I’m so frustrated. I started 4 months ago on low carb under 50 carbs. I pretty quickly lost 8 lbs and a few inches. I was so excited. I haven’t been able to lose more than 2 on any diet in years. Believe me, I’ve tried every diet. Then stalled, so 2 months ago, I started Keto under 20 most days, sometimes 24 carbs. I have not lost any lbs or inches in 2 months. I joined the keto FB group for beginners and saw pics with people losing 10 lbs a month.
At first it was motivating but now it’s depressing leaving me with “what the hell”, “what’s wrong with me”. So, I noticed all these people are drinking Prüvit Ketones, so I spent $300 buying these. I did the 10 day challenge and nothing. Still drinking 2 a day. And 20 days later, still nothing. I’ve switched types of food. Tried almost everything. Even lowering my carbs to 10 a day. No Luck.
Can anyone provide any hints. Very frustrating and losing my motivation.
Beginner needs help
Part of the problem is the hyperbole out there about eating a ketogenic diet. The people who rapidly lost a lot of fat on this diet had a lot to lose, and even they found their rate of loss slowing as they approached their optimal body composition. It seems that the first 100 kg are shed a lot faster than the last 10 kg. Instead of thinking of this as a quick-loss diet, you might find it more helpful to look at it as a way of eating that promotes metabolic heath, and which has fat loss as a pleasant side effect.
Women’s hormones also have an effect on how they respond to a ketogenic diet.
Another problem can be undereating. We often find that lack of calories puts someone’s body into “famine mode,” with the result that their metabolic rate drops until food is abundant again. As you can see, this makes cutting calories eventually self-defeating as well as difficult. Many forum members have found that their real fat loss began when they started eating more, not less. Try eating to satisfy your hunger, and trust your body to let you know how much to eat, instead of calculating your caloric intake.
Lastly, fat loss is not a linear process, and so bumps in the road are inevitable. Also, two pounds a month of loss is an awful lot more sustainable than 10 a month, and you will be more likely to keep it off at that slower rate.
There are other factors involved, but these are the main ones, I believe. If you would like us to look over what you are doing, we’d be happy to provide some insights from our own experience. If you are inclined to share it, we would need such information as your age, sex (I’m guessing from your name that you are a woman), height, starting weight, goal weight, and a description of your diet, including quantities. Perhaps we can spot a problem that has eluded you.
In the meantime, as we say, keep calm and keto on!
Who knows? Probably nothing much, unless you have hypothyroism. That would complicate matters. As Paul says, we’ll need more info about you, what you’re trying to accomplish and exactly what you’re eating to give any specific advice. We’re all individuals and experience different stuff and progress at different paces to get where we’re going with keto. Even so, there’s still a good chance that there are others on the forum who have experienced something similar and can offer relevant advice and suggestions. Eating SAD for years/decades damaged you. The only questions are ‘how much’ and ‘how long will it take to fix’. Best wishes.
Some more infos would be useful. What and how much do you eat, do you have much to lose? Did you do starvation diets so it’s logical to think you messed up your metabolism and maybe other things as well?
I never expected that keto magically would cause fat-loss. It matters how much we eat - and many says it matters what they eat, so many things can interfere. Or maybe the body focuses on more important things…
Some people lose fat quickly on keto, usually man with much to lose but I’ve read about heavy men barely losing anything on keto and not because they ate a lot, it’s not that simple.
Some people’s food intake drops on keto, others don’t have that. We have different benefits too… It’s useful if you focus on the hopefully existing other benefits, doing keto only as a quick fat-loss diet is probably frustrating if the results don’t come. Patience is often needed if someone wants to slim down, some of us need more than others.
Hints?
*Watch protein intake with carbs.
*Probiotics should be kept in check. Say cheese!
*Prebiotics should be studied as some of these carb heavy foods seem to not even effect blood glucose. Black beans lower glucose apparently.
Most on here do straight carnivore and it works well for most. But everyone’s body chemistry is different with infinite variables. Food science is still sketchy at best!
Yoga. Coffee. CBD oil make for a good start to the day.
You sound pretty stressed and your cortisol wave being abnormal.
My only suggestion is to eat after noon, practice some intermittent fasting and partake in activities that lower cortisol and increase testosterone.
Hi Bonnie, I didn’t read all the replies, but are you logging your foods? I did from the beginning so I could see if I was hitting my Keto numbers. I’m guessing you do since you know where your carb grams are at (50, then down to 20ish). Also, do you know how many calories you need per day? I knew that before I started Keto, I was just not eating the right foods for those calories I needed 
So I still know what I learned to call my TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure), and my BMR, basil metabolic rate (I think I have that right
Sometimes I’ve known folks to not eat enough to fuel the fat burning process so I’m just asking that first of all. Then it would be helpful for you to tell use a typical, days meal plan. Are you snacking, or able to fast between meals?
I’m new myself, just 5 months, and I had to change my nutrition plan because I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, scared me bad so I hit the ground “walking” Pretty strict, but love the foods I eat now and no sugar cravings after 2 weeks into Keto. Denise
PS I’ve lost right at about a pound a week, 19 total. I wasn’t very heavy to start with, but my body-fat % was up there. Can’t remember now what it was.
Hello,
Thank you for responding. I do have hypothyroidism. But I am on medication and my numbers are normal.
By the way What is SAD? I am 63 and 5 ‘5”. Currently @193. Begin weight was 199. (4 or 5 months ago. ). I was at 192 but gained 1 lb since I started Keto 2 months ago. (24 or less carbs)
I’ve cut calories to 1200 a day. Was around 1400 and someone said that was too much. Recently trying to eat less that 20 carbs. I use the carb manager app. I think I will try cutting carbs to 10 net carbs to see if that helps.
SAD stands for standard American diet.
On keto, 1400 calories is not too much. We are not as concerned with calories as people on other diets; I’d go so far as to say you don’t need to count calories at this point.
Good luck with the 10 carb experiment!
Yes this!! ^^ In so many keto groups I see people who stall in weight loss start dramatically cutting calories, one lady was eating only 600cals/day 
because she heard calorie deficit is all that matters when dieting.
Well once the group members told her to try doubling that 600cals! or even 1500 cals, she started losing again!
Something to always keep in mind.
1400 kcal is simply impossible for me, starvation for many of us… But perfect for some people, sure.
It’s very stupid when people just say “a woman must eat X calories to lose weight” and other such rot, I so hate that. Some woman clearly could lose fat eating 3000 kcal (and high-carb), we aren’t all the same! But 1400 kcal is very little for many women (and most men). I couldn’t pull that off, no matter what, not even my top satiating items and eating once a day (not like I often can do that but that minimizes my energy intake).
Yeah, some people don’t think our health and well-being matters at all when losing weight… I never understood that. But even the CICO forum I frequent knows about not going too low, it’s widely known… I can’t imagine not losing fat when eating too little, it makes zero sense to me - unless someone is in some very strange place, with some insanely sparing body (that most of us can’t have) and just enough energy intake to “maintain” (but some not fat tissue breaking down happens too and we don’t want that)…? Slight starvation more easily does that but that requires some “abnormal” behavior too. A small deficit shouldn’t harm my metabolism and never did as far as I can tell. Some people aren’t this lucky, I know that. But using only 600 kcal for everything? How a human body can do THAT? Mine never could and especially not without becoming skin and bones first and skipping all activity… We are big warm-blooded animals. There are tricks but they have a limit… But less so in some cases. I heard multiple stories from very trustworthy people so I believe they are like that but it’s still amazing to me.
600 is insane, 0 is better at that point… Not too often, of course.
But deficit is needed unless some has a magical body that throws away precious energy reserves. Quite some of us in this forum can’t just eat very low-carb (even carnivore) and expect fat-loss, it just doesn’t happen. Most (all?) of the others who lose automatically eat in a calorie deficit on keto, I am quite sure.
What keto does to our energy need may be another interesting question (and I know nothing about it), it does nothing to mine, sadly. I so could use just a tiny help but nope. Oh well, it helps in another ways 
(Not ketosis itself but being low-carb enough.)
But it’s complicated. We can’t just eat X calories and expect anything good, we need to do what works for our individual body (and mind. no matter what is ideal for my body if no way I will ever do that for long because of mental reasons).
Frequently it is mentioned on here that keto heals. Our body needs to heal before it can feel feel to stop holding on to fat. At the age of 63, you have more years of damage to undo than someone who is in their 30s, for example. It may be that you just need to “stay calm and keto on.” At four months you are probably mostly or all the way fat adapted. Are you noticing any other, what we call, non scale victories such as clearer skin, more sustained energy, etc?
Also, what are some of the foods you are eating? Is there anything you have added to your diet that you didn’t eat pre-keto? Maybe something that is causing you inflammation?
I agree Laurie,
Especially with the 1400 since that’s my “deficit” number. My Total Daily energy/calories burned is around 1600 and I am 5" 2" and was 136, or up to 140 pounds. Some don’t think I was fat but they didn’t see me naked, lol I counted until I new the basic amount I needed was being met, now I just eat and don’t worry about it because I eat regularly, and all Keto-friendly, and kept losing. I never could eat low calorie so I’m glad for Keto, and losing the addiction I had to carbs/sugars.
While there is a large and active carnivore group here I wouldn’t say “most” here do carnivore. Not judging from the conversations and food pictures, anyway.
I like the variety I can still eat, I like to cook all my meals, and I bake with Almond Flour, mainly what I call a cinnamon loaf, and like cream cheese on it for a snack (kind of like cake) I do need to get a bit more adventurous and try some other things, but I can see where I wouldn’t do as well with my intermitent fasting if I kept too many snack around
Walmart’s Great Value Cream Cheese contains half the carbs of Philly. I eat 250 gram blocks along with roast beef several times per week for my meal at work.
I have found that when I eat makes a difference. I lose weight much more easily if I don’t eat after, say, 5 pm. If i do, my body says. “Hey here’s energy I’m not going to need when I’m sleeping. I’d better store it.”
Some other principles that have worked for me:
- Be in calorie deficit. (I go on long walks with a backpack weighted with the amount of weight I have lost. A great motivator and it makes for greater calorie expenditure.)
- Be in ketosis. (Don’t guess. Track blood ketone and blood glucose every morning until you gain confidence.)
- Eat to satiety when you do eat. Every time. (This is easy when you wake up famished.)
- Don’t snack between meals. (the only thing that isn’t a snack is water and salt. A pinch of salt - ideally potassium and sodium in equal proportion - under the tongue keeps headaches, cravings and lightheadedness away).
- Throw away the weight scale. Only inches and body fat percentage matter!
I’ve done this four or five times when my clothes ‘shrink’ losing between 20 and 40 pounds and getting down to 20-25 percent body fat. I’m 62 years old. I end up only eating one very large delicious meal a day; breakfast.
It works for me!