@Sharon_S Keep us posted on the change.
Keto women over 50
I’ve been lurking on this forum for some time now and decided it’s
time to tell my story. This is a long post so please bear with me.
I’m 67 years young and began keto about 4 months ago. The reason
being that my beloved partner has Parkinsons and I had read about a
small study that used keto to see if it had any positive effects on
the Parkinson symptoms, that is, tremors, stiffness, balance,
cognitive, etc. He agreed to give it a try so I decided to do it too
as a way of encouraging him.
I have been overweight since menopause about 15 years ago and fought
a valiant battle to lose it (30 pounds gained almost over night).
Many diets and forms of exercise were tried only to fail and I
finally resigned myself to being overly plump. 30 pounds might not
sound like much but when you’re just 5’ tall it really shows.
Anyway, on with my story.
I threw out all non keto food items in the house after doing hours of
searching for easy keto recipes. Once I had amassed a dozen or so off
to the grocery store I went to buy the ingredients for these keto
delights. It did feel strange to be filling my shopping cart with all
the food items that previously were eaten sparingly as they were
supposed to be “bad for you”. Meat, bacon, cheese, sausage, etc went
into my cart along with lots of broccoli, green beans, zucchini,
avocados and other allowed veggies. Also several bottles of extra
virgin olive oil from Spain, coconut oil and butter went into the
cart as well. Oh, and don’t forget the pork skins!
Then the fun began!
Our first keto meal was a delicious casserole of broccoli, chicken
and cheese with a mayo and heavy whipping cream sauce. It was so easy
to make, felt totally wrong doing it due to years of diet
indoctrination but oh did it taste great! If all keto recipes were
this good it would be easy to continue.
Of course we did purchase some keto test strips which after 24 or so
hours showed that we were throwing out ketones like crazy. That was
very encouraging so on we trucked on with this new WOA.
Now remember that the reason for doing keto was not to lose weight
but to hopefully help my partner reduce his PD symptoms. However, to
my delight I actually lost two pounds the first week without really
trying. I was just eating lots of fatty foods never imagining I would
lose anything. I was just along for the ride.
Well, to make a sort of long story shorter here is the outcome after
four months…
PD symptoms had at least levelled off. Aches from the disease have
pretty much gone as has his knee pain. He also has lost 25 pounds and
is now a slim and trim 148. His junk food snacking has ceased and his
last physical exam came back with excellent results.
Now here is the shocker…remember I am five feet tall and began
keto weighing in at 128. Normal weight before menopause was around
- My physical was two weeks ago and am now down to 109. All my
blood work came back excellent and my doctor wanted to know what’s
up. I told her that I ate cheesecake to lose weight. (I have a great
keto New York cheesecake recipe) Then I explained what we had been
doing. She was so impressed that she asked me for some recipes and is
now doing keto herself!
I won’t go into all the health changes that have taken place since
beginning this WOA. They are too numerous to list. If you have given
up of ever being normal again and being able to look in the mirror
without cringing, then give keto a try. You will be glad you did!
Hi Karen! ^^waves^^ Great to read of your positive results. Oh, and feel free to share that recipe with us!
Hi Buxomlass! Thanks for the welcome! I would love to post my Keto New York Cheesecake recipe but not sure where to post?
Right here if you want, hon. (There’s also a Recipes section in the Food category of the Forums, if you prefer.)
So the Dr’s office called yesterday with my lab results and I was told everything was normal…I asked for my a1c number and it was 6.1,
Down from 6.3 three months ago.
I know even small increments mean a lot with this number but was still disappointed with the small drop. I keep seeing posts where there are large drops and I was looking for something greater. Wah, wah wah😭
@Sharon_S, a lot of people who have had big drops in their A1C started much higher than you have at 6.3. Everyone reacts differently, so don’t be discouraged. I should have my labs back some time next week. Really hoping I am below 7, and possibly around mid-6’s.
I hope you are also. Good labs are very reassuring and keeps us pressing forward.
Hi everyone, I have been avidly reading the posts here, as I am a 52 year old woman on a keto journey. Much like many others who embrace keto, I tried every plan, diet, dietician, Dr.'s advice and nutritionist out there. All I got was frustration and more weight. I have had a steady weight loss since March - about half a pound a week. The weight loss is a why I began, but it is actually a nice plus for all the other wonderful non scale victories I have encountered.
With this forum I have learned that keto is a silent worker bee, trying to undo years of wrong. I walk around like I have a secret, wanting grab women with obvious SAD side effects and tell them about keto. I can barely convince my family members, who religiously send me articles about how coconut oil is poison and keto cuts your lifespan by 20%, so here’s to hoping I steer clear of accosting people on the street and not getting locked up for being a lunatic. 3 months in started to lose A LOT of hair. Having hair that has been finicky about staying on my scalp post cancer, really scared me, but it didn’t deter me from staying my course. Believing healthier and bald was better than the alternatives. I am happy to report I have actual tufts of hair growing back.
It is hard to not compare my slow results to many awesome keto transformations, it’s hard to be 52 and not lose ALL the weight overnight. I try to keep it as simple as possible but went on a whirlwind baking bender, and learned the hard way too much swerve makes for an unhappy tummy. And I guess that is what this journey is all about. Learning as I go along, what works, what doesn’t and how to get the maximum benefit by switching things up.
Thanks for listening.
Got my lab results today! The big news is my A1C has gone from 8.5 (in Feb) to 6.0 after 3 months of Keto!
Total cholesterol: 190, was 209
Triglycerides: 208, was 264
HDL still in the 30s & LDL too high, but trend is definitely improving!