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Your energy gains are more from being more healthy and not weighing as much. Not so much the particular diet you're on.

Now that you are down 17lbs, go grab 17lbs worth of weights and strap them to your body somehow and walk around the house for a bit like that. It's pretty incredible how much 17lbs will feel like. Now think of how much harder your body had to work to carry that extra 17lbs everywhere. (This is assuming that the 17lbs lost was not comprised of muscle =p)

I've lost this much weight via traditional means before, and I will say that keto is very different. Your sleep improves, and overall focus is better.

The weight loss certainly helps. But for me, keto does something different.

This illustrates my problem with "the keto phenomena" (also including Atkins and its ilk).

My problem is because my parents have been on the Atkins diet for about 5 years now. They objectively have lost weight, they claim to feel much better, more energetic, etc. I don't have a way to argue that this could just be because they are healthier, fitter, and slimmer now. That the reason could just as easily be because they consume less calories and a no-longer-absurd amount of carbs. To them, it's all because of Atkins.

The reason I have a problem with it is that I'm not convinced that long-term, severe carb restriction (and the consequential increase in fat in the diet) is healthy. Their cholesterol is rising, they are consuming alarming amounts of high-fat foods such as bacon and butter, and I don't think they ever actually learned how to "diet" because they still eat a lot, but because it's low carb, they don't gain weight. They still drink and eat a lot of "sweet food," because they never tackled those cravings, just instead of sugar now they get aspertain or whatever it's called. Lots of coke zero, atkins bars, etc.

I can't find any evidence that long term atkins dieting is unhealthy, so I can't convincingly link the increase in cholesterol (or convince them that high cholesterol levels are unhealthy) or increase in kidney stones to their diet. To them if I ever am able to point out a negative change before and after their diet, it's simply due to old age (kidney stones for example).

The increased kidney stone problem is a real risk. You can help minimize it by taking citrate ion supplementation, which is available in prescription slow-release, or cheap OTC regular tablets. My doctor recommended it when I started keto years ago, and so far so good. I would do it anyway, as I've had a kidney stone again, and holy hell I do not want to experience that twice if at all possible!

Regarding cholesterol levels: make sure they get a full vertical profile, not just a calculated one. If their overall levels are higher, but it's from HDL, and the amount of LDL or VLDL is low, there is no associated increase in cardiac risk. FWIW.

> Your sleep improves

Your sleep may have improved, but that's not generalizable. People have extremely different reactions to keto.

Another thing to consider when people mention feeling better on a ketogenic diet:

* Most ketogenic dieters are properly hydrated so they lose the initial water weight

* Ketogenic dieters watch their electrolyte levels

* A ketogenic diet removes wheat/gluten which may be causing inflammation/other irritations for some people

* Most ketogenic dieters increase their intake of leafy greens/vegetables since they are great carriers for fatty dressing and butter

* Lack of sugar so blood sugar levels stabilize

I think it's very difficult to say whether it's ketosis, proper hydration, better electrolytes, lack of inflammatory foods, no sugar, or increase in vegetables that leads to people feeling "better" on a ketogenic diet.

(Not OP, just chiming in with my own experience)

It honestly isn't. My weight has fluctuated quite a bit over my adult life, and I can tell you with 100% certainty I had more energy (by far) eating keto when I weighed near my max of 250 than when I used more traditional diets to get to ~220 during an earlier cycle.

Good point!

The best thing you could probably do now is some weight training. By adding more muscle and increasing your resting metabolism, you're more likely to keep that weight off and feel even more healthy/stronger. Not to mention looking a TON better too.

That's on the list. Her and I are currently training for a half marathon that's happening in a few months so definitely getting my exercise in. Next goal is some body weight stuff at home, been a while.

I'm a sugar addict... if I go off book - eat just an ice cream sandwich...for example..I might end up eating 5 in a row...and then get depressed and eat more junk food.

If I even eat something like a potato--my cravings for sugary stuff goes up. When I flip the switch into ketosis - I have to remember to eat, hunger doesn't exist, cravings aren't usually a thing except sometimes mental stuff when I see food on tv, or while I'm out and about.

I've lost 35 lbs since May 1st when I started Keto. I was 515 when I started.. my highest weight was 690 but I lost 190 after having gastric sleeve surgery.

I actually lost a bit more..got down to 460 but have been yo-yoing a bit between 460 and 510'ish...

We just had our first baby, and while I have no health issues (blood pressure, sugar levels, cholesterol are all in top percentiles - I literally have no weight related co-morbidalities and the only negatives are needing a CPAP for sleep apnea, low energy levels, and joint pain -- all of which are a LOT less now than in 2012 when I had surgery.

Years after surgery I still can't eat a ton at a meal- I can't eat a whole burger for instance at Red Robin, I split it 50/50 with my wife -- but my biggest problem was soda, you can definitely drink a lot of calories.. I think just cutting out soda and trying for less sweets I'd probably lose a good deal of weight over 1-2 years. But I'm impatient and have upped my game lately. I also have been lifting weights and walking 10k steps per day.

I can't see a low-fat diet ever really working for me... just because I'll probably always be addicted to carbs, which means over-eating if I let myself have the sugar, or carb-loaded foods.

My problem with Keto was that it made me dumb. I found that when I was in ketosis, my brain just wasn't as sharp. Tasks that should have taken 5 minutes took half an hour. My memory recall was not as good (not that it was great to begin with). I know it was Keto causing it, because my brain would go right back to normal in under half an hour if I drank a can of soda.

Agree with everything else though. It definitely changes the way your body works (the whole "sweating acetone" thing took some getting used to), and it's a killer way to lose weight.

This is commonly called "keto flu" and its due to a loss of electrolytes. http://ketosizeme.com/keto-flu-101-everything-need-know/

Yeah; it never went away for me. I gave it a couple of months and decided that I needed my brainpower for work. I still try to eat low-carb, but not necessarily keto extreme.

See, this often happens due to mistakes (unless electrolytes):

Dehydration - due to low water volume it is very easy to get dehydrated even with normal electrolytes.

Too little carbohydrates. Even ketogenic diets need some carbs. Less than 30g/day or so, but still. The bottom limit has not been established but is probably dependent on too many variables. It is pretty easy to mess this up as the margin is thin.

Too much sodium to potassium. Mostly a problem if you're fuelling keto with processed foods. Processed meat tends to be loaded with sodium. To fix, eat potassium rich greens or plain old potassium tablets (preferably citrate).

How long did you try it? It can take a solid month to fully adapt -- you'll feel not great in the short term, but likely great in longer term. I've found my brain is much sharper burning ketones. I even stopped taking Adderall.

Just want to echo this. Same upsides and observations.

> Way less beer drinking (and when I do, it's Miller Lite or something comparably light on carbs)

Michelob Ultra's great and readily available as well with 2.6g carbs per bottle (vs 3.2g carbs for miller lite)

I've been doing strict keto (i.e. less than 25g of net carbs per day) since April. Down ~15 lbs (180 -> 165) as well.

Are you me? I started a week earlier than you, my wife 4 weeks later. I was at 235, now at 209. My wife was at 148, now 137, also had less to lose.

Ditto on everything else you stated.

Haha, I'm fairly confident I am not you, but congrats nonetheless!

I hope this is not a Fight Club scenario. What, pray tell, does your fitness regime look like?

135 at 5'8" is 20.5 BMI. Why would she want to go much below that?

Her goal is only 125, probably mostly because of the mental goal, but also because she's convinced she has fat to lose. I think she looks great already but who is she to listen to what her husband thinks? :)

Because maybe she wants to look strapped as fuck? Why does anybody push their fitness levels beyond "healthy average?"

I'm well aware of that but also read that health risks vs BMI is a bathtub curve where risks increase a lot above 30 BMI or below 20 BMI.

18.5 is lower bound on normal. Also BMI is fairly broken on the individual person level, but ok as an aggregate statistic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_mass_index#Limitations