I have been using keto for over a year now. I have fallen out of ketosis many times but I can get back into it through exercise very quickly. I’m probably not typical in that I daily burn about 1600 extra calories through exercise. The only reason I mention this is when you do work out it makes it very easy to hit your daily targets. So, for example, I want to burn at least 1000 calories more per day than I consume and it is not uncommon for me to net -2000 calories a day. This allows you to consume more carbs and still be in ketosis plus you are not hungry. For the days that you are not burning high numbers of calories you reduce your carb intake. This is called carb cycling. Higher carb consumption on workout days, less carbs on sedentary days. Give it a try. I think you will find it is much easier to lose the weight and not be hungry.
Keto observations
Good to hear your experience. What carbs do you enjoy on workout days? What are you doing to burn that many calories?
I will eat whole grain bread, shredded wheat, oatmeal, almond flour crackers. I add no sugar to any foods and only drink water. I swim 2500m daily and every other day am on the Precor for an hour. Swimming is something just about everyone can do, easy on the body.
Interesting. I’ve added some days of carbs but I have stayed clear of grains. I’ll have some sweet potato or berries. I don’t feel like I’m metabolically flexible enough to do grains. Thanks for the info.
Interesting. The more I exercise, the hungrier (ravenous) I get. Taubes nailed this phenomenon perfectly, at least in my situation. I am actually less hungry just on keto with mild movement. If I ramp up exercise or strenuously exercise, I’m a food vacuum at 6pm.
Random hunger pangs
That is interesting and I concur that exercising can lead to an increased appetite. Let me just give a couple of things I do. After I complete my first exercise around 1pm I gorge on raw cauliflower, 300-400g. I use 60g of a homemade ranch dressing. The dressing accounts for most of the calories. I then have 60-70g of fresh mozzarella cheese. This tends to satisfy my appetite for quite some time. But if it doesn’t I fry 3 large eggs with 6 slices of Oscar Mayer honey ham. And often top it with Ortega mild salsa. As you can see that is quite a bit of food but I am below 1000 calories consumed. Since I have a metabolic rate of burning around 2600 calories a day and have already burned approximately 800 calories swimming 2500m, I still have over 2400 calories to work with. I then get on the Precor later in the day and knock out another 850 calories. So I am back up to 3250 calories. Around 8pm typically I again will gorge on cooked mixed vegetables of broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, peppers, onions, cabbage and tofu over about 150g of rice. I cook up some heavily spiced chicken that I put over the top. This way you can measure everything knowing exactly what your totals are. Key to vegetables and chicken is adding plenty of good spicing. You will not be hungry, I promise you. If I really want more taste for the night I will have a huge glass of homemade lemonade, consisting of 4 ozs. of Italian Volcanic lemon juice, a lot of water and ice and I add just a pinch of sucralose so it is quite sweet. That usually takes care of any hunger pangs I may be having. I alter my diet every day so it doesn’t get stale but everyone can find their own favorites.
Stacey, I find myself craving grains at times. But they do rack up huge calories in one sitting so I don’t do cereal more than every third day. One bowl of shredded wheat with milk will total 600 calories! So I view it as a splurge definitely. A slice of Trader Joe’s Soft 10 grain bread with peanut butter and Polaner unsweetened raspberry jam has a lot less calories.
I love that we are all so unique and or bodies want/crave different things. I think it is very important to be an intuitive eater-your body knows what it needs and it is easier to hear once you get all the processed garbage out of the way. Good for you for listening to what your needs are and doing it.
I do that carb cycling although I burn fewer calories on workout days then you do. I might burn about 400-500 calories (weight lifting and light cardio). I find it helps keep my energy up after workouts for the rest of the day.
On workout/higher carb days we’re talking about maybe an extra 10-20 net carbs. It’s really not a lot but I’m not a performance athlete which it sounds like you might be? I’m only net 30-40 carbs for the entire day. For me those extra carbs come from whole milk greek yogurt, fresh blueberries, and some extra nut butter. If I’m feeling frisky, a sweet potato. Also, workout days are when I have my favorite chocolate, 85% Alter Eco. Good stuff.
Anyway, interesting thread. I think people are too precious about keeping carbs close to zero. Sometimes I do intense mountain climbing and can burn an extra 4k calories in a day. On those days I’ll eat about 60-90 net carbs easy but I don’t think of it as a cheat day or anything. For me it’s just balancing fuel in a way that makes the most sense and keeps to keto principles without starving my body.
I agree 100% that there is too much of an obsession with carbs. You don’t want to take in enough in one sitting to spike your insulin but you don’t need to be obsessed with extreme low levels. Losing and keeping weight off only works if it is in your comfort zone. I eat some of the things you do. Raw walnuts, homemade kefir and fresh raspberries and blueberries. I know some view sucralose with skepticism but I use about 1/10th of 1 gram 2 or 3 times a day. It makes a huge difference in coffee, lemonade and kefir fruit smoothies.
I’m 69 with nothing to prove, except it’s never too late, willing and able to adopt most any combination of diet and exercise that optimizes health. So for the past 7 months it’s been keto at 20 net carbs, walking, cardio on an old Airdyne, and resistance training. Over the past year I’ve lost 25-30 pounds and blood pressure from a high of 160 to a recent low of 102. I’m at least as lean as highschool days, 31 inch waist, and in the middle of the BMI range for my height.
At work I get lunch and two breaks, 80 minutes. I use all of it to go 120 steps per minute at 3.3 mph. The airdyne gets 2-3 30 minute sessions per week. Lifting is 3-70 minute whole body sessions per week which are fast paced.
The government recommends a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week (50-60% max heart rate) or, better yet, 300 minutes. Raise the effort to 70-75% of max heart and get it done in half the time. Between the two levels of effort I’m getting 3-4 times the higher recommendation.
My BMR at my age is estimated at 1400 calories per day. Walking, cardio and lifting burn another 600-800 calories. I burn fat by eating maintenance calories 6 days a week, 2 meals a day, no snacks, then eat nothing the 7th day when I burn 1800 calories. For maintenance I eat a 300 calorie surplus for 6 days then eat nothing on the 7th. Instead of 3 meals and two snacks daily it’s down to eating 12 meals a week. I’m hungry for a couple hours in the morning on eating days. Oddly I’m not noticably hungry on the day I eat nothing.
I suspect I might benefit from more than 20 net carbs and do no harm but I’ll hold off making that change for now. I can’t rule out that it might take 6 months or longer for someone my age to fully adapt to low carb.
Yes, Charlie, as Stacey said, a lot of approaches work and it sounds like you have it working for you. I guess my message to some people would be that carbs are not the end all. The key, it seems, is to keep carbs low enough that you don’t spike your insulin levels. Also, and I think this is very important, the quality of the foods consumed matter. You can eat animal fat or you can get your fats from nuts. I tend to believe the latter are better for you. I don’t subscribe to the fat bombs approach. Fat, in general, seems to be a way to lessen our hunger while meeting our dietary needs. But since each gram of fat has 9 calories while each gram of carbs and protein has 4 we need to be mindful of this if we want to keep our caloric intake in line with our weight loss goals.
Just to be clear, my BMR is 1778, activity is 779 and burned is 1635 today. Ketone level was 1.5.
@dave_3 2.5km is equivalent to 25 laps of an olympic swimming pool–I swim this in about an hour and some change, which is apparently 500 calories–he’s not reaching 1600 calories just swimming 2.5km.
You are so obsessed with them that you will exercise 1600 calories a day just to eat them.
This is a recurring issue I see on this forum, when your only focus is weight loss you completely ignore the actual reasons to eat ketogenically for health. Weight loss on keto is a side effect of reaching your health goals.
A lap is 100 metres, hence two lengths of the pool, I shouldn’t have assumed everyone would know that, apologies.
The maths:
25 x 100 metres (1 lap) = 2500 metres = 2.5 kilometres = 50 x 50 metres
Ah, yes! I was thinking lengths. My kids did short course: a lap was 50m, two lengths. I didn’t know in long course a lap was considered 100m. 
There are a few factors that go into determining how many calories are burned while doing an activity. Time, rate, body weight, etc. I also swim 2500m in just under an hour. My range has been between 47 and 58 minutes. The number of calories burned totals approximately 765 calories. I am 6’4", 190 lbs. I use Cronometer to calculate the number of calories burned. Yesterday, because it was a heavy burn day, I swam for 76 minutes. According to Cronometer, that meant I burned 1000 calories. I later went 72 minutes on the Precor, which totalled 1000 calories. I’ve never felt these programs are spot-on but I use them to get an approximation of what I am burning.