How's my Keto diet, experts?

(Door Girl) #21

If it works for you, it’s great! A lot of people “just” kill the sugar monster by not feeding it for a long enough time. I’m no longer interested in the vast majority of sweets. So that why I say if it works for you, great!

And here is where I wonder if you have particular motivations. If coming from a weight perspective, no losses or not losing “fast enough”? Trying to supercharge already great loss? From a health perspective, not seeing your benefits yet?

If you are trying to supercharge already great results, why not save the tweaks for the inevitable stalls. If you aren’t having satisfactory progress right now then go ahead and tweak!

For the extra days, I assume the things you are cooking are being cooked in a fat of some type. Increase the amount. This morning my eggs weren’t satisfying enough so I added some nice big (but thin) slices of butter. Grass fed because I have it and think I should try to move that way, but I still eat tons of conventional non-organic butter. For my salads, I’m using blue cheese, Caesar, or ranch instead of vinaigrette’s. And sometimes the salad part of it is a thinly disguised dressing delivery vehicle. On the hungry days, sometimes the volume of dressing matches the volume of greens. Other days I’m more honest and have a spoonful. :crazy_face: So I’m working on making my own, but right now I use a better but far from perfect store option.

Butter, olive oil, cream and fatty sauces are all great fat helpers.

As for the electrolytes, until yesterday my plan was SLO-Mag tablets plus salting my food with potassium salt and sodium salt, plus eating ground handfuls of Himalayan pink salt when I needed more salt. I’m working on the theory that electrolytes contribute to my migraines, so I bought the original Salt Stick Caps. That brand is by a competitive endurance athlete slash doctor of organic chemistry. There is no sugar or other additives, and they test most batches as their primary market gets tested for performance enhancers all the time. So I figured it is a safe starting point.

I personally included the magnesium as I was getting muscle cramps and I had some other symptoms that could potentially be explained by a deficiency. And since I’m pretty sure the first problem seen with magnesium is diarrhea, I figured I could deal with that as a warning sign if I was wrong.

Try salt and No-Salt before going crazy buying all sorts of supplements. Your anti-sodium friends and family will appreciate having No-Salt as an option. :slight_smile:

Off to dinner to get a reasonably keto dinner that I don’t have to cook. I aim for a good protein based salad, skip the parts that don’t work for me, then slather in the dressing. :slight_smile:

(Charlotte) #23

I would personally:

  1. substitute the sugary creamer with HWC. Organic Valley makes a great zero carb HWC that i use.

  2. Substitute the winter squash for spaghetti squash.I love squash and spaghetti squash is light on carbs. I’m lucky enough to be able to enjoy 5-7oz of it and still lose a good amount of weight.

  3. I would get rid of the atkins shakes and just zhuzh up one of your coffees with butter or coconut oil, HWC, cinnamon… your typical BPC. Atkins shakes have additives and chemicals and I personally don’t eat things that have a long shelf life. Too many preservatives and junk in them. Try to stick to real food.

Thats just me though.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #24

Alec, thanks for the study references. I’ll be checking them out—over a nice, hot cup o’ Java! :coffee::coffee:

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #25

From the stories on this forum, reactions to artificial sweeteners seem to be completely individual, with everyone having different reactions to different sweeteners. This makes it so complicated, it’s almost easier just to do without, if one can! But I hate to tell people to get rid of their training wheels . . .

I’m glad you mentioned the creamer. Those things are often simply loaded with carbs and dodgy additives. Your suggestion of heavy cream is excellent. :+1:

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #26

Salt. Try to eat 10-15 g/day of table salt (sodium chloride). This of course includes the salt already in the food you eat. If we get enough salt, that generally takes care of potassium, magnesium, and calcium. A very few people will need to supplement their diet with those other electrolytes; most people will be fine without supplements as long as they keep their salt intake up.

#27

Welcome! My advice? Ditch the frankenfood protein shakes, ditch the Int’l Delight product, and expand your options with recipes from the Diet Doctor, Low Carb Yum, I Breathe I’m Hungry, Low Carb Maven, and All Day I Dream About Food.

(Raiann Morse) #28

HI, I’ve been attempting this form of eating since the middle of January…so almost 2 months. It is really working for me. I am 61 year old female. Never really had any weight problems until menopause and then, oh well, that’s a whole other forum. I have been doing my coffee with heavy cream and “stevia in the raw”. I tried erythritol but it takes too much to get the desired effect. I have a whole box of stevia I bought at Costco and it works just fine. It doesn’t seem to effect my insulin levels too much as I don’t get hungry until 11 or 12. I get up around 5.

(Adam Foard) #29

There is a really good chart you can download from here. I think you have to put in your name & email. Print on 11x17 (A3), pin it on your refrigerator, and stick to everything in the green column.

Good rule of thumb: a piece of meat the size of your palm & 2 cups of vegetables.

(Carl Keller) #30

JF references several correlation studies in his book.

In a 2009 review, each additional daily cup of coffee lowered the risk of diabetes by 7 %, even up to 6 cups per day. The European Prospecive Investigations into Cancer and Nutrition study estimated that drinking at least three cups of coffee or tea daily reduced the risk of diabetes by 42 percent.

The Singapore Chinese Health Study showed a 30 percent reduction in risk.

Moreover, he says that many studies have found a 10 to 15 percent reduction in total mortality.

Coffee may guard against neurological disease Alzheimer’s, Parkingson’s, liver cirrhosis and liver cancer.

He does add a word of caution and say that correlation studies are not conclusive proof of benefit but perhaps coffee is healthy because it’s a major source of antioxidants, magnesium, lignans and chlorogenic acids.

He also suggests coffee for combating hunger when fasting because it acts as a mild appetite suppressant and can raise metabolism.

(Alec) #31

This is very good news: I live on coffee during my fasts. :ok_hand::smile:

#32

Ive never understood how people can eat olives LOL :woozy_face:

#33

Love olives! But then, I have a mediterranean background.

(Little Miss Scare-All) #34

My BG is generally very stable, anywhere between 80-85 on an empty stomach, mid day. I normally have the same amount of coffee, with the same almond milk, in the same quantities at the same time each morning and only.once a day. I also eat the same meals in the same quantities for 5 days of the week. I weigh everything out beforehand. Yes Im boring.

Point is, I decided to add an afternoon coffee, jist black, no sugar, no artificial sweetener, then tested my blood sugar the same time as always, and it was 99. I usually never get that high a reading since testing.

Next day I did not have the extra afternoon coffee, tested the same time, blood sugar was back down to 83.

Day after that, had the coffee again in the afternoon because it was gym day. Back up up to 98.

Small.sample size, I understand stress can do it too, tho last week I wasnt very stressed and Im.a creature of habit. But for me I can sense a difference in my readings.