Keto for almost 2 months

(Matthew Chisholm) #1

Hi Everyone. I’m a 6’0. 40 year old male. I decided to start keto on July 7, 2025. Since then I have been tracking everything I consume. I’ve lost 23 lbs since then (206 lbs - 183 lbs). I tried fasting 18/6, but I was irritable with low energy in the mornings so I stopped doing that. A sample of what I might eat in a day is this, keep in mind I’m currently on an accelerated cut so my kcal are low.

Morning Meal:

● 100 g beef liver
● 3 eggs fried in 1 Tbsp coconut oil
● 100 g spring-mix greens, wilted in the frying pan and salted
● 2 sheets nori sushi
● 1 Brazil nut
● 500 mL salted water
● D3+K2 Supplement
● Omega 3 Supplement

Between meals I consumed the following:

● 1.5 L salted water

Evening Meal:

● 2 beef burgers, 21 g aged cheddar on each

● Dijon mustard 1 tsp per burger (2 tsp total)

● Zucchini 200 g, sautéed in 1 tsp coconut oil, with 1 tsp apple cider vinegar

● Feta 30 g on the zucchini

● Pumpkin seeds 1 tsp

Between Evening Meal and Bedtime:

● 500 mL tap water with ⅛ tsp salt

● 250 mL ginger tea

● 500 mL water with ⅛ tsp salt

● Magnesium bisglycinate 200 mg supplement
● Magnesium L-threonate supplement

Nothing I consume ever has any added sugars or sugar substitutes.

That puts me around (rough estimate):

Calories ~1430kcal
Protein ~117g
Fat ~101g
Net Carbs ~12g
Fat:Protein ~1.8:1

(Cathy) #2

Sounds like you have done very well losing 23 lbs. in less than 2 months!! Congrats. Weight loss with keto is usually not linear. The body seems to pause at various times with no obvious reason. What is good to remember is that you need to make your eating plan sustainable since the fact is, that you will have to eat in a similar way to maintain your losses. You can’t go back to your old way of eating.

I have also read that a ketogenic diet will not cause further weight loss once a body has reached a weight that is appropriate so that is good to keep in mind as well.

(KM) #3

I’d just add, that’s what the body decides, not necessarily a personal choice! That last 10-20 lbs standing between you and “perfection” in your eyes may never come off and stay off, unless you remain militant in your focus and grindingly dedicated to monitoring every bite. If you can accept your body’s opinion, it’s a lot easier!

(Bean) #4

Welcome!

My 6 foot hubby looks overly thin if he’s much under 180. Maybe adding muscle rather than cutting fat?

(Mark Rhodes) #5

Welcome!! I love that you east beef liver. I grew up on the stuff and it is my go to meal when we go do breakfast. Liver and Onions plus 3 eggs poached, butter and bacon.

As I continued my keto journey, I became less strict. Because I am anal about data I collected it all and still do almost ten years later. But if you are doing keto correctly, relax just a bit. One nut? That would have driven me crazy.

(Matthew Chisholm) #6

Thanks for the welcome. I love beef liver and beef heart as well. I’m currently doing a strict phase targeting fat loss and mental clarity. I’m diagnosed with Inattentive ADHD and have an end goal of no medication. I’m currently keeping net carbs <20 g. The one nut does sound pretty extreme, but it’s specifically Brazil nuts because of the selenium content (I treat it like a supplement). For magnesium I have pumpkin seeds, chia, greens, and sometimes glycinate at night. I track Na/K/Mg daily along with weight, sleep, and focus scores.

I’ve spent the last 9 years not consuming added sugars and sugar substitutes, but had a pretty high carbohydrate diet. My blood test results were flawless, but I still felt uncomfortable physically and mentally. I’m seeing much better results with strict whole food keto.

After 10 years what do you find has worked best for you?

(Bob M) #7

Some of us find that we eat less greens or vegetables over time. When I started, I believed I had to eat salads and vegetables. Over time, I realized that salads in particular caused a lot of problems for me. I still will eat salads and vegetables, but I can also go days/weeks without eating any of them.

If you have ADHD, you might want to test ketones. For some/many of us, higher ketones don’t mean much. But for some, higher ketones mean better mental stability and resolution of issue. You could find that you’re better with higher ketones. But you’d have to test to see what happens.

I also like beef liver and heart, maybe heart better (can make heart via sous vide, and you can’t really do that with liver). Heart can be a challenge to find though.

(Mark Rhodes) #8

My Keto journey was very strict early on. I reversed osteoporosis from -T1.9 to +T1.8, reduced my Agatston Score by 8%, can manipulate my Lp(a) to wherever I want and converted three cardiologists to my views, the last saying there is no medical study showing statins to be more effective than what I am doing. I also use resistance training almost daily and maintain a 14% bodyfat per dexa at 232 pounds at 61 1/2 years of age putting me in the top 1% for my age.

The real answer is the same as I tell the young guys in the gym, consistency. I jump out of bed and weigh myself at the same time everyday but I don’t let one or 4 days annoy me. Its just numbers, everything works best in a trend. I do DXA scans about every 6 months but that is because I am an engineer and plot everything. Most recently worked with Dr. Westman to introduce ketogenic eating to my entire company via a webinar.

Stay away from products the first year. Just eat real food. ignore “keto” products, they are not. If you over indulge in carbs one day, just eat zero carb the next. Again trends make success. BTW Zero Carb was what we called carnivore ( mostly) before carnivore. Carnivore is catchy but nothing more tthan zero carb.
If you haven’t already, listen to the 200 plus episodes of 2KD podcast. This will educate and help you understnad particular nuances. Yes more has been learned since then, but the ground rules stay the same. I hope this helps you out a bit.

All that being said, I will just quote Richard Morris who helped form this group of misfits. Keep Calm Keto On.

(B Creighton) #9

This winter will be my 5th doing keto. I will do keto for approx 5 months. I eat more veggies when I do keto - mostly cruciferous vegetables, asparagus, and a few others. My main morning proteins will be goat yogurt, eggs, and sometimes A2 cheese. I add some organic berries to my yogurt. I have begun adding a protein smoothie for lunch 4 days/wk, and for dinner I have wild seafood, grass fed lamb, or chicken with usually steamed cruciferous vegetables to remove the goitrogens - simply seasoned with grass fed butter and Herbamayer. On my workout days, this dinner is preceded by a protein smoothie as well, which is 3 days per week. The rest of the year, I am more low carb, and include foods like organic beans in chili and whole fruit desserts. Breakfast has more fruits like organic bananas and raisins.

(Bob M) #10

Interesting. Do you vary that by time of the year? That is, more meat in the winter and more fruits/carbs in the summer? I saw a guy who wrote a book where that was basically the idea.

(B Creighton) #11

My brand of keto is from early Nov to March. I keep the house cooler to encourage more BAT. I don’t really eat more meat. I get more protein for breakfast by eating eggs, which I typically don’t eat much the rest of the year. The rest of the added protein is from a protein smoothie, which for the last two years I have had one every day. This is approx 50 gr of protein from goat whey powder, Orgain, BCAAs to make the Orgain more anabolic, collagen powder and an avocado in a base of hemp milk. When I use choc Orgain, I will also add a scoop of cacao powder. My only meat is at dinner at about a half pound both during keto and low carb times - with the exception of some uncured bacon for breakfast a few times per month. Every once in a while I may have a meat stick or similar as a snack during keto. I do eat more fruit during the low carb time including whole fruit for dessert. For instance last nignt I had 3 very small home grown peaches for dessert after a dinner of steak and an ear of corn.

I would like to look up this book. You can PM me the info if you don’t want to post it.

(Bean) #12

Ooh. I ground one with lamb tallow earlier this summer, but sous vide sounds nice.

(Bob M) #13

@scaperdude Let me see if I can find it. I saw it when I was on Twitter, which I quit once Musk bought it. I think the guy was from Australia if I remember correctly. My searches aren’t going well, though.

@beannoise The nice thing about sous vide is that I cook it at a low temperature (135F or so) and cook it for 24 hours. This makes all the fat edible. I used to cook relatively slowly in the oven, but the fat doesn’t become that edible, so I’d cut off a lot of the fat before cooking. With sous vide, I just put the whole heart in it, no preparation at all. There will sometimes be arteries or something that is tough, but those are easy to find. A pressure cooker might also work, but a lot of times I get heart already in food -safe plastic (if such a thing exists) and vacuum sealed. I just cook right in the bag.

(B Creighton) #14

Wow! Thanks so much for trying. There was an Australian who did That Sugar Movie… His name was Damon something. He sacrificed his body to show what sugar would do to it at the same level of calories of 2300/day… of course he gained a lot of fat and 3 inches in the waist in only 60 days. Don’t know if he did a book though.

(Bob M) #15

That’s very interesting.

I looked in my Amazon list to see if I had saved the book, but I did not. Unfortunately, all my searches have been in vain. I can’t find it. I find a ton of cookbooks (mainly by women), but nothing that I think was his book. He definitely ate low carb, but most of the books are more plant-based than I think he was. Sorry about that.

(B Creighton) #16

Thanks so much for trying. What I’m really interested in is finding more people that do anything similar… These days people seem to adopt a single dietary style, and that’s it. I’ve adopted this style for a couple of reasons. My blood pressure is lowest when I’m doing keto. And I am assuming that it helps me “bulk” with less fat gain… although I am using those terms loosely. I hardly gain much muscle these days… I’m talking low single digits. I may have to change up somewhat to get more gains… Actually, I have noticed a strength increase that is encouraging, and am only doing lifting once per week… and I am not eating tons of protein in my low carb phase. I also wouldn’t mind getting more recipe ideas. I love what I eat, but wouldn’t mind adopting a few more recipes. I pretty much have one way of fixing my meats… for instance wild shrimp is going to be in garlic butter. My lamb is low temp roasted in olive oil and herbs… etc.

(KM) #17

You may have more luck looking into paleo diet suggestions. Some advocates of paleo are concerned about seasonality, as it was obviously part of our nutritional heritage.

Most traditional cultures have a menu, sometimes reserved for the royalty not stuck eating cheap carbs, that has a different flavor profile for ingredients you can still eat. Mexican, Chinese, Italian, they all have traditional dishes far beyond Taco Bell, Panda Express and Olive Garden. African foods can be interestingly spiced as well. I enjoy looking at cultural cookbooks to see if there are recipes I can tweak.

Italian uova en purgatorio (eggs in purgatory). In a low carb but not keto world, these are so awesome! African cuisine has a similar dish with a different flavor profile called shakshuka. I would tweak this with more eggs and fewer tomatoes, and just spoon up the sauce, skip the bread on the side.

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#18

I googled, will try it! Eggs in purgatory (a very simple kind) became an instant hit in my household, I have learned about it some years ago on this forum and it’s awesome. Almost zero work, a less than 15 minutes lunch and so tasty! Very low-carb and even fits into my carnivore-ish! My eggs bring a tiny bit sauce but it’s minimal and my SO happily eats up all the rest. I just figured out the recipe myself and ended up with way less sauce per egg anyway… Only 4 eggs at once (my pan is small) but I reuse the leftover sauce. I didn’t even know bread was part of the dish, it isn’t for us. My SO eats it with rice and I eat it alone, eggs are great like that.

(Bob M) #19

I have always wanted to make that. If I can remember, I’ll try it this weekend (I think I downloaded a recipe). Unfortunately, I doubt my daughter will eat it, buy maybe she’ll try it. We’ll see.

#20

You’re 6’, why are you trying to still lose weight at 183? I’m 5’10" and when I hit 200 I look like I’m dying of something. If you were 70 and trying to go easy on already bad joints, I’d get it, but you’re 40, stop losing weight and start gaining some by putting on muscle.