Started the keto diet today

[satimy]

Like any fad diet, keto is unnecessary and dangerous if used long term. Just eat a balanced diet, get your daily macros, count your calories, and excercise.

Literally pseudoscience the post right here

1. Nothing suggests that ketosis is unhealthy long term
2. Not all calories are created equal

[Deleted]

OMG THE KETO DIET you are so amazing ! please tell me more so i can be in awe of how unique you are.

[Rudol Von Stroheim]

My strategy for weight loss is cutting out sugary products, dialing back the meat/dairy significantly and eating a lot more whole grains and vegetables/fruits but in smaller, repeated portions so that I don't become excessively hungry and consume a larger, unhealthy meal out of impulse. I drink primarily coffee, green tea, and water.

For instance: breakfast I'll consume Kashi whole wheat cinnamon biscuits with unsweetened almond milk.

Unfortunately I'm not too terribly creative beyond, "Oh hi plant. Let me stuff you in my mouth." because I absolutely suck at cooking and am a single guy so, it was inevitable that my diet, despite likely much better, still being lazy as all fuck. I've been trying to experiment more with the Birdseye meals you can pop in the microwave. Potato and rice is pretty good and helps to fill any caloric deficiencies.

Oh, I also jog for about an hour in the morning.

However, on the subject of the Keto diet, I'm a bit skeptical. Seems like there can be a lot of unhealthy side-effects, it's extremely easy to screw up, and the concept of "fasting" to me still comes across as a relative unknown that is now just suddenly blowing up. What's so wrong with trying to simply eat healthier and live healthier versus these crazy diets that ask so much of you?

[Drench]

First off... Check out the Keto reddit.
Second don't listen to idiots about a fad diet. The real benefit is cutting all the sugar thats horrible for you.
Keto doesn't make you lose muscle, if you eat extra salt and magnesium you will never get any sick feeling.
Keto after staying that way for around a month you'll have more energy, it only effects your lifts at the start other than that almost everyone gets more cardio endurance off the bat.

Also read up on the science and if you want check out ketolifts for keto+body building.

Anywho this is what 2 months of eating bacon/cheeseburgers/tacos/cheese/beef and broccoli does.

Before:
http://i.imgur.com/V7yHw26.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/83gkxsb.png

After:
http://i.imgur.com/0ylpMze.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/kWJ67xp.jpg

Sure I coulda ate less and did exercise... but I stuffed myself with bacon and did no exercise...
I didn't lose any muscle, no side effects and everything else improved.


Edit: Protip: Get water flavors (the liquid kind without maltodextrin) and get a crap ton of truvia. You can make cookies/cakes/desserts and sesame sauce + more for dinner variety.

[Cyberowl]

Literally pseudoscience the post right here

1. Nothing suggests that ketosis is unhealthy long term
2. Not all calories are created equal

#WhiteBreadMatters

[Louisa Bannon]

Random thoughts:

Ignore random guy on the internets. You need authorities, so go read the actual recommendations from the World Health Organization:
Summary:
http://www.who.int/elena/titles/guid...ars_intake/en/
Longer docs:
http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/1...549028_eng.pdf
http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/1...HO_TRS_916.pdf

Now that's your authority, it is not my authority. I think modern medicine has some things wrong on purpose because of political and economic reasons. But even the WHO, which is in the back pocket of governments and the processed food industry can't keep denying what the research shows so overwhelming: we are killing people and causing epidemic chronic disease with an excess of sugars and carbs. So just to really break it down for you, that WHO daily maximum recommendation might be as low as 100 calories from sugars, or 6 teaspoons. That's maybe 2/3 of a single 12 oz can of soda pop. Of course, you should probably just skip it altogether because its high fructose corn syrup and pure fucking poison in all reality.

I think the way food culture has changed from two people sharing a coke perhaps once a week to folks drinking Mountain Dew first thing in the morning and then drinking it all day long as if it were water is NOT normal. Drinking water is normal. That need to dose on sugar first thing and frequently thereafter reeks of the sugar pusherman cycle of addiction. A substance that is now considered perhaps 8 times more addictive than cocaine has people in thrall every 3-4 hours as they get high on carbs, crash and then they need more...

And funny thing, the daily requirement for carbs is...wait for it...zero. If you are an amateur or professional athlete, your use of carbs to fuel workouts might be different. But I also think we can look at society as a whole and assert that such requirements are not the burden of the average person today. We have an obesity epidemic and even children now have type 2 diabetes, whereas that was unknown in the past.

And no, I don't think the human body is stupidly designed. I think that even if you ate no protein, your body would first use stored fat and then start using muscle if it had to. Even if the body does eat a tiny bit of muscle as it goes, eating even 4-6 ounces of protein daily would shut that down pronto. So no, neither keto nor fasting cause any significant reduction in muscle weight. But keto is not a protein obsessed plan, it only requires moderate or sufficient proteins.

I personally fast for three days every quarter for purely health reasons. The benefits of fasting are like manna from the heavens. The benefits include: weight loss, increased insulin sensitivity, speeding up one's metabolism, it can improve brain function and the immune system, lowers blood pressure, reduces bad cholesterol and triglyceride levels, decreases inflammation, etc.

Fasting for three days (water only) is dead easy. I had to coax my current partner into it because she had never fasted before, but I had done it many times for religious reasons. She nervously asserted that she had probably never skipped a meal in her entire life. When the first three day fast was behind us, she felt liberated realizing that neither food nor hunger need necessarily concern her overmuch in this modern era of abundance. When she used to get hungry, she felt compelled to eat - and that's reasonable. What she didn't realize was that one could just put that desire to feast off for nearly as long as one wished to do so. Fasting is a reasonable and expected part of the human experience and has been for thousands of years - we literally call it "feast and famine." And fasting that is in the control of the individual doing it is really very, very beneficial in numerous ways. And of course, you can stop at any time if some overwhelming issue arises - just eat something.

The processed food industry is not pleased. They certainly want you eating their weirdo foodstuffs. In my own home we've got them down to a small handful of condiment type items. So thanks, Cargill! We can handle the rest with whole foods and the like.

[therealstegblob]

Keto burns too much muscle for me. I think it's good for people who are really overweight but have good kidney function but it's horribad for sustained cardio activities like distance swimming or running more than a 10k.

Keto does not burn any muscle.

[Rooflesstoofless]

Keto does not burn any muscle.

It does if you are actually doing heavy cardio and depleting glycogen stores. Keto is great if you are a sedentary person but is way too carb restricted for sustained activity.

[Deleted]

Why would anyone cut out on well needed carbs? These diet hypes are dangerous for your health and should be called out.

A lot of people really can't handle carbohydrates well - myself included. I eat no more than 50-100g of carbs per day and I've had absolutely no problems like this for years. Infact, when I go over this amount (even when I taper my fat intake to compensate) the weight starts to pile on.

As an aside, I do plenty of cycling, running and walking - if I do a particularly long event; 100mile bike ride, or a 30mile run I will end that day with a shit-load of carbs to fill myself back up and avoid feeling like I've been run over; including a carb-heavy breakfast the following day, but then it's back to normal.

[Dug]

Awesome OP and good luck! I lost 120lbs on the diet which took me about a year and a half. Once your body becomes adapted you feel great, lose cravings and feel no need to eat out of boredom and you still get to eat delicious food! Still do it from time to time when I want to cut but I'm back to carb loading to build muscle but its very easy to get back on the diet! Just tough out the first week or so (might not even be tough for you) and you're golden

[Rudol Von Stroheim]

Random thoughts:

Ignore random guy on the internets. You need authorities, so go read the actual recommendations from the World Health Organization:
Summary:
http://www.who.int/elena/titles/guid...ars_intake/en/
Longer docs:
http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/1...549028_eng.pdf
http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/1...HO_TRS_916.pdf

Now that's your authority, it is not my authority. I think modern medicine has some things wrong on purpose because of political and economic reasons. But even the WHO, which is in the back pocket of governments and the processed food industry can't keep denying what the research shows so overwhelming: we are killing people and causing epidemic chronic disease with an excess of sugars and carbs. So just to really break it down for you, that WHO daily maximum recommendation might be as low as 100 calories from sugars, or 6 teaspoons. That's maybe 2/3 of a single 12 oz can of soda pop. Of course, you should probably just skip it altogether because its high fructose corn syrup and pure fucking poison in all reality.

I think the way food culture has changed from two people sharing a coke perhaps once a week to folks drinking Mountain Dew first thing in the morning and then drinking it all day long as if it were water is NOT normal. Drinking water is normal. That need to dose on sugar first thing and frequently thereafter reeks of the sugar pusherman cycle of addiction. A substance that is now considered perhaps 8 times more addictive than cocaine has people in thrall every 3-4 hours as they get high on carbs, crash and then they need more...

And funny thing, the daily requirement for carbs is...wait for it...zero. If you are an amateur or professional athlete, your use of carbs to fuel workouts might be different. But I also think we can look at society as a whole and assert that such requirements are not the burden of the average person today. We have an obesity epidemic and even children now have type 2 diabetes, whereas that was unknown in the past.

And no, I don't think the human body is stupidly designed. I think that even if you ate no protein, your body would first use stored fat and then start using muscle if it had to. Even if the body does eat a tiny bit of muscle as it goes, eating even 4-6 ounces of protein daily would shut that down pronto. So no, neither keto nor fasting cause any significant reduction in muscle weight. But keto is not a protein obsessed plan, it only requires moderate or sufficient proteins.

I personally fast for three days every quarter for purely health reasons. The benefits of fasting are like manna from the heavens. The benefits include: weight loss, increased insulin sensitivity, speeding up one's metabolism, it can improve brain function and the immune system, lowers blood pressure, reduces bad cholesterol and triglyceride levels, decreases inflammation, etc.

Fasting for three days (water only) is dead easy. I had to coax my current partner into it because she had never fasted before, but I had done it many times for religious reasons. She nervously asserted that she had probably never skipped a meal in her entire life. When the first three day fast was behind us, she felt liberated realizing that neither food nor hunger need necessarily concern her overmuch in this modern era of abundance. When she used to get hungry, she felt compelled to eat - and that's reasonable. What she didn't realize was that one could just put that desire to feast off for nearly as long as one wished to do so. Fasting is a reasonable and expected part of the human experience and has been for thousands of years - we literally call it "feast and famine." And fasting that is in the control of the individual doing it is really very, very beneficial in numerous ways. And of course, you can stop at any time if some overwhelming issue arises - just eat something.

The processed food industry is not pleased. They certainly want you eating their weirdo foodstuffs. In my own home we've got them down to a small handful of condiment type items. So thanks, Cargill! We can handle the rest with whole foods and the like.

Every quarter? I'm assuming you mean once in the Spring, once in Summer, once in Fall, and another during Winter?

This just seems dangerous to me, namely because I start to feel hunger pangs, discomfort, headaches, and mood swings if I don't eat anything all day.

The Keto Diet also confuses because of its seemingly over reliance on meat and dairy consumption which I've never really seen as a very good thing. I've always believed the best diet was cutting back on the former, removing the latter utterly, and consuming more whole grains, fruits, vegetables, etc. and much like dairy, cutting out sugary content as well.

Combined with exercise you should, in theory be at the height of your game.

[Felicia]

Kinda funny that a Type 1 Diabetic (juvenile onset, insulin dependent, autoimmune diabetes mellitus. 21 years this year.) can't do a keto diet. I'm already a healthy weight (5'3, 120 pounds), no point in dieting. Just exercise normally.

I can low carb just fine so long as I eat enough carbs to avoid ketosis. I'm incredibly sensitive to my insulin, so it's a very fine balance. And a bajillion things can mess up my blood sugar levels. PMS, pre AND post ovulation...etc. Illnesses.

The moment I get ketones... my body goes into overdrive turning protein into glucose. Spiking my blood sugar. This should cause insulin resistance in normal people over time. Ketones also increase insulin resistance, so it's not all sunshine and daisies. I'm not exactly sure why people love this diet so much, but maybe it's because I feel like crap when I have ketones. I hate taking extra insulin. DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis) is the least fun thing in existence, and incredibly dangerous.

[Deleted]

why eat fat when you can eat more protain , can some1 explain?

[Themius]

why eat fat when you can eat more protain , can some1 explain?

Because an over abundance of protein isn't exactly a great thing...

[Deleted]

Because an over abundance of protein isn't exactly a great thing...

thats why you take steroids to absorb more protein

[Immitis]

Every quarter? I'm assuming you mean once in the Spring, once in Summer, once in Fall, and another during Winter?

This just seems dangerous to me, namely because I start to feel hunger pangs, discomfort, headaches, and mood swings if I don't eat anything all day.

The Keto Diet also confuses because of its seemingly over reliance on meat and dairy consumption which I've never really seen as a very good thing. I've always believed the best diet was cutting back on the former, removing the latter utterly, and consuming more whole grains, fruits, vegetables, etc. and much like dairy, cutting out sugary content as well.

Combined with exercise you should, in theory be at the height of your game.

well the only real difference between what you'd like to diet with and keto is the whole grains. in keto you dont eat carbs so you eat a shit ton of veggies and a shit ton of meat. you can eat fruit too but most people dont because fruits are basically just sugary vegetables.

so in order for you to go keto you would just stop eating breads and carby foods like potatos. you dont necessarily have to eat dairy, plenty of people eat vegan while on keto as well which just requires more nuts and whatnot for your protein and more vegetables.

the main point of keto is simply to constantly be burning fat, hence the name, you go into ketosis and your body is constantly out of glucose so you turn to your body fat to make up for it. its basically fasting except slower and without all the health benefits of autophagy. so no carbs, no sugar.

[therealstegblob]

It does if you are actually doing heavy cardio and depleting glycogen stores. Keto is great if you are a sedentary person but is way too carb restricted for sustained activity.

So uh, then why have I been increasing muscle mass while eating keto?

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

Was not kind to me. I had horrible symptoms early. Felt like hangovers. And eventually I just couldn't afford to not eat carbs. Feels like something only a rich person can afford. I had planned out the first month or two, but by the end it started to dawn on me that sandwhiches and pasta were a good third of my monthly meals.

[bonezhowl]

i need to get on the keto diet. not permanently though

[Klingers]

Hehe welcome to the club. Funny to see this here, I'm 48 hours in myself. I'm trying to punch through the brain fog and "keto flu" to write some SQL right now. The brain isn't obliging.

A week in though you'll feel great. As soon as your metabolism kicks over it's like having boundless energy all day. You'll still be hungry sometimes but not that pit-of-the-stomach hunger. That goes away after about four days.