Keto -- what effects are you experiencing?

[Daves_Not_Here]

For those of us eating Keto, the experience is not so much about weight, but about side effects.  I'm interested to hear what effects (positive and negative) we are experiencing.  And how we are mitigating any negatives.  Here are mine:

• Suppressed appetite and ability to skip meals without crashing
• Increased mental clarity, particularly ability to stay focused on tedious / frustrating tasks
• Reduced inflammation / relief from arthritis
• Bonk-free athletic performance
• Takes longer to get up to 100% energy in aerobic activity
• Less sleep required / faster waking
• Faster recovery from flu symptoms (may be coincidence / placebo)
• Lethargy & reduced strength in first month during adaptation (took 2 months to stop bonking during exercise)
• More sensitive to heat during exercise -- (mitigating by increasing sodium and electrolytes)

[Dominique]

There are quite a few people who have been asking about the ketogenic diet, or discussing it, which is why I find it surprising this topic has elicited no answer so far.

Regarding the sleep aspect, chances are less sleep is required because the quality of your sleep has improved. But has it improved because of the diet, or because you’re 50 pounds lighter?  I seem to remember you had sleep apnea and were using a CPAP machine, but no longer. I would say this was a consequence of the lower weight, not the diet.

[SunsetRunner]

@Dominique it's actually quite interesting what you're saying about sleep quality. I used to snore like a bear, sweat during the night so much that the bed sheets were all soaked in the morning. In other words, the quality of my sleep was at the lowest. Hence, I used to sleep really long just to get rested. On weekends, it wasn't unusual for me to sleep 12-14 hours. On weekdays, due to my work, I couldn't get enough sleep. Now, no snoring, no sweating and even 6hrs of sleep make me feel rested and I don't spend my weekends in bed sleeping like I used to. However, I didn't go with keto, but like you said, I just dropped weight and this improvement came on its own.

[Daves_Not_Here]

@SunsetRunner and @Dominique - very interesting discussion - here's my highly scientific anecdotal results, N=1

• Snoring and sleep apnea stopped -- completely due to loss of weight and facial lard.  Unrelated to Keto as it happened early in my weight loss before I went full psycho Keto.
• Sleep experience when IN ketosis: light sleep, frequent waking, 6 hours required, quickly alert upon rising.
• Sleep experience when OUT of ketosis: heavy sleep, sleep through night, 8 hours required, groggier upon rising.

I've researched the effect of Keto on sleep and increased insomnia (widely reported), and believe it is related to Keto's increased mental clarity (widely reported).  This is worth it's own thread in the Sleep Better forum, which I'll start.