Hi, everyone!!! Happy Saturday!
<h2>Low Cal Weight Loss</h2>
Ok, so many of you may know that I had great success with a very low calorie diet. Before anyone says anything, it was doctor-monitored and all was per the plan. But my calorie consumption was quite low for a number of months. By January 8th (about a month and a half ago), I had lost right around 125 lbs.
It was time to gently bring the calories up and slow things down a little.
Basically my focus until this date had been: 80-100g of protein daily, very low carbs and fat (about 25% each of daily consumption or less). The approach worked GREAT, and if I had to do it again, I wouldn't do it any other way.
<h2>Bump It!</h2>
Now that it was time to bring calories up, I mostly planned to stay with the same formula—the formula that had worked so well. I figured it was time to introduce a few more carbs to the diet and bring my calories up to about 1500-1600 daily, while keeping 80-100g of protein daily.
Over the next month, I failed miserably.
• For one thing my carb cravings went haywire, and I stayed within the plan less than half the time
• For another, work encroached heavily. No excuse here—it was my fault!—but work did not help
• Even on days that I stuck to the plan, no weight-loss. Grrrr.
• Even the 16:8 I'd been doing seemed to be ineffectual
<h2>What Went Wrong?</h2>
Slowly it occurred to me that I had only changed one thing. My weight-loss progress had been predictable and phenomenal for months, and all I had really done was add more carbs. Of course, I've known about the "To carb, or not to carb" controversy for a long time. I honestly never thought carbs were the demon people made them out to be. A calorie is a calorie, right? But as I came to realize that I had only added some carbs (and some calories, of course) and made no other adjustments, I wondered if maybe that was the problem. In hind-sight it seems pretty obvious, especially when I lay it out this way, but at the time, the higher calories seemed the far more likely cause.
Right around this time, our good friends Mom2Boxers and BuffyBear were talking about "The Calorie Myth" by Jonathan Bailor. It was a GREAT CONVERSATION! I love this place for all of you guys, the support and everything else offered here. Of course, one of the best perks is all the info we absorb from others. It is amazing! Thanks, Mom2B and Buffy!
<h2>Keto?</h2>
First I have to say that I never did read "The Calorie Myth". Instead I found out that Jonathon Bailor (and a number of others, too; like Jorge Cruise. Right, TIC?) is an acolyte of Gary Taubes. So, I read a bunch of articles, watched a bunch of videos on YouTube, and just all-around gathered info on the Ketogenic diet, from Taubes and others, on how and why it works.
For those on here who aren't familiar with those authors and ketogenic diets in general: They (Gary Taubes, Jonathon Bailor, et al) posit that what we have been taught for so long (that fat is bad for us and our bodies) is completely wrong. That when we were taught to eat cereal, pancakes, or oatmeal for breakfast, and put carbs at the base of the food pyramid, that was all backwards. They (Taubes, etc) say eating fat is good (certain fats), carbs are bad, and even too much protein is bad, due to the influence on insulin and leptin in the body. To get more info, read more about it online, buy the books, watch videos on YouTube.
There are a fair number of people who still don't buy it. They'll probably comment on this post. But I have to say Taubes makes a compelling argument. I've seen a number of people say there is no science behind what Taubes and others are saying, but there I must disagree. Taubes actually points to a number of studies that seem to support his arguments quite well, and he speaks at length about his desires to get some funding / financial support for some good, hard studies to be done. But there is a lot of political wrangling going on here. I mean an entire industry is against this concept at its core. A lot of money is at stake.
<h2>My Initial Thoughts on Keto...</h2>
Anyway, back to my story... To be 100% honest, I wasn't completely sold. I mean, it has so long been ingrained in us that fat is just awful stuff for you. "You are what you eat" and all that. It is ridiculously hard to decide to ignore what we have been told since we were children. And what we were taught by almost every authority figure in our lives that claimed to know—from the government, the food pyramid, to our doctors, our school teachers, our parents. Everyone. With almost universal consensus.
And not even to simply ignore what we had been taught, but actually flout it in the face! And **aim** to eat fat. On purpose. A lot. —70 to 80% of your daily calories come from fat!
So, while I wasn't completely sold, I *had* seen what damage increasing my carbs had done on my very own, highly successful, diet. I was suspicious of them. In fact, I was even more suspicous that the 16:8 intermittent fast (IF) I'd been doing previously wasn't helping me nearly as much as I thought. On a few occasions, it seemed like it only really worked when I did not eat CARBOHYDRATES after my appointed hour to stop eating (8PM for me). In other words, it worked, but only because I was stopping carbs. On several occasions if I ate after 8PM but very low carbs, the 16:8 still worked. Do the same thing with carbs, and it failed. Weird.
So many things were pointing to the same thing. Why not give it a shot?
<h2>Keto to the Rescue!</h2>
My plan was to basically do the same thing I'd always done—keep protein at around 100g a day—but this time, I would bump fat up and keep carbs really low. In fact, I would lower them more than I'd ever done since I began dieting at the pathetic weight of 340 pounds. 50g of carbs or less per day. Daily calories, I was aiming for 1600.
So, fairly simple rules:
• Daily calories: Target 1600
• Protein: Target 100g / day (not very much more *OR* less)
• Carbs: Target 40-50g / day (no higher)
• Fat: Whatever was left
So Feb 17 (about five days ago), I tried to start this new plan, but ended up slipping into carbs again. Hah! Feb 19th, just three days ago, I really got it going. The first day wasn't too bad... still had the carb cravings and it drove me to eat quite a bit. But I still kept to the rules (except for the calories; I blew that away at 2237). With so many calories, I was *SHOCKED* to lose 3.4 pounds the next morning. I mean I was floored. Any time I'd ever tried to eat more than 1500 calories since starting my new plan months ago, I *NEVER* have lost weight. This time I didn't just go over 1500 calories, I blew it out of the water at 2200+ calories and still lost over 3 pounds! Unbelievable.
Of course, right at the beginning here, this is all water-weight. But still, I've **NEVER** been able to do this before. Not ever! No matter what I did.
In fact, over the last three days I have averaged 1907 calories (2237, 1785, 1700), well over the 1600 I had been planning. In those three days I've lost almost 7 pounds (3.4, 1.6, 1.8 pounds respectively). The first day I wanted CARBS!!! The second day wasn't bad at all. The third day, I wasn't very hungry at all. In fact, the second and third days (especially yesterday, the third day) I had to force myself to eat more. I just wasn't all that hungry, no carb cravings or anything. Toward the end of the day yesterday I was only at about 1,100 calories and I needed to get some more in. I didn't want to go that low.
Ok, I know this is still early, but I have to say I'm really impressed by this so far. We'll see how it goes, and I'll let you know what happens. But at the moment, I am very happy with this progress. Not just happy—ecstatic!
If any of you are doing a Ketogenic diet right now, I'd love to hear how you're doing with it. And any tips you may have.
THANK YOU EVERYONE!!! Have a great SATURDAY!
