In need of some advice and major motivation

(Jeffrey Belanger) #1

Hey all, My name is Jeff and I’m 27 years old. I’ve been off and on keto for the better part of this year. More so off than on but trying. I decided to try it because I’ve heard so much success for helping with mental health and brain fog. I’ve been dealing with severe brain fog and anxiety/depression for the last 5 years, as well as memory and focus issues ever since high school and I’ve lost all hope. Since August of this year I have put on 30 pounds. I am currently 183 lbs. Obviously that hasn’t helped my situation at all. I’m just wondering if any of you have also had success with keto when it comes to brain fog and mental health. Also when did you notice improvements? I’ve heard when you are fat adapted is when everything amazing happens which can take a while. I’m ready to start and take back my life!!! I want it back.

Thanks in advance.

(KCKO, KCFO 🥥) #2

Welcome to the forum Jeffrey.

This podcast might have some useful information for you:

(Carnivore for the win) #3

Loads of resources on google

Amber O’Hearn has lots of experience with this

There are many more examples out there.

Takes a while to get fat adapted, and you have to stick with it long term. My brain fog lifted after about a year or so of constant ketosis. My anxiety took about 2 years to start to reduce. I have stuck with it since June 2018.

Unfortunately, once your body starts processing carbs and sugars again, the benefits of ketosis are lost and the problems return.

(Jeffrey Belanger) #4

Thank you for this response! It’s discouraging to hear people say within days everything was better.

(Carnivore for the win) #5

I was discouraged at first. Everyone was talking about how their brain fog was gone so fast, and I was months in. But I stuck with it and stayed in ketosis without changing anything major, and it all worked out long term.

(Jeffrey Belanger) #6

Did you find you had to go almost zero carb? Or are you managing fine with just keto?

(Carnivore for the win) #7

I switched to zero carb after 18 months, that was November 2019. I found the cravings were to great with carbs in my diet and all my symptoms weren’t totally gone. I didn’t think I could last long term without eliminating all carbs from my diet. Took me a few tries before I was able to adapt to zero carb. There were plenty of great people on this forum who helped me out. The last little bit made a huge difference with my mental health and attitude.

#8

This is a very helpful statement and really needs to be said more often :slightly_smiling_face: Glad you got there.

#9

First I’ll agree with the others, yes it’ll help you huge on both fat loss and your mental state but it seems you have commitment issues getting to that point to get the benefits, it happens. Here’s where my advise will differ, if you want to see what you’ll feel like after the fact and have that great feeling and energy / mental clarity, grab some exogenous ketones. What that will do is force you to run on ketones within an hour or so of ingesting them. Once you get that feeling, that should give you the motivation you need to stick with keto the right way.

The good news, the benefits of the feeling / mental clarity of keto right then! The bad news, they’re expensive, they taste disgusting and it’s not sustainable. Also won’t help with the weight loss. But in your case it may be the push you need to see whats on the other side of the fence if you stick with it. If you try them I’d strongly recommend Perfect Keto brand. They’re more expensive than others, and taste worse but they work the best.

(Jeffrey Belanger) #10

Thank you! I appreciate you taking the time to reply! I’ll keep you all posted if you’re interested! Let’s goooo!

(Laurie) #11

Yes, please let us know how you’re doing!

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #12

A lot of mental problems appear to be the result of metabolic problems in the brain, resulting from an excess of glucose consumption. Glucose and ketone bodies both pass the blood-brain barrier, but the brain requires insulin in order to metabolise glucose, and too much glucose can cause insulin-resistance in brain cells, which prevents them from metabolising the fuel they need. Moreover, excessive amounts of glucose cause damage from glycosylation and oxidation, so while the brain needs a certain amount of glucose, it doesn’t need all that much. Fortunately, ketone bodies also provide fuel to the brain, and they are metabolised by a different pathway, which often continues functioning when the glucose pathway is no longer working properly.

So that’s the background, and it explains why we so strongly recommend limiting carbohydrate intake. If you cannot get yourself to cut out sugar (sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup), grains, and starches from your diet, try taking exogenous ketone supplements to feed your brain. They are expensive, and they cannot provide the metabolic healing that a well-formulated ketogenic diet would give you, but they will be able to feed your brain, at least somewhat.

By the way, carbohydrate and sugar can have an addictive effect on a certain segment of the population. There are strategies developed by the Twelve-Step programmes that might be useful to you, if you think you could be a carb/sugar addict.