Keto Diaries: How Jek Lost 30 Lbs

My friend and fellow blogger Jek has been sharing his inspiring keto journey on his blog, Jekert.com. His results have been so amazing that I felt compelled to interview him on my blog, in case some of you guys wanted to lose weight the way that he did.

When did you start on your weight loss journey and what motivated you to start losing weight?

I started my weight loss journey on a very random date – February 27, 2018 – because on that day, I finally realized that there was no better time to start than today. I met up with a high school friend two weeks prior to that and she was the one who introduced me to the Ketogenic diet.

I was at my heaviest around this time and hated looking at myself in the mirror, or in photos. I always volunteered to take my friends’ photos because I didn’t want to be seen in pictures. My friends had always been teasing me about my size, and although I didn’t take them personally, over time, my sense of self-esteem was affected.

I was also starting to hear myself breathe (you know that sound you make like you’re always panting or snoring wide awake) and my family and friends were telling me about it. I knew things were going downhill from there, and because I’m not getting any younger, I really had to do something about it.

How much weight did you lose?

I started at 177 lbs (80.3 kgs) and have been hovering at 165-167 lbs since July. It’s already October now and I’m still at around 145.5 lbs (66 kgs). That’s 31 lbs (14kg) lost.

I am not yet at my goal weight of 130 lbs (59 kgs), but I’m already very happy to be where I am now. My weight has more or less plateaued in the past 3-4 months and that’s partly because I haven’t been as strict with my diet compared to when I started, and I haven’t started exercising as well.

What were your methods for achieving that loss? Please share your tips!

I follow the Ketogenic diet, or as others would call it, the Ketogenic Way of Eating (WOE) or Way of Living (WOL). In summary, it’s about consuming food within your calorie target for losing weight, with the golden ratio of 70% fat, 25% protein and just 5% carbohydrates.

On my first week, I was very strict with tracking every single calorie and macro daily (using an app), so I managed to lose 4kg right off the bat.

After that, I played everything by “eye” – as long as I limit my carbs intake to less than 19g a day, that was all that mattered. A quick tip is just to avoid sugar and carbs in general (including fruits).

My typical meal starts out with just Bulletproof coffee for breakfast (that’s coffee with butter and MCT oil), a serving of meat and veggies for lunch (I’m glad most of the usual Filipino viands are within the dirty keto category), and some meat for dinner. My snacks are normally just peanuts, chicharon (pork rinds), or peanut butter (by itself) – but I don’t snack often and this is only when I’m really hungry. I also eat a lot of eggs (preferably scrambled or fried) because they’re quick to prepare. I’ve also tried baking Keto bread and muffins – there’s a lot of recipes online – but I do this only on days when I’m really craving for that bread or cake texture.

Because of the high fat intake, I usually feel full for the rest of the day and there are even days when I attempt to incorporate Intermittent Fasting (skipping dinner all together).

Unlike other diets, cheat days are not recommended on the Ketogenic diet. This is because once you cheat, you may get kicked out of Ketosis and would have to basically start over again. This is why most people would consider this a lifestyle, much like how vegans consider their diet more than just about food.

After around 4 months though, I sometimes eat one meal with carbs, but I make that worth it – like having a really good ramen once a quarter. I do feel guilty after consuming more carbs than usual so my instinct is already wired to avoid carbs and I don’t feel the need to “cheat”.

I don’t exercise. While exercise has its benefits and I do plan on exercising soon, in terms of weight loss, exercise is not as effective as diet. The calories you lose in exercise is not as significant compared to the food you will probably binge on after exercising. I do plan on doing regular morning runs soon because I’ve been plateauing for quite a while now and so I may need to switch things up a bit.

What difficulties did you encounter while on your diet?

The first week is the hardest – the Keto flu is no joke. And it’s something you really need to read and research about before starting so that you can prepare yourself (like starting midweek so that when the Keto flu kicks in, it happens on a weekend). Drink a lot of water because dehydration and its effects are real! I recommend taking in some supplements for extra magnesium, potassium and sodium to avoid chest pains from dehydration.

Because the Keto diet is a bit controversial for going against what we have been taught about food and nutrition since we were kids, there are a lot of skepticism and worry from friends and family about what I’m eating. Especially at the start – nobody would say it straight out but I could feel that they weren’t sure this was going to work until they saw the results.

I tried to join Keto groups on Facebook to learn about other people’s experiences and get their advise on any difficulty so that also helped. Most doctors would advise you against the diet, but in those groups, you would find doctors who are also on the diet who will gladly help you out when you have questions.

How do you feel now that you’ve lost weight? Any changes aside from the physical aspect?

I feel a lot better now that I’ve lost weight. It’s not just physical weight, but even psychological weight – worries about how I appear to people, my low self-esteem, my self-assessed depression – these went away together with all of the excess weight I was carrying around.

I even joke about how I don’t want to carry 5kgs of rice when I do my grocery shopping, and I realize that I’ve been carrying almost 4x more than that around with me before I went on this weight loss journey!

I also used to have chronic migraine attacks every month – without fail, but I don’t remember having one after I got over my keto flu on my first week.

So yes, it may sound like magic – and it’s not, to be honest – but I’ve reaped a lot of benefit from my diet, on top of the weight loss. I also get to wear the clothes I want instead of the clothes that fit!

Do you have some inspirational or motivational words to share?

Not just with weight loss in particular – but if there’s something you don’t like about your life, you always have the power to change things.

I wasn’t happy with myself for the longest time. It got to a point when I became my number one hater. I wasn’t able to pinpoint it to my being obese right away, but when I realized that, I knew I had to change.

Fortunately, I’m not yet at the point where I’m fed up or tired of not eating carbs (because I’m not really at my weight goal yet), but when I do feel tempted to eat a pizza, or a bowl of ramen, I look at my old photos and tell myself that never again will I go back to being obese. There’s just no way!