3 months in, gaining inches

#1

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some insight here- I’ve been struggling and can’t seem to find any concrete information that would explain what’s happening…

I’m 3 months in to strict keto, less than 20 g of carb per day, using the diet doctor website meal plans. I wasn’t calculating or tracking any macros. It took about 12 days when I started to start losing and after about 3 weeks I was fitting into pants again that had gotten too small, went down a dress size, was visibly lean (“cut”).
This sustained right up until about 3 weeks ago.
Since then I’ve filled back out, have not been able to get any real definition back to my abs, and have started feeling my hips/thighs filling out again. In the past one week I now don’t fit in those same pants that I had fit back into, and that’s through the hips/thighs/butt almost more than specifically the waist. I’m soft, have a bit of a belly pooch again. I drink avg of 2 L of water a day or more.

I’m just under 5 foot 10, in the morning I weigh 143lbs-147 lbs, my last body fat percentage was 19% 1 week ago (handheld device, not sure how accurate these are). I use a blood meter to measure ketones and during the period of gaining I have shown to be in ketosis when I’ve tested (except following the “cheats” listed below).

Things that changed:
-In the last 1.5 months I started tracking macros, following pretty strictly.
-I reintroduced some exercise after about 2 months without any. Ie: light hikes 1-2 times per week, stationary cycling 1-2 times per week for max 40 minutes. (I’m dealing with a year long chronic issue with my neck. Exercise tends to intermittently be do-able.
-first weekend of May I drank quite a bit, had ice cream.
-3rd weekend of May I drank quite a bit, ate over my macros (keto food), and had 3 non-keto cookies.
-about 2 months ago I started intermittent fasting with BPC in the AM.
-my wedding is now two months away, have days of stress about this!
-4 days following the cheat on the 3rd weekend of May, I experienced 2 days of extreme Edema around my eyes and to my eyelids, massive facial puffiness. Eyelids over my eyelashes. I’ve since had blood work and nothing significant except some markers of mild dehydration.

Any ideas why things seem to be reversing!? And pretty quickly in the last 1.5 weeks!

#2

IT is hard to say unless you list what you have been eating and when, including all the coffee and cream,. BPC is a meal.

#3

No cream in the BPC, butter and coconut oil.

I keep the fats from the BPC within my total macros for the day.

The foods have basically been all from diet doctor meal plans, lots of repeats over the 3 month period.

Typically l eat my first meal between 12:30 - 2pm (depending when my last intake was the night before to achieve 16hr fasting window), dinner between 6:30-8pm. This has also stayed consistent over the duration.

#4

The swelling you experienced is likely do to water retention due to excessive carb intake. LC eating or fasting creates a state of cellular dehydration (for lack of a better term, but it’s not detrimental). When large amounts of carbs/sugar is reintroduced quickly, the body is now able to hold onto water, but it has no place to go, so it’s retained in the tissue, causing edema.

I normally maintain a state of ketosis. Eating a single high carb meal won’t cause a problem, but if I go overboard, like drinking a couple of 64 ounce Slushies during a road trip, I will have pitting edema in my ankles. Fasting for a couple of days will eliminate it and I can easily drop 5-6 lbs over those 2 days. Alternatively, if you continue eating over your carb tolerance, the body will adjust and the swelling will eventually dissipate.

I suggest making sure you’re in ketosis. In addition to diet, stress, sleep, exercise, and hormones can effect this. Measure BG and BK. If your GKI ≤ 3, you should be losing inches.

Also, consider an elimination diet. Subclinical responses to dairy, nuts, nitrates (smoked meats), MSG are fairly common. Bloating can be one of the symptoms.