Good to be here, hope for some tips you oldies

#1

Hi everyone, happy to meet you all. I am new here and to keto. Just started a 5 day fast this Sunday. I am from Sweden, 46 years, happily married with 3 teens.

This is what i stick to:
Breakfast: 1 egg 1/2 avocado with apple cider vinegar
Lunch: 1 avokado apple cider vinegar
Dinner: Fried broccoli 80g and spinach 50g and 1/2 avocado

I am doing quite good. Some hunger on and off but nothing I can´t handle. Miss my evening 1-2 glasses of read wine a lot.

Here is my data so far (from morning tests)
Sunday 85,8kg // Glucose 5,7 // Ketones 0,1
Monday 84,9kg // Glucose 5,2 // Ketones
Tuesday 83,8kg // Glucose 3,9 // Ketones 1,9

Here is some old blood tests 2011-09 and 2014-09
S-Kolesterol 4,7 // 6
Triglycider 0,9 // 1,3
HDL 1,3 // 1,5
LDL 3 // 4,1
LDL/HDL 2,3 // 2,7
HDL+LDL 4,3 // 5,6

Alos doing multi B vitamins and magnesium

The main reason for trying this is that i suffer from chronic tinnitus. Quite bad lately. Just curios if a can come close to any body/cell/nerv repair that might affect my tinnitus. Also in my late twenties i was about 72kg now i am about 85kg. Need to stop that trend of adding around 2 kg per year. Finally i noticed that my morning blodsugare always was around 6.0 and sometimes exceeding that. Will try to reverse that to below around 5.0.

After the fast I will try to stick to strikt carbs (20g) even though i know that some day will be around 50g (weekends, holidays ect. but i will keep motoring my blodsugare).

So her some questions:
I will try to do fasting once a month to see if it can help with my tinnitus. Is this a good strategy? How deep en ketosis shroud I be and for how many day? Any other supplements?
I am planing to do a blood test soon again. Anything that I would be observant for?

Thanks a lot and have a good week!

(Jay AM) #2

How long have you been keto? Are you saying you eat 1 egg, 2 avocados, 80g of broccoli, and 50g of spinach a day with apple cider vinegar and that’s it? That’s not even 800 kcal in a day. And you’re fasting? This looks like starvation, not keto. Are you also vegetarian?

I do not recommend fasting to people who are new to keto. If you haven’t been keto for 6-8 weeks, focus on getting into ketosis and staying there comfortably until you are fat adapted before trying a planned fast.

There are two phases to ketosis and a ketogenic lifestyle.

Nutritional ketosis is phase one. Your body begins to produce and uptake some ketones while dumping the rest. It will still search for glucose to use as fuel. In this phase it’s not an efficient process. It has to work actively to get rid of stored glycogen, clean up excess blood sugar, and turn on the ability to use ketones.

Fat adaptation is phase two. Your body is efficiently producing ketones from intake and stored body fat and is also using them efficiently for energy. It takes around 6-8 weeks of strict keto to achieve for many but not all.

The basic “rules” I go by and many others can agree with especially for beginners are:

*20g net carbs max (you might tolerate more but, starting out, 20g net carbs or less will get you into ketosis.)

*Moderate protein (1g-1.5g per kg of lean bodyweight is a good goal based on the 2 Dudes recommendations.)

*Fat to satiety (add fat to every meal and, if you are hungry, eat more fat. Don’t be afraid of fat. It is energy.)

*Do not restrict calories

*Drink plenty of water

*Get plenty of sodium and other electrolytes

#3

Jay, thanks for the good advice. I have nerver been on keto and I am not a vegetarian. Partly reason i started this, is of what i understand all good reasons for fasting. This video inspired me:

So basically you are advising me that i should hold my horses until I have been on keto at least for 6 weeks? How dose a good fasting look like? Do you recommend at all? How kan a easiest assure sodium and other electrolytes?

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #4

It’s a good idea to wait a bit before launching into fasting. For one thing, adapting to using fat instead of glucose takes a bit of time, and that’s enough stress right there. For another thing, it often takes time for your satiety signaling to sort itself out, and fasting is easier if you don’t feel hungry all the time. Once your satiety signaling kicks in properly, you will find yourself going automatically for many hours without food, without even thinking about it. This is why we talk about “fat to satiety” along with low carbohydrate and moderate protein. Your body needs to be taking in enough calories to feel that it is safe to metabolize your stored fat; once it is assured of this, it will continue metabolizing fat while you fast, instead of lowering your metabolic rate. Restricting calories, on the other hand, convinces the body that it is much safer to hang onto the stored fat, and not use it.

As a Swede, you are fortunate to have Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt in your country. If you don’t know about it already, you might want to check out his Web site, www.dietdoctor.com. You will find a lot of useful information there, along with delicious recipes.

Welcome to the forums, and do let us know how your experience with this way of eating goes.

#5

Just to let you now. Yesterday I did test my Glucose and it was 3,7. Ketones was 3,5. I did not feel to good and decided to eat more. Hade som Klicken and parmesan sauce. Understand i got high ketones far to fast. I will now slow down…

(Doug) #6

Welcome, Ludwig. Some people do have improvement in nerve function with a ketogenic diet. I think it is well accepted that long-term high blood sugar levels can harm nerves. Progress in getting better is often slow, and it varies from person to person.

With tinnitus, there apparently is a frequent link to sugar metabolism and insulin levels.

http://www.tinnitusjournal.com/articles/hyperinsulinemia-and-tinnitus-a-historical-cohort.pdf

The results of our study show the great potential of dietary management to improve tinnitus in patients with
carbohydrate metabolism disorder, independently of tinnitus intensity. Dietary management alone was associated with a fivefold increase in the probability of significant reduction in tinnitus.