Hi ive been doing keto for over a month and have lost around 25 pounds. I started at 323 pounds. Obviously i have a lot to lose but as of the past 2 weeks, the scale has slowed down dramatically. I stopped losing but I’m not gaining either. I feel awesome on keto and have lots of energy and mental clarity. So I know I’m in ketosis. Also, I do intermittent fasting everyday. My fasting window is usually around 16-18 hours sometimes more. When i do eat however i notice im consuming verrryy fattening meals. Like homemade alfredo with chicken thighs, lots of ghee and butter and cheese. And this past week i think i made 4 mug cakes total. They have two tablespoons of ghee and sour cream. I am eating veggies too. But I just wonder if maybe I’m eating too much fat? Like isn’t the point to use my own fat, not dietary? I do not track macros. I have on a few days just out of curiosity & i am usually always under my carbs. Usually 15g a day. Do i need to start tracking? That’s something I really didn’t want to do but will if i have to. I just wonder if maybe im just being impatient. Any feedback is helpful, thanks.
Am I doing something wrong or just impatient?
I’m not a lady, but I’ve seen several post from women. Not losing but not gaining could be from body recomposition. I’ve seen women suggest using measurements instead of the scale to get a better idea of changes.
I’ve been stalled for some time now, presumably because my BMR is lower than it was. But I find tracking foods for a few weeks help me tune things up a bit. I can see where some bad habits have entered into the mix.
But, through all of it, I just remember: KCKO (Keep Calm, Keto On).
As a T2 diabetic, every time I test my blood sugar level, I’m reminded of how effective keto is at managing it. Insulin and metformin were never as effective.
I think 25 in one month is great! Maybe you just see some of those who lose phenomenonal amounts and think that’s everyone.
I’ve lost a total of 55 in 7 months. I’m happy with that. And you are feeling good so sounds like you’re on track.
I’ve only lost 15 pounds in 2.5 months it’s frustrating but I feel good and people are amazed at how I look yet I barely lost weight witch tells me my body image is changing and I’m happy with that also I tried omad and I started losing again it’s just trying to find what works for me even if that means tweaking things every so often. I think your doing phenomenal just enjoy how great you feel and keep going !
Thanks everyone! Yes i have been doing pretty well and feel great so maybe I’m just too focused on the scale. I will look into a tape measure because i do believe my body composition has been changing. Plus ive been doing muscle building workouts which may be also at play in my weight. I still think i may be consuming more fat than i need to
Why? Are you eating 20 g carbs, moderate protein and fat to satiety? If you don’t know you might want to track for like a week, just to see what is really going on. Carbs can creep up on you, especially if you eat lots of dairy and nuts (I stopped consuming cashews as those really added up). After you have a clear picture of how you are eating then you can tweak it.
Keep up the IM fasting and once you are really fat adapted, then start doing some only fasts like 36-48 hrs. Lots of info and support for fasting in these forums.
Take some pictures as you go along. I did not do that and I really wish I had. Sometimes we think nothing has changed but the pics show that things are indeed changing. I also think measuring is good but I had a hard time doing my own, so I pretty much went by pants/tops sizing for Non scale based feedback. And yeah, I did weigh daily and still do. Keeps me focused, I do not panic if I bounce up or stay the same. I just see where I am and go from there.
You are doing well. Just keep calm and keto on.
I think that because i just think that if i eat lots of fat, my body will burn that first before going to my stored fat so im almost like “breaking even” if that makes sense. And yes I actually just did a 36 hour fast a couple days ago for the first time! It was amazing. I may do it again next week. I have been eating lots of cheese and not really counting their carbs so maybe I will look at my carbs closer. Thanks for the feedback! Much appreciated
Mug cakes stalled me. For me, I had basically traded my carb addiction for another when I started eating mug cakes every day. It got out of hand. Eating them so often, I never lost my craving for SWEET and felt I deserved it because I’d given up regular carbs. (We tell ourselves lots of delusional things when we really want something.)
How about having a mug cake only once a week? If the thought of cutting back the mug cakes instantly meets with resistance, consider that it may be time to evaluate what’s going on with that sweet craving.
Much love. KCKO
Good explanation from @PaulL
There are two hypothesese of nutrition, one of which is about energy expenditure, and which we on these forums ridicule as CICO (Calories In, Calories Out). The other hypothesis takes into account hormonal regulation of food partititioning. Keto is based on the latter theory.
The problem with the energy-expenditure hypothesis is that you need to calculate your energy intake and expenditure to within about 20 (kilo)calories a day, if you don’t want to gain (or lose) weight, and this is impossible. To calculate your energy expenditure you need to know, among other things, your basal metabolic rate, which varies according to your food intake. How are you going to figure that? You also need a highly accurate assement of the caloric value of your food, which is also practically impossible to attain.
The hormonal-regulation hypothesis takes into account known science about the effect of carbohydrate on insulin secretion and the effect of serum insulin levels on whether fat is stored or metabolized. There are other hormones involved, but insulin is the key factor, and the effect of sustained high serum insulin levels has been determined to be the cause of metabolic disease (diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, high blood pressure, stroke, gout, dental cavities, Alzheimer’s disease, and certain types of cancer). By allowing insulin levels to drop, a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet has been shown to reverse metabolic disease, allow excess fat to be metabolized, and also switch the body from glucose as a main source of fuel to fatty acids and ketone bodies, particularly beta-hydroxybutyrate.
The key is to keep carbohydrate intake low enough to allow ketosis and fat-adaptation to take place, and to keep fat intake high enough to provide adequate energy to the body. In the presence of insulin, the muscles burn glucose and the fat cells store fat; in its absence, the muscles burn fat and the fat cells are free to release fat for them to burn. If you eat fat to satiety, your body will regulate your appetite to ensure that it has abundant energy, whether that energy comes from your diet or from your store of excess fat. Fat is highly satiating, so people generally find themselves stopping eating at a caloric level, whatever that happens to be, that allows the body to consume its excess fat store. The point is not to count calories, but to allow the body to set its own level. As Dr. Eric Bergman likes to say, “Calories do count—but you shouldn’t count them.”
The business about not eating too few calories comes from the fact that, in the presence of inadequate food intake, the body goes into starvation mode, cutting back on energy expenditures and reducing the basal metabolic rate. By contrast, in the presence of abundant food intake, the body ramps up the metabolic rate and at low insulin levels can even waste energy by burning excess fat for heat. Paradoxically, it’s better to eat nothing than to restrict calories on purpose.
Whlle there are people who have documented eating 3,000 or 5,000 calories a day on a ketogenic diet and still lost weight, I’m not sure it is possible for everyone. Dr. Phinney has found that the usual pattern is that when people with excess fat stores eat fat to satiety, they naturally limit themselves to around 1500 calories, the balance of their energy requirement coming from stored fat. As their excess fat deposits are eliminated, eating fat to satiety automatically raises their caloric intake to compensate, until they reach the point where all their daily energy needs are supplied from their food intake.
So the hormonal-regulation hypothesis says that the nature of the foods we eat has an effect on our body and determines whether each food gets metabolized or turned into fat and stored. The caloric value of each food is of secondary importance to the body’s decision whether to store or metabolize it. The energy-expenditure hypothesis, on the other hand, claims that our total caloric intake is all that matters, regardless of whether those calories take the form of sugar or other carbohydrate, protein, or fat. As simple and obvious as the energy-expenditure hypothesis appears at first glance, the hormonal-regulation hypothesis has far more science to back it up. From my own experience I can testify that taking this science into account in my way of eating has eliminated my metabolic problems and allowed me to lose sixty pounds, without ever going hungry or counting a single calorie.