Body composition getting worse: help !?

#1

I am a bit depressed. I’ve seen success on keto first and now I am not only gaining weight (+ 4kg), but my body composition is worse 31% fat.
I’m doing almost carnivore, some low sugar fruits (eggplant, zucchini, butternut), cheese. I am also doing a 16:8 intermittent fast.
The only change is weight training everyday.
Anybody has a suggestion ?

#2

As measured by a bathroom scale or a DEXA scan?

#3

It’s a bathroom scale. But I is the same bathroom scale since the beginning of my tracking 1,5 years ago.

#4

So it’s been a gradual increase, or it changed suddenly in response to something you altered in your eating and/or exercise?
Have you tried changing the battery?
Does that scale work on impedence values, and if so, it might be a change in your electrolytes or water distribution.

@Karim_Wassef uses one of these and has done a lot of experimenting with them.

#5

It has changed because last winter I was not eating Keto for a week (Xmas-New-Year-family-stuff). I add 4 kg at that time but I was able to loose 2kg on January.
Then I started weight training session and it went up slowly.
I’va also tried another impedance scale at the gym and the results are the same : + 4kg, + 3% body fat.
I’m small (158 cm) and Asian with a BMI of 25 (above 23 is at risk for Asian).
I know that my case is not as dramatic as someone else. But I just don’t understand what I’m doing wrong. And I’d really like to understand !

(Brennan) #6

How strict is your routine, if you haven’t changed anything in awhile your body may have adapted to what you are currently doing. Changing things up, doing an extended fast, switching your eating window or stop doing IF for a short period of time might jump start your progress again.

#7

Definitely not what could be expected from adding weight training.

Did you see any change in glucose and/or ketones (if you measure them) during the same period?
Did you add any supplements for your workouts?

#8

By the routine, you mean my eating routine or my weight training routine ?
I haven’t change much in my eating pattern because I’ve tried longer fast and failed miserably ^^;
But, my training is still improving. I’m doing 20 kg one hand Kettlebell swing (12 kg 3 months ago) and 14 kg Turkish Get Up (10 kg 3 months ago). I’m following the Simple & Sinister program by Pavel Tsatsouline and it’s working.
Do you think I should eat less ?

(Brennan) #9

I was talking about your eating routine specifically. I’m not recommending eating less, that might trigger fat storage and a reduced metabolism. You need some variability in your eating schedule to keep your metabolism high. Extended fasting with a feast beforehand is one option that could help.

#10

I didn’t measure my glucose/ketone. But I measure my waist and leg circumference. My waist didn’t budge but my leg is 1 cm bigger.
Maybe I should have measured my glucose in order to have a better understanding.

#11

OK ! I’ll try it this week and hope that I’ll have some success with it. I’m eating when I’m stressed. But I’ll try coffee instead. Thanks for your help !

(Brennan) #12

If you’ve been keto for months now you should be fat adapted and fasting should be easier. Make sure to keep your electrolytes up and check out the fasting threads on the forum for advice and support. Good luck!

(Brennan) #13

Try salted coffee while fasting! So good!

(Will knit for bacon. ) #14

Could it be muscle gain? Muscle is denser than fat, a pound of muscle takes up much less room than a pound of fat. Other than that I got nothing.

(Allie) #15

The scales are not accurate. Chances are your body is changing due to the weight lifting and the scale can’t read it in the same way. I stepped on mine a month or so ago to be told that I had gained 1.5% fat since the previous day and it’s not gone away yet, BUT when I see myself in my gym mirror I can see only muscle gains.

(Randy) #16

JMO: But if your waist is not growing, but your arms and legs are, that is likely muscle gains. I don’t see how a scale could track this.

(Karim Wassef) #17

My experience is that all these methods (even DEXA) are corrupted by hydration and food.

To be blunt. I can be at 22% bf and then after letting the water and food pass through me, I can be 21%. That could be 6lbs of change over a day.

So every data point on its own is meaningless. Look at the trend over a week.

Why are they so wrong? How can I gain muscle or fat just by drinking water? It depends on what you mean by “muscle” and “fat”. We’re mostly made of water and if a muscle swells up, the scale reads “more muscle”. It doesn’t know it that’s muscle fiber or water.

same with fat… I can apparently gain 3lbs of water “fat” if my electrolytes are off. And just increasing my potassium miraculously reduces my body fat. Clearly, that’s nonsense.

So it’s important to understand what causes you to retain water (like insulin) or to expel it (diuretics) and realize that exercise driven inflammation can artificially (and temporarily) increase lean mass and fat mass. It’s not linear.

Is it useless?

Individually yes.
Collectively it could indicate a pattern and you can experiment to learn what causes real long term gains and losses.

Use a tape measure for your waist. It’s still prone to bloating effects but is a better indicator.

#19

Your answer blows my mind.
Is just measuring circumference an OK method ? Should measure at the same hour each week or is it a waste of time ?
When should I panic because of weight gain ?
So if I’m still making progress in my training, I should not bother with scale and keep calm and Keto on ?

#20

@Marlitharn I’m hoping for muscle gain. But I don’t know. (btw love your tag line)

@Shortstuff Same here ! I can see muscle in my upper body. But it may be just me being newly obsessed with my biceps.

@KHAN Well, I was hoping that the percentage of fat/lean mass could be a proxy for muscle gain. But it seems that it is not…

(Karim Wassef) #21

Measuring circumference is an excellent method. I still use the scale to track he pattern over long periods of time but I ignore short term fluctuations.

I measure once a day and plot the results over time. And if you want to minimize error, try measuring in the morning after your morning bowel movements and before eating or drinking anything. That reduces my error.

Always keep calm and keto on. Unless it’s a medical emergency, never panic. Actually - never panic, especially in a medical emergency :joy:

As far as training - watch your changes. Do not overtrain and give your body enough time to recover. Focus on high intensity anabolic = lifting or low intensity catabolic = gentle cardio. That’s been my experience.