We Surveyed People on the Keto Diet


(Troy) #1

" AND the survey says! "

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I’m just the messenger :grimacing:

https://health.usnews.com/wellness/articles/we-surveyed-people-on-the-keto-diet-heres-what-they-say


(Gregory - You can teach an old dog new tricks.) #2

Participants reported that the biggest challenge is maintaining the self-control required to follow the keto diet. A close second was the time it takes to plan meals, track carbs/fat and shop. The third top challenge: the cost of ingredients, special foods and supplies.

Sounds like the typical " trying to do keto with pretend SAD recipes "…

If they went with whole, single ingredient foods there would be no challenge at all…

No tracking necessary…


(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #3

I have to admit, not what I expected. Yes, there are some newbie issues but overall it’s surprisingly positive. It’s mostly the so-called ‘health experts’ and USNews who seem not convinced.

Such positive results seem to overshadow any health concerns. For example, following the keto diet requires giving up fruits, whole grains and starchy vegetables – the opposite recommendations for a heart- or diabetes-friendly diet. When comparing the Mediterranean diet to the keto diet, for example – both popular eating plans drawing plenty of interest from people who want to lose weight – the Mediterranean diet allows for a full array of fruits, vegetables and healthy whole grains.

Health experts also note that the diet’s high fat content could be dangerous for people with certain health conditions. Yet about 60% of those surveyed say they are “not at all worried” about health concerns that have been raised about the diet, and less than 1% are “very concerned.”


(Gregory - You can teach an old dog new tricks.) #4

Who in the world thinks most fruits and starchy vegetables are diabetes friendly?

Never mind…


#5

The main challenge would still be there, keto is a huge step, many of us can’t even do it right after high-carb - but expensive special stuff??? Keto was my cheapest woe ever. Sure, I could spend very much on fancy food (not almond flour or fancy supplements, I think of “expensive but worth it” meat) but it’s not mandatory. Planning meals is an extra problem if we start to eat drastically different from our family, I would think… We can eat simple, normal food if we want. But it’s probably not this obvious for all beginners.
Tracking takes much effort and time indeed. One can ignore that but only if they stay super low with carbs (or don’t care about ketosis very much) and it makes the diet change even more drastic.

But the costs… What the hell did they eat I wonder?

The article is a bit misleading. Keto doesn’t require giving up fruits… And I doubt it would be so super rare that the fat intake doesn’t raise significantly… Especially for the obese ones losing fat at a great speed and coming from a very fatty and carby woe. I would like to see numbers about those… But some people surely have this. Not like there is anything bad with eating more fat, of course, as long as it’s not too much. Some of us have to go to the opposite direction as our fat intake was way too high to begin with.


(Georgia) #6

Why is it that when I click on the link, the page contains nothing but advertisements for Weight Watchers?

Unless you eat only pre-packaged food or fast food, any diet is going to involve planning, shopping and cooking.


(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #7

Cookies. Clear your browser cookies frequently to avoid being tracked.


#8

Honestly? I eat no shortage of them and have zero issues with my A1C creeping up. Only the sugary ones do that to me so… Not everybody reacts the same. My Strict keto A1C was typically around 4.8, with me eating my current way it’s around 5.1. Still very respectable by any measure.


#9

Have to agree with Michael. It’s a good report covering many human flaws.


(Bunny) #10

Me


(Mutain) #11

:slightly_smiling_face: A good place to start.


#12

I can get the comment about costs. Perhaps it’s different where you live, but here, meat is very expensive. If you go good quality, it’s astronomically expensive and difficult to find. Bread, potatoes and pasta are dirty cheap.

It’s the world upside down, unfortunately.


#13

One doesn’t necessarily need to eat much or any meat or keto, though (ovo-lacto vegetarian keto is zillion times better for me than any high-carb, that’s sure). And it’s not only grains and meat, I ignored both groups for many years… No one can live on grains, we need the usually pricier protein sources too. In my country even poor ones spend way more money on crappy carby food than living on cheap grains (totally unsustainable, of course) would require. Yeah, I could eat a 1000g simple grain dish (much water :)) and 700 kcal using the cost of a single egg. And it wouldn’t worth it. They can’t be compared.

It’s very unlucky if farm meat is expensive, yeah, it’s surely way more expensive here than eggs and those are way more expensive than the cheap grains but it’s still not so bad if one chooses the cheaper cuts and animals and we don’t need to eat only meat… I am not willing to eat really cheap meat from the supermarket and can’t afford much farm meat (and the local farms rarely sell meat, that is my actual problem) so my meat intake is tiny and it’s quite troublesome on carnivore(-ish) but it’s still the best woe I could find this far so what can I do? :smiley: I must eat low-carb, it can’t be helped but I better stay go way lower. Eating carbs just raise my costs as they don’t satiate me so I end up eating way more fatty animal protein and that’s not cheap and I can’t afford it unnecessarily.

If someone is very poor and/or carbs are great and satiating for them, that’s a different case. And if a country has truly high meat prices, that too. We have meat from extremely cheap to insanely high here. Good meat is pricier but there are cheaper cuts.
And our energy need matters too. If I eat 1300 kcal, I need a lot of nice fatty protein on any diet. If I need 4000 kcal and I have not much money, it matters what the price of most of my energy but keto has cheaper options too. Of course I don’t need much more expensive meat in the latter situation (my body is about the same, I am just get more active and don’t want to lose fat anymore), I can add some cheaper fat.

Why would it be upside down? The more valuable food that requires more money to grow has a higher price. And people pay for it, that matters too. The local farm I use announces they have veal (way too expensive for me) and it sells in hours, people gladly pay the price.


#14

Good for you. It’s a big world, though.


#15

Indeed. But we are in this forum, full with first world people with income so I feel very poor here.
Most of the real poor people can’t even do keto, they eat whatever they can and most of them has no access to the internet anyway. I am often glad I have clear water and even in my own house! (Especially that it wasn’t the case for too many weeks last year.) But people find even good tap water boring and probably spend more money on mineral water than I spend on food. Lots of people spend more money on coffee (not even at a fancy place) than my food costs. And I eat well. There are levels, I know that, I think about that sometimes but on a normal day I don’t compare myself to a very poor African family or even a homeless person in my country.
It’s way more frequent that people spending way more money on food as me (in this country) complains that they can’t afford proper food, just the cheapest, crappiest stuff in the shop. And they are wrong and probably not committed or creative. I always keep in mind that there are truly poor people so the carnivores saying much meat is affordable for everyone isn’t true at all. They talk about expensive keto stuff we can stop buying… I never could afford almond flour to begin with (not like I needed such stuff), that’s super expensive! I ate simple stuff like before keto… So adding much meat drastically raises the costs and it’s impossible for me (but I often can’t even buy the meat I have money for so it doesn’t matter). So I am in-between worlds. In this forum, I am extremely poor. It’s fine, only my own fault anyway but of course I don’t focus on the far away billions who are less lucky than me if it’s about food costs.


(Gregory - You can teach an old dog new tricks.) #16

Lets put the OP back in context.

While your points are well taken, very few if any of the disenfranchised people you speak of took part in this survey.

The people who participated in the survey were less likely to have the availability and cost issues you refer to…

They were dealing with " Oh, my ! Ribeye is so much more expensive than " Sugary Breakfast Cereal "… This is inconvenient…


(Bob M) #17

A different viewpoint: I don’t eat any fruits. Petty much, ever. Can’t remember the last time I had fruit of any type. They are unnecessary.

And if you want to get a CGM and track the results and post them here, I think you’d be surprised as to what a hit they give you.


(Bunny) #18

There is a much easier way to do this because the bro-scientists think ketogenic is about meat and fat and that’s down right deceptive if not scientifically WRONG!

The ketogenic diet is about sugar and always has been about SUGAR <=== they don’t get it!

You can take any kind of food and keto it, and it is real real simple.

You take a plate (this is your measuring stick, app, iron rod) and load plate with the amount of food you usually eat every meal and very very very slooooowly reduce the portion size of what you usually eat; throttling down the amount of food you eat which in turn lowers dietary sugars and burns body fat. Then try to spread out eating windows if your a three meal a day type of person to one then back up to three and the body fat will follow like a magnet.

Don’t worry about the carbs, fats or proteins, counting macros or calories (at least try to have a sensible balance if possible) your body will work it out, so don’t worry about it.

That’s how everyone should really do keto, but if your poor that’s how you can do Keto!

When I look at the amount of food (horrifying amounts of meat and fat) most keto people eat; …and then they sit their and bitch, and complain about how they can’t lose any body fat and I’m sitting over here in the corner doing the “hmmm I wonder why?” thing…lol


(Gregory - You can teach an old dog new tricks.) #19

Just eat what you always eat in smaller amounts ?
Well, that’s certainly a new idea…

( Unbelievable! )


(Bunny) #20

Believe it! If your not poor and can afford to eat ribeyes every night, why worry about my post?