Something I noticed today on a Costco run:
I have a waist again. My pants are all too loose, but I can cinch a belt properly and have the pants hang normally off the top of my hips.
For years (good god) I have had to choose between pulling my pants back up all damn day and uncomfortable blubber compression in order to get the dang things to stay.
Sometimes it’s the little things!
Great job on the weight loss everyone, some of you are loosing big numbers and that’s awesome. If Christmas gives you a little bump up don’t worry about it and get back on the plan after. Even though I’m starting at lower starting weight I’m down 20 pounds in 2 months. I’m using a different method as I’m carbing out as I’m only eating meat once a week, a little cheese and then fruits, vegetables and lots of beans, chickpeas, lentils etc. Recipes on the internet make it interesting and tasty.
I downloaded My Fitness Pal to help track calories, fats, protein, carbs etc. Its amazing what the free version can do. Find a recipe on the internet, download it and it figures out all that information for you. Sure its not perfect and you have to edit the recipe as it gets some stuff wrong, adjust portion size etc but I think its great. I knew salt was in everything but I still was surprised. I made a whole wheat tortilla with spinach, carrot, pineapple, yum yum pickles, pineapple, banana peppers, tahini and sriacha and it was 1100mg of salt. It’s very hard to limit.
I forget about this thread because I only pop into Everything Else once in a while and thought I could use some inspiration here - and I found it! Wow, some great success in weight loss here! Great job! I want some of your success to rub off on me! :-)
I’ve been eating wayyy to much chocolate and other desserts - alcohol isn’t my issue but sweets are. I can polish off a bag of truffles meant to have like 20 servings in a couple days. Strangely, my weight hasn’t gone up as much as I feared. I’ve even been less active because of a hamstring and foot injury and I’ve generally stayed between 206 and 210. I’m starting to wonder if I have a hungry tumor somewhere consuming calories to keep my weight down.
But, I still need to lose around 20-30 pounds. I’ve gotten down under 200 3 or 4 times over the past several years, only to always go back up. I used to strength train, but for the last couple of decades I’ve been strictly cardio. I just bought some Bowflex adjustable dumbbells to hopefully correct that.
Keep up the good work everyone!
Six-month check-in!
Holy Shit
Quite Large
Nice work! How are you finding the future prospects for continuing keto as a maintainable lifestyle, rather than a fad diet? In for life, you reckon?
I’m still on board and cruising along, lost 10kgs over the 5 months since I got back in. Definitely sharper with more energy, and enjoying doing more exercise.
I did have maybe 3 cheat days so far, which unsurprisingly coincided with my 3 days of minor alcohol excess… :P
Apart from those days (triggered by friends/social events), I’ve been totally dry, and eating minimal carb.
I’m still kinda torn on my “end state” goal, for when I’ve gotten my weight where I really want it.
My feeling is I’m keto for an indefinite period still. I don’t find the diet terribly hard to maintain, tbh, and though the weight loss has slowed it’s still proceeding. May introduce some social scotch/bourbon soon-ish, but the pandemic is still on so.
I’m guessing it’ll depend whether a lot of the benefits you’re experiencing now are down to your reduction in weight, or to a stabilisation of blood sugar. It’s probably a bit of both.
For us serial fatties, I suspect unfettered access to carbohydrate brings back the swinging blood sugar levels, which triggers the cravings, and then the weight goes back on, and you’re feeling like shit all the time again.
At least, that’s what happened to me last time I stopped keto. :)
Oh for sure. I can tell you for a fact that the stabilized blood sugar is a huge driver of my improved situation (and my pancreas has remarkably survived my 30s intact, even).
The biggest thing for me is not going back to that. Whether that’s following the fairly strict keto plan I’ve been doing or just sticking with a “veggies first, and don’t pad meals with carbs/starches” kind of plan remains to be seen.
There’s a big gap between NO CARBS and “a small reasonable amount of complex carbs”. It’s really the simple carbs that spike your bloodsugar, so switching from white rice to brown (for example) can feel similar in terms of what you’re eating, but you can feel a lot better.
Keep an eye on your weight and how you feel and experiment a bit, you’ll figure it out.
Nearly all my carbs come from green veggies and carrots.
If anyone else is on the keto train, I love having this in my pantry for when the mood strikes:
Made them today, topped with cream cheese, with some over-medium spicy eggs. Wonderful breakfast. Mmmmmm.
Grats @inactive_user on the keto success. That sounds similar to my journey (started at around 284 and am currently at 202 and holding after 2+ years).
My original macro was around 1675 calories per day with the proper amount of protein. Since I have hit the “around 200” level I have relaxed my calorie limits and have stopped obsessively counting calories and weighing portions (well, I still do that but I don’t do it obsessively).
If you really hit 0 carbs that is quite a feat. My limit is around 25g per and even avoiding all carb-related foods I doubt I finish any day below 20g. I have baby carrots for lunch, packaged ham often has a small amount of carbs, some of the creamers I use now and then have a trace, etc, etc. I’ve decided that if I just avoid any specific carb intake then I will probably be below my daily limit.
Since I’m at my goal weight I have relaxed my prohibition on drinking, and now I enjoy from a mix of gin, vodka, tequila, and rum, mixing those with no-carb mixers (or in the case of a skinny margarita, just a few carbs…).
At Christmas I made a keto cheesecake that turned out to be a smash hit with the family - everyone thought it was “just as good as a regular one” and in fact, my wife and son liked it more than a traditional one because it wasn’t sweet like many cheesecakes you find or make. I did make a small concession to the dessert gods and used a teeny bit of homemade blueberry sauce on it. The sad part is that now I have like 12 portions of cheesecake in the fridge downstairs and there’s no way I’m eating all that before it goes bad!
That’s crazy talk. I did try to stay at Atkins induction levels (20?) for a long time because I thought I couldn’t go higher, but there were things that had more carbs than listed (Kirkland protein bars) and physical activity helps tremendously
Oh yeah, zero carb is a ridiculous goal. I just try to minimize. The goal is around 20g, but I don’t count super obsessively or anything.
I don’t count carbs at all these days, but I’m also very particular about what I eat so I don’t have to worry about it. And even though my wife doesn’t do the low carb thing, she’s good about using ingredients carefully when she’s making something I’m going to have.
Oh yeah, my wife is an absolute champion. Like she took that keto pizza crust linked way upthread and has absolutely perfected it – as written it’s pretty oily and dense, but now we’ve got it much more cracker-like, which is very much how I prefer it.
Just hit my milestone of 1,000 miles of fitness walking or hiking in the calendar year, with three days to spare!
Woah, that’s awesome. I’m pretty active and I’d be surprised if I got to 1,000 miles this year. I’d guess I did 700-800 miles between hiking and jogging. I think I’m going to track total miles next year and see how far I go.
That’s fantastic, congrats!
I have lagged behind the fitness situation. I was doing okay for a while, then was basically unable to stand for six weeks, and have yet to recover.
That is great. I have everything tracking on Strava and try and get my miles up each year but end up with under 200 because of injuries or covid or whatever…or age!