I have been following and reading through this forum for a few months. This is my first post. I simply wish to share my story. Any and all feedback is welcome. This turned out to be lengthy.
I am a 33 year old 5’ 10" male , married 10 years with one 8 year old child. I have high BP controlled with medication and generalized anxiety (no meds). My stomach hurt every night, bloated feeling, headaches, body aches and pains, fatigue daily. Just felt like a mild Flu every day.
March 2018
Starting measurements:
Weight: 272
Waist: 45"
Hip: 48.5"
Chest: 49"
Neck: 18"
I was the heaviest I had ever been. I just felt bad, sluggish everyday. I knew that I needed to change something, but low calorie diets never worked for me. I might lose 10 lbs here or there but gain it back and then some in time. I was in Texas visiting my parents. They had been on a health kick for about 6 months at that point and were looking very good from exercise and diet. They had just started the ketogenic lifestyle in February. Prior to my visit my mother blew up my phone with texts containing videos, articles and podcasts of these “2 Keto Dudes”. Frankly, this was pissing me off, and I wanted nothing to do with it. Eat fat to lose weight was the stupidest thing I’d ever heard. How can we live in the world without pasta, bread, potatoes…?
Nonetheless, seeing them just getting healthy in their 60s motivated me to change something. I started with a low-fat, calorie restricted diet and joined a gym for the first time ever. I had a friend show me the ropes in the gym, and I went religiously 5 days a week for 6 months. I got stronger, felt better, slept better, pooped better and lost 10 lbs. and 0 inches. Cool but dumb too.
August 2018
My parents came to visit. They looked transformed. Mom was at her high school weight of 115 lbs. She’s 5’2". Step-dad was at his 6th grade weight of 170ish lbs 5’9". They got in the floor with my daughter and played forever, much longer than I could have. Mom MADE me watch a video on cholesterol and how it’s not the enemy. This opened my eyes some. I became curious. Well done, Mom.
After they returned to Texas, I started going back in all those texts to watch the videos, read the articles and listened to the first 2KD podcast. Then, I started my own research. I did this for about a month. Slowly itching to start this thing but kept putting it off because of this event or that party/birthday.
September 4th, 2018
A friend at work that I struck up a conversation with about Keto told me to watch A Magic Pill on Netflix. I went home and watched it. I was finally convinced. I am starting this “diet”.
The next day after work, went to the store, bought all the necessary ingredients to make fat-head pizza. It was delicious and as filling as biscuits and gravy after two slices. I was not hungry the next morning. I went shopping again just getting all the food that I thought I needed. Cream, butter, eggs, bacon, MCT oil, cheese, nuts, pork rinds, lemon juice for water, etc. My wife dove in with me. She was about 165 lbs 5’4" at that point. We had more pizza for lunch and cooked a great rib-eye with butter and spinach with plenty of fat and cheese on it.
Macros
75-80% Fat 150 G
15-20% Protein 115 G
5% Carbs <25 G
Keto Flu
A few days in, I was peeing so freaking much and was just as thirsty. I supplemented electrolytes (salted water, potassium pills and magnesium at night). My anxiety just worsened. I chalked it up to Keto flu and increased my potassium. I lost 10 lbs in the first 6 days, 17 lbs in the first two weeks. But, I felt like crap, I mean absolute garbage. Head and eye pressure, tingling in arms and legs, muscle twitches all over. I was like a crack-head tweaking for a hit. Was it lack of carbs or just electrolytes? I researched to the ends of the earth. This got better with time but only a few good days and the rest were like this.
I first showed ketones 3 days in on my pee strips. I used those for awhile but bought a blood ketone meter. I ranged anywhere from 2.0 to 3.8 mmol/dL.
Thanksgiving
The only cheat day. I had stayed strict to my macros until this day. I didn’t go nuts but it was the first bread, pasta, and potato dinner I’d had since starting this diet. I gained 5 lbs but dove right back into Keto and lost the added weight in two weeks.
January 1st 2019
Currently, my ketone reading may hit 1.5-1.8 mmol/dL if I fast for 16 hours but generally stays around 1.0-1.5 mmol/dL. I have found it hard to meet my macros. Some days I eat more but most days I’m just not hungry enough to eat all of it. I’ll have coffee and heavy cream in the morning. I’m good until dinner.
My Keto flu symptoms have improved. It took a lot of trial and error to figure out what symptom was connected to what electrolyte. Main culprit was too much potassium at first and not enough sodium. Then, it was the opposite. I finally figured out my sweet spot. One 24 oz bottle of water I keep in my car. 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/8 tsp No-Salt. Half in the morning on the way to work and half on the way home. I take magnesium before bed.
However, I still felt really bad on most mornings. By mistake, I forgot my BP med one morning and did not realize it until 4 pm. I checked my BP and it was 110/62. What the hell? I felt great in hindsight. I thought, why not another day. Next morning 106/60. That afternoon 116/72. How about that? Haven’t taken them since. And, I haven’t felt bad in the mornings since.
January 6th 2019. Keto 4 months.
Measurements:
Weight: 222 down 50 lbs.
Waist: 41" down 4
Hip: 43" down 5.5
Chest: 45" down 4
Neck: 16.5" down 1.5
Off of the meds!
I left a small cliffhanger. Wife is now 130 lbs. down 35. I set a goal to be 200 lbs by March 4th. I thought at the time that was good enough. I am pretty sure it will be more.
I have referred to Keto as a diet. However, this has become a lifestyle change. I have no intention of letting box food back into my life.
