Ok I think this is going to be long but bear with me. My husband has been having weight issue for years, the heaviest he was at 272 in June 2015 when he quit his super stressful job. In top of that he had some depression issues which became worse because his weight wasn’t coming off and he couldn’t find a job. This spring I said enough and asked his physician to do a complete blood work and his testosterone came back low. He went to an endocrinologist which recommended keto for his weight loss. He started keto middle of May at 247lb. He lost 5lb first week then nothing for 2 months. He started losing again middle of July, he was at 237 on 28th of July. He left for Europe on 8th of August. He tried to do keto there too, but after a week there he got a stomach flu and all he could eat was some bananas. Most probably that threw him out of ketosis. Once he felt better a few days later he went back to keto. He only ate eggs, meat and seafood because he couldn’t weigh the veggies and he was afraid he will eat too many carbs. Anyway he started losing more and more, on 5th of September he was at 220lb. He came back on the 6th, he was at 224 on the 7th, next day at 222, next 220. Since then he goes up and down between 222 and 220. He tracks everything, carbs are under 25 net, although most days are under 20, he ate 2000 calories for the first week, now he upped it at 2300. He went to the gym 4 times in the first week and went swimming 2 times. He says he can feel on the clothes and he can see in his face that he is putting on weight. Any idea what is going on? His goal was to get to 190lb and then try to bulk up a little.
Advice for my husband
I forgot something…when he was in Europe he said he didn’t feel tired at all although he had some sleepless nights and his knees which usually hurt didn’t bother him at all although he did a lot of walking. Once he came back he started feeling tired all the time, his knees and back started hurting…It’s like he is out of ketosis although he eats less than 20 great of carbs and the keto sticks show moderate ketones…
Too much protein can kick a person out of ketosis, too. You don’t mention how much he’s consuming but it would be something to look at.
When I hear of pain that comes and goes like that, I think of something in the diet setting off an inflammatory response. Is there something he didn’t eat or drink in Europe that he is eating or drinking again now? Artificial sweeteners give my husband body wide joint pain. I react that way to dairy and gluten. Gluten is present in a lot of surprising places, like soy sauce.
I agree. Since he was in another country when he felt better it sounds like a spice or preservative that is used in the US and not in Europe
That’s the hard part, determining what is different. He didn’t eat dairy there, he did here but not every day. He didn’t eat any veggies there, here he has spinach, lettuce, chia seeds. He didn’t had any sweetness there and here we use stevia glycerite.
We thought we could eliminate the veggies and dairy first and see how it goes, but his food options are kind of low this way…
So what DID he eat there? Could you duplicate that here as a starting point from which to slowly add things?
I am trying, but it’s hard. He said he ate 2 eggs and 2 pork chops in the morning, and lunch and dinner were random, like sausages, shrimp, calamari…but all seafood was fresh from the sea, and I don’t have time to cook pork chops in the morning…I’ll talk to him and see…