Eating disorder and Keto diet

(the cheater) #22

Indeed. I know it’s not the best expression of success, and that not everyone can handle that level of both strict adherence to a WOE and complete nonsensical freedom; it’s essentially celebrating a week of not smoking by having a cigarette lol! But it’s what’s worked for me. I also don’t look at it like that. I like to think of it as It’s better to smoke for one day a week than 3 packs per day all week long. I don’t know. I’m just thinking out loud now :slight_smile:

(the cheater) #23

I had to lol just now - I hadn’t realized you started your post with “indeed” - and then I did it too. We sound like a couple of snoots sitting around saying, “indeed, mmm yes, indeed.” lol

(Doug) #24

Quite so, old chap (assuming you are male). I would never advise anybody to “cheat,” but we make our choices and it’s not a disaster if the train goes off the rails once, or even once in a while.

#25

I can relate with so many things you just said. It is really embarrassing to talk about but it helps so much to be able to talk with someone who can understand exactly what you’re going through. I have been struggling with it for about 6 years. It completely took control of my life to a point where I lost some of my best friends and all I thought about was food and all I did was eat. It’s a vicious cycle that escalates quickly if help is not sought.
I’ve tried therapy a few times as well, but honestly what has worked best for me is keto and fasting. Having a high fat diet reduces cravings and fasting completely eliminates food from all my thoughts, which is amazing. To answer you question about how I’m doing now - well, I had a difficult breakup 1.5 years ago and completely lost control again. So here I am 50 pounds overweight and jumping back on the keto train. I actually just began a 30 day water fast. Sounds crazy I know, but I’ve done it before and it’s what helped me regain control. I’m somewhat of an extremist - either all or nothing type of personality. I’ve felt better than I have in a while and am very optimistic. Keto and fasting have saved my life. Thanks so much for your support. It helps a ton to have someone holding me accountable.

#26

Thanks for your input. Everyone’s different. For me, fasting works best to get me on track. For others, easing into keto through food might work best. And I never feast after my fast. I’ve tried that once ad regretted it immensely. It’s all trial and error.

(Candy Lind) #27

The first thing I thought of is that @Donna will be a great resource for you, and can point you to multiple resources for disordered eating, both here and in other places like Facebook. Since I tagged her, I think she’ll pop in and say something helpful. Second, if you don’t want to count macros I think you could avoid it by simply remembering to REPLACE the carbs you would have been eating with fat. Add fat to your protein and DEFINITELY add fat to any low-carb veggies you eat. You are supposed to eat until you are full at first and not worry about calories at all, so if you add fat to everything you’ll probably be pretty close to your macros without having to track. If part of your bingeing is eating to the point that you’re stuffed and miserable, I hope @Donna can step in to help you figure that out.

Welcome to our world, and I hope it helps you as much as it has helped me! KCKO.

OOPS! Forgot one thing. Our search engine is DA BOMB - and there are a few threads devoted to eating disorders where you might find some cogent comments and supportive people with which to converse. Search on “binge” or “bulimia” or “disorder” and I’m sure you’ll find something useful.

(Luca) #28

Keep doing what you are doing as it seems to be working for you! Be strong and believe in KETO.
I feel that my brain chemistry is changed when I start eating carbs, so as you said fasting or simply not eating carbs could potentially eliminate cravings. However, I would probably not start EF or longer fasting until my appetite is under control.
Let me know how your weight loss is going.

#29

I totally know what you mean about eating carbs. And yes, definitely ease into fasting. It’s not something to take lightly.
Thanks, I will. We got this! Great things ahead for us:)

(Maggie) #30

Hey there! I am in recovery for binge eating disorder. I have read a lot of articles that say people with EDs should be very careful in starting any “diets.” For me, starting keto so far has almost eliminated my cravings and I haven’t binged once yet (coming from a former daily binger). I track my macros, just because I really don’t know how to put food together that will get me to my goals, but I make sure not to be obsessive over tracking. Try it and see if it works for you! But don’t change to keto if you’re coming in with a mindset of solely losing weight. It can really heal your body from the damages of EDs, and that’s where I recommend you start. :slight_smile: I would also try to get the hang of what food combinations work for you first, before hopping into intermittent fasting… you can always add that in later. Baby steps!

(icky) #31

Ummmm, well don’t tell anyone on the forum, but I’m not actually using an app yet… I downloaded 3 so far tho! :grin:

I have 10 years of fasting experience and so have experienced ketosis many times, and I am definitely using a lazy keto approach (tho again, don’t tell anyone else I’ll get chided :grin::crazy_face:)

BUT - if I get it wrong, I know for a fact it’s ME getting it wrong due to being tooo-lazy-ketoing.

If you are just starting out, I think measuring and checking macros for a while is important, until you get the hang of it… Then switch to lazy keto later and just measure and check as needed.

So, for now my advice would just be to use fruit to help as a transition from sugar, before going keto… and then to have lots of fun experimenting with keto.

You will get so much support here on your journey!

(Dan Dan) #32

We prefer to call it ’ Intuitive Keto ’ :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

(Lynn Brown) #33

Hey Luca. This forum does help finding others with the same ED that can be incredibly embarrassing when we feel isolated. I am in the same boat so thank you too. I use the KetoDiet. App. Yellow square with a blue fish. I just enter foods. It searches and tallies all macros with totals and percentages. So it is easy to stay where I need to be. Good luck!,

(Luca) #34

Thank you! It is been two days already that I have eased my self into lower carbs. However, as soon as I come from vacation, May 10th, I will start counting macros and try to follow exact KETO. Great place!

(icky) #35

:joy: Yessssss I am just much more intuitive than most… :sunglasses: not more lazy :grin:

(Chris) #36

Thanks both of you :smiley:

/un-derail

(Arlene) #37

Luca, You have received much advise already. Hopefully you will find answers that work for you. When I go down the junk food demon hole, I slide big time. The only stop button I seem to have is nausea, and that’s after MUCH junk food. Anyway, I have decided to share my thoughts.
Firstly, I have been eating KETO since January, 2017. I have tried weighing every day, counting macros, taking measurements regularly, fasting, testing blood ketones and glucose, etc. What I finally learned is that for my brain, food/diet mentality was still controlling me. I decided to stick to the basics and stop thinking about all the rest of it. I don’t even weigh any more. I don’t intentionally fast. I don’t count my macros, or anything else. Here are my basics: Eat animal proteins (no specific amount). Sometimes I put a huge ribeye steak on the grill. Sometimes I eat all of it. Sometimes I can only eat some of it. I don’t think about how much I SHOULD eat. There are no “shoulds”. I enjoy as much as I want. Sometimes I make a salad or cook some green veggies to go with my protein. Sometimes I have a little cheese when I make an omelet.
I don’t think about food any more, and this is the best part of the whole thing. Yesterday, for instance I ate a large egg & sausage breakfast, along with my coffee & cream. At 7pm I realized I hadn’t eaten all day; hadn’t even thought about food. I asked myself "so am I hungry now?. The answer was no, so I didn’t eat dinner. It’s been exactly 24 hours since my egg & sausage breakfast yesterday, and I’m STILL not hungry. This qualifies as a 24 hour fast, which is supposed to be healthy for me. I didn’t plan it, and I won’t deny myself good proteins &/or veggies if I want them at any time. My mindset is to just enjoy the other parts of my life and let food fit in there when my body needs it.
This is the opposite of micro-managing food consumption and/or exercise. I feel better using this approach.
Good luck with your searching for answers.

#38

Luca, I am a newbie to this forum but did low carb years ago (Atkins) and now have been keto for about 6 weeks. I have a binge-eating disorder, just never made it to the purge option (and please don’t be embarrassed - it is what it is and you’re here to heal, right? That’s what counts!)

Like others have said, everyone is different. For me, the first time I went LC I did it all at once and it took me quite awhile to lose most of the cravings. In addition, doing the modern Atkins you don’t add in a lot of fat it’s more protein. So I was still hungry a good bit, but better than when eating carbs all the time. However, if I went off it, I would do HUGE binges of carbs.

This time, I knew I might have more trouble, so the first week, while i was still reading and collecting more recipes, etc. I just cut out wine (my old stress relief a few nights/week). The next week I added in a lot of fat and decreased processed foods but did not specifically avoid carbs altogether. I did not measure anything during this time, including my weight. In fact, I would suggest you weigh once and then put it away for a month if possible.

The 3rd week I cut the carbs down to < 20g. I still had some keto flu but it was pretty manageable and I made sure I was eating a LOT of fat. I ate a whole avocado every day, for example, along with fatty meats for dinner, butter in my coffee, etc.
Doing this really decreased my cravings and the few times I have been tempted by some carbs, I could only eat a few cookies for example, and they just don’t taste as good as I remembered!

I have a god-daughter who was completely healed from severe epilepsy as a 5 yr old, by following the ketogenic diet. That helps me stick with this b/c I have the image in my head of the ketones (which I picture as fat LOL) soothing and coating all the weird places in my brain which have pushed me to eat badly in the past. I also have depression and hope that sticking with this will heal my brain to let me stop using meds eventually. I am not focusing on the weight loss but on the health benefits. For you, it sounds like you want to heal the binge-eating itself and focusing on it instead of weight loss may help you a lot. Best of luck!

(Luca) #39

It seems to me like dream comes true! I was always wondering how it is like if you do not obsess about the food all the time. At the moment I am reading like creasy and after vacation (May 9th) starting strict KETO

(Ross) #40

Hi Rob,
Banting does not tend to measure or track. The whole idea is to let the hypothalamus reset then appropriately drive appetite. That’s what I do and I find no need to measure or track anything. I eat to satiety off the lists.

(Ye Lyn Tan) #41

Hi, Luca, how have your ED been? Im suffering from ED too, and i just tried keto for the first week. Today, I totally lose my control over food. I can’t help myself. I feel despair and no confident at all again!