Getting into shape

[Swirls]

Switching to pecans has gained me a number of carbs to play with. So has remembering that yogurt and pork rinds are carb free as well. Yay.

Yeah, pork rinds are like the secret ultimate keto ingredient. Throw them in the blender and they are absolutely perfect as a substitute for bread crumbs. And they're great as a snack, too.

[JCShutout]

My wife and I ate at SymBowl (or something like that) the other night and they had little tubs of "keto chips". Just strips of roasted or fried chicken skins. Delicious. I got one for dinner and bought another to take to work the next day. My coworker just stared at me looking horrified all during lunch. I was like, "its chicken skin, you eat it when you eat chicken, and its the best part." She still couldn't deal. She finally seemed less grossed out when I explained that it was basically the same as pork rinds, which is what made me think, oh crap, why don't I just eat pork rinds?

Keto just got WAAAY easier. Now I'm coming home having eaten 12-13 carbs as I've replaced the afternoon nuts with yogurt, a quarter cup of nuts, and a quarter cup of berries. Less overall carbs, protein is only slightly less, over 25% less carbs, and the nutritional benefits of getting some fruit/berries in my diet, which is a good thing. More room for veggies with dinner, which is another good thing.

Plus, it looks like 50 net carbs is okay for keto, though I'm trying to stick to 25 to help jumpstart the process and kill that bellyfat. At this point, I could do 50 in my sleep. I may be going through a fitness challenge in February. If things are going well by then and my bodyfat % is closer to 20/22%, then I'll probably up the net carbs a bit to 35 or so at the start of March. Maybe 40 on an hard workout day.

[ZigZagCardsFan]

On reddit, the format is kind of annoying, but there is a ton of great advice in those two specific subreddits. It's worth it to wade in and get used to the layout. I honestly couldn't have done what I've done without the r/keto board. It has been a lifesaver.

What most people say about the protein and fat macros is this... You want to eat at your protein goal every day (as in, don't come up short on it). But the fat macro is just a suggestion. Don't go over, but you don't have to hit it, either. It's your tool to make sure you're satiated (and thus don't go off the rails).

That's really good to know. I already hit my protein macro easily every day. The most difficult thing will be counting calories. I haven't done that... ever since going paleo.

Here’s a couple things that really helped me with calorie counting:

Most nights I would take 10 minutes to plan all of my foods for the next day. It felt less annoying than having to punch something in an app every time I ate something. It was also very helpful for remembering what to pack to bring to work the next day.

If I couldn’t do that and had to eat on the fly, I simplified things by using a point system. Let’s say my calorie goals were 2400 for a day, I’d punch that into a notepad as 24. Anytime I ate, I’d divide by 10 round to a single number. For instance if I ate a 130 calorie snack I’d count it as 1, 350 calorie meal would be a 4 and so on. So instead of trying to figure out 2400-230-130-175 or whatever it’d be easier to just say 24-2-1-2=19. I have 19 points left to use. It’s obviousky not as precise but I figure unless you’re intentionally trying to make it so you round down on everything, it probably evens out.

I cook probably 90% of my meals from scratch too. I cook most of my stuff on Sunday nights and part of that process is sitting down with a notebook and charting everything ingredient by ingredient. It’s kind of a pain but eventually you find a bunch of go-to meals that you end up repeating fairly often.

[Jocephus]

larry minnesota, you crazy ol bastard

[CardsofSTL]

Hell I'm doing yoga right now

[GeddyWrox]

I spilled some yoga on my pants yesterday

[Tim]

Tilted the scales at 200lbs this morning

I’m going to use this thread as accountability. I’m feeling lazy, I’ve got reflux and eat like crap.

I leave on a long weekend for the anniversary March 31 ~ 12 weeks.

I want to lose a lb a week. No reason I can’t. 188lbs by 3.31.19

[Swirls]

I dropped 25 lbs over the summer (down to 190) via some health cleanse program thing (Arbonne) and a little bit of keto. I wasn't consistent with it enough to truly achieve a ketosis state, so I don't think that I ever really saw the true effects of it. I've since slowly crept back up to around 200, and enough is enough.

Insert obligatory 2019 New Year's Resolution to lose 20ish lbs.

The wife and I are signed up to participate in the Star Wars half marathon at Disney World in early April. I can't do long distance running (my calves always lock up after about ~1/4 mile, even if I'm well hydrated and wearing compression socks), but I can walk about 80% of it at a brisk pace and run/jog the rest in short spurts. The cutoff is a 16 minute mile, which I can do pretty easily right now - I'd like to get it down to a 13-14 min pace, which would give me more time for photos and such at each mile marker.

So I'm with you. Time to get serious about weight loss, as I too have a milestone event coming up around the same time. I'd like to get down to ~180 or less, which I haven't been at in over a decade.

[GeddyWrox]

Tilted the scales at 200lbs this morning

I’m going to use this thread as accountability. I’m feeling lazy, I’ve got reflux and eat like crap.

I leave on a long weekend for the anniversary March 31 ~ 12 weeks.

I want to lose a lb a week. No reason I can’t. 188lbs by 3.31.19

What's your plan? Diet? Exercise? Both?

[Michael]

My year ended with with a wimpier - I only lost 1 pound in Dec, but I'm not complaining. I went to Belize which pretty much made my low carb diet impossible, but I didn't want to deny myself on vacation anyway. Regardless, I now weigh 187 pounds which is 48 pounds less then my peak of 235. Now that I'm back I'm looking to at least drop another 10 pounds.

Awesome thread! Congrats everyone!