Hi, so a brief introduction. Corona in 2019 set me up for DVT’s, COPD, asthma, and annual double pneumonia. (No I don’t smoke nor had I had asthma as a youth.)
Last hospital stay for double pneumonia in January left me vented for 10 days and hospitalized for an additional 10. Lost 30lbs of muscle. Visceral abdominal fat remained intact, (of course lol.)
After release from the 3 week rehab facility to teach me how to walk again I am on multiple medications I haven’t had before so as to include; Metoprolol Tartrate and Eliquis. The web is horrible with dietary restrictions or suggestions as is my PCP who says, “ just eat Whole Foods “ so the question remains is Keto something I can consider doing to remove this remaining goo around
my waist? Is anyone else on these medications? Any insight would be greatly appreciated!
Well, that sounds like a few miserable years. Hopefully things will turn around now!
It is my personal belief that anyone can do keto. There are some people here on these meds or formerly on them. Your biggest risk is probably becoming over- medicated as your body adapts and changes.
It might be helpful to tell your doctor you’re following their whole food advice, “and avoiding sugar and starch”. This seems much more palatable to people than the word keto. They will still have an idea of what your diet consists of; due to your medications you will need to stay in pretty close contact. Is your A1c or fasting glucose elevated?
Yes, a low-carb, low-insulin diet is perfectly safe. You may need the mtoprolol and Eliquis reduced, so keep in touch with your doctor.
“Just eat whole foods” is not bad advice. It will cut the sugar, refined carbohydrate, and seed oils out of your diet, which are the “foods” that cause the greatest damage. Eat plenty of protein and fat, and very little carbohydrates, sticking to leafy greens and vegetables that grow above ground (broccoli, cauliflower, etc.) Avoid all sugar, starches (potatoes, etc.), and grains (wheat, corn/maize, etc.).
The visceral fat should clear up pretty quickly, once you remove sugar (sucrose) from your diet. Sucrose, table sugar, is a disachharide consisting of a glucose molecule bonded to a fructose molecule. The glucose causes enough problems on its own (which is why we cut carbs), and the fructose is what is causing your visceral fat, particularly your liver fat. Even if all you were to do was to replace sugar with starches, your visceral fat should clear up pretty quickly. Cutting the carbs will reduce your insulin and let you get into ketosis, which is a metabolic state in which fat-burning becomes possible.
Rebuilding the muscle will be difficult, but can be done. You will need plenty of protein (to build tissue) and fat (to fuel the growth), and you will need to do resistance training in order to stress the muscles and tell them to grow. Prof. Benjamin Bikman advises stressing the muscles to failure, and the number of reps is not important, it’s repeating the stress till failure that causes the growth. This means we can either use less weight and more reps, or more weight and fewer reps. This will also help keep your bones strong and dense, since bone is calcium in a protein matrix.
@Fschenk, the only thing I’d add to the above is to make sure you eat enough food. You shouldn’t feel hungry or needing to eat in between meals. I’d start with three meals a day until you are completely comfortable and not craving food. If at some point you feel comfortable enough to skip a meal, then you can do so. That does happen many times, once your body recognizes that you are feeding it amply and regularly.
Keep in mind that this is a keto forum. Thus, our opinions and biases are based on being pro-keto. Keto can work miracles for some and not so for others. Some have moved to carnivores and find great benefits. Tell your healthcare practitioners that you are thinking of doing keto. Others, like myself, have moved to lower carbs.
Prior to 2019, how did you eat? I would look at possible supplements as well. Vitamin D is very good, but I don’t believe it should be taken year after year. Rather, cycle it for 4 weeks. I take 20,000 IUs every day, twice or three times per year to build up my immune system. I would eat the best-quality foods I could afford. Nothing is white or could be white. The exception is eggs. Grass-fed beef, wild fish, free-range chicken, and organic fruits and veggies.
30 pounds of muscle is significant. I would start walking if that is possible. I would also buy some barbells and start there, or join a gym and get a personal trainer.
Why not? It is completely evolutionary and natural to feel hungry. This is what ghrelin is for. It works hand in hand with leptin. These are the two main hormones that control your appetite and fullness.
It is also completely evolutionary and natural to be able to go hours between meals without getting hungry.
We are hungry all the time when our insulin is elevated, because it blocks the leptin from registering in the receptors of the ventromedial hypothalamus. This is very helpful when you are a bear eating berries to fatten up for the winter, but not so helpful when you are a human being on a year-round high-carb diet. This is why, once the dietary guidelines really got started, the advice became to eat six times a day as a coping strategy, because the hunger caused by elevated insulin can get overwhelming. (As Bikman says, “Hunger always wins in the end.”)
I still remember the day about three weeks into keto when, in the middle of lunch, I suddenly stopped wanting to eat. I had to put half a plate of food in the fridge for supper. I remember thinking, “Oh! So this is what satiety feels like.” For the first time in a long time, I wasn’t hungry. I’d eaten enough, even though my stomach was nowhere near full. Over the months after that, I eventually stopped wanting to eat three meals a day, because my noontime and evening meals were all I wanted. So I understand what Denise meant when she wrote, “You shouldn’t feel hungry.”
P.S.–Given that the French diet is much higher in fat than the American diet, yet the French are still pretty thin, whereas almost all Americans are obese (the so-called “French paradox”), I think a French professor’s remark to me years ago is very telling: An American will say, “I’m stuffed;” whereas a French person says, “J’en ai eu assez.” (“I’ve had enough.”) I believe that linguistic difference reflects a significant difference in the American and the French dietary patterns. An American is so hungry on the standard American diet that it’s possible to stuff one’s gut and still be hungry, whereas the French diet is actually satisfying enough that one can get by on much less. (Lat. satis = Eng. ‘enough’)
I’ve been on Metropol while a carnivore with no problems. In fact the reason I’m no longer on Metropol is because of becoming a carnivore. Carnivore brought my blood pressure down so low naturally that the Metropol was bringing it down way too low artificially.
I can’t imagine why being on Eliquis would be of any issue as a books thinner.
Actually, considering the Big Food in question was General Mills and their feedlot of processed breakfast cereal, maybe Glutinous is the better adjective after all.
I wondered about that too before reading the article… And indeed, there was gluten involved It’s with e but whatever.
About hunger: it’s normal to get hungry now and then but I agree, we shouldn’t be (STAY) hungry. At least I don’t do hunger, it’s fine if one keeps some tiny hunger around (there is a rare tiny hunger of mine that never makes me want to eat… it’s a new little thing, I hadn’t it even on keto. my hunger was soft but insistent).
Of course, it’s normal not getting hungry for a while too. Never being hungry is odd, though, some people have that. While others get hungry here and there even if they normally don’t wait for hunger… It’s hard to wait for hunger if one is me. It’s even wrong sometimes.
Someone else’s post mentioned that Big Food likes to keep people glutinous, which I’m assuming is another one. Love me some auto carrot!
It’s with e but whatever.