Hello...new poster new to keto

[Paperclip1]

Hi
I’m not sure whether I am following a keto diet as yet.

My story is that I was a heavy 117kg and pre-diabetic. For the first time I learned that a high carb diet was slowly making me ill. I have been vegetarian since 1985 and eventually every meal became based around the choice of carbs - rice, pasta or potato. And I gained weight over 35 years. So I learned that I needed to cut the carbs and having quit smoking I thought that this might be possible, even though all my favourite foods are carbs. I tried exercise - 25 and 30 mile bike rides - which felt like a chore - but I only lost 1kg which was soon restored, and that was quite demotivating.
Then I got ill and didn’t eat for a week and to my amazement found that I had lost 10kg!
By that time the hunger pangs had gone and I became interested in fasting as a method of shifting the weight. It was in reading up about fasting that I discovered Ketosis. So I fasted for another 6 days and lost another 6kg. Then I thought I should start eating albeit in much reduced portions and fewer meals and tried to follow the principle of limiting myself to 20g of carbs per day. I tried low carb bread etc but for two days my weight has plateaued. These were days when I didn’t feel well enough to exercise. 20g is certainly a challenge but I’m there or thereabouts. I wondered whether I’d slipped out of Ketosis for some reason? I can’t quite bring myself to spend £190 on a ketoscan breath analyser, so I’m using weight loss as my guide to being in keto.

Since I’m still recovering from illness I am not eating a lot, but will try to find a vegetarian keto path towards 90kg and beyond. So I will read all your stories and hopefully find inspiration.
Any advice is welcome.

[amwassil]

How to Follow a Healthy Vegetarian Keto Diet – Diet Doctor

Best wishes.

[Chantarella]

Try keto urine strips. They are helpful at least for a while and especially at the beginning.
Welcome! I eat protein bread too but find it also stalls. One piece of bread contains 4 g of carbs so I guess thats why- they add up and then it is hard to stay below 20g for a day.

[MommyJill2005]

Hi and welcome! I would try to keep it really simple and not eat too many if any keto bread replacements at first. Even though they are lower in carbs it all adds up quick. I would try looking on Pinterest or other places for low carb vegetarian recipies like soups or sides rather than carb replacements like bread for now.
Just focus on the less than 20 carbs a day and don’t stress about breathe or urine testing. I never used either and was successful losing weight on keto. I ate 20 carbs or less and reached my goal weight and have maintained it for a year with no testing. Keto doesn’t have to be complicated at all! Once you find some good low carb items you enjoy it just becomes a new way of life and gets easier. Best wishes, glad you are here!

[PaulL]

The advantage to a well-formulated ketogenic diet is that it puts the body into a state that is very similar to fasting, but without the hunger. In general it is best to avoid keto replacement foods, and stick to eating fresh whole foods. Vegan ketogenic eating is tricky, but regular vegetarian keto is easier, especially if you are comfortable eating eggs or fish. (Most commercially sold eggs are unfertilised, so there is no question of taking a life by eating them, if that is your reason for vegetarianism.) Be sure, however, that you are getting enough vitamins and minerals in your diet. You may have to take supplements, since the essential micronutrients found in plants are not in the most bio-available form. For that, you need meat.

[Paperclip1]

I appreciate the advice. So far because I’m not eating a lot, I’m not finding the 20g limit too hard, even though one slice of this strange dense low carb bread is 20% of that total.
I love vegetable soup - you can’t go wrong with it - so I’ll probably work on that. I have noticed that the various stocks are very rich in carbs so that’s a bit of a blow.

[David_Stilley]

Give up being vegetarian/vegan. It’s extremely unhealthy and an emotional based way of eating that is completely in denial of reality, and that includes ecological reasoning. you need animal based fats and protein desperately.

The Vegan Vegetarian Myth

The Vegan and Vegetarian Myth While I have long accepted that vegetarian diets are inferior long before I started keto this article is the first myth busting analysis of traditional vegetarian diets and the myth that humans are going to have the best health as vegans that I have read. I didn’t know that the concept of a vegan diet only came to being in 1952. This is a very interesting look at what’s left as far as ancestral diet cultures in small pockets of the modern world. “Clever” people al…

Article is written by an ex vegetarian of many years.

[amwassil]

Sometimes the truth hurts. The more removed from reality you are, the more it hurts.

The truth is that agriculture is the most destructive thing humans have done to the planet, and more of the same won’t save us. The truth is that agriculture requires the wholesale destruction of entire ecosystems. The truth is also that life isn’t possible without death, that no matter what you eat, someone has to die to feed you.

I want a full accounting, an accounting that goes way beyond what’s dead on your plate. I’m asking about everything that died in the process, everything that was killed to get that food onto your plate. That’s the more radical question, and it’s the only question that will produce the truth. How many rivers were dammed and drained, how many prairies plowed and forests pulled down, how much topsoil turned to dust and blown into ghosts? I want to know about all the species – not just the individuals, but the entire species – the Chinook, the bison, the grasshopper sparrows, the grey wolves. And I want more than just the number of dead and gone. I want them back.

Source

[saffron]

I was vegan for 6 years. I think it is a bit strange, actually – especially the fanaticism of those who believe in being vegan. I created many recipes that were really good to eat, mostly out of necessity since most vegan food I have eaten is completely tasteless and bland. Now, I am ovo-lacto, ketogenic, intermittant fasting to cure diabetes type 2. I did have salmon last night at a restaurant with cauliflower “rice.” It was delicious. I still believe in organic and keeping chemicals out of the food I eat. I am very new here and hoping to find out if high therapeutic GKI (1-3) works to cure diabetes type 2 as well as the moderate level GKI (3-6)

[saffron]

My apologies if I am wrong – but are you suggesting there be no humans on Earth?
Thank you, s

[amwassil]

There are many folks here who have been there. I recommend you start your own topic to get their attention.

[amwassil]

I’m here. Not sure about anyone else. You all could be figments of a fevered dream I never awoke from.

[Paperclip1]

Thanks but I made that choice 35 years ago.

My back history is that up to the age of 23 I ate meat and fish, and loved a Sunday roast, beef, chicken, beef burgers, hot dogs, bacon etc. But I also liked salad and veggies. One of my favourite foods has always been a salad sandwich of lettuce, tomato, cucumber etc (but when you ask for that in a shop - especially France - they look at you as if you’re mental. My latent veggie tendency was that I always hated butchers shops. I just couldn’t go in. I’d cross the road to avoid them. When I was at college I had a 10 o’clock routine of a coffee and a sausage roll in the canteen. One day I took one bite of the sausage roll and knew something wasn’t right. So I didn’t eat any more. That night I was sick and I had food poisoning for a week, after which I couldn’t stand the smell of cooked meat. That was me and meat finished to the amazement of my mother, who knew how much I had enjoyed her cooking. But I realised that the veggies were an equal part of the enjoyment,
Over the years your taste changes, so that I came to not want to eat fish either. That’s just how it is.
I am concerned about animal welfare but I always give the food poisoning story as the reason for becoming veggie, as I can’t stand the hassle you get from meat eaters if they think there is a hidden ethical reason for your choice. It makes things like the works Christmas meal a real trial that I find quite stressful.
I like cheese so that would be my main source of fat. I haven’t tried avocados for years, but I think I’ll give it another go. similarly Philadelphia cream cheese.

I know that The food I like is very different to all the pics of steaks, sausages and eggs etc, but that’s what I enjoy.
That’s me.

[David_Stilley]

I wish you luck getting healthy, sounds like plant based hasn’t worked very well for you health wise with steady weight gain and diabetes now. It’s very challenging getting adequate protein as a vegetarian on KETO. I think most vegetarian and vegan people do fine for a period and hit the same wall. After all there isn’t much left to eat on a plant based diet that isn’t heavy on carbs and supplies enough energy and protein.

[Paperclip1]

Pre-diabetic I had no idea.
You’re right it will be a challenge, but right now I just want to get some more weight off. Tofu might be part of the solution. I was never a great fan, but smoked tofu - maybe with a touch of paprika - is quite bacony. Good enough for the ‘BLT’ I’m planning.

[amwassil]

@Paperclip1 I don’t think fat is difficult. There are red palm oil, coconut/MCT oil and cacao butter for saturated fats and olive and avocado oils for monounsaturated. Olives and avocados are the solid and less concentrated sources. If you keep the two oils down to moderate intake, you shouldn’t have ω3-ω6 problems. Although, I think you’d have to monitor your PUFA intake to keep it low.

Protein is difficult because virtually all plant-based protein is incomplete, less bio-available and associated with carbs. The best you can do is buy protein isolates separated from the carbs. If you combined pea and rice protein isolates, for example, you end up with a more complete amino acid profile. But you’d have to make sure that your combinations are complete. And also, since less bio-available you’ll have to consume more, which in turn will affect everything else. It’s a ball of wax really.
But probably doable. Did you read the link I provided above? That’s probably a good place to start.

PS: Just read your above response to David. Tofu is OK (fermented soy) but very nutrient dilute.

[Paperclip1]

I will read it Michael, and thanks for your advice. I’m catching up with all the terminology thanks to google.

Tell you what though, I could murder a spaghetti bolognase

[David_Stilley]

Tofu is OK (fermented soy)

Tempeh is cultured, soy sauce and miso fermented but tofu is not. It’s basically farmers cheese made from fresh soy milk. Just curds. I wouldn’t recommend soy more than twice a week tops and actually soy and it’s phytoestrogens are harmful to men in my opinion causing hormonal imbalances and lowered testosterone levels. Soy and it’s estrogen content also encourage fat storage and not weight loss. I prefer eating in such a way that highly processed foods are not part of my regular diet including “powders” and “isolates”.

[amwassil]

Thanks, David. Partial retraction! I presume as in making milk cheese, soy milk is converted to tofu by bacteria and enzymes. That means, as it does with cheese, tofu is the waste byproduct (ie poo) of the bacteria metabolizing the soy milk. I agree that the phytoestrogens from soy make it into the tofu and they’re not a good thing to consume. But I also think that unless you’re eating the stuff by the pound every day, it’s probably not a big deal. For most people. The ACS doesn’t think it’s a big deal either, but they say further investigation may change their opinion.

@Paperclip1 I gave up on tofu because it’s a trivial protein source, if that’s what you’re looking for. But I can certainly see wisdom in avoiding it because of phytoestrogens. Why risk it? There are far better sources of protein than diluted, bacterial excreted soy bean waste.

[Paperclip1]

The sort of meals I have pre- low carb changes…

Paneer kebabs - low carb

Cauliflower cheese - the rice will have to go

Feta cheese salad that was absolutely delicious- keto?

Vegetable minestrone - needs a lower carb version

Paneer and vegetable curry - again it’s the carbs lurking in the shadows

Battered halloumi - I love halloumi - goodbye chips

Mushroom pasta - I’m going investigate the low carb pasta but this looks doomed