I’ve been keto for 2 years and I don’t experience the benefits of keto (lowered cravings, less appetite, more energy, better sleep) unless I fast or restrict my calorie intake to 800 calories or less a day. I desperately want to get those same benefits without becoming underweight from constantly fasting and calorie restricting. I’ve tried every macro ratio, gut healing protocol, adrenal healing, and still when I eat a normal amount of food I feel terrible; even worse than HCLF! Like I said, I’ve been studying and eating keto for 2 years and I’ve come to the end of idea’s. I have tested my glucose and ketones with precision extra (blood glucose and ketones), and cant find any correlation between those numbers and how I feel physically. I can feel great at 0.6 mmol ketones during a fast, and terrible at the same ketone/glucose numbers if I’m eating a full amount of food. I’ve gone up to 3.5mmol ketones, using a full amount of calories and felt even WORSE. Do you have any idea why this would be happening? Any suggestions? Or, is it normal to feel way better in a caloric deficit than a full calorie keto diet? My fasting glucose always remains constant between 80 & 90. I’m a female, age 42, very lightly active, 5’6”, 110lbs, which I’m told by my dietitian is underweight. My “normal” amount of food is about 1800 calories/day, and yes I track everything. Any suggestions would be much appreciated! Thanks!!
Fasting vs keto diet
You do hear about people with EDs feeling euphoric on low calories but that doesn’t end well and doesn’t sound like what you are experiencing. It is a real head scratcher for us and must be pretty depressing for you.
You’ve tried a lot of things. Would the gut healing protocol include a full elimination diet plan a la AIP? If not, is it possible that it isn’t about total calories but WHAT you eat when you restrict vs. full calories? You see stories about radical effects from undiscovered allergies to normal foods.
If you really have tried everything within keto, is it worth stepping outside keto just to see what would happen? What springs to mind is the thing we always talk about but never do… super-high carb, smidge of protein, almost zero fat. It is proven healthy and healing in metabolically deranged people but I have no idea what it does to underweight people? Have you tried vegetarianism (or even “gulp” vegan) if for nothing else, to see what the eliminations do?
This may need a Dr House level of knowledge and insight to what weird, specific, rare genetic or physiological anomaly you have that does this but there might be more things to test in the meantime? Have you had a genetic test?