Dedicated Ketosis Thread (Page 10)

Thanks, Outlandluc.  How do you fix the flax?  Carbs are the worst addiction.  It’s amazing how powerful the addiction is.  My weight is finally back to where it was five days ago.  What hell I went through this week.  A hard but good lesson learned.  Ate a cheese stick this morning.  That should get me through a spin session.  Today I will eat very lightly: raw spinach, turkey, broccoli.

I have a few recipes I enjoy with Flax. A sandwich bun I make which I also use for Hamburgers. I have a great flax / almond muffin recipe.

I often have a muffin for lunch, very filling and healthy.

I've found a good flax pizza crust, which allowed me to eat pizza again.

It is too bad no one as yet managed to figure out a flax bread recipe which looks like real bread.

When I trip and eat too many carbs, I go in a different direction. I eat very fatty for the next few days, as I try to keep the carbs demons at bay.

The longest I have done running is 2 hrs, and I don't need fueling for that.

On the bike during 4 hrs ride, I've used cream cheese, sometimes olives. I also tried peanut butter once, and it worked great.

Two questions:

I have not seen any true science supporting the paleo type of diet.  Could you please share some links to research, studies or something?  Preferably from neutral research institutions etc.

I have never heard of "fat adapted" but with the reading I have done with regards to IM training and nutrition I was under the impression that in HR Z2 our primary fuel is fat no matter what the diet and that even if a person has a body fat percentage in the single digits there is more than enough "fat energy" for an IM.  Is this not the case?  Does it take a ketosis diet to achieve this?

Technically three questions...

Thanks.

This is why, once I gave up sugar, I did not even have unsweetened deserts. We have to know our limitations.

I don't know how long you have been low carbs, but if it has not been a year, keep the possibilities opened for the future.

The first year, the feeling of great health as well as weight loss was enough to keep me going and motivated. Eventually, you start missing some of the old foods a lot, as you realize this is for life, variety becomes more important.

Used to hate having a sandwich at work, now it trills me that I can have them again.

If you can continue without the need for variety, great for you, makes life simpler, but keep in mind that there's a lot of great recipes out there if your needs change.

Just tasted something fantastic and simple to make, so i have to share.

Finally got around to trying Anna Vocino's Bacon Broccoli. Broccoli is not enough for me, so added some green beans, cauliflower and carrots.

After it was cooked, I used paper towels to remove excess grease, as it is extremely greasy, then added some parmesan cheese. Believe it or not, I served it with Italians sausages. It was piggy night.

I had to fight off my wife and kids, who hate vegetables. (and who are not low carbs).

Even after more then a year, I always find it hard to believe I can eat like this and loose weight. Try explaining to others that eating vegetables covered with bacon and pine nuts makes it healthy :-)

Yum!  Sounds delish, Outlandluc. My kids would pick out the sausage and leave the veggies behind but my husband would eat the medley.

My daily go-to food is a spinach salad (1.5 oz), 1/2 avocado, 1 oz cheese or meat, broccoli (1.5 oz), and a dressing of Bragg Organic herb mix, olive oil, and 2 T Bragg organic cider vinegar.  To die for.  I give it a few shakes during the day and eat it for lunch.

Down another pound over yesterday.  My goal is to get to 120, which would be my pre-pregnancy weight from about 21 years ago.  So close I can feel it! 

I have been reading Robert Lustig's book this week.  So fascinating.  It's called "Fat Chance:  Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Foods, Obesity, and Disease."  It's really an eye opener to the metabolic causes of obesity and how much of weight problems are out of the control of an individual.  It helped me understand why some people simply cannot lose weight no matter what they do.  It's not their fault.  Nonetheless, a low carb diet does seem to be a reasonable solution.  I haven't finished it yet so I will be interested to read his diet recommendations.

Take a look in the triathlon talk section.  There is a study linked in a thread about fat study in the 90's (or something like that).  It basically says that fat is fine for a steady state but not for high intensity training...and then the masses question why you'd do anything except the tried and true sugar/carb loading.  Personally, I'm in the Peter Attia school....I'm a human experiment upon myself.  I believe going keto for a race will work because it makes sense to me logically....I'll be happy to admit I'm wrong if the time comes but I'm going to give it a try until that point.

I always tell myself not to dwell too much on the past, but when it comes to nutrition, I can't help it.

I wish I had discovered this way of eating in my 20's, so many years wasted. My wife thinks I have become narcissistic, as I keep looking at and touching my legs. I always had big muscular legs, tree trunks my buddies in the army called them. They were body builders type of muscle.

Lately I noticed that after running every week for a year for the first time in my life, I have developed runners (Cyclist) muscles (bumps) in the front of my legs. I am so trilled I can't stop touching and staring. I also noticed that my triceps is visible even when I don't flex. I guess the thousands of push ups are paying off.

Eh, I'll never be Magazine cover type :-), but it's highly motivating to find out that, not only is this nutrition healthy for me, but it's also having beneficial effect in body appearance at 48.

Well, maybe I'm getting a bit narcissistic, but I earned it :-)

I thought I'd bump this back up.

After being off-and-on for a couple years, I got serious at the end of last year and into this year. On my second Whole30 of this year, my sticks have been showing keto for several days now. I suspect it's been over a week, but I forgot to check. It's not my goal to be keto, but when eating this way, it naturally happens for me. Once I hit my size/body comp I'd like to maintain, I'll probably be upping workouts, and thus, upping carb (potato & fruit) intake.

Feeling great though. Down 5lbs since this week in March. Smallest size and flattest stomach in my adult life.

The last 2 evenings I've gotten a bad headache. I didn't plan my meals very well this week and didn't drink enough water. Easily fixed! I'm on a BIG avocado kick right now, I can't get enough guacamole! 

I'm lucky, I love Peanut Butter and can eat it out of the jar. So I use that a lot on long training. I also love olives, and the're easy to carry. Cream Cheese is my other go to food on training. 

My biggest lesson learned is that, as long as I stay low carbs, I have more energy then my 48 years old body can handle. Sometimes I want to keep going, but my old muscles are saying NO!!! I can not do 6 days on, 1 day rest. My body does not do well recovery wise and I don't see any gains. I now do 3 days on 1 day off, and see much better improvement. 

What keeps me away from carbs temptation are the great low carbs recipes I found on the Net. I made that Broccoli (Almond - Cheese) pie again last night and added spinach to it. It is so good,  I was not even tempted by the mash potatoes everyone else had in their plate.

My longest runs have been 90 minutes and I don't need nutrition. Although I need to find a way to bring salt, as my sodium is getting way too low lately.

I carry a small bag on the bike. I simply use ziplock snack bags that I fill with the food. 

I don't track food unless I notice unusual weight gain. I know portions I need for either weight loss or maintenance. 

When the carbs talk to me too loudly (that is how I describe my addiction), I don't hesitate and eat whatever amount of nuts I need to shut up the carbs :-)

I finished off a full bag of almonds (1 pound) about a month ago in one evening, to stay away from carbs. Felt like I was carrying a bunch of rocks in my belly as i went to sleep, but it kept me away from temptation. The next day I felt great, and did not gain any weight. So I think Nuts work differently on the system compare to other carbs.

I eat all sorts of nuts, except cashews. Love them but developed a nasty skin allergy to them (Their oil is in the same family as Poison Ivy)

I can't eat berries any more, too sweet. I consume a lot of dairies, milk, cheese, cream, but never been a big fan of yogurt.

Beside nuts, I get most of my Carbs from veggies.

I eat this sometimes:

http://www.amazon.com/Justins-Nut-Butter-Natural-11-5-Ounce/dp/B002ATEZOG

I usually get them when they're on sale. 

There are also these, that I've just seen recently. This brand has little packets like the Justin's almond butter. This link is for boxes, but they do have the little packets at Whole Foods! 

http://www.amazon.com/Lets-Do-Organic-Creamed-Coconut/dp/B00113ZZ5U

Outlanluc:  I thought you loved berries?  Is this a recent development that you no longer eat them?  Major bummer. 

Queen:  Thanks for the almond butter and coconut leads.  Both are interesting sources of readily packaged calories.  A bit spendy, though.  I think I am going to also look into UCAN.  A guy in my MIW program uses UCAN and has had good results.  He's also a low carb athlete.

I have a big garden and grow all sorts of berries, always loved them.

I hit the three years mark of no added sugar on March 01, but I first noticed some drastic changes last Christmas. No more cravings, all of a sudden, the smell of something sweet makes me noxious. 

Then I noticed fruits were too sweet, even a granny Smith apple. Lately I can't drink diet colas, and tried some strawberries a week ago, and my taste buds did not enjoy the feeling.

Raspberries are more tart and I can still enjoy them, don't know if it'll last. It does not bum me much, I get more then enough vitamins from vegetables. I do enjoy driving people nuts when I tell them a piece of Broccoli is very sweet. 

My favorite sweet thing right now is raw sweet bell peppers with salt. I let them sit a few minutes after salting, and my taste buds are so sensitive to sugar that they taste very sweet.

It is a great feeling to know that I'll never have to worry about sugar again. 

What we don't realize until it happens to us, is how little we taste food when eating sugar and carbs. The changes in my taste buds have opened a world of different tastes I did not know existed, and from much healthier food. 

It's like my capacity to taste has been multiplied by ten, I have to be careful not to spice things too much now. I'm enjoying my new taste buds so much, i don't think I'll miss the fruits.

Hey, folks:

How's everyone doing? 

I have been keeping mostly clean eating although have had a few instances of eating wheat (crackers and cheese) and sugar (a spoonful here and there of Nutella).  For the last couple of weeks I stopped weighing myself daily, a mistake.  It keeps me honest and focused.  Back with the program today.  Weighed myself:  up to 125.  Dang it.  I was doing really well.  The beauty of life is each day can be a fresh start.

I've been haphazardly working my way through Gary Taubs' "Good Calories, Bad Calories."  To say he is verbose is an understatement.  Nonetheless, it's an interesting, comprehensive review of research, politics, and thinking about food, diet, obesity, weight, fat-heart disease.  It's for sure not a book to educate one about nutrition and eating.  It's an interesting read and certainly reinforces the notion that the science behind the government's nutrition recommendations is sketchy at best.  For me, it really challenged what I thought was rock solid science, particularly the connection between cholesterol and heart disease.

This is week 4 of no sugar no grains - I'm still eating dairy without which I'm not sure I'd manage!  Scrambled eggs and cheese every morning never gets old!

Last weekend I finally convinced my husband this is a good idea.  He is trying it but is going through a big sugar withdrawal right now - that lethargy is just unreal, and how you believe that some chocolate or candy would fix it.

I think I've kicked sugar pretty much, enjoying tea and coffee without.

Fruit I'm just on berries right now - low GI - I'm enjoying those with cream every afternoon.

I still snack on too many nuts but am exercising a little restraint this week.

Energy levels are back to normal.  Please let us know anyone trying Generation Ucan - I know Vinnie Tortorich uses this.

For the Vinnie Tortorich fans.  I had a phone consult with him today.  The man is funny and wise.

He got me to rethink my training - keep it simple Jo.  Don't add intensity, Z2 is your friend, train in that zone and you will go faster by going slower.

Spoke some about nutrition and how to fuel on this very low carb regime.  I'm terified of giving up the Gu and the Gatorade etc. on race day and long runs.

But he says trust it.  Do what you would do normally - get up have your eggs and some cheese, have your coffee with thick cream and then go.  Nutrition during the race - Ucan, whey protein and some coconut oil will do it. (sounds like azz!)

Told me what I already knew - I can lose another 30lbs.  So onto that!

Just email him via his website if you want a consult (there is a cost)