Just started keto diet

(Paula Triphan) #1

I just started the keto diet. Both one of my best friends and my husband had great results onbthe diet. I am the heaviest I’ve ever been. Joints are aching and I just don’t feel healthy. My question is, I love sweets. What are the best things to eat while on the diet. I was told that my cravings for sweets will diminish after a bit but I need to do something until they do. TIA

(Lazy, Dirty Keto 😝) #2

This is a good read, good luck on your keto journey

ETA - your safest sweetener is probably stevia or monk fruit

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #3

I think you’ve already answered your question. You don’t like the answer so you hope someone here will tell you it’s OK to continue eating your ‘sweets’. There are lots of folks on this forum who will tell you just to start ‘tapering off’ slowly, or substitute one or another artificial sweetener to ease the pain. I’m not one of them. Sweet serves no useful purpose and the sooner you lose it the better. You do whatever you can to get there. Why prolong the agony any longer than you have to? My only suggestion is to try cocoa/cacao butter and eat a piece of that whenever you crave something sweet.

#4

Hard question as I don’t know your individual case so I just say my general opinion.

It’s the best by far to focus on proper food, maybe that alone helps with your sweet addiction. If keto gives so perfect satiation, you won’t really desire sweets. It never gave me that, only very low-carb, I don’t even think about sweets on carnivore or on almost carnivore according to my admittedly tiny experiences.
I ate sweets on keto all the time. It was fine for me but as carbs interfere with my satiation and through that, my control, it was far from ideal. I felt okay and maintained my weight. It’s way better without silly urges I know don’t come from real need of my body. But I needed much time to be able to go low enough. If I ate more than minimal vegetables and nuts, I inevitably ate sweets as well (they were useful anyway, my diet was restricted a bit, no meat, for example… that had a huge effect but I did love sweets). I needed a jump inside keto, other people are different. Many people has problems with sweeteners, they affect them just like not extreme low amount of carbs affect me. And I am sure many people have success with pretty relaxed IIFYM keto. It’s individual but if you are able to skip sweets at least most of the time, do it, that’s the best. But if it’s keto sweets or quitting keto and you think keto suits you, better eat keto sweets. Or even normal sweets but something like a tiny piece of dark chocolate. I eat sweets in bigger amounts, usually but dark chocolate is an exception, a little goes a long way. But I eat my own from the beginning, now I prefer an unsweetened one. I want cocoa and fat, not sugar or sweetness but I had to work for long to reach this level. I can’t stand bitter things.
Maybe heavy cream could help you, that’s sweetish. Or other naturally sweet ingredients.
Some people say you should skip all sweet things but almost everything is sweet (if not in the beginning, later).
By the way, I wanted sweets, never sugar. I don’t know sugar addiction, that is a different case. I did crave fruits before so I ate them every day but in a ridiculously tiny amount, it was enough.
I would try the strictest approach first (great keto food, as much as you want, it doesn’t even sound strict… but no sweets at all) and if you can’t handle it, go from best items to worst to find what could help you, I was always against sugar but some people prefer it over sweeteners, it’s individual. Amounts matter too. So don’t gave in easily. And whatever happens, train yourself, I do that since I went low-carb and stopped keeping sugar in the house several years ago. I mean, don’t indulge all the time hoping it will change once. Make some effort to keep it low. I drank sweet coffee, a lot. It’s wonderful just switch to unsweetened one but I had no chance to do it. I made a conscious effort to drink it less and less sweet. If I was unhappy, I added more sweetener but I eventually reached unsweetened coffee and even hot chocolate. Then came unsweetened chocolate, unsweetened eggnog ice cream (that’s easy, heavy cream is sweetish)… I gently pushed myself into the right direction and enjoyed the whole journey. Now I don’t just tolerate unsweetened coffee, I don’t get why would I want it sweet, it doesn’t make sense to me despite I still enjoy sweet things now and then.

I don’t know if it helped any but there are options, surely, even for the most hedonistic sweets lover who doesn’t do hard things or use much will power. But it probably takes way more time than just giving sweets up and eating better things. The latter isn’t possible for everyone. But it’s worth to try.

I wrote thinking keto as a lifestyle change, not some temporal diet. Our attitude is surely different if it’s just for some months but we rarely know we will do it temporarily, get results, still want to stop, leave keto and the good things will stay. Some changes almost inevitably must be done permanently.

(Marianne) #5

Love this. In addition, I would just add:

  • Go to ketokarma.com and get your fat and protein macros. Meet or exceed those every day.
  • Look up the protein, fat and carb grams per serving of the foods you will be eating most regularly (all kinds of meat and chicken, eggs, bacon, sausage, cheese, heavy cream, pepperoni, mayo, butter, veggies). Keep a log of these until you know the approximate macro values. I am not a proponent of “tracking,” but I did for 2-3 weeks when starting until I knew what to eat and how much.
  • Don’t count calories.
  • Eat three hearty meals a day to start, even if you never have. This will alleviate your hunger, cravings for sweets and many of your former foods, wanting to snack, and help you get beyond the keto flu. After 2-3 weeks of this, your body probably won’t want to eat as often or as much.
  • Don’t snack or eat in between meals.
  • Keep the carbs under 20 g/day, and lower if you can.

Even after three weeks, I have never felt better physically than after starting keto. I, too, was at my highest weight - 80 lbs. overweight, 60 of which I have lost since Feb. I am soon to be 61. Love keto. When I found keto, I was at rock bottom; it has been a miracle to me.

Good luck; please keep us posted.

#6

When I’m craving sweets:

(squirrel-kissing paper tamer) #7

It’s a personal choice whether you want to squash your sweets desire or not. I’ve been keto for over a year and I still enjoy sweets. I’m eating sugar free jello as I type this. I don’t have it every day but I don’t want to live without the taste of sweet for the rest of my life.

In the beginning, keep it simple and do your best. Then you can focus and streamline as you get good at it. Nobody is their best keto self right out of the gates, it takes practice.

(Susan) #8

Welcome to the forum, Paula. I used to be a major candy and sugar maniac, but the cravings do go away! At the very beginning I ate Fat Bombs and they helped a lot. There are a lot of great recipes for them here on the forum under our recipe section =).

I allow myself some Keto treats on special occasions still, but I don’t crave them like before =).

(Jill F.) #9

Welcome Paula! I eat a few things when I am craving sweets.
Whip together a little heavy whipping cream and cream cheese with a little sweetener like Swerve, Splenda, monk fruit, etc. Tastes like thick whipped cream!
My hubby makes what we call peanut butter fudge. He melts organic peanut butter, sweetener, coconut oil, and butter together, pours it into a cookie sheet, freeze it, then cut it into cubes about 1" each. About 1 carb each, so good!
I also munch on these when I really need chocolate, but they are higher in carbs so I literally will only eat 1 square. But soooo good!

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(UsedToBeT2D) #11

Eat some bacon and suck it up. No pain, no gain.

#12

I do a little bit of cream cheese or whipped cream. Sometimes maybe pickles can help (count the carbs) and some bubbly water. You can do it!!!

#13

Hi Paula!

I started Keto in late October so I am a newbie too!

I am not eating sweets, I can even bake for others without temptation at this point. You can do it too!

Here is what helped me:

  1. Really learning about how pretty sugar confections turn into very ugly things in the body, like yeast infections, T2 diabetes, propensities to certain cancers. Thinking about family members who “need” sweets as one of their daily pleasures and the shelves full of expensive diabetes, heart, arthritis, digestive, medications that they also have to take.

I recommend reading “The Obesity Code” because it does the best job of explaining what refined carbohydrates do in our bodies. It is evil.

  1. Be sweet to yourself. Listen to music that you like. Read books you enjoy. Be selfish carving out time for yourself, to take a bath with Epsom and lavender oil, brush your hair, buff your nails, just rest and breath.

  2. People around you may say, “Everything is okay in moderation”. Nod in assent and then just keep calm and keto on.

  3. Don’t mess around with artificial sweeteners. They are not food. Would you give it to a baby? Or a dog? If it is not good enough for them it isn’t good enough for you! :butterfly::bouquet::tulip::two_hearts:

(UsedToBeT2D) #14

Good advice.

(UsedToBeT2D) #15

You rock Paula! Stay off the sweets. It will get incredibly easier as you go along.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #16

. . . fatty liver disease, steatohepatitis, cirrhosis, . . .