Just started the 18:6 fasting

[Reese1973]

My doctor said I have high blood pressure, high cholesterol and hyper tension at the moment

[PaulL]

Okay, so you are insulin-resistant and metabolically dysfunctional. Avoiding sugar, grains, and starches is definitely going to help improve your health. Do your best, and give things time. You didn’t put on that belly in a day; it’s not going to come off in a day, either!

My experience is that I didn’t lose nearly as much fat as I would prefer, but my heart rate and blood pressure came down, my blood sugar and HbA_1C normalised, and so did my inflammatory markers and liver enzymes. I went from borderline diabetic to metabolically normal, my arthritis went away, my skin cleared up, and my sex drive improved (excessive insulin causes PCOS in women and impotence in men). Also my hair and nails have greatly improved.

[Reese1973]

I guess this means no more whiskey or red wine huh

[PaulL]

Hard liquor is pretty much carb-free; it’s the wine, and especially the beer, we need to look out for. And beware: people on a keto diet often find that it takes a lot less alcohol to get drunk, so drink carefully!

[Pjam]

Derek, Follow every word of Pauls, Visit this forum and your BP will come down … cholesterol we don’t worry about. Sounds incredible?

Don’t take my word. Check Youtube Dr David Unwin

[ctviggen]

I still drink red wine, just not much. It’s really not that many carbs, if it’s not that sweet.

As for pasta, my dad’s family were from Italy, and eating pasta put my dad into an early grave. He was T2. I would avoid it for a while if you can.

I eat things like pasta sauce made with Italian sausage and ground beef, and if you’re like me, anchovies and olives (which my family won’t go near), and then pecrorino romano. I find I don’t need the noodles.

This is not bad for a lasagna, just cook it one day and eat it the next:

Low Carb Protein Noodle Lasagna - Easy Recipe - Diet Doctor

I usually make it in the biggest pan I have though.

I like a chicken crust pizza, which comes close enough to real to me.

[velvet]

Smoothie Shake (banana,apple,milk and wheatgrass.
2 English muffins
Can of chickpeas
2 carrots
Mango

All of those things are no-nos for me. If I’d eat all of those in one day, I would gain. Even just one of those can throw me off. We are all different, you’ll have to figure out what works for you.

[cvkemp]

Well I fast 19 hours most day I start my eating window with a smoothie of whole milk, almond milk, mixed berries, spinach, coconut oil or Avocado, whey protein along with 3 prunes. And I have lost 44 pounds so far.

[Shinita]

But hey, when your munchin on a big steak cooked in butter and cream who cares about missing out on orange juice

Meat is quite wonderful when one wants to skip sweet stuff At least according to my own experiences. I needed my daily fruit and sweets on vegetarian keto. Carnivore immediately destroyed these needs, it was surreal… Surely it’s not like that for everyone and even I want to taste my own fruits (and banana too, one of my big favs, I doubt it will ever change) but a tiny bit here and there is enough.
Some proper amount of nice fatty meat really can be super effective… And about the most enjoyable food I can imagine even if I need some other items as well. Of course, these things are individual and even the same person isn’t the same all the time… I definitely wouldn’t give up my fruits. I just keep them way, way lower than on my original keto where I spent 1-3g carbs on them per day… Sometimes it’s a bad idea to omit something as we gain nothing but lose a lot while we can keep a tiny and/or occasional amount and all is well.

If I am walking 2.5 miles a day, with an additional hour a day of exercise plus the fasting I should be able to have sugar in my coffee and pasta no ?

No matter my exercise level, sugar isn’t good for me personally and probably most of us are like that… Keto was way too sugary for me too. Only almost zero plant works really well for me. Some of us are like that (or worse like feeling bad when eating plants), some are fine with a carbier keto (I often do a bit carbier keto too, it’s just animal sugar), some are best with low-carb, way above keto carb intake level… And I am pretty sure some people thrive on high-carb (items still matter…) and feel bad on lower-carb. Who knows what is best for you, physically and mentally, emotionally? I mean, my body may be best with really low-carb, no way I will do that all the time, I need my tiny breaks and it’s mental… That’s important for our health too, not being miserable. And I couldn’t even jump to this right away. Maybe you will need some gradual change as well. It may take some time to figure out your sweet spot (it took me 10-something years but most people aren’t this I hope. I don’t say I didn’t enjoy the journey, I even felt I had found it but then I changed and needed tweaking).

I guess this means no more whiskey or red wine huh

Just like with high-carb items, amounts matter a lot. Thanks to keto (and my wine with 20% sugar. OMG how could I drink that, now I feel lemon juice sweetish very sour, yes but sweetish too) and probably some crazy dormant abilities of mine, I can enjoy alcohol in ridiculous amounts I have no restrictions at all alcohol wise, I don’t need it.
Sadly, I never could experience a low alcohol tolerance on keto as I just can’t drink enough to feel it or very rarely. Sigh. It’s good I drink for the taste and the knowledge I am drinking, not the effect as there is none.

If you have too many problematic items, maybe train yourself as I did? And only consume them when it’s really, really (at least kind of) needed. Not freebies just occasional little treats when it’s them or you lose your sanity and have something worse. I am SUPER bad with restrictions, I need my freedom and eating whatever I fancy. But training and challenges and experiments? I can do them. One can change A LOT, without force, it’s amazing.

[ctviggen]

That’s a great result.

[robintemplin]

Good for you! This picture shows how dedicated and motivated you are! We have some positively amazing before nd afters here. I think going public is brave. Bravo!
You got this!

[robintemplin]

@Alecmcq, please share your before, during and after.

[Alecmcq]

Derek
My recent journey has been specifically on carnivore, and my before and after pics are below. I haven’t picced for a while now, but I reckon I am about the same now as the right hand pics. This is the loss over about 15 months from Jan22 to March23. 119kg down to about 85kg (262lbs to 187lbs).

I did a bout of fasting about 5 years ago and lost a lot of weight (roughly 120kg to 85kg): my regime was 2 x 42hrs fasts each week ie last meal day1 about 7pm, fast all day on day2, then having lunch around 1pm day3. I found this worked really well for me. The problem I found was that ultimately I stopped fasting, and without eating the right things, the weight just came back. I was just addicted to carbs, and I ate a lot of carbs, even when I knew it was not good for me.

My current regime of zero-carb is simply the best diet for a carb addict like me. I can’t do moderation. I now abstain. And as you can see from the pics, it has worked. I do run (a lot!), and this has helped a bit, but it is the diet that has helped the most… I have ran a lot in the past, and not lost weight. It’s what you eat that matters.

I can tell from your body shape that you are insulin resistant, and possibly already diabetic (have you had your A1C tested?). My strong recommendation to lose your gut is to simply stop eating carbs. The list of foods you are eating looks to me very carb centric… I am asking: where’s the fat and protein? And also Paul is right, it doesn’t look to me like you are eating enough. What magically happens when you stop eating carbs is your hormones that regulate hunger start working again, and you can just eat to satiety… your body really does know what it is doing if you don’t poison it with carbs.

Welcome to the forums and good luck! Always happy to answer questions!
Cheers
Alec

[PaulL]

your body really does know what it is doing if you don’t poison it with carbs.

That’s the best way of putting it that I’ve seen.

Fair warning: I’m stealing that line!!

[Reese1973]

I was unable to respond because I am new and reached my quota for responding lol
Ok so the whiskey in moderation I can easily do, I’ll miss the wine but maybe a few years down the road.
Paul you’re an Angel, all of you are so wonderful really, I thank you from my heart.
I did the three day military diet and exercise for one week and lost 10 pounds, of course I didn’t keep going which I should’ve.
I am hoping to lose as much with 18:6 fasting.
I have been gathering more info for eating the rights foods, so far I’ve read a good meal that has enough protein and fiber would be-
Cup of bone broth, grilled chicken, avocado, fish roe and pickles, another meal would be - 4 eggs , bacon avocado, blueberries and 2% Greek yogurt.
Salmon, broccoli etc.
I made a chart with calories, protein and carbs so I don’t over or under do it.
What’s tricky is that if I go to three different websites, they all have different numbers for carbs, protein etc I don’t know why.

[Pjam]

You’ll get plenty of conflicting info and the truth is everyone can tolerate a different amount of carbs … finding your amount will happen in time.
Do you fancy trying a Keto diet? If you do then some inexpensive Ketosis test urine strips are very good.
The fasting is great. A bigger impact comes from what you eat. Or to be more exact what you DON’T eat.
You can be scientific if you like or you can relax and just avoid the crap.
Did you check those YouTube vids from Dr David Unwin? Really inspiring stuff

[coopdawg]

Yeah, for alcoholic drinks, I went onto gin and slimline tonic water when I started keto.

It worked…but it damn near well put me over the edge into being an alcoholic.
That’s strong stuff when you mainly previously drank lager.

Anyway, happily I am now gin free after some soul searching and self evaluation.
I still have the occasional drink, but never spirits…spirits messes with your head.

Dry red wine- most of the carbohydrate has all been converted to alcohol, so if I do feel the will to have a drink, dry red wine is my tipple of choice.

For example, I’m just back from holiday in Spain; over there I would’ve had one or two (about half bottle) of dry red wine when out for a meal. Never got plastered and never noticed any real detrimental effect from the wine on body or mind.

Yeah, gin is Ok if you can stop after 1 or 2…I just couldn’t stop at that so I had to stop it altogether.

[ctviggen]

I wouldn’t worry too much about fiber or calories in the beginning. Just trying to make it through the transition to burning fat is hard enough. And usually your appetite will drop off. I remember trying Atkins multiple times before I finally went for good, and each time I remember driving somewhere and thinking, “I’m not hungry! That’s weird, because I’m always hungry.”. But it takes a while to get to that point.

[Pjam]

Absolutely, get into ketosis any which way. Watch the weight fly off … that gets you focused, excited and interested … did me anyway

[Reese1973]

How can you stop eating carbs ? They are in everything ?
Cup of almonds 28.2 carbs
Avocado 12.8
Bone broth 3
Etc etc, unless these websites are wrong ?
I am eating these things for protein, I watched a few videos of this specific diet and all of them have almonds. Avocado, steak etc,
How can you eat anything without carbs ?