Fruitloop tries keto

Which, ironically, means no more Fruitloops for breakfast. =(

For the unfamiliar, a ketogenic diet maximizes fats and minimizes carbs to the bare bones in order to achieve "ketosis." This is the metabolic condition where the body becomes efficient as using fats (instead of carbs) for fuel, including fat already stored in the body. In addition to fat loss, ketosis is supposed to provider for greater energy levels and general health.

Since I’ve been back in the US the past couple months, I’ve reverted to the stereotypical sedentary, high-carb lifestyle (Merica!) and put on at least fifteen pounds. Not great.

I’m gonna ease my way into it, starting this week by cutting all added sugars and desserts. Then I’ll cut out the grains and fruits, and finally the high-carb vegetables (carrots, beans, potatoes, etc). The gradual progression is designed to avoid the "keto flu" side effects: headaches, low energy, constipation, etc.

It used to be called the Atkins diet, but I call it having diabetes.

Keto is similar to the Adkins diet but it's cranked up to eleven. Well good luck fruit loop - at least you are easing into it. Something to consider though - if you gained 15 pounds in two months you should plan on taking at least double that amount of time losing it or you might screw up your metabolism. So what are your exercise plans during your diet? Hate to see you lose muscle along with your fat! Then you'll be lighter but weaker - nobody wants that of course.

The purpose of Atkins is the same which is to drive your body into a state where it is using fat over storing it. It is the same biochemical change, but the old term is probably copywrited so they make a new term and the diet looks new. The first few weeks of Atkins is an extreme no carb regiment which tapers off a bit later into a proper proportion diet that keeps materials like carbs and sugars low and around what the body needs for it's daily activities.

The food availability for Americans is very cheap high carb and sugars. It is not very healthy at all if you rely on others to prepare your food.

The only danger I have seen to the keto diet is if someone is in the habit of focusing on a singular food item and not used to proportional nutrition. You really do have to make sure you are taking in what your body needs or the signs of malnutrition will pop up fast. You also don't want to overdo it on a specific food which may cause othe buildups and health problems. It is sort of the same thing with going vegan or vegetarian and making sure you get what you need.

yep - humans evolved to eat a wide variety of natural foods. Processed foods have ingredients that make them addictive! Netflix has a lot of documentaries exposing this. Granted sometimes you aren't in a position to eat only non-processed foods (life gets in the way) but the more natural the food is, the better. Lately my go-to snack is apples. No mess, no refrigeration required, lots of fiber, etc.

On Atkins, you essentially fast for the first two days (you're allowed a very small amount of food, like a teaspoon of cream cheese or somesuch for that time) to make CERTAIN you go into ketosis (the state of consuming your own fat reserves). Then for the next two weeks, you maintain less than 20 grams of carbs per day (this is very strict!). Then you can gradually increase your carb intake until you find how much you can consume while remaining in ketosis.

Get some ketostix from the pharmacy and test yourself regularly to make sure you're staying low-carb.

I've had pretty good luck with low-carb dieting--I'm doing it right now, actually--though the initial weight loss is mostly water. Still, you can lose 1-2 pounds per week if you stay on track.

2.5 weeks now; I've lost about 5-6 pounds, which I think is a fine pace, although it will probably slow after the initial loss of water weight.

I've gone from a high of 350 down to (as of this morning) 277 in the past year. No named diets, no trendy fads, I just started paying attention to how many calories I was consuming every day (trying and mostly succeeding to keep it under 2000), cut out a lot (but not all) of the carbs, and walk 1.5-3 miles a day.

so about 6 pounds a month - that's a good rate. That's the kind of rate that doesn't mess up your metabolism. Watching what you eat and consistent exercise never fails!

As I've said in other threads, I don't think this is a healthy or long-term sustainable way to lose weight.

I sure don't want to rain on anyone's weight loss parade (especially with so many people obese) and I salute Fruitloop's efforts but to be perfectly honest I agree with Rick.
Almost any "weight loss" program/diet works up to a point. But sustainability is the key. When it comes to both diet & exercise you should ask yourself this question: "can I see myself doing this five years from now?" Granted your body changes (especially for older guys like me) and some things I may not be able to do as well five years from now, and some foods I may have to tweak a bit (more fiber!)
but what I do is time-tested & sustainable for any healthy adult.

I hate to sound like a broken record but it's true - you can't beat a well balanced diet to get all the essential vitamins & nutrients!
And by nutrients I also mean fiber of course. And processed foods can be our worst speed-bump in our journey to good health!
That said we can't avoid them sometimes - but when we are able to, eat the "straight out of the ground/off the tree/out of the sea" whole unprocessed foods. Think apples, not apple sauce in other words. Little things like that will make a difference over time.

Just my 2 cents!

To add to @oldfella1962 s' comments crash diets of any flavour tend to result in weight gain over time as the human metabolism has a tendency to view them as evidence of famine and consequently stockpile.

Eat healthily and sensibly and exercise as much as you realistically can, including aerobic and anaerobic work.

oh yes about aerobic and anaerobic! Too many people are lifting only, or running only - too much of either carries it's own drawbacks and can be counter-productive. Human nature being what it is though we tend to do what we are naturally good at or enjoy. It's important to engage in exercise we enjoy so we will stick with it, but sometimes we have to buckle down and get a variety of exercise, like it or not. That said whether aerobic or anaerobic there is such an insane variety of opportunities in each area that everyone can find something fun to do if they do some research.

IMO no matter what you do BRING YOUR "A" GAME OR STAY HOME! Not everyone is an athlete - hell I'm far from an athlete.
But damn put some INTENSITY into what you do! Example: this morning at the gym I saw an obese guy on a recumbent exercise bike. So not only is he sitting, he's reclining. And he is pedaling so.......sloooooooowwwwww...... and with a very low resistance level that it seemed he was barely awake. Now before anyone says "maybe he has physical limitations!" I see the guy on the weight machines & lifting free weights too and he's perfectly capable of exercising. He's probably one those people who give up on fitness after a few months because he isn't making any progress despite spending two hours at the gym every day.
The gym isn't a magical place! The "gym gods" won't reward you for spending time there if you aren't pushing yourself! It should be drilled into everyone's head: if you are doing your cardio and you aren't sweating or breathing hard, you are wasting your time!
Whether steady state, HIIT, or whatever your cardio choice for the day, CRUSH IT! If you aren't up to that level yet, crush it just a little more each day until you are able to crush it. But acting like you are an extra on The Walking Dead won't cut it.

Again, a note of caution that these sort of diets can lead to gout - you're likely taking in more protein than usual and switching to risk foods like shellfish or salmon. Try and incorporate dried blueberries and cranberries or pop 1000mg Vit C tabs if you find a joint ache coming on.

I did well a while back losing weight with a low-carb (allowed pulses and beans) diet - down to 198lb from 225 but sustainability is the issue... I'm back up in the 220-230 range although granted I have gained muscle too. It's also one of the trickier diets to manage if you have to eat out a lot and can't prepare packed food... pretty much everything in the shops has a carb-source.

The problem with the calorie-only approach is that there's no discrimination between fat and lean mass in terms of the pounds lost. Keto is designed specifically to train the body to burn fat.

Update: Four weeks / 8-10 pounds down

Good going.

Not trying for keto exactly but am attempting to use 2 protein shakes (about 200cal each) a day as breakfast and lunch, then regular dinner. Those familiar with the adverts may recognize this as the Slimfast plan, except Slimfast shakes actually have a shitload of sugar (about 20%) unless you can get the (apparently rare as shit) diabetic-friendly ones. So I'm using Sci-MX protein shakes instead. And trying for low-carb dinners... beans/pulses at most, no rice or pasta.

Last night, chipotle black bean and duck stew (you can use any meat in this, I just had duck in). Tonight, roasted/curried red cabbage and chicken. Never thought I'd stomach cabbage but blanching a bit in water, then mixing with curry spices and roasting with a bit of red onion and garlic is pretty tasty, and makes a good low-carb rice replacement with curried meats.

End of second day... So far, I've had some minor energy dips but used dried berries and small (30ml) yoghurt shots as snacks to remedy. And this was including a gym session yesterday and home bench press today. Bit of booze too (a few whiskeys) but no more than 300cal.

I did the Slimfast plan years ago with success. Those products are not healthy at all, but if one cuts down two meals per day to 100 calories each, of course he'll lose weight.

a little late in the game to ask now, but did you measure your waist before you started the keto thing? My point being if your waist measurement decreased as you lost weight, you lost mostly fat and not muscle. But if your waist stayed the same, you lost muscle along with your fat. A general (very general) rule of thumb is you should lose one inch off your waist for every ten pounds of weight lost. I guess if your pants are getting big on you your waist is getting smaller which is a good sign. If you lose two inches of waist with every ten pounds lost, you are doing holy shit good on your chosen diet. BTW that's almost impossible unless you do a lot of lifting or other intense resistance training so keep that in mind.

Regardless you are losing about two pounds a week so you are making progress but not over-doing it. Awesome!

damn good plan! Enough variety to meet all your nutritional needs, plenty of fiber (beans) and protein. Yes protein shakes (and protein bars) can vary greatly.
A quick way to compare is the calorie to protein ratio. That's the bottom line - how much actual protein am I getting with all the total calories in the product? Yogurt is a great snack - especially Greek style yogurt. 22 grams of protein at about 120 calories or something - not too shabby!

BTW I know what beans are, but what are "pulses?"

I think he said two meals a day are Slimfast but the third meal is typical dinner food.

Yeah but he's correct in that means cutting those two meals to the bone - the shakes are about 200cal each and a regular dinner for me will be about 700-800. With top-up snacks and maybe a protein bar for dessert it's around 1400 cals a day, with a little for booze.

As I mentioned, the Slimfast shakes are known for being high sugar, as they were developed back when cutting fat was the goal. Instead, I'm using this stuff for now:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00E105VEU/

Will see how I get on with it - tastes OK and delivers 25g protein per shake, 3.6g fat and 14g carbs (but only 3g of that is sugar). I've got higher protein powder in the house but that's £40 per kilo and meant for weightlifting recovery.

Pulses are lentils, peas and stuff like that.

For what it's worth I'm trying to shed a few pounds to help with my running. It's coming off gradually and I feel good.

• Three meals per day with no snacks - porridge for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch and a big dinner (but no fast food or anything too unhealthy).
• I finish eating at around 7pm and don't eat anything for the next 12 hours. I've heard good things about intermittent fasting (this is only a very mild form). Not sure about the evidence but at least it controls the calories.
• An infrequent cheat day with beer, pizza etc. but not going too overboard.
• Heavy training - 4 times per week at present, will increase over the next 2 months.

there is a lot of conflicting evidence about intermittent fasting. Most studies show that it controls calories in that if you don't eat past 7:00 PM and then skip breakfast (for example) most people will not be so hungry that they eat such a large lunch that it makes up for skipping breakfast. Thus fewer calories taken in. Also intermittent fasting can increase (or is it decrease?) insulin resistance. I'm not diabetic so forgive me for mixing this up. There are always other factors involved in these studies (exercise habits, genetics, etc) of course.

I've never had porridge - is it like oatmeal?

Same thing.

oh I see - yes it's a great breakfast food! It really "sticks to your ribs" like few other foods, yet doesn't weigh you down and make you sluggish.

whenever I notice my weight has crept up I typically do what @RickDeckard said, but I have my largest meal at lunch, as the afternoon is when I am the most active and need the calories.

there a lot of fitness experts who subscribe to that idea - eat (fuel up) for what you are planning to do, don't eat after the fact as a reward - you'll always eat more than you burned.
Granted if you're performing long endurance training where you will use up all your readily available fuel, it's a different story.

dont eat knives

don't eat knives? Well can I swallow swords?

There's a huge difference between training and dieting. If someone is in training I highly recommend consulting a nutritional specialist, most nicer gyms should have one on staff.