Just started the 18:6 fasting


#41

Minefield. But you’ll figure it out.

I would recommend an acetone (ketone) breath tracker, something like Keyto (other brands are available).

It gives meal recommendations, graphically tracks your weight, ketosis levels etc.
It helped me at the start.

Then you just figure things out.
It’s staying away from carbs as much as possible (until later), using healthy fats and non processed meats.


(Alec) #42

No problems with that! I liked it myself when I wrote it! :joy:


(Chuck) #43

I haven’t even tried to not eat carbs I have just drastically reduced the carbs I eat. For me it is the number of hours of fast that is most important.
By the way I don’t count carbs or calories


(Alec) #44

Eat fatty meat, eggs, butter, bacon.

Agreed everything has some carbs, but in these foods that are mostly fat and protein, the carbs are very low to the point of being negligible. Whenever you eat a plant, you will be eating carbs. So most ketoers eat non-starchy veg along with the meat/eggs etc. but if you want to avoid carbs, stop eating plants. They are really unnecessary and to some people absolute poison.

No need to give up the plants for life (like I have), but give it a go for 30 days and see how you feel. You may be surprised.


(Derek Reese) #45

Eat fatty meats, eggs, butter, bacon ?
I have high cholesterol and high blood pressure lol
I can eat these things in moderation but too much won’t be good.
Stop eating plants as in vegetables ?


#46

Nope :slight_smile: Many meats and all pure fats are zero carb (meat probably has a tiny bit but it’s often negligible), many cheeses too.

Eggs and most dairy items have a significant amount, hence my 3-40g carbs a day even from my carnivore items… But if I just ate meat, I would be very close to zero on the days when I don’t eat organs.

Plants are carby, yep (of course amounts matter but it usually won’t be zero unless the amount is zero) but carnivore tends to be very low-carb. Not exactly zero but good enough.

Each to their own. For many of us it’s healthiest to eat very low-carb. To me, it only means plant stuff (possibly mushroom too but I never had much carbs from them), animal carbs galore are fine. But if you are better with vegs or nuts or fruits or whatever, eat them, sure. But if one needs really extreme low-carb, plants hardly fit into it or just in super tiny amounts.


(Chuck) #47

It all depends on your stomach bio. I tried very low carb and it just didn’t set well with my digestive system.
I was raised to eat what ever was grown on our farms, and orchards and vegetable gardens. I wasn’t raised on refined or processed foods. So as long as I stay with real nature foods I am fine. So I stay away from fast food, store bought bread, desserts, cereals, soft drinks, artificial sweeteners. And right now all things wheat. I can handle small amounts of long grain brown rice, I can handle small amounts of baked or roasted potatoes. I eat meat, fish and almost any seafood and nuts and small amounts of fruit. While I don’t count calories or carbs I manage to keep my carbs at about 100 or less per day. I am keeping my eating window less than 4 hours and my fasting time as long as possible. I do my daily walks and other activities during my fasting time to maximize burning of my own stored fat. And at the same time I am working to improve my muscle mass. This seems to be happening because I am slimming down with very little weight loss. My goal has never been a weight goal but a slimmed down waistline. In the last month I have lost 3 inches from my waist and 1.5 off each of my thighs with only 2 pounds of net weight loss.


(Derek Reese) #48

Vegetables are important to me, I consider eating a bunch of kale, roasted beets and big salads very healthy because they are.
Between fasting then eating meat and seafood I will get my protein, I was watching a handful of videos with a lot of healthy folks still eating veggies.
I put together a very long list of foods and made a note next to each item for carbs,calories and protein.
I will also be working out a long with walking and I know this will all work out just fine :slight_smile:


(Chuck) #49

The key is this, find what works for you and your goals. Even if you and your family has to eat differently. My wife and I have totally different circumstances. She has only about a forth of her stomach left due to an health issue and she has had a large part of her intestines removed. She eats small amounts of food on and off all day. She also has to have infusions to replace the minerals and vitamins she needs. I have to keep my eating window short to not eat so much and to help keep insulin levels down. While I am not diabetic it runs in my family, I have been morbidly obese at one time and obese way to many times. I am now overweight by the charts, and more than likely my normal weight will still label me as overweight due to muscle mass. Growing up on the farm then going in the Navy put muscle mass on me. At this time while I am slimming down my waist and thighs I am seeing very little weight loss. At this time I am maybe 10 pounds lighter than my normal weight while being in the Navy at my most fit self for 8 years. My body is even now inches back to my weigh while in the Navy as my waist is only an inch and half larger then when I was in the Navy. I can now even wear my dress uniform. And I am 75 years old and I went over 30 years not being able to get in my uniform
Hang in there don’t wear so much about weigh pay real attention to body measurements. Also be willing to make adjustments to your diet and even fasting as needed. Oh yeah keep your body guessing don’t allow yourself or your body get in a rut.


(Derek Reese) #50

I am beginning day four of this fast and I just weighed myself because my daughter has a bad cough and I can’t go back to sleep, I was 216 and starting the fourth day today with an empty belly I am 208 !!!
8 pounds ain’t too shabby and this is only from the 18:6 fasting and walking no less than 2.5 miles a day, I actually walked 4 miles the other day.
I will keep everyone up to date at the end of the first week which will be June 5th. Also I don’t know why but fasting is easy to me ? I’m a guy who would eat when I’m bored, start a movie and pause it for snacks lol
All it took was for me to see some progress, now I have even more hope, and just wait until I put the exercise routine into effect.


(Alec) #51

Yes.

Congratulations on high cholesterol: that is protective against all cause mortality. Cholesterol does NOT cause heart disease. It’s total bollox. High blood pressure will normalise if you lose some weight.

Yes, it will.

Absolutely. What you have been told about vegetables being healthy is a lie.


(Peter - Don't Fear the Fat ) #52

Most of us eat some carbs Derek, we keep them low enough to stay in Ketosis.
I eat loads of veg but I’m careful to avoid the high carb ones. Some veg have almost no carbs. There’s a nice long list.
One ploy is to eat 100g of carb a day and check for Ketosis, then try 50g and check again, then 20g and try again.
Some people can’t tolerate any carbs and enjoy a carnivore diet


#53

Beets are very sugary but you have many higher-carb items, keto probably isn’t for you at this point then. No problem, I loved my low-carb (80g net carbs and unlimited total. my total never mattered, now it’s low as I am close to carnivore but I don’t care even about my net carbs there, I stay below 45g anyway and that’s good enough for me as long as the vast majority of it comes from animals), my SO is thriving on high-carb, not everyone need to go super low. And it’s a huge thing if one omits the unhealthy items, whatever they may be, part of it is individual. I better avoid vegs except in minuscule amounts but other people embrace them without problem, some even need them.

Find your way, we all should do it, we are just too different so our own experiences don’t say much about what others should follow. I never would tell to my SO to eat low-carb as I know it’s quite bad for him (so he won’t anyway, he isn’t a masochist). But I expect him to be health-conscious and he is, eats quite well for him as far as I can tell and isn’t inactive either.

I surely mentioned it already but we are even subject to change. What worked for me 12 years ago is very far from what is best for me now… My original keto was in-between, had little benefits but was needed temporarily. I still have so very carby days (except if we count total…) but it’s not every day and it’s VERY different on carnivore or close, at least for me. But I needed my low-carb and then keto years to arrive here. Listen to your body if it’s smart and communicative, it seems you already took great steps, congrats to your weight-loss especially if it’s not just water :wink: It’s fine not to be strict like some people on this forum, now or ever. We are all different. I can go low as I should, after many, many low-carb years but even I wouldn’t give up plants as I don’t see the need for it while I would lose some joy. I am all about amounts and frequency in such cases. But some items must go. And if something isn’t healthy and we don’t lose sanity or feel miserable if we just go cold turkey, doing that is probably the best. I just dislike forcing things when the problem item is mostly harmless but I can’t force things to begin with, it never ends well… So our personality is important too, we can’t always just do whatever others do, even if it would be good for us in the end. I had items where I just went cold turkey and it was super easy and did good to me and kept others in tiny amounts or trained myself out of them, often very slowly…


(Derek Reese) #54

I don’t agree, there’s vitamins and nutrients in veggies that are very healthy, look at Lenny Kravitz, this guy eats raw veggies and he’s a vegan and he looks amazing.


#55

And we just don’t need any of those if we get it from other (often better) sources. Like meat.

And vegs contain plenty of potentially harmful things too. I rather consume my essentials without eating something bad along with it. (Btw I am not against plants, I don’t believe carbs are bad either. Not for everyone, not all kinds and not in any amounts…)

But these are very individual. Vegs make me overeating and worse (I become an uncontrolled gremlin with stupid desires if I eat carbs. even if it happens before midnight. fortunately water is fine :D). Of course I don’t want them (now. I was a MASSIVE veggie lover and it caused problems).
While people who loves vegs and find them helpful while having problems on carnivore eat them. Both are good, both groups are right to eat the way they do. They are different.

Good if it works for him.
Veganism is horrible for many others, there are examples about that too. We don’t all handle things the same. And it’s very, very tricky to do veganism “right” even if one has the right genetics and personality and whatnot. Some ex-vegans tried desperately for years but they felt so bad they gave up. They didn’t want to but were forced.
I don’t care what works for whom, I need my very own woe that works for ME. It should be the same for everyone I suppose.


(Chuck) #56

There are so many here that believe to eat only meat. I have read a few books from doctors that say that is all we need because our hunter gatherer ancestors mostly depended on killing animals for food but they also ate wild berries and other plants when it was available. I grew up on a farm as I have said. My great grandmother and grandmother were Native American, my grandfathers were from Europe. I was raised eating eating only what we raised. Meat, vegetables, fruits, very little bread or desserts. My grandmother would grind corn to make what I know as cornbread. Sometimes I saw her grinding what I now believe was wheat to make biscuits. But the key is that we never had highly processed or refined food products. I went in the Navy at 21 years old at 6 foot and weighed 168 pounds, I graduated from boot camp weighing 205, I kept my weight between 205 and 220 my next 12 or so years. But as soon as I got a desk job I started gaining weight like crazy even though I have always been active with walking and bike riding. I look back on my life and I now understand that my downfall or weight gain issues how ever I look at it was refined and highly processed junk food. Store bought bread, easy to make food crap from boxes, fast food. Well now I am back eating real foods from the local farmers, meat, vegetables and even diary produce, milk, butter and even eggs. There is nothing better than fresh off the farm produce, yes it is more expensive, but at my age and my wife’s age we don’t need to eat all that much anymore. We buy a quarter to half side of beef and prepare it ourselves, we do the same with pig and chickens. I also love wild meat deer, turkey and elk. Yes I understand that it isn’t available or convenient to everyone. But you can still get healthy foods by shopping the grocery stores that cut their on meat. Vegetables are good if fresh or flash frozen as are fruits. I stay away from any canned vegetables or fruits in cans or packed in syrups. I also for now stay away from anything with wheat in it. I love pasta but I have found spaghetti squash and I use it instead of common pasta or noodles.
But I still lean heavily towards fats and protein but always have a side dish of vegetables and a snack of fruit. I also love homemade pickles and the is good for me. I also start my day with app.e cider vinegar in water. It keeps my digestive tract healthy.


(Derek Reese) #57

My breakfast
My breakfast-
4 eggs
4- slices of bacon
10-slices of turkey
1- 8oz burger
2% yogurt
Bone broth


#58

Seems good this far :slight_smile: It’s even very low-carb now… And looks pretty!


(Derek Reese) #59

Thank you, it roughly 99 grams of protein.I was told with my body weight to eat no less than 150 grams of protein a day, so for my second meal I will probably have a steak, salmon more bone broth and avocados.


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #60

I know I don’t look it, but I shed 80 lbs./36 kg of fat effortlessly–no exercise and no calorie-counting. There was a further period of 12 months in which my weight remained unchanged, but my waistline continued to shrink a couple more inches.

The key is to strictly limit carbohydrate intake. For a start, no sugar, no starches, no grains. Limit what carbohydrate you do eat to 20 g/day. That is a level at which you are practically guaranteed to see success. Your actual carb tolerance might well be higher than that, but start there, and you can experiment once you are keto-adapted.

Keto-adaptation takes six to eight weeks, usually. We get into ketosis almost immediately, but the skeletal muscles have to have time to heal and to reactivate the fat-burning pathways that were deactivated during years of high-carbohydrate, low-fat eating. They actually prefer to burn fatty acide, but in the meantime they limp along on ketones. You may feel sluggish and weak during that period, but your current performance level will return–many people report greater endurance, in fact.

Men tend to lose fat easily on keto, but it’s still a process that takes time. And for everyone, the first 100 lbs. come off much more quickly than the last 10, so keep calm and keto on.