Words of wisdom

(Yuri) #1

Hello everyone,
I am new to this forum and new to this way of eating. I have been struggling to loose weight since giving birth to twins three years ago. Three years ago, I was also diagnosed with hypothyroidism, which doesn’t help. I have been reading a lot about the keto diet and feel it is something I can definitely do. However, I am curious if all these oils and flours that they speak of in almost every article I have read, is actually necessary? Also, does this diet allow for snacks, as I only see there being 3 meals a day. Can I assume that in just sticking to really low carbs (5%) that it’ll do the trick loose weight.
I’d love to hear from those who have had success and how you did it. I’d love to loose 30lbs so badly!!!

(Khara) #2

NO! Specialty products are not needed to eat ketogenically. Keep it simple. Focus on 20g or less of carbs. Eat healthy proteins and fat and eat until full. As time goes by you will learn about your body and you will learn tweaks that you can make by continuing to read here. You can get started without any specialty products. Buy whole foods, eggs, meats, green veggies, butter, some dairy such as heavy cream and cheese. Meals can be very simple, a fatty (not lean cut of) meat and a veggie with plenty of butter although many people here don’t eat a lot of veggies. Breakfast can be eggs and bacon. Make sure you don’t feel hungry, you shouldn’t feel like you are dieting. If hungry that’s an indicator to add some more fat, I just add more butter. As your body is adjusting, electrolytes may be an issue. Salt your meals generously, to whatever tastes good. Look up the keto-aide recipe on this forum for an electrolyte supplement. Welcome and good luck!!!

(Khara) #3

I forgot to address your snacking question. Ideally it’s best to not snack. What I found during early days was that I needed to just eat when hungry. If I was hungry soon after a meal I knew I probably hadn’t had enough fat during that meal and so I adjusted at the next meal. But, don’t go hungry. If you need a snack have something fatty. I bet you’ll find as I did that once I got adapted to this way of eating my hunger between meals no longer happened and I settled in to a one to two meal a day routine with no snacked. The reason snacking is not recommended is because we want to keep our blood sugar spikes to a minimum throughout each day. Every time you have a meal and snack, that blood sugar spikes so it’s best to try and get to a point of no snacking. You will learn more as time goes by and you continue to read here.

(Yuri) #4

Wow!!! I did not know that and it makes complete sense. Thank you so much for your responses. Greatly appreciate your feedback.

(Carl Keller) #5

Hello and welcome Yuri.

@KBG gave some great advice. I’ll just add that my focus for eating ketogenically is to feature a fatty protein and supplement with a cup or two of vegetables. Good seasoning and a good sear on the protein makes this easy and delicious.

The idea of three or less meals per day can seem intimidating when we are hungry all the time (because of a carb based diet) but I can assure you that eating LCHF changes the behavior of your hunger and you might discover how your hunger is actually supposed to work. It’s arguable that any animal on the planet that has access to nutrient dense foods, needs to eat three or even two meals per day.

Also, try not to think of keto as a weight loss plan. Diets are typically short term and results should be expected to be short term if that’s how you approach keto. It’s more of a lifestyle that is sustainable and greatly improves many aspects of our health… weight loss is just one aspect.

Lastly, hypothyroidism makes losing weight more challenging, but not impossible. Just keep this in mind and try to put your expectations in long term mode. While you are eating LCH, you may not be losing weight at all times, but remember that you are probably healing your metabolism and gaining many benefits that can not be measured on the scale.

https://drjockers.com/ketogenic-diet-hypothyroid/

(Yuri) #6

Thank you Carl for your suggestions. I am going into this with the idea that is a lifestyle change, that has the potential to improve my overall health. I’m excited about it, but was worried about the process. We shall see how it goes for me :slight_smile:

(Yuri) #7

Also…thank your for sharing that link :+1:

(John) #8

The only oils I use are avocado oil and olive oil for cooking / sauteing. Nothing special there, I always used olive oil anyway. The avocado oil replaces canola for higher temp cooking.

I don’t use any flours (coconut or almond I am guessing), though if you plan on doing any baking of bread-like things you may need some for recipes. I made some “keto bread” once which did use almond flour, and while it turned out all right, I didn’t like it enough to make a second batch.

I do find flaxseed meal makes a good breading substitute for fried chicken - dip in a beaten egg, roll in flaxseed meal, fry in avocado oil.

For snacking - early on I made sure to keep keto-safe snack foods around. Walnuts / almonds / pecans portioned out into individual serving sizes, the small individually wrapped Babybel cheeses, cans of sardines, cooked chicken tenders, bacon.

After a few weeks I no longer needed the snacks and then got to the point where I didn’t even need to worry about taking lunch to work every day because I could easily skip entire meals.

So when you start - sure, plan on having no-carb or low-carb snacks available during the adjustment period, but if you are wanting to lose weight and get insulin and blood sugar spikes smoothed out, work towards longer periods where you are not eating - 4 to 5 hours between meals, and not eating anything after dinner. But that can come later.