Two weeks of low carb and ketons are still at 0.2

[Rabdos]

Today:

2 fried eggs and 2 slices of bacon and 2 slices of yellow cheese
Pizza toppings (cheese, ham, peperoni, tomato, mushrooms, olives)
2 spicy chicken thighs, 40g hummous, few olives, little feta chese, 3 tbsp mayo with mustard
80g extra thick squirty cream with chopped hazelnuts and no sugar chocolate drops (on top)

 

[Rabdos]

I have huge appetite, I will end up my day with a platter of deli meat and cheese.

I think my binge disorder messes me up.

 

[Troubled1]

I mostly don't worry about counting calories on lchf because I eat less than I did before. In your case however, you might be taking food wise almost what your body is using. If that's the case, your body has no reason to burn stored fat.

Have you considered either slightly smaller meals or a 16:8 alternating every other day?

 

[Rabdos]

Yeah, I will try to fast a bit. I think it is my binge disorder that messes me up. But I thought LCHF would fix that. So far nothing

 

[Alwyn]

It doesn't matter how low the ketones are it shows you are in ketosis, ie:- you are burning fat for fuel instead of Carbohydrates. Ketoacidosis occurs when blood sugars have been very high for sometime. You are showing ketones so you know you are doing good, keep up the good work.

Two weeks of low carb and ketons are still at 0.2mmol/L. Am I doing something wrong or do I need to give it time to adjust?

I try to eat fat, but I am not obsessive with it. I probably don't eat 85% of calories from fat though. I eat meat and salad mainly.

Also, I eat some carbs, for example my favorite is squirty cream with hazelnut chops and sugar free chocolate drops. And I may eat some strawberries (about 100g) during the day.

Any idea?

w

 

[LittleGreyCat]

@carbolysis Can I ask how you are checking your ketones?

If you are using a blood meter then the results should be accurate.
If you are using Ketostix then your results may be misleading, as they only measure the ketones that your body is throwing away.

If you are eating too much protein then your body will be converting that to glucose via gluconeogenesis and preventing you from going properly into ketosis.

I am in ketosis (according to Ketostix) with a reading of between 1.5 and 4 mmol/l in my urine.
However everyone is different.

I suspect that you are not doing full on LCHF if you are averse to fat; noting that you may see fat as that greasy off white squidgy stuff around meat that a lot of people can't stand. You may need to review how much of each food you are eating, and for example try and use more double cream, eggs and full fat cheese such as mature cheddar.

 

[LittleGreyCat]

Yeah, I will try to fast a bit. I think it is my binge disorder that messes me up. But I thought LCHF would fix that. So far nothing

If your appetite has no "off" switch or it is very slow to react you may well not get the signals from fat and protein that you are full.

If so, you need some other way to control the amount that you eat.
I appreciate that this is easier to say than to do.

Although I am not always a fan of this site, http://www.livestrong.com/article/556680-why-dont-i-feel-full-after-a-meal/ mentions Leptin resistance which may be worth investigating.

Another approach (which both startled and bemused me when I first encountered it in the USA) is to eat a big bowl of salad first, before you eat the protein. This might help you feel fuller sooner, and reduce the amount of high energy foods that you eat.

 

[LittleGreyCat]

Today:

2 fried eggs and 2 slices of bacon and 2 slices of yellow cheese
Pizza toppings (cheese, ham, peperoni, tomato, mushrooms, olives)
2 spicy chicken thighs, 40g hummous, few olives, little feta chese, 3 tbsp mayo with mustard
80g extra thick squirty cream with chopped hazelnuts and no sugar chocolate drops (on top)

Me again.

Slices of yellow cheese. Processed? Or cut from a slab of hard cheese?

You list "pizza toppings".

Does that mean that you bought a pizza and then scraped off the toppings and left the base?
If so, there may be a lot of concealed sugars in the sauce.

Also the squirty cream. Why not just get double cream which hasn't been "mucked about with"?

However the stuff you list seems to be pretty much on the LCHF target and (apart from lunch with no amounts) doesn't seem to be a lot to eat. No sign of binge eating.

Best of luck!

 

[Rabdos]

Thanks, I use blood ketone meter.

I will just continue with what I am doing, as I am on my 3rd week and I think dietdoctor says I need 5 weeks to become ketoadapted.

 

[kokhongw]

When should I expect that magical appetite reduction? And are ketone levels related?

This study shows some of the basis for appetite reduction...via ultra low carb...
The ghrelin and leptin responses to short-term starvation vs a carbohydrate-free diet in men with type 2 diabetes; a controlled, cross-over design study
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4957917/

A carbohydrate-free, high fat diet resulted in a daylong suppression of ghrelin. The leptin concentration was decreased by both the carbohydrate-free diet and starvation.

 

[kokhongw]

it seems most LCHF target to blood glucose levels, is there any info on weight loss?

The reason is that glucose/insulin normalization leads to sustainable and healthier fat loss...even in the absence of weight loss...

 

[Mark_1]

What are no sugar chocolate drops and how many carbs do they have?

 

[Goonergal]

I haven't tested glucose, I am interested in ketones. My goal is to achieve the appetite reduction from LCHF, as I struggle with food addiction (carbs mainly).

When should I expect that magical appetite reduction? And are ketone levels related?

Hi @carbolysis

I think it's really hard to put a time scale on things like that - we all progress at different rates. When I first started LCHF I too got a bit discouraged that I wasn't getting all the benefits of reduced hunger etc. It took a good couple of months for my appetite to go down - it wasn't something I noticed overnight, rather a gradual progression. Somewhat strangely, I have found that a bit of intermittent fasting has helped with hunger! Initially just skipping breakfast from time to time, building up to never eating breakfast and now I am quite happily able to do a number of 24 hour fasts in a week.

As you say, the way of eating you choose has to both work for diabetes control and be sustainable in the long term, so I would concentrate on finding that balance - like @Bluetit1802 I've never measured ketones - I use my meter and my scales to judge how well I'm doing.

 

[Robbity]

.
Another approach (which both startled and bemused me when I first encountered it in the USA) is to eat a big bowl of salad first, before you eat the protein. This might help you feel fuller sooner, and reduce the amount of high energy foods that you eat.

And this is also a good reason for a previous suggestion (elsewhere) that you drink more water - it's a cheap no carb calorie free filler-upper... the reason too that a bowl of (usually thin) soup used to be a common starter to meals.

Robbity

 

[sarahb84]

Two weeks of low carb and ketons are still at 0.2mmol/L. Am I doing something wrong or do I need to give it time to adjust?

I try to eat fat, but I am not obsessive with it. I probably don't eat 85% of calories from fat though. I eat meat and salad mainly.

Also, I eat some carbs, for example my favorite is squirty cream with hazelnut chops and sugar free chocolate drops. And I may eat some strawberries (about 100g) during the day.

Any idea?

Hi @carbolysis

I too have recently started the LCHF diet. I'm desperate to lose weight and need to get my diabetes in order.

I played around for the first 3 weeks then went on to do it properly (mostly) in week 4. I've not lost weight but I did mess up majorly yesterday and had so many carbs and I'm feeling it today.

So I was a carb a holic. I've gradually got it to between 20-30g most days sometimes I do go up to 50g. My prob is my protein tho. Apparently too much protein turns into glucose and kicks u out of ketosis. I've only once this week been in full ketosis. 1.3 on machine. Most of the time it's 0.3/0.4

I had a full on strop because I wasn't going in ketosis and was told it's probably the protein.
If you haven't already, use a keto calculator to work out your macros. They vary massively tho. I'm working on my protein to see it it helps.

Message me if u ever want to chat. Facebook has a lot of good groups on there for support and recipes

 

[Rabdos]

What are no sugar chocolate drops and how many carbs do they have?

2.5% carbs
http://www.plamilfoods.co.uk/images/large/product/nas-drops-5D721.jpg

 

[Rabdos]

Hi @carbolysis

I too have recently started the LCHF diet. I'm desperate to lose weight and need to get my diabetes in order.

I played around for the first 3 weeks then went on to do it properly (mostly) in week 4. I've not lost weight but I did mess up majorly yesterday and had so many carbs and I'm feeling it today.

So I was a carb a holic. I've gradually got it to between 20-30g most days sometimes I do go up to 50g. My prob is my protein tho. Apparently too much protein turns into glucose and kicks u out of ketosis. I've only once this week been in full ketosis. 1.3 on machine. Most of the time it's 0.3/0.4

I had a full on strop because I wasn't going in ketosis and was told it's probably the protein.
If you haven't already, use a keto calculator to work out your macros. They vary massively tho. I'm working on my protein to see it it helps.

Message me if u ever want to chat. Facebook has a lot of good groups on there for support and recipes

I am carboholic too, have you noticed any appetite suppression?

 

[sarahb84]

I am carboholic too, have you noticed any appetite suppression?

Yes I have. I started by just eating fat fat and more fat. To get my body used to it. Did this for 3 weeks. Ok I put a little weight on but I needed to get my body used to this way of eating. Before eating like this, this was a usual day

Breakfast - 70g of cereal
Break at work- bag of crisp/ chocolate/bacon butty
Dinner- pasta salad or something from canteen like a full proper meal
Break- more choc or crisps
Tea- carb filled food pasta or rice with a curry or a roast dinner

Then constantly snacking on **** in an evening. I was never full.

Now-

Breakfast can vary. Sometimes I have a bpc and a couple of sausages or I do the pancakes or bacon and egg

Break at work if hungry is a couple of boiled eggs or a couple of sticks of cheese

Tea- again varies. Recent recipes

Curry with added veg
Chicken thighs in a creamy garlic sauce and veg
Burgers with cheese and salad (no bread buns)
Meatballs with reduced carb pasta (Atkins) but only a very small portion
Plain roast chicken thighs with salad

I'm am snacking a whole lot less between meals and usually nothing after teatime meal