When is enough loss enough?

(Empress of the Unexpected) #61

I am, but still struggle with hunger. So adding in a few more carbs.

(John) #62

Anything under 200 will be enough. Anything under 160 will be too much. Target is right in between.

(Bev Walton) #63

Well said my dear …self love always Paramount…at the same time being mindful of being the best version of oneself…

(Cindy) #64

I don’t have any diagnosed metabolic disorders, but keto has still helped with inflammation, mood, and some weight loss. And I could easily lose another 50 lbs, so definitely not suffering from any type of body dismorphia.

I don’t, though, agree that there’s a need for medical input in a situation such as mine. Most of the medical profession is so far behind the science that they’re more likely to recommend the wrong thing…unless the keto patient looks very closely for a keto physician. I know, with my doctor, the last 3 yrs of visits, we’ve talked about my weight…and each time, she offers to prescribe a different weight loss drug. NO mention of anything else, so I’m not inclined to ask her for testing when her solutions for that testing will be prescriptions.

(Kirk Wolak) #65

For me it was just being “out of shape” always with trouble breathing, skin issues.
Morbid obesity is hard on a body.

Dysmorphic thinking… Yeah, all my PREVIOUS thoughts about food. EATING before going to a party, in case they didn’t have a good/decent food selection. Then over eating while there. Or making sure nobody could see how much I was eating.

Now: Finding PKD/Carnivore with IF… I no longer care. I eat to fuel my body. Lost 100lbs.
And frankly am PISSED OFF at the entire Doctor/Dietitian/Nutritionist setup. Personal Trainers as well. A License CPT can lose his license now for recommending KETO. Gotta love it. When I had a CPT years ago, they pushed that LOW FAT crap and tons of snacking on me.

But, something changed this time. It was NO LONGER a diet. It was a WOE and a WOL.
Therefore, I have had setbacks. But I deal with them. I got sick recently, and gained 9 lbs in under a week. I DONT CARE. The fridge died. Had to eat some crap, no cold water, iced tea, etc.

New fridge is here, fasting started that I am on the mend, lost 3lbs last night. It’s 99% inflammation/water. And I NO LONGER Panic. I use the scale for a tool. It does not tell me I am fat. It tells me what my weight is, and if I am probably retaining water from eating allergens! (I had nuts. I love nuts. They cause me inflammation. I don’t have them often, but enjoy them from time to time).

Do I wish I was at my target (10lbs to go)… Yes. Do I care that I am not there? NO!
Because, with this WOE, time is on MY SIDE B!TCHES! :-)))

For once, I know how to recover when I need to, so I can go a little off the deep end.
It will wreck me for 5 days. If I fast for 3 in a row afterwards, I will recover a bit faster.

Will I do that EVERY week! Heck No Maybe once a month when I am at my target weight.
Does it force me to ACKNOWLEDGE the true cost of going off the rails? YEP, and thats a good thing!

This WOE/WOL has fixed my dysmorphic thoughts and disordered eating.
I now separate things on this continuum:
Require Food [About to pass out, BP is too low]
Need Food [That point beyond hunger, Awkward feeling, I may stop fasting here]
Hunger [The body asking for food, without you needing it]
Want Food [The thoughts associated with snacking, or focused on the feedback of eating something]
Could Eat [Regardless of how I truly feel, weather or not I could nibble/eat something]
Cant Eat/Sated [Food has no interest for me, it’s kinda disgusting, I am full]

I used to live in Hunger/Want Food/Could Eat… I don’t remember other states very well.
Except maybe an HOUR or two here or there after a Thankgiving dinner (you know, about 2hrs before ATTACKING the dessert table and scaring the children).

realizing it is a continuum helps.

(Carolyn aka stokies) #66

Loved how you presented this! Thank you so much!

(Simon Saunders) #67

People come for the weight loss stay for how good they feel. :slightly_smiling_face:

(Donna) #68

Hear hear Erin! I remember you from the Slack group of Tabitha Farrar…and am so glad to hear that you have re-discovered a healthy mindset around food and exercise. I know that being keto has really helped me ‘befriend’ food in a very positive way post anorexia. Its’ inherent structure and kindness to mis-managed, damaged metabolisms has given me renewed strength and joy.

#69

I appreciate what you have to say, especially from a therapist’s POV. I have struggled most of my life with how I look, even though I have been an athlete the majority of my life and most people tell me (and have always told me) I look great. I am tall with an athletic build and I carry my weight pretty well. I came into this WOE about 18 months ago with an emphasis on healing my inflammation caused from so many years of abusing my body in athletics. I had gotten to the point that I could not sit down on the floor with my knees bent or squat below 90°. There was just too much fluid and inflammation in my knees. The weight had also crept up a few pounds each year in the last decade and my energy levels were all over the place.

What I have experienced is (to me) nothing short of miraculous. My energy levels are so much more stable, my digestion is better, I have lost almost 45 lbs, and most of the time I don’t feel the compulsion to eat sweets and carbs all day long. There is sweet freedom in that by itself. Most importantly, I have (almost) full range of motion in my knees.

BUT, I still struggle with looking in the mirror and seeing less than perfect, and weighing myself and trying not to beat myself up if I am up a couple of pounds or thinking I should lose another 10. When I win that battle in my mind, that will be true freedom!

(Dave) #70

My wife tells me I look too skinny. LOL. She’s on keto too. All I know is I reversed my T2 diabetes. Life is good.

(Gabe “No Dogma, Only Science Please!” ) #71

Wish I could drop the last 8kg though!

(Anjum) #72

Some of us enlightened enough to be in touch with our bodies and recognize dysfunction before it becomes recognizable to a Dr. I began keto to lose weight that had plagued me years after thyroid cancer. Every physician, endocrinologist, nutritionists and personal trainer told me the same thing. You can’t lose weight when you have a thyroid condition. I now know my ever expanding mid section was insulin resistance. But no one ever told me. No one expressed to me how eating a diet rich in carbs and gluten was giving me a metabolic condition. I started keto to lose weight, bcz I had to lose the weight. What I gained instead is clarity of thought, Spring in my step, and unbelievably state of constant happiness. I also lost over 40% of the hair on my head, but it was worth it to feel this good. I’m almost one year keto and will never go back to any other way of life. Maybe keto isn’t for everyone. But if you really think about it, this is how our bodies were designed. To eat off the land.
So for all intents and purposes I thought I had normal metabolic health, I had never been advised differently. I just had a keen sense something was a miss. I won’t push keto on anyone, but I do feel that there is no other healthy way of eating or living. :balloon:

#73

@ChrisW and everyone else…

How, may I ask, does one switch from weight loss to maintenance? Did you eat more food in general? Eat more fat? Or was it sort of automatic? Or something else entirely?

It seems I’m nearly that point but have no idea how to do it.

Thanks.

#74

Powerful testimony, @ai9966!
Thank you. :+1:

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #75

Dr. Phinney says it happens automatically by eating to satiety. At the beginning, when we have extra fat to lose, the body sets the appetite at a level that allows both dietary and body fat to be metabolized. Later on, when there is no longer any extra fat, the appetite increases till the body gets all the energy we need from what we eat.

(Empress of the Unexpected) #76

I can only speak for myself, but I know I am at maintenance because I finally hit my pre menopausal normal weight. I’ve been here for about three or four months and haven’t changed the way I have been eating. Or maybe I have and don’t realize it. But I did not consciously think about doing anything differently when I reached maintenance.

#77

Thanks Paul great explanation.

In their “art and science of low carbohydrate living-‘” chapter 16 the elaborate example suggests eating a lot of fat but that seems like a suggestion with a question mark.

Then in the “art of living performance” there are no numbers. It’s also what Dr Westman suggests for maintenance (I think?)

So I guess I won’t be looking for any on-off switch I’ll just eat. More bacon, who can complain about that.

I don’t Count calories but my app seems to splat them in my face all the time I have noticed they are going up by 100 cal a week on average. But I don’t know if that’s a coincidence or whatever.

I still have some fat around my belly button I wish was gone, as well as man boobs. One day I may think about exercise

#78

I don’t track food anymore, I still eat strict keto but I eat intuitively and I weigh myself twice a day to keep track of things (once in the morning then once after dinner).

My morning weight determines what my eating day will be like, if I start the day under my goal weight I eat a little more than usual, if I start the day over my goal weight I IF and skip breakfast (note- I’m not forcibly starving myself but if I start the day over my goal weight it usually means I ate late the night before so I’m not too hungry in the morning).

At my weigh in after dinner, if I’m about a kilo over my maintenance weight then that’s good because I usually lose a kilo when I sleep. If I’m way less than a kilo over my goal weight at the end of the day, then I’ll have a late night snack. If I’m way over- IF the next morning. You see the pattern now.

#79

Great, many thanks for that. Very interesting.

Yeah, I’m just tracking carbs now. The rest is on auto pilot.

#80

Oops didn’t see this before on my tiny phone.

Thanks for that and I think that’s the approach I’ll take. I’ll just keep doing exactly what I’m doing now, see what happens, I’m in no rush