Obligatory newb post so it can be about me

#1

I’ve been thinking and talking about this way of eating for probably two or three years. I started keto 4 weeks ago, really because I wanted to change my health (though I won’t pretend I don’t have visions of looking like Kendall Jenner in a bikini…). I’m a 33 years old female, 5’11" with a starting weight of 220. No diabetic issues, yet, though it runs heavily in my family. I’ve always had weight problems, and even overcame a years long fight with eating disorders as a teen. I’m also a thyroid cancer survivor, total thyroidectomy (15yrs post-op), so hypothyroid of course but medication well managed.

Okay, so here is a comprehensive list of what I am doing:

  • less than 25g net carbs (only subtracting legit fiber)
  • about 70% of my macros are fat, about 1800 calories a day
  • about 80oz of water a day
  • I eat for 8hrs and fast for 16 each day
  • checking urine ketone levels daily, always been about 1.5mmol/L, so moderate
  • daily probiotic
  • gym 3 times a week (15mins cardio, then a circuit of each of the weight machines)
  • yoga once or twice a week

Here’s a couple of days of food:

DAY ONE:
BREAKFAST
coffee w/Splenda 2tbsp heavy cream
3 eggs with 1tsp mayo (cooked w/1tbsp butter)

LUNCH
1 oz of pecans
1 medium avocado

DINNER
2 cups of steamed broccoli w/2tbsp butter
6oz sirloin w/mushrooms (cooked in 2tbsp olive oil and beef stock)

SNACK
1 large dill pickle

DAY TWO
BREAKFAST
coffee w/Splenda and 2tbsp heavy cream
3 eggs with 1tsp mayo (cooked w/1tbsp butter)

LUNCH
1 can of tuna w/4tbsp mayo and 1tbsp sunflower seeds

DINNER
4oz beef patty w/lettuce, tomato, 2tbsp mayo and 1/2tsp mustard

SNACK
1oz pepperoni
1oz mozzarella cheese
1 large dill pickle

Side note: Please do not suggest I give up dairy!! But I am curious about why people advocate for that so change my mind! LOL

Now, here are my results so far:

  • 10lbs lost so far (first 6 in the first week, water??)
  • skin allergies and overall dryness and complexion MUCH improved!
  • under eye bags GONE!
  • headaches are mostly gone
  • sleeping better
  • noticeable improvement in my anxiety, depression, mood swings and anger - I’m emotionally damaged :rofl:
  • better energy but still experiencing muscle fatigue

And lastly, my questions:

  • How am I doing? Am I on the right track?? I was kind of hoping to drop weight like you hear from some people, all dramatic, but I have a propensity for unrealistic expectations. Overall I have lost 10lbs in 4 weeks, which is pretty good, but I just wanna see if I sound like I’m where I “should” be.

  • I’ve been reading some posts about when we actually become “fat adapted” and most are saying at about 4-6weeks. Is that when the muscle fatigue will stop? Like, my muscles BURN just climbing my stairs and they didn’t really before. And if the two aren’t related, what up with the muscle fatigue? Is it just a product of my gym routine then maybe, since it’s new too?

  • How about my ketone levels? Are they sufficient to suggest I’m actually in ketosis??

  • Any other suggestions???

Thank you to any and all who take the time to read all this and share your knowledge and experience! I really need people to talk to who are not bored/annoyed to tears hearing me blather on about keto all the time. I realize this isn’t really exact and I have to find what works for me, but I guess I’m just wondering, is this what “working” looks like?

I am so excited to be on this journey! Go hard or go home!

:heart:

(Allie) #2

Looks like you’re on the right track but you may want to try losing the Splenda, or swapping it for erythritol or another more friendly sweetener.

So good to see someone who isn’t limiting to stupidly low calories in the mistaken belief it will speed things up! :grinning:

#3

I have read that too little intake can lead to stalling out or even muscle loss! I chose the high-end of what most calculators suggested for me. I do notice a lot of posts talking about eating only 1100 calories. :scream: I. Would. DIE. LOL

As for the Splenda, that was a question I forgot to ask! And is that because Spenda is sucralose and sucralose causes insulin spikes? I had read that after I bought this giant box of Splenda packets. :expressionless:

Thank you for the feedback!!

(Allan L) #4

Looks great!

Perfect, any day now the fat adapted magic phase will kick in.

You are changing your muscle energy source from carbs to fat. Can take a while for them to adapt. What is your electrolyte levels like? Are you supplementing your diet with sodium before a workout? This could be contributing to some of the fatigue.

All good. Anything above 0.5 is considered nutritional ketosis. But really, don’t worry about your ketone levels. Get and keep your carbs below 20g per day and the ketones will take care of themselves.

Keep on doing what you are doing. The first sign of fat adaptation is a decrease in hunger, don’t eat when not hungry just because you have not ate your macro’s / calories for the day.

Consider dropping the snacks and moving to 2 meals a day rather than 3 with no eating in between. This will help improve your insulin levels. High levels of insulin cause us to store body fat and every time we eat we increase insulin levels.

And as mentioned, watch those electrolytes, especially pre and post workout.

(Allan L) #5

Before you are properly fat adapted, orally consuming a low level of calories will starve your metabolism of energy and your body will respond by decreasing your metabolic rate. This will cause problems long term.

Once you become fat adapted you have access to your bodies long term store of energy, your fat.

The key is eating to satiety. You are doing the correct thing right now and eating to feed your metabolism whilst your body adapts. Weight loss might not be dramatic right now but once you are fat adapted you will naturally find yourself not wanting to eat and this is where the magic really happens.

Don’t eat if not hungry. Eat enough protein to support lean body mass, keep carbs below 20g.

(Rob) #6

You are doing great… well balanced approach, not starving (avoided stupid keto calculator weight loss mode), getting scale victories and NSVs already. You have identified one wrinkle… exercise while fat adapting is often unpleasant and definitely unnecessary. Once adapted, you will want to do more exercise and use the ketone fueled energy you should have.

As to dairy, most keto people only advocate dropping it if it is blocking your progress. Many do fine with all the cheese, butter and cream they can guzzle but others find that keto limitations reveal one of several possible dairy allergies (casein, lactose, A1/A2 protein, etc.) that either limits weight loss or creates other issues (bloating, water retention, pains, etc.). If you feel great and keto is working, keep dairy. If it fails to work even when adapted, dairy is something to eliminate as a test to see if it is inhibiting you. Lots of other things might be so there is a lot of experimenting to be done e.g. electrolyte levels, lectins, protein sensitivity/GNG, cortisol, etc.

BTW - This great start, good preparation, amusing post title and general low levels of FUD and panic is what happens when you spend 2-3 years thinking about keto :clap::clap:

…but would you trade some mistakes for starting sooner? :thinking: :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

KCKO (obviously).

#7

This is first time I’ve really heard anything about this “fat adaption”. So, basically, I have really just been ramping up so far? So, how do you frame your eating once you get there? You say I’ll stop being hungry and won’t eat as much as that’s when it really gets going. So do you just eat your minimum protein, to not lose muscle, keep the carbs low and to hell with calories?? Sounds awesome, but no starvation mode/lowered metabolism if I eat too few? Do you still keep a food diary?

Side question, does my coffee with heavy cream need to be kept inside my eating hours?

My sodium seems ok. I’m a medical lab tech so I have access to check that more regularly than the average person. I checked it when it first started, 4 weeks ago, and it was 140mmol/L. Just checked it and it was the same. So that’s good right? I do eat a CRAP TON of it. I love me some salt!!! Either way, couldn’t hurt to make my workout water a little salty could it?

As for the meals… sigh I agree, and I have tried that to no avail. I suffer from gastroparesis which causes my stomach to empty very slowly and I feel sickly full off smaller amounts than I used to. If I ate less meals, they’d have to bigger meals, and I’m having trouble eating these in one sitting without discomfort. Not to mention how much my stomach shrinks during the fasting each night! Good grief, I can barely drink a whole cup of coffee after! I could cut out the snack though I bet… Would it be helpful to cut my eating time down to 6hrs instead of 8?

Thank you so much for the encouragement, and the info is gold. I have been needing this site since day 1!

(Allan L) #8

Exactly! first 4-8 weeks is just the 1st phase of the diet, fat adaptation is where your body adapts to burning fat as its primary fuel source. I’m not going to go into details as I’m sure you will find google will explain it much better than I can.

Fat adaptation is a more of a dial than an on/off switch. Each cell in the body adapts and at a different pace. Many factors influence the speed of adaptation like age, exercise, weight, sex etc.

Spot on! 100% correct. Eat to satiety, not to some number some scientist calculated. Listen to your body.

No, because whilst you orally might only be taking in 1000 cal, your metabolisim can be using and burning 2,400 cal. Where does the extra 1,400 cal come from? Your body fat.

Starvation mode would only apply if you ignored satiety signalling and forced yourself not to eat. Listen to your body and eat to satiety.

Yeah, I do, some don’t. Like to keep an eye on those pesky carbs and make sure I have not slipped up and bad habits creep in. Seeing a number on the screen helps me focus.

Depends on how you react. Some have to be very strict, others not so bad. I’d guess given your age you should be ok but I would consider dropping any sweeteners. Within a few days you’ll not miss them, after a few weeks you will find that cream on its own is sweet enough. Food has a natural sweetness that you can only tune into once you drop any sweeteners.

Would not hurt in the slightest. Our body uses insulin to tell the kidneys to hold onto sodium, when we eat carbs all our lives the sodium builds up in our blood and this is why it has become an issue. But when you swap to low carb, dropping insulin, your kidneys will flush the sodium. Heavily salting food is a good start but I always have a teaspoon of salt before and after a workout.

If in doubt, add more salt!

Yup, cut out all snacks and eat 2-3 meals a day. This helps drive down insulin and give you access to your body fat.

Again, you are young and not hugely overweight so given your condition maybe 3 well balanced meals a day might work for you.

You are doing really well so far and I’d stick with how you are going for a few more weeks until you notice signs of fat adaptation. Then naturally make any changes. You might find it impossible to eat 3 meals a day once adapted.

(LeeAnn Brooks) #9

Just one question. If your doing 16:8, how are you still eating breakfast, lunch, dinner and a snack in the 8 hour window? That’s a lot of eating times to push into an 8 hour window.

When you go 16:8, ideally you want to go to TMAD and limit snacking. Make your first meal larger or higher in fat to carry you through to your last meal.

#10

Thank you, you have renewed my faith! LOL Was seriously feeling pretty frustrated, but it turns out it was only because I didn’t know how good I was doing! *brushes shoulders off" I do wish I had started it sooner, you’re right! I mean, other than the general idea of this, everything I’ve learned has been since I started. I think it grew in my mind though, the more articles I read about how wrong all our knowledge about eating has been! Super glad to be here!

(Karl) #11

I never gave up dairy. Cheese and heavy whipping cream are a must for me. I don’t sweat the small amount of carbs in them. Never had a problem.

I dunno, lately I see a lot of food-fear going on in the forums. I mean, yeah, “Carb Creep” is a real thing I guess - but I think it’s way overblown. Same goes for artificial sweeteners. I never had any issues with most of them (any of them, really). But a lot of people say it stalls them - though I’m not sure how they really know.

If I keep my macros right (<20g/day carbs, a little protein, lots of fat) I succeed. If I just stay on course, I push through any “stalls”. I really don’t think my physiology is going to see a serving of “Ace-K” and say “Oh, holy crap - better hang on to all this extra weight”. I think it might be purely coincidental when people say “I ditched dairy and my stall stopped.” I think it takes more than just a week or two to adjust to anything - keto especially. It’s a major change to how most people are used to eating.

That’s all just my dumb opinion though, and I only have my own experience to go by.

#12

Ideally, yeah, I would love to do that. I mentioned in a previous reply, I have gastroparesis. I cannot eat large amounts of food at a time. If I put all that food into 2 meals, I would vomit. It is a lot of meals, but it works. I do eat every 2 hours. I have to keep the meals small enough to not get sick and be able to move it all out of my stomach before the next meal, while also consuming enough all day long. I’ve been dealing with this for about 15 years and that’s just what has always worked best for me, though I usually spread them out a little more. I just started so I’m trying to learn and apply all this while also working with my body’s individual limitations. I’m going to start slow, removing the snack. Hopefully I’ll be able to remove a meal at some point, too. :crossed_fingers:

#13

Hey that’s great! Ya know, I’ve had my suspicions that this way of eating was much more forgiving than many make it sound. I imagine a lot of us “overshoot the mark”, so to speak. I want to see results lol! I may relax myself here or there as I go along, but I’m looking forward to the discipline for now. I couldn’t live without cheese though, so I’m glad it isn’t a requirement!

As for the artificial sweeteners, the possibility of them causing a stall doesn’t concern me, but everything I’ve been reading does suggest that only a couple of the sweeteners don’t cause insulin spikes. That’s pretty important. I just really didn’t want to waste the Splenda I bought. :laughing: Hmm, maybe I can give them to my grandma… :smirk:

(Diane) #14

I don’t use the powdered Splenda since it has some starch (maltodextrin, I believe) used as an anti-caking agent which can be a problem for some people. I do use liquid sucralose. I also use Sukrin:1 & Sukrin Gold (erythritol/stevia blends) for baking. I also drink a diet soda or two a week (various sweeteners) usually with a meal. I’m 8 months in, and so far, these don’t seem to cause me problems. I also eat dairy without issue (except for smoked Gouda which seriously causes me to retain fluids, damn it!).

I’m open to the idea of experimenting with eliminating either dairy and/or artificial sweeteners, if my progress (or lack of progress) suggests changes are in order. I never thought I could stop eating bread, potatoes and popcorn not that long ago. But for now, KCKO.

(Jennifer ) #15

Hello new keto friend!

I am also a tall lady who has struggled with her weight her whole life. I’m 28, 5’10. Started at 250, now at 170-175 depending on the day and if I’m fasting. Your food selections look great. Looks like we also share a love of mayo. :stuck_out_tongue:

Also remember - us tall ladies have large frames to pack muscle on to. Keto raises human growth hormone, and our lady bodies are better at using it than men. :smiling_imp: so that means, in Megan Ramos’ words, women will lose inches when the scale doesn’t move, men will lose pounds when the inches aren’t moving. Make sure you measure once a month. Lean muscle mass and extra bone density can outweigh the fat loss when it comes to the scale, especially since us tall ladies have a lot of bone and muscle, AND you’re working out. So sometimes…stalls aren’t really stalls.

I went through a year as a pro athlete on keto - I can tell you that yes, the muscle fatigue is related. And yes, it should go away soon. Some extra electrolytes (sodium potassium magnesium) could also help that process. There’s supplements for potassium and magnesium…sodium can just be added to your plate. Lite Salt is almost half potassium also. Get magnesium glycinate capsules at your local vitamin store. Beware magnesium oxide, as it has been known to make people shit their pants.

Or you can just suffer through it…it will resolve itself eventually.

10 pounds in 4 weeks is great. That’s better than most “diets”, and keto has the added bonus of healing your metabolism. Sounds like a win-win to me. Just keep that in perspective - sounds like your metabolism might need some TLC after some hard years. Women sometimes notice a pause or slower loss when this is the case, because the body is busy figuring some stuff out and healing. Things like raising BMR, and regulating hormones related to hunger, satiety, and fat storage.

Good luck!!! You’re doing great! Reach out to us if you need help. This forum is really responsive and helpful.

(Jay Patten) #16

“I was kind of hoping to drop weight like you hear from some people, all dramatic, but I have a propensity for unrealistic expectations.”

That is real wisdom, right there. A lot of people don’t like to admit when they have unrealistic expecations, but knowing that you do can help you curb any negative emotions you may encounter down the road.

There is no doubt that there will be times when weight loss slows to a crawl or even stalls. Just keep at it… forget about those people who lost 70 pounds in 5 months!! The real trick to this diet is sticking with it through thick and thin (pun intended).

(LeeAnn Brooks) #17

I have about 15 pounds I’d like to lose. Even if I never got down those 15 pounds, as long as Keto helps me maintain a healthy weight long term, I will conscider it a major success. No more yo-yo for me!!!
And if I gain endurance to do longer runs, then I will be doubly happy.

#18

Wow, thank all ya’ll so much! This is the first forum I’m in so I don’t really know if I should be replying to people individually or what, so I’m just winging it!

I’m really learning a LOT and I think I have already made some progress:

When you mentioned this I just really didn’t think it was possible for me. But I got hung up on fat bombs last night, did a bunch of reading. I realized that, because I’m focusing on foods that have 2/3 the protein as their fat content, say a hamburger patty, my protein was in danger of being too high. So I made fat bombs, and now I can get my meals down to two without them being so big! Plus, it feels like I’m eating candy! :shushing_face:

I am wondering about the 16:8 thing. I really just read about it from a few random google searches, but it seemed pretty unanimous that fasting was essential. What are your thoughts on it? And can you eat the fat bombs when you’re fasting?

I really relate. I don’t wanna get carried about with policing the sweeteners too obsessively just yet. I mean, I might have a packet or two of Splenda every other day. So, I’m prolly gonna get something different next time I shop, but I am okay for now. I’m pretty sure if I even do this halfway right, I’m gonna see results to some extent. I mean, this is such a large jump from the way I was eating that it’s gotta make a difference, right? I do love when I look at my former carb friends and my mind goes, “Umm, ewww…” I don’t even know me anymore!! :rofl:

Maybe it’s silly but hearing from someone with a similar build really makes me happy! I am curious, what are your daily protein goals? The calculator was telling me like 117g, but another said 90. Then in the FAQs on this site it says to take your weight in kg at your fittest and do 1-1.5g of protein per kg. My fittest weight was in the army, 165lb, which translates to 75kg, so 75g of protein a day? Is that too low? I just really don’t wanna do too much. Thank you so much for the support! This site has really been a game changer overnight!

I think this is the first time ANYONE has ever said that to me!!! HAHAHA!!! I have spent a lifetime chasing instant gratification. I’m trying really hard not to get carried away with the weight part and just focus on health and well-being. When I jumped on here last night, I was about to quit. I was hungry and tired and frustrated and, well, I was in those expectations. Thankfully ya’ll have cured me!

(LeeAnn Brooks) #19

Yes, you can do the fat bombs with the 16:8, but you may want to consider using a as a dessert after your meal. But as long as you stay in the 8 hour window, you are okay.

Here’s what I do some days.
Lunch at 12:30-1pm.
Dinner at 6-8 depending on schedule.

  • if I have the early dinner, I will place one snack around 8:30. If I have the latter dinner, I don’t snack.
    Really I wouldn’t have to snack with the earlier dinner either and could go to an 18:6 IF, but it’s more for family time we enjoy together.
    It’s a great time to add a fat bomb. Or as I said, you could have as a dessert to either meal. Or both meals. However you want to swing it.
(Diane) #20

One recent adjustment I’m trying, is to finish my eating window at least 3 hours before bedtime. I’ve heard Megan Ramos (Intensive Dietary Management) say that you want your body to be resting when you’re sleeping, not digesting food. It makes sense to me.