Sorry I haven’t been active for a while. I have been struggling so much. I done approximately 12 weeks and lost 2 stones since February. Since then I have started to experience almost uncontrollable binging. I did various types of fasting most wad 72 hours. I don’t want to call it eating disorder but I worry if I continue I might get eating disorder. Currently I have been off work due to stress and going through some very difficult menopause symptoms. I feel I have no one else to turn to. I attend cognitive therapy but I feel it’s not helping because I know what is expected of me because my profession is a nurse. Please help me with your opinions and advice. ( I have corrected the original post as I realised it probably didn’t make much sense)
Hi to all please help
Sorry if I’m being dense here as just another an old male, but I have not real sense for precisely what your problem is (wasting? binging? stress? menopause?)…
As far as carb-restriction goes, you’ve reported rather remarkable success in very little time. Can you share just what are you hoping folks on this forum can clarify for you? 
From your former posts I’m guessing you meant fasting, not “wasting”? I struggled a bit with fasting … It’s tempting because the weight comes off so easily for me when I fast but yeah, it started to feel more compulsive than helpful for a while. I basically stopped. I still do a quarterly-half year fasting 5 day but that’s my limit now.
I’m sorry you’re having such a hard time. Meno is rough, almost like puberty with its ups and downs. Add in disordered eating as well …
Hoping you feel better and that the therapy helps a little.
I think my main problem is feeling of depression I lost so much weight but I still feel low and down. I’m going to see a specialist next week hopefully to rule out oral cancer. I have been waiting for this appointment for 2 months and feel really stressed about it.
@kib1im it’s been hard for me but thank you so much for reading back on my posts. I thoughts I was doing but then I realised I don’t
Sorry it have lost lots of weight since I started though people who have followed my journey know I have been waiting for almost 2 months for a review for an oral cancer. I been doing fasting ( not wasting « my apologies “ I been trying so h h ard trying to achieve self healing through fasting. Next week I’m eventually going to see the specialist in oral surgery and I feel pretty nervous
thank you so muchYou may be aware from some previous posts that unlike most people who found significant benefits to mental health through the keto or carni WOE, going keto had a very negative effect of my mental health and tipped me back into depression. And as is often commented on in this forum, we are all different, react in different ways, so need to figure out what works for us and what doesn’t. For me, the very low carbs caused problems. However l chose to stick with it because of other physical benefits and resumed taking ssris.
Hope this is helpful.
Before starting Keto, I’ve done extended fasts for a decade and a half or so… So was in ketosis several times a year.
90% of the time, when going into ketosis during an extended fast, I’d end up getting a “fasting high” - basically hypo manic - so a very anti-depressant effect.
But about 10% of the time I’d get what is known as “Atkins depression” where I’d be feeling incredibly down, grumpy, miserable… It wasn’t “keto flu”… It was literally a huge dive in serotonin from lacking carbs… (This used to get noticed in some people doing the Atkins diet (which was a low carb diet, back in the day)…
This 90% / 10% ratio has stayed over the years - I have no idea why sometimes my system will respond one way and other times it will respon the exact opposite way.
I’ve learned that when my body responds with the Atkins depression type symptoms to going into ketosis to stop… go back to a “normal” carb diet for a few weeks and then try again, making sure my transition is very gentle and then usually I end up getting the “good” response to the low carb/ ketosis…
I’ve not really understood what’s going on for you (yes the autospell is mangling your messages) so don’t know if that’s helpful or you’ve got something totally different going on…
Good luck!
Thank you to you all for your replies. I found it very helpful. I think sometimes it just helps knowing you are not going through this on your own. I will definitely look in to atkins depression as when I started keto 12 weeks ago I was so high there was no stopping me tbh. Until now. I think with combination with other stressors I was just possibly tipped over the edge. Anyway another day. One day at the time. Thank you.
I’d like to encourage you to try something that I don’t think you have yet. And it will require you to start over, fresh, with clean adherence to the guidelines of Keto.
First, you started Keto 12 weeks ago. I truly believe that is not enough time to give it the proper chance it needs to heal you physically and mentally. I don’t know which conditions the body chooses to use its energy to heal first, but I do know it takes a lot of time and patience, and it only works on one thing at a time. It’s quite possible some other internal issues with your organs you never knew needed repairing were taking precedence over mental health issues. You certainly have not had nearly enough time to let the diet do its job. It’s sort of like how someone who stops an antibiotic on day 4 because they start to feel better, then when the infection returns they do another 3-4 days of treatment and stop again, and so on. It never gives the antibody enough time to complete its job and so they walk away believing the antibiotic doesn’t work for them. Well they never applied the treatment properly giving it its full course of consecutive 10-12 days without missing a single dose.
Second, I’ve followed all your posts so far and a couple revealed times when you fell off or had an involuntary cheat day(s). That muddies the waters and actually sets you back so you really haven’t even had 12 weeks of a true chance. Until you are fully fat adapted and truly functioning on ketones, any deviation from the diet just resets that timer back at 0 days. And our mental health appears to not be helped by the diet when in fact it never had a chance.
I had a lot of mental health issues over the past 20 years, and I’ve gone the full gambit with all the available medications to help. Most, if not all, caused terrible side effects and additional conditions. Looking back I see how they actually trapped me in a depressive cycle, and that cycle sabotaged all my efforts at a lifestyle change. Repeatedly. I constantly felt defeated and desperate.
In March of 2022 I somehow mustered a deep determination to give an Olympic-worthy effort to changing my way of eating and cleaning by body of all prescription drugs and of all toxins from the American food supply. It was a Herculean effort that refused to let anything interfere with doing it right, no matter how bad I felt. I had to remind myself daily that the effort of adhering to the diet fully and strictly without any compromises, mistakes, or days off was truly no worse than how horrible my life had become up to that point. My past was far worse than the required effort needed for this WOE. There was a power in my newfound determination and logic that helped me stick to my guns. I never had a single “cheat day” or “weak day.” My cheat days were eating a bit more of approved Keto foods and having a 50-60g total carb day as opposed to a 30-40g day. That was the extent of my cheating. Using Carb Manager, I tracked absolutely everything that went into my mouth, even my vitamins. I stayed true to this diet for four straight months before assessing its effectiveness. The results? I was able to stop every one of my 13+ prescriptions by the end of those four months. My mental health had a massive improvement by the end of my second month. Keep in mind, my 2-4 months cannot be compared to your 12 weeks because mine were done strictly according to true Keto and were never once interrupted or paused, not a single day. I gave it a fair chance because I started to realize I deserved that, and I was worth way more than I was allowing myself to feel.
If the food industry had substances in it that could interfere with the proper functioning of my body and its ability to regulate itself in the most healthy way possible, including my mind, then I equated that to poison. Once I saw my old way of eating as allowing poison into my body it became far easier to resist any temptation or emotional slide. If I told you that those praline pancakes, or that large bowl of pasta with a sugar ladened sauce combined with high fat, or those BBQ wings, or that single slice of pizza, or or that particular batch of Cheetos or Doritos contained cyanide, it would be easy peasy for you to resist even taking a single bite. You would need no effort to refrain from eating any of that long term. But that is exactly what we are facing in our food supply except it’s slower acting than cyanide, but make no mistake about it it still is poisoning your body and sabotaging all efforts to become healthier. Every time you allow those ingredients into your body, during your 12-weeks, your body recognizes it and it impacts your mental health significantly. It’s an addiction cycle.
I know we all tell each other to be easy on ourselves and forgiving if we have a bad day and fall off the diet, that we just need to get back on the bike and try again. But for many of us I do not think that perspective is helpful. For many of us we have conditions that require a stricter adherence. We must do this thing right, wholly, without faltering even a single day, and give it the full 4-6 months of perfect adherence to see if it can truly help us. Only then can we stop and asses its effectiveness, and consider adding medicine back, or choosing a different diet for our bodies if after authentic compliance for a long enough time did not help. But to make that determination before giving it enough time without any deviations is not only unfair to this way of eating, but it’s unfair to ourself and our needs.
I adhered strictly to this diet for a full year before I ever added any kind of fasting to the picture. I didn’t want to throw too many things into my basket at the same time. I first wanted to let ketosis become my body’s norm, and to get really good at learning how to stick to this diet long term and learning how to cook for it in a pleasing way. I saw arm-wrestling with fasting as a potential interference to my focus. Only after being successful with Keto for an entire year, and reaping the healthy rewards, did I start to learn more about fasting and completed my first extended fast of 48 hours. I had already been doing an unintentional 12:12 or 14:10 IF for the second six months due to the natural reaction our bodies have to this way of eating and how well it regulated my hunger or desire to eat. So after one year it was quite easy to move into a 16:8. Had I tried to adhere to that in my first four months it would have caused me to falter and have yet another reason to feel desperation and failure. But at one year it was so natural and a breeze. Then the EFs became just as easy, and quite fun. Never would they have done that in my first 12 weeks. My body and my mental health just was not ready for it.
You have all the same desires, well-meaning intentions, feelings of urgency, exhaustion, and desperations that I had two years ago when I started. I completely relate to you in so many ways. The only difference between you and I is the quality of effort to adhere to the diet every single day, and the length of time.
Please don’t misunderstand me. When I say your quality of effort was less than mine I mean it from the perspective of how long each of us adhered to the strict rules of Keto, and how each of us handled those days when we felt like eating something we shouldn’t. My assumption here is that this is what has sabotaged your efforts, limited the impact to your mental health, and muddied the waters of assessment.
I encourage you to start over, determined to adhere to the diet properly in all ways and not allow yourself to falter a single day over the next four months. And refrain from any kind of EF. Allow your IF to fall between 12:12 and 16:8. Don’t eat past 7:00 pm at night no matter what. Utilize some high fat at that 7pm mark to hold you over until at least 8 or 9am the next day. Let that be the only fasting you do. Absolutely stay away from all Keto prepackaged foods except for maybe an occasional low carb or no carb tortilla, or an occasional slice of Keto bread. All other packaged foods should be completely avoided. Learn to make your own versions of such foods. In my first six months I froze soooo many things in single servings that could be pulled from the freezer on my way out the door. Even beef jerkys. I purchased a dehydrator specifically for that (although now is use it for so many things, even my own dried herbs from fresh.) I made Keto cookies or protein bars and Keto deserts for those times I wanted to treat myself. All were easy to freeze and thawed quickly, if even needed. (I don’t as much anymore but I’m two years in and now my body doesn’t need so much of that, but it helped me immensely in the beginning.) I made roasts or large steaks on Sunday and found that most are delicious as a cold snack when cut up and salted, and gave me 3-4 days of fantastic snacks or meals. I actually eat more cleanly today than I did then, but even then I made certain everything I put past my lips fully adhered to my macros. I made certain I was not getting more total carbs than I wanted to (50g tops and 30 as a norm), and I kept my net carbs strictly below 20g, and after four months I lowered that to 16g, naturally without trying. You do need to track everything properly to be certain you aren’t sabotaging yourself. It works.
Try again, please. You are a sweet, dear soul who desires to get healthy and feel good most days, not just some of them. You deserve the results this WOE can give to you. You deserve to give yourself a true chance at that. And if after giving it a Herculean honest chance it still has not healed your mental health, then and only then is it appropriate to consider that you may be among the populace that truly needs assistance from medication. Medication isn’t all evil to all people, it’s just not necessary for most. Lifestyle changes should always be given a fair, honest, long term chance before turning to medicine.
As you have seen we are all here to help you along the way and cheer you on. We can help with ideas for recipes or help brainstorm. We have all been transformed, and when that happens it’s impossible to turn our backs on our fellow man and not want to see them reap the same rewards. 
Your journey is worth it, Mon.
It’s certainly not always easy. But losing 2 stone is fantastic, you care about yourself, you’re interested, and you’re going in the right direction.
Most of us took many years, even many decades, to get to the ‘starting point’ where we turned things around, for the better. There’s almost never a quick-fix, and there will be ups and downs along the way.
It’s really easy for other people to say, ‘Be patient…’ but I think that often that is a necessity. Where you say, “One day at a time.” - Yes, very true. One of the best things for me is reading this forum.
Wow. This post is a treasure. It deserves its own category.
Your health “journey” - how you faced up to your challenges - is remarkably inspiring. Thank you for sharing this.
[As an aside, it is also the longest post I’ve actually read in its entirety from top to bottom on any forum anywhere.]
I’m so sorry. But thank you for reading to the end.
But honestly sometimes there’s just so much that needs to be said at a certain point, and when trying to re-encourage someone and help them we need to try to be as thorough as we can. I really relate to how she is feeling, and I sincerely want to help her. I know all you do too, but I have a very, personal relation to where she is at and how she is struggling so I am able to speak to all those angles at one time.
How f’ing DARE you!
Hate to tell ya, if you’re binging… you’ve already got one! But hey! Welcome to the club! As an almost lifelong binge eating though, STOP fasting! You’re dumping fuel on that fire!
Here’s the nutshell version, aside from DON’T fast! Eat more meals a day, prioritize protein, the hormonal stuff does make it worse, if you’re willing to look into HRT, that part can become an option though, you don’t HAVE to go through menopause if you don’t want to.
Track your macros, get a hold of your actual TDEE, and eat at a modest deficit. You don’t ever want your body noticing (too much) that it’s getting in less than it wants. You can still be in a deficit, lose bodyfat, and hit your goals, but if you push that too far, the binge will come looking, and nothing drives that more than not eating for long periods of time, then eating something, then the floodgates are wide open!
It takes more eating the higher protein, a lot of appetite supressing tricks, and the last year Semaglutide has been the game changer for keeping my psychotic appetite at bay, doesn’t wipe it out (for me) but puts me somewhere around normal.
Hello sorry I’m only replying now. I been reading your message over and over and I will continue to reading it. I did cry a lot as you are totally right in everything you said and described it perfectly. Thank you so much for sharing your journey with me and showing that it is possible to to turn the life around. I will try and take your advice and restart with keto from very beginning. Starting as a day one. As much as food is a problem I think my trigger is alcohol (wine) I will start with removing all that from the house. I can’t stop at just one glass and then that what leads to eating and binge and in return the next days I’m deep in self hate and depression. I will do a total reset. In a few days I was off rail I gained 2 kg which I know is water but that’s how easy it is for me to gain weight. Thank you again for sharing your story and your advice. It’s something I needed to hear.
I want to say thank you to everyone who commented on my post and offered support, advice and encouragement. I definitely have a quite a few issues to say the east. Back to basics and reset. I been trying to work out how many calories I should be consuming as carb manager has me on 1200 and I use to eat even less than that and that was probably the start of my fall. Im 155cm I’m height and currently 63 kg. I don’t want to starve myself any more. I realise now that I started fasting way too early. Thank you everyone in the group who kindly responded and offered advice.