Can't get my ketones up!


(Nakihashi) #1

So I’ve been a huge Keto/Atkins dieter for years now, on and off, and I’ve never had a problem. This last round, however, I’ve hit a wall that I simply cannot overcome. I’ve been doing a ketogenic diet for 1 year now, no cheats or anything, and I’ve had amazing results until about 3 months ago. Here’s what I’ve been doing:

Breakfast: I’ve changed this around a bit to keep things interesting, since breakfast is the hardest meal for me to eat for some reason (I never have an appetite early in the morning) EDIT: I’d like to clarify that, as soon as I wake up, I am hungry, HOWEVER… I do not have an appetite within the first 30 to 60 minutes of waking. This means that I need food, and I can feel the need for sustenance, but my mouth is dry and nothing seems appetizing. I’ve been like this for years, diet or no diet, and if I skip any meals first thing in the morning, I will feel it until I eat something, right up until lunch. I theorize that this effect is due to the fact that I’ve used up all of my glycogen stores from my liver from being in ketosis for long periods of time. The hunger I experience isn’t always ravenous, I may have misspoke there… but it is definitely distracting. There are no cravings or anything, just the basic drive for sustenance.

2-3 eggs, prepared various ways with butter or coconut oil and turkey bacon, occasionally some cheese - about 4g net carbs.

An Atkins meal replacement bar, also between 3g to 4g net carbs.

And lately, unbreaded deep fried haddock with homemade tartar sauce (mayo, black pepper, dill relish and a squirt of lemon juice) - less than 1g net carbs.

Lunch has been the same everyday for the whole year: 1 can of sardines in olive oil (not drained for extra fat intake), around 1oz of mixed nuts, 1 travel-sized sugar free jell-o, and a diet caffeinated beverage (tea with stevia, diet coke, or a new drink I discovered that makes me feel wonderful, Celsius) - 3g of net carbs.

I started working out, so I began to supplement my lunches with a protein shake, custom made online and reconstituted with unsweetened coconut milk and some peanut butter - about 7g of fat, 17g of protein and 8g of net carbs (I know that’s a little high, and I’ve experimented with my ketones both on and off of the shake, results below) - keep in mind that this is something that I’ve only recently added in the last month.

For dinner, I usually eat one of the following:

broccoli, cauliflower and chicken or steak, slathered in coconut oil and various spices - 4g net carbs

Unbreaded deep fried chicken wings, between 6 and 10 depending on my hunger, with home made buffalo-ranch sauce (ranch, buffalo sauce and a base of either butter or coconut oil) - less than 1g net carb (there’s a tiny amount of sugar in the ranch sauce, 2g per 2 tbsp, but it’s heavily diluted in a giant bowl of fat and buffalo sauce)

Finally, when I’m tired or lazy, I’ll go to the nearest Wendy’s and get a double cheeseburger with no bun, tomato or ketchup, about 2g net carbs.

I drink a can or two of diet soda or sugar free power raid, I drink between 2 and 4 liters of water (almost a gallon) everyday, and I make my own ice cream with Swerve (its amazing stuff, there’s only about 10g of net carbs in an entire gallon of ice cream, and it tastes amazing!), eating about 1/2 pint of it a night for a delicious treat that is all fatty-goodness.

I’ve adhered to this diet for one entire year with amazing results, 50lbs lost, bringing me to 230lbs down from 280lbs… Until around March 2018. My diet didn’t change, my lifestyle was the same, everything is the same. I tried fewer carbs, eating less, eating more, exercising (which is when I added the protein shake) (exercise consisted of 30 minutes of rigorous weight training/martial arts 3 days per week), and finally, I just started eating coconut fat right out of the container. I got a ketone blood testing meter, and I was shocked to find that my ketones are very low! I often find that my ketones are between 0.3 and 1.7, with an average of 0.8! Eating the coconut fat helped for about a week, getting me a few readings in the 2.0 areas, but now its dropped back down to less than 1.0! Additionally, I have since started gaining the weight back over the past 2 months, creeping back up to about 245lbs!!!

I’ve never had this problem with keto before. I’ve read countless forums, to no avail. I’m not diabetic. My only health conditions are that I have IBS and that I have an Autism Spectrum Disorder. My only medication is Miralax, taken nightly for over 10 years now. I’m happy, I have a good job, things in my life are wonderful… I’m just still FAT!

Why can’t I get my ketones back up? Why aren’t I losing weight? Why is it coming back? Has anyone else had a similar issue? All input would be greatly appreciated.


(Allie) #2

Why are you eating breakfast if you’re not hungry? If you’re not hungry, your body is telling you it doesn’t need fuel.

Atkins bars… not ideal, neither are the diet drinks as sweeteners can be a major issue for some people.

Try listening to your body and eating only when you really need to as you’re giving your body food it doesn’t want, and that will not be helping you at all.


(Jane) #3

How many times a day do you eat?

I would try some intermittent fasting to shake things up a bit. Plus if you are eating 3 meals a day, plus low-carb ice cream (late at night or right after dinner?) you could be producing too much insulin to access your fat stores.


(Nakihashi) #4

I eat breakfast if I’m not hungry because I will be in about an hour; I work at a dental office and it can be hard to break away from patients to get food, so it’s the only food I get until around noon. It’s not that I’m not hungry, I just can’t eat anything immediately after waking up, I have to give myself 30-45 minutes of awake time before my hunger hits me (I’ve skipped breakfast before… I was ravenous by the time I sat my first patient… not a good day, lol).

I no longer eat Atkins bars, that was one of the things I cut out when my weight loss slowed.
I’ve been drinking diet drinks for the entire diet, and the weight loss was fine for the first 6 months. Why would it suddenly be a problem now? The artificial sweeteners I have consumed steadily for the past year include: Stevia, Aspartame and Erythritol.

I eat 3 meals a day. What foods are causing me to produce insulin? It was my understanding that only glucose could trigger an insulin response. The only way I could get glucose into my blood is from eating carbs, or from too much protein, resulting in gluconeogenesis.

I will try the fasting - I fast annually for a colon cleanse to help keep things moving smoothly, and I plan do to that around the 4th of July; I will post my results after the fast. In the meantime, is there anything else I can do?


(bulkbiker) #5

Eating anything will cause an insulin response hence the suggestion to avoid breakfast… can you just have a hot drink with maybe cream instead of food that may help. It did for me.


(Nakihashi) #6

Interesting. I had always heard that breakfast was the worst meal to skip. I may try the breakfast skipping idea, but then when is the soonest I could eat? Would I have to wait until lunch?


(bulkbiker) #7

I never eat before 1 pm sometimes not until dinner… try it …once you get the habit it becomes a lot less hard than you think.
The old crap about breakfast is just that… you can “break your fast” whenever the hell you like… especially if you aren’t hungry when you wake up.


(TJ Borden) #8

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but that doesn’t mean you have to eat it in the morning. My breakfast is usually around 3 in the afternoon. Then I skip lunch and dinner


(Jane) #9

If you are fat adapted you should be able to make it to lunch on heavy whipping cream and butter or MCT oil in your coffee.


#10

I would drop all artificial sweeteners, drop all the soda, and stick to core natural ingredients, which rules out any meal replacement bars.


(Alec) #11

This suggests to me that you are not fat adapted, or you have raised insulin for some reason. Otherwise your body will be using your bodyfat for fuel, without “ravenous” hunger.

Like many of the other posters, I would suggest:

  1. If you are not hungry now, don’t eat. Dont eat in the expectation of being hungry.
  2. Drop the artificial stuff and eat cleaner. I reckon the artificial sweeteners could be increasing your insulin
  3. Start developing your fasting muscle by eating later in the day, and progressing to intermittent fasting.

BTW, your ketone levels are just fine. What you need to do, though, is teach your body to burn its fat by following some of the above.


(Alec) #12

Hear bloody hear!! Bravo! When you first started that sentence I was thinking “oy, oy, what’s this?” Then I read the rest of the sentence, beautiful! :grinning:


(Empress of the Unexpected) #13

Still working on it. How long does it take before there is no hunger involved? I can push breakfast to nine, but still hungry at noon. Going on 11 weeks and still struggling.


(LeeAnn Brooks) #14

Ah, if only our bodies would allow us to eat/drink bad stuff indefinitely without harm.

I was a HUGE Diet Coke addict until my body started having really negative reactions to it. Horrible gallbladder/heartburn issues when I would drink too much of it. So I quit drinking it altogether for the most part. Now, on occasion if I have even one, my body quickly tells me why I quit in the first place.

My point is, just because you were able to lose weight drinking it in the past, doesn’t mean that’s always going to be the case.

Perhaps an elimination experiment is in order.


(Katie the Quiche Scoffing Stick Ninja ) #15

Why are you forcing yourself to eat breakfast when you are not hungry? First rule of Keto, don’t eat if not hungry.
Maybe it’s the third or fourth rule but you catch my drift.

If you have been Keto for over a year, and you are fat adapted, then it’s typical to have lower blood ketone readings as your body is efficient at using those ketones. You should not be chasing higher numbers on your meter.


(TJ Borden) #16

I thought the first rule was “don’t talk about keto”… I might be thinking of something else


(CK) #17

Is it proper to have whipping cream with espresso daily?
My weight seems to drop 1.5kgs only and today’s my 11th Keto day.


(bulkbiker) #18

Check it doesn’t have any added sugar.


(CK) #19

stated there 3.4g carbohydrate 3.4g and sugar 3.3g per 100g


(bulkbiker) #20

Thats about right… I have cream in my coffee 4 or 5 times a day but only about 20ml it makes up most of my carb intake in fact…