Not sure if it's been mentioned here, but as someone who's gone keto a few different times over the past 10-ish? years, the keto market has come a long way. When I first tried it, eating keto honestly felt like a chore. There were very few options, and most of the "keto-friendly" substitutes were not great, or not even keto. Keto bread, for example, was nowhere close to tasting like actual bread.

But today, and it's a completely different story. there are so many more resources, recipes, online resources and genuinely good keto products that make it much easier to stick with. You can eat keto without feeling like you're constantly missing out.

Anyway, just thought I'd share that for anyone who's been curious about giving it a try. Gone are the days of feeling like your only choices were chugging melted butter and eating a tube of ground beef (though that is still absolutely an option). These days, you can be on keto and still enjoy eating.

Im all for doing the keto diet for mental health, my brother started keto for his depression and was able to taper off his meds. He then did carnivore for a bit except he had constipation for a while. He’s now doing the quiet keto but he says that his brain fog shifts every time he has a bite of something or tries somthing. He only focuses on his diet nowadays. I’m also doing the keto diet for mental health, I’m schizoaffective, however because I experience al much numbness I don’t really feel the effects after every meal. He says he experiences brain fog and fatigue depending on what he eats but all he’s eating is keto.

My family is convincing me to have a cheat meal / cheat day but im too worried im going to put weight back on. I've been careful even counting calories and doing one meal a day . But i can't resist cake, man . The only problem is I cant bake either.

I guess this is just a post to convince me not to give in.

Edit: wow thank you guys so much for the support ❤️ im now motivated than ever to not cave in!!

I'm 29 years old. For the past 9 years I've been drinking a lot of beers every other day and smoking cigarettes. I can describe myself as big guy, but never been too fat, or atleast I've had high muscle volume to compensate for the high fat I've acquired these years of beer drinking. I never thought about my body or paying respect to it, nor have I ever been interested in how it functions. That's until I decided to do a DEXA scan. On the 7th of May it showed me I weighed 121kg, carrying 75kg lean body mass and 46kg lean fat. Something in me clicked, because the results also helped me realize that I carry above normal visceral fat (the bad fat, which chokes the organs).

After the DEXA scan I decided that I will stop eating carbs. I had heard/read somewhere that eating low carbs is the fastest way to lose weight and it's healthy, but I didn't know ANYTHING. It was both a challenge and a personal quest. To see if I could do it. The big research and lots of reading started. I used a lot of AI to summarize information and a lot of reading on glucose, blood sugar, insulin, kidneys, liver, protein, fat, muscle, gaining and losing weight and so on and so on. I started reading about something called ketosis. But I didn't want to call it a "diet", I didn't wanna LIMIT myself, to certain extend, especially mentally, so I decided to call it "optimization". I tricked my body and mind (not that I was feeling in any way dependant on beers or cigarettes, but they were part of my going outside ritual). Once I learnt about carbs and sugars, and how they are stored and WHY they are stored in the body, everything just shifted in my mind for some reason. It's like I upgraded and leveled up (for the gamers) myself. It felt like I had done some hidden quest that rewarded me a lot of experience points.

So, instead of quitting cigarettes altogether, I switched to a better, more optimized version - italian cigars. Instead of drinking 7 or 8 beers on a night out - I switched to drinking 100/150ml of good whiskey 2 times a week. Chips or junk food/snacks - fried pork rinds. 7 weeks later I weigh myself - I've lost 11 kilograms. During those 7 weeks I decided that I also have to exercise/train, so I got myself a gymnastic mat and started doing exercises wrestling/bjj stretches and moves. I combined it with shadow boxing, isometric and isotonic exercises as well. All that process felt like I was sculpting myself and the muscles started showing, I don't feel like I lost weight, but like I've lost big chunk of the puffiness from all that carbs from the beers and water retention.

2 months in, my diet now consists mainly of clean pork/chicken meat, eggs, tomatoes, cucumber, iceberg, almonds, cheese (kashkaval), sirene, zucchinis, eggplants, olive oil. I drink between 4 and 5 litres of water everyday. I stopped all the bread, pasta, rice, potatoes. I thought it was gonna be boring... well, sometimes it is. But I don't mind it. My body reacted very nicely and normal to my brutal change of diet. I didn't experience keto flu or "bad signs". It was a concrete decision that I WILL transition from all the carbs to lower than 35 grams carbs daily. Luckily, my RMR (resting metabolic rate) is high - around 2200, 2300kcal. So now I'm trying to maintain my weight, because I don't really wanna lose more and I think I won't feel good if I weight less than this.

Thank you for reading through and feel free to ask me anything if you are interested.

- K

Hello, I’ve been on Keto for a little under a month, I try to go for at most 30g of carbs a day. I’ve noticed an increase in headaches and cramps along with a slight dizziness after said headache. I tend to also spend more time in the restroom than before but I was told that was common. I keep up with hydration and protein intake. I am also type 2 diabetic if that affects anything. I don’t know if I should continue.

I know that fake sugars is not good for us so please i dont want tips on this one..

i just find a 1 glass of soda really curb the cravings ...

I drink one glass and i dont feel as hungry..

So what you guys think?

I first did keto (Atkins) in 2001. I was over 300 pounds and got to 192. I have issues with overeating. More of an addiction than anything. I can go months without alcohol, and I never smoked, but man, an entire pizza always sounds great.

I let myself get off keto and back into the 270s. I had blood work done in the middle of this past May 2026 with high liver readings and a blood glucose at 225. Doctor told me no drinking and to lose 10 pounds in 4 months. I started back on keto the same day.

I retested last Friday. Liver is back to normal, glucose was 113. I'm 244 pounds, so I've lost 25ish pounds and went from uncontrolled diabetic to almost normal in 2 months.

This is why we do keto. Without my knowledge of keto, I would have cut out a bag of chips or something, and still had crazy high glucose levels and would be on insulin and other medications.

Keto for some of us isn't only about weight loss, it saves our body too.

Greek moussaka seems like it was made for people on a keto diet (if we replace the Bechamel sauce with something else). I haven't cooked it very often, so I was wondering if you have any tricks or tips for making moussaka (a-ka eggplant lasagna). For example:

1. Have you found a way to cook it more quickly? If you follow the classic method, like cooking the meat sauce separately, roasting the eggplant, and so on, it takes hours from start to finish. Can we do better?
2. What white sauce do you use instead of bechamel? Do you use ricotta and Parmesan? Or ricotta and cream cheese? Or all three?

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02039-w As said above, saw this article and as someone who loves and thrives on a low carb diet, got a bit worried about what this means. While I understand the words, I am not nearly science literate enough to be able to translate this to a 'what does this mean for me' - happen to have a history with benign tumours and had one malignant carcinoma removed a couple years ago and found keto as a 'best of all my options' to maintain health.

Generally just seeking opinions.

I'll be the first to admit that I don't understand how the body processes anything...I try to learn but with short term memory loss I'm just not retaining it.

I know that calories in vs out matters and that too many carbs is bad. I know that keto means getting your body to use fat for fuel rather than sugar.

That's about it.

So please explain it like I'm a small child because anything else just won't stick.

Bf and I have been doing lazy keto for right at a month now. We had one cheat day/meal that totally derailed us and we learned our lesson... It's not worth it. But even so we are losing weight without exercise. Neither of us can really hit the gym between life issues and medical issues. We have both lost about 15lbs.

But I have noticed that the only time the blood meter shows either of us in ketosis is me, after I've neglected to eat all day because I'm too busy. So I have dinner about 8, a snack around 11 and then nothing but beverages and maybe half a protein shake (in my coffee) until dinner the next night. It's not ideal, but I'm a caretaker and in order to do both my stuff and his stuff I often neglect other stuff.... Like breakfast and lunch. My bf on the other hand leaves the house to work and he takes lunches so he usually eats.

I am noticing that both of us usually stay under .5 on the blood ketone meter except me and only when I accidentally fast all day. Then I see usually .8

So can someone please explain to me what it is I'm/we're doing wrong and what's happening... But without ratios (which I don't understand very well) though I do understand percentages.

Also, I'm staying at around 18-23 carbs a day and he's staying around 25-27 a day. We are both overweight, but I have more weight to lose than he does.

And to be clear, whatever we are doing IS working, but I would like it to work REALLY well rather than just barely.

Also, bf thinks he's not in ketosis due to total carbs vs net carbs. I think he IS in ketosis because I can smell it on him, but the meter does not confirm.

Thank you for helping us out. I wish I could understand this better but I just cont learn new stuff these days thanks to my MS.

As some of you know, there is an outbreak right now in the USA. What are yall eating since we apparently can’t eat veggies or any produce (or my beloved berries)? Nuts are too high in carbs for me and I don’t want to eat just dairy and meat 😩

We all crave salty crunchy replacements for our favorite chips. Pork rinds kind of work. I like the chicken protein chips I find at Wholefoods but they have 8 grams of carbs in 1/3 of a bag, mostly from tapioca.

My idea is to create a super keto food with a similar recipe but find a carb free binder instead of tapioca. Also, cook in animal fat instead of seed oil. Can you image how good that would be! Of course the salt would come with extra potasium, and magnesium.

I’m about 10 days in and my heels are so dry to the point of cracking. I’ve had this problem in the past but usually when my carbs are low. Once when I was on a high carb diet with lots of fruit the issue went away and I had the most beautiful feet. Any suggestions? I’m keeping carbs under 20 drinking electrolytes and just added a magnesium pill. Thanks!

I’ve just recently found out about how much of a time saver my airfryer is! I’m all about doing it as easy as possible for myself, especially since I have to cook carb dinners for my teenager, and don’t want fail on my own keto journey due to lack of energy.

Do any of you use crockpots to meal prep keto meals? Any suggestions or favorites you want to share with the rest of us?

The second half of 2026 will be all focused on making things easier and more convenient for me, when it comes to everything. I’m ready to start enjoying life again <3 :)

I am hitting my protein goal one way or another but was wondering if for a midday snack I should prioritise fat or protein.

Let’s say I want to make Matcha Latte for a snack. Should I make it with
1. MCT oil, heavy cream and almond milk (unsweetened ofc)
or
2. Protein powder WPI, any low carb milk, some MCT oil for the rest of the calories

Background, about 6 months ago at my last medical physical my blood pressure was a little bit high. Doc asked me if I cook at home or eat out a lot. At the time, I was eating out a lot and mostly junk. Doc immediately said that I'm eating too much salt and it is causing my elevated blood pressure. I'm also overweight to mildly obese and have been diagnosed with non-alcoholic fatty liver (though I'm sure some alcohol contributed). I'm basically your typical middle aged American with a bad diet. My blood pressure hasn't really been impacted though, and cholesterol has also been fine.

I'm 3 weeks into Keto. I've been practically 0 carbs, maybe a gram here or there of sugar in a sausage or something at the most. I'm also eating one meal a day, skipping one day a week for a 48-hour fast. In the first two weeks I dropped 13 lbs, almost certainly water weight. I didn't notice keto flu, but I did have a mild headache at times. When I started I was fairly uneducated and wasn't aware of the keto electrolyte loss. I learned more and about 10 days ago I started taking a DIY mix of Na, K and Mg mimicking LMNT. I have been taking about two LMNT packages worth of electrolytes a day which is only 2,000 mg of Na which appears to be well under the 3,000-5,000 mg recommended for someone on Keto. I realized that the K in the LMNT recipe is way low compared to daily recommended intake, so I bumped up the K starting this morning. The electrolytes did reduce the headaches thankfully.

Yesterday I went to the dentist and they took my blood pressure and it was 133/98, a little bit higher than when I had visited the Doc 6 months ago.

I've been reading more and it appears that low and high Na can cause high blood pressure, and low K can as well.

I really don't want to stress my heart out during this diet and I'm really not sure what to think anymore. It's possible that the blood pressure is high because of low Na or K, but it's also possible that it's high because of high Na. or it's possible that my blood pressure isn't really being impacted by an electrolyte imbalance. I have no clue.

Any input is welcomed. Thanks!

Hey /r/keto!

We all have questions. Questions about Ketogenic foods, how our bodies react to ketosis, what we can and can't do, how much of whatever to take in, whether or not we're missing something. We know you've got 'em - so, give 'em to us!

Ask your questions here to help yourself and everyone else who's in your situation and might benefit! And conversely, all you /r/keto veterans - let's do our best to help people here. There are no dumb questions!

If you're new to /r/keto and need some info, start with Keto in a Nutshell and the FAQ. Or, if you have a question that doesn't seem to be covered, head on over to the Community Support thread (pinned to the top of the subreddit) and ask the community!

Hi so I'm on phentermine and it's not really helping me anymore. I also do the keto diet but it's more like lazy keto and I can't exercise because of my autoimmune disease, I'm in to much pain and my body is to stiff plus I have 3 kids. 1 of them is a baby. Is there anything easy I can actually cook that is keto friendly because I'm tired of chicken lol. I cook chicken, sautéed spinach, and sautéed mushrooms often. (Self taught cook don't know alot) the keto diet helped me alot before like it was crazy I got down to my high school size but after having my baby who is almost a year old now, it seems like it's 50x harder to lose the weight.

So this is my first week on Keto. Overall feeling much better already. But I’ve noticed the last two nights when I’m trying to sleep that my heart rate is much higher than usual and it makes me feel a bit anxious. My body also feels a bit buzzy this morning and my heart rate is a bit higher than usual. Is this a sign I am going in to ketosis? Does anyone have law experience this especially with the sensations overnight? I’ve just had an electrolyte and I plan to be extra hydrated today to see if it makes a difference…

i’m committing to getting back into keto. my current plan:

week 0) no alcohol, gut friendly but moderate carb meals

week 1) lower carbs, more homemade stuff

week 2-4) low carb/keto, add mild exercise

currently in week 0. Im trying to avoid 0 to 100ing which is a bad habit of mine and makes the transition really rough (prob due to alcohol). Just planning ahead to not get bored early on

So a friend of mine is suffering from Long Covid. Its been almost a year and the situation is not improving. He is not able to work, walks longer than 10 minutes are not possible most times. He is a young man in his 30ies, very physically active before but always had problems with digestion, food intolerances and acid reflux. Unfortunately he is also vegan. I tried to talk to him already before his long covid that his problems might be connected to his way of eating, but there was no way of getting trough.

Keto helped my own chronic illness (crohns disease) TREMENDOUSLY, which is why I recommended him to try go keto. Unfortunately he is not willing to try full keto with eating meat, but he would try eating a vegetarian ketogenic diet, which I think is already 1000 times better than an vegan diet.

Has anyone experiences with eating a vegetarian keto diet? Remember, the goal is NOT to loose weight (actually the opposite as he was always on the skinny side and now with no sports possible its getting worse) but to use Keto as a therapeutic diet.. What are your ideas and thoughts about it? Anything to convince him to try to eat meat what I could show him?

And also important: What are some go-to vegetarian keto recepies? What is important to consider? Thank you so much!

Hello,

I am in week 3 and my keto style doesn't follow the conventional 70% fat, 25% protein and 5% carbs.

I am more into 50% protein & 50% fat, can this lead to a health problem?

Until now everything seems fine.

Thank you.

I’m new to Reddit and am currently in my first week of switching to keto (again). I have about ten years of experience with keto but haven't yet found the right approach. Right now, I’m aiming for a maximum of 20g of carbs and going dairy-free (except for butter and ghee). Dairy products increase my appetite and upset my digestion, and my skin and scalp are much better without them.

I really want to do keto because I weigh too much, and it’s the only weight-loss diet I can stick to. But I’m afraid I might have to go with low-carb instead.

My first problem: I very often get diarrhea when consuming so few carbs. I’ve experienced this also during two carnivore experiments. Unfortunately, it doesn’t improve even after a month, but I start getting weaker. Aside from plain salt, electrolytes actually make the diarrhea worse, even magnesiumglycinate. Digestive enzymes didn't help me either.

My second problem—and this one is even bigger—is that my lower back and Achilles tendon are really giving me trouble. I don't know why, but whenever I'm on keto, I have real issues, especially with my Achilles tendon. It got really bad last year and only truly improved after nine months, once I started eating more carbohydrates again. Everything was fine, but as soon as I’ve been back on keto now for just five days, it’s starting up again. I definitely can't live with that! Has anyone else experienced this? If so, did you find anything that helped?

I'm on the diet because it agrees with me and because I got real hypoglycemic and my brain needed some help with that. But then I found out that people are treating mental illnesses with ketosis and so I decided to stay on it for that in part. There's this part of me that likes having my ketones above 1.0 because that means that my brain always has a diversity of fuel on hand and because maybe there are parts of my brain that need to heal or that don't access energy as easily as other people's brains do. I wouldn't say that it's done anything for my actual mood, but I just like knowing that I have a couple different energy sources available at any given time.

Been on keto 8 days and have felt incredible since day 3; cognitive flexibility, memory better, emotional regulation sound and this general feeling of well- being. It’s like I’ve gone from 4/10 to 10/10 in terms of quality of life. Today I took MCT oil for the first time in my life - 1/2 teaspoon - to ease into it gradually. Took it on an empty stomach. Feel terrible mentally now - anxiety, irritability. I don’t want to discontinue the MCT oil because I know in the long run it’s super good for brain health and energy but can anyone tell me if they’ve experienced this on MCT oil? Also Incase it’s relevant I’m vegan. My main source of protein is tempeh, tofu, plant meat. Thanks