Hi there, I’m a 54 year old female, post menopausal, hypothyroid, pre diabetic ball of joy (sometimes). 5’11", 235lbs and loving this woe. I know I shouldn’t compare myself to others, but I’m a tad discouraged as it’s been a month and I’ve not lost any weight nor inches. I stick to my macros, eat wayyy under 20g of carbs, 50-60g protein and around 100g fat (breakfast is usually BFC, bacon is usually a daily occurrence and I try to drink a lot of water). Before I started keto, I wasn’t eating grains, but was eating a lot of fruit and some starchy vegetables. I swim and walk, but otherwise am fairly sedentary. I’m hoping that it is just my body adjusting to this better lifestyle. Everyones stories are so inspiring, I can’t wait to be one as well. I will keto on!!
1 month keto - no weight nor inches lost
Hi and welcome.
My only suggestion is that you might not be eating enough. That is only about 1200 calories. A quick run through with your numbers on a keto calculator suggests that your basal metabolic rate is around 1900 calories. That is about a 40% calorie deficit.That big of a deficit can make your body think that you are starving and cause it to conserve fat at the expense of muscle.
Are you hungry or are you eating until satiety? I would try increasing your daily intake by 200-300 calories and see how that works for you.
Just to piggy back on this answer, I would increase the amount of fat you eat, not the protein as you don’t want to overdo that. Sometimes our bodies want to fix other things first before releasing weight. Just stick with it and you will get results. The first few months are for discovering what works for you.
I just and a similar post. I personally had to drop my fat intake ( it’s my personal feeling that too much prevents your body from having to access your own stores). And I dropped protein since too much was raising my insulin like carbs. I rhink in my case that my older body just can’t process like it used to. Since these changes, I drop every day.
I agree with some of the other posts here. Increase your fat. While Deb has a point - that’s for later into the diet once you become adapted. I’d go at closer to the 160-200g of fat while keeping your carbs and protein the same. This will help you adapt to using fat as fuel. Like @Jimbo said, right now, your body is holding on for survival because you’re not giving it enough calories.
Good luck, let us know how the adjustment goes.
Thank you for responding. I’m eating around 1,400 calories or less. I’ll increase without going over macros. Much appreciated.
Thank you! I know I need to be more patient. I feel I need to increase my fat intake. Learning process for me and appreciate everyones response.
Thank you all for your advice. I will keep you posted and I wish you all continued success!
Just trying to understand the science behind the logic, I guess, and maybe playing a bit of devils advocate ( even though op is following the increase-fat advice), but if you are feeding your body even MORE fat, what reason would your body have to use it’s own stored fat?
If you’re not yet fat-adapted, your body can’t tap into the stored fat very well. As you become fat-adapted, your mitochondria become better at burning fat. But it’s not an on-off switch, it takes time. As you continue to fuel your body with fat, your body builds more mitochondria to burn that fat. So I agree that in the long run, the fat that you remove from your diet will be replaced with fat from your fat cells, in the beginning you need to make sure that you eat enough fat to keep your body from slowing down your metabolism.
Here are a couple of links to the science behind fat burning.
http://www.drmyhill.co.uk/wiki/Ketogenic_diet_-_a_connection_between_mitochondria_and_diet
https://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/physiologgfatloss.html
Thank you for that. How long does it usually take to become fat adapted? I thought it was a week or two.
It depends a lot on the individual. For me, the first time I went keto, it was like slipping into my favorite pair of jeans. It just worked. I never had keto flu. I felt great. For others it’s a huge struggle that can last months.
You’ll know you’re fat adapted when you realize at dinner time that you forgot to eat anything all day and you haven’t been tired or hungry. Your body will just start to listen to the leptin that your fat has been releasing all this time. That will tell your brain to reduce your hunger because you have enough calories stored for a while (aka fat).
As @Jimbo said, it is different for each individual. I’m in week 6 and really just now starting to get fat adapted. It probably took 4 weeks before I noticed a real change. My ketones have been above 1.5 since the first week, but that doesnt make you fat adapted.
Check out my log here:
While listening to the 2 keto dudes “Femail” show, it was mentioned that there is alot going on in our bodies when we switch to this lifestyle. Things such as hormone regulation, cell regeneration, insulin depletion and even more for women who are still menstrual. So to sum it up, your body is busy. It can’t come to the phone right now to discuss weight loss. As one of the other posters mentioned, your body keeps a running list of chores that it needs to get to, but it can’t always get to them because it is always being forced to interrupt the healing process to digest the carby, sugary foods that we put in our bodies. Once you stop poisoning yourself, the body can now get to that “to do” list of repairs. Once it has crossed all of the healing repairs off the list, it can then come to the phone to discuss weight loss. I get so tired of hearing the phrase keep calm and keto on, but you really should keep calm and keto on. Let the healing finish and then the weight loss will come. The Femail show also mentioned that women lose weight at a slightly more delayed rate than men. Men start fast and then slow down, where women start slow and then speed up. You shouldn’t compare your results to anyone else’s but especially to the guys. Their results from keto are very different from most of us ladies. YOU GOT THIS! Watch your macros, get a little more exercise and enjoy the healing that is occurring. YAY YOU!!!
Hi. What do you suggest for an accurate keto calculator? I’m new to this.