**sdepp**, a lean petite female doing keto for non-weight issues/optimal-health.. HELP PLEASE!

(Liz ) #56

Well most of us here secrete too much insulin. Mine is from a genetic predisposition to insulin resistance. I was never diagnosed diabetic but I could not lose weight if I ate carbs so that’s how I knew I was hyperinsulinemic.

If you are producing too much insulin then you’d get hypoglycemic after eating carbs too as the insulin overreacts & your glucose drops too fast. So maybe you are having less reaction eating fewer carbs.

We are all here trying to lower our insulin response & we use Keto but also fasting to do so. Cortisol from stress does raise insulin levels. So that is relevant as well.

(Diane) #57

I’ve had dry eyes in the past. The optometrist told me that when you read for long periods of time, your blink rate goes down and your eyes get drier. He told me to get over the counter eye drops to use when I notice symptoms. There are also over the counter ointments that you can put in your eyes at night which really helped me. I just had to learn to be very careful not to touch either the eye dropper or ointment tube to my eye directly. You don’t want to contaminate it.

(Bunny) #58

I just wanted to say these two products mentioned by Dr. Berg are miraculous!

I took ONE DOSE of each yesterday along with some liposomal vitamin C and my eyes are like almost 20/20 without (never had vision like this in my life) my glasses! I was really skeptical and feel I got more than my monies worth! I am totally blown away by this ( ( ( one dose) ) )! Not trying to promote any products but damnmmm that’s just amazzzzzing!

#59

A couple of comments on food items. You mentioned pepper jack. That is often processed cheese so check your brand. other is almond flour. Mine is blanched (bought the cheapest I could find). Blanched means it may have been whitened in some way. I would imagine some people will react to the blanching agent

#60

UPDATES!

Pretty sure my rash is from salmon - had a bit of salmon a few days ago, and rash is back. In the mean time, I was eating my usual foods including bacon, dairy, I even had dark chocolate more often. Nothing seemed to correlate with the rash so well. 3 out of 4 episodes I have had so far, I can clearly remember having salmon and/or other types of seafood the night before … My family has deemed I am allergic to fish! Oh well…

Otherwise, I have been eating about the same, just not so much nuts. No peanut at all. Only almonds, macadamia and pecans. Still too much coconuts which I am getting a bit sick of. New obsession is kellygold+sharp cheddar. Oh also I tracked for protein in more detail (as in weighing the raw mean before i cook) for the past week or 10 days, I am eating 70-100 grams daily. And I don’t even know how to count the protein in pig trotters, pig liver etc as I also eat those quite often… I don’t know. My net carb is usually around 25g, but I had never been having a blood ketone reading below 1.0 so I guess it’s alright. I am kind of amazed by how much I am eating some days, I know my husband is. Definitely averaged over 2000 cals. Some days 2400, some days 1500 - depends on how many meals. But 1200 per meal since to be my sweet spot for my satiety signal. Although sometimes I overeat, mostly in social/family situations, and mostly chocolate related things, I usually CAN just have a very small portion. I don’t know if I have gained or lost, don’t really care but I do feel more and more energetic. This Sat, I went out for my first run this year! (Made a new year resolution, as never push myself to work out LOL). It was only 6mins /1mile, but I felt great, didn’t break a sweat! But it was fun just run when I want to run and stop when I wanted to.

My neck/shoulder pain still comes and goes, I have been taking the bile salt stuff with meals, no dramatic difference. But will continue. ACV also…

I just want to say, keto is amazing! There is no one-fits-all formula. I am my own guinea pig and it just fascinates me daily. And thanks for such an amazing platform for me to share my progress and thought. I really want to focus on a few things in the next 6-months,

  • stable energy and MORE energy and focus (that hypoglycemia suspicion will have to be figured out)
  • overall mental health, be more relaxed about food, exercise, body image. be intuitive and have more time for other fun in life
  • build some lean muscle
(Michel Labelle) #62

Just cross posting something from another thread here…

#63

I agree it might as well not the “meat” of salmon. I have been eating salmon and all sorts of seafood since I was a kid. Lived in Asia, then America, then Europe, never had issues with it, as a glucose burner of course. Recently moved back to the US from UK, and started keto around the same time. Bam, salmon/seafood vs rash started. The worst of all rash episodes I had, was after the night I only had salmon skin, where apparently more metal tend to accumulate. My working theory is it has to do with the heavy metal deposited in the salmon, particularly in the types of salmon we get in the US. I was eating Scottish salmon in the UK, and I was perfectly fine. My demo suggested, if I have allergy to nickel (which I do), it’s likely that the pollution leading to metal is causing my reaction as my body might be allergic to other types of metal, and it is also changing the way it breaks down protein - not sure I understand the chemistry, but it certainly explains the situation a bit.

@Adam-Zoe, to your question, no, they were farm raised, Atlantic variety, “organic” - don’t know what does that mean? So your theory might as well be right! Do I dare to try the wild-caught? Maybe but I just need a break now with all the changes my body is going through. Eventually, I want to experiment on it though!

#65

Checking in for some new observations,

I think I have some issues/questions with proteins, probably like most newbies on keto. So I have been tracking carbs and protein for about 2 weeks now, as I started using CRONOMETER. I notice a pattern, my protein intake is violently volatile - I would have like a three day cycle where I eat 30g then 50g then 80g of protein, then I would get so sick of it and back to 30g again the next day. I don’t know if this is okay/normal at all - I mean I am eating mostly whatever I feel like in my daily two meals, of course everything keto, but would my body go into a bad state on the days I overeat protein? Like my organs would be forced to process more protein than previous day, thus create issues?

Context: I am quite stable on carbs. No idea how to track fat, absolutely no idea - I get you can weigh the cream, butter in the coffees and nuts, but what about the fats in the meat that I use spinach to soak up, or just the oil you fry your eggs with? Oh well, I am gonna say I am eating fat to satiety. my lean body mass is around 40kg and I weigh about 45kg/98lbs. 5’1. I want to maintain weight wise (EDIT: and build some muscles in the future once I feel like exercising, no exercise now, desk job). But I have other issues keto is helping so much with, PCOS, acne, mental acuteness…

#66

So really my question is, for my goals, which of below is preferred?

Case 1 -
Keto dinner with protein over to the point that I don’t want meat/cheese and stuff next lunch and just have mostly veggies and fats.

Case 2 -
Spread the protein equally on my all lunches and dinners?

My rational self is saying case 2 has to be better. But things happen and protein is easy to overeat for me, so case 1 happens like twice a week for me. How bad is this for my organ functions?

BTW, I believe 50g protein is a good range for me, I feel great on those days.

#67

Does this make sense?

#68

Are you tracking ketones? Without that I do not think you can get a sense if it is too much protein. In the absence of tracking I would go by how you feel. If you feel good and are getting the mental benefits you want, both that day and in the next 24 - 48 hours, I think you are ok. I think 30 - 60 is a good range with the occassional going over. As for tracking fat, when I add a tablespoon of fat to cook something, I count that. When I add a pat of butter I count that as well. Cronometer is great although I personally think it counts a little higher on carbs and protein than other sites but that could be my imagination. A few months ago someone claimed they were eating 5 carbs a day and listed their foods based on another app. When I put it through Cronometer I got about double that (do not remember exact details) still I love that it tracks micro nutrients even though I rarely track

#69

Thanks for your thoughts. I have a meter but I don’t do it everyday. I did a bunch at beginning and I was averaged around 3.0-4.0. Now I only do it when I feel “weird”. I have never been below 1.0… highest was 6.9. When I am below 2.0 I feel tired and weird…

So I just did it, 4.1. I had a lot of protein last night, feel a bit tired after eating but was fine 30 mins later. I haven’t had lunch today yet only fat coffee w cream and coconut oil, so it’s a fast about 17/18 hours in (with fats though). I feel ok. No hunger.

(Luis Zeledon) #70

This neck and back pain thing has been brutal for me I can barely do my weight training my neck and back cramp up so bad I know it is not from lack of water or electrolytes I am being very diligent about that. When I massage around my gallbladder area of the pain seems to subside for a little bit I ordered some bile salts if you’ll have any other suggestions it would be highly appreciatedr

#71

I would really like to gain some, better muscle of course.

I’ve heard Dr. Rhonda Patrick talking about time restricted eating increasing muscle mass. This is not quite the same as what people often refer to as intermittent fasting. Usually people think they can drink bullet proof coffee, or tea or even black coffee or broth during the fasting of their IF. What Dr. Rhonda Patrick is talking about is the first time you put something in your body that’s not just straight water you start your timer. If you limit your eating window to 10 hours you will grow more muscle even without increasing exercise. After those 10 hours you can have nothing but water until your next eating period the following day.

#72

Certainly feels like I am running in a circle a little bit :

Up the fat, I get the right shoulder pain, even down my right hand from time to time (even drinking ACV, cream of tartar and bile salt religiously);
Up the protein, feel nauseous the day after, then too hungry later on… then in fear of carbs and proteins, I up the fat again…

I have been eating rather cleanly, very few processed meats, if I do, then it’s that Whole30 approved organic, no sugar brand, in small amounts. I am doing much less heavy cream coffee, still eating cheese and nuts, not a whole lot. I might have to cut either one or both out completely? Then it feels like the AIP, with eggs… sounded so deprived?

Today, I have made a conscious decision had a higher carb/lower fat lunch today (usuals, but not so much fats, with 2/3 oz of cooked carrots and 15 blueberries), my ketone is down to 1.2, which is still in the range. I might try this for a while and see. This WOE, will give me roughly 60g protein, 40g of net carbs.

#73

I am 5’10" and all the online calculators I have done have me at about 70g protein per day. Perhaps you might want to reduce some of the meat intake? Maybe do eggs and avocado instead of beef?

#74

What an interesting discovery…
For the past 4-5 days, I changed things up and has been eating insanely amount vegetables (cruciferous only, think roughly 1lb raw vegs daily), with similar amount of protein, and much less (but still over 50% in macro) fats since the vegs just fill me up. I have been at net 40-60 grams of carbs, 70-85 grams of total carbs. Bam, my rash has not came back, shoulder pain is gone, feels much better mentally. No weight change. One thing is though, I am eating in a longer period of window with this. Something like 9/10am coffee, 12pm meal 1 then 6pm meal 2. While when I was minimum carb, I pretty much just eat between 11am to 4pm.

Ketone level is ~2.5 fasting in the morning, around 0.5 one hour after meal - feel pretty good with at this level. While before when I got at 6.5+ in the morning, I felt weird.

I think this will do for a while!

#75

I think it is much more important to find out what works for you, than to adhere to general guidelines that seem to work for many.

We are all outliers on some bell curve, somewhere. :joy:

Stick with what works for you, and enjoy your food. :slight_smile:

#76

So happy to hear you’ve found something that works for you, instead of forcing arbitrary food rules onto your UNIQUE SNOWFLAKE body <3 Good luck!

#77

Thanks @Brunneria and @LindsaySue! I am so grateful to this forum. Being here made me realize how neglectful I had been to my body for the past year or so. Finally hit rock bottom a few months back and there is only up from this point!

So, updates and some major efforts I am putting into my diet now. My doctor is suspicious of some sort of autoimmune disease based on my blood work and symptoms, so not good news. I have IBD or the leaky gut based on testing, so that at least explains something :frowning: so I am starting a modified elimination diet. Living on unprocessed meat and organ meat, non-nightshade green veggies, and limited portions of sweet potatoes and yam (I know but I have to to get my energy level stable) and oils (olive, coconut and avocado). No spices such as cayenne, cumin, which I put on everything! The other things my doctor asks me to stay away for the first month, surprises surprises, avocado, spinach and fish (no surprises here) due to high histamine?

It’s hard. Definitely harder than any way of eating I have done. I literally have to cook EVERYTHING myself. I am relaxing a bit on carb intake as I found that I stay in ketosis (and even feel better) when I eat around 70 grams of total carbs, 50 net, with small portions of sweet potatoes and berries. But man, that spice thing is killing me, and no nuts and cheese? How do you make peace with that?

Anyway, rants over and I am trying not to be self pitiful. Good news is I am feeling better. SELF LOVE and I send LOVES to all of you who battle with conditions/symptoms that people cannot really SEE.

Where are we with that sub-group for people targeting non-weight-loss goals here? I know there are other communities for those kind of “approaches” but I just love the crowd here I wish we see more efforts put into that area!