Ketogenic Diet - Powerful Dietary Strategy for Certain Conditions

I'm looking for some pointers on how to proceed as I'm entering week 5 of this diet.

Generally speaking, things are going great. Energy levels are steady, no feelings of hunger (except when I eat too much protein), emotions mostly stable etc.. However there's some lingering brain fog and I'm having trouble understanding a few symptoms I never before experienced before starting this diet.

For instance body temperature regulation; I remember reading in the beginning of this thread about skinny people converting carbs to heat and I definitely was one of those people as my girlfriend would always remark how warm my body was. Now, however, my extremities are cold, and sometimes I get the whole-body shivers that last about a minute. I read online different deficiencies that could cause it but I should be getting adequate vitamins and minerals from the way I'm eating now so I'm not sure. Also, as with most things, there's many possible culprits and pinpointing the exact cause of these things might be tricky.

Another thing is my sense of balance is off sometimes and I misstep as if drunk occasionally.

Also all the programming associated with food is coming up to the surface to be dealt with and until now it's been okay. I passed my first birthday party test with flying colors as the cakes and pizzas were flying in front of my face, but being so satiated from a fat-heavy lunch, it didn't even look appealing to me.

I found the thread about thiamine deficiency and was thinking that some of my symptoms can be explained by that, so was thinking to order some B1 as it's cheap. I'm also thinking of ordering L-glutamine to speed up the recovery of my gut. Could either of these help me along?

I'm still waiting for my order of magnesium (citrate and bisglycinate powder) to arrive (along with fish oil), and hopefully that will help me somewhat along the way.

I'm currently testing to be without eggs (1 week now), which is a shame, as that's the one food I have access to an impeccable source of (our own chickens).

Reading about other peoples experiences though, I'm starting to think I should instead eliminate dairy. Ever since I was old enough to hold a glass I've been chugging down milk any time I had the chance, so it would make sense to me that the relationship my body has with dairy might be a complicated one.

Maybe I should just be patient and not expect too much too soon, as I'm reading of people having been on this diet for over a year and still not having been able to perfect the process. I suppose just steadfastly continuing on the diet will show slow and steady improvements by itself...
Thanks for bringing this up, I have similar symptoms that you described as I am skinny as well. I reordered thiamine pills and multivitamins after slacking over the past few months.
I’ve had a scary episode where I fainted and EMS had to give me glycerin to raise my blood sugar back up, possibly because I did not eat enough before having a big lunch and a few drinks. A couple weeks later I felt faint again after drinking a full cup of coffee before lunch (almost an empty stomach). I understand that a coffee intolerance can be a result of thiamine deficiency, so I haven’t had any since (and also no more alcohol since I rarely drank anyways).
I’m back on thiamine and multivitamins and feeling a better, but I notice I get lightheaded/dizzy in the mornings around 9-10am. I feel much better after I eat lunch. I’m not sure what the cause is, snooping around, it could have something to do with my taking vitamins too early in the day with breakfast usually around 6am, so I’m going to try taking them with lunch instead and see if it makes a difference. I’m still experimenting to see what the problem is.

FWIW, I notice before breakfast my blood pressure and sugar is around 105/70 and 93 which seems low but still normal(?).
 
The symptoms I mentioned in my previous post have more or less subsided by themselves, I suppose just by virtue of letting my body adjust. I think things like the length of the fasting windows and exercise (or lack thereof) are contributing noticeably to my state of being. Leg cramps are still creeping in some nights/mornings, the saltwater does seem to help against this.

Since I started (2 months ago now) diarrhea was more or less constant, then one day (the 7 week mark) it was just gone and stools have been solid ever since. I'm speculating that that was the moment my body finally became fat-adapted.

It has been an interesting journey, and something else that helped was for me to stop being so religious about macros, which has taken a lot of the "pressure" of. Eating shouldn't need to be so complicated. After having read the carnivore thread and some other blogs on the carnivore diet, I'm eating more and more only animal derived products. I eat onions, garlic, cauliflower and occasionally broccoli. Also gulping down tea like never before with ghee and coconut oil and stevia or xylitol. Other than that it's mainly fatty meats and organ meats and eggs on my plate.

It was interesting to see how the thread developed for the last 30 pages, seeing the consensus shift slowly from keto being the wonder cure for everything to a more balanced view. I probably will never go back to eating a "standard diet" again, that's for sure, but just loosening up the "strictness" of the diet (in terms of calculating macros) has helped me to be more relaxed about the way I eat.

Typically I eat twice or three times a day now, usually leaving a 14-18 hour fasting window. It's not always a real fast, since I'm still drinking tea with some added calories, but overall my relationship with food has improved tremendously since I started down this path.
 
I'm not keto any more but still low carb, so butter takes a long time to eat up. But I noticed that Kerrygold butter is said to have PFAS in their wrappers. I'm thinking any similar kind of wrapper might be the same, as it's not just some harmless beeswax that they coat it with. I'm thinking you could trim off a few millimeters on each side if you wanted to.


Looks like sweating, chlorella and algae are good ways to get rid of it:

 
But I noticed that Kerrygold butter is said to have PFAS in their wrappers. I'm thinking any similar kind of wrapper might be the same, as it's not just some harmless beeswax that they coat it with
if there is the chance to purchase butter from farmers market that would be good. When I find new supplier I buy small portion and cut one peace and put it in warm water and mix it with mixer.. If it desolve fully then there are no wax or vegetable oils addition like margarine, but it happens sometime that on the top it shows like little white plaque and this is usualy where they added margarine so I do not buy that one further on.
 
Interesting view on a ketogenic diet:

We are hearing so much these days about the benefit of a ketogenic diet. But while there may be benefits, it’s not necessarily the easiest diet for everyone to engage. Further, staying in ketosis for an extended period of time may actually be associated with some fairly significant threats to our health.

Today I’m speaking with Dr. Steven Gundry about his new book, Unlocking the Keto Code. I have to admit that at first, I thought this was going to be another way of engaging the ketogenic diet. But I soon learned that what this book is actually focused on is first, unraveling why a ketogenic diet is beneficial, and secondly, after the reader understands the importance of the mechanisms underlying the ketogenic diet, it provides them the tools for bringing these mechanisms online without specifically going into ketosis.

That certainly sounds like a home run. The book focuses on the notion of “uncoupling mitochondria.” This basically means that fuel is wasted as opposed to being utilized. It’s a way of actually reducing the efficiency of mitochondrial function to bring about positive health benefits. I know this sounds challenging, and I agree that it is. Nonetheless, Dr. Gundry has done an exceptional job in terms of making this information clear and understandable.

This is a wonderful new book and I believe it’s certainly going to dramatically change the playing field moving forward as it brings to our attention not just the benefits of the ketogenic diet, but the value of things like cold exposure, heat exposure, consuming polyphenols, and a variety of other health supportive modalities



 
Oh yes, when I learnt from Ray Peat articles about this mitochondrial uncoupling and its benefits for metabolism and longevity and that it is stimulated by T3 hormone, coffee, aspirin, nicotine and saturated fats I immediately thought that yes this is probably the real anti-inflammatory benefit of the keto diet. That ketosis is not an end in itself the main thing is to consume enough good saturated fats. (and most problems with carbohydrate metabolism are from functional thiamine deficiency (and B3) from too much junk refined foods Thiamine (Vitamin B1) - A common deficiency in disorders of energy metabolism, cardiovascular and nervous system dysfunction ). As the saying goes, "fats burn in a carbohydrate flame"
 
Unprecedented psychiatric & metabolic benefits noted in this study:


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An overview as to why the keto diet is so helpful in these group of patients:
I just dived a bit more in the study, and was surprised to notice the name of the leading researcher of such ground-breaking a study, Dr. Danan, in addition of the location, Toulouse.
Funny reference to to the myths of Danu, Tuatha Dé Danann and Danae, so often cited in the cass' material.
 
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