What do you indulge in?

(B Creighton) #41

I don’t feel turned off by sweetness. Without eating sugar, your tasted does change. If I were to eat something I liked as a kid, it would disgust me. I can think of a few things. But, just to have something sweet, no. In fact I use xylitol and erithrytol/monk fruit every morning in my goat yogurt. My indulgence is chocolate. Even on keto, we will melt dark choc, and add one of these sweeteners to it to dip strawberries in… wow. I’m making myself crave it. I can allow myself 3 or 4 of these at a time on keto. I also indulge in plainer chocolate. I really enjoy a coconut oil fat bomb I make with raw cacao powder… it tastes very much like fudge. I will even eat JoJo bars.

(Alec) #42

Steak and eggs. Never gets old.

#43

I do believe men have a higher metabolism than women due to having more muscle volume. That said, I too find that when I am eating fat to satiety I don’t gain any weight, I seem to be dropping it instead but that of course does stabilise at some point. If I eat a lot of fat I obly notice that feeling of satiety and wellness, I don’t sweat, probably due to my Reynolds I struggle with cold. I do think how the body reacts to various WOEs is highly individual and one particular WOE definitely does not fit all.

#44

I like to pair eggs with my meats too, particularly bacon and beef burgers.

#45

You know, my indulgance too was chocolate. Always was. When I was a kid I was mad for chocolate and chocolate cake, hot cocoa, certainly. In my adult years I eventually swapped the sweet milk chocolate bars for dark chocolate and been addicted to this many years. But now I seldom feel like having it at all. My body just doesn’t seem to desire it all that much anymore. But as I still have a bar of dark chocolate left in my cupboard, I eat a square in the morning and once the bar is gone I won’t be bothering to buy it again.

#46

Hi Greta, it’s individual what works. But if I eat a lot of fat (cheese, bacon and lots of cream, I tend now to eat half a 300ml tub a day, any more and it would be too expensive) I don’t feel any warmer and I certainly don’t sweat. But women with lipoedema, I’ve read, tend to be cold. It may have a vascular cause. And also the lipoedema fat doesn’t act like normal fat, it doesn’t, for instance, keep you warm. But eating ketogenically and changing the body’s preferred fuel from carbs to fat does seem to work, and there’s been some science showing it helps with the lymphatic system as well, in decreasing the inflammation that may aggregate it perhaps? I’m not going to pretend I understand all the science around it.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #47

That is quite likely, since the female body is designed to have a larger fat percentage. But women’s reproductive hormones also have a big impact on their experience of a ketogenic diet. Many of our women forum members report that they had to go through a period of hormonal re-regulation before they started to experience the other benefits of a ketogenic diet.

My experience is similar to yours. I always wonder how much of our desire for chocolate is actually for the chocolate, and how much is from the sugar it’s always combined with. Since going keto, I’ve learned to prefer the taste of unsweetened chocolate, but I find that it’s not nearly as exciting without sugar in it, and like you, I rarely want any, anymore.

#48

It’s curious though about the relatively small amount of sugar in dark chocolate. I don’t fancy the chocolate that much anymore, but the cream, which I find irresistibly sweet, I want all the time. I can easily go through half of a 300ml tub of extra thick cream now daily, that is my limit, but only because more would be too expensive. I do find that when eating fat to satiety be it from dairy or fatty cuts of meat I have hardly any desire left for carbs at all. Though I had a couple cauliflower florets with my bacon today, as I was cooking a dinner rich in vegetables for my children. I still like the variety.

#49

cool. Glad you found an indulge! Never drank coffee. Tried long long ago but I don’t like it so?

I don’t indulge like I used to on extreme lc from old times. I am now just eat all the carnivore plan food I love every day. So every day is truly an indulgence I believe for me. I can’t ever say I need more in my day, or to indulge for that type of word meaning something ‘special’ cause I think I just hit me, the meat hound, the seafood hound on my eating plan.

one thing I do miss and would love to indulge again is my 90% dark chocolate which I ‘finally’ dumped in zc LOL took a bit to let that out of my hot little ol’ hand but when I did, if I HAD to have something back in any way it would be that I think. Chocolate, only very certain specific chocolate stuff is something I KNOW I would want back :slight_smile: which shows me now not to think about all that HA

#50

Hi Fangs. I suppose I’m not really on any kind of specific eating plan other than eating ketogenically, I only began eating this way because I have lipoedema and it is shown to help treat the condition, even get rid of the diseased lipoedema fat adipose tissue over time. But I never had any idea just how much I would enjoy these new foods, how easily my body would settle into it all and how happily I would indulge in pure fat. So my body is changing with this WOE. I am sometimes closer to carnivore than keto I think but really to me it doesn’t matter. Some days I will just fancy carnivore foods, and some days I will fancy a small handful of nuts, or a couple florets of cauliflower or broccoli. Some days I have my meat with freshly sliced cucumber and bell peppers. But I can also go several days not fancying any vegetables, and I find, so long as the body feels good and I’m enjoying the food, it doesn’t matter. But we embark on unique healing journeys for different reasons, and it is all so very individual where our paths lead us.

Regarding dark chocolate, as I am using up the last bar in my cupboard, I still have 1 square daily. But I don’t think I shall miss it once it’s gone.

#51

and that is the best way forward for you truly. It is about only 1 person eating and how they feel eating that food :slight_smile: and if you can jump keto into carnivore and back out a tad and that is your lifestyle and working total tops for you…darn right ya keep it going!!! Sending ‘smart vibes’ and ‘ya get’ it for what it takes for you and I love ‘ya get it’. So many rely on ‘do I need to do this’ or that’ when they read it and just won’t DO for themselves. I think you got this in the bag n2!

(Greta) #52

@Veronica - sounds like you might be “ketovore”

(Michael) #53

Perhaps sadly as I seem sensitive to every plant, I go through spurts of devouring Lindt 100% dark chocolate bars <—- plural on purpose I bought 20 bars a while ago, ate them all in 8 evenings…… have not bought since, but I am sure I will do similar at Christmas.

Also bacon, ribeye, beef cheeks, veal thymus and sirloin/striploin. Who else makes a whole packet of bacon at once, or eats a 1.5 pound Steak as a snack :sunglasses:

#54

That would affect the metabolism little and in the opposite direction as more fat requires a bit more energy for maintain the body :wink: Woman simply are smaller and less muscular on average so need less energy. A tall, active, muscular woman probably has a higher metabolism than a man with less muscle mass but maybe there is something regarding the gender I don’t know about (and of course, there is an individual factor, 2 men with the same stats easily may use up a very different amount of energy). Obviously some women need way more energy than many men. But on average, women are significantly smaller, less muscular even with the same activity but their attitude regarding getting very muscular (for a human) is vastly different too. And they don’t even get as muscular even if they do their best…

Probably both and it depends. I had the same change, I almost only ate milk chocolate as a kid and then started to eat more dark chocolate later but I still like milk chocolate, I just wouldn’t eat it often, partially because that brings much sugar (or maltitol but that doesn’t sound good for multiple reasons) while I don’t need sugar (or sweetener) for my dark homemade almost-chocolate. And I definitely want the cocoa in it and definitely doesn’t want sugar in it. I always loved cocoa, not just in chocolate. But sweetness is pretty much needed for milk chocolate… I can’t even imagine it without. It’s probably not bad, per se… But lacking…?

To me, all sugary chocolate is way too sugary. Or it feels like eating cocoa powder… My SO is a high-carber with a super big sweet tooth, his almost-chocolate is 8% xylitol. I prefer mine to be not that sweet since a long time. I looked up a nice (except too much cocoa for me I suppose. I preferred 60-70% chocolate) 90% chocolate, it has 14% carbs and yeah, part of that is the cocoa but it’s still way too high for me. The proper, real, quality chocolate is nice but the sugar is off-putting, both that it’s plain added sugar and its amount.
That’s why I almost never touch store-bought chocolate since more than a decade. Then carnivore took away most of my interest in chocolate…

My pork roast definitely felt an indulgence today :slight_smile: My cat, SnugglePie probably agrees, I found some chewier bites for her and she looked very excited :wink:
But tomorrow we will eat smoked mackerel… :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: That is even special, not just very delicious. Carbs and sweet desserts just can’t compare…

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #55

It’s enough to have a big effect on my arthritis, however.

I never heard this before, but apparently one of the proteins in dairy is easily converted into an endogenous form of morphine, which would explain the addictive quality dairy has for some people.

:bacon::bacon::bacon::bacon::bacon::bacon::rofl:

Lastly, it’s worth bearing in mind that caffeine serves the coffee plant as an insect repellent; I assume that the theobromine in chocolate serves the same purpose, since it is chemically related to caffeine, they being both methylxanthines.

One good effect methylxanthines have on mammals is that they are bronchodilators. I learned early on to keep some chocolate around to help my rats if they developed respiratory problems, as a stopgap until we could get to the vet. Naturally, I needed to periodically test the chocolate, to make sure it hadn’t gone bad, lol!

#56

Yes, it could very well be the cream’s addictive effect, however, it doesn’t seem inflammatory to me. I generally only have it in the earlier part of the day whenever I indulge in coffee after my plate of bacon. And then in the afternoon I cook my main meal, today it was a piece of gammon joint, chopped into cubes and fried in butter. After that meal I’m not any more hungry and certainly have no need for snacking.

#57

Greta, I have no idea what a ketovore is though from the name it sounds like half keto, half carnivore? I suppose, although I don’t believe in setting things in stone, it’s a term that could fit me. But really I am just 1) eating intuitively and 2) indulging in the festive spirit of christmas.

(Allie) #58

I eat more than a lot of men I know. Muscle does have an effect but not as much as you’d think.

#59

Yeah, individual factors easily overpower that effect. Once I heard from a hobby bodybuilder at natural maximum how he should eat to maintain and cut… The numbers were surprisingly low, my very much not muscular (except his legs) slim and not even tall SO needs way more. The guy had, IDK, 20 kg extra muscle and of course he had to exercise properly to keep it…? It still wasn’t enough, he just had a lowish metabolism.

(Allie) #60

So many bodybuilders have messed up their metabolisms with chronic low calorie diets. They’re often so scared of gaining tiny amounts of fat that they emotionally cannot reverse diet like they really need to in order to fix themselves. It’s sad.