8 weeks longer than expected

(Andrew) #1

Dear All
I am a large 6’5", 170 Kg 54 yr old male.
I am entering into week 8 and have been on or very close to 20g carbs for the whole duration, I have a good 60 to 70 Kgs to lose to get to a healthy weight range… I do not have any major underlying health conditions except slightly elevated blood pressure.
I did lose 7 kgs water weight in the first 2 weeks but have had no noticeable weight loss in the 6 weeks since.
In the past I have tried (regularly) quick loss eating plan such as the GM diet and 5 and 7 day juice “detox” weeks where I can normally drop 7 to 10 kgs water loss.
I am not fat adapted yet, although on some days I can feel it is close and I am slowly closing my eating windows and moving towards regular IF.
My question to the forum is how many of you took 8 weeks or longer to become adapted and how many with a lot of weight to lose stalled (piss) after the first 2 weeks.
I must acknowledge that I have felt much better within myself over the last 8 weeks , I sleep much better and my mood has improved tremendously, some days I feel the clarity you all talk about and I am happy with the life style

Many Thanks

(Robin) #2

I personally lost weight at a slow and steady pace.
I started right off with IF… my clothes showed the weight loss faster than the scales (still does). But I also felt great very quickly. I think you are not uncommon in your experience.
If you’re feeling great and following keto,
I would stay away rom the scales for another month.
Go with your gut. It will all eventually fall into place. You’re doing great!

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #3

Keto is a process of metabolic normalization. It’s not a quick weight loss diet. Although weight as well generally trends towards normal over time. The good news is a lot of good stuff happens and a lot of stuff gets fixed that otherwise does not. The not-so-good news is that it may not happen as quick as you imagined or hoped it would and the end result may not be what you expected.

I’m sure others will show up sooner or later to advise you specifically about losing weight/fat. All I’ll say is: “…on or very close to 20g carbs…” may not work for you. Some folks discover they need to eat less and some right down to zero. You have a 100+ pounds to lose, so you’re probably more insulin resistant than you realize and that may take longer to normalize than you think.

Best wishes.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #4

Out of curiosity, what performance metric are you using, that tells you you are not yet fat-adapted? Eight weeks on a ketogenic diet tends to be the upper limit of the period of adaptation, but we have had reports from outliers who took noticeably longer (and a couple who felt they were fat-adapted in less than a month). Given that the symptoms of fat-adaptation tend to be subjective, I probably shouldn’t push you too hard on this question, but I am curious to know how you know.

While lowered insulin (such as occurs by eating very little carbohydrate) is the necessary condition for fat loss (as Yalow and Berson determined in the 1960’s), it is not sufficient. Also required is either fasting or a large enough caloric intake to convince the body that it is safe to part with its excess stored fat reserve. Restricted caloric intake is the signal that famine conditions obtain, and that the body would do well not to part with its reserves at this time. Try not to deliberately limit your food intake; instead, eat to satisfy your hunger. There are plenty of anecdotal reports on these forums from people whose fat loss began when they started eating more, and there are a few reports of this happening during clinical trials, as well.

(Andrew) #5

The only performance metric I can use is myself and my levels of hunger … I have still to wake up with the feeling of not being hungry or to go more than say 6 hrs between meals - With regards to calorific restrictions, I have not set a strict limit , I do track meals and this is primarily for the carbs and generally end up around the 1900 to 2400 range which does not leave me hungry and should be a healthy deficit for my size to lose weight.
I feel good and clearly 8 weeks of eating this way has started to improve my health.
I will of course continue and to monitor the situation over the next couple of weeks but with so much to lose I was expecting and hoping to get over the PISS stall by now and start the long and slow path of reducing weight.

#6

I don’t think it means you aren’t fat adapted. I never will have 6 hours between meals, my 3 hours never changed. Yeah, there are days with 6 hours and 1 hours but it’s rare, my 3 hours is typical on every woe, from high-carb to carnivore, it obviously changes on OMAD but I usually have 3 hours when I have 2-5 meals… And as I lower my carbs, OMAD gets harder. And extreme low-carb changes my satiation so I end up with many super close tiny meals and an unusually big eating window sometimes… There are so many factors, of course we don’t have the same changes.

I am always full in the morning on every woe but if someone is the type who is hungry at waking, I wouldn’t think it necessarily changes… Just like I got hungry after fat adaptation too, at the same time as usual. Or is morning special, fat adaptation should affect hunger specifically then? I never heard about that but even if it would be the general case, some people would be different. As far as I know, fat adaptation doesn’t always bring noticeable changes for the one in question. Just like ketosis doesn’t always feel different from not ketosis.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #7

There are 2 types of ‘hunger’. ‘Carb hunger’ I think is best described as like the flesh eating plant in Little Shop of Horrors demanding to be fed constantly: “Feed me, feed me, FEED ME!” ‘Keto hunger’ is like the accountant explaining at the monthly board meeting that outgo exceeded income last month and the company had to dip into reserves to make up the difference.

(Jill F.) #8

Congrats on your success so far! I lost 40 pounds about 2 years ago doing keto and my loss was little weight at 1st but many inches lost. So get a fabric tape measure and check your measurements every couple of weeks. Those are the non scale victories that helped me get through those scale stall weeks.

I also noticed around week 10 to 12 I naturally wasn’t hungry in the mornings and I was able to start intermittent fasting ans only ate from noon to 7 pm daily. For me this sped up my weight loss and I started losing more pounds and inches once I hit this point. So I feel for me it took me almost 3 months to feel “fat adapted”. It may be different for you as I am a petite female who only had 40 pounds to lose.

Hang in there and keep up the good work! So glad you are feeling better already.