"keto"

I suck.

This is my third week of attempting the keto diet, and I've registered a weight loss of no more than a single kilo. I know what's going on, so let me take this time to engage in confession, self-flagellation, and expressions of remorse. There might even be a resolution to do better... if we're lucky.

One thing I've come to realize is that keto, done right, is pretty hardcore. It's not exactly correct to say that Atkins and keto are the same thing, even though the Atkins Diet begins with a two-week "induction" period whose sole purpose is to induce ketosis, i.e., the change from metabolizing carbs to metabolizing fat. The Atkins Diet stresses a low-carb regimen, true, but the keto diet ideally has you consuming 70-80% fat per day. With Atkins, there's a lot of stress on unprocessed meats, leafy-green and cruciferous vegetables, and the avoidance of anything even remotely carby, from rice, bread, and pasta to starchy vegetables to fruits and fruit drinks. With keto, there's the same stress, plus the insane emphasis on fat consumption.

I confess that, up to now, I haven't once met my daily fat-consumption goal. I also confess I've broken down two or three times, already, to enjoy something carb-rich, from a soda to M&Ms to a Costco hot dog. I also eat at night, very often after midnight (recall how I noted, in a previous post, that there's some debate over whether eating at night is actually a problem), after a full day of starvation. None of these behaviors is helping with weight loss.

On the bright side, thanks to the three days of fasting every week (the Dr. Jason Fung part of my regimen, which is only tangentially linked to keto) and my general attempt to adhere to a keto regimen, my random snacking is down to almost zero, and when I do fast, it is indeed for the full 24 hours, from midnight to midnight on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I'm also using the MyFitnessPal app to track not only my caloric intake but also my caloric expenditure through exercise. I try to end every day with a caloric deficit, and while on some days, that deficit is only a few hundred calories, on other days, it's over 1,500 calories.

The net result, though, is no real weight loss. Losing a single kilo is nothing; the loss can easily be attributed to water weight. I think my body is predisposed to stubbornly retaining whatever I ingest, which makes weight loss difficult.

So: what to do? I've been doing plenty of distance walking, having walked 15 of the past 17 days, usually with a step count of around 15,000 steps. This is all on flat ground, though, so while I walk briskly, I'm not getting the "burn" I'd get were I doing stairs. Intensity of activity is vitally important, especially for people trying to push past a weight-loss plateau. So I'll need to get more intense with the exercise, and I have to stop eating at night, no matter how hungry I might be. Oh, and I'll need to stop having lapses in willpower if I want to keep the daily carb count under 20 grams.

More news as it happens. Stay tuned.