It is all in his head?

(THERESA PITTS) #1

I have a friend that is quite overweight. He is very much a carboholic. I started Keto about 3 months ago and have lost over 15lbs. My husband is not strictly Keto, but is trying and has lost about 40 lbs (cutting most sugar and carbs). The friend has asked about the diet and I’ve explained the basics, along with the initial Keto flu symptoms. He makes a lot of excuses as to why he can’t do the diet (wife won’t cook that way, daughter can’t give up sugar, etc). He eats at our house occasionally and the past 2 times that he has had a Keto meal (pulled pork with creamed spinach, bacon and eggs) he has gotten a severe headache afterwards. His thought is that the lack of carbs in a single meal would have this horrible affect on him and he has the “Keto Flu”. He states that he NEVER eats a meal without carbs, so to drop them for even one meal causes these symptoms. He also states that when he gets the headache, he has a piece of bread and the headache goes away.

Can you be affected by simply missing carbs in a single meal this way? Or is he making this up to have another excuse not to diet?

(8 year Ketogenic Veteran) #2

Geez it seems to me it would take more than one meal to cause such a sudden headache, but I don’t know enough about it to be sure. He may be on medication that affects him physically as well.

I remember when I was severely insulin-resistant and diabetic, I would actually get shaky and agitated if I went longer than 2 hours without carbohydrate.

#3

Just a suggestion, but what about suggesting that he slowly dial back the carbs? In the movie Fathead, he started by limiting to around 100 carbs a day. Then he could slowly reduce carbs as he increases fat?

#4

i think glucose burners have a need to feed their habit. They are burning their low inventory of glucose in circulation (blood), and don’t have easy access to their fat inventories.

I see people at work needing to eat something (cookie, yogurt, granola bar, etc) after a couple of hours. They get grouchy if they are stuck in a meeting and cannot access food and feed their habit.

(John) #5

I over-responded to eating carbs, my blood sugar would drop and I would get a headache, the shakes, sweats etc. and it wouldn’t go away without eating carbs.
I would eat something almost pure sugar at bed time, 11pm typically, and woke up starving for a big bowl or 3 of cereal at 6, that is the longest I could go.
I have mentioned before eating 500-1,000 grams on most days but hadn’t thought about the other macros, I bet carbs were 80% of my food.

(Keto in Katy) #6

He hasn’t reached his “I-must-make-a-change” point, imo. Your experience of success could eventually help him get there. KCKO you magnificent specimen.

(8 year Ketogenic Veteran) #7

:heart::blue_heart::green_heart::purple_heart::yellow_heart:

(Allie) #8

Sounds like your friend is just not ready to take responsibility for their health / well-being :frowning:

(THERESA PITTS) #9

I agree and I’m having a really hard time not preaching to him. Actually, I have to really hold back in most of my interactions. I’m asked about my weight loss and I get started talking. After a few minutes of explaining, I notice that the person I’m talking to has “glazed over” and they are really wishing they hadn’t said anything :frowning:

(Jane Reed) #10

In a situation like this, I would just say “no sugar, no starch.” If a friend wanted more info, I would not give a brief outline of the diet, rather I would ask them if they were ready to give up bread, potatoes, etc.

That would probably stop a lot of useless explanations. For a person sincerely interested, I would give them the easiest and most painless entry into keto, the dudes podcast.