Advice needed - no weight loss, am I doing this right?

#1

Hi all

I’ve been finding this forum so useful as I start my journey into the keto way of eating so I hope one of you helpful people can give me some advice.

I am 5’1 and my starting weight on 14th April 2018 was 205lbs . I am a 47 year old female. I have been on a lchf diet before and lost about 30lbs but then my starting weigh was ‘only’ 180lbs.

Began eating a ketogenic diet about 5.5 weeks ago. I have weighed myself regularly since then and the numbers look like this:

Starting weight: 205 lbs
Week 1: 203 lbs
Week 2: 204 lbs
Week 3: 202 lbs
Week 4: 203 lbs
Week 5: 203 lbs

So an overall loss of 2lbs in 5 weeks.

Carbs are always below 20g.

My daily food intake looks like this:

Breakfast: 3 eggs scrambled with big knob of butter
Lunch: Sliced deli ham and cheese roll ups or a salad with protein and olive oil/mayo
Dinner: Salmon or Pork Chop or Chicken Thighs or Lamb cooked in olive oil or butter with leafy green veg with extra butter.
Snacks: plain pecans/almond/brazil nuts; pork rinds; bulletproof coffees

Can someone please advise me if I am doing this right and also how I can speed up my weight loss?

Thanks

(bulkbiker) #2

Any metabolic conditions Type 2 diabetes other things like that or are you seeking weight loss and better health?

(Candy Lind) #3

Two things stand out to me, “snacks” and “nuts.” I’ll speak to both, with some insulin info thrown in:

Are you hungry between meals? Why are you snacking? Habit? Or hunger? Be mindful when you eat. You should NOT be hungry (or “hangry” if you’re also grumpy) on this WoE! If you’re hungry, EAT A MEAL. If you’re not, DON’T EAT. When you eat, eat enough that you’re not hungry for several hours. That may look like mountains of food sometimes. That’s OK! Take a look at this thread - some of the calorie counts of these meals will boggle your mind. Some will not. The idea is, these folks are eating when hungry, until hunger is satiated. It may be a long time until their next meal.

I had a hard time not snacking at first because we’ve been taught that “grazing” helps our metabolism (and I had become an habitual overeater due to IR). It DOES THE OPPOSITE. It tanks it, and raises your insulin resistance (IR) to levels that give you constant hunger signals. It also means you need to EAT MORE (at proper keto ratios) to get over the barrier insulin builds, so your body can use your stored fat. I bet you know your calorie intake, because you’ve been counting for so long it’s ingrained. Stop counting calories so your body can re-learn how to read satiety signals.

Every time you eat, you spike insulin. Instead of counting calories, count insulin “hits.” You should aim for as few as possible. Start by trying to make sure you have 3 or less per day. If you’re eating 3 meals with proper keto proportions, you’ll get full on fat and go longer between meals - easily. Soon, you’ll find you might not feel hungry when you wake, and a bullet-proof coffee for “breakfast” will get you through to 1 or 2 in the afternoon. That’s really good for insulin levels, “fasting” from the evening before til 1 or 2 in the afternoon with just a little fat. It’s a natural foray into Intermittent Fasting (IF). From there, you may eventually get down to just one big meal a day. Many of us do.

All those nuts you’re eating are good keto fats & fiber, but are also easy to over-eat. Nuts are something I ALWAYS weigh because of that. They are great to have around in a pinch for special circumstances, but nuts in anything but small measured quantities could easily stall weight loss. Think of them as a flavor enhancer, garnish, or crust for a great cheesecake instead of a handful “here & there” on a daily basis.

I hope this gives you some ideas on how to tweak your “N=1” to work for you. Also, remember your body may be healing something else inside you, before it decides to let the fat loose. KCKO! Success will come.

#4

It is really important to take a holistic approach to this and also consider your motivations like Mark just mentioned.

What is your why? Really think about this one but also assess it as you go. Many people start with the very typical “to lose weight”. That is fine but think about it a bit more. Why exactly do you want to lose weight? What will that enable you to do? Or maybe it will ease issues you have now? Put some images to your why - for example, being able to run around like a nutter with my young kids, striding out with my dog on long walks, not worrying about whether I am going to fit into a chair I am offered and even whether I might break it if I sit on it (that was one of mine!).

What else is going on in your life and what are your current health issues, if any? These will all factor into weight loss every bit as much as what you eat and, adding them all up together, probably even more so. It is a common mistake to think food is the only thing that impacts weight loss and so the area that is going “wrong”.

Then look at your eating and see if there is anything there that might be holding you up. You are past those first few weeks now where anything goes really as long as it is low carb just to get you in the swing of things. Your meals look spot on. Try and extend your fasting window overnight as much as you can, so eat dinner as early as possible within the remits of the way your life works obviously.

Snacks! This is definitely an area to look at. Basically, stop eating them. Eat at meal times only as much as you possibly can. If you are getting really hungry between meals then look at your meals and up the protein and fat to keep you satisfied until your next meal. Yes, it is better to eat a keto snack than grab something carby, so if you are still at that stage then it is not the end of the world but try and wean yourself off them and stick to meals only. You shouldn’t actually be hungry between meals - not real hunger anyway, head hunger is something else completely. Every time you eat your body pumps out insulin and when it is doing that it is telling your body to store fat. You don’t want that, you want to burn fat. Nuts are great but include them as part of your meal rather than having them as snacks between meals.

(Mandy) #5

I’m in a similar situation, barely any weight loss. More of a up and down the same few pounds from the start after a month in. Our numbers are also very close. I’m not sure what your WOE was before starting keto but I’ve been low fat, low calorie for the better part of 30 years. I’ve also experienced gut issues, Gerd mostly. Is it possible like @CandyLindTX stated, there is stuff to heal before weight loss starts? Also, in the grand scheme of things, this is a very short amount of time for your body to change from low calorie to low carb. Might it take more time to adjust to this? Also… Females are notorious for not losing in the beginning. We have hormones to think about. If you have not, listen to this podcast. It may help a bit.

HTH

(Candy Lind) #6

One I haven’t seen! What’s it mean??

(Mandy) #7

Hope this helps :wink:

#8

Thanks for the replies.

I have a non fasting blood glucose level of around 5mmol and a ketone level of between 0.5 - 1.1 . No metabolic conditions that I know of. I do have raised blood pressure and an under active thyroid for which I am taking medication for both).

My reasons for wanting to eat this way are to lose body fat which is about 45% the last time I checked but also to be more healthy overall. I believe in this way of eating but the main driver for me is to lose the fat.

The nuts are because I like to have something to nibble on in the evening when watching tv and not because of hunger. I will cut them out and see if this makes a difference.

(Robert C) #9

I think this might be a case of mixed messages here (but please, anyone jump in if I’m wrong on this).

Generally:

  • Keto MAINTENANCE is about less than 20 g carbs, your chosen formula for protein and then fat to satiety. This will keep you approximately at your current weight but the benefit is that you will have nicer blood numbers over time.

  • Keto for WEIGHT LOSS changes the “fat to satiety” part. You essentially need to do the maintenance type eating but throw your body and unexpected fat deficit (IF/EF/meal skipping or simply a temporary drop in fat calories) so that your body will go for its own fat stores.

As long as you keep your fat burning metabolism up in that maintenance range by avoiding a continuously lower colorie intake (for which IF/EF seem to do well), you carve off fat at will.

#10

Thanks.

If I IF do I eat what I normally would do in a day but in a compressed time frame?

(LeeAnn Brooks) #11

The easiest way to IF is to skip breakfast and go to two meals a day in an 8 hour window, so you are fasting 16 hours. I eat at 1pm and 7ish, so I’m closer to 18:6 than 16:8, but the idea is the same. You want to eat bigger meals with lots of fat to carry you through the fasting period and so you aren’t snacking. Eat till your are full each time. For some people that may be the same amount as it would for 3 meals more spread out, for others it may be a little less, but it shouldn’t be like cutting calories by skipping a meal.

(Tricia Roth) #12

This has been super helpful for me. I’ve regained two pounds and seem to be steadily regaining, and I’m only 4 weeks in. I’m thinking about hiding my scale.

I have been eating nuts and snacking, too. I’m going to work on cutting both out. My snacking is reduced, and I mostly only snack when I feel hungry. I should be able to work on these things this week.

(Candy Lind) #13

@Debstar & @Tricia_Roth, we’ve been taught (along with the SAD diet & “fats are bad” & CICO) that grazing is good; that it “keeps our metabolism up.” It does the opposite. If you love nuts, include them with a meal. They are good keto food (many of them, anyway), but every time you eat, you generate an insulin hit. You have weight to lose, and if you were eating SAD before, you likely have at least some IR even if your blood tests are “fine.” So, the less insulin hits, the better.

ALSO -nuts are great for adding fat, but easy to overdo. I would weigh them for a while until you are comfortable with what constitutes a serving.

(Tricia Roth) #14

I guess what I meant is that I’ll work on cutting out nuts as snacks. I’ve got a lot of nuts in the house, and I don’t want them to go to waste. I’ve really been struggling to get my total carbs under 50 and nuts as snacks might be part of that struggle.

(Lisa F) #15

Grind them up to use as crusts for quiche, add them to salads or have them as a side…just include in your meals! This way you won’t waste them and you can eventually get them out of the house!

I’ve also brought them to parties as a hostess gift because people live to grab a handful when they are drinking :slight_smile:

(Robert C) #16

If you have family members, friends or coworkers that eat nuts - you won’t waste them.

But, what I was really going to suggest is that you think about throwing away ALL non-keto helpful foods (whether not good on macros or just too tempting).

I did this at the beginning - basically emptied my refrigerator and cupboards (I live alone so didn’t have to worry about someone else maybe needing something).

Several hundred dollars worth of food went in the bin - oatmeal, pasta, rice, nearly full bottle of ketchup, tofu, flour, nuts (I thought of nuts only as snacks - out they went), frozen dinners, milk etc.

Then, out to the store to buy only fresh keto type foods. I had thrown away everything that was even borderline keto - I wanted to try for 85-15-5 keto to get moving with this lifestyle ASAP.

A very liberating experience that was followed by (so far) a good keto journey!

(Tricia Roth) #17

I had macadamias as my lunch side. :grin:

(Lonnie Hedley) #18

I donated my carb foods to a single mother on a limited budget.

(Robert C) #19

Wish I had thought of that!

(Lonnie Hedley) #20

We were dating at the time, so it was a no brainer. If you weren’t with a financially strapped single parent when you made the switch, nobody can blame you for not thinking about it. I know I threw some items away before realizing they could benefit someone else.