decided I am going to try a different approach

[Guest Jo-88]

So I have been eating a balanced diet, healthy foods and all in moderation.... I feel really good but I have hit a weight loss wall. I dropped quickly from 235 down to 205 but I havent dropped at all in almost a month. I figured I would have broken through this plateau by now but it hasn't happened. So I think I am going to switch it up and try a ketogenic diet (essentially its the first stage of the atkins diet) which is very high in fat with moderate protein but almost no carbs or sugar.... this is like the exact opposite of the balanced diet I have been following so I am not sure, although the results other people have gotten with it are extreme... better than any nutrion plan I have ever seen.

Anyone have experience with this?? I tend to avoid the fad type diets but it is hard to argue with the results people are getting.

[Guest Kaili]

I have personal experience losing weight, but I did mine through pure caloric restriction. From 215(January 2012) to 149.5 as of yesterday. Started Cutting out 1k calories In february and reached my basic 155 goal a few months ago. I was losing the maximum safe weight per week of 2 lbs. I spent at least one day eating an extra meal or maybe some extra snacks to spike the calories and let you body know it's not starving. I forgot what that type of diet is but I can confirm that it worked. I was kinda weak for a month when I first started the diet.

If you are going to utilize restriction, honestly any diet, keep a food journal. All those diets are mostly fad and as with everything else results vary. It could also be your hormones if you are on them (I think you are) I noticed that in the past few weeks I had more trouble loosing weight.

[Guest Melissa~]

Platues are a standard issue experience with dieting.

It's no accident that my ticker has been stalled for a time. Now I do know why, I increased my calories, I even said I would here on the forum I felt I lost too much too fast early on. I'm eating very close to my MBR right now, combined with no excersize.

Breaking the current stall cycle will involve some excersize to "goose" my metabolism, combined with a calorie cut to below my MBR. That can result in a weight loss of three pounds a week or so, at around 2000 calorie intake for me.

[Guest Jo-88]

I am curious, why would the diet you're considering emphasize fat instead of protein?

The idea is to induce a state of ketosis which is when your body looks to fat as its primary source of energy regardless if that fat is already in your body or in your food. The theory is that your body has the ability to switch gears and get most of its energy from whatever source is most abundantly available (whether it be fat, protein, carbs, sugars, etc). The diet was originally designed for epileptic patients (although I dont know why), the ratio of calories you eat is something like this, 65% from fat, 30% from protein, and only 5% from carbs. Now of course you still have to maintain a calorie deficit in order to lose (in my case 1200 Cal, which is what I am already eating), but when your body runs out of the fat youve been eating it is still in the mode for using fat as its energy source so it looks for fat to consume for fuel... which is going to be your body fat. Also the low carbs help keep your insulin down which will keep any sugars you do consume from being converted to fat. Thats what ketosis is, its a state where your body gets most of its energy from fats and prohibits the storage of them.... in order to induce it though you have to eat a bunch of fat, sounds counterintuitive at first but if you think about it it makes sense.

The science seems sound and again the results are pretty ridiculous, there is a subforum on reddit dedicated entirely to Keto diets and the results speak for themselves. But my concern isnt just the weight loss... I want to be healthy too and I am afraid this might not be the healthiest thing to do to your body. In the articles I have read it doesn recommend going back to a balanced diet after youve reached your goals in order to maintain them... so even the people who came up with this seem to think its no good in the long run but it probably would be ok to do for a few months whenever you hit a plateau, just to break through.

Basically the food you eat comes down to this, you eat a fatty cut of meat 2 times a day... whether thats bacon for breakfast and a couple chicken legs with the skin on them for dinner or a fatty cut of steak. You can also do fried fish as long as its not breaded, oils are considered good. Then everything else you eat needs to be leafy green veggies, no starchy veggies like potatoes (or even too many carrots is bad). But you can eat as many green veggies as you want basically. Also no fruit, too much sucrose and of course absolutely no grains of any kind (no rice, quinoa, bread, pasta... even whole grain, none of it).