4 weeks in, getting difficult, training back on

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(Oumaima) #1

Hi friends,
I am new on the forum and I have been reading out relative topics to mine.

To put you in context, I have dieted all my life,lost weight and gained it back. This last year I have been working on my mental health and I had to stop dieting to be able to quit the mental chatter and the selftalk that is always negative.
4 weeks ago, I watched the magic pill. I went to my freind birthday party, and I felt discusted when seeing the pictures. I changed my diet that night!

I dont count any macros, because I dont want to be back tracking numbers, I stoped weighing my self this week after noticing how ths stagnation is impacting me.

I am a 5’5" woman. With a desck job. I started at 217lbs ( my highest number) and last week,I weighed at 206lbs. DOWN 11LBS WOUUUHOUUU!!

I find this week difficult, so I am trying to start adding the gym in my routine, but I feel gased out. Not only at the gym, but in the every day life, I might be too anxious to see bigger results, not only in weight but in how I feel too.

Thank you

(John) #2

This can sometimes be self-defeating. Sometimes it is best to just keep doing what you know will work and wait for the results.

I have seen in my own past experiences that the body seems to “store up” changes for about 6 weeks, where you may see little to no result, and then all of a sudden you start getting those results after that 6-week lag time. True of dietary changes as well as exercise changes.

That works both ways - after you’ve been eating well or exercising regularly for a while and stop, you have a coasting period of about the same 6 weeks where you start losing your gains.

So while it is better to have constant positive reinforcement, I think there is a lot to be said for the patience to let the changes occur in their own time.

(Carl Keller) #3

Hello and welcome Oumaima.

You might want to wait a little while longer if you are gassed out. It might take a little more time before your body gets better at using ketones for fuel instead of glucose. The transition can be a little rough for some people and the gym might make you even more tired.

Until you have better energy, it my be best to just focus on the basics:

Keep net carbs under 20.
~You can likely start a bit higher and work your way down but 20 is a good honest number that will allow you to eat plenty of vegetables along with fat and protein.

Use a carb tracker like cronometer.com
~so you can accurately track your carbs. It tracks many other things but this is the most important

Feed yourself plenty of fat and fairly moderate protein
~These two things are your best friend in regards to keeping hunger and cravings in check. You should not gorge yourself on these things but eat until you are not hungry. It’s very important to not starve yourself, so eat when you are hungry.

Keep your electrolytes up.
~At least 64oz (2liters) of water and 2+ teaspoons of salt per day. We don’t retain either of these very well on a ketogenic diet and those two things are paramount for reducing/preventing the Keto Flu

Don’t stress and get plenty of sleep.
~Growing, healing and losing weight work best when we are relaxed. So try to get 7-9 hours per day and don’t obsess with what keto is not yet doing.

(Oumaima) #4

Hi Carl and John,
Thank you for your comments,
I defenetly sleep a lot and I eat twice a day because I dont feel the need to eat more. So it’s an organic IF. I go for a walk for now just to move a little. I dont count macros because I feel stressed out doing it, but the only source of carbs that I have is nuts and vegies, so I am sur that I dont hit the 20g. I will keep up because I feel better, mentaly well and for me there is nothing to go back to. And the support of the community is very welcome!

(Running from stupidity) #5

It’s very easy to exceed 20g with either nuts or veges, let alone both.

(Oumaima) #6

Dr berg sais that green veggies shouldnt count in the carbs

(squirrel-kissing paper tamer) #7

I would like to be able to state that one candy bar a day shouldn’t count as carbs but alas, it does. Dr. Berg would like you to eat a tree a day but you still have to count all of the carbs. If you want to count net carbs, go ahead and subtract the fiber from your carb count but carbs are carbs, regardless of where they come from.

I eat veggies daily, but I also count them in my daily carb count.

(Karim Wassef) #8

Welcome oumaima

If you want the simplest way to be sure - don’t eat any plants or dairy. Meat and eggs have no carbs. Eat your salts and hydrate well.

If you want to include some plants, go with herbs and spices for flavor, avocado for fat and olive/coconut/avocado for oils and garlic/onion for cooking.

Butter and ghee are safe dairy too.

Don’t worry about exercise or weigh yourself for a few weeks at least. Wait until you start feeling good.

(Sasha M L) #9

Hello!

I am 2 months in this week and after the first 3 weeks I just couldn’t exercise anymore, so I totally understand how you feel.

I used to do 15-20min HIIT 4 times a week so it’s really hard giving up workouts for the time being, but I hear you won’t be able to do the workouts until fat adapted. I can tick all the boxes of fat adaption apart from being able to exercise due to feeling tired/can’t make way through it :frowning: so I’ve had to really tone down to Yoga and even then I’m lucky if I can do it 2 maybe 3 times a week.

I guess keep focussing on your diet and progress until adaption appears. :slight_smile: I’m a newbie too and yes ‘The Magic Pill’ on Netflix is eye opening, I managed to get my boyfriend to watch this and convert him to keto too!

(Karim Wassef) #10

If you have access to a sauna, I find that it helps me “reset” my body.

(Scott) #11

Your exercise will suffer when you change to a keto WOE and that’s okay. I had my doubts because I lacked energy without carbs for fuel and had not fully converted to fat adaption for fuel yet. It took close to three months before I could say “oh yeah, it’s back”. This didn’t mean to me “stop exercising”. It just meant my workouts (running) were going to suck for a while. I say just do the best you can and power through knowing that it gets better on the other side. I see this a lot with newbies posting things like “keto for two weeks and I stalled…no energy, no weight loss”…etc. Ketosis is the front end and is quick. Fat adaption is the back end and takes time, I am talking weeks to months here. This is the exact reason you see and hear “I tried keto for (insert short time window here) and it didn’t work”. I get that keto is not for all but it is also not a two week miracle instant body make over. I am six months on keto and still tweaking things to customize my results and experience.

(Karim Wassef) #12

Unless you’re an athlete, a warrior, or manual laborer, the consumption of carbs is unhealthy.

“Keto is not for everybody” implies that most people should eat carbs and I just don’t agree. It’s like saying everyone should drink alcohol every day… not if you’re looking for longevity & disease prevention across the broad population. Everyone should be free to choose their illnesses, but the knowledge should be honest and direct.

I frankly wasn’t working out much at 255 and you don’t need to exercise to lose weight in keto. You’re basically reversing a disease and that is curing the symptom of fat. I got back into lifting as my energy reserves filled back up and I needed to move to expend it all.

Heal the disease first, the fat will go, then exercise for stress relief and longevity. That was my path anyway.

(Little Miss Scare-All) #13

Omg I’m cryin :rofl::rofl: but it’s the truth. Dude said 10-12 cups leafy greens a day. Now I love salads, but you should have seen me with 12 cups of lettuce in a bowl. Just had Raw ACV on it and it was a chore. I finally said [spoiler]fuck[/spoiler] this, I’m going to throw this in the VitaMix with some water. Tasted like how you’d expect: awful, but I drink wheatgrass daily and green juiced for a very long time, so it was no big deal. Easier than eating that giant bowl of boring.

#14

Hang in there. Give it 2-3 months and stick with it. Keep reading about the many ways you can improve your health. I don’t think you need to tax yourself exercising on top of everything your body is going through at the moment. Save that for the 2 month mark once you’ve got your routine down and understand your body a bit more. Don’t set unrealistic expectations and don’t give up.

(Oumaima) #15

Thank you so much!
It is realy informative and encouraging to read your replys, as I said, I will not go back. I am learning and unlearnig from all what I read before and my aproche to health.
I am doing keto to get healthy and live well, for me, weight is an indicator and I need to loose it because gaining weight taxed my knees and back and impacted my day to day life.
I am not tracking the carbs because I am scared to be back to my old demons, where I starved my self and obsesed about my macros.
Please keep the love flowing

(Scott) #16

I watch my carbs but I don’t track them. For me I just avoid any carbs except the ones I get from above the ground veggies and wine. I think cheating some carbs like eating a few french fries is a fools errand.

(Windmill Tilter) #17

My two cents is that exercise is like writing, you shouldn’t be doing it unless you absolutely must, and even then you should keep it as short and simple as possible.

I lost most of my weight before I had any urge to exercise. When I found myself inexplicably thinking about push-ups, I joined a gym. I do Body by Science once every six days. It hits every major muscle group with heavy weights, it’s done slowly and safely on machines, and it only takes 15 minutes. When I find myself with excess energy, I do a 4 minute Tabata workout. That’s probably too much exercise, but I don’t really mind because I’m enjoying it.

If you’re not enjoying exercise, listen to your body and take an indefinite rain-check. Wait until you can’t resist.

(Oumaima) #18

Hi Don, I love lifting, this week I got a lit more energy then the last month, so I am BAAAACK (terminator ref hahaha)

I am doing HIIT training for max 30 minutes, then Sauna and a gooood shower!
I am in a plateau, so I will start tracking my carbs like everyone is advising! Any App to recomend?

(Windmill Tilter) #19

That’s great! If you’re enjoying it, that’s the important thing. It’s when it’s a miserable grind done out of a sense of duty or necessity that I suspect it might be counterproductive. I think my basic rule is “listen to your body”. :slight_smile:

An awful lot of folks here swear by the Chronometer app. I think I’ve see it mentioned more than any other app. I’ve never used it so I’m not really sure about it. I’m sure plenty of folks will chime in with their experience.

(Running from stupidity) #20

Tracking is a great way to learn about carb amounts in foods. I use and recommend this app/website.

One of the main reasons is that it has a tightly-controlled food database that will only be altered by the staff at the app dev company, not just any nuffie with a phone.

It’s also easy to add your own foods/recipes to, and if you subscribe, has awesome reporting functions.