As part of my effort to get my weight down to a healthy range and maintenance, I experimented with Keto. I’d read so much about it. Could it make a difference for me?
I’d always viewed Keto as too difficult to maintain in a home where my spouse does most of the cooking. I’d also felt it would be too difficult to keep up. It’s hard to get into ketosis, where your body burns fat for energy, and easy to break it.
An opportunity came when my wife was out of town for an extended time. I figured, I was cooking for myself, why not try Keto. So I did. I gave away some of the non-keto friendly food I’d just purchased, like a bunch of bananas, and got a broiled chicken and blueberries from Costco. I remembered we had tins of tuna. I was already eating eggs for lunch, and skipping breakfast as part of my intermittent fasting. The biggest trick was being diligent about carbohydrates, which are everywhere.
I bought some Ketosis testing strips. Sure enough in 2 days I was testing positive for ketones. I was surprised how easy it was to get to ketosis. I was also surprised how easy it was to eat fewer calories, yet still fee satiated. It was tricky to eat with other people, but I dined three times with others and explained I was “eating healthy” and really “watching my carbs”. It made my choices less strange and was easily accepted. It didn’t limit what they chose and ate.
For example, when my mom wanted Chinese for her birthday dinner, I made sure to buy beef and broccoli and shrimp dishes that I could eat in addition to the breaded chicken and sweet sauce dishes that she asked for. I had just the tiniest portions of rice and cake. When I had guests over, I offered grilled meat (bratwurst) and vegetables. The guests brought the dessert, and I had a small taste.
I found some recipes I liked, such as tuna salad. Rediscovered avocados and blueberries. Found almonds and boiled eggs for snacking.
The result was I broke a plateau in my weight loss. I had been just below my healthy BMI, but I went down pounds more to my goal weight for maintenance. See the graph. You can see the drop pre-January, the gradual decline / plateau through March, the consistent drop of Keto in April, my attempt to stabilize, the bad week while traveling, and the application of keto to get back in control.
When my wife returned, she agreed to work with me on menu items that worked for keto. The biggest change was pastas. But because I skip breakfast (intermittent fasting) and make my own lunch, dinner was workable. I controlled the carbs at lunch and snacks, and was able to choose my carbs at dinner and still stay under 40 grams per day.
My exit from keto was not pretty. We were traveling to visit family for a week and I knew that it would be very difficult and unrealistic in a pasta-loving family to expect foods that would keep me in ketosis. Even one departure above 50-ish carbs would kick me out of ketosis. I decided to stay with the same calories but allow carbs. Disaster. I was so ravenous for carbs, that I kept “making exceptions” and allowing more calories. My weight jumped 5 pounds in two days.
As soon as we left, I went back to keto. It took three days this time to get to ketosis. However even before ketosis on the test strips, my appetite came quickly back into control and so did my calories. I was able to get almost back to where I had been in just a week.
Keto side-effects. I felt plenty alert and didn’t experience thinking problems as some report. I wouldn’t say I had more energy, but I didn’t have an energy loss. I did have some constipation at times. (Almonds and blueberries helped.)
What did I learn?
I learned that on keto, calories are still important. You can’t double your calories and still lose weight. At least that didn’t work for me. But what keto did was satiate me on fewer calories, and I felt hungry less often.
Keto also helped with snacking and food choice. Knowing that a high carb choice or even a daily total of too many carbs would kick me out of ketosis, helped me turn down desserts, chips, breads, and some condiments.
You do need multiple days to do a keto regimen, but a week is long enough to yeild benefits.
I learned that (not surprisingly) I have a lot of control of my food at my house, and less when visiting. Yet I am still the one who controls what I put in my mouth. Diligence and attention to what I choose makes a big difference.
I feel that keto really kick-started my body into weight loss after a long plateau.
Did I lose more weight because of keto’s fat consuming chemistry. I don’t know. My body responded well to calorie restriction on a standard diet with unrestricted carbs. My body responded well to intermittent fasting. I can’t attribute the good weight loss to keto chemistry or simply reduced calories.
For me, keto is still not a long term option. But it is now a tool in my tool box for weight management, just like intermittent fasting (which I occasionally modify), monitoring calories, and exercise.
BrianSense 