Hello everyone. After trying every diet out there and none working I’ve settled on Keto because it’s the one I believe I can make a lifestyle change with. I heard from so many people how the pounds just fell off losing 30lbs plus the first month. I bought thevstrips, got an app to religiously track everything, scale, etc. After starting, I never got sick, no weight change, so I bought the sticks and have shown a constant 8.0 in ketosis. My scale does ounces because I’ve always lost weight slowly. My weight keeps going up and down, ( in ounces up to a pound), but over the month there has been a 6lb loss. The only way I’ve found to get the scale to go down is lower my caloric intake to under 800 calories and fast 21 hours (4 days a week). Keeping my carbs under 15. Is this normal to be so slow to lose, especially with stubborn losers like me, and having to keep calories so low? I’m going to stick with it, because even if it’s just 5lbs a month, eventually I’ll get down, I want to lose 45lbs, just seems it will take a long time.
1st month in, a little frustrated
Hey jojok,
Welcome!
What is your current weight (and height) and what is your goal weight?
Have you been doing a lot of calorie restricted diets?
How much are you eating?
What are your macros and how many calories are you eating per day?
What are the typical meals you’ll have during an average keto day?
Please don’t do this to yourself! You may see loss now but you will eventually stall as your metabolism slows, and you’re changing your metabolic set point and will require much less calories just to maintain. This is not sustainable.
You would need to give all your stats (height, weight, age) along with a typical day’s meals in as much detail as possible and the pros here will help trouble shoot.
But don’t starve yourself. That’s not how Keto works.
54 years old, 5’1", 171 start, 165 now. Goal weight 120.
I’ve always been low calorie, which is why dieting has always been so hard.
I’ve never been a big eater.
The only time I ever lost weight was when I was running 5 miles a day. But that isn’t anything I can maintain.
my knees and feet started hurting real bad.
For mornings I’ll eat an egg fried in butter, then 1 or 2 pieces of bacon or a sausage link.
Once a week to mix it up, I’ll have 1/2 a serving of keto pancake and keto syrup fried in butter with a sausage link. For Lunch, I’ll have a tuna packet, sometimes if I have boiled eggs available, I’ll make tuna salad with the egg and mayo. Other lunches I’ll have a salad with chicken or a small ground beef burger with keto ketchup. Sometimes between breakfast and lunch, if I get hungry, I’ll have a tablespoon of berry cream cheese. I can keep under 700 & 600 calories these days. Adding dinner Fri-Sun, I’ll go lighter on lunch and can keep the day under 800, but just eating a small amount of beef, chicken or sausage.
Last night I had dinner about 5 small fajita strips with a tablespoon of sour cream and was able to finish the day at 598 calories. Only 10 carbs. Since I barely lost yesterday, I skipped breakfast today since I was going out to eat for lunch. I had a few slices of BBQ brisket, and a salad. My keto strip is always dark.
It seems your body has adapted its metabolism to suit a very low caloric intake. I have the same problem, coming from a history of severe calorie restriction. I learned from here and other sources that the only way to fix this metabolic damage is to significantly increase intake. I know it might feel scary and counter intuitive (it does for me), but give it a try. I hope this helps 
good luck with your journey <3
This is your problem. You need to up the calories and eat keto for a while to rebuild your metabolism. You may not lose weight in the short term, and you may even gain, but you should not be concerned with that. You are fixing you, and this may take some time.
Once the body has fixed itself it will start to lose weight by itself. Trust the process.
It sounds like you’re eating way too many quasi-keto foods-- fajita strips, keto pancakes, keto ketchup–and not enough real foods. Berry cream cheese? I don’t know exactly what that is but it sounds carby. Cut all that out, eat regular cream cheese, butter, lots of fats, no frankenfood, low-carb veggies and increase your calories. I’m your exact height and was your starting weight in January-- now I’m 134 pounds. I’m also older than you are, I’m 67. If I can do it, so can you. Aim for at least 1300 calories per day, if you must count. I don’t count anything, but I’ve been low carb off and on a long time.
Urine strips can show ketones if you’re starving yourself as well as when you’re in ketosis, something I think people either forget or don’t realize. Keep us posted!
I don’t see any mention of which sex you are, but I would guess from your story that you are a woman. The female hormonal system, even after menopause, tends to affect how women lose weight, compared to men. I would advise not worrying just yet, and further, you might wish to avoid your scale. Sometimes women (and even men) who have restricted calories significantly find that their bodies need to put on lean muscle as well as to lose excess fat. The weight of the denser muscle tissue can offset the weight of the fat lost, but if you notice your body shrinking, then you know the ketogenic diet is having the intended effect, regardless of what the scale is saying.
Increasing calories is absolutely frightening to me. And it’s not just physical fear of gaining even more weight, but mental fear as well. You are fat because you eat too much is how my brain is programmed.
I only eat the 1/2 a pancake once a week. The fajitas are homemade skirt steak, just cut in strips. I restrict my carbs to about 15 a day but I can go lower if I try.
This diet is going to be way more mental for me than physical. I’m not feeling the weight loss now. so I use the scale and keep records. It was so hard to lose this 6lbs, I’ll be devastated to gain it all back. It’s worth trying because I feel no other choice, but definitely going to be harder mentally.
In all honesty, this is something you’re going to have to work on if you want to be successful with Keto. If not you will be at a dead stall for weight loss.
One good note though, I don’t have any health conditions other than really really bad heartburn.
For the most part, my heartburn is gone, get it occasionally when I fast, but nothing like it was before which was daily and really bad at night.
Yeah, it sounds like the challenge will be 10000% mental for you.
Unless you really, really work on this, I doubt keto will work.
This is where you need to be putting ALL of your effort.