Alarming weight gain

(Jay AM) #34

I don’t see you mentioning what your fat intake is like. I disagree with others that tracking is necessary for any reason other than to recognize problems like carb creep, excess protein, too little fat. It’s necessary for people that are restricting calories mostly.

A couple things, you are exercising a lot at high intensity and I doubt your weight gain is fat. Second, since you only keep mentioning protein and not fat, I’m wondering if you’re needing to intake more fat and less protein. Especially if your protein sources are low in their own fat. It’s worth trying at this rate. But, it’s not worth stressing about.

(Edith) #35

What about iodine? I’ve just started reading up on that, so I am not well versed at this point. The book I am reading, “The Iodine Crisis” by Lynne Farrow mentions that we don’t get enough iodine from the foods we eat and that the iodized salt is an unreliable source. (The book is not sciencey enough for me but it’s a start. ) Also, iodized salt only provides enough iodine to prevent goiter and mental retardation in children. It is not enough for optimal health.

One of the signs of iodine deficiency is unexplained weight gain. It may even be related to hearing loss. You might want to look into it.

I hope you figure things out.

Edith

(Adam Kirby) #36

That is very interesting. I stopped used pink salt for exactly that reason… Since I cook most of my meals and was only using pink salt I didn’t know the risk of getting iodine deficient, so I decided to play it safe and go back to regular iodized salt. Sounds like even that might not be enough.

(Nicole Sawchuk) #37

This thread is interesting. Since I introduced exercise in January, I have been slowly experiencing weight gain as well. My measurements have increased slightly but seem steady the last few months, so for me I believe it is muscle gain (or I hope it is). Clothes are tighter than they were in December. I tried adding more fat to my diet, but it didn’t seem to be doing much. My hunger just increased with the increased fat. So I actually increased my protein consumption in the last month and cut out more vegetables (I’m not quite carnivore as I still enjoy a small amount of nuts) but I definitely eat way less veggies than before just to see what would happen. It seemed my body is a little happier. My BG dropped further and small things like my hair getting shinier and stronger. I was also able to fast for longer than 24 hours. But cramping in my feet and legs got a little worse, so I have had to up my salt intake again. I think part of the weight gain is my body is rebuilding itself after prolonged fasting and shedding of old weight. So as long as I don’t keep increasing my weight and my waist measurements stay steady, I will keep on with this higher protein but now I might look into the iodine issue.

(Gabe “No Dogma, Only Science Please!” ) #38

Update: the LCHF weight gain continues. And it’s definitely mostly fat. No idea what to do! Just had some blood tests, maybe the answer lies there…

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(Matthew) #39

Low testosterone could stall you out. This level varies throughout the day so make sure it is tested fasting, early in the morning. Also, make sure your protein intake hasn’t sneaked up at the expense of fat intake. This happens really easily. If it has, insulin will still be too high and stop weight loss or even promote weight gain. I have found you can help add the fats back by making sure you are adding them in preparing your proteins. (Add butter, cook in olive oil or coconut oil, add olive or avacado as a garnish). If nothing else is working, you may invest in a ketone monitor (blood) and see if you are burning fat or not.

The last 10 pounds
(German Ketonian) #40

@gabe how’s your progress doing? I have had some weight gain recently, and wonder, what changes you are making or whether you just KC&KO.

Best

Simon

(Gabe “No Dogma, Only Science Please!” ) #41

Hey Simon, I don’t know when you last checked in with me, but since March or April I’ve been doing single set to failure (McGuff protocol) strength training. That hasn’t changed much, though my arms are definitely stronger!

It’s hard to compare with last year, for instance, because for the past 2 summers I was very active biking around the city and walking a lot. I had an injury a couple of months ago so I’ve been less active, apart from the strength training. So that’s a variable.

My weight has sort of stabilized up around 83kg, though I had a scare last week with a daily reading of 84.5, so I fasted for a day and that’s seemed to help bring me back below 83 for the time being. I am interested in doing a slightly longer fast, though I remain skeptical because there is so little clinical research on fasting.

I’m a tad concerned that I’ve really fundamentally changed my metabolism and that I’ve made things a lot harder for myself in future. I am still convinced by the science, and it’s important to note that I’ve been ad libitum for 2 years and have maintained most of the initial 10-12kg weight loss. But the last 6 months of weight gain have not been encouraging to say the least.

(German Ketonian) #42

Hi @gabe, thanks for responding. I also found fasting to be incredible fruitful, when it comes to resetting your metabolism. I also had some weird weight gain from one day to the other (we’re talking 3kgs, or 7lbs, in one day!) even though my fluid (3-4 litres of water + some black coffee) and salt intake (8-10 grams) stayed the same. I have found, that somehow my organism seems to have become too adapted for my WOE and needed some switching up. Even at keto, if your metabolism gets used to the stuff you’re doing day-to-day, it will conserve more and more of the energy you’re providing it with, leading to weight gain. I have found that a 24-48 fast every once in a while does the trick for me.

#43

May want to start to get a better feel for what you’re doing. The darkside to eating to satiety which nobody talks about, is it doesn’t work right when the metabolism isn’t working right, similar to why sugar burners can’t do it, it’s a compromised system. Many people that are very active, working out etc have near no appetite in many cases (I’m one of them) If I eat to satiety many times I’ll be very hypo-caloric, which will screw me up long term obviously. Can go the other way as well.

Why do you think they’re not healthy? We know they’re great for plateau busting and undoing things like a sudden gain. Using a longer fast to accomplish a goal and get things moving again has nothing to do with lifelong maintenance. It’s a short term tool and in no way something you have to make long term commitments to.

(Nicole Sawchuk) #44

I have no advice, but in January when I started weight training, my weight went up 10 lbs and it looks to be fat as well. Than last month, I started losing a few pounds again. I think my body needed to gain the weight to rebuild muscle that had been lost in my weight loss. I am currently letting my body sit at this plateau for the time being as I just have a hunch it is healing something. But I can’t describe the frustration! With that said, I do fast. I try to do a 3 day fast once a month and frequently do OMAD and 42 hour fasts. I don’t lose much weight on them, but I feel great when I do fast. I have increased my protein consumption and have actually gone closer to a carnivore diet in the last couple months although not fully as I love nuts and I am not scared of veggies. Just haven’t been wanting them much.

I agree with @lfod14 that there is a dark side to satiety. First off, it takes ALOT of food for me to feed satiated so I will overeat especially fat! I could eat tubs of coconut oil/butter and never feel full. Which is why I have leaned to increased protein consumption. Its not heavy, but I am no longer afraid to eat it. I wish working out led me to not have an appetite, but it has been the opposite for me.

(Brian) #45

Not sure if it is relevant or not but could weather be a factor?

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/experts-body-wieght-ambient-temperature/

Our bodies do change somewhat, mostly water retention, when the weather stresses us with hotter temperatures and higher humidity levels, something that’s happening in a lot of the northern climates right about now.

I’ve noticed that despite not having changed much of anything in our diet, both my wife and myself have had a few extra pounds show up unexplained. It’s been about as hot and humid over the past few weeks as we’ve had yet this year. Honestly, I’m not worried, it’s not much. And I suspect those extra pounds will leave about like they showed up, quietly, without much ado, when the weather cools. (And the days have now started to get shorter.)

KCKO…

(Gabe “No Dogma, Only Science Please!” ) #46

I put the weight on between December and April, mostly. I thought it’d come off over the summer but as I think I mentioned above, I’m not as active this summer because of an injury I have.

(Gabe “No Dogma, Only Science Please!” ) #47

I am quite happy to try an occasional 24-48 hour fast. Perhaps even longer. But I got into LCHF because of the science. There is just not much research to speak of, and Phinney is convinced that longer fasts lead to loss of lean tissue. So while I’m very open to new evidence, and there’s a lot of hype around fasting right now, the evidence supporting its use is mostly anecdotal plus some old studies from decades ago.

For these reasons I am cautious about using them much as a tool.

(Gabe “No Dogma, Only Science Please!” ) #48

I should add one thing: fasting makes a lot of sense. Prehistoric man must have starved for days or weeks, and then feasted when he found and killed an animal, or came upon a bunch of fruit or whatever. Right? Sounds completely logical. Especially because of ketosis: why else would we have evolved the ability to live off our own fat stores for weeks at a time?

But I want to emphasize: we aren’t sure of any of this. There’s no proof; it’s speculative. In the past, people have thought lots of things that seemed to make sense that turned out to be false. To wit: the earth seems flat; the brain needs glucose therefore you need to consume carbs; atoms are the smallest units of matter; dietary fat makes you fat.

None of those things turned out to be the case, even though they made eminent sense. So I’m bearish on fasting, for now.

#49

Your call, but there most likely won’t be any, any time soon at least. Not a huge line of people that are going to get money to research what the mainstream believes is starvation. I can tell you from my own acct over about a year of 1 week fasts every couple weeks that I definitely did NOT loose any strength. Quite the opposite. By day 3-4 I always started having awesome days in the gym. I always still lifted all the time 4x week. Nothing changed during my fasting weeks. Not sure whether it was cranked up ketones or the hGH bump that we supposedly get, but in any case I felt awesome. I still fast but now typically 2-3 days when I do. Weight loss is still a goal, but I’m keeping the muscle building slightly more of the goal so I’m keeping the calories and protein up for now. Not worried about loosing, more worried of missing muscle gains which is where I think the gray area becomes HUGE in keto. No shortage of jacked people maintaining with keto, but pretty hard finding people that got that way on it, which kinda sucks.

(karen) #50

I didn’t read the whole thread so sorry if this has been done to death, but Jason Fung has a lot of supportive NEW information about fasting and why it may be a better option for both retaining muscle mass and not creating metabolic slowdown, at least compared with calorie reduction.

(Gabe “No Dogma, Only Science Please!” ) #51

I think Jason Fung is great. The challenge is that there just isn’t much science on this subject. That’s just the fact of the matter.

(karen) #52

True. I’m fasting right now and I’d really like to know if caffeine and 5 calorie broth are impacting my autophagy … guess for now it’s an N=1. My attitude is the same as it is with keto: if I feel like fasting isn’t working, I can always stop!

(Gabe “No Dogma, Only Science Please!” ) #53

This is very interesting, particularly your comment about people getting jacked on keto. Or the lack thereof. That’s a worry because gaining muscle is of critical importance to me, because I think it’s one of the major keys to unlocking the rest of my fat loss.

Fasting may be another of those keys, but I just don’t know.