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Keto/Carbs for Women

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Post by nikitakolata Thu Dec 07, 2017 11:54 am

I've been trying to follow a keto diet for about 2 weeks now.  I have not lost even one pound!  It is beyond frustrating and I hate it.  

I know I have heard other women say that keto didn't work well for them.  I've tried low carb like this a few time and never lost any weight and even though all the books say that once you're in ketosis your body will burn stored fat, it doesn't happen for me.  I don't know what I'm doing wrong.  I am not eating a lot, certainly not as much as I was eating pre-keto diet.  Here's a typical day:

Breakfast - Sous vide egg bites from Starbucks, coffee with heavy cream

Lunch - 2 hardboiled eggs with pesto or an avocado with salt

Snack (I have a lot of time between lunch and dinner) - Brie, liver sausage

Dinner - Mixed greens with olive oil and vinegar, Steak/Chicken, Mashed Cauliflower

Snack - 88% cacao dark chocolate, 1 glass red wine, coffee with heavy cream (one or two of those things, not all three, some days none of them)

I'm pretty frustrated because I have so much weight to lose and it isn't budging even a little bit (I'm 5'6" and 191).  I didn't even get the initial water weight loss or anything.  I feel okay.  Pretty steady energy throughout the day, my sleep is pretty shitty but that's been an ongoing problem for months.  I'm not usually hungry and definitely not hungry for what I'm able to eat and stay very low carb.  I have BFS (benign facilitation syndrome) so the muscle twitching makes sleep nearly impossible, but I manage to get about 7 hours of light sleep at night.  I thought going keto might help with the BFS, but it hasn't.  Nothing I have tried has helped, actually, and I've tried a lot:  chiropractor, talk therapy, regular doctor, supplements, Epsom salt baths, muscle relaxers, probiotics, etc.  

So, if you've tried low carb, what was your experience?  What can I do to move this weight?  How long does it take to see results?  For now, I'm committed to staying keto at least through next week because I ordered some dinners from Keto Fridge and it's too late to cancel the order.


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Post by Narrowminded Thu Dec 07, 2017 1:55 pm

I don't do well with keto either. I gain. Yup, everytime I've tried and I end up with weird cravings.

For me, going the way of Whole 30 does the trick. Lost 40 pounds over about 6 months. While it is still lower carb, probably around 75 gms of carb, the SAD would community would call that too low. It's not in that so called KETO range.

A typical day would look something like this

B - homemade sausage about 2 oz (I don't weight), 2 eggs. And a bunch of veg. Included jalapeño, bell pepper, onion, brussels sprouts, a green either collards, mustard or chard, and a small chunk of sweet potato. Like and ounce or two. Probably looking at 2-3 cups of veg. I saute the sausage, add the vegand then cook the eggs on top sunny side up to your preference of doneness. Coffee w/about 1/2 tbsp of CO.

L - leftover dinner from the night before or a BAS, with plenty of protein and Olive oil

D - some type of protein either beef/pork/chicken/turkey/fish, with a few cups of veg. Mix it up, sometimes squash in the mix, sometimes a potato etc

Hope that helps.
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Post by nikitakolata Thu Dec 07, 2017 2:06 pm

Narrowminded wrote:I don't do well with keto either.  I gain.  Yup, everytime I've tried and I end up with weird cravings...

I really don't get it.  How/why am I gaining or not losing on this diet?  I've been tracking in my fitness pal and I'm under my calorie goal for the day every time I do it, enough under that it predicts me losing at least a pound a week and it's usually more than that.  The calorie goal is based on wanting to lose weight and my activity level, as determined by my fitbit.  So, it's adjusting based on how much I actually move.  So, yeah, this is very frustrating.  I really want potatoes or a sweet potato and I contemplate just having one, but the whole point was to be in ketosis, so I don't know.  I definitely am craving carbs and sugar, but mostly starches.

I wonder if this just doesn't work for women.  Or if it doesn't work for stressed out people.  Or maybe there's something else going on?  I can't figure it out and that's the most annoying part. Usually if I can't lose weight it's because I'm not really following the protocol I should be. But, this time I am, and still nothing!
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Post by ONTARIO Thu Dec 07, 2017 3:10 pm

I haven't done keto - as in the 2017 version of it. I did, however, do Atkins once and I did it to the letter. If I can remember correctly I did it for about 6 weeks back in 1997. Never lost a pound. Not one.

I have been at the same weight, without fluctuation, my entire adult life. Even when I got pregnant I would have the baby and within a month or two be back at the exact same weight. Even when I went Primal I never lost much at all and I've been doing this for 4.5 years now. And, yes, I've even tracked calories a number of times on MyFitnessPal.

My point is, that even eating whole, primal foods and KNOWING I am not eating too many calories I maintain the same weight. Heck, I could binge over the holidays and STILL be the same weight. I am about  20 pounds overweight by the BMI charts. But I am healthy. I can run and play. I can out-walk pretty much anyone I know. I don't suffer physically at all. I feel GOOD. And all the women on the one side of my family are very obese by the time they are in their 40s. So, I consider myself to be "lucky" that I am aware enough about nutrition to not get myself there. But I do have to wonder if there is a genetic predisposition to  being overweight. Not that our genes make us fat  but rather that our genes might help us to be fat if we do nothing preventative.

I have come to think that some of us just have a "set point" where our body feels good and functions well at. I like to think that perhaps the body has more wisdom than our brains in our desire to change it.

So, I guess I just wanted to share that sometimes I think we beat ourselves up and expect things that might not happen for us - for, like you said, whatever reason.

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Post by nikitakolata Thu Dec 07, 2017 3:24 pm

ONTARIO wrote:I haven't done keto - as in the 2017 version of it. I did, however, do Atkins once and I did it to the letter. If I can remember correctly I did it for about 6 weeks back in 1997. Never lost a pound. Not one.

I have been at the same weight, without fluctuation, my entire adult life. Even when I got pregnant I would have the baby and within a month or two be back at the exact same weight. Even when I went Primal I never lost much at all and I've been doing this for 4.5 years now. And, yes, I've even tracked calories a number of times on MyFitnessPal.

My point is, that even eating whole, primal foods and KNOWING I am not eating too many calories I maintain the same weight. Heck, I could binge over the holidays and STILL be the same weight. I am about  20 pounds overweight by the BMI charts. But I am healthy. I can run and play. I can out-walk pretty much anyone I know. I don't suffer physically at all. I feel GOOD. And all the women on the one side of my family are very obese by the time they are in their 40s. So, I consider myself to be "lucky" that I am aware enough about nutrition to not get myself there. But I do have to wonder if there is a genetic predisposition to  being overweight. Not that our genes make us fat  but rather that our genes might help us to be fat if we do nothing preventative.

I have come to think that some of us just have a "set point" where our body feels good and functions well at. I like to think that perhaps the body has more wisdom than our brains in our desire to change it.

So, I guess I just wanted to share that sometimes I think we beat ourselves up and expect things that might not happen for us - for, like you said, whatever reason.

I definitely think about this as well. My body tends to settle around 187. The thing is, I hate how my body looks at this size. I'm in size 14 clothes. Swimwear is a nightmare. And, what probably makes it worst of all, is that no one I know is this big. Everyone around me is significantly smaller.

So, when I'm alone I think to myself that I should just work on accepting my size and move on with life. But, then I have to buy new clothes, or I see a friend or my sisters and I think "no, this is insane, I need to lose weight." My weight doesn't prevent me from anything except liking how I look. I'm in good enough physical shape. I can run a 5k, do squats/lunges (though I despise lunges lately), hold a plank for 90 seconds. Whatever. I only gained 8 pounds when I was pregnant and I lost 30 pounds within 10 days postpartum so I was about 20 pounds below my starting weight. Of course, those 20 pounds came back over the course of about 5 months, much to my dismay.

I just don't even know what to try. If I was slightly overweight, or wearing a size 10 or something, that'd be one thing. I'm obese. This is fucking ridiculous. I get so frustrated thinking about it and it feels very unfair. When I saw my doctor she told me all her patients come in with the same issues (weight gain, fatigue), yet everyone I see in the waiting room is still significantly smaller than I am. My doctor complains about weight gain herself and she's like 110 pounds. Ugh. I keep hoping against hope that I'll find something I can live with that will work, but I just can't seem to figure anything out. I keep praying that one day my medical cannabis card will show up and that smoking pot will help. Seriously, I am that desperate.
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Post by ONTARIO Thu Dec 07, 2017 3:28 pm

nikitakolata wrote:
ONTARIO wrote:I haven't done keto - as in the 2017 version of it. I did, however, do Atkins once and I did it to the letter. If I can remember correctly I did it for about 6 weeks back in 1997. Never lost a pound. Not one.

I have been at the same weight, without fluctuation, my entire adult life. Even when I got pregnant I would have the baby and within a month or two be back at the exact same weight. Even when I went Primal I never lost much at all and I've been doing this for 4.5 years now. And, yes, I've even tracked calories a number of times on MyFitnessPal.

My point is, that even eating whole, primal foods and KNOWING I am not eating too many calories I maintain the same weight. Heck, I could binge over the holidays and STILL be the same weight. I am about  20 pounds overweight by the BMI charts. But I am healthy. I can run and play. I can out-walk pretty much anyone I know. I don't suffer physically at all. I feel GOOD. And all the women on the one side of my family are very obese by the time they are in their 40s. So, I consider myself to be "lucky" that I am aware enough about nutrition to not get myself there. But I do have to wonder if there is a genetic predisposition to  being overweight. Not that our genes make us fat  but rather that our genes might help us to be fat if we do nothing preventative.

I have come to think that some of us just have a "set point" where our body feels good and functions well at. I like to think that perhaps the body has more wisdom than our brains in our desire to change it.

So, I guess I just wanted to share that sometimes I think we beat ourselves up and expect things that might not happen for us - for, like you said, whatever reason.

I definitely think about this as well.  My body tends to settle around 187.  The thing is, I hate how my body looks at this size.  I'm in size 14 clothes.  Swimwear is a nightmare.  And, what probably makes it worst of all, is that no one I know is this big.  Everyone around me is significantly smaller.  

So, when I'm alone I think to myself that I should just work on accepting my size and move on with life.  But, then I have to buy new clothes, or I see a friend or my sisters and I think "no, this is insane, I need to lose weight."  My weight doesn't prevent me from anything except liking how I look.  I'm in good enough physical shape.  I can run a 5k, do squats/lunges (though I despise lunges lately), hold a plank for 90 seconds.  Whatever.  I only gained 8 pounds when I was pregnant and I lost 30 pounds within 10 days postpartum so I was about 20 pounds below my starting weight.  Of course, those 20 pounds came back over the course of about 5 months, much to my dismay.  

I just don't even know what to try.  If I was slightly overweight, or wearing a size 10 or something, that'd be one thing.  I'm obese.  This is fucking ridiculous.  I get so frustrated thinking about it and it feels very unfair.  When I saw my doctor she told me all her patients come in with the same issues (weight gain, fatigue), yet everyone I see in the waiting room is still significantly smaller than I am.  My doctor complains about weight gain herself and she's like 110 pounds.  Ugh.  I keep hoping against hope that I'll find something I can live with that will work, but I just can't seem to figure anything out.  I keep praying that one day my medical cannabis card will show up and that smoking pot will help.  Seriously, I am that desperate.  

Have you read Body Beliefs by Jason Seib? You should. It will forever change you. If you go to his site you can download the book for free. He has even made an audio version of the book. I listened to it over a few weeks while driving. It's honestly one of the best things I have ever read/listened to.

https://altshiftdiet.com/books/

He's a paleo guy so he is in our tribe. If you go to the linked site and then choose to sign up for emails then you will get a free copy of the book. It will rock your perception of your body beliefs. Really.

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Post by ONTARIO Thu Dec 07, 2017 3:32 pm

I also wanted to say...go find a picture of yourself when you were a teenager. And then one when you were in your early 20s. Look at it. I am going to guess you think, "Man, I looked good then. I wish I looked like that now". But I will also guess that back then you thought you looked like a whale. But, OBVIOUSLY you didn't! I mean, LOOK AT YOU in that old photo!

Point is - women are often stuck in a perpetual cycle of "not good enough" and it's NOT okay.

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Post by Lovebird Thu Dec 07, 2017 3:34 pm

Have you read Body Beliefs by Jason Seib? You should. It will forever change you. If you go to his site you can download the book for free. He has even made an audio version of the book. I listened to it over a few weeks while driving. It's honestly one of the best things I have ever read/listened to.

altshiftdiet.com/books/

He's a paleo guy so he is in our tribe. If you go to the linked site and then choose to sign up for emails then you will get a free copy of the book. It will rock your perception of your body beliefs. Really.

She'd better... I shared the link with her at MDA... Cool
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Post by nikitakolata Thu Dec 07, 2017 3:40 pm

ONTARIO wrote:I also wanted to say...go find a picture of yourself when you were a teenager. And then one when you were in your early 20s. Look at it. I am going to guess you think, "Man, I looked good then. I wish I looked like that now". But I will also guess that back then you thought you looked like a whale. But, OBVIOUSLY you didn't! I mean, LOOK AT YOU in that old photo!

Point is - women are often stuck in a perpetual cycle of "not good enough" and it's NOT okay.

Yeah, I know what you mean about the photos. I have done that and, yeah, at the time I wasn't usually happy with my body. There were a couple points in time where I knew I was doing pretty well on the weight front. Unfortunately, both points in time were pretty bad in other respects. I lost a lot of weight due to anxiety when I first started college. I did it again before my wedding by exercising excessively and, basically, abusing phentermine (I got two prescriptions from different doctors so I could double the dose).

But, still, it doesn't make sense that I should be as big as I am. If I was closer to normal I would probably just give up the weight battle. I did start reading Body Beliefs, but I didn't finish it and it's been awhile. I guess I'll have to look at that again.
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Post by ONTARIO Thu Dec 07, 2017 3:45 pm

nikitakolata wrote:
ONTARIO wrote:I also wanted to say...go find a picture of yourself when you were a teenager. And then one when you were in your early 20s. Look at it. I am going to guess you think, "Man, I looked good then. I wish I looked like that now". But I will also guess that back then you thought you looked like a whale. But, OBVIOUSLY you didn't! I mean, LOOK AT YOU in that old photo!

Point is - women are often stuck in a perpetual cycle of "not good enough" and it's NOT okay.

Yeah, I know what you mean about the photos.  I have done that and, yeah, at the time I wasn't usually happy with my body.  There were a couple points in time where I knew I was doing pretty well on the weight front.  Unfortunately, both points in time were pretty bad in other respects.  I lost a lot of weight due to anxiety when I first started college.  I did it again before my wedding by exercising excessively and, basically, abusing phentermine (I got two prescriptions from different doctors so I could double the dose).  

But, still, it doesn't make sense that I should be as big as I am.  If I was closer to normal I would probably just give up the weight battle.  I did start reading Body Beliefs, but I didn't finish it and it's been awhile.  I guess I'll have to look at that again.  

I understand your want/need to be of BMI Chart weight. Really, I do. And that is, in large part, because weight IS akin to health. But how much weight is too much. KWIM?

I sincerely saddens me that you don't like your body. You can love your body even when overweight and trying to lose weight. You can love "imperfection" (and I don't use that word because I believe it - but rather because you do).

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Post by nikitakolata Thu Dec 07, 2017 3:46 pm

Lovebird wrote:
Have you read Body Beliefs by Jason Seib? You should. It will forever change you. If you go to his site you can download the book for free. He has even made an audio version of the book. I listened to it over a few weeks while driving. It's honestly one of the best things I have ever read/listened to.

altshiftdiet.com/books/

He's a paleo guy so he is in our tribe. If you go to the linked site and then choose to sign up for emails then you will get a free copy of the book. It will rock your perception of your body beliefs. Really.

She'd better... I shared the link with her at MDA... Cool

Just re-reading the Table of Contents now and I guess I'm at the "just tell me what to do" stage. Smile I'm so frustrated and I can't figure things out. I was okay for several months, but then I gained 4 pounds over the course of a single weekend and they won't go away. I want to tell myself it's bloat or water or something, but if that were true it would have disappeared when I started this whole keto thing. The reality is that it's fat and it's impacting how my clothes fit and so it needs to go (I'm not buying another set of clothes... I just won't do it).
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Post by Meant2Move Thu Dec 07, 2017 4:14 pm

nikitakolata wrote:

I wonder if this just doesn't work for women.  Or if it doesn't work for stressed out people.  Or maybe there's something else going on?  I can't figure it out and that's the most annoying part.  Usually if I can't lose weight it's because I'm not really following the protocol I should be.  But, this time I am, and still nothing!  

You might have something there. Stress and the elevated cortisol it brings will hinder weight loss because stress causes your body to be ready for fight or flight and that means elevated blood sugar to power the response. That in turn triggers higher insulin levels and if your insulin is high you will not lose weight. Insulin is a building hormone.

I highly recommend the book The Obesity Cody by Jason Fung, M.D.
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Post by The Walrus Fri Dec 08, 2017 8:32 am

I second the recommendations for both of the books recommended here.  I've read them both and they changed my way of thinking.  For example, Fung treats obesity as a medical issue, not a personal failing.  

I often think ahead - hopefully in twenty years I will be looking back at my 58 year old body, and what will I think?  Will I think, "hey, I'm still there!"  Or will I think, "oh, I wish I still had my 58-year-old body?"

I've been exploring keto as it is such a hot topic in the primal world, and I find it a bit curious that the benefits of keto are mostly expounded by men. Yes, there are keto women out there, and I congratulate them. But I'm careful to attach a caveat to proclamations from Mark Sisson and Dave Asprey and Robb Wolf, etc. Has this been tested on women? Post or pre menopause? Many women do not do well with IF or other types of fasting. Some, of course, do wonderfully. I like to experiment on myself, but I have to accept that a lot of my experiments will fail, and what worked for Mark won't work for me.

Well, I'm not being as articulate as I would like, but I hope the gist of my thoughts is coming through.
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Post by nikitakolata Fri Dec 08, 2017 1:59 pm

OK, so I've been reading Body Beliefs again.  I think it didn't really stick with me the first time because it wasn't new information for me.  I'm not under any illusion that my life will suddenly be transformed when I lose weight.  Of course it won't, I'll still be the same person with many of the same problems.  But, there are things that would be better, buying clothes being one of those things.  Being comfortable in my clothes being another.  There's a lot in the book I agree with, and some things that I don't.  For example, people absolutely do treat thin women better than fat women.  They've done social experiments to prove it.  Sure, maybe only shallow assholes treat thin women better, but guess what?  I have to deal with those shallow assholes whether I want to or not (some of them are my clients).  

But, ultimately, I'm not in a state where I don't think I'm worthy of change or I'll only be good enough when I'm thin or anything else like that.  I'm actually an extremely successful person.  Maybe that's why this has been so frustrating for me; because if I put this much effort in in any other area of my life I'd have been successful by now.  I guess I am very lucky that I'm normally successful at whatever I try, within reason, of course (I'm not a concert pianist or anything, but when I put in the effort I can learn a new tune, for example).  I feel like Body Beliefs is more targeted towards women who want to lose 10 to 30 pounds or something.  At that amount, maybe you should work on acceptance because you might very well be at a good size for you.  But, I have more than that to lose.  I don't think anyone is really supposed to be as big as I am.  Plus, it isn't as though I carry my weight like Ashley Graham.  If I did, this would all be a non-issue as I couldn't care less about the actual number on the scale, but I do care about my general appearance and ability to fit into clothes.  

So, to the topic at hand... I am becoming more convinced with each day that keto is just not going to give me the weight loss results I want.  The question becomes then, what will?  I definitely feel a reduced appetite following keto and my cravings for sugar/carbs aren't super strong (I can resist them, at least), so that's all well and good, but I need the fat to be gone.  

I have read The Obesity Code and it was interesting.  But, long term fasting... it's another one of those things that I wonder if it has been studied in women.  It seems like all the studies focused on men, as usual.  I did a few 36 hour fasts, but I didn't find them easy.  I guess I could use fasting as my weight loss tool now and see if it works, but even being (I assume in) keto I do experience hunger.


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Post by Nightly Orange Fri Dec 08, 2017 2:59 pm

Sometimes the problem is deeper than diet. Stress has been mentioned, but what stuck out to me was that you said you don't sleep well, and only get 7 hours of "light sleep" per night. Poor sleep, especially on a chronic basis, can absolutely destroy a person. I think we tend to underestimate the amount of sleep we need for a variety of reasons--the cultural narrative (at least here in America) is that sleeping a lot is uncool, and go-getters who are killing it in life only require 5-6 hours per night, and compensate with caffeine and Adderall if they have to. Also, blue light isn't just some hippie woo woo, it's an actual biological signalling mechanism to your eye and your brain that regulates your circadian rhythm and hormones (including both cortisol and melatonin, and we all know about the importance of those not only for sleep, but also weight loss). Our lives are saturated with blue light, from dawn til dusk, and some people are more sensitive to the detrimental effects than others.

I used to get by on 5-6 hours of sleep per night, with catch-up on the weekends, for years. I thought I was doing fine, as it certainly didn't stop me from excelling at school or at work or even in the gym, but when I began to seriously try to improve my sleep, I found that I had been deluding myself and could easily get in 8 to 10 hours per night.

This is a marginally random digression, but I've read a number of accounts of how convicts work out in prison, and one theme that comes up fairly often is the sheer amount of regular sleep they get due to the strict lights-out schedule, which is often supplemented by afternoon naps just because prison is so damn boring. And convicts can get absolutely strong and shredded on their SAD garbage prison food diets and their woefully insufficient work-out equipment (sometimes all they can do is high-rep calisthenics), specifically because (the argument goes) they get so much top-notch sleep.

I don't know how much you've researched sleep, or if you've experimented with it to the extent that you have with diet, but if not, it's definitely something to look into. I might even put sleep in a higher category of importance than diet, really. It's certainly more primordial. Birds and bears and baboons prefer different diets, but all of them sleep. Hell, even insects sleep. And some bacteria exhibit circadian rhythms. Shit's important.
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Post by marcadav Fri Dec 08, 2017 5:00 pm

Have you ruled out physical issues that might be at play in regards to your weight? The following things come to mind:
Thyroid-- TSH, freeT4, freeT3, reverseT3, antibodies (TPOab TgAb)
Blood sugar- fasting glucose, HbA1c, fasting insulin
Vitamin D
Anemia- including low ferritin
Food sensitivities
Adrenal issues
Hormonal imbalances
Under eating

As I type this I'm wondering-- have we discussed thyroid issues, on MDA, before?

When it comes to Body Beliefs, Altshift, or Altshift Activate, I know, from personal experience, that Jason Seib will do his best to help you. You just have to reach out to him. You can do that through email, the Altshift forum, or Discord.

I believe Jason is trying to help women with body image issues. Women that sabotage themselves, women who think they're fat when they're not, women who don't know where to begin....

The number on the scale doesn't matter. In fact, he thinks everyone should get rid of the scale because we tend to give it too much power. He has said more than once, "You can't fix a body you hate." It is, I think, the reason he wrote Body Beliefs.

I know how hard this is. I spent many years trying different things and never getting anywhere. I had to shift my focus to things I can control-- what I eat and how I move.

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Post by keto Sun Dec 10, 2017 2:36 am

I've done keto on and off for about 7 years now. When I first began it, at about age 47, I too initially gained weight. I was also tired, had a hard time sleeping, and was just plain discouraged.

Somewhere around the 6-week mark, though, right when I was ready to give up, something shifted; and almost overnight, the weight started flying off. I also entered what some people call "beast mode," where I had wonderful energy, mental clarity, and and "up" mood.

The only thing I recall doing at about that 6-week mark was upping my salt, potassium, and magnesium, and dialing back dairy.

So, it may be that keto isn't a good fit for other women -- our mileages will vary -- but I just wanted to put my experience out there for those who are wondering if they should stick it out a bit longer.

Ultimately, for me, it was worth the uncomfortable/dispiriting transition phase, but yeah, I was NOT happy to find my pants getting tighter instead of looser that first month-plus.
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Post by Rig D Sun Dec 10, 2017 9:42 am

Some input from a guy who obviously has no first hand knowledge, so take it for whatever you think its worth: I'm a believer in the set point type thing Ontario mentioned. I'm also a strong believer in that what you weigh should be determined by how you feel, physically and mentally. If you don't feel physically good and mentally alert where you are, I would suggest reflecting on your past and determine what your weight was when you were at your best. That should be your starting objective, regardless of what any weight charts might say.

To break out of a set point is, in my personal experience, a difficult thing. So far the discussion is mostly food related but I had to really jolt my system to get it to move, and I did this by dramatically upping my exercise, by doing what I was doing longer, but more so by increasing the intensity and speed of what I did. I don't think this helped in any sense with any type of "CICO," but in some way it forced my body to make adjustments that improved things immensely. I think it improved my sleep also. I adhered to a plain vanilla Primal food program and after a short period saw the weight move. Over my one year of losing weight, I encountered several plateaus, which I considered to be mini-set points.
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Post by nikitakolata Mon Dec 11, 2017 12:00 pm

Nightly Orange wrote:Sometimes the problem is deeper than diet. Stress has been mentioned, but what stuck out to me was that you said you don't sleep well, and only get 7 hours of "light sleep" per night. Poor sleep, especially on a chronic basis, can absolutely destroy a person. I think we tend to underestimate the amount of sleep we need for a variety of reasons--the cultural narrative (at least here in America) is that sleeping a lot is uncool, and go-getters who are killing it in life only require 5-6 hours per night, and compensate with caffeine and Adderall if they have to. Also, blue light isn't just some hippie woo woo, it's an actual biological signalling mechanism to your eye and your brain that regulates your circadian rhythm and hormones (including both cortisol and melatonin, and we all know about the importance of those not only for sleep, but also weight loss). Our lives are saturated with blue light, from dawn til dusk, and some people are more sensitive to the detrimental effects than others.

I used to get by on 5-6 hours of sleep per night, with catch-up on the weekends, for years. I thought I was doing fine, as it certainly didn't stop me from excelling at school or at work or even in the gym, but when I began to seriously try to improve my sleep, I found that I had been deluding myself and could easily get in 8 to 10 hours per night.

This is a marginally random digression, but I've read a number of accounts of how convicts work out in prison, and one theme that comes up fairly often is the sheer amount of regular sleep they get due to the strict lights-out schedule, which is often supplemented by afternoon naps just because prison is so damn boring. And convicts can get absolutely strong and shredded on their SAD garbage prison food diets and their woefully insufficient work-out equipment (sometimes all they can do is high-rep calisthenics), specifically because (the argument goes) they get so much top-notch sleep.

I don't know how much you've researched sleep, or if you've experimented with it to the extent that you have with diet, but if not, it's definitely something to look into. I might even put sleep in a higher category of importance than diet, really. It's certainly more primordial. Birds and bears and baboons prefer different diets, but all of them sleep. Hell, even insects sleep. And some bacteria exhibit circadian rhythms. Shit's important.

I know how important sleep is and I know a lot about sleep hygiene. The thing is that I don't notice much or any difference when I follow good sleep practices. I've asked for some blue light blocking glasses for Christmas. If I don't get them as a gift I'm going to buy them. I go to bed at the same time and get up at the same time everyday. I allow plenty of time for sleep, but I don't get good sleep anyway. I don't know why this is. I take a sleep supplement (Zenwise) before bed every night. I know blue light is an issue, so hopefully the glasses will help. We're also installing a smart home system with the color changing bulbs so we will have only red lights in our main living areas after dark. That is going to be really weird, to be honest, but I'm willing to try it.

So, I guess the point is that I know my sleep is not optimal and I'm working on it. I can't find any rhyme or reason to why I sleep ok some nights and terribly other nights. One plus is, after this weekend, my leg twitching has reduced greatly. That is a huge help to sleeping for me. There is nothing more annoying than twitching muscles when you're trying to sleep (or anytime at all, for that matter).
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Post by nikitakolata Mon Dec 11, 2017 12:10 pm

marcadav wrote:Have you ruled out physical issues that might be at play in regards to your weight? The following things come to mind:
Thyroid-- TSH, freeT4, freeT3, reverseT3, antibodies (TPOab TgAb)
Blood sugar- fasting glucose, HbA1c, fasting insulin
Vitamin D
Anemia- including low ferritin
Food sensitivities
Adrenal issues
Hormonal imbalances
Under eating

As I type this I'm wondering-- have we discussed thyroid issues, on MDA, before?

When it comes to Body Beliefs, Altshift, or Altshift Activate, I know, from personal experience, that Jason Seib will do his best to help you. You just have to reach out to him. You can do that through email, the Altshift forum, or Discord.

I believe Jason is trying to help women with body image issues. Women that sabotage themselves, women who think they're fat when they're not, women who don't know where to begin....

The number on the scale doesn't matter. In fact, he thinks everyone should get rid of the scale because we tend to give it too much power. He has said more than once, "You can't fix a body you hate." It is, I think, the reason he wrote Body Beliefs.

I know how hard this is. I spent many years trying different things and never getting anywhere. I had to shift my focus to things I can control-- what I eat and how I move.    

I have been tested for every imaginable thing, it seems. Everything's normal. I had a hugely stressful summer and, honestly, I'm just now physically recovering from it. The BFS started back then and it's just now starting to go away after months of seeing a therapist, doctor and chiropractor. I hope getting my stress under control is going to help, I don't know.

I'm in a real catch 22 when it comes to stress and weight. Worrying about my weight and diet are definitely stressors for me. Yet, when I'm not worrying about them I am gaining weight. I dream of a day when I have my diet figured out enough to sort of go on auto pilot with it. I have some habits that work, but obviously I still have many that don't. What I want to get to is a place where I know what to eat and what amounts to eat those things in to just keep my weight stable. If I can follow hunger cues and indulge cravings once in awhile, even better.

keto wrote:I've done keto on and off for about 7 years now.  When I first began it, at about age 47, I too initially gained weight.  I was also tired, had a hard time sleeping, and was just plain discouraged.

Somewhere around the 6-week mark, though, right when I was ready to give up, something shifted; and almost overnight, the weight started flying off.  I also entered what some people call "beast mode," where I had wonderful energy, mental clarity, and and "up" mood.

The only thing I recall doing at about that 6-week mark was upping my salt, potassium, and magnesium, and dialing back dairy.

So, it may be that keto isn't a good fit for other women -- our mileages will vary -- but I just wanted to put my experience out there for those who are wondering if they should stick it out a bit longer.

Ultimately, for me, it was worth the uncomfortable/dispiriting transition phase, but yeah, I was NOT happy to find my pants getting tighter instead of looser that first month-plus.

This is reassuring and scary. I really don't want to continue gaining weight. I probably should cut back on dairy. I love cheese so much, but I don't need it. I mostly just want to get on a good path of losing weight. I don't need a miracle or overnight thing, but I need to feel sure mentally that what I'm doing is going to work, if that makes any sense.

Rig D wrote:Some input from a guy who obviously has no first hand knowledge, so take it for whatever you think its worth: I'm a believer in the set point type thing Ontario mentioned. I'm also a strong believer in that what you weigh should be determined by how you feel, physically and mentally. If you don't feel physically good and mentally alert where you are, I would suggest reflecting on your past and determine what your weight was when you were at your best. That should be your starting objective, regardless of what any weight charts might say.

To break out of a set point is, in my personal experience, a difficult thing. So far the discussion is mostly food related but I had to really jolt my system to get it to move, and I did this by dramatically upping my exercise, by doing what I was doing longer, but more so by increasing the intensity and speed of what I did. I don't think this helped in any sense with any type of "CICO," but in some way it forced my body to make adjustments that improved things immensely. I think it improved my sleep also. I adhered to a plain vanilla Primal food program and after a short period saw the weight move. Over my one year of losing weight, I encountered several plateaus, which I considered to be mini-set points.

I agree that there's something to the whole set point theory. I've experienced it plenty of times in my life; I'll eat horribly and the scale stays exactly the same. Then I'm trying so hard and being so careful and still the scale doesn't budge. It's very annoying.

So, after thinking about this more this weekend I think I'm going to try incorporating 36 hour+ fasts with the keto. I can't bear to keep gaining weight/inches. I've done 36 hour fasts before and while I don't enjoy it, I also don't enjoy getting fatter. I'm going to try and do two fasts this week (I'm 15 hours in now). For me, IF has never worked. I can fast 16 to 20 hours with almost no effort at all and fasting for that amount of time has never resulted in a single pound lost for me. I need to do at least 36 hours before I see any change in weight. It sucks because getting past dinner time is very challenging for me. The rest of the day is no problem, but 4:00 to 7:00 pm are killer for me.
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Post by Narrowminded Mon Dec 11, 2017 4:22 pm

Here's hoping you are working your way through your witching hour. Those hours are tough for me too. Crossing my fingers for you.
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Post by Glass Full of Air Tue Dec 12, 2017 2:51 pm

This is a complicated subject and I don't have much to add but positive wishes and the fact that I'll be hanging out with you as you work this. Smile

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Post by nikitakolata Tue Dec 12, 2017 3:17 pm

I survived my fast. It always amazes me how I can go to bed feeling so hungry, yet when I wake up I'm not hungry at all. So, I'm back to keto until Thursday when I will fast again, I guess.

One other note about fasting is that in the summers I liked doing it because I felt much cooler at night and it was easier to sleep. But, now that it's actually cold outside, OMG, I was ridiculously cold last night. I was watching TV after "dinner" (for my daughter) and I had to lay down to maximize my contact with the sofa and then put two blankets on myself for warmth. I still felt cold. I ended up sleeping with 3 blankets, which normally would not happen.
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Post by keto Tue Dec 12, 2017 3:23 pm

Congrats on the fast! That takes a lot of resolve. Stay warm and cozy, and let us know how things go.

The few times I've intentionally fasted (vs. inadvertently going a long-ish spell because I wasn't hungry), I was struck by how emotionally-charged the process was. Not being able to access the quick comfort of food (keto or otherwise), and trying to figure out what to do with myself, was surprisingly tough.

Rock on, nikita!
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Post by Narrowminded Tue Dec 12, 2017 6:48 pm

Good job with the fast. Something I have yet to attempt. Smile
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