Why I’m not keto

While you may not be thinking you’re following a ketogenic diet because you aren’t counting or sticking to the often prescribed 20g carbs, you may in fact still be in ketosis.. Have you ever tested, say right before dinner? Ketosis is just a body state of producing ketones to use for fuel, and for many people it happens naturally on a lower carb diet, without ever going near that 20g “magic number.” So, while you may not “be keto” in your goals or beliefs, you might be surprised by the amazingness that is your body

I envy you your 5.4 HbA1c! I am hoping that when mine is done at the beginning of next month that it goes down, because I’ve gotten my BMI down to 25, and am losing .4 pounds a week, just by eating lower carb. I’m a lot like you: I don’t really miss bread or pasta (tortillas are another matter…) but I have grown to love cabbage more and more. And other brassicas. The problem I have with a keto diet as I understand it, is getting enough fiber. When I had a colonoscopy a couple of months ago, my doctor said I needed to take in a lot more fiber. I’m taking psyllium, and was eating more fruit until I read something you wrote that said fruit is not a good choice for dealing with blood sugar issues. I don’t mind imposing reasonable restrictions on what I eat, but I don’t want to do anything that requires counting anything – because I refuse to be on anything that resembles a weight-loss diet. I did that for way too long. My goal has become eating like a normal person, and I have pretty much reached that goal. Making healthy choices (such as lower carb) is part of that. A more regular diet is also more sustainable when traveling. I think that a sustainable style of eating is the best goal.

I stumbled onto a Ketogenic diet by accident but I am so glad that I did. Being strict is not necessary, or counting kilojoules.

When I am full I stop.

I was a mature-age uni-student with type two diabetes, and I had a very poor diet.

Because of this perfect storm, I dropped-out of law a couple of times, and withdrew from an honours year in politics.

If only I knew what I had to do to remove a constant feeling of tiredness, poor concentration, and a foggy brain, I may have enjoyed a better life.

I warmly recommend a Keto diet to anyone who wants to lose weight, has type-two diabetes, has PCOS, and wants more physical and mental energy.

I have been on the low carb bandwagon for a long time, starting back when Atkins was first popular. My body does sooo much better when I remove refined carbs. I am addicted to them, they lead me to eat more and eat poorly. I love my vegetables and I like to get physically full on them, so like Jules I find it hard to do Keto. But I have another reason, I not only have to limit carbs, I cannot lose weight on Keto unless I also restrict my fat to less than is allowed. The Keto ‘fat bombs’ make me fat. I am constantly refining my diet for what is right for me, like now I am seeing if sprouted bread has the same effect on my cravings that regular bread does. Keto has worked miracles for my daughter and son-in-law, but just does not work for me.

I have been Keto for 4 months and have lost 30lbs. I eat lots of greens, salad, broccoli, cauliflower and still be in Keto. I do miss crisps, bread, pasta, rice and potatoes but having tried many diets before it is the only one that has worked for me. Once I reach my target I will try low carb and see if I can maintain my ideal weight. Time will tell.

The UK’s Dr Michael Mosley is a medical doctor who regularly appears on television, and has written ‘The Fast 800’ which is an update of ‘The 5:2 Fast Diet’.

I have a quirky but useful fact for everyone about pasta, rice, and potatoes.

According to Mosley, you can halve the carbohydrate content of rice, pasta, or potatoes by cooking it once, allowing it to cool, and then cooking it a second time.

I try to restrict or minimise pasta, rice, potatoes, and bread while following a Keto diet, but I will use this ‘cook-cool-cook again’ method to reduce the carbohydrate in pasta or rice.

The following is a quotation from a recent email from the ‘Fast 800 Newsletter’.

‘Second-day pasta can keep off the pounds.’

‘One way to reduce blood-sugar spikes after you eat carbs such as pasta, potatoes or rice is to cook, cool and then reheat them. This was first shown a few years ago when Dr Denise Robertson, of the University of Surrey, asked volunteers who had fasted overnight, to eat pasta with a tomato sauce for breakfast for an experiment.’

‘The volunteers either got the pasta hot, cold and or reheated. She discovered that cooking, cooling and reheating the pasta had a dramatic effect, cutting the average rise in their blood sugar levels by 50 per cent. That’s because it changes the structure of the starch in the pasta, making it more resistant to digestive enzymes, so you get smaller blood-sugar spikes. Less of this ‘resistant’ starch is digested, leaving more to travel down and feed the ‘good’ bacteria in the large intestine.’

‘Since that experiment, a group in Sri Lanka have done something similar with rice. They found that if they cooked rice with coconut oil, cooled it, then reheated it in a microwave, they could increase the levels of resistant starch 15-fold. Animal experiments suggest eating rice this way halves the number of calories you absorb. At the very least, it is a good excuse to use up leftover pasta or rice in the fridge.’