Can’t seem to get this to work


#1

I have been on the Keto diet since Thanksgiving (2 months) and I have dropped 4 pounds. I’m intermittent fasting and down to one meal a day. Trying to eat little to no carbs and under 20 for sure. My body just doesn’t seem to respond. I have a blood ketosis monitor and the last few days I am getting into the 1.4 range finally. From all that I have read it looks like I need to be in the 1.5 -3 range to do anything. I’m just getting frustrated because I felt fine before Keto and my main motivation for doing this change is for weight loss. My mother is 70 and lost 30 pounds over 4 months so I am really motivated to have this work. Added a ketone challenge this last week where I am drinking ketones 2X a day and I moved 2 pounds of the 4 total I have lost. I just don’t know what I am doing wrong. Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks :pray::yellow_heart:


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #2

Are you a man or a woman? How old are you? How much do you weigh, and what is your goal weight? What is your body fat percentage? Are you trying to cut your caloric intake, so as to lose weight? What is happening with your clothing size? How insulin-resistant are you? Do you know your serum glucose level? Your HbA1C? Are you measuring acetoacetate in your urine, or β-hydroxybutyrate in your blood? What are your energy levels like?

Everyone responds differently to a ketogenic diet, and the answers to these questions are all relevant to helping you figure out what is going on. The foods you are eating are also relevant. If you would like us to go over what you are doing, so that we can make suggestions, please provide the answers to the foregoing questions, plus an idea of the sorts of stuff you are eating, and how often.

Eating a well-formulated ketogenic diet is essentially simple, but the devil is in the details. We’d love to help, if you’re okay sharing the relevant information about yourself.


#3

20g net carbs should be okay but some people count total and/or go lower.
Ketosis doesn’t guarantee fat-loss even if you have excess fat, you still can overeat. I lost nothing in the first months (apart from 4lbs water in the very beginning but that doesn’t matter at all) because I ate the amount I did before and that matters in my own case, my hunger and appetite changed later when i I got fat adapted. Until then I just enjoyed the tiny extra benefits of keto compared to low-carb and figured out how I should eat, it was interesting :slight_smile:
Some people need to be more patient than others. Or to make some changes if the results don’t come. So many things may interfere. In my case, it’s net carbs in general (a smaller average is better), maybe my fat intake (I can easily overdo fat as it doesn’t satiate me as well as protein) but others need to skip sweeteners or some other items, I already mentioned total or extremely low carbs… We are different so our solution is often different too.


(Polly) #4

My first thought was, are you eating enough? I tend to eat 2 meals a day but sometimes have one and sometimes have 3. I eat when I feel hungry. If you are restricting yourself too much you are merely slowing your metabolism in the same way that people do on a calorie restricted diet.

Do provide us with the details of you, your height and weight and your daily menu plans for a couple of weeks past so that we can give some informed advice on where you should take things next.


(Barbara Schibly) #5

Are you eating dairy? Are you eating (ANY) processed foods rather than whole foods? Are you snacking - eating ANYTHING of caloric value in between meals? These are all things that commonly interfere with weight loss.


#6

Check out some of the youtube clips of Dr Boz. She explains keto pretty well to beginners. She says keto works in phases. In the beginners phase one has to eat a lot. Thats the chemical phase. She calls it chemical because of what changes in the body. Like with time a need for sweets goes away. With time, we become less hungry. Only when we become fat adapted does it become a question of a bit of discipline to do IF. And in the end she discusses the “psychological phase” in which our psyche makes choices ( which are so much easier when we are totally fat adapted.) She says we can sabotage the success of keto by trying to go into one of the later phases before we are ready.


#7

Just being in ketosis is no guarantee of weight loss.

Have you determined your macros and tracked what you eat?

That’s just one sub-cult of keto. It depends on what “echo chamber” you’re in.


(Cancer Fighting Ketovore :)) #8

Have you taken any measurements?
That is, hips, waist, etc. Those are considered “non-scale victories”. Anything positive that is not a drop in weight. Look for those as you hear from the inside!

Keep it up. Even 1.4 for ketones is great. :slightly_smiling_face: