Who's on the keto diet?

[Imtotallynottribe]

You can eat 700 calories of anything each day and lose weight.

Yes but it’s not filling. I’ve tried low carb diets (KETO, Atkins, south beach) and low fat diets (pritikin and unnamed generic) as well as “lifestyle” diets (Mediterranean, paleo and even vegan due to an ex girlfriend more or less forcing it on me) and they all had at least one huge problem or another. The low fat diets, vegan and Mediterranean were simply not “filling” you’d be sitting there with hunger pangs one or two hours after eating even if you devoured an entire head of spinach. Meanwhile the low carb diets may leave you filled but I usually had very low energy where I’d want to nap around 3-6 and start to doze off at 8.

This has (so far, I’m day four mind you) been the only caloric restrictive diet that leaves me both satiated throughout the day AND high energy. Plus, I never noticed a pain or inflammation relief either in any of the other diets even those that claim to do so. And I will say part of it IS the potatoes, because I didn’t buy new supplements these are leftovers from a previous South Beach diet. So yes I am probably getting extra energy from the green tea supplements and the no sugar hot teas I’m drinking during the day but a lot of it seems to be that the potatoes just stay in your gut and supply a little bit of energy throughout the day due to the resistant starch needing to basically ferment in your intestines as opposed to no carbs or sugars for some diets and too much easily digestible plant sugars (fructose and sucrose) in others causing a crash a few hours after eating it.

 

[nolesincebirth]

I did keto for about 8 months. I was NOT trying to lose weight. I had to make a conscious effort to eat more food in order to maintain; I wanted to try it for general health. Keto drastically reduced my appetite so I had to really force food into me to meet my caloric needs. I could’ve very easily and more comfortably reduced my caloric intake.

Overall, I felt good. My workouts were solid. Not great but very good. Energy was stable. Mind was clear. I wasn’t building/maintaining muscle the way I wanted but it wasn’t drastically dropping either.

But, after a while, I started noticing thyroid related issues. Primarily low body temp (waking would be about 96.0 and would gradually increase throughout the day).

Now, there are studies that show that keto reduces the conversion of T4 to T3 (I think these are correct, I’m not a doctor/scientist, just going off of recollection from research). The question though is whether carbs require more T3 to process or whether the reduction of T3 on keto is a natural physiological response in the reduction of carbs. I don’t know. There are certainly other longevity studies that show that slower metabolic rate increases longevity so maybe it was a positive. I just wasn’t sure and didn’t like gambling with my thyroid.

So, I’ve gone back to a traditional paleo style diet that I’ve followed for about 6 years and my body temp has increased. My workouts are also a little better now too (primarily my cardio endurance improved, my strength on keto was great but runs were a slog).

So, that was my keto experiment.

 

[NoleMoreTears]

I did keto for about 8 months. I was NOT trying to lose weight. I had to make a conscious effort to eat more food in order to maintain; I wanted to try it for general health. Keto drastically reduced my appetite so I had to really force food into me to meet my caloric needs. I could’ve very easily and more comfortably reduced my caloric intake.

Overall, I felt good. My workouts were solid. Not great but very good. Energy was stable. Mind was clear. I wasn’t building/maintaining muscle the way I wanted but it wasn’t drastically dropping either.

But, after a while, I started noticing thyroid related issues. Primarily low body temp (waking would be about 96.0 and would gradually increase throughout the day).

Now, there are studies that show that keto reduces the conversion of T4 to T3 (I think these are correct, I’m not a doctor/scientist, just going off of recollection from research). The question though is whether carbs require more T3 to process or whether the reduction of T3 on keto is a natural physiological response in the reduction of carbs. I don’t know. There are certainly other longevity studies that show that slower metabolic rate increases longevity so maybe it was a positive. I just wasn’t sure and didn’t like gambling with my thyroid.

So, I’ve gone back to a traditional paleo style diet that I’ve followed for about 6 years and my body temp has increased. My workouts are also a little better now too (primarily my cardio endurance improved, my strength on keto was great but runs were a slog).

So, that was my keto experiment.

That's great - if your baseline was paleo then you're way ahead of most folks by a large margin.

Did you supplement with beta-alanine on keto? That might help. I'm not gonna get into the thyroid issues but you're not alone.

 

[nolesincebirth]

That's great - if your baseline was paleo then you're way ahead of most folks by a large margin.

Did you supplement with beta-alanine on keto? That might help. I'm not gonna get into the thyroid issues but you're not alone.

Never heard of beta-alanine. I was taking a men’s multivitamin, some magnesium, and ubiquinol for blood pressure.

If you’re willing, I’d love to hear your thoughts on thyroid.

I also forgot to mention that I felt that my testosterone was lower on keto. I have no evidence for this other than just a general feeling in my body but if I were to try keto again, I’d monitor my thyroid and testosterone.

 

[nolesincebirth]

Actually, several organs prefer ketones as the most bioavailable fuel...most notably the brain.

There's some pretty big results coming out of exogenous ketones these days, if you can stomach and pay for them.

There is a guy at USF, Dom D’Agastino, who is doing some great research on this.

 

[OrlandNole]

Never heard of beta-alanine. I was taking a men’s multivitamin, some magnesium, and ubiquinol for blood pressure.

If you’re willing, I’d love to hear your thoughts on thyroid.

I also forgot to mention that I felt that my testosterone was lower on keto. I have no evidence for this other than just a general feeling in my body but if I were to try keto again, I’d monitor my thyroid and testosterone.

Beta-Alanine is an amino acid that causes lactic acid buffering - so your muscles don't fatigue as quickly, which means longer workouts. I haven't heard of a stated benefit for endurance activities such as running, but NMT may know better than me.

It's one of the few well-researched supplements for lifting, including creatine and citrulline.

 

[OrlandNole]

Beta-Alanine is an amino acid that causes lactic acid buffering - so your muscles don't fatigue as quickly, which means longer workouts. I haven't heard of a stated benefit for endurance activities such as running, but NMT may know better than me.

It's one of the few well-researched supplements for lifting, including creatine and citrulline.

Here's a good source for research:

https://examine.com/supplements/beta-alanine/

https://examine.com/supplements/citrulline/

https://examine.com/supplements/creatine/

 

[NoleMoreTears]

Yep - works more for high intensity stuff. Baking soda actually works well but gives a lot of people stomach issues/diarrhea.

Between caffeine, beta-ala and maybe creatine, you've got a decent way to get some intensity back (should you want that).

As for testosterone, keto has plenty of cholesterol (testosterone skeleton) so it's likely more a feeling of lower energy than actually low T...but everyone is different. The thyroid is a whole big can of worms but as I said if your baseline was Paleo, not much to worry about.

 

[Wendy79]

Baking soda doesn't work on lactic acid. Your body actually flushes away lactic acid pretty quickly/well - if it didn't, muscle tissue would start denaturing (acid on protein). The lactate goes to the liver where it's processed and turned back into glucose (gluconeogenesis) to get sent back out to the body.

 

[Imtotallynottribe]

Btw, my own altered "potato diet" with micro and macro nutrient supplementation plus adding in a little protein, collagen and fiber has gone exceedingly well. At the end of the five day "fast" where we took in no more than about 650-800 calories a day I was down about ten pounds and my wife 7 (some of that is going to be "water weight" ie a loss of inflammation liquid and really just cleaning yourself out of backed up food). During the two day feast stage where one day we at a maintenance level of calories and the next maintenance plus enough to gain a half pound I was down about 6 in total and she was about 4 as we had added our "water weight back". Now 3 days into my second fasting stage and I'm down a total of 15 pounds from where I started and my wife is about 10 as we've relost our "water weight" plus actual fat.

So far, by FAR the best diet I've been on. We both feel incredibly energetic and yet the weight is literally flying off. And this is without an increase to our exercise regimen from before. If we hit a "plateau" I'm sure we can just up the exercise amount.

The ability to have whatever we want to eat on the weekends has made this diet incredibly easy to stay on.

 

[FreeFlyNole]

So, just an update. I’m 3 months and a week in, still haven’t fallen off the “diet”. It’s been easy. I don’t have any major misses. I figured I’d cave and crush a pizza by now but it hasn’t happened.

I’m down 34lbs. I actually don’t want to get much slimmer. I’m now eating more for muscle gain than fat loss. Either way it feels good. I have a ton more energy and can’t wait to get to the mountains this winter to board. I’m sure my endurance will be much better than the last few years.