I’m a little discouraged.
This is my 10th week on Keto. I had lost 15 lbs slowly, the first 8/9 weeks.
Then my Dr put me on low dose BC pills to stop heavy periods until she can give me a hysterectomy. I’m 46 and did not want to go on them but took her advice anyway. She assured me it was a low enough dose that I shouldn’t gain weight.
I’ve only been on them a week and a half and have gained 5.5 lbs back! My eating has not changed, I stay below 20 carbs and 1600 calories.
I do clean keto and track my macros. I’m still in Ketosis according to ketostix.
I understand that there will be stalls and gains. But so far I haven’t gained like this. I don’t understand what else it can be other than those pills.
I don’t intend to quit, I feel so much better in so many ways but I’m doing this to lose weight too!
Can birth control pills cause stall or gain?
I’m sure what you’ve gained is only water weight and not fat, especially since you’re eating exactly as you were before. Birth control itself isn’t going to magically cause you to gain fat out of nowhere, it will only affect you if you have poor eating habits to begin with. My advice to you is to ditch the scale and get a flexible tape measure and take your measurements now. Document the numbers then measure again in at least 2 weeks. I personally would wait 4 weeks in between measurements, but started doing it bi-weekly when I was very lean and to see if my re-feeds were working.
Honestly all hormonal forms of birth control messed me up so badly… Weight, mood, everything.
No advice but wouldn’t be surprised if the pills promoted some hormonal change that caused weight gain.
Anything that messes with your natural hormones can and likely will influence weight loss. I couldn’t take any sort of birth control as they had such a bad effect on me both physically and mentally. Your hormones will balance naturally if you stay keto long enough but it can cause some unusual symptoms in the process.
There was a really interesting episode on Leanne Vogel’s podcast The Keto Diet where she interviewed Dr Judy Tsafrir. They discussed this and the effects it can have on people. Worth a listen, if you’re interested.