Been doing Keto since the beginning of June 2018.
I was sharing an office with a gentleman that has type 2 diabetes. His progression went from checking his blood sugar a couple times a day and taking pills to taking pills and injections plus wearing a spiked disc in his upper arm for more constant blood sugar monitoring. He has knee problems requiring surgery but his doctor will not operate because his blood sugar is too high putting him at higher risk for complications/infection.
I came across a Ted-X lecture video in my youtube feed that discussed controlling diabetes by ignoring conventional treatment. The lecture basically discussed using a carbohydrate restricted diet to control insulin secretion/response and therefore control/reverse type-2 diabetes:
I already knew about Ketosis and Keto diets as during my bacheloriate studies I minored in nutrition...but the info I had was dated and there has been a lot of development in the data and nutritional science in general since I graduate University in 1996, So I started doing some research.
I shared the video with my colleague. He was resistant to the idea as it came across as a very restrictive regime, which it is. I could not legitimately recommend the diet without any firsthand experience with how sustainable it is from a short or long term perspective....so I adopted it myself.
I made the commitment on June 6th 2018. I read, I counted, I charted everything I was eating. I bought Keto-strips to test my urine and things went well.
My energy levels stabalized, my sleeping pattern became more regular, I did not have hunger pangs, my amount of snacking decreased, I was no longer hungry between meals, I was drinking more water, and I started loosing weight.
I knew that the first few weeks, the majority of the weight loss was water weight, so I kept myself hydrated. Eventually the weight loss was real as my clothes started to fit different.
I have to state that I did not adopt this diet/regime a for weight loss, it started out as an experiment in sustainability which could lead to a lifestyle change...the weight loss was just a by-product as well as an indicator that my body was indeed burning fat due to a state of ketosis.
I started out weighing about 240lbs. I am now fluctuating between 188lbs and 194lbs depending on how hydrated I am or if I weight myself before/after eating or before/after a bowel movement.
My waist size has gone from 38+ inches to 34 inches. I am able to wear clothes that I have not worn in years and before starting I needed new belts because the buckle could not reach the first hole...now I need new belts because the buckles reach the last hole.
At the 3 month mark I had some blood work done to see how things were going, here are the results:
Triglyceride: 68mg/DL
Cholesterol: 204mg/DL
HDL Cholesterol: 48.7mg/DL
Cholesterol/HDL Cholesterol ratio: 4.2
LDL Cholesterol: 142mg/DL
These results were higher than the blood work results a couple years prior when I retired from active duty.
I continued the regime to see if the elevated levels were due to my body still adapting as 3 months was not a long time.
At nearly 9 months I just had my blood drawn to see if I should stop or continue, here are the results:
Triglyceride: 44mg/DL
Cholesterol: 190mg/DL
HDL Cholesterol: 58.9mg/DL
Cholesterol/HDL Cholesterol ratio: 3.2
LDL Cholesterol: 122mg/DL
I had a hepatic function panel done as well and everything is well within normal limits.
So now I am 9 months into this regime and I have not felt healthier in quite a long time. I have people asking me all the time what I have done to shed weight and are surprised when I tell them I eat a high fat diet.
Here are some key points that I have learned from doing this in the past 9 months:
1. A ketogenic diet is sustainable if one is committed.
2. If one is not committed it is an incredibly dangerous regime to follow from a heart health standpoint.
3. One cannot cheat.
4. It causes one to think a lot about what one eats, especially any carbs to ensure one is maximizing the nutrient potential (vitamins and minerals) that any carb containing food sources provide.
5. Cheating only causes setbacks (my wife has been doing keto on and off since I started but has not seen similar results because she has not totally committed and cheats herself).
6. I typically cannot eat enough calories each day because I am simply not hungry as fat is more satiating and I feel full from what I eat more often than not. I also do not have crazy levels of insulin secretion going on which contributes to hunger pangs. This has created a consistent caloric deficit without increasing the amount of exercise I do which has contributed significantly to weight loss.
7. It is very important to stay hydrated on this regime.
8. I feel great and look better than when I started.
9. Even though it is a very strict way of eating, it gets easier with time as long as one does not cheat.
10. If anything improves, it will be one's will-power through sustaining this diet...as long as one does not cheat.
11. One should research the crap out of this before starting and continue after adopting it.
12. Don't cheat!!!
I will have my blood drawn again in another 3-4 months to see where things are at and now that it is getting warmer and will be less wet out I will start jogging/cycling in an effort to increase overall fitness and to further adopt a healthy lifestyle. I would like to see my HDL level increase and my LDL level decrease further...so I will be paying more attention to how much fat I am ingesting from animal sources and increase the sources of omega 3 and omega 6 that I eat.
If everything checks out at the next blood draw, I will consider it a successful experiment and will continue as a permanent lifestyle change.
-Z