Geriatric Punk said:

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Did I read you right, Stringer? 44 and your first is 14 months old? Glad to know I'm not the only one that started late, my friend. I'm with you on "not dying early" as a priority. That, and I want to be fit enough to hike and be active with my kids as long as I can.

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You are reading correct.

I kinda like being an older dad; i think im more patient and grounded than when i was younger.

Good to hear im not alone.

irish pete ag06 said:

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My wife and I have been making this pizza and it's incredible if you're having a pizza craving.

https://lowcarbyum.com/pizza-casserole-gluten-free/

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We made that a while back; it really scratches the pizza itch. Its delicious.

irish pete ag06 said:

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My wife and I have been making this pizza and it's incredible if you're having a pizza craving.

https://lowcarbyum.com/pizza-casserole-gluten-free/

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Gonna try this

bigtruckguy3500 said:

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irish pete ag06 said:

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My wife and I have been making this pizza and it's incredible if you're having a pizza craving.

https://lowcarbyum.com/pizza-casserole-gluten-free/

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Gonna try this

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Me too. Craving some serious 'za right now.

I hear you on being more patient and grounded. The only draw back for me is that I don't have the energy of a 20 something. That and I'll be almost 50 by the time my kids can fully snowboard with me. Of course, we will try to start them as early as possible.

Thanks for all the info on this thread.

I'm 32, 5'11 and got up to 210 this year. I would say a normal healthy weight for me would be in the 185-190 range, which is what I weighed coming out of high school. I did get down to 176 doing insanity and a lot of HIIT 5 years ago.

I originally was considering the paleo diet but then I saw info on the ketogenic diet and thought it was interesting. I am a former biochemist and pretty familiar with ketosis having taught metabolism at A&M during grad school.

So I committed to the diet this week, and wow, pretty interesting.
First impressions...
1. Holy crap I'm peeing a lot. I am drinking a ton of water and always feel thirsty. I consider this a good thing and expected given how the body reacts to this diet.
2. I never thought it would be hard to eat so much fat. However, I enjoy getting to eat things like butter and steak a little more often.
3. Never realized how prevalent carbs were in my diet and in all the foods.
4. On day 3, I certainly felt a little fatigued, but other than that I've felt really good. Particularly when working out.
5. Apologies for the crudeness, but I am farting way less. I think all the carbs have been really inflammatory on my GI tract. Also feel way less bloated.

I've been weighing in the mornings. I checked in at 203 today and I know a lot of that is water weight, but some of that is real weight loss as well. I have been working out since the beginning of the year too.

Anyways, just wanted to say thanks for all the good info.

I thought I was just constipated, but I am drinking way too much water for that to happen. Honestly, with all the fat I kind of expected to be a little more loose on the bowel movements.

I had a check mark beside all 5 points. Also can add a check to AggieChemist's observation below.

It's nice to see other folks have the same observations to be honest.

I am pretty sure I'm "fat adapted" at this point. My energy level has been fantastic. And almost anytime I've felt lethargic, I've realized that my electrolyte levels are low. I drink some salt & no salt in water and it usually corrects itself pretty quick.

I'm down 3.7 inches in the waist... I have at least .7 to go before I re-evaluate my plan. The inches are starting to come off a little slower than they have been, but still coming off, nonetheless.

Seriously, what's the deal? Before, I could set my watch by my morning 2. Not the case these days.

I'm only 4 days in, but made a great dish tonight and thought I'd share (variant of a known recipe):

Refried Buffalo Crack Chicken

Throw 4 or so boneless chicken breasts, 8 oz cream cheese, and 1/2 c (or more) Franks Hot Sauce in a crock pot for 8 hours (I added some Tony's as well). When done, shred all the chicken up.

You can eat it as it, but it gets even better if you take a serving (either hot or cold from the fridge) and fry it to give it some crunchy bits. Put a couple tablespoons of butter in a skillet and get it hot then throw in some of the shredded chicken. Cook and flip until browned/crunchy enough for you. Then throw in some sliced cheese and cover to melt the cheese. Serve with a side of prepared hot sauce to dip (hot sauce + butter).

AggieGunslinger said:

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One of the best things I did for my Keto diet was to quit using chicken breast and start using chicken thighs. I leave the skin on depending on the recipe.

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I've always enjoyed the lower half more than breasts.

If you increased your carb intake back to even 100g a day then I bet half that weight is water.

AggieGunslinger said:

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If you increased your carb intake back to even 100g a day then I bet half that weight is water.

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Hope so! Other than the carb crash (which actually doesn't hit me too badly), the first week of keto is always fun due to all the water loss.

Max Power said:

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My wife is starting keto today, very happy about this. I've lost about 25-30 lbs since I started last fall and kept it off. It's been lonely eating different meals, I think she finally decided to give it a shot because I've stuck with it for so long and she knows I lost the weight without starving myself.

I do think it will be harder on her because she eats a lot of carbs, including sugar. She made some keto meatballs and chicken thighs for her meals this week. She's a pickier eater than I am but I'm pretty sure we can get meals for her weekly that she's willing to eat. Weekends will be her hardest transition since she won't be able to eat regular pancakes or cinnamon rolls, I've let her try some pancakes made from almond flour and coconut flour so she knows they are passable substitutes.

I told her I'm willing to empty the house of all the stuff we shouldn't eat, but I think it's helped me stay on track when I'm away from home because I'm already used to seeing food around I shouldn't have. I really hope she's able to stick with it, it would be nice to have a partner in this.

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That's awesome. My wife tends to be a carb fiend too (not that I wasn't, but she was big time). She's pregnant right now with gestational diabetes... that's what helped me make the decision to jump in also. We are both on the train right now.

Update on the goals and stuff:

Been slowing down on the diameter loss at the navel, but it's still happening, just not as fast. This morning I was down 3.9 inches though, so I can't complain with the results considering I've been doing this for roughly 7-8 weeks.

I've re-adjusted my goals actually to stay on this deficit a little longer than I had originally planned. After re-evaluating what my body fat % would be at certain waist lines (using the Navy calculator), I've lowered my waistline goal to try and get the body fat % down into the region where there could possibly be some abdomen definition. I still plan to switch to a slight surplus once I hit that goal and add some volume to my power lifting routine to get some hypertrophy gains.

What I'm fired up about this morning was hitting a new "2018 PR" by 10+ pounds on squat. I had been struggling on squat with the deficit and keto in general. I've felt pretty weak on this diet in the weight room although I've seen modest gains from where I started in December. I say "2018 PR" from above because I got my PRs to the highest they've ever been in 2017 when I was eating anything I wanted and not tracking macros or calories outside of protein. Although my strength gains were really good doing this last year, I never felt truly healthy... This year is different.

Also, to accommodate for the strength on a deficit. I have my PRs from last year with what I weighed and found a ratio for each of my lifts. I am tracking that ratio on my lifts this year as the weight also comes off. So, even though my squat may not be as high as last year's yet, I'm technically stronger on a per pound basis this year.

TL;DR. Changed goals. Want to get leaner. Had a big increase on squat.

I laid off keto during the last few weeks of my half marathon training (pretty much since Christmas Day). HM was Saturday so back on keto Sunday. So I'm working through keto flu right now - again.

I hope to hit my target weight at the end of February. will likely undershoot it so that when I go off keto, I won't go over it.

Having gone off and on a few times, I pretty routinely gain 5-6 pounds as soon as I go off keto. It's all water, just like the first 5-6 going off is.

What's different now is I've lost enough weight that I can exercise properly to hopefully stay in shape. But I have set an "alarm value" for my weight that I have to go back on keto if I cross it. My goal is 200 lbs - I'm shooting for 190-195. My "alarm weight" is going to be 205.

Is keto something that you cycle on for a couple of weeks a few times a year to lose some ab flab or does it take a little more commitment than that? I am 6' 190#, do mostly strong lifts, and just have the typical stubborn area around the waist that is hard to flatten out. Thanks! Enjoy lurking and reading many of your success stories!

10andBOUNCE said:

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Is keto something that you cycle on for a couple of weeks a few times a year to lose some ab flab or does it take a little more commitment than that? I am 6' 190#, do mostly strong lifts, and just have the typical stubborn area around the waist that is hard to flatten out. Thanks! Enjoy lurking and reading many of your success stories!

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For many, including myself, it's the easiest way to lose fat/weight without feeling terrible/hungry about taking in fewer calories. It's a good tool for that.

10andBOUNCE said:

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Is keto something that you cycle on for a couple of weeks a few times a year to lose some ab flab or does it take a little more commitment than that? I am 6' 190#, do mostly strong lifts, and just have the typical stubborn area around the waist that is hard to flatten out. Thanks! Enjoy lurking and reading many of your success stories!

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No. Your energy levels will suffer every time you start. Most people take 4 weeks or even several months to truly adapt to it.

bam02 said:

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10andBOUNCE said:

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Is keto something that you cycle on for a couple of weeks a few times a year to lose some ab flab or does it take a little more commitment than that? I am 6' 190#, do mostly strong lifts, and just have the typical stubborn area around the waist that is hard to flatten out. Thanks! Enjoy lurking and reading many of your success stories!

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No. Your energy levels will suffer every time you start. Most people take 4 weeks or even several months to truly adapt to it.

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Well, you CAN - it's just painful. I was in keto up until right before Christmas. I'm going back on now. Frankly, the keto "flu" is not as bad this time as before.

But really - once you've gone through the trouble to get into keto - you wanna stay there until you get to the weight you want to. The only reason I went off was because it was impacting my half marathon training.

I've been following this thread since I started keto almost two weeks ago. Having been on it for that period of time, I've been waiting for the keto flu, but haven't really experienced anything like it. It makes me think I'm doing something wrong, but I've been pretty disciplined about what I eat. There were a couple of times when I realized after the fact that something was made with honey (chicken) or had a little sugar in it (honey ham), but honestly, I've basically been eating chicken salads, eggs and bulletproof coffee. I have dropped about 9 lbs since I started, but I'm really chalking that up to water weight.

Am I doing something wrong?

I started about 2 weeks ago too. I didn't really have any issues with keto flu either. I had already cut out all processed sugars and most breads (I was eating some gluten free stuff and natural sugars) last year, so I'm guessing that helped since it wasn't going cold turkey on sugars. I also made sure I was hydrated and kept my electrolytes up.

agtwister_5 said:

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I've been following this thread since I started keto almost two weeks ago. Having been on it for that period of time, I've been waiting for the keto flu, but haven't really experienced anything like it. It makes me think I'm doing something wrong, but I've been pretty disciplined about what I eat. There were a couple of times when I realized after the fact that something was made with honey (chicken) or had a little sugar in it (honey ham), but honestly, I've basically been eating chicken salads, eggs and bulletproof coffee. I have dropped about 9 lbs since I started, but I'm really chalking that up to water weight.

Am I doing something wrong?

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I doubt it. I didn't really have any keto flu symptoms either. However, I had begun to taper off carbs leading up to strict keto. Only symptom I noticed was irritability which was remedied when I started supplementing electrolytes.

Well, this sounds horrible, but leading up to starting keto, I was the opposite and gorged on everything that I shouldn't have. So there was no tapering off for me, just a cold turkey jump into it. I definitely feel a little weak/light headed every so often, but nothing that has slowed me down. I guess I'll keep trucking along to see if I continue to make an impact on my weight.

agtwister_5 said:

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Well, this sounds horrible, but leading up to starting keto, I was the opposite and gorged on everything that I shouldn't have. So there was no tapering off for me, just a cold turkey jump into it. I definitely feel a little weak/light headed every so often, but nothing that has slowed me down. I guess I'll keep trucking along to see if I continue to make an impact on my weight.

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haha did the same thing - big plates of enchiladas, Blue Bell ice cream, the works.

Went all in keto on 1/2. Dropped 15 lbs in ten days and have posted back to back weeks of steady 2lb losses. Not counting calories at all at this point. I am doing an intermittent fast by not eating after 7 and not eating lunch until noon. So two meals, pretty much to satiety. I find I'm usually only really hungry at lunch after the fast. For exercise I'm doing crossfit 4-5x a week. Workouts were brutal in weeks 2-3 but I find I'm getting my wind back... must be getting fat adapted. I have noticed the ketones in my urine according to ketostix are decreasing now, which is expected as the ketones change throughout the fat adaption process.

Feeling good. Have a few bad food carb cravings, but the momentum is such that I don't want to mess it up.

Yep. I've noticed the cheating on this diet isn't near as bad as others for 2 reasons:

1. Fat keeps you satiated longer.
2. Since your body is in a completely different state (ketosis), it makes you more conscious of making sure you don't kick yourself out.

irish pete ag06 said:

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Yep. I've noticed the cheating on this diet isn't near as bad as others for 2 reasons:

1. Fat keeps you satiated longer.
2. Since your body is in a completely different state (ketosis), it makes you more conscious of making sure you don't kick yourself out.

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Yeah, when I'm tempted for a bag of Cheetos, I tell myself "you really don't want to go through that again."

I have officially been keto and eating at a deficit for 57 days (8.1 weeks) and it feels like my body has become fat adapted for sure this week. I do Wendler's 5/3/1 program and 2 lifts in this week I have seen a 9 pound increase on squat and a 6 pound increase on bench.

Wendler's workout has AMRAP sets built in (as many reps as possible) that is basically a chance to try and set a new PR every workout. On Squat and Bench I had not been able to must nor more than 5-6 reps on these sets, but this week so far it's been 10 reps on squat and 11 reps on bench.

Pretty excited about the progress.