Keto Diet Food & Recipes

[Boot Cleaner]

What are your thoughts on this?

So, low carbs and high fat diet where you can basically have a cooked breakfast every morning and eat chilli, steak, chicken and any meat until your heart is content.

Obviously no bread, pasta, chocolate, sweets etc

Easy to do or very hard?

 

[Max Taxable]

I don't follow that diet, but I do eat a very low carb/no starch/no sugar diet of my own design which is also low on fat with absolutely ZERO trans fat and which since I started it in March have lost 30lbs.

I use ketone urine test strips to monitor my ketosis, and to stay safe. It's working great, never felt better. Hardest thing to give up wasn't the nightly beer or two or three, it was the potatoes and the pasta!

When you burn body fat your system makes ketones, these are excreted in your breath and urine, it's the only way to know 100 percent you are burning fat. The danger is, you can take it too far and go into ketoacidosis and find yourself on a slab in the morgue with a tag tied to your toe. The urine test strips orrrrr they also make mini breathalyzers for ketone, keep you safe and let you know you are staying on track.

Diets fail because the measure of success is stepping on the scale and weighing yourself, this is often self-defeating. Mainly because nobody really knows how to weigh themselves. They do it willy-nilly, different times of day, different states of dress, bladder not empty, too many times per day - unscientific. I always weigh first thing in the morning barefoot and still in my boxers, right after the morning urine event. And I only weigh about once a week. The ketone tests are what lets me know I am progressing and the weighing confirms.

Easy to do or very hard? At first it was difficult to suffer the cravings for the carbs and sugars, but like any addiction after a while your body detoxifies and the cravings subside. Now it's easy-peasy, I can't imagine eating any other way than what I do now. And I eat WELL. Eggs and fried ground turkey with one-half piece of whole grain wheat toast and a sausage patty for breakfast, Plenty of chicken, beef and fish with tons of veggies like cauliflower, broccoli and spinach for dinner, a tuna pouch with a little mayo stirred in, with a slice of sharp cheddar cheese and some steamed baby carrots is my typical lunch and is surprisingly satisfying. Once you are used to it and your system is adjusted, it's a breeze. I'll continue eating this way even after my weight goal is reached.

 

[Welshy]

I started it in January just after Christmas and whatnot.

I lost 26lb in a couple of months. Coming off it now though as I've hit a plateau, 7lb short of my goal.

I had an app called Carb Manager which helped me a lot, you can scan food to see how high the carbs are in it.

I found it pretty easy. I was working away at the time so bought myself a little steamer off Amazon, so I'd steam my veg in the hotel room, get a cooked chicken, and shred one of the breasts into the veg with some chilli paste or whatever - simple but tasty.

If you want a chocolate fix, buy 90% cocoa chocolate.

 

[Dylan]

Been doing this for the last month alongside the Couch to 5k and I've never felt healthier. Lost a stone in the first 3 weeks (a lot of the initial loss is water weight) and now my weight is on a steady decline and my fitness is on a steady incline.

What I would say is that is massively helps that my missus is a great cook and doing it with me as she uses loads of recipes, bakes keto bread, makes keto chocolate etc. If it was just me I'd literally be living on pork chops, steak, sausage, bacon, cheese, eggs and pork scratchings and it wouldn't be too healthy - dirty keto basically.

In general, processed sugars are a hidden killer in any diet. I'm sure there was a documentary about it. I just stay away from processed foods and sugars as a general rule.

 

[Max Taxable]

(a lot of the initial loss is water weight)

Yep it's alarming at first, when that first 10 lbs just vanishes suddenly.

 

[Janey]

In general, processed sugars are a hidden killer in any diet. I'm sure there was a documentary about it. I just stay away from processed foods and sugars as a general rule.

This, this and more of this.

I got educated on my diet a good few years back and have felt 10 times better ever since..

I don't think people understand just how bad processed sugars in food is for you.

 

[Alex]

Coming to the end of 5 weeks for me. Never felt fitter or healthier (I'm running and at the gym as well). Down just over a stone and still got a long way to go.

The cravings have kicked in this week. Sugar mainly. Managed to resist but might have to have a day off next week to reset. Is that a thing in keto? One cheat day then back on it?

 

[hannah]

I've been eating Low Carb High Fat for a couple of years now. I don't do it specifically for weight loss - there are other major benefits around reducing risk of coronary artery disease that are more important to me, but it's all connected anyway. But since doing it my body weight has stabilised at around 8kg less than it used to be. It is not difficult to maintain LCHF except when eating out - lots of places only sell plates of food where the majority on the plate is carbs and sugar. But I'm not obsessive about it.

I don't aim to be keto because that would involve discipline and basically have none. I had a BLT yesterday but that's about as much bread as I will eat in the average week. I am probably in ketosis for some periods of time though. I do a lot of cycling and I have found that I need to fuel myself with carbs on longer rides - I'm guessing this is a sign that I'm not actually in a proper ketogenic state. I'm happy with it. There are plenty of benefits in LCHF without going the whole hog for permanent ketogenic state. And it is easy.

As well as cutting down on starchy carbs and refined sugar you want to avoid industrially processed seed oils too. Those three things are the bad stuff. Coincidentally they are the major constituents of pretty much all heavily processed foods.

 

[Cherub]

I've been following a paleo/keto diet for twelve years.

I tend to only eat once every 24 hours. I never feel hungry and I never feel lacking in energy - I felt both regularly when I ate a standard diet. The reason is that my diet means my body never needs to produce insulin as my carb intake is so low - insulin is the cause of energy levels going up and down. I only eat natural healthy saturated fats. All of my blood tests state I am in optimal health.

When I started twelve years ago, I ate huge portions as I thought I'd be hungry, but that soon stopped. Being in Ketosis makes it difficult to over eat as you only feel hungry when you genuinely need more food - unlike what happens when insulin converts the carbs people eat into fat before the body has the chance to use them for energy - hence creating hunger pangs. I've never suffered from being bunged up - but probably because I eat vegetables which contain fibre. But I don't eat high starch veg or potatoes which are technically not veg.

 

[Keren]

I've been following a paleo/keto diet for twelve years.

I tend to only eat once every 24 hours. I never feel hungry and I never feel lacking in energy - I felt both regularly when I ate a standard diet. The reason is that my diet means my body never needs to produce insulin as my carb intake is so low - insulin is the cause of energy levels going up and down. I only eat natural healthy saturated fats. All of my blood tests state I am in optimal health.

When I started twelve years ago, I ate huge portions as I thought I'd be hungry, but that soon stopped. Being in Ketosis makes it difficult to over eat as you only feel hungry when you genuinely need more food - unlike what happens when insulin converts the carbs people eat into fat before the body has the chance to use them for energy - hence creating hunger pangs. I've never suffered from being bunged up - but probably because I eat vegetables which contain fibre. But I don't eat high starch veg or potatoes which are technically not veg.

What do you do about booze? ?