Originally Posted by clasher

If you have a scale, weigh out a portion of nuts... it's pretty small. I know I can eat ridiculous amounts of nuts. I hardly keep them in the house when I'm trying to lose weight because I love them so much. Not that another anecdote means much but I went from around 300 to 215 currently, was 200 in the spring, just doing plain old portion control by weighing food and counting calories. I shoot for 50% carbs and the balance between fat & protein. I usually fall a bit short on the carbs but it changes a bit most days. I also don't eat back all the calories my HR monitor says I burned... it said a I burned 2800 on a 3 hour ride yesterday... seems kind of high to me.

Originally Posted by ripkin

That makes a lot of sense. I’m also a nut fiend—I go a little crazy with that. Like, by the *handful*. I recognized this and tried to buy the single serving calorie packs, but even in the packs I bought (which are pretty tasty, I might add) I wound up eating the whole package which is actually 2.5 servings or 400 calories-ish. Being about ~250 and riding for 2 hrs a day on a semi-hilly commute, one of these packages probably cancels out an entire one-way commute, calorie wise (9-13 miles of cycling, depending on route)—and it’s probably still too many carbs to stay strictly keto, even with the exercise.

I had been trying to avoid carbs altogether (worries about getting kicked out of ketosis, etc, etc) but it may make more sense to have a KIND bar or something a little bit more carby before or after rides and see if I can keep it to a minimum (replenishing muscle glycogen or just having enough fuel for intense exercise twice a day).

Honestly, if cycling performance continues to improve, and the numbers on the scale/fit of clothes continue to get better (even slowly, I’ll gladly accept slow and steady!) I don’t really care if I’m completely keto or “carb cycling” or simply maintaining with a whole food or other reasonable carb intake lifestyle. My problem—as you mentioned in the insightful comment about smoking and drinking— is that I’m a huge carb addict, so for me it almost makes sense to “stay sober” altogether if I can. But unfortunately, I might not be able to enjoy cycling to work as much if I’m completely depleted of glycogen/glucose and dragging all the way there and back. It’s way more fun to have a brisk, enjoyable, fast paced good workout than it is to spin up hills feeling depleted of glycogen and fatigued.

The other thing I was trying to do was intermittent fasting with a 2 hr food window when I got home from work, which worked GREAT from 300 lbs down to 250, before I started commuting by bike. Once I was down to 237 lbs though, and commuting, I couldn’t sustain it anymore. I had to replenish with nuts or low carb ice cream or something, but it was hard to keep it to just one serving.... for me nuts and low carb ice cream lead to “no sugar added” ice cream which leads to “no sugar added fudge tracks” ice cream, leads to a taste of the wife/kids’ regular ice cream which leads to a forkful of apple pie and a birthday cupcake and pretty soon I’m rationalizing having two pieces of NON-keto cheesecake because I can go back on keto *tomorrow*.....

Originally Posted by KraneXL

Yep, sounds like "sweetness is your weakness," mine too. The solution is to not have it in the house. But that's not always easy to do with family. Although I was never overweight (rather, overfat), but I've reduced my sugar intake significantly, I still eat it on occasion.

I've leaned to moderate my intake and adapted my thinking (read "sugar is a killer books), so that I feel guilty when I feel a craving coming on. That occurred last week when I finally ate some of the Halloween chocolate I bought for the kids that never came two years ago. I also fast everyday. Just letting you know you're not alone. Good luck with your diet.

Originally Posted by ripkin

Did you ever successfully switch from Keto to a regularly balanced diet, or was all your success on a calorie-controlled, exercise-often kind of plan (calories in/calories out)? I have never been able to maintain a weight loss—I once went from 335-235 on a calorie restriction diet, but it was incredibly difficult to maintain, and I slowly gained over the next 7-8 yrs back to 307. Recently I went from 307–>237 again, but couldn’t maintain it when I started bike commuting.

Your loss is pretty incredible, AND it’s pretty incredible you are able to maintain. What’s your secret? How do you stay motivated????