Keto having a steroid like effect on me

#1

I went from 2,600kcals average to now 4,000 + every day and I’m leaner then when I started.

This is absolutely insane and I figured it would level out and become closer to my pre keto maintenance calorie level but it hasn’t.

How is it possible I can go from 2,600kcals %11-12 BF to %9-10 while nearly doubling my caloric intake. I’m absolutely astounded.
What I am experiencing sounds like what people who take hard drugs to cut weight describe. If this was happening without switching my diet I would be going to the emergency.

I’m thinking I should get some blood work at the very least.

My only pseudo scientific guess as to what is burning the excess calories is my brain. There was 2 main reasons I switched to a keto style WOE and cognitive function is one of them. I have definitely noticed my thoughts come together much more streamlined and memory is readily available along with attention and focus greatly increased.

Previously insulin resistant/metabolic damaged

Combination of both.

Anyone go through this?

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #2

Thyroid? Growth hormone? Both?

#3

Hyperthyroidism probrobly not because my heart rate has actually gone down on keto resting under 60.

GH I wouldn’t know.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #4

The human metabolism can adjust to the caloric intake we give it. You are likely to be an outlier, but there are documented cases of people in your situation. One, in a study cited by Gary Taubes in Good Calories, Bad Calories, was a participant in a study of an ad libitum ketogenic diet. This particular gentleman ate a 3000-calorie diet, and still lost as much weight as the other study participants. Another case that comes readily to mind is the experiment by the British nutrition activist, Sam Feltham, who put himself on a 5000-calorie a day diet for 28 days, during which he lost a bit of fat and gained a bit more muscle. Another case is the well-known carnivore, Dr. Shawn Baker, who eats four pounds of meat daily, which is an amount of calories near what you are eating.

#5

Yup, I’ve been doing it with higher protein and a mostly carnivore approach. You starting to feel better physically yet?

#6

I started to not feel like a pre pubescent boy around 3.5 weeks in. Since then day by day I have been feeling slightly stronger. Still not as strong as I was at age 16. If not for the cognitive gains I would be methodically cycling carbs back into my diet but I’m afraid to be forest gump again when I just started going to back school and it’s going well.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #7

I don’t mean hyperthyroidism only. My dad developed hyperthyroidism in his late 20s/early 30s and it emaciated him. Until then he had been a very healthy and magnificent male specimen of the species! I’ve seen photos of my dad with his eyeballs bulging out of his face. No matter what he ate or how much he lost weight. Finally, the Air Force nuked his thyroid, which apparently was the standard treatment of the day for hyperthyroidism. From then on until a couple of years before he died, no matter what he ate or how much he gained weight.

On the other hand, I ate bog standard high carb SAD for 70+ years. I did not develop insulin resistance, high insulin or high glucose, did not gain weight and remained overall very healthy. The decade of my 60s I started to gain a little abdominal excess. I lost that excess within 6 months of starting keto at the age of 71 1/2. I suspect that I inherited a slightly overactive thyroid from my dad. Now that I’ve been keto for nearly 5 years, my primary goal is to maintain my current weight of 145 rather than lose it. If I don’t eat to my caloric window and macros I start to lose within a couple of weeks.

#8

Your macro breakdown has changed and where our calories come from matters. We can eat way more protein than we can carbs without putting on fat (keto or not) when the carbs are out of the equation fat being twice as calorie dense as protein and carbs adds up very quickly. You’ve simply raised your TDEE and the furnace is burning more effectively now.

I’d definitely do a CMP/w Hormones and a complete Thyroid panel for new baselines if not anything else. That way later you have something to compare to if it starts going the other way.

#9

Hi @Iskandar, I don’t have any explanation to offer, but am curious to know what you eat in a given day to make up your 4K calories? And how many grams of carbs? How much exercise do you do?

Just curious! I am doing some strength training currently and it makes me extremely hungry. I’ve half considered tracking again just to make sure I’m not eating a hugely disproportionate amount of energy.

#10

PS. Your problem is a good one to have!

#11

Keto or Zero Carb?

5 days ago you were on day 16 of carnivore.

Now you are saying you are eating more but did you dump ZC and go back to Keto in those 5 days?

You also said in the other post: quote: For the record I have never been on a keto diet. This would be the first time.

Not really sure ‘what lifestyle’ you are choosing but maybe making up your own type of plan that suits you well? That is always a good thing!

You will level out. If very heavy meat dense menu many people increase kcals incredibly. Can be a timeline diff. for all as we are very individual on what time we need for healing and activity levels etc.

Many ZC people eat way more and get better results! ZC has 120 lb. women eating 4K kcals per day easily and thriving.

As time goes by, our bodies become so nourished our appetites can flip around on us. Might be days you wake up and ‘want lean meat’ only in your day because your body is saying you need hardly no fatty meat or days you might go after all the fatty meat you can handle :slight_smile: ALL these changes in our lifestyle take time. Diff. time schedules for diff. individuals but if we hold the plan, we all get them at some point :slight_smile:

Adaption, change, healing and more on carnivore is a wild walk. Many of us have done it all in our changes.

So are ya carni or keto right now?

#12

I got my wife to pick up a few lbs of bacon without thinking to check for carbs and it had 6g carbs per 100g.so I stopped calling myself carnivore although I am on ZC besides the bacon. We had a natural disaster and there was a food shortage in my city so I had to also eat some frozen burgers with trace carbs as well.

I would call it Keto considering I am eating the carbs in the bacon until It’s all gone. I am only eating eat meat, eggs, and cheese all animal products, not sure what category this technically fits into. I would describe it as a “modified carnivore” diet as I will continue with eating bacon just a far lower carb bacon. The bacon I got now has 1g per 84g affording me to have ~200g/day while only getting 2g carbs/day.

Bacon not only taste dam good but it helps keep the average cost per calorie way down which really helps when eating this much meat.

#13

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