4.5 Months Keto - Stall or?


(Susan) #21

Some people need to eat 3 times a day; it is fine. You just do whatever your body needs. I watched a video really early on in my Keto walk, (before I found this lovely forum) that talked about trying to at least do 12:12 -so after your dinner, try to wait at least 12 hours again before consuming any calories (so you could still have herbal tea in the evenings, just nothing with calories). That is still doing an IF but you would be sleeping for most of it =).

Personally I do 20:4 now, eating lunch at 1pm and supper at 4:30 but I am a stay at home mom/grandma and you are doing very busy physical work so there is a big difference! I think you are burning a lot of calories with all the work you are doing as well, and I can totally see why you would do well having the bacon, eggs and fatty coffee in the morning! That totally makes sense =).

I would try the three meals a day, with no snacks between, with a 12:12 window, combined with eliminating the sugar substitutes. I stopped using them as well in June as I felt they were making me bloat, cause stalls, and also made me have cravings (that I didn’t give into but still had them, and eliminating them helped the cravings disappear). Best wishes in getting the scales moving again!! =).


#22

Don’t let people convince you that hunger means you’re not fat adapted, it can, but if you’re very active and your body isn’t getting fuel that it wants, you’re hungry. We can burn consumed food faster than we can our fat stores so even in a very fat adapted person you can get hungry regularly. I’d eat more and see how you feel. I’d also play around with your fat/protein to see how you feel. Have you pulled your protein way down? Many people do and for some that makes them hungry.

Unless you really have an issue with them you’re probably fine, especially with that little of an amount. Both the splenda and equal packets are bulked with dextrose/maltodextrin. Still pretty minimal though. I usually drink two large iced coffee’s a day with 5 of them in each, has never been a problem for me. At home you can go with a liquid sucralose or stevia that doesn’t have those added.


(Tessa) #23

Another thing about me that contributes to hunger and processing food is I had gastric bypass surgery 4 years ago. I was going to add more background about me on my initial post but thought it would be too long.
Anyways, my small intestine has been shortened, I have a smaller stomach pouch and my gall bladder has been removed. So, I’ve been told before that I only absorb 1/2 to 1/3 of what I eat. Not sure that is 100% accurate because I can still gain weight no problem. Not like I can eat 3x’s more carbs/sweets/etc. and not gain weight.
The reason I bring this up is I do feel like food doesn’t stay with me long. With being active now, used to sit in a cubicle for 9 hrs a day, to now being actively moving at least 7 hrs a day, I feel I burn or digest my food quicker. I’ve felt this way before keto and now too.
I know I have 37.8% body fat, I had a Dexa scan done in July, so I have fat to burn/use but still get hungry 2-3 times a day at regular meal times.
I keep my protein between 20-25% each day. I know protein is important and I’ve noticed I’m losing some hair now so I won’t lower this at all.

As far as eating more, I’ve seen where peope have done closer to 2500-3000 cal a day and said it helped drop weight. I haven’t tried that yet but it’s crossed my mind. I’d really have to work at eating that much in a day.


(Tessa) #24

I like this 12:12 idea, thanks! Seems like a good place to start when attempting IF. I will just make sure to get enough food in during that time.
Just made a coffee, was going to be my last one with sweeteners. I had coffee and HWC in the cup and tried it an it’s not bad!! I guess I never really had or even tried coffee with out sugar of some kind. So figured I didn’t like it. I feel silly now because it’s really not bad at all. Totally drinkable! Makes me feel more like an adult or older for some reason! Lol!


(Parker the crazy crone lady) #25

It sounds like you aren’t eating quite enough?


(Susan) #26

This is very true too! Parker is right, it is important to make sure for those 3 meals that you are eating enough calories – keep the carbs to the 20 grams or less but upping your proteins and fats so that you are satiated and not hungry! I had an over 2 month stall and to break it I had to increase my calories (proteins and fat) so for sure, that is something to make sure you are doing as well!).


(Tessa) #27

How long from when you began to increase your calories did you see the weight start dropping? I know someone said around 3 weeks to see a change when I cut out sweeteners, if that’s my issue. Just not sure on the increase of calories time line.


(Tessa) #28

It’s been on my mind that this may be my issue, or one of them, causing my stall & slow weight loss. I’m just torn between trying to IF and/or fat fast, or just eat (because I’m hungry!) and increase my fat/protein while keeping carbs at 20.
I guess to answer my own question, listening to my body I should probably eat and not try to force fasting at this point.


(Ellen ) #29

I like this idea as well Susan. I can do 12hrs, heck I can do 14hrs. Great advice! Thanks.


(Susan) #30

I lost 1 pound a couple days after increasing my calories, then another pound the next week. Even though it was only 1 pound per week, at least the scale is moving again, and going down =).

I increased my fat and my protein, focussing on the fat increase more so and I still keep my carbs at 20 grams or less (sometimes really low).


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #31

The amount of carbohydrate you can safely eat depends on your degree of insulin-resistance, and our 20 g/day limit will work for most people, but not absolutely everybody. Dr. Phinney’s advice to people who feel stuck is (1) decrease the carbohydrate, and (2) if that doesn’t work, try eating more fat. Under no circumstances, he says, should you increase carbohydrate. If you are feeling hungry between meals, definitely add more fat to your diet.

As far as the artificial sweetener is concerned, if it is affecting you, switching to a different one may help. People usually notice an effect from one or another of them, not usually from all. It is possible for a sweetener that works fine for you to cause an insulin spike in someone else, and vice versa.

Lastly, look at how many calories you are eating, and why. If you are deliberately choosing to undereat, say, try increasing how much you eat, and see if that helps. It’s one of the paradoxes of human nutrition that giving the body more food actually helps it shed excess fat. Even if you simply aren’t hungry, sometimes it helps to try eating a bit more for a while. I read posts all the time about how people’s fat loss resumed once they started to eat a bit more.

One other bit of advice: check your progress with how your clothes fit, as well as by the scale. It is not unheard-of for people to increase muscle and bone density while losing fat, and this confuses the scale. If your clothes are getting looser, you are doing fine, even if the scale is not co-operating.


(BuckRimfire) #32

My wife swears that coconut oil tastes sweet to her (virgin, not refined oil). I don’t perceive it that way, really, but if you can get your hands on a jar of that stuff (Trader Joe’s sells it, if there’s one near you), you might try it to see if you agree.

We put about 100 Calories of coconut oil AND 100 Calories of 36% HWC in a big mug of coffee or tea and blend it, but those mugs hold a full pint! On “fasting” days, we still have one of those for breakfast.


(BuckRimfire) #33

Yes, I wish my wife and I had thought to do a series of body measurements before starting keto, so see if we were losing inches (or gaining, in muscular regions). I’m pretty sure my belt is shorter now, even though I’ve maintained my weight (weight loss is not a goal for me).

We had DEXA scans recently, but that’s after over a year on keto so we would have missed all the early changes. The good news: we both have excellent bone density now. Just can’t be sure if keto gets any credit for that.


#34

I also find that coconut oil reduces bitterness, and find that even unsweetened coconut and coconut butter taste sweet.


(Joe Potter) #35

Sounds like you are doing pretty awesome so far, Stalls are tough to get through especially when things go so very well early on. Perhaps give fasting a try. I started at 237, and I got stuck in the high 180’s for 2 months. That was a major bummer. For some reason at about the same time, I was getting pummeled with fasting videos in YouTube. Eventually, I gave in to my YouTube feed and just skipped a day of eating. I got really busy so after dinner I skipped the next day of eating, then eat the following morning. 36 hrs or so . Make sure you are drinking plenty of water with electrolytes. As soon as I did that, I was able to start losing weight on my normal Keto program which sounds very similar to your regiment ( except for the sweeteners). My theory is that the fasting forces the insulin down enough that it resets the body in some way to allow for the fat burning to continue. I’ve done it a couple times since then and it seem to get it things moving again. Also check out the Zorn Fast topic in the forum here. The support really helps. Let me know how it’s goes if you give it a try. KCKO!


(Tessa) #36

I decided to do this along with cutting down & then completely out, the sweeteners. At least for a while to see how I respond. Today I’ve increased my calories by about 500, which increased my fat and protein but kept carbs in check. Macros today are
18% P
3% C (18 total carbs & 13 net)
79% F

Thank you for helping me!


(Tessa) #37

Thank you for the suggestion, I will check out the Zorn Fast info.
I think I’m going to begin with cutting the sweeteners and trying to eat a little more. See if that jump starts anything. If not then I’ll go to the other end of the keto scale and try some variation of fasting. I have found already the electrolytes really do help. If I don’t have some at minimum every other day I can feel it. I get sluggish and almost feel like my kidneys start to ache all the time. Also get leg cramps. So I make sure to get those in now.


(Tessa) #38

This is one topic (NSV) that I really need to keep reminding myself about. When I do, it pulls me out of my depressed headspace I get in when the scale doesn’t go the direction I want it too. That stupid little square of metal has so much control over how my day (attitude/headspace) goes, it’s really dumb when you think about it. Thank you for making me think about the wonderful things that have happened to me in the short 4.5 months I’ve been eating keto!
Some of my NSV’s are - I’ve lost inches all over my body, I dropped 1 jean size, had to get a smaller belt, and bought a medium coat for winter!
Thank you!!


(Susan) #39

We all want you to succeed =)). I am keeping my fingers crossed for you for success. I think that this will help =).


(Tessa) #40

I wanted to add an update, it’s been a couple weeks. I’ve made a few changes, cutting sweeteners out completely was harder than I thought it was going to be. However I’ve cut WAY down. I went back through MFP and saw I was consuming more sweetener all through the day that I originally thought. So I cut this back to only in the morning with my 1 cup of coffee. I switched to a liquid stevia drops and use about 4-5 drops per cup. Occasionally when I’m low on fat for the day and can feel it, I’ll have another coffee in the evening with HWC and a few more drops of stevia.
The couple other changes I made was cutting down on cheese, not weighing myself daily, and increased my calories.
I was becoming stupidly obsessed with the scale and just watching the number go up and up everyday just made me stress all day. Became all I was thinking about and feeling like a failure. I knew it wasn’t healthy or helping so I just stopped.
From suggestions and my own research, increasing my calories I think has been what I needed. I feel better, less fatigue, and overall feel healthier already! It’s kinda weird!
Tomorrow will be my weigh in and I’m sure I’ve lost something. I was sitting close to 184-186 a few weeks ago and it wasn’t budging. I feel lighter mentally and physically so tomorrow should be good!