Reboot Me
December 2019 — week one, again
Turning it off and on again
I'd been back on carbs for a while. I said so on December 1st, and promised a separate video about whether I'd regained, why I went back on carbs, and why I'm not keto all the time (live JDDW2290). That morning I started something for the group: a six-month reboot, December 1st to June 1st. Type "reboot me" in the comments and you're in. Sometimes your phone just needs a hard reset. Turn off the carbs, turn the fat burning back on, and see if your body works better (live JDDW2290).
I didn't want anybody setting up an unhealthy target, especially people restarting. My hope was 10 to 20 pounds by June 1st. You could lose more, and if you had more to lose, fine. But you're not losing 20 pounds by January 15th in any healthy way (live JDDW2290).
Where my weight came from
In that same live I tried to answer where my own weight came from.
I had family members who'd been through the Depression, so not wasting food was a big deal. Put that next to American restaurant portions and you get a culture of overeating. As a kid I had hungry eyes. At Thanksgiving I'd heap my own plate with dinner for three, sit down happy and grateful, eat two people's worth, and there'd still be food left. Sometimes I was told I couldn't get up until I finished (live JDDW2290).
I still feel it. If I order a lot of food on a date, I feel bad if I don't finish it. Less manly, or like I'm being wasteful, even if I'm taking it home (live JDDW2290).
And my mom was doing the right thing by the science she had. She bought the low-fat cookies. Kids my age got called the SnackWell generation, because that's when they made everything low fat, mostly by adding sugar. Health class taught me the food pyramid with six to 11 servings of bread, rice and pasta a day. Parents doing their best not to waste food, plus medicine doing its best with science that turned out wrong. Put those together and you get me (live JDDW2290).
Why keto, for me
What I keep coming back to is hunger. I've been on keto, off it, and back on it, and keto controls my hunger signals. On keto I don't eat crazy amounts. When carbs come back, almost right away I'm hungry all the time, snacking when I shouldn't and overeating at meals. Eating two or three steaks in one sitting basically requires carbs alongside them (live JDDW2290).
On Christmas Eve I said it plainer. Ketosis is one of the only states I've been in where I feel energetic, happy, clear-minded and not starving. It's the only time I've lost weight without sheer willpower. My weight gain comes from hunger that keeps going after I'm full. Six pieces of pizza in, I'm stuffed, and a cupcake still sounds good, so I eat the cupcake (live FYNW9028). I also said I should probably be called something less catchy, like "lose some weight any way you know how" Dick. Keto helps you be less hungry. It doesn't make food less delicious, and it doesn't fix emotional eating, boredom eating or family eating (live FYNW9028).
Week one
The day the reboot started I was in Maryland, about to walk the dog in 33 degrees and drizzle, hair not done, and I recorded the week one video. It was short on purpose (live QYSK1658):
- Track, even if it's only two typical days. I used MyFitnessPal and tracked along with everybody that week. Watch out for user-entered macros and pick an official source when the app lets you.
- Cut the whole carb sources first: bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, rolls, fries. Don't sweat the breading on the chicken fingers yet.
- Go for protein and fat. No macro goals in week one.
- Tie strings around your waist, thigh, arm and neck so you have something besides the scale.
- Post in the group every day, even if it's just "here."
What I'd tell you now
The hunger part is still my lived experience. The theory I was working from back then, that insulin drives hunger and a broken insulin response is what makes heavy people hungrier, has been tested, and it doesn't hold up as neatly as I said. In DIETFITS, 609 adults lost about the same on healthy low-fat and healthy low-carb diets over a year, and how much insulin they secreted didn't change who did better (Gardner et al., 2018). In a metabolic-ward study with 19 adults at matched calories, cutting fat lost more body fat per day than cutting carbs (89 vs 53 g/day) (Hall et al., 2015). Keto can still be what helps you eat less without white-knuckling it. Just don't expect insulin to be the whole story. See insulin: what it does and doesn't do, hunger and appetite on keto, and tracking on keto. If you're on diabetes or blood-pressure medication, talk to your doctor before you cut carbs hard (medications).
Watch the originals: the December 1 live, week one, Christmas Eve.
Earlier: Under $2,000 in Three Years · Later: The Oreo Never Feels Like a Win