8 months on Keto and have steadily gained weight - troubleshooting ideas?

(Erica) #41

Thanks, Diane!

(Nicole Sawchuk) #42

I find it frustrating. Let’s say it is the insulin, than wouldn’t keeping my eating window down to 4 hours a day be beneficial? While I may not continue to lose weight, I should be able to maintain (as per Megan and IDM). Yet that’s not what was happening. I started gaining. So the next advice is fast longer. But I feel like my body cannot fast for more than 24 hours (granted I could push myself to 36 hours if I tried).

Is it too much fat in my diet? I don’t do BPC and fat bombs. My fat comes from meat and what I cook with. I did in January start increasing my fat content because it was getting harder to get to my 4 hour eating window. So I bumped it up to help with satiation. But the extra fat seem to stoke the hunger. So I dropped that. I instead increased my protein because when I measure it, I was surprised to see I was on the low end. Figured that might be why I was getting hungrier. Once I did that, blood glucose levels dropped further and stabilized real nice! But no help on the weight front.

So I have started eating 2 meals a day in the last week and now my weight is up another 5 lbs! So now I want to drop the protein again. I wish I could get a dexa scan, but they are not offered where I am.

I’m frustrated because for the first time since I started keto 3 years ago, this no longer feels sustainable. I hate that I am always worried about my macros, food timing, etc. I’m stressing more about crab creep. I just want to eat low carb food when I get hungry and be done with it! I don’t want to count calories. I don’t want to worry about macros. I was not looking to lose anymore weight, I just wanted to maintain.

Okay - got that off my chest, now I will try to go back to trying to keep calm and keto on.

(Danielle ) #43

Interesting! This made me think about me and my spouse. Neither of us feel good eating sugar or carbs. However, I started this diet/lifestyle to decrease body fat and balance my hormones. In contrast, my spouse is very tall and slim and he can eat lots of food and instead decreasing in weight. When he started eating low-carb his skin got better (no longer dehydrated), he started gaining healthy weight (he was very happy) and a lot of health benefits appeared. Just recently someone said that he has amazing skin.

Our theory is that carbs/sugar blocks his ability to take up nutrients. For instance, gluten that is often in carb food can be like “glue” in the stomach, preventing the body to take up the food. Anyways, we eat the same diet with the opposite effects, although both positive.

(Rob) #44

I have no real insights but it occurred to me that it sounds a little like the journey that @Suzanne_Leigh has been/is on. You might want to scan through her posts as she has been exhaustively trying to establish the cause and find the solution.

IIRC it was not driven by adopting keto but neither has it been solved by it either.


It is possible that your situation is is coincidental with keto and caused by something else (age-related hormonal changes, emerging thyroid issues, etc.) . My other thought is that maybe keto’s much vaunted “find the healthy weight” capability is working against your desired weight and body composition. As many have said on other threads, the weight your body is happy with is NOT necessarily that which your mind desires… Good luck.

#45

Splenda Zero is a liquid. The ‘generic’ Splendas are making the liquid versions also. Zero carbs.

(Candy Lind) #46

I knew there was liquid sucralose out there, just never saw the Splenda brand. Otherwise it would be in my cupboard!

#47

for some reason the label is black not yellow. Apriva also has it, that’s a generic form of Splenda. Amazon would have those and others.

#48

For the non-overweight, “weight” on the scale is really REALLY not what this is about - it’s about recomposition of fat and muscle, which may mean no change in weight or even a slight increase - due to lean muscle gains!

Re: tighter clothing, it can be related to bloat (due to longterm poor enzyme balance and difficulty in digesting so much fat, and/or newly discovered dairy intolerance), water gain due to hot humid weather (I went up an inch in some areas after a long hot/humid exposure), water gain due to normal fat cell changes before a swoosh, or a sluggish metabolism due to hormonal profile (ie, midlife females).

Considering that adults start losing muscle mass at a speedy rate around age 35, and that women are notoriously lacking in upper body muscle mass due to our industrial culture’s lack of upper body weight resistance activities in general and specific muscle fiber mitochondiral stimulation that come from slow intense weight bearing - it’s impt to keep in mind that muscle mass gain can be lifesaving in a couple of ways: increased joint stability/protection, and the cardiovascular benefits of lean muscle restoration.

The salt fix question is relevant. Sometimes excess water is also retained due not enough salt, other times, due to too much, but is worth experimenting with.

Besides all that is the possibility that you’re genetically inclined to need higher carbs. I was reading somewhere recently (I think it was Cristi Vlad) about how there is a small percentage of folks whose recomposition requires more carbs?

(Karen) #49

You always help me reset my thinking! @SlowBurnMary