Almost 1 month of keto, no changes

#1

Hey everyone. Brand new here but looking for advice.

So I have been on a keto diet for 4 weeks now and I also started lifting weights again (not my first time lifting) 3 times per week (push/pull/legs) for the past 4 weeks. In general, I haven’t noticed any decrease in bodyfat whatsoever. Its been pretty annoying.

I’m 34, 5’10, 198 lbs overall. 149 lbs lean body mass, 49 lbs (25%) bodyfat. These numbers haven’t changed since I started on keto/lifting.

During my first 2 weeks, I was using an app to calculate my dietary needs and so I was consuming around 1650 calories per day, which to me felt like a lot of food and that I was overfeeding myself. I felt satiated at the end of every day. At that point I was consuming about 125 grams of protein per day, net carbs are usually below 20 grams and the rest of the calories were from fats.

After 2 weeks, I hadn’t lost any weight so I dropped my daily calories to 1500. Up til today, I haven’t cheated at all and I have hit my daily caloric allowance every day. At the time, my thinking was that I couldn’t drop my carbs any lower because I was already getting all of my carbs from just radishes, celery, cheese, etc. and I couldn’t drop protein any lower because I need at least 0.8x each pound of lean body mass to retain muscle as I lose weight. Ordinarily I would be consuming 1 gram for each pound, but I decided to go lower so that I could get some extra fats. Anyway, so I dropped the calories I was getting from fats by 150 per day.

Now here I am two weeks later and I still haven’t lost any weight. Am I doing this incorrectly? Do I need to actually increase my calories? I feel like 1500 calories per day is very low for someone who weighs 198 lbs. Also at this point if I drop my calories from fat any lower, they’ll only be around 50% of my total daily calories and from what I understand they should be more like 70-80%. Right now they’re around 60%.

Any advice from people with similar experiences would be great. Thanks.

(Michelle) #2

Maybe too much protein, too little fat. The correct calculation is 0.8 grams of protein per kg, not pound, l which would be 72. Reducing your calories is going to reduce your metabolism. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong. But that’s how I understand it.

#3

That’s what I’ve been thinking, but everything I’ve read that references lifting weights while on keto actually recommends 1 full gram of protein per pound, which would make my fat calories even lower, hah. I’ve seen the 1g per kg recommendation elsewhere, but not in any sources that mention
lifting weights at all.

Even the calculator at ruled.me (https://www.ruled.me/guide-keto-diet/) recommends 119g fats, 20g carb, 148g protein when calculated for me.

It’s just… not working.

(Ken) #4

You started training at the same time you started keto? That can be an issue. Not a bad one, but you’re going through two adaptive processes at the same time, one that adds weight, and another that decreases it. It doesn’t mean fat loss isn’t happening, but it could be masked. Especially if you’re taking in more fliuds, either by being more thirsty or adding in more electrolytes. Have you measured yourself? It’s a better way to track when training than the scale. It usually takes around six weeks for your body to adapt to training. Things can be pretty weird until that happens. It’s pretty much a constant repair process.

I don’t see much problem with what you’re doing, except that you should adjust your intake to insure you’re hungry by the time you eat. Calculators are not really that accurate. You can later consider CKD or TKD, but those porotcols are really for people who’ve been training for awhile. In addition, you shouldn’t expect to gain much muscle mass.

And yeah, fat calories should be at least 60%, carbs less than 5%.

#5

Yeah I don’t expect to gain muscle at all. The reason I started training again is that I just don’t want to lose any of that 149 lean mass, haha.

Oh I should mention I’m also doing 16/8 intermittent fasting and training fasted. I take 14g of BCAAs about 10 minutes before each workout. My post workout meal is immediately after training, so by that time I’m pretty much starving.

(Ken) #6

Mmmmm. I’d let it go for two more weeks with your fat adjusted up, then if no progress (one lb per week is good progress) I’d switch to CKD.

#7

Thanks, I will do that.

(Ellie) #8

I would up your calories, and fat, to around the 2000 mark.
Set the calculator to maintain and see what numbers that gives you.
If you are eating too few calories for your needs then your metabolism will decrease to compensate and then you get into the vicious cycle of ever decreasing calories.
Give it at least 2 weeks at that level before tweaking further. These things take time and you don’t have that much to lose.

(Irma Reitz) #9

Newbie here! Please explain what CKD and TKD are!!

(Ken) #10

Cyclical ketogenic diet and timed ketogenic diet. Both are fairly structured, with specific Carb intakes in order to prevent metabolic slowdowns. They’re designed for folks with little derangement and who are training fairly hard.

(Jay AM) #11

You need to up calories in a big way. We see it all the time where beginners come in and they still believe in CICO(calories in, calories out). If CICO worked, most of us with a past in dieting wouldn’t be here. By undereating in the initial stages of ketosis especially, people see little change. They aren’t fat adapted yet and aren’t eating enough so double whammy. Plus you’re working out. You don’t have to be concerned with losing much if any muscle mass on keto as keto is protein sparing. Here’s what I calculate for you.

2029kcal Daily Calorie Intake (this is a goal, not a limit. Go over based on hunger signals, preferably with fat.)

20g Carbs (4%, 80 kcal) (this is a limit)

119g Protein (23%, 476 kcal) (this is a soft goal/limit. Going over or under is fine occasionally.)

164 g Fat (73%, 1473 kcal) (Eat fat to satiety. Fat is energy and satisfaction.)

On top of this, make sure your electrolytes are good and maybe try ketoaide if you think you need more. Do a search here for a recipe. Check out Jason Wittrock or Goody Beats on YouTube for good information about training and keto.

(Irma Reitz) #12

Thanks - never heard of either.

(mole person) #13

I agree with several comments here.

  1. You are probably having more protein than you need and any excess will turn to fuel and reduce the speed of fat losses.

  2. The fact that you started training at the same time is VERY likely going to have an initial effect of lifting your weight slightly. Even a single hard day at the gym will cause my weight to go up for days afterwards. Your body, if pushed hard, is inflamed and healing and will hold more water, plus initially muscle gains are quite fast and muscle weighs more than fat. So, I’d definitely, think you are probably a few pounds lower is body fat than you were when you started even if it’s not showing up on the scale. Keep going, You should see a change soon.

  3. With respect to total calories, I think 1600 looks a bit low, but I don’t normally like to tell people that they need to eat a certain amount to get weight loss started. What’s most important is that you DO NOT calorie restrict. In other words eat your protein macro, and no more than 20 g of carbs a day and then absolutely make certain that you are eating to satiety by adding enough extra fat. That will tell your body that you are getting enough calories and it will not tighten (and eventually loosen) the reigns on your metabolism. But if you are completely satisfied you do not need to jam more fat in your mouth.

Finally, perhaps give us an idea of what you actually are eating. There are often hidden things in people’s diets that can hinder weight loss. For example are you having any protein shakes or foods or drinks with artificial sweeteners?

#14

Yeah, 1600 is low. If I were eating at maintenance my cals would be like 2,677. 1650 is what the app recommended to lose 2lbs/week.

My diet is pretty much as follows:

1st meal: 3 cups of coffee, 3 fish oil tablets, 1 tablespoon coconut oil, 1 tablespoon grass fed heavy whipping cream, 1/4 cup Fairlife whole milk (2g fat, 1.5g carb, 3.25g protein). 247* calories total. 91% of these cals are fat, 2% carb and 7% protein.

2nd meal: usually some combination of chicken with 2 cups of vegetables cooked in oil (broccoli, green beans, etc) or 1 cup of veggies and 1/2 cup of guacamole. Usually about 500-600 cals with more protein than fat.

3rd meal: 1 cup of cottage cheese (10g fat, 10g carbs and 26g protein), 1 tablespoons coconut oil, 2 pieces of high-protein cheese (usually cheese curd or some kind of sargento cheese stick) 2 tablespoons smuckers natural peanut butter (this is my dessert)

Occasionally i’ll swap the cottage cheese/coconut oil combination for like 4 fried eggs.

This adds up to around 100g fat (59% cals) 123g protein (32%) and 32 grams carbs including fiber. net carbs are like 21.5 for that specific day of meals. 10g less if I eat eggs instead of cottage cheese. Maybe I should cut out cottage cheese altogether?

(Ellie) #15

Your third meal doesn’t seem like a meal! Cottage cheese is pretty carby for saying that it is fairly tasteless and not exactly filling - personal opinion!
Do you eat pork and beef? Add bacon, ribeye and proper food. If you read the newbie threads you’ll see over and over that people who aren’t losing weight and try to cut calories then start losing when they increase their calories.
I would bin the milk in the coffee and just use the cream or butter or both! I would also bin the cottage cheese and have pork chop or steak with some green veg and butter for dinner.
Also if you are only lifting because you are worried about lean muscle loss, then maybe stop that too until you are fat adapted. Keto is muscle sparing and you are changing everything at once so you can’t really know what is going on with losing weight or not.

#16

I don’t really like eating steak and stuff every day, tbh. I do eat pork and I’ll make a steak like once a week or once every two weeks, but I prefer to just eat eggs or cheese. Something about eating meat at every meal every day just grosses me out. Also I don’t like bacon, so that’s out.

I guess i’ll just eat more eggs.

(Ellie) #17

You don’t like bacon !! :worried::flushed::flushed: kidding but yes increase your eggs then and fat.
I think the macros that @J_A-M mentioned are spot on.

#18

Why would you lose muscle as you lose weight (long term)?

My understand is there may very slight drop in muscle mass in the first few weeks (the period you are in?), but it recovers and then you are likely to build muscle naturally.

Are you also fasting? Growth Hormone should release I believe (and release more in fasting) which if I understand Growth Hormone should help sustain or build muscle mass.

For me personally; I started fasting about the 2nd week into starting Keto; 2 months in having quite a few fasting periods I can honestly say I feel like my ‘manly’ hormones are much more prominent now; I am getting a much better ‘shape’ and after hardly any exercise muscles seem a little pumped and defined. (note; dropped from 184 to 160lb since 9th May and hardly do any intentional exercise at this point; getting to my target weight then may look to start a routine if I actually want to). But fasting well is the key IMO.

Edit: I also just want to mention milk; I was having loads of milk pre-keto for breakfasts, in tea etc… I feel MILES better and much better hormonally and I put a lot of that down to ditching milk (semi-skimmed).

(5c1cf0eb1e7206d5e26a) #19

Lots of great advice as per…would any of you experts advise if i’m eating correct macros?? I’m on 1477 cals, 74g protein, 18g net carbs and 123g fat…I’m usually always full but sometimes not . And not always hitting my fat intake but usually on or slightly below protein and always meet the carbs target…drink lots of water and make sure I get all my electrolytes via diet and water with salt…many thanks…

(5c1cf0eb1e7206d5e26a) #20

Ps would add I don’t focus on the calories mainly the macros…