Ketogenic "Keto" diet in Taiwan

Good one to remember when trying to get into and remain in ketosis.

https://youtu.be/qKBlVe13FoQ

Good job bojack. You will be losing around 1 kg per week at this pace. Eventually your stomach size will shrink and you will get used to eating one meal a day. One crucial point when doing IF is to drink plenty of water throughout the day. Acid level of gastric contents will become more acidic the longer you fast. Drinking plenty of water throughout the day is important to dilute the gastric content acidity and to prevent acid reflux or gastritis symptoms.

The hippocampus can’t decipher thirst or hunger signals and always signal you to shove things inside your mouth. Do not eat food unless you are peeing out clear urine. Yellow urine is indicative of mild dehydration. Hence you should use water to quench thirst and not shove food into your mouth to quench your thirst

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Is Taiwan obsessed with Keto?! Haha not.
Keto and Taiwan both mentioned in one news article.

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Quite surprised to see the Daily Fail publishing an article like that. It’s been previously quite keen to join the low-carb-bashing fad:

Anything can be justified, and then come to the wrong conclusion. Even that the earth is flat.

616

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Great Taiwan meal keto friendly. Hakka style Pork belly and mustard greens 芥末綠色 ( very similar to soul food southern USA).

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Water spinach, Kangkong 豆腐乳空心菜 (very healthy and strangly listed on the USDA internet site as a “Class A noxious weed”, especially in the states of Florida, California, and Hawaii, where it can be observed growing in the wild.)

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Pot liquor!

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:rofl:

Interestingly, I have recently skipped the mid afternoon snack with no problem. I do not get hungry mid morning, unlike my coworker and her 6 egg white low fat diet who’s hungry between the 6 meals.

I have also tried the intermittent fasting and I find it quite easy. I do not feel spikes of hunger or energy depletion. Actually, I eat even less than before.

Many people look at me as a fat person compared to most Taiwanese and think I must eat a lot. Truth is as I have pointed out before most skinny fat Taiwanese can eat me under the table…or rather out of a table. Going to an all you can eat place is torture as I simply have no room in my stomach. That is going to be a problem when I visit the old country.

If you observe the amounts of food on a plate you buy anywhere, you will see it is mostly fillers, like rice or noodles or any wheat breadstuff. Very few places will really give you the good stuff. And we overall are simply not eating as many vegetables as we should to have the nutrients and vitamins we need. We can run on fat mixed with veggies. But sugar and carbs as fuel will leave us depleted of nutrients. Many perfectly nutritional veggies are ruined by being overly done in sugars. You overload in fuel…And have no spare parts.

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I’m afraid to get on the scale…I’ve had one meal a day last Monday to Friday with meat, veges, no sugar, and my clothes fit better. Last Mon and Tues were difficult but it seems easier this week. I was so hungry last week, that I added a bulletproof coffee in the morning. I’m saving money by not eating out all the time and I have more time to do other things.

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I don’t think one meal a day is necessary with Keto. I eat all day and keep track of carbs, fat, and protein with a good app keeping carbs and others within desirable range.

There is also the separate idea not part of Keto of intermittent fasting, going 18 hours without food that is easier if including sleep time. Like from 7pm until 1pm the next day.

I’m not a fan of IF, but if you’re going to do it, do it with low-carb high-fat, for the simple reason that you’ll feel less pain between meals. A high-carb IF regime would be unbearable for most people because of that terrible energy crash (and the drive to binge) that you get when your body runs out of glucose and hasn’t been ‘trained’ to look elsewhere for fuel. More importantly, it almost certainly wouldn’t work: instead of burning fat, your body would simply go into metabolic lockdown, retaining as much fat as possible in expectation of a famine scenario.

I stopped eating for a few days once, just out of curiosity - to see how it feels - and it’s not nearly as bad as you’d think as long as you’re fat adapted. You feel hungry of course, but it’s not that overwhelming “OMG I have to eat something” sensation that you get on a carb-based lifestyle. There was certainly no fatigue or cognitive decline. OTOH I don’t recall any significant decrease in either bodyweight or bodyfat% over that short period.

Congratulations! I won’t put much value on what the scale says until more time has passed. Like you, though, I’ve noticed that my clothes are a little looser. My waist is telling me that I could take my belt up another notch if I wanted to, 50/50 right now.

I also find it to be time-saving. Something I didn’t think about but it’s a nice side benefit.

What do you think of the bulletproof coffee?

I worried about this at first, but my experience is that carbs do not seem to be creating any pain for me.

What I mean is, I’m currently on IF and for my one meal I am ignoring any decision about carbs. Noodles, rice, fruit, I am eating it all. I do add extra protein on lift days (often the day after, too), but I don’t cut back on carbs to make room for the extra chicken or whatever. I just add the extra protein.

After the first few days, I experienced no spike in hunger earlier in the day. It’s true that I am definitely hungry when I eat, but I’m no longer thinking about eating the neighbor’s dog by 11am. Maybe it’s just me, but so far it seems to be working well.

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I can understand that. I was dirt-poor as a kid and basically had one-and-a-half meals a day. My daytime meal was sandwiches (four standard slices of bread) and a piece of fruit, and in the evening it was something with pasta or potatoes in it. I was perennially hungry and seriously underweight. However I got used to being hungry. It ceased to bother me (much).

The skipped-meals feeling on low-carb is qualitatively different: it’s very hard to describe, but basically the sensation of hunger is reduced to just a vague feeling that one’s stomach is empty, rather than a desire for energy and sustenance. Similarly, eating a low-carb meal after an extended fast just makes you feel full and has no dramatic effect on your perceived energy level or mood. There’s a very comfortable feeling of stability or constancy.

Having experienced both types of hunger, I can thoroughly recommend (if that’s the right word) the low-carb version.

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Thanks. I am going to get on the scale tomorrow. After researching a bit, I bought some MCT oil from iherb and some grass-fed ghee from iherb. I’m not sure if it’s worth the cost and probably will switch to coconut oil and butter after I use this. My coffee pot died this weekend and while checking out the motor, I decided that the whole coffee pot reservoir idea is gross. I’m not well because besides being insulin resistant, I’m taking in all kinds of toxins without even knowing it otherwise I’d be able to eat the same food as others and not gain weight. I treated myself to a stovetop expresso maker. Damn good coffee and no slimy reservoir. The Tiamo shop had this 6 cup one for $2900 and included a milk frother.
http://eshop096.ecmaster.tw/ec99/eshop096/GoodsDescr.asp?category_id=70&parent_id=0&prod_id=HA1566

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Correct. I should have said that I’m doing intermittent fasting with keto.

Everyone is different. I may find out that carbs aren’t really the problem for me at all. Just have to test later.

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That’s a sad story about you going hungry as a kid. As I mentioned before (probably several times!), my diet involves having a very light lunch and going a bit hungry for the afternoon. I would say from my limited experience that hunger does get easier. It’s hardest for me on Monday and it gets progressively easier as I head toward Friday. I splurge somewhat on the weekends.

I was very careful this past weekend about the carbs (except for beer) and found I was only just 0.3 kilos heavier this Monday morning. I’m often 0.7-1.0 kilos heavier on Monday, then I work this kilo or so off during the week with my little lunch diet routine.

I also used to go hungry as a child. I repeated the experience here in Taiwan, as the first year I also went hungry many times as the scholarship money suited a tight budget and I was still learning what and where and how to eat. When I started working here I walked a lot, because I did not know which buses to take. In summary, ignorance kept me thin. And not having a Costco card.

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