The biggest tips I can offer is:
- Don’t Force It! If you are full stop eating. Don’t eat to fill your macros. Listen to your body. You have to remember macro calculators are a just a blanket guesstimate. You need to tweak the numbers through experimentation to find what numbers work best for you. When you experiment, try it for a week, and if your not getting the results you are aiming for then change them a little the next week. Rinse and Repeat. Macro calculators are a good jumping off point to see where to start out in the process. They are not law and unfortunately they can’t take into account whats going on in your insides.
- Fasting before adapted is not usually encouraged because you want to make sure you’re feeding your body through the adaptation process. Your body is not efficient at making ketones yet, so you need to make sure there is enough fat to assure your system that the supply is there. The transition into IF should feel natural. In my opinion, if you can fast for 16 hours without wanting to eat and can eat at least 2 solid meals (no grazing) in an 8 hour window then go ahead. If it takes work not to eat for 16 hours then don’t do it yet. The point is to listen to your body, eat when your hungry, and skip a meal if you’re not. This all goes back to tip #1… Don’t force it…
- This may seem hippy dippy… and I used to think this was ridiculous myself, but I swear by it now… Try to add in some time in the day where you can mediate or just have some quiet time to calm your mind to help you destress. It can help calm an angry ulcer. Stress raises cortisol and blood pressure which will irritate an ulcer so it’s important to find time to do something that you find relaxing. I’m a stay at home mom, so I have the luxury of carving time out for myself during my twin toddlers’ nap time. I shut everything off, go in my room and don’t do anything… no chores, no cleaning, no phone calls. I will either just lay on my bed in the quiet, or I’ll read a book, or even catch up on some tv show on my ipad. I basically shut the world out and just decompress and relax. On days where I don’t get my down time my blood pressure is up and I’m super cranky and stressed.
- Don’t focus on the scale. The gain you had could be undigested food waste that hasn’t left your body yet. If you work out vigorously it could be you putting on lean muscle. Focus on how you are feeling and how your clothes are fitting. Keep well hydrated, and make sure you are getting enough salt in your diet.
I agree with the above post about <20g carb, moderate protein, fat to satiate. 200g of fat seems like a lot, but without knowing your stats, your goal, etc… its hard to say.
My gibberish/questions:
Your iron infusion… if you don’t mind me asking, are you chronically anemic? I used to be chronically anemic due to severe blood loss every month (cough) and my doctor insisted I do iron infusions, but after a couple months of keto my anemia completely cleared up so I was able to completely avoid infusions.
Keto can heal the gut, so hopefully a few months of keto will help calm your ulcer enough to get off the meds… No one should recommend you stopping doctor prescribed meds without consulting your doctor first. Just be very attentive to how your feeling and go back in for a check up after you’ve been keto for a couple more months. I have been keto for 10 months, and I try to go in every 3 months to get a check up for the first year, then next year I’ll go every 6 months, then go back to my annual appointment after that. Before I was keto I suffered from hypertension, prediabetes, chronic anemia, perimenopause, and a severe family history of heart disease (everyone in my family died by the age of 65 from heart attack, stroke, or congestive heart failure). The first 3 months of keto and adding my “quiet time” has eliminated my high blood pressure (135/90 to 104/70), My a1c dropped from 5.8 to 5.0, so no more prediabetes, no more trace of anemia… all in the first 3 months. Over the last 10 months I’ve lost 65lbs… Keto works, fasting works, but thats my female perspective. My friend who is a 50 year old male and been keto and fasting for 11 months has reversed his type 2, lost 120lbs, healed his leaky gut and ulcers, and also eliminated his hypertension.
So, my stupidily long post summary… Don’t force it, if it doesn’t feel good then don’t do it, experiment with your macros, don’t focus on the scale… Pay attention to how you feel and how your clothes fit. Try to relax and reduce your stress. Your brain has much more power to affect physical change than people give it credit for.
