First weeks of maintenance

(Doing a Mediterranean Keto) #1

I have been in maintenance for already a few weeks. My doctor told me to start eating a bit more (she told me she was concerned I could lose too much weight), and I did it. Then, I became more hungry, and I had a peak of 2kg more from my lowest weight. But then, I tried to recover myself, and now I am relatively stable, at around 0.5kg above my lowest weight.

I am pretty sure I am fat adapted, but probably I am not in ketosis anymore. My doctor told me to eat fruit every day. What I do is to eat a marmalade of fruit which is very low in calories (strawberry has 13kcal). Also, sometimes I eat blackberries, or a banana, or a kiwi.

Also, I eat quite a lot of protein bars. I have found which are the ones with low sugar, and I stick to them. Maybe I eat 3 per day, sometimes 4.

I also eat chaffles, but without cheese: I use kefir, but it is mostly nuts (almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts), plus some species. This is like eating bread, and I find it very satisfying.

My eating for meals (lunch and dinner) is mostly vegetables, plus lots of olive oil, plus some protein, which is usually fish and seafood, also eggs, and rarely meat. For breakfast, it is chaffle plus protein bar.

I think the combination of chaffles plus protein bars give me “satisfaction”, and internally I do not feel I am doing any diet. And the vegetables, olive oil … give me the good quality food I need.

So, it is not perfect, but at least for the time being, it works for me.

(Natasha) #2

Congratulations on reaching your goals! I still a way off from maintenance, but beginning to think what it might look like for me! I’ve been figuring that eventually at a certain weight I’d just stop losing and that would be it… wishful thinking maybe? :grinning:

(Jack Bennett) #3

Did your doctor explain why you should eat fruit every day?

(Doing a Mediterranean Keto) #4

She recommended keto to me, but she is not a hard keto doctor, I guess. She told me that I could not eat bread or pasta or similar for the rest of my life. But I guess she wants to open the scope of products as much as possible for me, in order not to be too restrictive.

I think I can try to be fat adapted without being in keto, necessarily. I do not think fruit harms me, at least, not in the same way bread does. In fact, I eat lots of carbs (vegetables etc) and I do not think they harm me at all. My fight is with simple carbs, not with carbs in general.

(Vic) #5

Just seen this today kind of really made me think there is so much misinfo out there

#6

But fruits and vegetables have simple carbs and bread isn’t…
Whatever. Choose a diet that works for you. It’s fine to eat carbs if that works for you and you already started to figure out what is good for you and what isn’t. It’s individual. To me, net carbs in general aren’t advisable but we are all different regarding this.
I don’t think we need fruits at all, I use them as joyful little candies. Getting much nutrients from them is too much sugar for many of us but it may work for you, of course. I just don’t think it’s generally a good idea to eat fruits just to have more variety. We can get the necessary nutrients from a not sugary source too, it’s often a better option. If you want your fruit and it doesn’t harm you, fine, I will eat fruit from my own fruit garden too, sometimes as much as I can without any ill effects but I wouldn’t do it just because my doctor thinks it’s better. As it doesn’t make sense to me.

(Doing a Mediterranean Keto) #7

The obesity epidemic started with a consumption increase in sugar and refined oils. We have been eating fruit forever, this did not change. True, fruits are today different from what they were in the paleolithic … but give me a break! I was not overweight due to the fruit, I was overweight because of bread and pasta.

I have never had any negative reaction after eating fruit. In fact, I am not attracted much to fruit, I have to “force” myself to eat it. So, whatever sugar content it has, it is irrelevant for me (for others, it might be different).

I believe in the 80/20. 80 is getting rid of bread and pasta. It is good enough for me. I have lost almost 30kg doing that, I feel healthier, in shape, I can wear clothes of a slim person, my mi band 4 tells me I am slimmer than 67% of the people. And some of you are telling me I am doing something wrong by eating fruit? Give me a break!

(Hyperbole- best thing in the universe!) #8

I didn’t see anyone saying you can’t eat fruit, only that you don’t have to. I eat berries sometimes. But I’m happy not eating other fruits, and it is nice to know that I’m not harming myself by doing so.

But if you want to eat more fruit and it isn’t harming you, great! Do that then. But to force yourself to eat something with sugar that you don’t need. That doesn’t make sense either.

(Doing a Mediterranean Keto) #9

How do we know that we “do not have to”?

Being a scientist, I know that nobody knows anything. From reading the leaders in the field, it is clear to me that for most issues, the most we have is epidemiological studies. And epidemiological studies are bogus with correlation vs causation issues. So take that info with a pinch of salt.

For this reason, N=1 are so popular.

What I know, is that mankind has eaten vegetables, fruits, meat, fish and seafood “forever”. So, thinking that fruit is not necessary is dangerous.

My N=1 tells me wheat is toxic to me. So I act on that. But why should I artificially restrict fruit, when:

  • it has been eaten by all cultures … and by my culture and people, especially
  • it has good taste
  • my N=1 has never indicated a single problem with fruit
  • it could potentially have “things” that are healthy to me
(Hyperbole- best thing in the universe!) #10

My personal opinion is that fruit can be a healthy treat in the body of someone with a healthy metabolism. Most people drawn to keto don’t fit in that category. If you do, and it sound like you do, that is fantastic.

What I know is that mankind has lived and thrives on a variety of different diets depending on culture and availability “forever”. Your doctor recommended fruit. It seems to suit you. Others pointed out that fruit comes with a price.

Anyway, congratulations on your success.

#11

I look at all the happy not fruit eating ketoers and carnivores and I am hopeful. But I personally experiment with my own body. It works for me - you do whatever you want with your diet, of course. But try to find a nutrient you can get with some fruit and can’t on a fruitless keto.

Humans surely didn’t eat lots of sugary fruit since forever. Some fruit is okay, of course, for some people more than others…
And I don’t care if people ate vegetables, they are still not good for me (and I so loved them for decades, it was my favorite food group). We should eat a diet where we function well. We are different even if we are all humans.

N=1, I am all for that (when the very basics are covered. there is no N=1 about not needing what every human body needs even if it seems so for some people for a while). The other reasons seems very weak to me but fine, they are important for you…

I am not against eating fruits at all (I totally will do it all my life, probably, just in insignificant amounts so nutrients in them are irrelevant) but just because the doctor thinks it’s good and it surely have useful nutrients (it’s not potentially, they have them)… Even toxic mushrooms have some good nutrients, we need to see the whole thing. But your N=1, I can respect it. You are fine with some fruits. But eating it when you don’t actually desire it, forcing yourself… That sounds wrong to me.

(Jack Bennett) #12

Fruit is pleasurable and tastes good. It has some stuff in it that’s apparently good for us. Is it “necessary?” I’m not sure we can answer that question with certainty. My hunch is that low-starch vegetables are more “necessary” than fruit, but a person can thrive without much of either one.

(Doing a Mediterranean Keto) #13

The question is not so much if fruit is “necessary” (in the end of being good to eat some). The question is if it is negative not to eat fruit.

My N=1 tells me wheat is negative to eat FOR ME. My N=1 has never told me fruit is negative to eat FOR ME. As a consequence, eating fruit is somewhat OK. Instead, not eating fruit could be having negative consequences, visible only when not much can be done about it.

#14

Indeed, sometimes we do thing because it’s okay either way for us and we aren’t sure if not doing it does harm. I get it, that’s why I don’t eat soy, for example (it’s not GMO here). Never needed it so why to risk? it’s a bit the opposite of yours, eating something because maybe it’s better. But forcing it down, that’s a big negative to me. But I never needed such things, maybe it’s different for people who doesn’t love almost every food like, sadly, me…
It’s your diet but I know fruit isn’t needed as it has no essential nutrients we can’t get from better sources (from a ketoer’s viewpoint). It matters a lot how much carbs our body is willing to deal with. If it’s super low, no way to eat enough fruit to be really useful. If it’s higher, that’s another case. I still wouldn’t eat fruit without wanting it but it’s your prerogative to do it differently. It’s surely not a too strong force, you wrote you like the taste, it surely helps. And there are so many different fruits. I love most of them, personally. Not the sugar in them, though so when I felt I need to eat fruits every day on keto, I mostly used raspberries. Too little to have any impact on anything except my well-being. Fruits are quite different and we usually can choose which ones to eat.

(Katie) #15

If you want to stay keto without losing weight, just increase your overall calories, so increase protein and fat. It might take a few weeks to find a ‘sweet spot’, and that ‘sweet spot’ will probably fluctuate.

(KCKO, KCFO) #16

Congrats on your successes so far. And welcome to the Maintenance Crew.

Many of us eat some fruit. I do raspberries frozen or in season, apple and pears in season. I add lemon or limes to water. I can not do bananas, I am hungry for the rest of the day and into the next if I eat a whole banana. It all depends on how your body reacts to the type of sugars in the fruits.

Chaffles are amazing, I love them too. If you found a protein bar that works for you, great.

Enjoy finding out exactly what your body wants you to do.

#17

Carbs make me hungry so fruits alone never worked but they can’t keep me from getting satiated eating proper food… It easily causes overeating if I overdo carbs but eating banana doesn’t necessary do that. I ate banana zillion times in the last years, almost every day as a newbie ketoer but I almost never went beyond 20g (frozen. they are great frozen as they stays soft and creamy or how should I describe it, it doesn’t froze into ice like strawberries. I prefer raspberries and sour cherries myself, they are good frozen too). A whole banana has lots of sugar! (And it’s no good if I desire fruit. It’s a sweetener and flavoring to me, a fruit should be sour and juicy if it’s me ;))

(Doing a Mediterranean Keto) #18

A trick I have with fruit is that many of the times, I eat low-sugar marmalade. For some reason, I cannot eat too much of it (usually, in combination of a chaffle), usually less than a usual piece of fruit.

But today I have eaten a kiwi, for example. Another day I will grab a few blackberries.

(Windmill Tilter) #19

Congrats on getting down to maintenance! Losing the weight is definitely the easy part, maintenance is the hard part.

80% of people regain whatever weight they lose within 2 years. The best weapon against weight regain is taking care of those satiety signals. If you’re eating to satiey but still gaining fat, something is messing with them.

The obesity epidemic rose as the percentage of factory made food did. Keep an eye on those protein bars.

(JJ) #20

Congrats on making it to maintenance, quite an achievement!

I have found from my own experiences that this old maintenance gig can be more complex than the weight loss itself. All the very best in tweaking your nutrition to hit a spot that you are happy and comfortable with.