Another frustrated no weight loss newbie

#1

I started my keto journey in January of this year and have been very consistent in keeping my days under 20 net carbs (I am always under 25 total carbs and my carbs are coming from real food) and between 1300-1500 calories. My protein has been between 60-80g per day. I am 5’3" female at 182 pounds. I have had zero weight loss but can tell my body is changing with some undesirable keto side effects (very dry skin on my face, female irregularity even though I’m on the pill, and some mild headaches the first 3 weeks). I have something similar to PCOS and take birth control and spironlactone to help with that.

This board has helped me stick to the plan even though I am not seeing the results I hoped for…I hope they are just around the corner. I have great energy, but I did before keto too. I will say that I had been having some discomfort in my hip for years since having my last child and that has almost completely disappeared which is fantastic! I see keto as something that I will do long term but I need the weight loss to happen.

If anyone has advice or tips I would greatly welcome them. My typical day starts with a breakfast casserole consisting of sausage, mushrooms, kale, & eggs and a cup of coffee with a tablespoon of HWC and squirt of liquid stevia. Lunch is typically baby spinach with chicken thighs sometimes with cheese sometimes with avocado and 3 cherry tomatoes cut in half. Sometimes it is a protein with roasted eggplant with olive oil, a tablespoon or two of Rao’s marinara and fresh parmesan cheese. Dinner is brocolli, collared greens, kale, or cauliflower with chicken thighs, ribeye, pork chops, or salmon. I really haven’t been hungry between meals but on those occasions I have macadamia nuts or a spoonful of pecan butter (OMG pecan butter is delicious) or some plain HWC whipped on top of a few blackberries.

#2

Excersise?
For me it really gets things moving and I drink a lot of water.:heart:

(Janelle) #3

You should be able to lose weight without exercise. I lost water weight at first and then nothing until month 2. It’s still reasonably slow at 4.5 months but it is happening. I hope someone has some suggestions. Mine is to be patient.

#4

Ive had the same issue. No initial weight loss with strict tracking and knowing my numbers.
Just recently the scale has finally moved (not that it should be what matters, but it makes us happy)
What I did was cut my carbs back to under 20 total carbs and eat on an 18/6 schedule.
Now this has been easy for me because Im just not hungry anymore. Im not forcing myself to not eat, which I wouldnt recommend. However if youre finding that you can now go a long time without eating, Id give it a try. Some people do the bacon and egg fast which is essentially just a zero carb fast too.

#5

It’s too soon. Two months is way too soon to expect real results.
I didn’t start keto like this. My journey began with one meal per day to satiety (fat and protein, some fiber) from day one. I started pounding back water like no tomorrow also. I’d eat one meal, water. One meal, water. If I felt the psychological urge to eat later in the day out of habit, I’d drink water instead and because I was so full from my first meal I had no real desire to consume more solids. I’d restrict and control and wait till the next meal the next day at the same consistent time of the day. I don’t suspect a lot of people start keto like this and I think there are different ways of doing it. I also definitely did not snack and I never had any desserts (part of my journey was a battle against sugar addiction). I wanted to eliminate sugar and sweet cravings completely and I’ve succeeded one year later. I’m pretty happy where I am and what I’ve done in the past year. I still continue on one meal a day but portions are much smaller than last year. I eat about 1/3 what I used to eat.

Stay with it, stay with what feels right to you and don’t be afraid to change your routines and habits.

(Jessica) #6

You’ve got some pretty heavy things going on that need to get in line before you can start to drop weight. I know many of us had hormonal, “time of the month” craziness, and I’ve always been pretty regular. Hang in there. It will happen and you might even be able to get off your meds.

#7

It might just be too soon, honestly. It took me a year to actually lose any actual weight on the scale but over that time my body did get smaller. What ultimately worked best for me was getting rid of the freedom to have 25 net carbs. I started staying as close to zero as possible. Cutting out riced cauliflower, etc (plus, it can easily add up in portion size). And an egg/bacon fast helped kicked things into gear for me too (towards the end of the year). :slight_smile: GL!

(Cindy) #8

Don’t discount the changes that are happening that you can’t see or quantify. I think, for women, keto can be “sneaky” improvements first. I’ve already forgotten who said it, but I heard someone on a podcast describe women’s bodies as smart. Because we can do so much more than men (growing, delivering, and nurturing babies), we’re also better at holding onto fat because that fat is needed for survival in lean times. We just don’t have lean times any more, but the mechanism for holding onto fat is still there. Plus, too, there are a lot more hormones to stabilize.

My first advice, always, is to put the scale away. Pick a time frame (at least a month) and put it away so what you’re doing is no longer influenced by the scale. You need to pay attention to how you FEEL. Keto isn’t a lose weight quick diet (although many MEN do lose weight quickly, that’s not us), but a hormone stabilization diet. Your hormones and body have to get healthy FIRST, before the weight loss. That’s hard to accept because what we really want is weight loss.

Once the scale is gone, really pay attention to what you’re eating and feeling. Do you still need 3 meals/day or is that habit? Could you eat a bit more breakfast and then just skip lunch? You don’t do this to restrict calories, you do this so that you’re spiking blood sugar and insulin fewer times per day. So yes, if you’re hungry, EAT, but if you’re not, DON’T. Gone are the days of needing 3 meals/day. You eat when you’re hungry, don’t eat when you’re not. And you need to listen to what your body is telling you if you’re in the HABIT of eating 3 meals/day.

You might also need to increase your fat intake, at least for a while (until you can go longer feeling full), so add plenty of butter to your greens or cauliflower, that sort of thing. Depending on serving sizes of your veg, maybe try to get more protein and fat. You really don’t “need” the veggies…they tend to be fillers without keeping you satisfied. So, for example, one day try having chicken thighs dipped in homemade spicy mayo, take a few spinach leaves and dip THEM in the mayo, too. :wink: Eat as many chicken thighs as you’d like! Make the veg a condiment and not a filler and you’ll be surprised how full you’ll feel.

But that’s HARD to do if you’re worrying about the scale because it seems contrary to everything we’ve been taught.

(Cindy) #9

CampWoman, there are some “warning flags” for me in your post.

That really isn’t keto. Keto is about listening to what your body is telling you it needs. That’s difficult to do until the carbs are out of your diet because the sugar/insulin spikes, cravings, etc, tend to mask everything else. But keto really isn’t about forcing yourself to stick to a regimen. It’s about eating when hungry and eating to satiety. It’s not about pounding down water so you can ignore hunger signals. It’s not about always only eating 1 meal/day at a set time. That implies that your energy needs never change, that you’re never more or less hungry from one day to the next, etc.

I’m glad that this has worked for you so far, but there’s a lot of rigidity in what you’re describing and that’s usually NOT a healthy thing.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #10

You’ve been getting some good advice already, so I’ll just add my two cents’ worth. If you started a ketogenic diet in January, you can’t possibly have been on it longer than about four or five weeks. For a lot of women, that is not long enough to sort out their hormonal issues, so give yourself at least another month before giving up on keto. Your monthly cycle has a profound effect on the pattern of weight loss.

The dry skin may possibly be related to your salt consumption. The latest research suggests we do best when getting 4-6 grams/day of sodium, which translates to 10-15 grams of table salt (NaCl). If you are eating salty foods, of course, you need less added salt.

You mention stevia, and I will just say that some people find that their insulin spikes when they consume one or another of the non-sugar sweeteners. This may or may not be a problem for you, but it’s something to consider. Also, be sure to check ingredients lists for carbohydrates and especially sugar that you don’t expect to be there.

I suspect that keto will change for you soon. You might find it helpful in the meantime to check out Daisy Brackenhall’s Keto Woman podcasts at www.ketowomanpodcast.com.

(Cindy) #11

I used almost no artificial sweeteners during my first couple of months. Then I “found” monkfruit and Lakanto products. I’m enjoying the chocolate drink mix in my coffee, using the monkfruit in my tea, etc. Now, I haven’t done any actual testing (I don’t test ketones, bs, or insulin so have no baseline anyway), but I feel like I’m wanting sweet stuff more again because of that added sweetness. Once those products are gone (and yes, I know I could throw them out), I won’t buy any more.

For me, it’s just part of the process. In the beginning, I ate a lot of bacon. Now, I’ll go weeks without it. At one point, I was eating pickles and salami quite a bit…it’s been quite a while since I wanted that. Maybe none of that is truly a body “need” or lack, but it helps me to say “What am I wanting?” since so much of my life has been trying to eat what I was told I should eat…and yet, that was always the wrong advice. For me, it’s part of listening to the “hungry, not hungry?” voice. Some days, I really want some mixed greens or cauliflower. Other times, I just want a steak. :wink:

So letting myself use the sweeteners right now is just part of the process. Maybe it’s slowing things down…maybe not. But as long as I’m enjoying the process, it really doesn’t matter. :slight_smile: Now, I do realize that, if someone is T2D, it would be more important to know if it’s spiking blood sugar or not, but for me, cutting out real sugar has been a massive improvement, so I’m not going to worry about the monkfruit when others have tested and not had an issue with it in terms of body chemistry. My issue is in cravings and I’ll deal with that step by step.

#12

Thank you all. I am KCKO but the frustration levels are there. I appreciate the advice and encouragement, it is exactly what I needed. My biggest fear with keto is that I am somehow doing it wrong and would hate to go 8 weeks down the wrong path. Logically, I know I am following the program and did tons of research to educate myself on this WOE. Emotionally, just getting a little frustrated but this post helped.

I have been seriously considering eliminating the lunch meal and think I will give that a shot. I have noticed I don’t get hangry like I did before which is another non scale plus.

Increasing salt levels have definitely helped with the dry skin. I am weary of supplements because of the Spironlactone but I did add in a Smart Water a day to my regular water consumption and that seemed to help along with adding a little more salt to my food.

#13

Before you judge someone especially as a keyboard warrior, I’d suggest you get to know them or ask a few more questions. I do eat until satiety and have. I have absolutely listened to my body at all phases of keto and if you have followed my posts they have one rule only: listen to your body. Thank you for the feedback, though.

(Running from stupidity) #14

Have you noticed how often you end up responding to people in that way?

Might be a reason for it.

#15

I feel like you aren’t adding particularly to the conversation, Juice. If you have something related to the topic please share. I’ve flagged your post. There was one other member who was quite nasty last week. There is no need to discredit others for their journey or what their experience is with keto.

(Cindy) #16

CampWoman, what did I type that made you feel judged? I simply said that there were, to ME, some warning flags in your post. You’re the one who posted that you “restrict and control” and “pound back” water. Those aren’t, again, to ME, terms that I’d associate with doing what felt right or good to you. But then, maybe restriction and control feels good for you…which is, again, what I think of as warning flags.

I’m honestly a bit surprised at your reaction to my post. Perhaps, before you accuse me of being judgmental and a keyboard warrior, you should have asked a couple more questions. It’s your life, you do whatever you want…I was just posting my opinion about something you posted. You’re right, I don’t know you, I don’t know your life, so not trying to judge it in any way.

#17

Hi Cindy, thanks. I’m curious what you consider “warning flags”. Those are negative or derogatory when a person reads it. I have no idea who you are either or what is acceptable to you(but now have some idea). I’ve located some differences in the way I started out with keto compared to others. I’ve never warning flagged anyone for perhaps doing something an incorrect way. I’ve mostly kept an open mind. I think your response shocked me also in the sense that you really have no idea how I have approached keto as a whole but have picked this particular thread or post to respond to in detail. Either way, thank you again for the feedback! I think we are on the same page with listening to our bodies.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #18

Wow! That is very wise. I’m going to remember that.

That is perfectly understandable.

(Cindy) #19

I mentioned what I thought were warning flags. When you mentioned restricting and controlling your intake and pounding back water. As you’ve mentioned, some terms come across more derogatory than others and those aren’t terms I’d normally associate with healthy eating habits. I also wouldn’t associate strictly controlling the timing of eating as a healthy behavior.

But again, those are just my biases. What surprises me more is your reaction to my post. For example, in another thread, @Don_Q and I are discussing addiction vs cravings. Maybe I do have an addiction to sugar. I prefer to think of it as a craving. :wink: Maybe Don_Q is correct (not that he said or even implied that I have an addiction), though…but either way, I don’t take offense at his opinion or accuse him of being judgmental.

And for what’s worth, I have read some of your other posts…and at the time, didn’t post anything because your responses to others were more reactive than I wanted to deal with.

(Jennibc) #20

Ditch the Stevia! It may be keeping your insulin levels up. I found that just having coffee in the morning with HWC is working for me. Also make sure you that you give yourself 4-5 hours in between meals with no snacking.