Is Counting Needed

(less is more, more or less) #21

I love these neologisms “lazy keto” and “dirty keto”

"Yea, I’m dirty lazy keto, punk. Whatcha gonna do about it?”

(Robert C) #22

Well - you have tracked something! Otherwise, how would you know your weight is down 22%? You are also counting the hours in your feeding window.

I totally agree that if you like your progress without tracking - keep not tracking.

But, what if you hadn’t tracked weight for the 10 months and things hadn’t gone so well?

You step on the scale…and you have gained 5 pounds on your 10 month investment. Maybe you have enjoyed some mental health benefits but, weight loss was your goal and now you have to consider whether you were a little delusional about the extra BPCs, fat bombs etc.

… Or you have lost 22% on the scale but you do a DEXA scan and find out your total visceral fat has increased. You might be some sort of keto outlier, or really highly stressed or again, or a little delusional about “keto” alcohol consumption.

… Or you lost 3 pounds (of fat with no lean body mass change). You might consider that a bit slow.

So, again, not tracking I think is fine but, it is also a good way to identify if you are an outlier, plateauing on stress/sleep problems or have accidentally fallen into bad habits (which probably only tracking will help monitoring and fixing the problem).

#23

I’m in the “what gets measured gets managed” camp. This approach has worked well for me throughout my life in various applications (ie. financial, strength training, spiritual). There is no way I would have achieved the degree of success I’ve had in life without this accountability.

My health goal is to repair my metabolic derangement. Losing weight was only one piece of it. Once that component was accomplished, the scale didn’t provide insightful information. At this stage, testing blood glucose (and ketones) is the primary way I track my progress.

(squirrel-kissing paper tamer) #24

I agree with this. I tracked and found out I was eating way too few calories and, for me, adding more veg helped and started losses again, which are also slow but steady.

For the most part, this nerd memorized the carb count of many foods during Atkins in my 20’s and it stuck. Thankfully, I can track in my head so when I say I don’t track, that may be a bit of a lie. It’s subconscious now.

(mags) #25

I tracked religiously for the first month and have started tracking again 9 months down the line just to make sure I’ve not allowed any carb creep to slip in.
Everyone has their own way of doing their keto and everyone has the right to their own opinions. Not sure why you reacted so strongly to @Alley. She is just trying to keep it simple and to help some who overcomplicate this way of eating.

(Empress of the Unexpected) #26

I didn’t track at all until five months in. I’m at maintenance now and want to stay on top of things. I am also experimenting with higher carbs, so find tracking useful to see how many extra carbs I can handle. I love using chronometer. Will I get bored and stop tracking at some point? Very likely. Tracking, like measuring blood glucose and ketones, has its time and place for some. (I am not diabetic but still want to make sure my glucose does not creep up. I also track glucose to see how I react to certain foods )

#27

i did not step on a scale for 9 months

#28

Only reason I know my weight is a buddy sold his house and is storing some of his things here and one of them things is a scale so i stepped on it, and compared that to my last known weight from a few years back so the 22% is probably low estimate of what i was last January

(Shelly) #29

Howdee, what’s your theory on raw veggies being worse than cooked (if I’m interpreting you correctly)?

#30

by cooking you do 2 things, one is kill off some of the plants defense system, the stuff the plant has developed to try and kill anything that eats them, The other is a fast cooking process breaks down the cellulose wall of the cells to help make the nutrients more available. The concept of fiber is one more of them things the grain industry wants you to believe. Remember if it is main stream thinking it is probably wrong and motivated by bad science.

(Empress of the Unexpected) #31

May be true for some but my body reacts very nicely to the fiber in vegetables, whether cooked or raw. I go by what my body tells me. It seems to know best.

#32

only time will tell, but agree do what is best. We have had it wrong for so long we forgot what was right. So now it all a big experiment to see if we can get back on track

(Hyperbole- best thing in the universe!) #33

I think this may be because the non-tracking people aren’t as vocal about it. Logically. When I see a post asking about macros or glucose or ketone readings I take a backseat. I don’t have anything productive to add to that conversation. These days I only use cronometer to check on something I’m not sure about. But that doesn’t mean I’ll never track. I did track for the first few weeks to learn the ropes. I also had two friends start around the same time as I did (one ‘with’ me, the other after seeing my success.) Neither tracked at all. Neither lasted over a couple weeks. That makes me feel tracking has its place.

There are plenty of us who don’t track, so I think you are preaching to the choir. Even if it is a rather quiet choir.

#34

I helped a guy with t2d and told him eat fat take lots of salt, stop eating sugar, starch, and grains, in 3 weeks his doctor took him off insulin. I know does not happen that way for everyone, but I do believe there is a lot of lead way in this diet as long as you give lots of time between feeding, don’t snack, and cut the starchy sugary crap. Grain is the real bad demon in the entire food complex.

(Hyperbole- best thing in the universe!) #35

As I said, preaching to the choir.

#36

I guess the non trackers have nothing to share, and no incites to share, so cool, guess i will continue in silence. Keep Calm and Meagan On.

(Hyperbole- best thing in the universe!) #37

sigh That’s not what I mean. Of course everyone has something to share. And I hope you continue to do so.

#38

Oh, side note, cut open a non ripe very hard avocado and sliced it up and fried it in butter, took a real long time. The interestingly it turn out as something I feel could replace potatoes. I had to take the outside green off that is below the skin to render them non bitter.

#39

i get avocados for about 50 cents a piece so get to play around with them

(less is more, more or less) #40

On the lighter side of counting, an old friend saw my Runkeeper graphic, and thought it was “Drunkeeper”

Might be a great name for an alcohol tracker/counter?

drunkeeper
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