Hello Ketos! For a long of time I hear that the best way to lose weight is to stop eating carbs. I tried to reduce its amount, but it was useless for me. And I understood that it should be a journey for me! So I came here to keep in touch with well-experienced Keto dieters. All the best!
New here with Keto
Shinita
#2
It is individual what works best but it helps for many indeed and most people should lower their carb consumption for health and well-being even if they can’t manage to lose fat or don’t need it. My body definitely prefers less carbs, it’s quite obvious from its signs.
Good luck!
But I am curious, what amount of lower-carb was useless for you? And did you feel better? I had <80g net carbs years before keto and they were great, I lost fat during that time, satiation was easier and I felt better. Any more and I got carb poisoned every time. I just had to go much lower eventually.
Of course everyone is different, some people are thriving on high-carb and others need to go super low, cutting out lots of food groups in the process.
How many carbs, how much protein and fat are you eating each day? First, we are all individual in how we respond to diet. Some need more animal fat and some need more protein. Some of us have been able to lose body fat while eating more carbs then others. But generally, most of us recommend eating fewer than 20 total carbs per day and eating plenty of fatty meat.
So, what have you been eating and what changes have you experienced? How long have you been eating this way?
We would love to help you figure things out!
gingersmommy
(Marianne)
#4
Welcome! Try to keep your carbs under 20 g/day by eating “clean” food - nothing processed. Confine the carbs you do eat to low carb vegetables - lettuces, green beans, cabbage, brussels sprouts, etc. Choose your proteins from eggs, meat, pork, chicken, bacon, fish, some cheese. Butter, ghee, and heavy whipping are okay; just don’t be too excessive. Good luck to you.
April
#5
When I first came to low carb, I started at 50g per day (had been eating hundreds). I lost quite a bit of fat from that change alone! Over time, I worked my way down to the 20-30g range, which is not nearly as hard as it seems once you learn what you like, and your appetite begins to lessen. I highly recommend The Diet Doctor site for guidance on what to eat and what to avoid at the different ranges of carb restriction. I started with that site six years ago and really enjoy this way of eating and lifestyle.
Debbirie
#9
I do not count it every day. The reason for this is psychological. When I start weighing everything on the scale, I start to feel a lot of anxiety because I can go hungry all day. I need to somehow get rid of this, but I don’t know how
Janie
(Jane)
#10
You don’t have to be so precise and don’t need to weigh anything……. but you do need to be reasonable at estimating portion sizes if you don’t.
The Diet Doctor site has eating plans if you don’t want to track what you eat.
An alternative to not measuring or tracking when you start is to cut out ALL bread, rice, pasta, sugar, potatoes, nuts, corn, beans and peas. That should put you low enough carb to get into ketosis. It is more limited than tracking and there is a possibility of getting bored with your meals.
TBR
(Tom)
#11
I’m also new on this site but not new to a low carb diet. So far I’ve lost 41 pounds in just over 5 months. I’ll just say for now that ketostix are a great way to check to see if your regimen is working. For me they’re more valuable for me than stepping on the bathroom scale.
Janie
(Jane)
#12
They work for some and not others. For most people here it seems they stop working after a few months even though their diet hasn’t changed.
I am one of the 
that still can turn a ketostix pink or purple after 5 years of being on keto.
Ariw
(Welsh)
#14
Hello everyone! I’ve just started keto as I’m newly diagnosed type 2. I’m prescribed dulaglutide, I buy trulicity online because I need injections every 7 days. I feel pretty frustrated. This is new to me. No one from my family didn’t have this disease. I don’t know how to cope with this…
PaulL
(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing)
#15
Can you elaborate? What is the reason for your frustration? What is your current situation, and what is your ketogenic diet like?
It can take months for Type II diabetes to be reversed. Remember that it took you years to get to this state (in fact, the late Dr. Joseph Kraft, a diabetes researcher was convinced that people started developing diabetes a couple of decades before it showed as loss of glucose control), so reversing the condition is not going to happen overnight. Just keep calm and keto on; you’re sure to see good results over time.
Live4Now
(Veronica)
#17
If you are right at the start and were used to a lot if carbs perhaps an idea would be to gradually lower the amount of carbs rather than jump right into the ketogenic way of eating and see how your body feels. It’s different for everyone how the body responds, and if it’s to be a weightloss journey and a sustainable one, then rather then using will power and feeling an ongoing battle with that, it’s a better to build habits. We all have our weak moments as we’re only human, and then there’s various factors like illnesses, meds, age and metabolic health, that also play into it. Which is why I believe in eating intuitively and following the body’s response.
Have you heard of Dr Jasong Fung? He has written a few books regarding weight loss via intermittent fasting. He also has a youtube channel which I have found helpful. I team keto with intermittent fasting, but intermittent fasting works with any diet. It is about restricting your eating window, and there are many fasting variations. I vary between 20:4 and 16:8 and switch it up a bit. But say you were used to snacking all throughout the day and long into the evening (and I don’t know your story so am being generic here) having a set eating frame could help, say a simple rule: To not eat anything after 6 or 7. That’s the general idea anyway of intermittent fasting.
Good luck with your journey, we all have our reasons for wanting to become healthier, and the important thing is to seek and have encouragement along the way so I hope you find lots of that and I wish you good health 
PaulL
(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing)
#18
The only problem with this approach is that one is either in ketosis or not; it’s a lot like flipping a switch. The determinant is the level of insulin in the blood. Ralph DeFronzo and his team have discovered that the amount is just below 25 μU/mL. Above that threshold, ketosis is inhibited, and we are in sugar-burning and fat-storing mode. Below that threshold, we are in ketosis and metabolising fat instead of storing it. For anyone eating the standard American diet, a large drop in carb intake is required.
Of course, some people are insulin-sensitive enough that they can still eat a relatively larger amount of carbohydrate and still be in ketosis, but many of us are so metabolically damaged, that we have to restrict carbohydrate considerably, in order to drop our insulin low enough to get into ketosis. That is why Richard and Carl, the Two Keto Dudes, set the recommendation at a 20 g/day limit. It works for almost everyone, though someone who’s really insulin-resistant may have to go even lower.
For anyone having trouble with giving up carbohydrate, your idea of putting Dr. Fung’s fasting principles to work is a good one.
Shinita
#19
But it’s fine as long as we feel good (well, at least better than before) and burn fat (if we want that) (And health is there but I suppose that feeling good hints that it’s okay…?) I did that with ~80g net carbs when keto was impossible for me. I had to go quite low eventually but it took a long time to be ready for that. Some of us need to do things gradually. Lowering carbs is often beneficial even without ketosis. And many people prefers higher-carb than keto as it’s more realistic and good enough and something better for them.
If I could eat little enough and feel great on higher-carb, I really didn’t care if I was in “fat storing mode” while burning fat just fine (Probably it would be fat storing mode after eating and fat burning would happen later? I really don’t care as long as the non-ketosis doesn’t harm me but why would it if I feel okay and do it in a healthy way for myself?) It’s about our goals, mine never was ketosis itself, just health, feeling good, losing fat, gaining muscle…
PaulL
(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing)
#20
But you can’t burn fat, if you eat too much carbohydrate, because the insulin response prevents fatty-acid metabolism. Thought I’d already explained that, sorry. So the choice is between (a) eating very little carbohydrate and burning fat, and (b) eating a lot of carbohydrate and storing fat. Pick one. You can’t do both (a) and (b) at the same time.
This insulin response serves two purposes. First, it removes excess glucose from the blood, so it can’t cause too much damage. Second, if you are a bear wanting to put on weight for the winter, the elevated insulin from eating carbohydrate (berries, most likely, in the case of a bear) keeps you storing carbohydrate as fat and keeps you hungry, so that you can keep packing on the fat. The bear does this seasonally, so it’s self-limiting. Our problem is that we have carbs available throughout the year, so there is no limit.