Keto after 2.5 Weeks - Advice/Feedback Appreciated!

(Ryan Clarke) #1

Hi all,

First post on here and hopefully this is in the right place and I’m following the rules! I started my Keto ‘journey’ two and a half weeks ago and before and during that time forums have been a great help for me so far so I’d be really grateful for any and all feedback I will receive here, accepting these are probably very common posts! I’ve struggled to keep the detail to a minimum whilst covering all the variables that would need to be considered:

When I started on 27th May I was 91.5KG , 29% Body Fat, 28.20 BMI and Metabolic age of 38 (I am 35)

After my first week i dropped to 89.15KG / 28.1% , 27.50 , 38

In my second week I dropped to 88.05KG / 27.7% , 27.20 , 38

I’m strictly adhering to Macros I recorded using multiple different calculators and accommodating my levels of exercise, weight etc. 1800 KCAL, 137G FAT, 121G PROTEIN and 20 NET CARBS

My meals are not particularly varied at the moment and for my next week I’ll be adding in a broader range of low-carb veg and fruit. A typical day for me would be:

Breakfast - Coffee (double cream)

Lunch - 3 or 4 eggs, tomato, smoked salmon or cooked ham. Coffee (double cream)

Dinner - 3 skin-on chicken thighs / Fillet Steak / Rump Steak / Salmon Fillets / 15% Beef Mince Burger / Lamb Steaks. Avocados, Tomatoes, Peppers, Asparagus, Lettuce, Spinach. Coconut oil for frying, pepper sauce using soured cream

Other - water ‘shake’ with chia seeds and teaspoon of Oat Apple Fibre. 2 squares dark chocolate (usually 85%). 3-4 litres per day.

‘Cheat’ meals don’t seem necessary on this diet although I have had two since the start - the first being doner meat and pitta bread (which put me 20g Fat, 300KCAL and 15g Carbs over my daily ‘allowance’) and more recently two bunless Five Guys burgers where I stayed within my daily limits.

The specific questions I had were:

  1. Are there any glaring gaps or problems with my approach and diet here? I will admit I am basing the diet on the numbers and not necessarily how I feel - BUT - I have a big appetite and I am eating well! Rarely hungry, sleeping well, feeling better. I believe in this third week I will be closer to 0.5KG loss which does seem a little less than hoped - HOWEVER - I would be much happier with a diet with smaller but sustained gains as I am more than happy to keep this diet going mid to long-term. I am eating much better and actually looking forward to meals a lot more than previous diets (high protein, herbalife, etc.). Should I just carry on and go with the flow? I would like to lose another 9-12KG - ideally over next 3 months but 6 months would also be OK

  2. Should I pay any/more attention to Ketosis levels? I bought some of the urine test strips from Amazon, knowing they would not be accurate. I usually fluctuate between ‘light’ and ‘moderate’ levels (2-4 out of scale of 1-6). I presume I am in levels of Ketosis as I am keeping my carbs more often than not under 17/18g per today but always under 20g, and I also do feel the ‘Keto Flu’ headaches a little every now and again (And felt them more often at the start). I have just started to take [these Raspberry Ketones and Fibre (3 tablets a day with lunch)

  3. What are the expected…‘Bowel Habits’? I have always suffered with a ‘slow gut’ and have found previous diets with high fibre mitigated some of this and allowed me to ‘pass’ every 1-2 days - which was/is frequent for me. My most recent diet was herbalife shakes for breakfast and lunch with additional oat apple fibre which helped a great deal. On this diet I feel a lot less bloated and not constipated however I am ‘passing’ a lot less frequently - 4 days and counting now, for example - but again, historically this would not be too different for me. I am having a teaspoon of Oat Apple Fibre per day, and the Ketones I have just started taking have fibre also and will hopefully help ‘move things along’. Is this something others have observed and if so how best to address? Again I would not say this is causing any discomfort for me but feel like I need to change something

I’m really enjoying the diet and I am desperate to make it work - I work a 60/70 week usually and exercise for me is now limited to a 5K run once a fortnight although as lockdown situation changes this should increase. I’m very aware exercise is the base for any successful diet hence I am not expecting incredible weight loss each week. The meals I’m eating are quick, simple and tasty - to be honest it almost feels too good to be true which is probably the main reason why I’m writing this post!

Thanks for persevering with this very long post! It would be great to hear your thoughts and advice which hopefully may help others in the same situation.

Thanks in advance,

Ryan

#2

Overall seems descent. There’s a lot of tweaking you’ll wind up doing as you learn what your body likes. I also do much better with higher fiber, many are afraid of it, if you know you do better with it keep it up. I ignored it for a long time and messed myself up pretty descent. On the ketone levels, don’t waste your time or money, they don’t matter. On the Raspberry Ketones… you got scammed. Throw them in the trash and move on. Forget about metabolic age as well, not real. There’s young people with terrible metabolisms, and old people with amazing ones. Only dietary tweak I would make is don’t look for reasons to add fat to everything. Fat is our fuel but there’s a habit of forcing it in everywhere. When I stopped doing that my fat loss results were much better.

Not sure what you’re using for macro tracking but I always recommend cronometer, it’s graphing ability draws a VERY clear picture of what’s going on. I used to guess a lot, then got my BF% measured and the calculators were WAY off, got my RMR tested and again, calcs were WAY off. Once I had real numbers and started tracking it all then I could simply pull up trends and compare basically anything to anything. I can see my caloric intake vs my weight, or my protein or fat vs my weight etc. Can even do that with micronutrients. VERY telling! If my fat is too much higher than around 70g/day it makes it much harder to loose fat for me, and if my protein stays below ~180g for more than a couple days I start noticing it in the gym and noticeably worse recovery after hard workouts. I spent a lot of time blindly troubleshooting before that.

#3

I’m one of the ones who do much better with low fiber. I suffered for years with bowel issues and constipation. Most of my life, really. Even on Keto, because I was eating high fiber veggies like celery, asparagus and such. When I cut my fiber way down, and raised my fat intake…well, it’s been wonderful!! :blush:

(Marianne) #4

It’s working, just keep doing what you are doing.

I felt the same way about keto when I started, and even now 16 months later. It has been such a deliverance to me. Delicious food we (my husband and I), never tire of, never felt better in my life (61), never had any other “diet” work long term. This is our new way of living. We mainly eat one meal a day now (because that is what we have naturally morphed to after becoming fat adapted - don’t rush it), and I make very easy meals, but they are still delicious.

My suggestion to you is to identify more foods you love (try steaming your vegetables [chopped brussels sprouts, broccoli, asperagus, etc.], and adding a couple large dollups of bacon grease - delicious!), and relax about your program and enjoy. I counted macros in the beginning to become acclimated, but the main thing is to keep the carbs as low under 20 as you can. Other than a starting weight, I didn’t and don’t weigh myself except the few times I go to the doctor. The number is meaningless, you can tell where you are at by your appearance and clothes. Just eat, relax and try to think of this as your new normal.

Best.

#5

Welcome to keto!
My advice, stick to 20 actual carbs and not net carbs until well established on the new WOE. It’s just easier, faster, simpler.

Otherwise good luck!
2 + years going strong and I’m feeling better than ever.
You can do it!!

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #6

I don’t see any glaring gaps in your diet. However, if you are eating 1800 calories a day because that is all you need to satisfy your hunger, that it one thing; if it is an imposed limit, you may be headed for trouble. On a ketogenic diet, which promotes lower insulin levels, appetite generally becomes a good guide to how much to eat. Elevated insulin interferes with the reception of hormonal signals in the brain, and lowered insulin restores that signaling to proper function.

Don’t worry about what your ketone measurements are. You can’t continue to live without manufacturing ketones, assuming you are not eating carbohydrate, so if you are keeping your carbohydrate under 20 g/day and still breathing, you are doing fine. There is no correlation between higher ketone levels and greater benefits. Not only that, but there are inherent difficulties in measuring ketone production and use that make worrying about ketones pointless.

As for bowel habits. I find that, as long as my salt intake stays within the proper range, I am fine. I do not move my bowel every day, but when I do, there are no problems. If I don’t get enough salt, I experience constipation, and too much salt makes for problems in the other direction (I don’t want to get too specific, if you don’t mind). Government recommendations for salt intake are unhealthily low, according to several recent studies, and we need a bit more salt in any case, when we eat ketogenically. Try to stay within the range of 10-15 grams/day of table salt (sodium chloride), which includes the amount of salt already present in your food.