Hi!
I started keto 2 month ago and i feel fantastic! My health improved, i have a lot more energy and i lost 16 pounds. I talked about this to my sister who is on keto almost 2 years and i said to her that i am planning to use keto as my lifestyle and not just as a diet. She told me that she also felt really good at first but now she is having health problems and her doctor said that this is because of keto so she needs to stop it. She adviced me to use keto just till i reach my weight goal. I don’t know what to believe…to the scientists who say keto is good or my sister with bad experience?
Please can someone who is doing keto for a long time, write me about his experiences?
Is doing keto on a longterm dangerous?
Is keto lifestyle dangerous?
Zenjen
(Zenjen)
#1
Brunneria
#5
You can eat well (great nutritious food) on keto
Or you can eat crap.
Likewise, you can live a life that encourages health, or not, regardless of what you are eating.
collaroygal
(KCKO, KCFO 🥥)
#6
I agree. I would ask her the following for starters :
What issues is she experiencing?
What are her current blood work numbers?
What reason did her dr. give her for going off of keto?
What is a typical day of eating? Is it really keto or has she had some carb creep going on?
Is fasting a part of her keto lifestyle? Extended fasting has a lot of benefits.
Did she have any of the issues before keto? Or did she go keto because of similar issues. This could indicate she has gone back to older ways of eating.
What stressors are in her life currently? Cortisol can really mess with your body’s chemistry.
As for who to believe, science wins. A lot of drs. are getting tired of seeing their patients getting sicker and sicker on the SAD, so finally some of them are looking at what is really going on, and leaving that stupid pyramid behind.
If your concern is it might be a familia issue, then both of you get a DNA test and run those through a report, siblings often have many differences in their genes and SNPs. Depending on her health issues, she might have genes that make her higher risk for some conditions than you are.
If it is working for you, you might want to continue keto You could also work into a more lchf eating protocol.
ctviggen
(Bob M)
#7
Virta uses keto for Type II diabetics. Here’s one version of results after a year:
They cite to the actual studies and more info.
What was your sister eating? I could set up a pretty bad keto diet that would be filled with high PUFAs and fake foods. It’d still be keto.
Madeleine
#8
@Zenjen This ^ is true but only if the doctor in question is actually up to date on nutritional science (most are not!).
Like everyone else, I’m curious what problems your sister is having (and also how she’s been eating! “keto” can mean many things…).
Congrats on your progress. “I feel fantastic” is a great place to be 
Screenack
(less is more, more or less)
#9
This – though a second opinion may be warranted, particularly by a doctor who is open-minded on LCHF. I respect doctors, medicine, research, and a free-ish-enough market to switch to doctors whom appraise their nutritional understanding as appropriate.
ctviggen
(Bob M)
#10
Good luck finding one. In my STATE I know of only a handful of low carb doctors. None are near me. My previous PCP refused to get me an HbA1c test, as she thought we tested too much. I left that idiot, paid out of pocket for my own tests, went on low carb and lost 50+ pounds and counting.
Zenjen
(Zenjen)
#11
Her blood pressure was sometimes too high and the next day too low. She was also feeling like she was sick for over a month before she went to her doctor.
Zenjen
(Zenjen)
#12
She eats veggies from her garden and orders food from local farm nearby, so i think she was eating like it is supposed to.
LeCheffre
(Banting & Yudkin & Atkins & Eadeses & Cordain & Taubes & Volek & Naiman & Bikman )
#13
Widespread and long term carb restriction is dangerous to:
- Low Fat Nutritional Guidelines
- Government Subsidized Big Corn, Big Wheat, Big Soy, and Big Sugar
- Manufacturers of ineffective drugs for treatment of diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, metabolic syndrome
- Diet gurus who push low fat
- The Allopathic Medical Establishment
- Defined Benefit Pension Plans
If you’re feeling good, stay in touch with your doctor, if anything feels off, get in touch and see your doctor, and don’t really talk to them about your nutritional choices.
Regina
(Empress of the Unexpected)
#14
Most of us are eating a much healthier diet than we were before Keto.
Zenjen
(Zenjen)
#15
That is true. Before trying keto i was always starving when i was on a diet and binge when i was not on a diet. After 7 years i finally broke this cycle so now it’s definitely better for me to stay on keto than going back to previous unhealthy lifestyle.
Redrover73
(Alex Peralta)
#17
What exactly is your sister experiencing? Like was.said before that is a vague statement. There or other factors that may make her sick or otherwise unhealthy.
lfod14
#19
You realize every mainstream doctor would tell us ALL do stop doing keto then right? Gotta be realistic. Doctors use keto as an easy out for their blame when something isn’t right.
lfod14
#20
Been eating like this for years and there is no shortage of studies showing it’s much healthier long term than eating “normal”. Mainstream Doctors will automatically blame everything on keto. The answer to your sisters problems lie in what she’s doing but anything other than lots of details we’d just be blindly make assumptions (like her Doctor)!
atomicspacebunny
(Bunny)
#21
I see this a lot and my theory on this is the diversity between IGF-1, glucagon and insulin, and not increasing carbohydrate intake to 100 or 200 grams or more because you build up a resistance (a health reserve) or a healthy tolerance to eating a higher carb diet, so would it not be logical to increase carbohydrates but also look at the quality (processed/highly refined) of food being eaten (e.g. eating a donut vs. eat fruit for a sweet tooth) or eating more whole foods even if you decide not to do a hardcore ketogenic diet for prolong periods of time, the problem is going back to a real high carb and sugar diet (processed/highly refined) which will damage the metabolisms homeostasis even more! You don’t want to create (a deficit) bad “set points” as Dr. Jason Fung describes it!
This is not a standard way of eating vs. a ketogenic diet (black & white thinking?), it is about realizing what is causing the problem to begin with?
High sugar and processed carbohydrate intake is more dangerous than anything can do to your body!
Screenack
(less is more, more or less)
#22
This is an unfair stereotype to carry in our heads. As my first post-LCHF checkup last year, I fully expected my “mainstream” GP to be of this ilk. As we discussed my weight-loss and improved markers, he said; “I hear a lot of good things about LCHF. Keep it up.” I would hope a majority of our GPs want what’s best for us, amid everything else they must juggle.
Again, if you suspect otherwise with your GP, time to find a new one. We shouldn’t reward incompetence and indifference with continued patronage.
LeCheffre
(Banting & Yudkin & Atkins & Eadeses & Cordain & Taubes & Volek & Naiman & Bikman )
#23
Wait a minute.
If your doctor tells you that jumping off a tall building will fix your high LDL and save you from a heart attack, worth doing?
Yeah, that’s extreme. But you should have a CONVERSATION with your doctor about why they feel as they do. You may not have time to go back to SAD or try your doctor’s version of a healthy diet. This is what my doctor considers a good diet for weight loss and health improvement.
https://www.amazon.com/Pound-Cure-Change-Your-Eating/dp/1481061143
Should I listen to her on this, when I know:
a: She’s a vegetarian
b: She had maybe 30 hours of nutrition training in a 3 year course of study to be a doctor, many years ago.
Meh. A doctor is a consultant that you hire for your health, not an omniscient deity.