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I moved to a ketogenic diet on January 9th of this year. I weighed 318 pounds. As of this morning I weigh 282 pounds. That's 36 pounds lost - 11.3% of my body m

I moved to a ketogenic diet on January 9th of this year. I weighed 318 pounds. As of this morning I weigh 282 pounds. That's 36 pounds lost - 11.3% of my body mass - in 77 days, and I have not yet changed my nearly non-existent exercise habits. My goal is to get 80% of my calories from fat, no more than 20% from protein, and to consume a maximum of 20g of carbs per day. I intend for this to be my diet going forward; this is not something I am doing temporarily to lose weight. I've done a good deal of research on this topic, and my conclusion is that the human body is not equipped to deal with the massive amounts of simple carbohydrates that it gets in today's world.

thatswrong0 10y ago
Do you find that you have to put more effort into cooking / eating with the new diet?
- LyndsySimon 10y ago
  At least initially, absolutely. It completely changed the way my wife and I shopped and we all but stopped eating out. After a month or so it seems to have leveled out. We collected a dozen or so recipes we liked and were easy to make, and we knew what we could and could not get at restaurants. At this point, the net effect is that we spend more money on food, eat at home more often, and often order modified meals at restaurants (e.g. chicken fajitas, but instead of tortillas, rice, and beans we'll just have guacamole).
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- pnw_hazor 10y ago
  It was a major change but not too bad. We put away the bread maker and rice cooker which took some adjustment and we got rid of skim milk and margarine. These days it is rare to find any bread products at our house, pasta and rice are found sometimes since the teenager eats that stuff every now and then. And pizza is fair game the weekend. Though, now it is not uncommon to hear my daughter complain that she has been eating too many carbs. (e.g., during after robotics build sessions where other parents bring food for the team.) Generally you can just add another vegetable side to replace the carb sides. At restaurants you can often substitute a vegetable/salad for the carb-side. Another trick for sustaining healthier diet is not be too orthodox about carbs. For us, weekends are wide-open and occasional weekday cheating is okay too. I also pretty much don't drink beer anymore, just whisky or gin.
am8 10y ago
I was 255 in Jan now at 235lb by not eating cereal, bread, sweets, drinking sugary drinks etc. Seem to have stayed at 235 for a few weeks now so i'm guessing it's easier to lose the first lot of fat. Been going to a gym most days but then i'm a student so have the time in the middle of the day. It would have been difficult to go that much with a FT job. Went a bit far with the cardio and now have hurt knees so watch out for that. Good luck.
- kyriakos 10y ago
  Question what do you have for breakfast now you quit cereal and bread? I mostly have cereal for breakfast mostly organic and less processed /sugary brands but I still feel I could do better.
  - zoombini29 10y ago
    Eggs, oats, bananas, and yogurt are all good options.
  - magic_beans 10y ago
    If I need to bring breakfast to work, I'll take an avocado, some arugula, and a couple boiled eggs.
  - pnw_hazor 10y ago
    scrambled eggs + (one of: spam, bacon, smoked salmon, or sausage) and 1 cup of whole milk Before that I used to eat unsweetened shredded wheat + skim milk for breakfast. Boy what a rube I was. I was pretty frustrated to find out that shredded wheat has a higher glycemic index than plain table sugar.
  - am8 10y ago
    Fried eggs, plenty of Olive oil. Quark (sort of like yogurt). Sometimes still healthy cereal, just not every day.
abandonliberty 10y ago
Most people have no idea what 20 grams of carbs looks like. The number of people who have said 'me too' when I discussed a low carb/keto diet is huge, and they usually mean 'I try to avoid sugar'. A can of coke has double the daily allotment of carbs. You quickly realize how devoid of nutrition modern processed food is. Low-carb vegetables are usually around 5% carbs. Fruits 10%. A single 10g square of 90% dark chocolate, 2gr. Quinoa, 20%. Yams, 24%. Think about that. If you ate no other vegetables or fruits, 100 grams/3oz of quinoa supplies all the carbs allotted. I'm sure much of the benefit from keto is forcing you to eat less processed, nutrient dense food.

thatswrong0 10y ago

Do you find that you have to put more effort into cooking / eating with the new diet?

LyndsySimon 10y ago
At least initially, absolutely. It completely changed the way my wife and I shopped and we all but stopped eating out. After a month or so it seems to have leveled out. We collected a dozen or so recipes we liked and were easy to make, and we knew what we could and could not get at restaurants. At this point, the net effect is that we spend more money on food, eat at home more often, and often order modified meals at restaurants (e.g. chicken fajitas, but instead of tortillas, rice, and beans we'll just have guacamole).
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
pnw_hazor 10y ago
It was a major change but not too bad. We put away the bread maker and rice cooker which took some adjustment and we got rid of skim milk and margarine. These days it is rare to find any bread products at our house, pasta and rice are found sometimes since the teenager eats that stuff every now and then. And pizza is fair game the weekend. Though, now it is not uncommon to hear my daughter complain that she has been eating too many carbs. (e.g., during after robotics build sessions where other parents bring food for the team.) Generally you can just add another vegetable side to replace the carb sides. At restaurants you can often substitute a vegetable/salad for the carb-side. Another trick for sustaining healthier diet is not be too orthodox about carbs. For us, weekends are wide-open and occasional weekday cheating is okay too. I also pretty much don't drink beer anymore, just whisky or gin.

am8 10y ago

I was 255 in Jan now at 235lb by not eating cereal, bread, sweets, drinking sugary drinks etc. Seem to have stayed at 235 for a few weeks now so i'm guessing it's easier to lose the first lot of fat. Been going to a gym most days but then i'm a student so have the time in the middle of the day. It would have been difficult to go that much with a FT job. Went a bit far with the cardio and now have hurt knees so watch out for that. Good luck.

kyriakos 10y ago
Question what do you have for breakfast now you quit cereal and bread? I mostly have cereal for breakfast mostly organic and less processed /sugary brands but I still feel I could do better.
- zoombini29 10y ago
  Eggs, oats, bananas, and yogurt are all good options.
- magic_beans 10y ago
  If I need to bring breakfast to work, I'll take an avocado, some arugula, and a couple boiled eggs.
- pnw_hazor 10y ago
  scrambled eggs + (one of: spam, bacon, smoked salmon, or sausage) and 1 cup of whole milk Before that I used to eat unsweetened shredded wheat + skim milk for breakfast. Boy what a rube I was. I was pretty frustrated to find out that shredded wheat has a higher glycemic index than plain table sugar.
- am8 10y ago
  Fried eggs, plenty of Olive oil. Quark (sort of like yogurt). Sometimes still healthy cereal, just not every day.

abandonliberty 10y ago

Most people have no idea what 20 grams of carbs looks like. The number of people who have said 'me too' when I discussed a low carb/keto diet is huge, and they usually mean 'I try to avoid sugar'. A can of coke has double the daily allotment of carbs. You quickly realize how devoid of nutrition modern processed food is. Low-carb vegetables are usually around 5% carbs. Fruits 10%. A single 10g square of 90% dark chocolate, 2gr. Quinoa, 20%. Yams, 24%. Think about that. If you ate no other vegetables or fruits, 100 grams/3oz of quinoa supplies all the carbs allotted. I'm sure much of the benefit from keto is forcing you to eat less processed, nutrient dense food.