At the end of last month, the DH and I decided we wanted to experiment with a ketogenic (fat fueled) diet. He had previously messed around with one for a couple weeks and I was stuck in a weight plateau, so why not.
This experiment required (maybe not required but made me really want to do) hours of research on things like: what to eat in a day to ensure you’re getting enough fat, what macros to follow so you don’t gain a zillion pounds, the pitfalls of such a diet, and what to look out for – both from a health standpoint and an ‘am I actually in ketosis’ standpoint.
This led me happily down a whole rabbit hole – mostly consisting of Ruled.me and hours of videos from Healthful Pursuit. That chick has some great info and I really like her take on keto.
Armed with more information than most people would want, I let myself go crazy with macros and meal planning and spreadsheeting. It was magnificent.
My macros were initially set at:
1318 calories
20g net carbs
70g protein
106g fat
(6% carbs, 21% protein and 73% fat)
Buuuuut…
Counting calories makes me legit crazy (anxiety past 11 and ridiculous + terrible jumps in logic) and I was getting panic hungry while trying to fit into that mold. That was no fun, and my brain was trying to go right back down some dark paths I’ve fought reallyfuckinghard to break away from.
So, I dropped the calorie judgement (I still tracked, just told myself I didn’t need to freak out about it), and just ate fat when I was hungry. Which I was. A lot. (yay, fat bombs!)
This still led to a couple weeks there where I felt like shit – like, dizzy and sick in the afternoons and there was no freaking way I could do anything strenuous like the HIIT program I had just started. I was doing good to get to yoga once a week.
And then things got a bit better – I was still pretty much hungry all the time, but I stopped panicking and mostly stopped feeling sick toward week 3 or so.
The Takeaway
This has been a rough transition on my body, but I think I’m *finally* *almost* to the point where I’m consistently burning fat rather than carbs, and my brain is really liking the increased fat in my diet. I don’t want to give that up. I want to see if I can eat enough fat that my skin will stop being a flaky hot mess this winter.
I still have some adjustments to do in my thinking – sticking to 70g or under of protein is crazy hard for me (for the past few years, protein has been my default thing to grab), and making sure I’m getting the water I need has also been a challenge (it’s always a struggle for me).
Going forward, I’m planning on messing with my ratios a bit – my spreadsheet of magic has been updated to include a simple doughnut chart so I can see at a glance where I’m at percentage-wise (since Monday, I’ve been hovering at 55-60% fat) and I plan on tweaking those ratios until I find somewhere my body isn’t starving all the time at + my skin (hopefully) does what I want it to do.
As it stands, I am down 7 lbs and, at least according to my scale, a full percentage of body fat. Not too shabby for a month’s work and if I’m remembering correctly, pretty much the results I saw from Whole30. I think I’m at the weight right now my body likes best. My brain wants to drop another 7 lbs., but the weight I’m at is one my body tends to stick at when I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing diet and moderate exercise-wise.
About Keto
Day By Day
Gastography 