Not seeking medical advice per se, more like perspective. I’m wondering how typical or atypical my own experiences with low-carb diets have been. Especially, does anyone here have experience with trying to lose substantial amounts of weight– fifty pounds or more– by way of a ketogenic diet, and if so how did it go for you?
I spent six weeks on a strict keto diet last year (assisted by a CGM) and lost nearly 30 pounds. There were weeks straight where I lost a pound a day. After reaching my target weight (180 lbs) I started adding an occasional potato, cookie, or sandwich to my weekly diet (as well as a few vacations with no restrictions) and put 10 lbs back on over the last 14 months.
I lost 40 pounds in 2023 in 100 days on keto, intermittent fasting, and elevated cardio. I can’t say how much weight loss was just due to the keto, but I don’t know anyone who has been on it for any length of time and not lost weight, as long as they don’t cheat, however I don’t think it’s a healthy long term diet. I’ve been able to keep the weight off using a low carb diet, time restricted eating, and regular exercise.
Lost 60+ pounds on fasting then keto. Once I switched into “keto mode” I was always energetic, slept very well, no longer had to deal with my up-to-that-point constant acid reflux.
Only moved off of the diet because I had to spend a month in the hospital with my daughter and between a very messed-up schedule and living off of hospital cafeteria food, I fell off the diet… and complacency means I haven’t picked it back up again.
I think it’s time…
I was way into it in the mid-2000s. I have PCOS and insulin resistance and would eventually become a T2 diabetic.
It was a good way of eating for me, for sure. I lost a lot of weight. I felt great. But I just could not keep up with the rigors of all of the planning, shopping, cooking and eating. All of my free time was spent keeping myself fed. I know everyone has to keep themselves fed every day but for me it was too much work, perhaps because I live on my own. And this was back in the day when “low carb” was laughed at and mocked, before it got a fancy name like “keto”, so there wasn’t much in the way of pre-made stuff.
I never had any medical problems because of it. I think it’s a great way to eat, if you can manage it.
So do I, but it’s planning meals around how most other people eat that makes it difficult for me. I’d still be on it if I always ate alone, but there’s no way I’m going to settle for just meat and green veggies while everyone else is enjoying potatoes, bread, and desert. Then there’s the default group lunch; pizza.
I tried it in 2022 and after 6 weeks had a gall bladder attack that kept me awake without sleep for 5 hours in intense pain. That was the end for me. Probably lost < 10 lbs
These work for me and not for Mrs Cad. The “calories-in vs calories-out” cultists will vehemently disagree but I think there is an effect on how a body processes food re: weight loss. I also think that leptin vs ghrelin in weight loss and how these are affected by various diets is vastly understudied.
Here’s the thing: I think I may have inadvertently found a way to overeat on even the keto diet. What I discovered are low-carb shakes: made with heavy whipping cream, unsweetened almond milk, and low-carb whey protein powder. Probably no more than five grams of carbs total; but they make it effortless to consume 1200 calories or more per day just as shakes. Never underestimate the lengths hardened addicts (in this case to overeating) can go to.
Nobody said calories don’t matter, only that a hormone, namely insulin, matters more. If you consume more calories than you burn, you won’t lose weight, no matter what diet you’re on. That’s why I track carbs and calories each day to ensure my carbs are low and that I remain in a favorable energy balance, since both things matter.
I don’t subscribe to any particular keto diet, but I have found that if I want to lose weight then cutting carbs as much as possible is the one way I can do it. To keep it up, I’m not manic about it - I do low or no carb Monday-Friday and give myself a couple of meals off over the weekend so I don’t lose heart (pizza isn’t banned on a Saturday, for instance). I’ll eat fat and protein, but don’t over eat either, which I’ve often thought is an issue with some of these diets.
This way I make steady but sustainable weight loss without counting calories, and find I can keep up the diet at a weight maintenance-level long-term as a lifestyle choice, still enjoying myself on the weekends.
This is certainly true. My wife struggles with weight loss much more than I, and she’s much stricter with diets than I am. She basically can’t lose much weight without also upping her cardio exercise regime considerably. She invested in those Keto strips where you wee on them during fasting to see when your body is in calorie-burning mode - my body was fully embracing the fasting and burning calories like mad, but the wee strips proved her body was not playing the same ball game at all.