27 days on Keto and lost 3 pounds. Help

#1

Male, 45, starting weight on 12/1 was 195 and currently 192 or so. I track all my food intake on FitDay.com and I have been below 10g of carbs since day one with exception of Christmas Eve. I ate carbs but just for one meal.

My normal day consists of 3 eggs and bacon or turkey bacon for breakfast, usually 1-2 tablespoons of peanut butter at lunch. And then either 3 more eggs and bacon or turkey bacon for supper. My snacks have been grilled chicken with shredded cheese. No ketchup, no low carb snacks, no soda but I have had diet soda.

I usually take in 1500-1800 calories per day and up to 125g of protein with less than 10g of carbs. Most days less than 5. I tried a Keto stick and it said I was NOT in Keto a few days ago. What the heck am I doing wrong? Too many calories? Not enough? That’s got to be the only thing left to be wrong right? My fat intake is usually 70 ish but has been as high as 125 per day. I will say this. The mirror has been kind. My clothes are plenty lose now and I had to put tape around my 20 year old wedding ring. But as a cyclist living in the mountains, power to weight is super important. My best friend got me into this as he had went from 185 to 158 in no time. Why isn’t this working for me? Super frustrated. Thanks for any help in advance.

#2

Oh and I exercise daily. Either cycling or the treadmill. Usually an hour. Sometimes more.

#3

The fact that you are losing inches should make you happy. For some people, the scale just does not show weight loss, despite losing inches. Some science geek could probably explain why. When I first started, I lost weight steadily. For a friend, she lost inches, but not weight.

One thing I’ve heard was that exercising could stall the weight loss on the scale. Is your best friend as active as you are?

Also, what is your height? What is your goal? You eat a lot of protein. Which you need to keep your lean muscle mass since you’re active. But that might be your problem. Hopefully someone with more experience will chime in. Since you are losing inches, keep up with what you are doing. You may experience a whoosh soon!

(Allie) #4

125g protein is very high for keto, you might want to adjust it. Could be your body just needs time to heal before it can start fat burning though. Less than a month is no time at all.

(Chris) #5

Sounds like you are in good shape to begin with. Many of us rapid responders are correcting metabolic sickness.

Try knocking yourself down to two meals a day. You should be close to fat adaptation at this point. And if that doesn’t help, start dropping your fat intake little by little

(Sheri Knauer) #6

In my opinion, of the amount of exercise you are doing, you are not eating enough calories. I do agree on dropping the protein a bit then make sure you get enough fat so its equal or double your grams of protein. As for the keto sticks, they stop working after a few weeks. As you are becoming fat adapted, you no longer spill out ketones in your urine but rather start using them more efficiently. At this point the best way to measure ketones now is with a blood meter. Don’t go by what the scale says. If your clothes are feeling looser, that is a good sign. Also sometimes our bodies decide what they want to heal first. Focus on better health, not just weight loss. A lot of times, but not always, those who have a lot more weight to lose tend to drop that weight faster, but again, everyone is different so don’t compare. Remember to just keep calm and keto on. Oh, and try swapping your peanut butter for almond butter. Peanut butter can be inflammatory for some people. To see if it is for you, just don’t eat peanut butter for a few weeks, then add it back in and see how you feel and your body reacts to it.

(Karen) #7

What I hear throughout this site when people aren’t dropping is more fat percentage. I got into keto by eating a bar of cream cheese each day for three days. Not interesting, but it did work.

K

(Ken) #8

An athlete using keto is different than an overweight person who is metabolically deranged. Chances are you didn’t have severe insulin and leptin resistance. Your body probably adapted into using fat fairly quickly. You have no need to consume excessive fat due to this, it speeds adaptation in deranged individuals. You should be keeping protein moderate. The absence of measurable ketones only means your body is using those being produced. Ketosis is only one aspect of lipolysis, don’t get wrapped up in it, you’re clearly in lipolysis since you’ve kept your carbs so low. Fat loss for you will be at the normal rate of one or two pounds per week, and is easily hid from the scale by water retention. Measuring is better, and you’ve clearly lost fat by your descriptions.

I suggest following a 60/35/5% macro. Use Fitday to determine a 500 calorie daily deficit, and follow that for several weeks. Since fitday is merely a guide, if you’re not hungry by the time you eat, adjust your calories down so you’re actually hungry by the time you eat. I also suggest “flipping your macros” on the weekends and eating carbs instead of fat. If you find your training performance to be dropping, you can go to full glycogen recompensation on the weekends. I do not recommend EF for those training regularly, but the concept of IF is good when it results in hunger prior to a meal.

From what I’ve read, you’re doing fine, but for you, CICO is relevant, and this is a slow process of around one pound per week.

#9

Thank you off for your input. I am going to Keto in and browse more here on the forums. I’ll report back and yes I am very happy with the lose fitting clothes. My face and neck are making big changes but I will admit I’m one of those people that focus on the scale. I believe that if I keep at it, it will have no choice but to move eventually. It’s science. It has to move based on the above mention of my clothes, wedding ring etc. I will say this as well. This way if life is great. You see, I hate sweets. Cakes, pies, candy bars. Never liked any of them so I helps me to be able to load up 3 eggs and 5 strips of bacon or a big plate of BBQ or 12 oz grilled chicken. I love that stuff! I do love bread tho. That’s one thing I have missed. I’ll soldier on tho and again, thanks everyone. Ncbiker

#10

Yes my friend is more active than me on the bike. My height is 5’10 and I do have a weight goal of 165 by 4/1. I have been as high as 222 and as low as 169 in my adult years so I know with some work, I can get back into the 160’s. the hills are so steep here and when my buddies hit the steep parts, they just motor away from me and ride out of sight. It kills me! ha! #ketoon

(Ken) #11

You can also try having some dextrose right before your rides. Three rolls of Smarties is about 20 g. Blend with a little water right before. It’ll go right into your system. Don’t be afraid to try more, such as 40g.

(Karl Bork) #12

You maybe eating too often. Try to get down to 1-2 meals per day. Ideally one meal.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #13

If your body is by any chance putting on lean mass, such as muscle, that would tend to balance the weight of any fat that was being lost.

#14

Could I be eating too few calories? I’m 190 pounds and Ill eat anywhere between 12-1600 per day. I see some folks say 2000.

(Allie) #15

Are you feeling hungry?

#16

Most of the time, I am. But honestly, Its always been that way lol.

(Karen) #17

I still have hunger, but it’s different. Also when I used to eat wheat the pain seemed like hunger to me. Weird right?

K

#18

You have to tools in place, just start using them.

  • drop the peanut butter

  • drop all the artificial sweeteners and and diet soda, replace with water

  • labels are not always accurate

  • you’ll see the difference in the urine strips within three days

#19

I am sticking with it. Especially after reading you thread a few days ago. Hope you feel better soon as well. Thanks

#20

So if I do the one meal per day and I usually eat 1500 cals per day, that one meal needs to be 1500 cals? This sets up my body to release glucose just once per day rather than many times per day correct?