I began Keto 2 weeks ago. I’m in my 60’s at 180, 5’ 51/2” and a huge carb addict all my life. Grew up eating pasta several times a week. I knew this would be a challenge, but I’m determined to do things the right way and not cut corners. So I slowly cut carbs out over 2 months. Booked up about the confusing world of Keto. Started eating 1 Keto meal a day. Then for about a month I ate 2 Keto meals. I was still eating heavy carbs for that 3rd meal.
Then 2weeks ago I just started and it wasn’t so hard. I knew what to do to prevent Keto Flu. I knew to not obsessively count calories. I don’t feel deprived. I make bone broth and enjoy cooking everything. I’m lactose sensitive so I don’t consume much dairy. I do eat sheeps milk feta without issues. Not a huge egg fan. I add MCT oil to my coffee and sometimes make bulletproof with butter. I use a scale to assure portion sizes. I use the KetoDiet app.
BMI is 42%.
My macros
Net carbs 20 gms
Protein. 60 gms
Fat 94
Cal. 1,168
I drink plenty of water and stay within macro boundaries. No cheating.
So why am I only 2 lbs lighter after 2 weeks? I got some ketone sticks and those measure negative. I do 14 hour fasting.
I ordered a ketone/glucose blood monitor. I’ve been using a tsp of monk fruit in my morning coffee, and I see that some people stop all artificial sweetener, so I will stop that. 
.
I’m not active, just casual walking daily with the dog.
Suggestions, insight or advice is welcome.
2 weeks and discouraged but determined
You just answered your question. You are not reaching ketosis by still eating carbs. To store glycogen (carbs) in our fat cells, water must accompany it. If you are not depleting your glycogen stores you will not experience the ‘whoosh’ of water weight loss.
I'm not stalling...I haven't even budged to start with (Haven't lost either pounds or inches!)
If your sole goal is to lose a lot of weight, my suggestion would be to prioritise fasting as much as the keto diet.
I did my first 24 hour fast at the end of the first week; then have done regular 24 hour fasts on and off. Then of course when you do eat ensure you are being as pure as possible regarding fatty foods. I felt I only kicked into a nice ketosis at about 6 weeks after I did a 2.5 day fast.
You need to be strict as well; no refined carbs at all.
2 weeks is also nothing. I’m no expert, but it takes some experimentation; and some time to click in your brain. Many things you may be eating still may not be helping. Watch some more videos, read some more articles, ensure you have the very basics of Insulin Resistance and controlling your insulin levels down in your head (because essentially this is what fat loss boils down to; the science of Insulin and how eating affects fat burning in my opinion has to be mentally fused into your thinking if you are to try losing weight through diet).
Give it time! Many people (especially during/post middle aged women) have a really hard time losing in the beginning and then end up plateauing a lot. What is your calorie intake? A major mistake beginners make is not eating enough.
One other thing you can do that might help is to skip breakfast in the morning if you aren’t hungry. Delay that first meal for as long as you can to help deplete glycogen stores and lower your insulin.
That was during the 2 months PREVIOUS to me starting Keto. I’m starting my 3rd week now and have been strictly following macros.
I’ve never eaten breakfast. Always coffee. I’ve been holding off as long as I can before eating.
My calories are 1,168. Some days I’m not very hungry and then others I’m really hungry. I was always able to eat mass quantities of food and stay slim. A big eater. Since hitting my late 50’s the party is over.
Thank you Andy. I will continue educating myself. I appreciate that this is a huge change for my body. Do you get headaches or nausea from fasting?
HI
I have not had any significant headaches I can recall, but if I may have had some minor ones but expect it may actually be due to dehydration or caffeine (Black coffee has become my best friend in fasting; and I can over do it!).
I feel you want to go in ‘healthy’ and positive to a fasting day. Expect the mental challenges you could imagine; but again I found education is useful; for me two pillars of my fasting ‘knowledge’ that get me though are 1) Ghrelin and Leptin; understand the body’s ‘hunger’ requests, 2) Try and learn the feelings/difference between ‘needing’ food and ‘wanting’ food; so much of hunger is actually psychological.
Oh… and when you come to break a fast try not to cook too much and keep meals simple; my first few times I cooked meals 2x too big and chucked in way to many ingredients in my ‘want’ for foods I missed; just simple bacon and an Egg is now a staple very simple meal great for when eating in Ketosis or coming out of a fast. (in my opinion).
Hi Artemis, a couple of thoughts. Try counting total carbs not net carbs, up your protein a little [Ketodudes episode 42 Dr Ben Bikman also he has a presentation on Diet Doctor] and keep walking the dog. 2 weeks isn’t a long time at our age so this is going to take a while.
But you will notice some changes to your health and possibly mood. Keep going and concentrate on how you are feeling,
Hi GeeCee, if I start tracking total carbs, do I increase my carb macro? Thanks.
Hi, not been a fan of macros so if you just keep your carbs to 20 grams total.
Keep your carb percentage the same just make sure they are total carbs and not net carbs when logged
@Artemis
In most people (not all) fasting before being fat adapted is not a good idea as it makes the processes that the body has to go through much more difficult. The body need as much fuel as possible to help in hormonal changes, metabolic changes, digestive tract changes, eliminating old gut biome and building a new biome with different bacteria strains that will handle fat digestion instead of sugars, reducing inflammation, healing damages from years of sugar consumption, etc etc. It (the body) also isn’t used to burning fat for fuel and will fight it in the beginning so you want to feed it lots of fat to teach it that is all it is going to get so it needs to learn how to use it.
There is a lot going on and I;m sure you have heard of the Keto flu, fasting will also make this worse during the transition usually.
This is a good place to understand some of this from.
http://pwop.com/download/TheKetogenicDietInANutshell.pdf
This is pretty much all speculation and generalisation. I even feel the keto flu is potentially psychosomatic due to people that read about it and convince themselves they are going to get it.
I might accept if you an extreme case who never had fats and lived of refined carbs most of your life your body has no idea; otherwise I’m sorry but this level of worry about the ‘transition’ I cannot accept. Our body is after all ready for using fat through it’s evolution and has most likely done so all it’s ‘normal’ life (i.e. using fat stores when asleep or just when that person has not eaten). There is no need for such a high level of concern in most ‘normal’ cases. There’s no rule book either; so I refuse to just accept and conform to the ‘cult’ norms that have developed around this diet; in fact they may be psychologically unhealthy in themselves.
That is not enough calories to sustain you. Your body is in starvation mode and it’s holding onto it’s fat for dear life. In other words, you’re slowing down your metabolism, thus the minimal weight loss.
You should never be hungry on Keto. Up your fat intake at your meals to make sure you don’t get hungry between meals.
It’s really not. Fat adaption lowers hunger for most people. Hunger will make fasting more difficult and can lead to poor food choices when breaking fasts.
And clearly you didn’t get hit with the full effects of Keto flu. It’s a bit patronizing to tell those of us who have that it’s in our heads. If we are susceptible to it, we can get Keto flu at anytime, even well after the adaptation phase as it’s essentally an electrolyte imbalance. It’s been shown that people (like me) who have very high levels of ketones will deplete electrolytes with the excess ketones faster than someone with lower levels. Ergo the susceptibility to Keto flu much more than others.
Just keep calm and keto on. 2 weeks is only a blip in time. This is a lifestyle change that a majority of us plan on continuing for the rest of our lives. Stay the course and you will see and feel changes.
Can you share with us what a typical day of food looks like and we may be able to help pinpoint what is keeping you out of ketosis.
Your body is possibly healing right now. It takes time.
Every time I hear of a crazy initial weight loss on this forum I look at the poster’s personal info - they’re often male and/or morbidly obese. You’re neither so the weight doesn’t just fall off.
I second the warning not to fast until fat adaptation. Fasting now would leave you hungry. You shouldn’t feel hungry on keto, even while fasting.
So post some food, trust the process, and perhaps you will realize some non-scale positive changes before the scale starts moving!
BPC
Spinach/Romaine salad w/egg, avacado, bacon
Ground pork w/ cabbage, sesame oil, MCT oil, Bragg aminos
Dill pickle spear, beef jerky.
I’ve decided to increase my fat. I’m too hungry. Because I don’t eat cheese or other dairy products, I’ll seek other sources. Trying to eat whole foods.
Thanks.