Getting rapidly fatter, darn it

#21

You look so beautifully fit and healthy in the recent picture! The other picture looks less strong and healthy in my opinion. (Your son is probably just repeating what he’s heard you say about yourself!) I believe keto has brought you to a healthier weight and place, KCKO!

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #22

I’m old enough to remember the days when such voluptuous women as Jayne Mansfield, Sophia Loren, Gina Lolobrigida, and Marilyn Monroe were considered to be models of womanly beauty.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #23

Were?

(Laura) #24

Aww-- thank you!! For me, a big part of this is that I think it means I am aging. But of course none of us can escape aging. It feels good to hear that you think I look better this way. If I am convinced that Keto is healthy (and so far I am), then the thing to do is keep it up and I guess my body will look its best for its age.

I’ve grown up in an era where doctors think the thinner, the better. It favored me for a while but does not seem very scientific. I even used to get a discount on my state-employee health insurance for years because my weight was low for my height. My more muscular colleagues paid more!

The Twiggy look was HUGE in the 90’s. It was called the “Calvin Klein model” look then, prepubescent models dressed up to look 18 and wearing dark eyeshadow. But I always preferred boyfriends who appreciated all sizes and shapes of women, because men who thought that way seemed more confident and open-minded to me. I guess I should remember that, if my own body is going to change to a different type!

#25

I basically agree with the others but fat rolls on a slim figure still aren’t nice (at least for the one in question, I understand that very much. I am kinda fat anyway but my SO has this at a certain weight. quite slim with a big belly, not pretty at all but some people say he should gain weight when he is seen in clothes, definitely NOT. unless he gains muscles, of course). And well, if it’s just my opinion, you would look better with more muscles :smiley: But main thing, you should have a healthy weight (not really the number, more like the fat mass, muscle mass, other mass) and that’s a somewhat wide range, your taste obviously should be respected. It’s bad when someone’s taste is outside of the healthy range. Or when it’s a trend to be unhealthily skinny (I always use “skinny” as bad, underweight. I use slim or lean for low fat mass, dry when it’s a bodybuilder…)

We probably all have some natural figure our body prefers when healthy… Other people’s taste shouldn’t matter. Very valid concerns about health are different, of course. But some people are very thin when healthy too…

To some extent, I agree. I find it very stupid to think older people gets fat, it’s normal and right aso much that their ideal weight gets higher. I would think my ideal weight gets smaller as I age (well, after some point, I am only 45 and have little muscles. I want to bulk first :smiley: though we can say I have a high ideal weight now, I just lack the muscles I should have collected in my early youth and keep them since)… Not like there is a thing as ideal weight but maybe it’s understandable enough.
I definitely don’t want to be old AND fat. Not even a bit. Just the necessarily healthy and good-looking amount…

Don’t be chubby, sure but not being painfully thin isn’t a bad look. Okay, I don’t know your taste and maybe losing your usual look is scary…?

How stupid! Really? Such people shouldn’t get a diplom, obviously we need our fat, it’s basic biology! And even mentally, it’s super unhealthy to try to be super skinny, no matter what…

(Laura) #26

Wonderful documentary!! Thank you for pointing me to it.

It makes the point that evolution is not about health: It’s about reproduction. That’s satisfying because it busts a misconception about evolution that annoys me.

That said, the NOVA special also points out why fat is healthy. And why we evolved to store fat in the last couple million years, since becoming hunter-gatherers (so we can expend more energy for longer periods of time to hunt, and not starve).

And that fat does much more than store energy. It sends important signals and stores and gives information to the brain.

This meditation on fat-- complete with wonderful art-- is quite helpful.

I love NOVA. Thanks for sharing this!

(Robin) #27

I just watched the entire NOVA episode. Fascinating. Especially the indigenous people who tested to be the same as us in how much their body burned. Brings more clarity to what a body’s “set point” means. It sounds like there is an absolute set point that our body needs to maintain in order to literally survive. It makes me wonder if we have various set points along the way during purposeful weight loss. Maybe what we call stalls are actually periods when our body needs time to adapt to a new normal without feeling threatened. That seems logical to me. My weight loss has stalled about every ten pounds after I met my reasonable short term goal. I just keep at it and it may be a few weeks or months and then it slowly starts creeping down again, without changing anything. Hmmm…

(KCKO, KCFO) #29

Maybe it isn’t keto eating then? Have you had a good physical exam recently?

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #30

@collaroygal Thank you! I somehow missed this very pertinent tidbit.

I’m going with @Rosa on this. You’re 44… Keto is not magic nor miraculous. If you stick with it, keto will help fix whatever’s broke and still fixable, but it won’t stop the clock. :roll_eyes:

(Laura) #31

I just had a telehealth appointment and my doctor says it’s not likely perimenopause. (I don’t have other symptoms.) My scale says I actually lost 5 lbs in the last 2 weeks, maybe I should weigh myself more. I appear to have lost a ton of water weight since 2 days ago. I guess that makes sense since I was on my cycle, never used to retain water on my cycle until I stopped running.

I took a bikini pic this morning and my legs are looking much skinnier than in that one recent picture I posted. All the weight/fat is in my belly. My mom thinks it’s stress. (Also my posture could use some help.)

An issue I’ve always had is that I’ll get full way before I’m through a normal meal, and then I’ll be very hungry 2-3 hours later (sometimes only an hour later). I’m trying to get through enough in one sitting so that I eat fewer times a day. For one thing, it would be nice to go places and run errands without having to always pack food.

Keto does seem to be helping with that, though. I’m five weeks in. I don’t really want to snack anymore when stressed, and I no longer have the frequent digestive issues. My energy is no longer a wild card. Energy would be FAR better if I could sleep just a little more, but sleep is improved since last week, too. So maybe this is just the beginning of a long upward arrow toward overall health on keto. If I lose a few lbs of belly fat and gain some muscle in the next 3-6 months, I’ll be very happy. It seems possible. Patience is key?

(Laura) #32

Now I’m starting to wonder whether this weight gain was less sudden than I’d thought, and maybe I just didn’t notice until it hit a certain threshold. After all, 1) I rarely weigh myself (just go off clothing fit) and 2) I was sedentary for almost 2 years with my injury and surgeries. I was also, while sedentary, very addicted to snacking all the time. And I forgot about this-- but I was wearing different clothes for a long time because of my boot, cast, knee scooter et c. I bet I just didn’t notice the weight creep. I did feel more slim until suddenly two months ago, but on me that can be just 5 lbs. The other 10 or so lbs probably came along more slowly.

So far, it seems more likely to me that this extra belly fat is middle age, plus being sedentary for too long, plus constant carb snacking for too long, plus lack of core strength, plus stress. I do not think Keto is hurting the pouch, and I think it’s helping, though slowly which is fine. But I’m going to update on this because I have searched for similar topics here and found a handful of people who gain weight on keto-- and then I can’t see how it turns out in the long run for them.

(Joey) #33

@Lc14503 Thanks for the updates. Sounds like you’re on a solid path!

Again, I’ll suggest: continuing to eat in a healthful manner (after years of low-fat/high-carb, I learned that for me, at least, healthful turns out to be high fat/minimal carbs). Exercise sensibly given your age/joints/condition. And stop worrying much about the bathroom scale …

Scales are contraptions that merely measure how fiercely the earth is tugging on you. Who cares? The condition and happiness of your mind and body should matter much more to you than what the earth thinks. :vulcan_salute:

(Laura) #35

Here is my update. Within a few days of that post, I rapidly lost 5-7 lbs which on my frame makes a difference. I’m not sure I was doing anything different, except I stopped eating “keto” ice cream :slight_smile: Also discovered I need to fix my posture. Most the weight seemed to come off my arms and legs, so I will be patient about the belly fat as that should probably go away slowly.

I don’t like exercising much these days, and I also don’t like lying around resting. I used to like both. Now, I keep trying to run, and can’t focus. Walking and weight-lifting seem more attractive. Plus, the energy I have is the kind of energy where I want to work more, and have more adventures. So I hope this is the beginning of a gradual belly-fat loss and muscle build just through keto and mild exercise. That would seem ideal.

(Hyperbole- best thing in the universe!) #36

Hey, if you want to turn this into an accountability thread you can. You can change the category and the title. Or you can just start a new one. Lots of people have one. It’s nice!

(Butter Withaspoon) #37

I used to be like that! I’d read the signs on buses that said “No eating” and I’d think well I just Have to! Like an energy emergency and I’m prepared to defend that need to the driver! I always had an apple, banana or nuts in my bag, everywhere I went.

These days, after slowly becoming fat adapted (it takes time, be PATIENT! And don’t feed your carb machinery) I could be about to eat breakfast at 11am, but if someone needed me to cut down a tree for 3 hours first**, I can put down my fork and do that; no dramas, no hunger, no energy crashes, no light headed feeling. It’s a great feeling!

** this happened 2 days ago. Finally sat down to my first meal at 3.30pm. It’s incredible really thinking about the crash and burn person I was at 32