Seems hard for me to get into ketosis

newbies
#1

Hello all,

a short introduction of myself. i am male, 53, 66.7kg, 175cm, around 15% bodyfat. My motifation to do a ketogenic diet was not mainly driven by reducing weight. It is the conviction to have a more healthier lifestyle as on other diets. Since 1. of january i dropped most of the carbs and alcohol. I drunk occasional some wine, beer, scotch. Not that much. I started ketogenic diet the hard way. Cut the carbs down to <=20g a day. It comes at no surprise. The ket-flu. With feeling very bad, headache, bad mood, beeing cold. After a week and a half, things getting better. Since two weeks i do monitor my daily input via fddb.info (app on smartphone). I setup my nutritional profile to 80% fat, 15% protein and 5% carbs. My calculated demand is around 2030 calories. I am an office worker. Since years i do run every day from mon.-fri. 6-10 km. This runs are mostly cardio based. It costs me around 450-650 kCal per run.

I do not cheat, the cravings are gone, sometims my mind or brain seems to try to trick me somewhat. But this is not an issue. Since the last three weeks i was mostly at 20g carbs or less.
On two days it was 24g and 26g.

I have a glucometer GlucoMen LX plus. I measured since i own it 4 times. Glucose is around 89 mg/dL (with empty stomach, soberly. Are these terms correct?) Ketones this morning (20 mintues after brakfast) was at 0.3 mmol/L. I am a bit scared about this level. For my perception it is to low.

I expected, because of my doing and feeding around 1-2 mmol/L. Is there something i am doing wrong?

If it is helpful, i can also post some of my nutrional details as i eat per day. I also add more sodium and drink enough water (2.5-4L a day). I also reduced coffee. Most of the time i consumed 2 mugs a day. One in the morning, one after lunch. The last 6 weeks i often put HWC ant coconut oil into the coffee.

My macros targes are, fat 175g, carbs 24.8g, protein 75.5g. For the carbs i try to stay at 20 or below. I eat this fat sources: fat meat (beef, pork, poultry), fat fish, kerrygold butter, lard, beef tallow, HWC, crushed linseeds, MCT oil, fishoil, coconut oil, coconutt milk, avocados and some other oils (Macadamia Oil, Linseed oil, walnut oil, argan oil, avocado oil, olive oil). I try to alternate the oils a bit to have a broad variety.

I also eat vegetables (most the greens and cruciferous plants). I avoid the vegetables with high carbs (carrots, paprika…) Sometimes i eat some blueberries and raspberries.

Do i expect to much or am i to impatient or is something wrong in that what i do?

A short disclaimer: I am not a native english speaker. May some of my writing is may misunterstoodable, i do not want to be unpolite or so. Thank you for your patience.
Any suggestion, idea or constructive critique is very welcome,

Many thanks in advance!

#2

Sounds like you are doing great to me. How do you feel now you are through the carb withdrawal?

#3

Thank you for your kind answer.

I feel very good with it. Sometimes there are some reminiscence. I was the most of my life a hobby baker. I maintained my own sourdough. Built them from scratch and bake once a week a bunch of bread and rools. A lot of whole grain used. Also we made our pizza since 15 years only self. We did not bought any ready to serve pizza. Especially the sunday rolls where a ritual.

I do not miss them really, it is more the memory about it. I changed the moring run into walking and do a strenght training (body by science concept).

What i never had before, and this was really an awesome experience, after eating a meal with high fat, i am satiated without feeling bloated. Before ketogenic diet i felt satisfied after the stomach feels tensioned.

(Jules Swart) #4

Many people find that ketones are lower in the morning, as you have been using them as primary your fuel all night. As long as you are feeling good and making progress, keep calm and keto on!

#5

dont get too worried about the numbers. Its very simple at first… sugar and bread are the enemy. Then its a learning process of all the veggies. I never counted numbers and ratios.

This is not as much a diet as it is figuring out a new way to eat and training your body. when I started I just cut out all sugar…all of it. And no bread. No fruit either. I went into it as I was experimenting with my body and the fat just melted off. Pretty unbelievable. I never cheated either… not,once. I am never going through that first week again.

(Marshelle) #6

Congratulations! Sounds like you are doing great!!! I am also doing 6 miles intervals with 4 days on one day off. I recently added weight training every other day (arms, back, core only). Trust the process and keep those carbs lower than 15g. No alcohol and limit the fruit. (None for me). You are really doing great!!!

(Brandon) #7

I had trouble get in to keto. I ended working my tale off in the gym for a couple nights. And burned off the excess glycogen in my body. That second night after the work out I slept like crap. I woke up several time to pee and notice I was sweating. The next afternoon bam!! Ketones on the stick

(Lee Jones) #8

By the sounds of it you’re doing a sterling job Geo and as it’s still very early days I’d reccomend not worrying too much and advise just cracking on exactly the way you are at the moment.

Maybe revisit the ketone levels in a couple of weeks and take action from there if need be👍🏼

(Alexandria) #9

I know this is not helpful advice, but wanted to say that it sounds like you’re doing a stellar job and I hope you stay the course!

(Aliesha Barnett) #10

Hey Brandon!
I am struggling to get into ketosis, I exercise a few times a week including running, resistance training. Would you recommend me increasing my exercise intensity to get into ketosis?

#11

I don’t know how hard you’re pushing resistance training, but it will deplete glycogen stores, a good thing to help get into ketosis, so you might want to up the intensity, but there’s a saying, “you can’t out-exercise a poor diet”.

Have you limited carbs below 20 grams?

Is your protein in the range of 1.0g to 1.5g per kg of estimated lean body mass? Protein has 1/2 the insulinogenic effect of carbs, so overeating by only 20 grams of protein is equivalent to 10 carbs, so if you’re insulin resistant, the elevated insulin level will severely inhibit ketogenesis.

If you’re not limiting carbs and eating more protein because you’re resistance training, I’d suggest dropping carbs as low as possible to minimize the effect on raising insulin (insulinogenic).

Dairy tends to be insulinogenic so that could be a factor.

Another common supplement for people who are resistance training is whey protein and this is very insulinogenic and another protein source would be a good idea.

Edit: It’s been reported that in general people can go up to 2.0g per kg, but if someone is not getting into ketosis, then I think protein is something that should be given serious consideration.

(Brandon) #12

It comes down to sugar try to eat none.
No carbs at first. if you were to spend 3 days in a row, running on a treadmill while not consuming sugar or carbs you body will be forced into ketosis. You know when your close you get hangry, anxious, testy. You body starts flipping out because the metabolism is switching over. Eat a lot of fat don’t count calories for a week. I would take bites of butter. Your body transitions better when you have an ample supply of fat.