New here, not new to healthy eating

#1

Hi there. I’m new around here. I’ve been working for several months at getting healthier. I have lost a total of 50 pounds so far, but want to lose about 50 more. My way of eating has varied from eating a copious amount of leafy and cruciferous veggies, to limiting them to ketogenic levels. I typically eat one or two meals a day, with about 20-30 hours of daily fasting. I try to change things up periodically to push through weight loss bumps. Right now I’m thinking of refocusing on low carb veggies (probably landing around 50g net carbs so still a low level) and moderating the meat intake (but still getting adequate protein).

Looking forward to chatting here :slight_smile:

#2

Welcome and good luck!
50g carbs is a bit much for most of us but it may work, of course, we see that on this very forum too. It may even be keto for you as it’s individual. But low-carb can be a pretty nice woe, I liked mine (<80g carbs), I just realized I need to go lower so when I was able to, I did.

(Chuck) #3

I wasn’t go to say anything but feel I should. I fast an average of 19 hours a day. I have a moderately low carb lifestyle. I keep my daily carbs between 50 and 90 carbs each day. I have lost 52 pounds over the last 14 months, I am now in weight maintenance but still losing inches from my body, and my weight is still very slow dropping, I am within 3 pounds of being at a normal weight and reaching my doctor’s goal weight for me. I am after 40 years of taking blood pressure medication, prescription drug free.
I also must say I am not a diabetic and have never been a diabetic. I have been hypoglycemia in the past.
We are all individuals and each of us must find what works for us the individual, It is good to listen to other’s experience but don’t take it as the rule take it as a possibility.

(Robin) #4

Welcome and congrats on those 50 pounds!
Thanks for sharing your journey.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #5

The goal of a ketogenic diet is to allow the insulin level to drop and to stay low throughout as much of the day as possible. In a healthy person, insulin rises to allow use to make use of the food we eat, then is supposed to drop between meals so that stored energy (fat) can leave the adipose tissue and fuel the body. A high-carbohydrate diet has the effect of raising the insulin to a much greater level, and keeps it high, blocking the metabolism of fat. The result is insulin resistance and hyperinsulinaemia, which is just as damaging as the hyperglycaemia the elevated insulin is trying to fight.

Depending on your level of insulin resistance, you may or may not find that a net carbohydrate intake of 50 g/day works for you. Dr. Eric Westman, who worked with Dr. Atkins and has been studying the low-carb, high-fat, ketogenic diet for a couple of decades, strongly recommends a limit of 20 g/day total. (He calls this “prescription-strength” keto.)

Protein and fat are very important to the human diet. We need a certain amount of the former in order to be healthy, and the latter is what gives us energy in the absence of all the sugar (carbohydrate) we used to eat. (Remember that all carbohydrates are nothng more than glucose molecules holding hands in various ways.)

(Harriet) #6

Hello, and welcome! Although I’m new here myself, I just wanted to say this is a great place, a very well informed and active low carb forum.

My husband will remain in ketosis on around 50 net carbs, not me, we are all individuals. A long term goal of losing 100 pounds is not a sprint, it’s a marathon and a long one. If raising your carbs a pinch with healthy veg is going to keep you in the game, it’s still very low carb to the rest of the conventional world and your blood sugar certainly isn’t going to spike from broccoli!

#7

Have you been tracking your intake? 50lbs is a good amount, and another 50lbs is also a lot of work, I’d personally dump the fasting as many deal with metabolic slowdown from doing so, which will make the rest of your loss complete hell. If you’ve been tracking, you’d see it if you look back.

OK… aside from that literally not being possible, I’d assume you mean as a whole? Either way does that mean 2 meals in 4hrs typically? Are you getting a days worth in that amount? Most will fill up and tap out.

#8

First of all, congratulations :clap::clap::clap:- 50lbs is a lot of weight!
I can only share my experience and what’s worked for me. I went OMAD a few months back which actually got me on a more ketovore to carnivore menu. With one meal a day, I aim to get a correct amount of calories along with nutrition for the whole day. So I often drop the veggies since my appetite has really decreased to leave room for fat, meats, eggs and dairy, which all keep me satiated. When I started this style I began losing weight with an improved body stature.
Personally and I underline that this is only my opinion: 50g of carbs is an awful lot, I’m usually between 5 and 10g per day.
As you say you want to lose another 50lbs, I understand weight loss is a top priority. Give this process time, maybe weighing yourself once max twice a week. In my weight loss journey I’ve gone down 1kg and then back up 1.5kg and then dropped by 2. It’s a weird process. For my part, I learned to be patient: it took me quite a few years to add so many extra kilos and along with losing weight, I’m sure my body is doing more to improve my general health that can’t be seen only a scale.
So:

  1. patience
  2. drop your carbs to 20 max
  3. for your OMAD, shift your focus to densely nutritional foods: fatty meats, eggs and dairy (you’ve only mentioned veggies)
#10

I actually understand what @dmh means and do it very often. You can have one meal “per day” with a distance of 30 hours between the end of the last meal and the start of the next. For example, on day 1, you eat at midday and day two you don’t eat until dinner. That’s 30 hours and it’s still one meal on each of those days.

(Rossi Luo) #11

Welcome, like you, I was the one who ate leafy and cruciferous veggies every meal to heal my fatty liver at the beginning stage of my ketogenic diet path. But I have quit the cruciferous veggies when I read an article saying that the growers used lots of chemicals on cruciferous veggies to protect them from worms and keep them with a good outlook.
And I can’t find a farm which I can trust to get cruciferous, I have to quit it, now I’m almost a carnivore.