Am I sabotaging myself?

(Sue ) #1

Hi everyone,

Newbie here (cue sheepish wave)! I am 3.5 weeks into low carb/keto, I switched right from Weight Watchers to LCHF. I started off doing 40 net carbs daily and then dropped to 20-25 net carbs daily about 10 days ago. I feel pretty good and don’t notice the afternoon energy crash anymore. And I don’t really feel deprived, which is completely opposite of how I felt on WW.

All that said, I’ve only dropped 2 lbs, so far and am just kind of hovering at the same weight. I am 44 years old, 5.5" and 166 lbs and in menopause. My good friend did keto before me and dropped 30 lbs in 3 months. It seemed to melt right off (she is younger by a few years)! Weight loss isn’t the only reason I’m doing keto; I believe in this way of eating and all the research and science makes soooo much sense to me. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t expecting to have lost a bit more weight almost a month into dramatically reducing my carb intake.

I was hoping to get feedback on what I’m eating, because I may be eating too much or the wrong stuff. So here goes!

Breakfast: Coffee with heavy cream and Swerve (sometimes BPC). Usually 2 eggs cooked in butter or avocado oil, some pancetta and a couple of squares of cheese melted in. Sometimes I will add 1/4 cup of riced cauliflower. Once a week I have keto pancakes, still staying in my net carbs range. With a handful of blueberries.

Lunch: Tuna with mayonnaise in a low carb (6 net carbs) wrap. With lettuce and sugar free pickles (1 carb per 6 pickle chips). Some pork rinds on the side. I might also have some cut up leftover meat from the night before (steak or chicken) with sliced cucumbers and full-fat sour cream.

Dinner: Usually meat and a veggie like broccoli or green beans, or a salad with avocado oil and wine vinegar dressing, a few crumbles of goat cheese and parmesan crisps.

I don’t snack a whole lot, but a couple of times a week if I want it I will have a chocolate fat bomb (heavy cream, coconut oil, Swerve, organic unsweetened cocoa powder). Or I will whip up some heavy cream with a sprinkle of cocoa powder or a few raspberries or blueberries. The first week I went a little nuts making low-carb treats and then when I realized I was overeating them, I cut way back.

I also might have a glass or two of dry white wine once a week at most.

Does anything look off here? What should I be doing differently? I don’t mind waiting for the benefits… I just want to know I’m on the right track. Thanks!

#2

HI Susie!!! Welcome!

I’m going to start out by saying, I’m not nearly all that experienced with Keto as of yet. (I’ve fallen off the wagon over the past few years, and have determined to start and stay for good). But, having said that, there are a few things that jump out at me. If I am incorrect about these things, I hope someone will jump in and correct me…
Berries. I’d not do those right now. They are lower in carbs, for sure. But they still contain sugars.
The lo-carb wrap I’d not do either. Guessing they contain wheat? That’s another no no. Wine…not sure if that is a great thing to include at this point either.
Swerve I am not familiar with, but I’m thinking that might be an erthyritol based sweetener? If its the granulated one, does it happen to contain dextrose?
If you’re tracking all of your eats, and staying under 20 Net Carbs/day, that is fantastic. But, I’d concentrate more on getting into that higher fat range.

Are you doing any Intermittent fasting? Like fasting for 18 hours and eating inside of a 6 hour window?
Or 16:8? I’ve found that is very helpful.

If you just need some little crunchy thingamajigs to nibble on…instead of berries, try macadamia nuts, pilli nuts,or pecans.
I hope that helps some. And I am sure someone will jump here right quick to comment more. But those are things I noticed offhand.

Please stay, and peruse the forum. There is so much incredible help and support here!!! Welcome!

(Sue ) #3

Thank you!! This is all good to know (I’m still learning and reading and learning). I was kiiiinda suspecting the wrap might be a no go so haven’t had one in a few days. I did think the berries were ok in very small amounts though.

I will keep tweaking until I get it right. Also thinking about buying a device to test my ketone levels. I did try intermittent fasting for a few days but I was really hungry!

(Khara) #4

Great quote. :smirk:

So you aren’t really extremely overweight. The last 10, 20, even 30 lbs are often pretty slow. You aren’t seeing a loss on the scale but it is very likely your body is healing behind the scenes. I’d give it time and patience.

I honestly would avoid artificial sweeteners. Personally I think they keep my addiction to sugar at the forefront of my problem. They also can increase blood glucose and therefore insulin which is what we are trying to keep low. Small amounts of berries I think are fine. The wrap I’d probably give up or at least limit it. That’s quite a bit of carbs in one item. Overall I think your food looks fine. I think patience is key. Be sure you are eating to satiety, keeping carbs below 20g and not being afraid of or limiting fat.

Since you are still pretty early you could try ketone urine strips just to verify you are indeed spilling ketones. These probably won’t be reliable forever but should give you results right now. Good luck!

(Sue ) #5

Thanks KBG! I am going to order the strips tonight. I really want to stick with this and be fully on board. This forum is incredibly helpful, I’ve been reading posts every day.

Good point about the weight loss, I am just looking to shed another 20 lbs at most. They’re just hanging on and I know my age and hormones do not help.

#6

Use mirror, camera and measure tape to track progress when there’s not too much to lose. Don’t try fasting until you start noticing you don’t get as hungry as you used to for your meals. Eat when hungry, don’t eat when not.

2 lbs in 10 days is pretty decent, and 1-2 lbs/week is considered rather normal. It even happens that people don’t lose anything until after a few weeks. And it’s normal to stall after the first few weeks. The body needs time to adapt, and the quick initial loss is usually more water than fat. Perhaps you just don’t have too much water to lose, so that much of what you see is fat loss.

(Dan Kirwin Jr ) #7

Fat cells are very unpredictable, so its hard to say whats going on IF there is anything going on. The way fat cells work is that they like to store energy for the body. After about age 20 you stop gaining and losing fat cells, which basically means they are constant and never burn off. What changes is their size. When you go on any type of diet your fat cells respond by replacing the energy used with water. Theyre stubborn. They refuse to accept whats going on, and they will continue to replace energy with what ever is available til there is nothing left, and then they finally shrink down. Which is why you here of people hitting a wall in their diets often. If two people are overweight and are the same weight, if 1 person has more fat cells than the other they are more likely to lose weight more steadily than the other because more fat cells means their cells are smaller and will deplete energy faster. Doesnt mean the other isnt losing weight, they are just retaining the cells longer waiting for them to finally deplete. Every person is different so its hard to say if you are dping anything wrong. If you are hitting your daily macros and are restricting calories then my only advice would be not to get discourged and keep pushing, itll pay off eventually

(Empress of the Unexpected) #8

I finally settled into meat, leafy greens and cheese, and lost my 20 pounds in one year. Sticking to the basics seems to help.

(Sue ) #9

Thanks everyone! Dan, that makes sense.

I’m going to work on simplifying what I eat and trying to stay patient and trust the process.

(Alec) #10

Sue
Welcome! Eating when you are hungry is the right approach on keto. What that means is in the early days if your body needs energy to fix things, it will tell you by hunger. Trust your body and feed it. Eventually your body will become comfortable that it does not need the 20lbs extra that you have, and it will suddenly start to disappear. The mechanism? You won’t feel as hungry, you will unconsciously eat less, you will lose weight.

However, do not try to fast track the process by going to the eating less before your body tells you to. This is what you were doing on WW, and it does not work. Proven statistically.

It sounds to me like you have got the right approach: learn as much as you can, trust the process, keep calm and keto on. You will get to where you want to go with this approach, it will just take some time.
Cheers
Alec

(Full Metal KETO AF) #11

Hi Susie and welcome here. I’m surprised none of the women mentioned as you did that you’re going through menopause. I would imagine that’s having an impact on your metabolism in a big way, keto brings about it’s own hormonal changes on top of what your body is doing already.

As far as food the best you can do is keep it simple for a couple of months. Some carbs are better spent than others and you should be trying to make 15 of your 20 carbs from veggies. I know, that’s tough. I often don’t hit that goal including extra dairy products that still fit in my macros. But dairy creates a stall for some. It’s waaay to early to feel like you’re not progressing. People who loose a lot have a lot to loose and they’re usually men if they drop it quick (I know it’s not fair :confused:).

Everyone made some good points for things to work towards, limited eating window, eliminate snacks and eat more at meals so you don’t feel the need for it, stay away from fruit (and nuts IMHO), fat bombs and fake sweets as much as you can. Artificial sweeteners while having no caloric value don’t raise blood sugar but they do cause an insulin spike, and insulin is the fat storage hormone.

Keep it simple for a while. Eggs, meats, fish, poultry, low carb vegetables and healthy fats like avocados, coconut oil, avocado oil, animal fat, butter, olive oil. If you want cheese try keeping it at 30-45 grams a day. If you have some low carb nuts use the same portion.

Alcohol should wait till later I think. It slows down your normal liver function to deal with eliminating the alcohol which slows the production of ketones. Again I would give this a couple of months.

Don’t go crazy with dairy products for now. Eat protein and low carb vegetables with normal amounts of fat, some butter on broccoli, oil on salad, eggs cooked in bacon grease after cooking bacon.

You can add in little treats in a bit if you’re finding this works and pay attention when you do. Best of luck with the keto lifestyle. :cowboy_hat_face:

(Sue ) #12

Thank you Alec and David and everyone else…these replies are enormously helpful. Before I really started digging in, my only understanding of keto was that it was a crash (i.e. unsustainable) diet leading to miraculous weightloss. I now know that’s not accurate but the “miraculous weight loss” notion was still clinging on for dear life in my brain.

(Carl Keller) #13

Hi Sue.

If you are eating single item, whole foods while avoiding processed foods, sugar and starch, you can bet that your body is healing. Please be patient and trust in the improvement of how you feel. Your body is telling you that it likes what you are doing even if it’s not yet ready to give up some fat.

IMO, eating foods that mimic things that used to get us in trouble, is a force of habit best broken. Artificial sweeteners almost always raise our insulin levels and can trigger cravings for other foods we are better off without. Stick to real food as much as possible.

Keto is about healing our metabolism, getting our hormones to behave properly, and understanding and making the correct response to hunger. The miracle is in breaking free of addictions for things that have been poisoning us for most of our lives. Understanding what food does to us and having control of what we eat is the best gift you can ever give yourself.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #14

I want to give you a link Susie in case you’re still learning about low carb vegetable choices. There are a few more that I have found not included on the list, mostly Asian vegetables like Bok Choy and various leafy greens but this is a solid list with the commonly available choices.

:cowboy_hat_face:

(Sue ) #15

Thank you David! I will check that out right now.

(Marianne) #16

I haven’t been in this long, either (5.5 weeks). I had slow weight loss my first month, and I have a lot of weight to lose. I went back and examined what I was eating. My carbs are typically under 10, so it wasn’t that. It appears I was eating too much cheese and dairy, and eating too much mayo, dip, and bleu cheese dressing. Now I try to cut the mayo I was using in half, and just eat generally cleaner. More butter, pepperoni, meat, etc.

Loved your comment about WW. I did that several times over the years with some success, however, staying on it long term was more a test of willpower than ease of the program, that is for sure. Keto is so different. Love the food and I am not compelled to eat carbs, sugar or in between meals. Good luck!

#17

Are you seeing more weight loss now, after cutting down the cheese etc? I am curious, because I too have lots to lose and am 5 weeks in today with very very little loss…

(Sue ) #18

Well said, I agree 100%!! I know some people love it and do well but when I am on it I feel like I am just waiting for it to be over or waiting for the next cheat day. I feel like keto just fits me and feels natural.

#19

I’d be iffy on the pancakes without the recipe, low carb wraps typically screw people. Gotta check the ingredients. The rest looks good, are you physically active?

(Sue ) #20

Yeah I’m going to skip the low carb wraps for now. I am moderately active…I work at a desk but otherwise I am a busy mom and I walk my dog 5 to 6 days a week for 20 to 30 minutes.