My Six Week Keto Experiment

Reader Contribution by Faithful Homesteader
Published on July 28, 2019

After a lot of research and preparation, I was pretty geared up to try a keto diet. I am always searching for something that will make me feel better. I have chronic stomach issues and deal with bloating on a daily basis. I always joke with my husband about our baby. I thought a keto diet was worth a try. I did also want to lose around 15 pounds as well.

The keto strips that I used. Photo by Faithful Homesteader

When I finally did start the diet, I really wanted to make sure that I was doing it in a healthy way and making sure to get my low-carb veggies in each day. I struggled with eating so much fat. When I tracked my macros, I found that I was below the needed fat grams and had to work at meeting my fat portion for the day. On the other hand, I struggled with not eating too much protein. It surprised me how easy it was to go over on the protein grams for the day. Contrary to what many think, I was not on a high protein diet.

Doing the lower carbs was not such a big deal. I had done Paleo so it was not such a stretch to focus on lower carbs. Overall I was really disappointed in my six weeks of keto. I know there was supposed to be a transition time where one doesn’t feel that great before going into ketosis, but at the end of the six weeks, I did not feel any improvement in my situation. In some ways I felt worse. The reality was that I felt fat and unhappy while doing a keto diet.

I really wanted some improvement with my stomach bloating since I was cutting so many things out of my diet, but it was actually worse. It was such a discouragement for me. It was probably a mistake to check my cholesterol after only six weeks, but I was surprised at just how high my LDL cholesterol shot up. It was high to begin with and I have been resisting the doctors desire to put me on statins. 

Now I am back to being in limbo when it comes to my eating lifestyle. I still feel inclined to follow a lower carb diet, but I am convinced that the keto diet is not quite right for me. I do feel six weeks was long enough to at least see some benefit that could encourage me to stay the course. I also did not experience any significant weight loss during the six weeks.   

For now I am enjoying some of the healthy foods that I could not partake of on the keto diet like carrots, beets and jicama. I am currently also allowing for organic corn and beans. I do have to figure out how to not gain back any weight and how to continue to lose the extra pounds that I still hope to shed. I am not sure what to try next in my quest to feel better. 

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