The easiest to fix is DBT2, can use virtahealth.com for a prescription paid by insurance.
The other harder problems are serious mental illnesses, but only small trials are going on, see https://metabolicmind.org/
On the other hand, there exists evidence that hardcore keto just for weight loss doesn’t outperform non-ketogenic low carb, and you can even lose weight successfully on low fat, but these things are BIG whichever you choose:
1) lose all ultraprocessed and junk food, regardless of macros
The results from low fat and low carb groups are approximately the same in long term outcomes, as long as both groups stop consuming junk food.
2) fix your sleep hygiene ASAP
3) get movement during the day
4) stop eating before evening
About 3): my N=1 confirms that brisk walking even for 30 minutes does wonders to my blood glucose levels. There are also studies that confirm that long walks do lots of good and that it’s not just me. Hitting the gym is optional, and you can invent reasons to spend an hour a day or two walking.
I’m positive that keto should be more for those who find it improving their mental state and diabetes; general population, not so much.
5) Limit consumption of (mostly) omega-6 polyunsaturated vegetable oils. Use virgin olive oil (mostly monounsaturated) and saturated fats (butter, ghee, coconut oil, even lard) instead. The exception is: try to get as much omega-3 as possible.
6) Eat foods with high and diverse micronutrient content or use supplements. It's really easy to be slightly deficient in some essential micronutrients. Especially magnesium, which is really important and deficiency is really common.
Nuts and seafoods are good for both of these, but supplementation may be advisable. As for the fats, evidence continues to accumulate that contrary to "official" public health advise for the last 60 years or so, saturated fats are NOT harmful to cardiovascular health, certainly much less so than highly processed polyunsaturated fats (and almost all of them are processed in some way or other, because naturally they are hard to extract and spoil rapidly). Also saturated fats stand up much better to high heat, whereas polyunsaturated fats will always produce some trans-fats during pan or deep frying.
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> On the other hand, there exists evidence that hardcore keto just for weight loss doesn’t outperform non-ketogenic low carb > I’m positive that keto should be more for those who find it improving their mental state and diabetes; general population, not so much.
Good luck in practice though! Good luck being a doctor or a personal trainer and telling that to your patients/clients (just eat a small ice-cream bro! just suffer through it).
Not everybody is a body builder (they do the gain/cut thing).
> Hitting the gym is optional
This should not be optional. Unless you train in your job or something.
>2) fix your sleep hygiene ASAP
This and your other points should be unrelated to the diet.
> About 3): my N=1 confirms
Depends how "good" you want to feel and if you want to experiment with even better.
Feel free to N=1 on yourself by fixing everything first, and only then, try a very-high-fat keto diet (~80% fat). You might be wrong on this one (many people are, meaning starting keto when they're already done everything else).
You can ask your doctor or you can search online in a keto forum.
Things that have personally worked for me:
1. pour a lot of olive oil (say 10 tablespoons) on salads. After eating the salad I just drink the olive oil.
2. Get MCT oil during the day in tea spoons.
3. (best/cheapest for me and I currently do) Get beef fat trimmings and fry/air-fry/slow-cook them (see https://www.instagram.com/p/CrhH9CBo1mC/ for that and other high fat carnivore recipes)
It is. But you hopefully get used to it?
Other examples:
1. eat only egg yolks (i'm actually alergic to egg whites)
2. Eat the foods with most carbs before gym. This way you can utilise some carbs for gym and you'll still keep high levels of ketones (see /r/ketogains protocol)
3. See the instagram account I linked.
4. See what they do for epilepsy (hint: they kinda drink oil because they need 90%)
The beef fat trimmings are still kinda oil, just in nicer form and nicer taste. Literally eat 0.5kg-1kg of beef fat trimmings a day (they get 1/4 size after cooking)
Neither am I. I do modest workouts so I don’t lose muscle on keto, but it’s mostly to manage type 2 diabetes and lose body fat (which, again, is to manage the diabetes and maybe get some of my insulin sensitivity back).
> > 2) fix your sleep hygiene ASAP
> This and your other points should be unrelated to the diet.
But turns out, they are. The human organism is a complex thing, and it turns out that if your circadian clock and eating habits are out of sync, you’re royally screwed. Sleep is not an afterthought, it kinda all starts with it.
- 30 minute walk (or some exercise) after every meal. My mantra; if you're giving yourself fuel you need to use it. Otherwise it just stays in the bloodstream causing problems.
- No processed carbs.
- Limit fried fats.
- No eating for 2-3 hours before bedtime.
The way I feel is night and day than before I started this healthy lifestyle.
Though, as you said, happily that is changing.
(Edit to say, speaking as a certified ketobro, I don't think you should do keto all the time, forever. A break day or two every few weeks, and stretches of healthy mixed-diet eating, in my experience, gets you the same benefits)
Not just healthy, but essential. You need a certain amount of fats for your sex hormones to actually work, so unless you want to stop menstruating/not interested in having erections, keep eating healthy fats.
furthermore, we have sensors in our body to inhibit sugar craving in the presence of glucose or sucrose. we have no such sensor for fructose. so even if you did have 50% pure fructose in cane sugar, you would drink less real sugar coke because you'd feel satisfied after drinking a much smaller amount than those HFCS abominations.
Sudden jump off keto may cause inflammatory damage to the endothelium of your blood vessels, and while in that one study, effects had been “transient”, I wouldn’t risk cheat days without a very gradual reintroduction of carbs, and surely not repeated cheat days. (My personal fat diabetic ass says it had a lifetime of carbs, though, so that’s not happening for me until at least 20 kg later.)
I know it’s just one study, but I would rather be safe than sorry until we know more. Case in point: the study subjects were all young and healthy, and most people who really need to go very low carb are not.
So a 'cheat day' should probably be more like eating some wholegrain bread, lentils, some raw fruit of choice, or stuff like that. If you're on keto, that will almost feel like eating candy anyway :)
Why not? I eat proportionally an immense amount of cards. I also do long distance endurance events. No cards = no go.
Here's a study on the affects of nitrate's improving brain performance in older adults. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3018552/
Ketosis has had the opposite effect for me and I've never been able to balance the keto-flu with my normal day-to-day activities. I feel like garbage.
It's pretty easy to fix the flu. How long did it last for you?