NK Success?

[cici52]

Awesome accomplishment, Linda.

[lindawell8]

Thanks CiCi, I just want to keep it going. I don't think anybody can gain weight back as fast as me. Anyway I hope not. But you guys just really are helping to understand this way so much. I am a slow learner.

[cici52]

Originally Posted by svenskamae

Hi, Cici. I'm in my 5th week of JUDDD plus NK (on up days, lean protein and a little fat on down days), and it has gotten much, much easier to keep my calories low (300-500 calories/day) on my down days over time. I think that it really helped to have acclimatized my body to fat-burning on nutritional ketosis before I did JUDDD, because I can access my fat stores for fuel when my calories are very low. But before I got used to the lower levels of protein (aiming for 50 grams or less per day) on nutritional ketosis, I was crazy hungry often, even without going DD low on calories ever. So you might want to get your body used to fat-burning through NK before going onto JUDDD rotations, if you find the combination of NK and JUDDD too hard at the start. The best book that I've read on LCHF, Lose Weight by Eating by Sten Sture Skaldeman, acknowledges that it may take 4-6 months for some of us who are insulin-resistent to become accustomed to fat burning.

Man, I really hope it doesn't take that long. I am not what you would call patient and need to see some results soon. Thanks for the book ref. I will check it out.

[shelley]

Originally Posted by lindawell8

Thank you Kristin for this thread. Reading all of them has helped me. I have dieted since I was 28 and now am 65. I weigh 161.2 now. Lost 42lbs since May 15th. But never have I done anything like this WOE. Did for a couple of wks then ran. Sure I was gaining fat. But I gained 5lbs over Thanksgiving so came back. I have no patience and want to get at least 10lbs off. So it is good to read that is does take this WOE time to get really started. I really want to do this, especially because of diabetis which I have. My biggest thing is not thinking my closes are getting tighter from the fat. Love to see Buffy on here, love her posts. And Shelley. I have seen you on some of the other threads. If it wasn't for these threads, I would never keep going. But if you keep reading them it encourages you to keep trying. So I will. Thanks for listening.

Linda, I'm 64 and Buffy is 66 I think. We are slow losers, and I've actually gained, but am not quitting. I think it was Sven that told us about the Swedish (?) doc Svenskame or something like that who said that it might take up to 6 months for NK to kick in for some. I'm sure I"m in that group and am not going to give in. Hang in here with us!!!! We will get there and the support is worth everything in the NK forums/threads!

I went to the gym for my consultation today. It was free and 45 minutes and it was awesome. She agrees with this way of eating. I took her the 2 Phinney/Volek books as she's read Volek's research throughout the years, but hadn't read the books on low carb eating and NK testing and all that. I am going to start working with her once a week on getting a program set up for me/my age/my injuries, etc. And then she said she would love to work with me on tweaking my eating for fat loss. She's VERY fit and very knowledgeable. We talked about finding a doc and she goes to the same one and has for over 20 years along with other family members. She said they all go back to Seattle, WA once a year. I "guessed" at the doctors name and she said YES!!! So, my beloved doc that helped me get healthy about 12 years ago used to work with him (and then died a few years later) and he was the best I'd ever gone to. Expensive and no insurance coverage whatsoever. Too much to tell about him here.

Anyway, I am now more sure than ever that this is the right way to good health and quality of life! I'm excited! And I'm going for it with gusto now!

[mom2zeke]

Originally Posted by shelley

Linda, I'm 64 and Buffy is 66 I think. We are slow losers, and I've actually gained, but am not quitting. I think it was Sven that told us about the Swedish (?) doc Svenskame or something like that who said that it might take up to 6 months for NK to kick in for some. I'm sure I"m in that group and am not going to give in. Hang in here with us!!!! We will get there and the support is worth everything in the NK forums/threads!

I went to the gym for my consultation today. It was free and 45 minutes and it was awesome. She agrees with this way of eating. I took her the 2 Phinney/Volek books as she's read Volek's research throughout the years, but hadn't read the books on low carb eating and NK testing and all that. I am going to start working with her once a week on getting a program set up for me/my age/my injuries, etc. And then she said she would love to work with me on tweaking my eating for fat loss. She's VERY fit and very knowledgeable. We talked about finding a doc and she goes to the same one and has for over 20 years along with other family members. She said they all go back to Seattle, WA once a year. I "guessed" at the doctors name and she said YES!!! So, my beloved doc that helped me get healthy about 12 years ago used to work with him (and then died a few years later) and he was the best I'd ever gone to. Expensive and no insurance coverage whatsoever. Too much to tell about him here.

Anyway, I am now more sure than ever that this is the right way to good health and quality of life! I'm excited! And I'm going for it with gusto now!

Now I'm curious who the doctor in Seattle is? If you don't feel comfortable posting it here, could you PM me?

[mom2zeke]

Originally Posted by lindawell8

Thank you Kristin for this thread. Reading all of them has helped me. I have dieted since I was 28 and now am 65. I weigh 161.2 now. Lost 42lbs since May 15th. But never have I done anything like this WOE. Did for a couple of wks then ran. Sure I was gaining fat. But I gained 5lbs over Thanksgiving so came back. I have no patience and want to get at least 10lbs off. So it is good to read that is does take this WOE time to get really started. I really want to do this, especially because of diabetis which I have. My biggest thing is not thinking my closes are getting tighter from the fat. Love to see Buffy on here, love her posts. And Shelley. I have seen you on some of the other threads. If it wasn't for these threads, I would never keep going. But if you keep reading them it encourages you to keep trying. So I will. Thanks for listening.

Congratulations on your success Linda! I'm glad you're back--and I understand about the patience. I have found that I'm most successful when I take a long-term view and work on being patient and persistent. And my key to maintenance is to not ever give up or let my guard down. I'm metabolically not the same as never-fat people so I can't do or eat the same things that they can. Once I accepted this it made weight-loss and maintenance easier.

[cici52]

Originally Posted by shelley

Linda, I'm 64 and Buffy is 66 I think. We are slow losers, and I've actually gained, but am not quitting. I think it was Sven that told us about the Swedish (?) doc Svenskame or something like that who said that it might take up to 6 months for NK to kick in for some. I'm sure I"m in that group and am not going to give in. Hang in here with us!!!! We will get there and the support is worth everything in the NK forums/threads!

I went to the gym for my consultation today. It was free and 45 minutes and it was awesome. She agrees with this way of eating. I took her the 2 Phinney/Volek books as she's read Volek's research throughout the years, but hadn't read the books on low carb eating and NK testing and all that. I am going to start working with her once a week on getting a program set up for me/my age/my injuries, etc. And then she said she would love to work with me on tweaking my eating for fat loss. She's VERY fit and very knowledgeable. We talked about finding a doc and she goes to the same one and has for over 20 years along with other family members. She said they all go back to Seattle, WA once a year. I "guessed" at the doctors name and she said YES!!! So, my beloved doc that helped me get healthy about 12 years ago used to work with him (and then died a few years later) and he was the best I'd ever gone to. Expensive and no insurance coverage whatsoever. Too much to tell about him here.

Anyway, I am now more sure than ever that this is the right way to good health and quality of life! I'm excited! And I'm going for it with gusto now!

I'm in that 60+, hard to lose group too and it is good to have some others for moral support. I do hope this is the right way. Pretty much out of options.

[tablis]

I'm starting my sixth week on Monday. I'm not really sure if NK is working for me yet.
I have lost 3 kg but I am still learning and tweaking. I said I would give myself 6 weeks to try it out. Now I am committing to at least another month. As soon as I get things tweaked so that I feel I've found my sweet spot I will post my finalized menus and macros.
Thank you all for being here!

[Buffy45]

Chiming in here, and I am now 67, had a birthday since I started NK.

For me, health is the first benefit I was looking for, high BP, diabetes, Gerd and hypotyroid. Secondly, weight loss.

I decided to give it a try for 2 weeks, well, luckily I had a great start in the weight loss area, was so bloated up by carbs that I really lost a lot of fluid. That encouraged me to keep going. After 2 more weeks, I begin to see enough changes and my blood sugar readings were sooo great that I decided to continue and after I got past all the induction flu, the aches and pains, the learning curve, I decided that this is really the WOE I should stick with. The weight loss is very slow but I am not super diligent in logging, tracking, etc. I do keep my carbs under 20 most days and for sure under 30. I did get the meter and am constantly in ketosis. I measure and see inch loss plus my clothes are all loose now, some almost too big. My family says I look so much better.

If you are looking for quick weight loss, not sure this is it. If you are looking for health you are in the right place and you will hopefully see a slow, downward trend. If you exercise a little and are very diligent, it might be quicker, but maybe not even then. It took us years to mess up our bodies and gain this weight.

[shelley]

Originally Posted by Buffy45

Chiming in here, and I am now 67, had a birthday since I started NK.

For me, health is the first benefit I was looking for, high BP, diabetes, Gerd and hypotyroid. Secondly, weight loss.

I decided to give it a try for 2 weeks, well, luckily I had a great start in the weight loss area, was so bloated up by carbs that I really lost a lot of fluid. That encouraged me to keep going. After 2 more weeks, I begin to see enough changes and my blood sugar readings were sooo great that I decided to continue and after I got past all the induction flu, the aches and pains, the learning curve, I decided that this is really the WOE I should stick with. The weight loss is very slow but I am not super diligent in logging, tracking, etc. I do keep my carbs under 20 most days and for sure under 30. I did get the meter and am constantly in ketosis. I measure and see inch loss plus my clothes are all loose now, some almost too big. My family says I look so much better.

If you are looking for quick weight loss, not sure this is it. If you are looking for health you are in the right place and you will hopefully see a slow, downward trend. If you exercise a little and are very diligent, it might be quicker, but maybe not even then. It took us years to mess up our bodies and gain this weight.

[EllaP]

Originally Posted by mom2zeke

Hi Ella,
I think that it's pretty accurate. I would say that I probably go slightly higher on calories than they recommend for maintenance--but I don't track that closely--I may be going under some days and over others.

Interestingly their base metabolic rate for me is about 300 calories less than the BF dunk people today calculated it. That may be the difference in maintenance calories that I'm eating.

They also recommend 108 grams of protein (73 as minimum) but I find that if I go over 90 I am knocked out of ketosis. I really wish there was a study on long-term low carbers! I feel like I'm a gluconeogenesis machine.

I do love this calculator though! It's like the Performance book recommendations without having to go back and find it in the book.

Thanks, Kristn! I'm like you - I have to keep my protein way down (I'm still trying to lose, not maintain). I'm hoping to be able to go higher on calories (adding protein/carbs, not just fat), at least as high as the maintaining numbers shown on the calculator, when I get to maintaining. I don't handle high calories well on the scale to lose.

I, too, love the calculator. He's put a lot of work into it and it definitely guides me well. I like playing with the numbers and doing "what ifs"... like checking what I may be able to eat like at goal numbers with various carb and protein amounts.

[cici52]

I could not get the calculator to work.

[mom2zeke]

Originally Posted by cici52

I could not get the calculator to work.

There are a couple of spots that are not 100% obvious where you have to enter your own numbers to make it work. I got caught up with the protein input. I didn't realize that I had to put in my own number there. Calories chosen was a bit confusing also because when i put in the maintenance number they gave me it told me that I was over on calories and would gain weight. I figured out that the fraction attached to my maintenance calorie number was causing this to happen.

[wildflower]

This thread is awesome. I know I will learn so much from the HFLC threads. I plan to get back later today -- am off to help the grandkids trim their Xmas tree. Such fun!

[JMCM1]

Originally Posted by mom2zeke

There are a couple of spots that are not 100% obvious where you have to enter your own numbers to make it work. I got caught up with the protein input. I didn't realize that I had to put in my own number there. Calories chosen was a bit confusing also because when i put in the maintenance number they gave me it told me that I was over on calories and would gain weight. I figured out that the fraction attached to my maintenance calorie number was causing this to happen.

OH! That happened to me, too (protein number). Thank you!

[cici52]

Way down at the bottom of the calculator it said my browser was not supported.

[mom2zeke]

Originally Posted by cici52

Way down at the bottom of the calculator it said my browser was not supported.

That's too bad! Do you have an alternate browser you could use? I run into this sometimes and I have a secondary one for just this dilemma.

[cici52]

No, oldish computer. Afraid to overload it.

[MerryKate]

Originally Posted by EllaP

I have to keep my protein way down (I'm still trying to lose, not maintain).

I think I'm in the same boat...since the calculator puts me at 76 g protein, and I've been trying to keep mine on the low side near 64 g/day. Would keeping my protein too low cause a stall, or just be unhealthy?

[svenskamae]

Originally Posted by MerryKate

I think I'm in the same boat...since the calculator puts me at 76 g protein, and I've been trying to keep mine on the low side near 64 g/day. Would keeping my protein too low cause a stall, or just be unhealthy?

My guess is that keeping your protein too low wouldn't cause a stall, but it might mean that you burned some muscle, rather than fat, for fuel. How do you feel, eating around 64 grams of protein/day? Satisfied or very hungry? Do you have access to a scale that estimates your percentage body fat? If that percentage body fat doesn't increase as you lose weight, then you are probably okay eating as you are, IMO.

[mom2zeke]

Originally Posted by svenskamae

My guess is that keeping your protein too low wouldn't cause a stall, but it might mean that you burned some muscle, rather than fat, for fuel. How do you feel, eating around 64 grams of protein/day? Satisfied or very hungry? Do you have access to a scale that estimates your percentage body fat? If that percentage body fat doesn't increase as you lose weight, then you are probably okay eating as you are, IMO.

Be careful about relying on those BF scales. Mine is wildly inaccurage even showing that I was gaining fat when I was losing fat and gaining muscle.

[shelley]

Originally Posted by mom2zeke

Be careful about relying on those BF scales. Mine is wildly inaccurage even showing that I was gaining fat when I was losing fat and gaining muscle.

Oh how I ditto this!!!!!! But dropping protein for me had the reverse effect. I gained weight and lost LBM. Now I've upped it a lot and am finding that is helping!

[MerryKate]

I have days when I'm satiated and days when I'm really hungry - more hormone-driven than anything else. I may try going up to the 75 g mark for a week and see how I do. Before I started NK I was doing 90-110 g of protein/day, so dropping it down made a big difference.

[LarlaB]

I started 8/13, and have lost 18.6 pounds in 16 weeks- w/ 1.4lb to go to my goal. I started at size 10/12....now size 8- I'm 5' 11" tall, 36yo female, by the way.

I have never tested blood ketones, but did try the ketostix for urine in the beginning-never registered- LOL So, I haven't relied on the readings, only the results.

I eat LC (35-40g carbs- NET), HF (115-130g fat) and MP (70-80g protein); drink lots of water and have a weakness for whipped cream out of a can.

I run 3-4x a week (am training for marathon) but my observations over time (4 years of running) are that running seems to hinder weight loss more than help. Go figure. I run because I LOVE it- not for weight loss

Here are 16 weeks of weigh in's....

Monday 8/13: 168.4
Monday 8/27: 165.8 (-2.6)
Monday 9/3: 165(-.8)
Monday: 9/10 n/a
Monday: 9/17: 162.4 (-1.6)
Monday: 9/24: 161.2 (-1.2)
Monday: 10/1: 160 (-1.2)
Monday 10/8: 158 (-2)
Monday 10/15: 156 (-2)
Monday 10/22: 155.2 (-.8)
Monday 10/29: 154.6 (-.8)
Monday 11/5: 153.2 (-1.4)
Monday 11/12:152.0 (-1.2)
Monday 11/19: n/a (out of town)
Monday 11/26: 151.2 (-.8)
Monday 12/3: 150 (-1.2)

Hope that helps someone...thanks to all on this site for sharing their stories...

[portcop01]

Wow Lara you did great!can you tell us what you ate!

[cici52]

Nice steady loss. Congratulations on almost reaching goal.

[LarlaB]

Originally Posted by portcop01

Wow Lara you did great!can you tell us what you ate!

Admittedly, these are not exciting choices, but they are simple options-

-Eggs benedict (Mix sour cream, lemon juice & mustard for quick faux Hollandaise sauce)
-Taco salad w/ sour cream, cheese & guacamole
-Caesar Salad
-Beef fajitas w/ sour cream, cheese & guacamole
-Wendys jr cheeseburgers- no bun/condiments
-Pureed cauliflower w/ cheese & HWC
-Steamed Broccoli w/ browned butter
-Fresh whipped heavy cream w/ diet hot cocoa mix (almost every night for 2 months- LOL)
-Fudge fat bombs (HWC, Coconut Oil, Cocoa Powder & sweetener alternative)
-Roasted squash w/ olive oil & rosemary
-Coconut oil & HWC in my coffee every.single.morning
-Raw snap peas, broccoli & celery
-Deviled eggs
-Gouda cheese

Getting carbs from veggies is paramount- I love veggies and frankly, not having them as much is the hardest part of this for me. LOL I can do w/ out bread, crackers, cookies etc- but its just WRONG to have to limit veggies- LOL

[LarlaB]

Originally Posted by cici52

Nice steady loss. Congratulations on almost reaching goal.

Thank you- it feels surreal, to be honest. It hasn't been easy, because as we all know, its a million decisions and choices that simply build on each other. Each week on its own seems hard and the results so puny, but over time it really makes a difference!

Also, diabetes runs in my family so I wonder if I likely have carb-tolerance issues...and wonder if I lost weight faster/more steadily than expected because of that?

[mom2zeke]

Congratulations Larla! Thank you so much for sharing your success.

[mom2zeke]

Originally Posted by shelley

Oh how I ditto this!!!!!! But dropping protein for me had the reverse effect. I gained weight and lost LBM. Now I've upped it a lot and am finding that is helping!

I'm so glad that you found something that's working for you! Tracking and adjusting until you find what works is so important on any WOE. We're all so different that no one way works for everyone, nor does one way always work forever.

That's also what I love about the idea of personalized nutrition and testing to confirm results.