Ketogenic Sleevers

Well.... I didn't do athletic stuff before, so I have nothing to compare it to!

The one concession I do make is that if I'm running for more than an hour, I'll use a Clif Blok every 30-45 minutes. Just one Blok, they come in packs of 6 cubes, I think. They're essentially glucose chews. Other than that, though, it's low carb/keto type diet. But for all of my other exercise - shorter runs, weight lifting, yoga, pilates, tai chi, wall climbing, whatever - I have zero issues with energy for exercise.

I'm familiar with Noakes (I help moderate the 2 Keto Dudes forums, so I very briefly chatted with him quite some time ago via email). Most of his work is accurate from a biochemical perspective, even if endurance studies aren't available. I know a lot of people who are high performance athletes now do keto and skip the carb loading entirely. Interesting stuff.

Gwen, how does athletic stuff go on a low carb diet? Do you find it's any different?

I've been trying to keep my carbs as low as I can.

I've read up on keto diet and am trying to stay within those guidelines for protein and carbs. As Erin said, I don't do higher fat because of the calories, and I'm trying to stay at 8-900/day for the next 2 or 3 months. I was at 600 for the first 4.5 months and stalled badly, then realized I probably wasn't eating enough calories. After I upped them and my protein, and dropped my carbs to 20-30/day, things are better. I try to get 70-80 carbs/day now as well.

I do plan to try to stay more keto after I'm in maintenance.

I've been doing keto because it works for me. I had to increase my calories to have energy. The mornings were really rough before keto. I was eating yogurt quite a bit for breakfast and it ate up a lot of carbs. As an experiment I tried having 4 pieces of bacon for breakfast (360 cal) or 3oz of sausage (310 cal). What a difference! I don't feel sluggish in the mornings like I had been. I started changing up my diet and exercising less because I was losing weight at a rate that I am quite happy with. I have plenty of muscle for all of the physical things that I do. So when my weight slows, I exercise.

I am keto. I have found that it is the ONLY way to control my hunger. I have struggled with regain and seem to have no issues eating most foods- even all carbs. So turning to Keto was really about my only option to try and combat the regain.

I have found that on days when I really follow the macros for Keto is when I do best. Just eating high protein is not enough for me, I still need to add the fat and keep carbs

Three months in post-VSG. I consider what I do as "Protein-First Keto". In other words, I still follow the rules about focusing on protein first, and then I focus on keeping my calories generally low (>800) and my net carbs below 30.

I have actually found post-VSG that doing Keto is easier than before. The carb limit for me was always a pain before because I could eat such a high volume of food that I found myself hitting the limit constantly, and that anything over 20(-ish) net carbs would knock me out of ketosis and I'd start up my bad habits again.

Now, with the lower calorie restrictions and me still being in the "honeymoon" phase of VSG volume restriction, if I eat two ounces of lean protein first and stick to general ketogenic-type foods and meals, I can very much eat enjoyably without feeling deprived or risking being knocked-out of ketosis. I am really very happy with how it has worked out so far.

I do keto to a certain degree but I am currently eating more protein than most. I eat around 1000 to 1200 calories per day and stay under 20 carbs. I've never did mct oil or added butter to my coffee but I've upped my coconut oil and butter usage. I should also point out I did eat carbs and normal meals without weight gain for almost 5 years (maybe fluctuate between 5 and 10 pounds but I think that had more to do with boyfriends) after I hit my goal but feel healthier eating keto/atkins