat more fats, you will burn those instead of the fat on your body.
I would strongly also urge you not to give up. Being in ketosis is not the same as being fat adapted. When you start to be fat adapted ( different for everyone- some take 6 weeks and others take 4 months, like me) this means that your engine is really burning fats now for energy. And then the miracles begin. For example I woke up yesterday full of energy- and NOT hungry. I figured OK- I will do 18/6 ( IF - only eating between 12 and 6pm) but when it turned 12, I was still not hungry. I just kept thinking I will have lunch and later I will have dinner-and I ended up not eating at all yesterday. The true magic of the weight loss is in intermittent fasting/fasting. But this is an abhorrent thought isn’t it? Not eating? WHAT? My first thought was “I can’t do that!” But when you are fat adapted, you re just not hungry. And it used to be that loss of appetite meant an infection or illness. But the loss of appetite here has nothing to do with feeling bad. You feel GREAT.
So don’t throw in the towel. Hang in there and be patient, and wait to see how your body changes. And in the meantime while you are still so hungry- count your macros on cronometer.com