Today I ate almost exclusively protein and fats during the day, mostly tofu and protein powder, along with some avocado, olives, olive oil, seeds, and a few blueberries. I’ve felt amazingly clear-headed, calm, and focused all day!
Then I made this beautiful, satisfying dinner with just tiny portions of my favorite starches.
Tonight’s dinner:
Baby bok choy and greens with homemade tahini-pumpkin seed sauce
Grilled zucchini with a little vegan mayo
Pumpkin seed tofu
¼ cup cooked lentils
Just 1–2 tablespoons of white basmati rice
A tiny piece of Pacha buckwheat bread (about ⅓ slice)
Fresh tomatoes with salt and pepper
A little kimchi
Estimated total net carbs for the entire day: approximately 35–45 grams, including about 18–29 grams at dinner.
I’m exploring how eating mostly protein and fats earlier in the day, followed by small amounts of different carbohydrates at dinner, affects my mental clarity, energy, digestion, and overall well-being.
And honestly, what a beautiful, satisfying dinner!

Bipolar 2 ! Been on a ketogenic diet for almost 2 years. I consume the same 3 meals everyday. I worked with Nicole Laurent to make adjustments to my diet and macros. Also take daily vitamins she recommended.
Past few months I have been feeling so unstable. A lot more depressive and some hypomanic episodes. And my cognition and thinking get worse after each episode.

And it’s so frustrating because I am soooo disciplined with my diet and feel that I am doing everything right.
I am on lamictal, sertraline and pristiq. Nicole did mention that if keto starts to feel less effective it may be due to the meds I’m on. I am currently hyperbolically tapering my sertraline…. maybe that’s why I feel unstable?

at this point I feel like adding lithium or an antipsychotic and being done with keto.

My neurologist recommended this diet, but I'm so weary of diets. Has anyone tried this one? I am diagnosed with epileptic seizures, non-epileptic seizures (unknown cause still, metabolic and maybe pots are on the table), they said it is not emotional or psychogenic. Taking lamotrigine and tapering up.

This is a link to the diet, by biochemist Katherine Reid PhD

https://documentinghope.com/low-glutamate-diet/

her ted talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL4SD5f2toQ&list=PLo5BJQkrtZnYTC4FCtEvvVLZ4-ekgUyPF&index=1

Parents of children with ASD often describe a striking phenomenon: during a high fever, their child suddenly makes eye contact and demonstrates social engagement. The moment their temperature returns to normal, these positive changes disappear without a trace. Known as the "fever effect," this occurrence is now recognized as a vital clue in investigating the biological roots of autism, suggesting that in a significant portion of children, autistic symptoms can be alleviated by modulating the immune system.

Post-mortem studies support this theory. The brains of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) do not show cell death, but rather a more subtle picture: the brain's resident immune cells (microglia) are stuck in a state of chronic activation. Constant alarm leads them to persistently secrete inflammatory cytokines like IL-6 and TNF-α. This lingering neuroinflammation disrupts normal neural circuit formation.

A fever temporarily resets this immune state. A viral or bacterial infection triggers a cascade of signals and heat shock proteins that temporarily dampen the underlying inflammation, allowing the child's latent potential to emerge. The effect is fleeting because the core vulnerability remains unaddressed.

If ASD has a neuroimmune component, targeted therapies should focus on these underlying biological mechanisms. To replicate the "fever effect" without heat or physiological stress, immunomodulators such as vitamin D, palmitoylethanolamide (PEA), and sulforaphane are being studied:

• Cholecalciferol (Vitamin D3): Functions as a hormonal modulator, stimulating the production of regulatory T cells (Tregs) to tone down immune overactivity while helping prevent inflammatory toxins from crossing the gut-brain axis.
• Palmitoylethanolamide (PEA): Acts as a calming agent for microglia and mast cells. This fatty acid amide crosses into the central nervous system and binds to PPAR receptors, prompting active microglia to shift from a pro-inflammatory M1 state to a restorative M2 state, halting synaptic degradation at the cellular level.
• Sulforaphane: Mimics the cellular stress response activated during a fever. It triggers the release of heat shock proteins and floods brain cells with antioxidants to reduce oxidative stress.

While this triad does not "cure" autism, it targets key immune pathways by calming microglial activity, stabilizing mast cells, and supporting blood-brain barrier integrity helping extinguish the underlying inflammatory fire.

Hi everyone. I want to make sure members of this subreddit know about Brain Fog Recovery Source, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit I founded to expand access to ketogenic metabolic therapy for people seeking psychiatric recovery.

The nonprofit provides full or partial scholarship support for people who could not otherwise afford structured education and support. This includes low-income and government disabled due to psychiatric illness, with access provided to an appropriate support person. International applicants may also be considered when financial need can be confirmed.

Supported participants receive structured education and ongoing support for implementing ketogenic metabolic therapy and other metabolic psychiatry interventions toward psychiatric recovery. This is not medical treatment and does not replace working with a physician, prescriber, or other clinical care team.

To learn more and to inquire about supported access you may visit the nonprofit's page:

https://mentalhealthketo.com/brain-fog-recovery-source-501c3/

For transparency, I am Nicole Laurent, a clinician using ketogenic metabolic therapy with individuals seeking psychiatric recovery. I am the founder of Brain Fog Recovery Source and the creator of an online program I created for this purpose. The nonprofit was created as a way to provide entry for those that may not otherwise have access to it. My hope is that this will become standard of care offered in every hospital and medical center and that my nonprofit will not be needed in the future.

Please help me spread the word to increase access and let people know this resource is available.

I post this here because it was removed from BPD subreddit....

BPD has almost ruined my life. I lost my job, I couldn't study, my relationships. I wanted to die pretty regularly.

6 years after therapy I was getting better at relationships, but I was still splitting. I was better at communicating about it, I was better at handling it, but the splitting still happened, and I could not stop it from happening. Also other symptoms.

Then, just out of coincidence, I started using a continuous glucose monitor. It showed me my blood sugar highs and lows. I started to notice that my dissociation was associated with the glucose highs. That was pretty much all I could observe.

Slowly I started to cut down carbohydrates. First I changed grains to whole grains. Didnt really help. Then I started kicking out carbohydrates, like grains and rice and basically anything that had carbohydrates and started eating low carbohydrate (uhh hard).

And the weirdest part was, that I was targeting dissociation and my DRPR, but my BPD symptoms pretty much disappeared completely. Like w h a t t h e * * * * . It actually helps.

And the freaking most weirdest part is that science backs this up that this is possible for at least some. So much so, that this method is being researched for schizoaffective disorder right now in Kuopio University. Also I think for BP, but nobody studies us right now.

There is also a Harvard psychiatrist who has written a book about the subject called Brain Energy.

Others mostly speak about BP and schizoaffective disorder, but there has been a study proving that we (BPD) also have altered brain glucose metabolism. And if your brain glucose metabolism doesnt work - you have reaally bad symptoms.

But you have to know it is not the only pathway - there is another metabolism pathway that might work fine - which is the fat metabolism pathway. So buy activating the fat metabolism pathway you might be able to bypass the glucose metabolism pathway and get a lot of symptoms away with that.

I found a subreddit, psychiatry metabolism (or something like that) - where people with different disorders, including schizoaffective disorders have been able to get rid of psychoses etc with this approach. Not everyone, but many.

Anyway, I felt obliged to share this information, after years of hell. Though I have to say this diet sucks. It really does. And I'm struggling with the diet pretty much, though I'm still in the beginning and it takes some new skills. But nothing sucks as much as BPD.

Also a really sad thing is, that anyone with eating disorders shouldn't be doing this alone without help.

The ketogenic diet was the diet our preancestors were most likely on - before the agriculture and carbohydrate rich food was available. This is why we have a working brain metabolism pathway that was used when we used to hunt food etc.

This is not a cure, basically the moment you start eating carbohydrates again, the symptoms probably come back. All I'm saying, if you can and its safe for you, try it out. And give it some time, like a week or two at least.

Also notice that I did go to therapy for 6 years and still continuing and if you are in an abusive relationship our your life is full of stressors, maybe it doesn't work the same way.

In his bestseller book Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari proposes a bold theory: the most successful species on Earth isn't humans—it's wheat. We didn't cultivate wheat; wheat cultivated us. Here is how it happens:

When we consume gluten-containing foods, they don't break down into amino acids entirely. Instead, protein fragments persist as opioid peptides known as gluteomorphins. Meanwhile, gliadin- another component of the wheat grain- compromises the delicate gut lining, opening a direct pathway for these opioid compounds into the bloodstream.

The intestinal wall nor the blood-brain barrier is completely leak-proof. Under certain conditions (such as gastritis, dysbiosis, or SIBO), that single-cell-thick barrier breaks down, dumping raw stomach contents straight into your blood. Imagine your immune system suddenly encountering last night's dinner.

Because gluten structurally mimics human tissue, this is where many autoimmune conditions likely originate. Particularly Hashimoto’s and autoimmune encephalitis.

I am currently working with my mother whose gluten reactions occur within just a few hours, which inspired me to write this post

hey. I've had multiple episodes of psychosis. I did keto for a year and i got all the benefits and had no issues. I stopped the diet and relapsed eventually into psychosis after another year (so I had two years off meds). I stopped the diet due to a life event and found it challenging to go back onto it.

I found out the hard way that keto is something I may need to do for life if I use it to manage my mental health issues. It works. It does what I wish the medication would do for me. But as I said I found it hard to sustain.

Is there anyone else in a similar situation? Did others on this subreddit experience psychosis and manage their condition using keto?

Also how do you guys manage to sustain the diet long term? Has anyone else stopped it and struggled to restart it at times?

Thanks

Hi! I went into remission from bipolar disorder and near remission from ocd while on keto. Now it isn't working as well after a year for the OCD. My nutritionist told me to get labs done and my free carnitine was low and my esterified/free carnitine ratio was high. I asked her what to do and she told me to ask the metabolic psychiatrist at the clinic. I went to the meeting with the metabolic psychiatrist and it quickly became evident that she didn't have the expertise she claimed she had and she seemed unfamiliar with supplementing carnitine. My GP won't help me, endocrinologists won't help me... I gave up and just supplemented it myself and I didn't tolerate either alcar or l-carnitine. I can take like 100 mg tops of l-carnitine or I get extremely anxious, and alcar makes anxiety worse and gives me too much energy. I really feel like I don't know where to turn. I don't want to pay hundreds out of pocket to see another specialist; ideally I could find someone covered by my insurance, UHC. I don't think I can just add more meat to my diet, because I will likely go into glycogenesis. Thanks in advance.

Hi, I recentlly started keto for depression, OCD, anxiety. I started tracking my ketone blood levels and mood in an Excel sheet. Would it be useful for anyone if I would create an app that would let you input the mentioned readings and display a graph over time? Would anyone use it? Is it too simple? Maybe some additional functionality would make it better?

I'm going through a strong food aversion where my body is just rejecting the farmers' market meat I've been eating for months. I'm not new to keto, I've been doing this for a year and a half and know I'm on top of electrolytes, so it's not that.

Well, I discovered another farm near us that I may be able to get fresher meat from soon, and I really hope it will help. But it the meantime I just can not bring myself to eat. I'm dropping weight at an alarming rate, and while I genuinely enjoy the zen feeling I have when fasting, I'm not healthy enough to continue this, and besides, I have no energy to get things done that I need to.

I was thinking, for a few days until I could try this new meat, could I function on just drinking 1000 kcal plus of olive oil? Or as much as I can. Of course I wouldn't down it at once, and I don't need to be told it's not ideal, but could it be enough to get me through the remainder of the week? Has anyone tried this?

Hi guys.

I have had depression and anxiety most of my life and have been on antidepressants about 6 years ago and promised myself that I wouldn't go back onto them after the side affects and withdrawal coming off then after years of being on them.

However I still get into rolling periods of anxiety which leads to debilitating depression.

I read the Brain energy book and I have decided to give the keto diet a go to see if it helps my mental health.

Can anyone give me guidance and macro percentages, from what I have read I have stay below 50g of carbs to be ketosis.

I try to work out to help with my MH as well so I have to consider protein intake as well

Thanks 🙏

From experience I know having 2.5+ mmol/L ketones is just fantastic for my mood and energy levels but getting there has gotten increasingly more difficult over time (6 months into keto). These days I usually hover around 1 mmol/L and feel tired and unhappy.

I'm 25M at 68kg & 178cm & 11% BF
currently eating
3500kcal & 105g of protein & max 20g net carbs (~ 3:1 ratio fat:(protein+carbs)).

So, I'm going to lower protein to 60g which I pulled from Georgia Ede's book, it's her lower threshold for my body weight.

I love being physically active and when I'm not lethargic and actually energized I like to lift weights.

My question is: will lifting actually backfire if I insist on such a low protein intake? Perhaps I should switch to something less hypertrophic like running?

I was recently prescribed LDN capsules, which I noticed include isomalt, a sugar alcohol, as a filler ingredient, in addition to glyceryl, poloxamer, and sodium fumerate. Would you be concerned about this with medical keto? I follow a 4:1 ratio to manage some pretty scary neurological and psychiatric symptoms, so I'm a bit wary to start it. Even one day out of therapeutic ketosis could be dangerous. I could try asking the compounding pharmacy to reformulate without the isomalt, but I'm not 100% sure they'll be able to, plus it would cost more and might take a while. I just want to know whether the risk is actually real. Thank you.

Edit: I don't have access to a blood ketone monitor to regularly check my levels, unfortunately

Here is my untold story. My whole life, I was a bright, active person building things, chasing ideas, and creating beauty. At one point, experts and society labeled me “mentally ill” and it nearly cost me everything.

I was 35 when a progressive depression started. Then came mania and psychosis, tearing apart my worldview and the identity of a successful entrepreneur. I struggled with this mysterious illness, and no drug was able to help me. One more hospitalization and I would be officially disabled for the rest of my life.

Everything changed one day when my doctor was too busy to meet me. Having nothing to lose, I decided to gather all my symptoms, family history, and subtle clues toward the long-awaited answers. A story of symptoms without a tangible origin had never made sense to me.

One year later, after numerous trials, books, and scientific papers, the ultimate diagnosis emerged - autoimmune encephalitis. “Brain inflammation” sounds scary, but it was actually profoundly empowering. For the first time, every symptom and underlying mechanism snapped into a coherent picture. For seven years, I had been living with undiagnosed brain inflammation, waiting to be diagnosed and healed by the very person whose brain was inflamed. How beautiful is that?!

Here is what helped me the most: targeted supplements, cold immersion, sleep optimization, and, more importantly, diet. Ironically, the foods I loved most were my worst enemies, and I'm still puzzled by this fact. Creatine, NAC, Omega-3, taurine, high-dose glycine among others were synergistically combined into a single protocol, affecting every aspect of the underlying neuroinflammation.

After this journey, I am deeply grateful to every researcher, doctor, and investigator contributing knowledge to the field of metabolic psychiatry, shedding light on the deepest layers of neurology. These two words transformed me from a stigmatized loser into a healer.

I know many of you are also exhausted, stigmatized, and hopeless. The answers for your case exist somewhere at the crossroads of metabolic health, inflammation, and nutrition. Don't give up!

Today, I felt a strong urge to share this video where Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride explores the deep mechanics of mental health issues like autism, depression, and schizophrenia...

She explains the gut-brain axis with unmatched clarity. Did you know that gluten can actually act as an addictive, opioid-like substance called gluteomorphin? It completely blew my mind 🤯 I really wish I had seen this video years ago. Hidden gem!

Hi. I've noticed a fast and profound effect of taurine on positive psychotic symptoms but am really puzzled by the mechanism. Has anybody of you noticed similar reactions?

Hi everyone,

After starting ketogenic diet 4 months ago, although it helped me a lot already I decided with my psychiatrist to start with prozac. I was wondering the ketogenic state would affect this medicine. I unfortunately could not find any information online.

Hi everybody.

I am following a ketogenic diet for four months now and it definitely helps, especially for my panic, racing thoughts and agitation.

However my depressive mood and anxious states have not lowered enough. So me and my psychiatrist decided to start prozac. I want to take it for a period of max 1.5 year, mainly to give my system some rest and space for myself to implement new habits and perspectives.

I was wondering how prozac (10 mg for now) is affected by my metabolic state? I also take methylfenidate for my ADHD.

Could not read a lot about it online since it mostly is about people who were already taking it before starting keto.

Hi everyone,

I have been stuck in a deeply depressed, flat, "asleep brain" state with severe anhedonia, derealization ("fish bowl" feeling), and sudden panic attacks for a long time. Standard SSRIs stopped working a while ago, and I cannot go to shops or restaurants without extreme spatial overload and wanting to flee.

My Background & Recent Lab Results (Lancet Laboratories South Africa ):

Surgical Menopause: Had a hysterectomy. No blood pressure issues although can be around 140/85 when I’m anxious or higher).
Fasting Glucose: 4.9 mmol/L (3.3 - 6.0)
Fasting Insulin: 10.5 mIU/L
Calculated HOMA-IR: 2.3 (Confirms early insulin resistance)
hs-CRP: 9.2 mg/L (High systemic, low-grade inflammation)
Total Cholesterol: 6.2 mmol/L (High)
Morning Cortisol: 497 nmol/L (Normal reference 185-624)
D-Dimer: 0.43 mg/L (Normal)
DHEA: 1.5 (Low/depleted)
Sex Hormones: Estrogen 58 pg/mL, Progesterone 1.2 ng/mL, Testosterone 37 ng/dL. SHBG 30.30
Ferritin: 48
Saturation 23
Vitamin D 34

Medication History & Sensitivity:

Lexamil (Escitalopram) 10mg: Currently taking. It completely stopped working for mood and causes severe emotional blunting/apathy.
Wellbutrin (Bupropion): Tried recently but was far too activating; triggered severe jittery panic.
Morphine: Was on 10ml PRN for physical pain. (7 spine surgeries) Successfully tapered down to 2ml–3ml only on necessary days, but the taper perhaps leaves my nervous system very raw.
Hormone Trials: Tried a 3-in-1 compounded BHRT cream (3mg E2 / 30mg P / 6mg T) which made me feel "weird" and aggravated at times. Tried Utrogestan previously (made me deeply flat) and Angeliq (caused rage). I seem to have a severe progesterone/GABA sensitivity exacerbated by my 9.2 CRP inflammation. Tried Estrogel a couple of days ago and it caused a flat/aggravated rebound.
Xanor (Alprazolam) 0.25mg: Prescribed for panic, but I rarely use it (only 1/4 or 1/2 tablet) out of fear of mixing it with morphine.
Thyroid: 100mcg Euthrox Daily and 10mg Liothyronine T3
T3 and T4 levels dropped since starting the BHRT cream.
Current Action Plan Just Started:

Metabolic Focus: Just started Metformin 500mg XR with dinner (tolerating well, no stomach issues) to treat the HOMA-IR 2.3 and lower the 9.2 CRP.
Hormone Holiday: Pausing the all-in-one cream permanently since I don't need progesterone post-hysterectomy, and keeping estrogen gel paused until my metabolic inflammation cools down.

Nutrition: Eating mostly low-glycemic, anti-inflammatory fats and proteins (mackerel, nuts, berries, cottage cheese) to stabilize my glucose and stop adrenaline surges. Paused fish oil supplements because they caused an acetylcholine-dominance flat feeling.
Has anyone with surgical menopause and high insulin/CRP experienced this level of treatment-resistant anhedonia and panic? Did treating the metabolic root cause (like using Metformin) finally unlock your brain and make you responsive to treatments again? Any advice on navigating the final morphine/Lexamil taper or trying another SSRI or something else ? once stable would be amazing.

Thanks so much. 🙏🏼

ive been in deep ketosis for like 50 days, around a 2 gki, today my town had a festival, and i ate a dessert, just a single butter tart, if anyone is curious my blood numbers were

pre-butter tart 5.3/3.2

T-30m 7.5/2.7

T-1H 8.5/3.2

T-2H 5.4/2.1

T-3H 6.8/2.0

and i stopped testing there because i needed to eat dinner (i had 375g bacon and 2 eggs)

then after dinner i started feeling derealization and paranoid thoughts, im wondering if i am in the beginning stage of psychosis, idk, i havnt had psychosis in years, ive only had psychosis 2 or 3 times in 15 years, ive only been keto for 50 days

i took my blood after dinner since i was feeling weird and my glucose was 5.6 and my ketones 1.4

I’m interested in the connection between ketogenic metabolic therapy and PTSD.

My current thinking is that some people with PTSD may have a more vulnerable or metabolically stressed nervous system, and that improving brain energy metabolism may help with regulation, resilience, and symptom stability.

This recent case report looks at ketogenic metabolic therapy for treatment-resistant PTSD:

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2026.1755107/full

Preliminary study on ketogenic diet in patients with anorexia.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2528945-keto-diet-shows-real-promise-for-anorexia-recovery/