My husband finally joined me on keto, for heart issues. But he’s been naturally thin all his life, eating CRAP! I used to finish every bag of his chips when it got low_ish. No willpower. I would look at labels that say 4 “servings“, and think four “minutes”. All mine. In one sitting. I agree that some people are naturally inclined (probably genetically) to be either in ketosis or to burn their calories efficiently. BUT… that does not explain their ability to walk away from Ben and Jerry, does it??? I think it comes down to personality types. My daughter would save her Halloween candy for months and had to hide it from her brother, who would have eaten all his on the walk home. She is naturally restrained and moderate in ALL things. He and I are both always chomping at the bit for more of everything… life, thrills, food, whatever. Just different personality types? Me thinks so.
Never checked for ketosis
I have been cycling in and out of nutritional ketosis for about 10 years now. First, to lose weight (20lbs) secondly, as a performance enhancement to my sport. In the first 3 months, I lost 20.3lbs of fat (confirmed by DEXA Scan). I also did blood tests before and after the 3 month time period. My blood markers for inflammation decreased dramatically over these 3 months. My cholesterol markers also improved. I started with a baseline so that I could compare my results over time. What improved and what got worse. Not all eating plans, including Keto, are healthy for everyone. For example, my good friend ( a Dr) tried Keto and his triglyceride numbers went through the roof. Unless you measure, how do you know with certainty that Keto is working AND is beneficial? My experiences are that most people who measure their Ketone levels, gain a greater understanding of what works and what doesn’t work for them. You should never be hungry on the Keto program. If you are, then maybe you should test and see if something is out of whack. This would include, your macros and overall caloric intake. A lot of people on Keto lose weight initially because they reduce their caloric intake. Fat satiates, and therefore you are not hungry and by extension, you eat less and create a caloric deficit. Short term this works, however, in the long term it does not work if the goal is weight loss. I have a blood test approximately every 6 months now and will test blood ketones only after a 2-3 day fast. On high exercise day (6-8 hours) my carb intake could reach 150grams+ with no adverse effects.
I am not a medical doctor and do not claim to know all things, Keto. However, I strongly suggest at the very least to go get a complete blood test before beginning and then at the 6 month time period to see what is working and not working while on the Keto journey.
How do you pinpoint what is working and what is not working?
Initially, my goal was weight loss. I wanted to make sure I was losing fat and not muscle. This is where the DEXA scan (gold standard) was used. I relied on my primary care physician and have a friend who is a sports scientist. The C-reactive protein (CRP) marker is the main marker for blood inflammation. In my case, this number was reduced significantly. The actual number and my aches and pain of 40 years of ski racing and MTB racing virtual disappeared. My triglycerides were higher initially. So I stopped my consumption of high-fat dairy - 35% cream. Once I made that change, my Triglycerides improved. My HDL is about twice my triglycerides. Unless you measure, you really do not know what is working or not. Going on feel is ok for some and I do go on feel the majority of the time, but I have 10+ years of experience and I recorded data to back up what I feel. Not sure if I fully answered your question.
My question boiled down to, without going on some kind of serious elimination diet, how do you know how what you are eating is affecting your blood markers?
So, eliminating dairy did it for you…
I check my numbers once a year, and I don’t see anything that needs fixing.
Why of course. Labels have ridiculous servings, I always ignore them. 4 servings is usually a very small amount too (but my normal food has no serving info on its label - if it has a label). What’s wrong with 12 servings at one sitting? I surely can’t see. Maybe it’s a great amount for the one in question, we know nothing about the circumstances… I don’t even understand why would anyone use “portion” infos. It’s very weird to me.
Moderation has multiple reasons. Yeah, some people are more inclined to do it and never go crazy. But we can learn and change and our diet changes may have a huge impact on these things, even right away. I got some huge surprises.
And we probably have our helping things even if we are very hedonistic and don’t even let control come anywhere close to us… Health-consciousness, curiosity, determination, certain basic rules (if it’s someone else’s food, I don’t want it. even if I desire such a food, never that one as it’s not mine. I wonder if it’s understandable but it worked perfectly since I was a little kid), hedonism… Some of these can be very much not helpful sometimes, curiosity is totally like that in my case.
It’s definitely complex in my family. We both tend to use some kind of restriction regarding our food but we didn’t have it in the past and even now, we do it with extremely different attitude. My SO is “strong” (you know, when you do something you consider right despite you are hungry, uncomfortably, suffer horribly…), determined and very successful.
I am the complicated hedonistic one. I need a great woe where I don’t need to sacrifice anything but if my current one is lacking, I slowly train myself, habits are powerful… I don’t resist temptation, that’s not “free” and not realistic with my personality. We can’t all decide about what it right and do it through being “strong”, we have our limits. We should find a way to make what is good for us within our limits (or breaking our limits if it’s possible. we rarely know what actually is possible for us).
I have been a Keto woman since February 2019 and I have never measured Ketones and I know I am in Ketosis --so no worries! The key for me is keeping your carbs always as low as possible, and definitely always under 20! You seem to be doing great, Robin, keep up the good work =).
What does your DR. say? In the absents of tests, I listen to what my body says, does my body ache? I know that certain carbs don’t sit well and will avoid them most of the time. Pasta is not good. Homemade organic sour-dough bread seems to sit ok. (1x week). Drinking beer not so good. (Budweiser is ok- primarily rice-based) Mixed drinks are also not good and I only consume in very limited quantities. I now primarily eat a clean LCH diet Monday to Friday, I will have higher amounts of carbs on the weekend depending on my level of activity. Weight loss is not my prime motivator/goal. I just simply feel better. In the last 10 months, I have experimented with increasing my carbs intake at nighttime. The result is I have a much better sleep with the addition of carbs. When in Ketosis I would get between 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 hours of sleep max. Now 7-8 hours average. I suppose I was never eating a true high fat diet of 70-90% but rather a LCH program with adequate amounts of protein and fat that would put me into ketosis.
My Dr. wants me to take a statin for moderately elevated LDLc…
He doesn’t seem to know about reduced all cause mortality for people over 65 with higher cholesterol.
Like most Drs, he knows little about nutrition. It wasn’t part of the training.
I know they are out there, but I have never met a Dr. who suggested I give up grains, sugar and processed foods to get rid of my joint inflammation. They did tell me to consume lots of NSAIDs for the pain, though.
The orthopedic surgeon who diagnosed my osteoarthritis was eager to replace my hips for the thousands of dollars it would put in his wallet. Never a hint about losing weight and ditching the inflammatory foods I was eating.
Three years later, I am pain free, and almost Dr free… I do the obligatory, once a year physical, just to make sure something isn’t slipping past me.
These initials always stump me. I should be able to figure them out, right? But, I only come up with goofy or dirty translations. What is TLDR and KCKO?
Labels have ridiculous serving sizes so the product manufacturers can put the most minimal nutrition information on the package, knowing full well that real humans will eat 10 times more but never calculate the nutrition information as 10 times higher. They will eat 1/3 cup of say salad dressing, when the serving size on the label is a tsp or some other ludicrous amount…they take us for fools and sadly we often prove them right
This is a great question. And to a HUGE degree, it is up to each individual.
For me, I feel SOOO Much better. I naturally move more. I can’t stand to sit still for 18hrs anymore!
And as I let the crap back in (you know “It’s keto, and I deserve a break”), and then the spiral starts.
The headaches, the cravings, not feeling like moving, then the poor sleep. That’s the killer for me, once that kicks in, I know it will take WEEKS to right the ship, and every day is going to be that much bigger of a struggle (One night of poor/no sleep can induce insulin resistance!).
So, my approach is:
- Start Measuring what matters to you. (Morning Glucose, Morning Ketones. When I am doing well, I get good numbers 94 and 2.7 today. The 94 is a bit high, but I am recovering from a bad stretch, so my body is dumping a bit more glucose, and I feel great!). No Migraine, Not even a tinge.
Positive Mood/Outlook.
Energized.
Make your own list!
Sleep (I have an Oura Ring and a watch that track it. I see it in the numbers!)
Weight (which is not a great marker) - Track it for a week or two, and then change something.
- Track that for a week or two.
- Go back to your baseline for a week or two.
What’s GREAT about this approach is that it takes MONTHS to figure things out. That’s a benefit. Because you start becoming patient, self-forgiving, and you push yourself past the sale (Meaning you adopt a baseline that is pretty health).
Now, if you are not doing great, you have to re-baseline. Fast more, eat fewer things. Consider pure carnivore for 28-35 days as a reset. Try to start from a minimal point. Then ADD from there.
It’s ONE of the reasons I recommend TOTAL Carbs and not NET Carbs. NET carbs can FAIL a lot of people, like myself. Nobody fails on Total Carbs. (Once adapted to Total carbs, you can play around, because you have a working baseline you can get back to!)
HTH
I didn’t know people like her existed. 
Actually, I have met people like this: I’ll have one tortilla chip and put the bag away.
I could (can) EASILY eat a pint of Ben & Jerry’s, and eat way too many tortilla chips.
People talking about eating pints, or fractions thereof, of ice cream…
Pints, as in 1/4 of a half gallon or 1.9 liters…
Yeah,
If I start allowing myself a Pint of Halo Top/Rebel.
It pretty soon gets to 2 pints.
Or starting with a can of sugar free whipped cream.
I find Dairy to be utterly addictive. I let it in my diet last thanksgiving, and I have not been able to go 60 days without giving in. I am on day 10 of quitting it again.
I have literally drank a quart of HWC + Egg Nog (Sugar Free, LOL), flavoring…
Of course, I am not a barbarian… I did it one glass at a time, in under 20 minutes…
Just typing it makes me think of it. It’s Fat+Sweet = Achilles Heel. LOL.
I feel great right now. Beef only for 10 days. Lots of fasting. Lots of walking!
I will get Dairy out for good. It’s just too dangerous to me.
I like to tip the scales in my favor. Therefore, before beginning on the Keto/LCH journey I went to my Dr. and had a a full spectrum blood test. This was done to set a blood baseline. I also went and had a DEXA Scan (gold standard) to measure my muscle and fat composition. Another baseline. 3 months after I repeated the same blood test and DEXA Scan. I knew exactly how much fat I had lost and muscle mass. Also, I was testing my blood ketones every morning for the 1st month. I recorded the foods I ate and after a month I could tell which foods were helping (raising ketones) and those that were not. 10 years later I will test blood ketones only after a 2-3 day fast. My experience with friends and work collogues who have tried keto lose weight because of a caloric reduction not an increase in fat consumption. My strips cost $3 each. 3x30=$90.00. I did not think that $90 was expensive. If the goal was to be in ketosis I wanted to know.