Calling all slow losers!


(Jen) #1

Hey all!
Feeling extra discouraged today about my extremely slow weight loss and would just love to hear from some of my fellow slow-losers, if you’re out there!

I’m in my tenth week of keto right now and have lost only 14 pounds. That would be fine if I only had a little bit to lose, but at 5’7" and 215 lbs, I still have a long way to go!

I keep telling myself all the “usual” things:

  • It’s not a race.
  • It took a long time to gain, it’ll take a long time to lose.
  • Look at all your NSVs, don’t just focus on the scale.
  • Muscle weighs more than fat, your body’s just changing.
  • All those years of low-cal dieting have wrecked your body and it’s going to take time to change.
  • Stop comparing yourselves to others; everybody’s different.
    etc, etc…

Most of the time those pep talks work ok… but when you work really hard at something for 2 months and don’t see the results it seems like everyone else is seeing… it gets pretty frustrating.

Would just love to hear from some of you who have maybe had my same experience. How do you deal with it mentally? Have you ever been able to get your weight loss to speed up?


#2

Hi Jen,

I know just what you’re saying and I tell myself those very same things. After a while I “hit a mental wall” and can really find myself feeling discouraged too.
So far, now that I’ve found this forum, I have a LOT more encouragement and hope to carry onward, no matter the s-l-o-w-ness of my losing…or even the frustration of regaining.
Also, I find that IF and EF have been what has been a game changer for me. Now that I can and do fast, I see changes happen, weight and NSVs at a more rapid rate. I’m hopeful that this “tool” will also help me to eventually reset my body’s set-point so that I don’t want to settle at weight that is more than I need (or want!).
This does take time…but trying to focus on other things that you really enjoy doing can help get the focus off of the scale too! That dratted scale is a real buzz-kill! I say keep that far out of reach for a while (and I plan to do the same)
I hope this helps some :smiley:


(Mark Rhodes) #3

I haven’t.
My wife is 5’ 6"and was 237 in January. April 1 we went Full Keto- no shortcuts. Measured everything from ketones to macros. Slowly removed snacks and desserts unless they accompanied a meal- as part of the meal. This eliminated spikes of insulin during the day. Lately we have incorporated fasting and extended fasting. She had to raise her calories and fat consumption. She is under 200 as of last week.
During that time she would occasionally get despondent. We would investigate again and again and tweak. Most weeks she averaged about 1-3 lb loss. Some weeks it stalled, some it edged up a lb or so. She took non-scale victories. Loser clothes, buying pants at Costco without trying them on and they fit! Having a partner ( who is me) who is encouraging and supportive. Planning meals together. Shopping keto together.
The fasting helped speed things up for her. Our first was about 4 months in. We are fasting this week again (38 hrs at this time) and she texted me to say she doesn’t “feel” fat adapted and I asked her how that felt, was she hungry or taking cues? Had she had some salt and magnesium? FInally I told her maybe a bit of fat and if your still hungry then you should eat. So I would say the thing that helps her most is permission to deviate from A plan without deviating from THE plan. Together we can do this without guilt.

Her insulin sensitivity is different than mine so her keto has to be more refined than mine.
I hope that helps. Glad your here and talking about the struggle because it can be very real.


(Sophie) #4

14lbs IS results! That’s nearly 1.75lbs LOST per week or 7lbs per Month! I’d say that’s pretty damn awesome especially since we aren’t talking weight Gain! Quit being so hard on yourself. Stay the course and it’ll come. Oh, and take your measurements on a regular basis. You might just be surprised.


(Andi McNamara) #5

I think 14 pounds is progress (good job!), but, I am a slow loser, too so I know your frustration! I stopped weighing myself. I can see a difference in the mirror and my clothes fit differently, so I know it’s working. I’m trying to focus on NSVs as these have been so impactful. I don’t want to feel the way I felt before, exhausted all the time and driven by uncontrollable sugar cravings. I have so much energy now and am super-focused. I hop out of bed first thing in the morning, and then I make my bed! I’ve never done that in my life, even when I was younger and in great shape!

I’m going to add some IF then longer fasting when I get braver-this forum is great inspiration and support.
I look forward to hearing if you find a way to speed it up! Good luck!


(Edith) #6

Maybe this will make you feel better: even though I am in nutritional ketosis, I know because I do measure my blood ketones, I lose only one or two pounds a month. I am a 51 year old woman in the throws of perimenopause. I consider that one or two pounds per month quite the victory. Fourteen pounds in ten weeks is excellent! I don’t think you should be complaining about that. :smile:

KCKO,
Edith


#7

Lostinyonkers, I have been so depressed about not losing anything lately. I started at the beginning of August and lost 3 pounds, then messed on my macros, was thrown off of ketosis. I started it again 3 weeks ago. I’ve lost nothing.
There is so much info out there I think I was in overload. So depressing when I get on that scale and it doesn’t move. Inches haven’t moved either. :frowning:
I was excited about this new way of eating, a new lifestyle I embraced.
I’m not giving up, not yet. I hopeful this will work for me. :fist_left:t2:
I see people writing this a lot, I am menopausal as well. I have tried 16 hour fast. I usually ate my first meal at 1pm. Not much success.


(Deb) #8

I am post menopausal, hypothyroid, history of depression, chronic pain patient(just typing it all makes me want to go jump off a bridge!), and I had/have to find creative ways to get to where I am and want to be. I got to my first goal and am heading for my second. It’s tough.

Fasting 16: 8 or better every day does it fpr me and longer periodically. Eat mostly low GI veggies and moderate protein and fat. At my age, I don’t think I can process it as well as. I used to.
Good luck. You’ll het there…a baby step at a time.


(Mark Rhodes) #9

@Lynn65 You sound confused about the diet having received information from multiple sources. I went down that path as well. For me real progress came when I kept total carbs under 20 g with exception of avocado. I kept my protein under .8g per lean body pound ( I work out and this was troubling at first) and I ate the rest of my calories as fat. As time progressed I didn’t care about calorie counts as much ranging between 2000 & 3100 most days but kept that ratio between fats and protein 2 to 1 or more as some days I would eat far more protein than my macros allowed for.
Currently I don’t track much. I test ketones with a ketonix out of habit and with a blood monitor the day following a higher carb day.
All of this has equaled success for me. I hope you KCKO and find a routine that works well for you.


(Jen) #10

It does. Thank you! For some reason it helps just knowing I’m not goin’ at it alone.

Your response really means a lot to me, thank you for sharing your wife’s story. I’ve been fasting 16/8 almost every day for a couple weeks now, in the hopes it would get things moving, but the scale hasn’t budged in those weeks so I’m not sure what to make of that. Will definitely keep going though!

I understand it probably seems obnoxious to be complaining about losing 7 pounds per month, but compared to most of the experiences I read about, it’s extremely slow (hence my post, looking for others who may be losing as slow as I am). I realize following the Keto WOE isn’t a “weight loss program”, but let’s face it… most of us who are overweight were attracted to keto because we want to lose weight and we see story after story of people dropping weight like it’s going out of style… with ease!

I know you say to be glad I’m losing and not gaining, but I didn’t overhaul my entire WOE just to “not gain.” That might seem bratty but it’s the truth.

Thank you for sharing that. It really does make me feel better to know I’m not alone and I am going to try my hardest to focus on the victories. :slight_smile: Thank you for the reminder!

I’m not giving up either. We got this!

Thanks Deb!


(kate) #11

I feel your pain… I’m losing so slow… I’m incredibly discouraged right now. Your post actually got me to sign up for this forum… I’m going to post my own story now. Here’s hoping things get better!


(Edith) #12

There is a relatively new podcast called The Keto for Women Show by Shawn Mynar. She talks a lot about hormones, the importance of getting them in balance, and how the ketogenic diet helps with that. You may want to check it out.

Edith


(jane greer) #13

I’m right there with ya!! Except I wish I had lost as much as you!!! Almost 2 months and only lost 8 pounds. But I’ve lost a lot of inches!!! Did you measure yourself before you started? It really does help. Now I am stalled and started IF 16:8 for the last 4 days but haven’t seen any results yet.The thing that has me discouraged right now more than the weight is that my Blood sugar is rising again!! I don’t get it at all but I will continue with the fasting and see what happens. I track everything and my macros are 5% carb, 25% protein, rest in fat. Except I have reduced that some as well.
Who Knows, but stay with it!!!


(Sophie) #14

Well hell, I just looked at my log (yes, I weigh daily) and for the entire month of August I lost a total of 1.4lbs! Yay Me. But since the first of Sept. I’ve lost 3.2lbs so go figure! It goes when it’s good and ready to do so. You just have to hang in there.


#15

Thanks for this resource Edith, I’m in the same boat…as a 51 yo woman in perimenopause …ugh. Getting some encouragement and answers regarding how our hormones effect our weight loss/gain and metabolism is always helpful.


(Carey) #16

Find a place that offers InBody scans and pay to run a scan every 4 weeks. This will show you how your body comp is changing bono wing that it does / will takes faith but seeing that it really has is huge. Also use the damn tape measure and measure every week at the same time or every two weeks. We need more data points to see the true progress of this lifestyle.
Also consider journaling/logging every few days on the qualitative aspects of your health. I realized on week 19 that I no longer creak as I walk dow the stairs in the morning!! The change happened months ago but I forgot to notice.
Ideas of things to log:
Mood stability
Mental clarity / concentration / memory
Physical energy
Skin - face, scalp, veins, wrinkles, acne, dandruff
Joints
Hair/nails
Mucous
Breathing
Fatigue
Emotions
Bloating


(Karen Parrott) #17

Try hard not to compare. Age, sex, thyroid status, genetic SNP’s not in your favor can all play a part.

One thing is that if you are stalled and maintaining take note! Weight Maintenance is a gift at your goal weight and a time to sharpen your skills and patience at the scale staying the same. Not going back up is a real gift that some give up and walk from. So you’ve got that.

Also, 3 things that help me (weight maintenance = keeping stable and reversing small trends)

  1. IF 17:7 or 18:6 helped me break through to lose 8-10 pounds (normal weight but not my best weight). Losing around your goal weight can be tough.

  2. Lowering my fat and increasing my protein for fat loss helped immensely when combining with the IF. Holy Cats!!! But only at a 1-2 pound rate per month. I can eat a little bit more fat grams compared to protein grams in weight maintenance. But not a lot. My body let’s me know. I’m keto due to the fasting and pretty low carb intake. Going lower (27grams for me) had worse effects. My net carbs are around 25 grams per day.

  3. Looking at trend lines (ave on a graph) for 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, all time really helped me a lot!!! During the half year it took me to drop 8-10 pounds close to goal, I could see the trending down and knew it was working, over time.

Hope this helps in some way. 40 years obesity done. 5.5 years of weight maintenance. 70+ pounds off. Most of my success was fine tuning my weight maintenance plan.

Hang in there, keep fine tuning. Don’t walk away. Keep going.


(KCKO, KCFO) #18

Gotta agree with JustPeachy. Many people gain or just stay the same for months when they switch from the SAD. To loss that much per week is awesome. Stay calm, read the forums about any issues that come up, ask for advice when needed, give it when you can, and keto on.


(Deb) #19

There ARE extreme ways to jump start fat loss, if you have the really strong constitution it takes to get through it: the Protein Sparing Modified Fast protocol used by drs. for obese patients for a short time to jump start their weight loss (and by bodybuilders to cut before competition). I did it when I came back from vacation and dropped 12 lbs in 11 days. And it has stayed off since. ( Now I’m fighting the last 12!)


(Emilee) #20

I’m going into my 10th week too. I’ve lost about the same as you.
2 Keto Dudes Episode 58 - Switching it Up with Megan Ramos helped me. I’m going on vacation this weekend and when I return I’m switching everything up! New recipes, different feeding windows, different exercises, etc. You’re doing great! By next summer you’ll be so glad you went keto :slight_smile: