5 weeks in ketosis - weight stall

#1

Hi. I’ve been in ketosis for about 5 weeks and have lost about 2 kgs. However, it seems that my weight loss has stopped. I eat 1500-2000 calories of 70-80% fat, 10% protein and 10% (or less) carb.

I exercise almost every day. I’m an intermediate boxer and do interval running, a bit of strength training of weights and sometimes bodyweight exercises. I tried intermittent fasting and it worked to help losing those 2 kgs but not anymore. I drink 2-3l of water everyday and eat plenty of greens.

I’m really not sure what to do next to maintain my goal of losing 0.5 kg per week. I also seem to get fatigue quite fast at the gym as well despite having MCT oil with coffee before my workout. HELP!!!

THANKS

(Rob) #2

Age, height, weight, gender?

You are probably way undereating unless you are pretty small and/or female. Keto isn’t about calorie restriction (at least early on), especially if you are active like you seem to be.

As your body adjusts to fat burning, it is typical for athletic performance to fall until you are better adapted when it should improve and often surpasses prior endurance levels. It is usually best to stop or take it really easy until your body feels up to it.

You also shouldn’t really do IF or EF until you are better adapted since you are just adding more stress to your body and probably retarding your adaptation progress.

With more info we can probably be more prescriptive but that’s my gut thoughts based on what you’ve said.

#3

Thanks for your response. I’m 24, 154 cm, currently 55.3 (57.1) when I started ketosis. I’m quite small yeah, I didn’t restrict calories until maybe last week. I’ve always eaten around 1700-2000 calories as I seem to get hungry at 1500 calories.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #4

Since you are no longer eating carbohydrate, you need to replace those calories with fat. (You shouldn’t change your protein level from what it was before.) The easiest way to control your caloric intake is to eat fat to satiety (I guess this is something they don’t mention on the sites that first get people interested in ketogenic eating, because a lot of newcomers to these forums don’t seem to have ever heard this). When your body is assured of enough energy, it will signal you to stop eating by making food unappetizing. This will happen long before your belly is full, unlike the old days. If you are eating fat to satiety, you will be able to go long hours between meals. So eat when you’re hungry, don’t eat when you’re not.

#5

Thanks! I did that before then I cut calories but I found that maybe I should eat more too. I experience this thing where there’s a point during the day when I get absolutely exhausted. For example, I wake up at 8.30 and finish breakfast around 9.30 then by 4 or 4.30 I feel so tired. Hunger shouldn’t feel as bad but tiredness… I wonder if anyone goes through the same thing?