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I'm about 5 weeks into my keto diet and I am loving it. In the past, maintaining a diet was extremely difficult and I was hungry all the time.
Not so this time. I'm down about 10 pounds despite making zero effort to count or restrict my calories. The weight comes off like magic. What's more I love the food, and I'm always full.
I should gone low carb a long time ago, and I don't know why I never did until now. This is no brainer stuff. Everyone I've talked to who has done keto has gotten amazing results. It has a strong scientific basis as well. The people who are most critical seem to have some sort of ideological objection.
Sometimes it really is that easy. There's no need to complicated programs, apps, or calorie counting. Just cut out pretty much all carbs and the weight comes off.
I heard keto can screw up your kidneys or have other side effects. You ever heard of that?
Funny enough, the first time I heard that claim was today, when I was listening to Stem Talk podcast episode #157. The interviewer said that's been largely debunked and that people who consume higher carb content are actually more likely to have screwed up kidneys.
I think it's possible there may be some negatives to the diet, but almost anything is better than the SAD (standard american diet). 10% of the American population is diabetic and about 1/3rd of adults are prediabetic. It's hard to imagine a world in which going from SAD to low carb is going to be bad for your kidneys.
Concerns about cholesterol are also largely overblown. People with "high" total cholesterol at age 65 are more likely to live to 100. LDL/HDL ratio and triglycerides are more important. That said, I do have very high cholesterol already so this is something I will be monitoring.
I plan to take a blood test soon.
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If you stay in ketosis too long, probably. It's hard to actually hit ketosis though.
Yeah, "keto" can easily be "low carb" in actuality, especially if you're not tracking. When I wasn't I was probably just doing low-carb - especially if you consider that a lot of keto diets call for a lot more fat than protein and I always found it harder to hit the targets for the former compared to the latter.
But I think even low carb will work for a lot of people simply by forcing you to cut out a lot of bad shit you might otherwise unthinkingly consume.
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I think this is sort of part of what I was trying to ask OP about. It seems to me, most people use the term keto somewhat informally. I can't find the source, but somehow I had the impression that being in ketosis for very long periods (like a year) could affect mood and cognitive function. In practice though, it doesn't seem like a lot of people actually maintain ketosis year round. I could definitely see how if you went full ketosis for 12ish week weight loss periods, ate at maintenance relatively low carb, and optionally cycled up to higher carbs when fueling high training loads, that could work very well for people. OP are you testing with keytone strips? And if yes, what's your plan for after you finish your initial weight loss?
I have tried peeing on some ketone strips but they didn't work or my ketones are too low. Probably the former former since the strips are very old and I've been limiting my carbs pretty strictly.
Depending on who is counting a "keto" diet calls for < 20 or < 50 carbs per day. I am almost certainly in the 20-50 range. I am strict with absolutely no bread or fruit. But there are carbs in everything - even yogurt.
I guess I don't care if I'm in "ketosis" or not. As long as the weight comes off easily. Like I said, I'm not hungry, and I'm not making any effort to restrict calories.
I plan to go back to normal eating erring on the side of low carb. Once I hit my goal, I'll allow myself to get slightly fatter and then use keto as a maintenance diet perhaps 1 of every 6 months.
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I think it is impressive to hit ketosis for like a week straight. The amount of carbs in a single slice of bread is enough to take you out of it for a week, even if that was literally the only carbs you had. If you have a personal chef or make all of your meals from scratch its probably a little easier. But almost anything pre-made has too many carbs. Meat with bread crumbs on it is stupidly common. Any pre-prepped meals always have most of their calories coming from a carb item like pasta. Even if you only eat things that are "keto-friendly" you can still have too many carbs for ketosis, because those things can still have a serving or two of carbs.
This is probably coming off as a rant directed at you. Its not. I've been doing low-carb for about two years now. I called it Keto originally, but I don't think I've ever hit Keto, so I stopped using that label. I love the diet and what its done for me, but damn is it frustrating sometimes. So many sugar traps everywhere.
I didn't get too much of a rant impression.
I have tracked macros when serious about training, so I know at least some of the pain that surrounds common prepared foods. I've always kept at least some carbs around workouts though, but was curious about potentially using Keto if I ever do a hard fat loss phase again.
The only person I have know personally that has for sure done Keto proper, with ketone strips and all, staid on for about 3 months. They seemed to get good results, but I don't think they thought it was sustainable to stay in ketosis for a longer period.
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