Hi, I'm DJ, a 63 year old female, that finally got the bejesus scared out of me to finally do something about my weight.
I have had high blood pressure since I was 35, but when my doctor mentioned pre-diabetes, that was my wake up call. I joined a program that the VA (am a veteran too) called move, I gained weight, following the Standard American Diet (SAD). I will say here too, that I was in the process of buying a new house and stress could have contributed to some of the weight gain; but when I hit 301 it was time for something to happen.
My first effort was to stop eating out so much and cooking healthier meals. So I did some, and still doing, research on this LCHF way of eating. I cut out all sugar and bread just after the 4th of July, or let's say I got really serious then. As i said before I started at 301, as of today I am at 277.
This is not a diet it is a way of life. There are no cheat days. My goal every day is to do 20g Carbs, 70g Fat, and 60g - 75g Protein. I'm definitely not perfect every day, but by this time next year I want to have knocked off a 100 more pounds.
There are great books, articles, recipes out there for you to do your own research. Some of my favorite you tube videos come from Ask Nurse Cindy, she's also on Facebook.
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I don't believe LCHF is safe or even necessary long term. It's very effective at managing certain conditions aggressively but I wouldn't use it ongoing. Any diet that tells you an apple or banana is bad but eat all the bacon and sausages you want is just reckless. Basing your whole diet solely around animal foods is never ideal for health. Dr Atkins, the popular pioneer for the most well known LCHF diet ended up having a heart condition which is no surprise. Weve known for quite a while that a diet high in animal fats and dairy is key to heart disease. You need to eat more plant based foods long-term. See how you go reintroducing low GI carbs in moderation after you get your health under control. You can safely enjoy fruit and seeds like quinoa or buckwheat as they're low GI. Just stay away from wheat or rice or any sweetener.
I am on keto too. I truly believe it's not for everyone. I just feel better eating keto style.The biggest difference is the brain fog is gone. The weight-loss is a nice side effect as well. Oh yeah, and my skin feels great and looks great. Knankles are gone too.
It's sometimes hard for non-ketoers to understand this lifestyle. I get that. It's so radical from everything we've been taught for the last 30 years about eating.
I used to defend myself and preach Keto but now I just observe and say nothing. Usually people will believe what they want to believe and what their algorithm produced Facebook feed tells them.
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I love stuff like this, I will have a check of the Banting Diet, I'll swap that snippet from you for Gary Fettke on youtube (unless you already are aware of him)
Claiming that keto is good for epilepsy? Did you know in a 10-year study ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/256... conducted on keto and epilepsy management in children found the following side effects: constipation (65%), high triglycerides (40%), high cholesterol (29%), diarrhea (19%), lethargy (17%), iron deficiency (15%), and vomiting (13%).
If I was in front of a neurologist today I would definitely be asking for their comments on that report. That report is not alone. For instance ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl... is a systematic review of the evidence of keto & epilepsy. What does it conclude?
"We found few studies, many of which were small or short-term, and most of which were methodically weak."
Perhaps that is why keto was not recommended or my daughter either by her neurologists. It was never mentioned. The UK charities for epilepsy, whom I met with on many occasions while fundraising for them never mentioned keto.
I understand your thoughts DMP1391, but won't necessarily agree with them, unless I can be convinced otherwise which is why I am here, to hear the thoughts of others in case I come across something I don't know.
LCHF is a broad brush, if we don't tread warily it descends into a rabbit hole of different thoughts some without real substance, choose the rabbit hole wisely. LCHF in my burrow is not all the bacon and sausages you want, and then it will depend on the type of sausage
The meta analysis of fat research is proving its worth for our health, Ancel Keys was a naughty boy and his methods wouldn't pass the test today.
Gary Fettke has taken things a little further over the past few years. When someone of his standing says nutrition books before 2010 are out of date, I sit up an listen. He's on youtube, listen to his thoughts about the nutritional value of fruit now and why he thinks it should be eaten seasonally, there is a sunshine/ vit D connection.
That drove me into researching mineral content in vegetables, I couldn't find much recent stuff but what I did find reveals normal shop bought is severely depleted.......
My health, my GP nurse on a well man check told me to keep doing the low fat high carb diet as she saw my cholesterol was good, her correlation was that low cholesterol was proof I was eating low fat (She shut up when I told her I do low carb, healthy fat and some protein) . That's a rabbit hole in itself, I've been down the 20 g of carb burrow, backed up and now in the 100g one, I'm in the 2 or 3 pieces of fruit burrow with the lots of leafy greens from which you get all if not more of the nutrients as fruit but without the fructose. There's a mixture of Gary Fettke and Jason Fung's work in that. I've never been diabetic but inflammatory symptoms in my ageing body have reduced or gone (Thanks Gary Fettke)
I agree about store-bought vegetables being mostly stripped of their natural nutritional content, but note that the exact same point can be made even worse about animal products too. I grew up and still love animal products in very small moderation. I have my own home-grown milk, eggs, and meat (lucky me) and let me tell you they're completely different foods to what you're buying in store. I'm not talking apples and oranges. It's more like apples and a hammer; not even close to the same type of thing. Commercial meat and dairy is repulsive. It's highly processed food that is manipulated at every stage, from living animal to the food on your plate. When you eat these things, you also eat a dosage of growth hormones, antibiotics, concentrated GM soy, and yes -grains! Most commercial livestock is fed with grains. So you may think you're grain-free but you're not entirely. Dairy? Homogenised, pasteurised, from a cow that is being genetically modified to give birth and produce milk much more than usual. Gross, and it doesn't even taste anything like what real milk is. Commercial animal foods are cheap and toxic substitutes of the real thing. It is well known that we are becoming largely resistant to traditional antibiotics because of how much we get from out animal foods. This isn't a point of opinion, it's sadly proven to be true. I would advocate for a LCHF diet if we were hunter-gatherers or all had access to our own source. But following it using commercial animal food is different. It may still be effective and beneficial for you, but you're setting yourself up for a host of other issues.
Just an update that I didn't mean to attack anyone. I understand that diet can be a sensitive topic for anyone. My intention was not to blast anyone who is on a keto diet, as there is plenty of data which suggests it is helpful for a variety of conditions. I myself have been on it before. But my opinion is that it isn't really ideal to do long-term, and I speak from personal experience and medical data. It is well known that high consumption of animal fats carries a higher risk of heart disease, so one needs to be wary of this. Atkins died of unrelated causes but he still had a developed heart condition.
If one has diabetes, epilepsy, or is struggling to lose weight then I would reccomend a LCHF diet because the benefits outweigh the risks. If you have heart disease or gallstones then the opposite is true; you need to limit your fats significantly. It has to be said that these are extreme cases of illness on both sides which will not apply to most people though. For a regular person, a balanced diet should include a fair serving of healthy carbs as desired. Contrary to popular belief, not all carbs are created equal. Of course cutting out an entire macronutrient is going to yield some effective results. Cutting out fats has the same effect for certain people...I went on a low fat diet and it helped a lot with my biliary cholic and other related digestive issues. This doesn't mean that low fat is the only healthy way to eat...but it can be healthy, just like low carb. Ultimately though I feel that unless there is a specific need for you to be on a keto diet (diabetes, weight loss etc), it's not really necessary to go on such an extreme diet. Unfortunately I've seen a lot of keto advocates tell people they don't need to exercise, just eat bacon and cheese everyday while avoiding the devilish apples and bananas. Needless to say this is reckless advice.
I am also not pushing LCHF or Keto to anyone.
its just that what was said for Dr Atkins that i responded
By the way Dr Atkins promoted high protein diet which is NOT Lchf or keto,
Lchf or keto has moderate proteins but high fats..
We all are different & have diff requirements & hence can follow what suits us..
After years of 'winging it' The people I follow are Dr Gary Fettke, Dr Jason Fung, Dr James Dicolantonio (check out his talks on salt) Dr Eric Westman. All are on Youtube and really makes you think and challenge convention.
thank you for that post of encouragement!! I was just told that I have a fatty liver, some fibrosis & some cirrohsis, and was told I have to loose 100# which could turn around my fatty liver & possibly some of the fibrosis, not the cirrohsis, I was to told low carb, high protein diet, keto to be exact...I am 65 yrs. old, I was 326, I am down to 314 now. I have diabetes for last 15 yrs. on insulin.I am a vet also. I also have participated on the move program twice, have the telehealth machine at my desk that I send my blood sugar readings in once a day. Yes they call it a diet,but at this late date. Its a life change. and its damn hard, getting ready to have complete shoulder replacement Jan. 9th, none of this is easy, if it was everyone would be skinny, instead 150# over weightI have received more information from HU than all my Dr.'s I have been involved with... So DCarrier we can do this !!!!!!
wow, that's a bit of a gravedig, Herman. It's interesting to see these old posts though.
Just bear in mind that 'keto' diets are high-fat, not high-protein. Don't attempt to do a low-fat high-protein diet. It'll feel horrible, it's not very efficient for losing weight, and in your condition it could put undue stress on your kidneys. If it feels wrong, it probably is wrong.
Who told you to do this? You might want to join the LCHF (low-carb high-fat) group. There are lots of successful people there who can give you some pointers. It's not difficult at all once you get the hang of it.
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Low fat high calorie food? 
Vaccines
Shocked
