Keto women over 50

(Patricia) #684

I will think about it. The thought kind of scares me, because I’m afraid I would be starving and crabby. Also, I take a pill for hypertension that is supposed to be taken with food. However, it’s a very low dose, and I’m thinking I could skip it if I’m fasting, because that in itself would probably drastically lower my blood pressure. I’ll have to do some research.

(Anjum) #685

Hi, I’ve been Keto 18 months, and I’ve been taking bio identical progesterone for 10 plus years. Although my weight loss has been slow, it has been steady. In 18 months I’ve lost 50 pounds. I’m 52 and I don’t think the progesterone inhibits weight loss. Inches is indicative of fat loss, weight loss is fat loss. Forget the scale, use measurements as your fat loss guide. I’m here to help if you need any. Good luck on your journey.

#686

There are several suggestions for this–usually to take the pill with a small amount of something like HWC or some chia seeds mixed with water.

The idea of fasting can be a little scary. But work up to it: Start by making sure you’re just eating regular meals with no snacking. “Close the kitchen” after dinner and go at least 12 hours until breakfast. Then start pushing breakfast back–go 13 hours, the 14, etc. until you’re easily skipping breakfast and just going to an early lunch and then dinner. Keep stretching. Eventually, it won’t seem like such a big deal to only eat dinner one day (OMAD). From there, you can try pushing through to IF and going a whole day.

Crabby hungry comes when you get low blood sugar. That usually doesn’t happen during fasting to people who are keto-adapted. You might get hungry in your stomach or your head, but you shouldn’t get blood sugar crashes.

#687

After reading through the bunch of posts, I thinking a good solid autophagy fast is what I need now. I feel like, even though its only been a couple weeks, that the weight and inches have completely halted from coming off. I routinely stay OMAD, or 20/4 IF schedule (depending on work), but, those added hours of fasting like 36 or 72 hours - might help reduce some of the loose skin, and change up metabolism a bit.

It never helps when Aunt Flo shows up off schedule, unexpectedly. And lately, its been all over the calendar. I am 52 now, and was so hoping that she’d be gone by now! But, reasoning this all out, I have to figure that the Keto process is releasing 20+ years of wretched hormonal soup into my system and it may well take more time for it to disappear.
The last time I did a serious diet, was in between 2002-2004. I chose Atkins, and wow. I lost 30 pounds in 2 months, releasing even more hormonal soup - and got pregnant with the surprise baby! Wasn’t trying to do that…but it happened during a time when it shouldn’t have happened. You think ovulation time is over…but, nope. So, those released hormones can do some powerful stuff.

The pluses I see right now, are no cramps whatsoever, no migraines, little to no weight gain and no bloating. The only thing that remains unsolved is the swelling of the “twins”. Dang, they are sore. I take very high doses of Omega 3’s which block the bad prostaglandin activity; and ginger capsules which help the cortisol reduction, swelling and cramps. Those ginger capsules are just freaking amazing…thank you again, @SlowBurnMary!!!

Thinking through my schedule for the weekend, it seems like I could work in a 36 hour fast pretty easily. (Its been 12 hours since I last ate, anyways.) If I could get through a 9 hour shift at work without eating, that would be golden, because I’d get home at 1030pm, sleep, and not eat until Sunday. Easily 60 hours. Hmmm. I think we have a plan!

Many thanks again to all of you for posting. The information and reminders are incredibly helpful to me, and I feel so blessed to be able to learn, vent, post and be encouraged! You all are wonderful!

(Susan) #688

I was happy when my annoying periods stopped, December 2016 (a few months after becoming a grandma). Mine basically stopped cold turkey, once in a while I had missed one, but it just stopped then, and none since. The worse bit about post menopause to me is the night sweats, and I know my mood can be an issue and I cry very easily.

You could join the fast some of us are doing on the monthly Zorn Fast (every third Thursday of the month) -people do as long as they want. It began yesterday, but everyone is welcome to join in at any time that they want =).

This thread:

#689

I think I shall!!! Thank you so much, Susan!!!

(Susan) #690

Great =) we all encourage each other during the fasting period, so it is very nice =).

(Patricia) #691

Thanks for the info. I like the idea of working up to a longer fast.

There have been some new developments. I tried checking my blood pressure after I had forgotten to take my BP med, and my blood pressure was 117/72. So, I stopped taking my med and kept checking for a couple of days, and the highest number was 129/85. I think I’m good without it, especially since I am over 65. They are pushing too many meds on seniors in a futile quest to achieve the kinds of numbers they had when they were younger. I think it’s dangerous.

The other thing is I had a wicked root canal on a tooth that has been bothering me for a long time was infected, etc. Not fun at all. Ever since then, though, I have had trouble maintaining diet discipline. I haven’t gone completely off the rails with a carb binge, but I have been eating more than usual, more frequently, and with a little bit of carb creep. This is the first time in over 3 years that keto has seemed boring and unappetizing to me. Each day I tell myself I will get back on track with My Fitness Pal and weighing myself, but so far I haven’t. Oh well, there is always tomorrow, right?

Does anyone here keep track of total carbs instead of net carbs? I tried that, but that is tough, especially since I try to keep my calories at 1300 a day. 5% of that isn’t much.

(Susan) #692

Have you thought of doing a Fat Fast or an Egg Fast? If normal fasting is too difficult for you to manage for now; one of these might be a good alternative. It might help get your body back on track, off the carbs.

(Patricia) #693

By a fat fast, do you mean no protein or carbs at all? What do you eat?

(Susan) #694

I am doing a 72 hour one atm that I began last night at 5pm-going until Thursday at 5pm, eating only cream cheese if needed. You are allowed to eat up to one of the bricks once a day on this. I didn’t eat anything from last night 5pm until this afternoon at 1pm -I ate a piece, and just now I ate another piece. I am going to eat a bit more at 5 then nothing until tomorrow at 1, as I am also doing the 20/4 IF that I do daily with this.

When I do my normal Fasts (last 74 hour one I did was Thursday 3:30pm until Sunday 5:30 pm) I only drink water, green tea and herbal tea, with nothing in either, and salt if I get hungry.

David Stilley on the forum did a Fat Fast where he ate bacon fat, and lots of MCT and Coconut oil for a few days and lost weight doing that.

I did a 48 hour one with coconut oil and mct oil in tea and coffee, the previous weekend, that did not go well, and made me feel really ill. I haven’t had any coconut products since then, as I am positive that what was causing my almost 2 week constipation issues. @BlueViolet also did this way of fasting and had bad results as well.

I am just trying to break a 2 month stall for now; I want to try to start losing weight again. I have lost 41 pounds since February but most of that was all done by the end of May, so I am hoping that I can get the scales moving again by doing all these fasts. I still have over 130 pounds to lose.

This is the egg fast; it is not recommended for me to try because I don’t have my gallbladder, and I am not a big fan of eggs, so I am trying this Cream Cheese one and see how it goes.

(hottie turned hag) #695

Hey Susan, this sentence made me think. I didn’t know you had your gallbladder removed.
There is nothing inherent to eggs that would make them contraindicated for a pt without a gallbladder except perhaps their fat content; this then leads me to think that a cream cheese fat fast may be contraindicated, or any fat fast, when one’s gallbladder has beem removed.

(Susan) #696

Ohhhh, I have been on this since yesterday at 5:00pm, so over 24 hours so far, and no bad reactions. I was planning on doing this until Thursday. I just read on the Egg fast site that it said it was bad for people that had had their gallbladders removed.

(hottie turned hag) #697

Ya, I dunno, the only reason I can see that eggs would be said to be bad in that case would have to be fat content, nothing else about them would be an issue for someone missing their gallbladder, made me think. And that would extrapolate to all fatty food I imagine.

(Susan) #698

I do take the digestive enzymes so maybe they are helping? I don’t know, I just don’t want to lose weight, so trying different things.

(hottie turned hag) #699

Oh yes, I agree. I’d try it too, just be watchful because of the no gallbladder thing.
Looking forward to your next weigh in :blush:

(Susan) #700

I will weigh on Friday morning and see =). Thanks for the information, and thinking of that=). Janie mentioned to me that it worked for her along the way of her losing, etc for autophagy so I just wanted to try it is all.

#701

I’m just now reading about this genius idea…cream cheese fast! I can see myself enjoying something like this, seriously. (After discovering the foil wrapped gem in the butter section…the Kerrygold Butter…I’d probably be content fasting with that. ) Cream cheese is delicious though. Maybe a bit more satisfying to eat than butter? IDK. Perhaps I should try this alternate weeks and see?

Do you feel like there is enough sodium content, or do you supplement? I’m just curious. I find that I have been craving more salt, even though I’ve been drinking Ketoade by the quart. The Kerrygold appealed to me during a craving - as it had twice the salt content of my normal butter, and several more grams of fat per serving. (I spent a goodly amount of time trying to figure out how one could cram more fat into a tablespoon of butter, if the other butter is real butter. Must be grassfeeding? IDK.)

(Susan) #702

I think that you can use Butter instead.

David Stilley, BlueViolet and myself all got the idea about Fat Fasts from this. Then we googled for more info on it, and all tried it out. David’s thread has pictures and info on the way he did it.

I still take my normal vitamins, supplements and have been eating my Pink Himalyan Salt. I will be posting how it is going on my thread and weighing in on Friday morning with those results =).

#703

I had watched that whole interview couple/few months ago, and totally forgotten about that section! Wow. Thank you for posting it!!! I did remember that the bone broth contained protein, but it was here on the forum where someone had mentioned that. So, during the July Zorn fast, I did not have any bone broth - whereas during one of the 5 day fasts, I had bone broth, and during the other we had chicken stock. Good to remember.

I guess I’ll buy another block of Kerrygold, to have at home. The other one is at work in the fridge. When a good opportunity strikes, I’ll try doing a short fast with it. I’m going to post over in the July Zorn fast thread about my post-experience this time…but this is an awesome idea!!!