Keto and Paleo Diet

[Crow Hunter]

I would like to emphasize that everyone is different. While it is true that a calorie is a calorie, people, for whatever reason, process energy differently and you will have to experiment to figure that out for yourself.

Take me and my wife.

Me:
-I can eat a honeybun before a fasting blood draw and my cholesterol, triglycerides and glucose will be normal at best. (Tried that one time at a work health fair)
-When doing it right on a blood draw, my LDL cholesterol is sometimes out of range on the low side (The health fair people don't have a good answer for that one. )
-If I were to consume what I crave all the time (sweets), and don't watch my portion size of non-sweets, I easily will gain weight rapidly.
-I can go for long periods of time without eating once I get over that initial set of hunger pangs, especially if I am otherwise distracted with something (like a good video game) and I can work outside or lift weights or walk for miles with no problems


Wife:
-Can eat the same thing that I do, fast like she is supposed to before the draw (no honeybun) and her cholesterol will be high and she will have borderline high glucose and A1C.
-She doesn't like sweets and rarely eats them
-She cannot miss a meal, if she does, she is extremely cranky, has a headache, complains of weakness, gets exceptionally pale and shaky, is easily confused and rather unpleasant to be around

If I eat the same portions of the same foods as my wife, I literally will be a fat 200+ lbs (even exercising and only drinking water) while she will continue to be 5'4" and weigh 105-110 lbs while not exercising and drinking "Cokes" and Southern sweet tea.

You need to experiment with different options that people have mentioned and see what works best for you to help you lose weight but also not cause other problems with your health.

[Sig_Fiend]

What were your problems with carnivore, and what did carnivore consist of for you?

Thanks

No real problems. Satiety was through the roof. Ability to intermittent fast without cravings was extremely easy. Overall quite satisfying, though there are some carbs I enjoy like white rice, potatoes, spinach, avocados, so I doubt I'd ever do carnivore forever.

Main issue was lack of significant weight loss past about one month. I tracked my calories, macros, and micros very carefully. Pretty regularly I was around 140-150g of fat per day, which was the main issue. My diet consisted mostly of red meat, cheese, some eggs, occasional salmon, and that's about it. I ended up switching to ground beef after the first month, because eating a couple ribeyes every day made my teeth hurt. I did occasional tests of moving my overall calories by a couple hundred up or down, but best I could tell is the dietary fat levels were still high enough that it was keeping my body utilizing dietary fat vs. stored fat for longer periods throughout the day and slowing weight loss.

Keep in mind, that's just my example of me needing to lose weight. So by no means am I saying 140-150g fat/day would be an issue for someone else. For example, a very fit person simply trying to do carnivore at a maintenance level might do just fine with fat well over 100g/day. When I reach my goal weight I'll probably test carnivore again and see how things go, since I'm sure it will be a bit different. The thing to watch out for with that diet is it's basically an extreme elimination diet. Nothing wrong with that for certain purposes, but it does make it easier to run into a micro-nutrient deficiency, especially if you're not consuming any organ meets or supplementing.

[Mercworx]

I lost 80lbs on keto I went from 276 to 196 (I joined the weight loss accountability thread and just realized I havent been updating in it).

I fell off and reverted to a standard diet and gained about 24lbs back. I should clarify that by "standard" I mean I certainly overate and had too many treats. While on keto I never had a problem maintaining weight while occasionally having a treat.

Recently started again as nothing felt as good as being 196lbs.

I did whats known as "dirty" keto. I did not count macros or calories and instead just stayed away from obvious carbs and of course sugars etc.

During this process (took about 8 months) I didnt start working out until I was about 206lbs. Instead I focused my "motivation/discipline" reserves strictly to maintaining the diet. If I wanted to indugle (I was an emotional eater) I did so in the confines of the diet (extra bacon, an extra lettice wrapped burger etc) it worked for me.

I did walk an average of 10k-12k steps 4 nights per week. During this process.

[littlejerry]

Background: I dropped ~50-60 lbs about 5 years ago and have kept it off. Weight hovers between 160-170, today was 164. I did it by cutting out junk carbs(bread, fries, sweets). There were periods where I dabbled with keto and Paleo. It's a good way to cut calories and stay satieted. I also increased my activity level and get 3-5 hours of quality exercise per week(running, rucking, CrossFit, bodyweight HIIT) not including walking.

Any time I've been serious about getting exercise I've had to maintain a balanced diet. For me that's roughly 40% protein, 30% carbs, 30% fat. If I'm really upping the intensity I'll add more carbs(and protein) to get to a 40/35/25 ratio. I'm still eating nutrient dense food: sweet potatoes, quinoa, berries, apples, tomatoes, etc. and avoiding bread, white potatoes, sweets.

When I enter a sedentary phase due to work/family/life/travel I cut back my carb intake but generally maintain my fat/protein levels.

I've tried low carb during high volume training and it flat out doesn't work. I couldn't recover and kept running into a wall until I added in sweet potatoes, berries, quinoa to the mix. This was when I was doing 10-30 miles of rucking per week in addition to 3-5 hours of CrossFit and HIIT workouts.

In summary: I think Paleo and/or Keto are good tools but not magic elixirs. For me they are effective at losing or maintaining weight during sedentary periods. If my activity level is high they cause more problems than they solve.

[peterb]

I've tried low carb during high volume training and it flat out doesn't work. I couldn't recover and kept running into a wall until I added in sweet potatoes, berries, quinoa to the mix. This was when I was doing 10-30 miles of rucking per week in addition to 3-5 hours of CrossFit and HIIT workouts.

That matches everything I’ve read about fueling for endurance sports, and my own experience. Most people can get by with low-carb for low-intensity, long duration events. Above a certain intensity level they need carbs to stay fueled and recover. Fasted training — like a moderate morning workout before breakfast — can improve the ability to utilize fat, but they still need carbs when the intensity level goes up.

The trend in pro cycling is to start with a low-carb baseline and make daily adjustments to carb intake based on the training load.

As an aside, one should be cautious about using pro athletes as models to follow. What they do for peak performance is not always optimal for long-term health. They’re paid to make that tradeoff.