After several runs at getting started, I finally made the transition.

Hit full ketosis Aug 31.  Peed a purple stick for the first time.

Here are before/after, as of Sept 11, 12 days:

Weight  193.2/188== lost 5 pounds

Waist measurement:  36/34  (at the belly button muffin circumference, the fattest part)  Lost two full inches!  This is more of an indicator going forward.

I'm 6'2" btw

Biggest things:  

aches and pains are going or gone, especially my "bad back."

Capacity to work, and to work out, through the roof!

That over-50 thing where it takes a moment after standing up from bed or a chair, before you are able to get the blood flowing-- this time lag has been reduced almost to nothing.

So if you're contemplating going KETO, I can tell you it's working for me!



ETA I had looked for the big Keto thread; somehow I didn't notice it on the first page!  Mods please move this there if that would be helpful.

How hard is it to stick to the foods you can eat?

I'm kind of interested, but don't want to have so many rules for my diet as seems to be necessary.

I've lost about 45lbs since Feb by "avoiding" bread, potatoes, beer, chips and fast food and other unhealthy stuff, but I am not completely obsessive about it.

What does this mean exactly?

Yeah, I guess that's assuming some specialized knowledge, sorry.

Bayer makes "Ketostix."  They are little sticks which reveal presence of ketones in the urine, establishing whether you're in the metabolic state of ketosis.

Purple indicates large to very large numbers.

The stix aren't considered accurate for numbers; however, as a yes/no indicator it's pretty good.

Sounds to me like you've got a good system going.

But all is relative.  If you weighed 300 pounds in February, yes you're doing great but your rate of loss is going to diminish.

At some point, if you're going for keto, you'll need to tighten it up.  Drinking a couple beers each evening will pretty much keep anyone out of ketosis.

I got started by staying under 20 grams of carbs for a number of days.  Some people can get there at 50 grams.

Basically I eat no grains at all; no sugar, no fruit.  I try for zero carbs, except for some greens/veggies.  One glass of red wine doesn't hurt me; two beers will knock me out of ketosis.

I was just over the line to obese. I went from 240 to 195 at the present. I'm 6'1" so that is not a bad weight, but I want to get a little lighter and reduce body fat to around 12% to do some triathlons in the spring. I'm going to try and lost another 10 - 15 lbs, but slowly to make sure it is fat not lean mass.

Yeah, it's harder to drop now but 100-120 miles/week of cycling is helping.

I might drink 1 beer a week and I'm finding it pretty easy to avoid bread and other grains. I still eat some fruit though.

I might pick up some of the sticks and see if I can push myself over the edge for a while.

I just read about this diet and it doesn't sound healthy to do.
Here's the link I read from.

Linky

Healthier than what?  

I wouldn't use ehow as a source of anything other than how to turn over dirt.

Yeah. . . . . . well. . . . . . .

The US Gov created the whole "low fat" thing out of thin air in the 70s.  Just like the current global warming hoax, grant money was disbursed by "consensus committees" that were looking for evidence to support a faulty hypothesis.  It was BS.

Humans survived for tens of thousands of years on ketosis.  NOT KETOACIDOSIS, which is often fatal, and frequently confused with ketosis-- even by doctors.

Imagine Philip Morris convinced the FDA that a "balanced" input of cigarette smoke was 1 pack a day.  This is what Archer Daniels Midland, Big Soda, the dairy and orange juice industries, the margarine companies, and "big food" in general , including farm subsidies and corn farmers, managed to do with "low fat" food pyramids.

The evidence of the failure of US nutritional policy is all around us.

Ketosis is not dangerous in the least, with very few exceptions for people with certain health issues.

And it works.

Heh.

Well said Geohans.

Congrats on losing weight. It really feels good when you can see and feel the difference.

I started Keto 8/23 and am down about 8 pounds. Need to lose at least 12 more and then go back to maintenance.

I'm going to have back surgery in November to correct an issue from an old injury and I feel like getting some weight off will help me during recovery.

I really needed to get rid of it anyway. I lost close to 50 pounds doing low carb about 12 years ago and kept if off for a long time.

Fell off the low carb wagon a couple years ago and gained 20 pounds.

As I stated in the OP, I was 193 on Aug 31.

Today, Sept 21, I hit 184.   That's 9 lbs in 21 days.  This was after a long summer in which I lost 8 lbs over the course of 85 days, limiting calories and increasing exercise.  So the "easy" weight was already gone before Ketosis.

My current rate of loss is more than four times as fast as conventional calorie limiting was for me.

No loss of strength; quite the opposite.  I continue to pee in the "deep purple" range on the ketostix.

Goal is 175.  The next question will be how to stabilize; I plan to stay under 50 gr carbs and go up in fat.