Traveling on keto, making it speed up

(James Holley) #1

I started keto the week after Thanksgiving last year. I have lost 35 pounds. I need to lose a lot more. I had a car accident as a teenager, and the weight just makes the injury so much worse. I have had the some of the same problems as a lot of other people, ie constipation, keto flu. I looked at the other post constipation but had some other questions. I would like to speed it up the keto, if possible, because I am going on vacation, which is going to require a lot of walking. I am down to one meal a day. As of right now, my weight is still interfering with my mobility.

  1. I am limited on what type of exercises and the intensity of the exercises because of the nature of my injury. Is it true the intensity of workout can help the keto? Does anybody have experience with this?

  2. I mentioned I was going on vacation. Does anybody have experience with preparing snack on vacation or flight? I will be traveling over 24 hours to my destination. I cannot imagine airplane food is good for the keto diet.

  3. Is there a way to speed up the keto process up, so that I lose weight fast? Anybody have any experience doing this? Is it successful?

  4. Should one break up the intermittent fasting? Will this make the keto more successful?

Thanks for any advice in advance,

James

#2

Congratulations on your success over the last few months! Sounds like you’re on a great path.

  1. Exercise is wonderful but it’s not necessarily going to speed up your weightloss. If you need to be careful with your injury (and you mentioned your weight is interfering with your mobility) you might do well to stay relatively active but hold off on formal exercise until you have less excess weight.
  1. if you’re down to one meal/day, travel should be relatively easy. Some simple travel-friendly foods are beef jerky (read the ingredients - this can have sweeteners!), salami, olives, macadamia nuts, hardboiled eggs and cheese if you’re doing dairy. Personally I have never liked airplane meals, but some keto folks pick through them to eat the protein and fat and avoid the carbs. The other option is to time your meal for an airport place, since eggs + vegetables/bacon are available in most airports.
  2. 35 pounds down since early December is pretty darn fast!
  3. Varying your schedule can be great: two meals on some days, one on other days, fasting for 36-48 hours here and there. But I wouldn’t do this hoping to lose weight faster, more to make sure that you keep your metabolism from slowing down with long-term OMAD
(Jane) #3

Sorry, but no. However if you figure out a way to do this you will become rich beyond your wildest dreams.

Our bodies resist change and will fight for equilibrium no matter what you eat or how much you exercise. This means your weight may not drop in spite of working very hard to do so. Very discouraging.

Better to adopt this way of eating for life w/o “I need to lose xxx lbs before yyy special event/vacation. A recipe for failure. You keep eating keto your body will heal and the weight will drop. But on its own schedule - not your vacation one.

(Running from stupidity) #4

:metal::metal::metal::metal::metal:

(*Tame Those Ghrelin Gremlins) #5

Very true, Keto isn’t a bandaid or a quick fix pill. It’s a long term change and our bodies make the pace. Our body decides to how fast those changes happen. If you feel great and have lost weight that is awesome!

(Frank) #6

I really love this response. Well said!

#7

How long until your vacation?

@Madeleine is right, 35lbs in just a few months is already a good start to keto and now you can enjoy getting into the lifestyle fully and see longer-term results.

I think rather than looking for a faster pace (which will set you up for failure if you start doing things like calorie restriction and fasting so early on) you should look for more consistency. Not only will that help with your shorter-term goal but it’ll establish a good routine for the future of your keto lifestyle as well.

There’s things you can do to have a more consistent loss.

  1. Ensure you are staying hydrated and balance that well with electrolytes so that you’re not clinging on to water all the time, and also so you’ll feel better (which will help with walking around a lot more if weight is still an issue).
  2. Mix things up if you feel ready, so you’re not just doing OMAD all the time but some days you might eat a few meals, some you might even skip if you’re not hungry at all.
  3. Look into tracking your macros using an app like Cronometer. I personally don’t do this but a lot of forum members do, and swear by it, because it helps them ensure carbs are under control and they’re optimising ketosis.
  4. Minimise stress as much as possible if you have any, as it increases cortisol which can raise insulin levels and slow weight loss.
    https://idmprogram.com/closer-look-cortisol-hormonal-obesity-xxxx/
(James Holley) #8

Thanks for responding!

!. I wish I was more active. All I seem to do is work and go home. I do try to get on the exercise bike some. However, it seems after I do this, I am paying for it the rest of the day or the next day. I am in a lot of pain and do not feel like doing anything for the rest of that day.

  1. I will probably bring some snack on the plane. The first leg of the journey, I do have a four hour window between flights. The second leg is a over 14 hours on the plane. Then I have only 1 hour 40 minutes to get to my next flight, which is about four hours long. It will be well after midnight by the time I get to my hotel with about 20 hours total on the second and third legs on the journey. I am still not sure what is around the hotel to go eat.

  2. I still feel like it has slowed down some. I will just keep continuing what I am doing. Hopefully, the results keep coming.

  3. That is some good advice. I had not heard that yet.

(James Holley) #9

I leave for my vacation on February 25. Losing an additional 20 pounds would be great. Although, that might be out of the question. I will settle for 15.

  1. I try to mix it up a little and not just drink water. Walking a lot hurts more than anything. My injury was a result a car accident. Both my legs and my left foot was broken. My hip

was shattered. I have metal in there now. It is my left knee that been giving me the problem in the last couple of years. My theory is I have favored my left side since the accident. Walking a little funny has caused something. This has tweaked it or whatever. When I went to the doctor, it is fundamentally fine. Everybody tells me it is the weight. My other knee is fine and no pain whatsoever. Losing weight has let me move better and I do think their is some merit to the advice. However, the pain is still the same and not really gotten any better. Even doing exercises that is low impact hurts; hence the exercise bike. I do not have access to a swimming pool right now. When I did, I was doing weights on the ankles and it did not seem to help.

  1. Unfortunately, I am a picky eater and do not like cooking much. Most of my meals consists of egg, cheese, and butter.

  2. I am pretty sure my carbs are under. For the most part, I have cut them out.

  3. Yeah, I do try to control my stress. I do not feel like I am under stress. I think a lot of my weight gain was being so inactive because I was hurting so much.

Thank you for the response.

(John) #10

Cook some bacon, get some of those BabyBel cheese things, and bring a couple of ounces of pecans, almonds, walnuts, and a few squares of 90% or more dark chocolate in separate plastic bags for snacks. That should give you a variety of tastes and textures to nibble on.

During the long layovers between flights, eat in the airport. Most of them have several decent restaurants and it’s usually easy to find something that fits your diet.

I don’t know about you, but I can just not eat for 14 hours no problem. I did a business trip in November and on the day I left home, I just didn’t eat anything until I got to the destination and went out to dinner, so that was 24 hours between meals.

Whenever I find myself in a situation where there is no appropriate food, I just don’t eat. My body has plenty of energy stores already, so it’s not like I am going to starve.

Regarding your exercise: You may want to consider working with a physical therapist for rehab of your injuries. Just trying to figure out what to do on your own may not be the right approach.

As far as weight loss goes, exercise will help some but is not as effective as changes in your diet. I would suggest trying some bodyweight (situps, pushups, planks, bridges, etc) or weight-lifting exercises that don’t stress that knee joint. Building up a little muscle mass will increase your resting metabolic rate which helps with calorie burn over time. But you won’t see enough progress in the next 25 days to make any impact on your vacation, I’m afraid.

The other option that some people use is intermittent or extended fasting. You might want to try a single 24-hour fast (skip two meals in a row) as a starter. Some do alternate-day fasting, which is essentially eating your normal intake one day, then not eating or drinking anything with calories the next day, then back to eating. So 36-hours of not eating, followed by 12 hours of eating normally, every 48 hours.

(Annzie) #11

I know almonds have carbs, but it is still a very portable food. I love almonds with string cheese. It won’t replace a healthy keto meal, but it might save you in a pinch. I have carried these two on planes for as long as single string cheese was available.

(Annzie) #12

Oh and check out tia chi. I started 27 years ago after a back injury. I was whining to a friend and a stranger came over saying he’d overheard our conversation. He had broken his back and was doing tia chi to regain his strength and overcome the pain. I started taking classes at the University and fell in love with it. It’s amazing how such gentle movement can raise your heart rate.

(Jane) #13

I travel a lot for my job and some are long overseas flights. Most of the airline meals are pure carbage and hard to eat around the heavy sweet sauces they love to drown everything in.

Some of the things I pack with me: pepitas (pumpkin seeds), beef jerky, cheese, butter (I use candy wrappers and slice and wrap my own then carry in a ziplock baggie), cured meats.

On layovers in airports I look for a sit-down burger place and remove the bun and sub a salad for fries. Or a chicken Caesar salad. In a pinch I’ve grabbed fast food hot dogs and ditched the buns.

(Janelle) #14

If so, it wouldn’t be healthy or sustainable.

Pound a week or less loser here. 35lbs in two months makes me happy for you (and more than a little jealous for me.). Remind yourself that you certainly didn’t gain 35 lbs in a couple of months. Losing that much so fast or more consistently really would not be good for your body. Your weight loss will probably slow down soon and you should not get discouraged if/when that happens.

When I travel, I bring cheese, premeasured nuts and Duke’s sausages (which I get on Amazon). Low sugar beef jerky works too.

(James Holley) #15

Janie,

Thank you for that advice. I will look into some of that for that flight. It is hard for me to sit still for so long in a confined space and not snack on something. I have read the reviews on this particular airline and yes, the phone is absolute garbage.