There is an alternate hypothesis - that if you are on a plateau you just need to eat less fat.
What that means in a ketogenic context where energy comes from fat is simply a restatement of Calories in: Calories out hypothesis AKA the low calorie diet … and we know what that does.
If you are at a plateau, your stored energy is not available to contribute to satiation or energy consumption. The technical reason is that your insulin is always above the level of inhibition of Lipolysis.
Thought Experiment: changing insulin
Let’s imagine your insulin is lowered a little, now your body fat can release a little energy, now you get satiated just a little sooner, and now you lose a little more weight.
Let’s imagine a new thought experiment where your insulin is raised a little, OK now the lid goes on your storage, and it is even dragging more energy our of circulation to store more under the instruction of insulin, now you have less energy from your plate to contribute to satiety, and you gain a little more weight.
You probably know that one. That was how most of us who were obese got obese in the first place.
So being at a plateau means that we are on the inhibition point of the curve. Lowering insulin means we draw down body fat.
Thought Experiment: changing calories in
So let’s say you are burning 2500 kCal/day and eating 2500 kCal/day, you are keto AND eating to satiety yet you are at a plateau. Necessarily your body fat is not contributing to your energy needs. Everything is balanced.
Now let’s say we suddenly eat 2000 kCal/day, but our bodies are used to burning 2500 kcal … so what happens. The first thing is we try to get some from storage … Oh no but the (insulin) lid is on that remember.
So the next thing our body does is look for budgetary savings it can make; Maybe it doesn’t need to warm your fingers and toes … let’s say that saves 100 kCal/day. How about if you only kill 80% of the foreign invaders, and run the immune system a little slower - we’d have to be unlucky to get a virus in the next day - so let’s say that’s another 100 kCal/day. Let’s say we can make another 100 kCal/day in savings by doing a hundred little tasks that each usually take 5 kCal at 80% efficiency … so each now takes 4 kCal. Well we’ve saved 300 kCal/day … but we are still short 200 kCal for the day.
Let’s see if we can find other sources of energy, we can’t get any from storage with insulin up like that, how about glucose … we got any of that? ummm no we’ve been keto for 6 months. No chance of any alcohol I guess. So the only other option is to burn amino-acids for energy, let’s look for protein in structures that are optional for immediate survival. How about those biceps, we can shave a little off those.
And that is how if you are plateaued and your fasted insulin is high that using fat as a lever will scavenge your lean mass and kneecap your metabolic rate, and you will eventually yoyo back up again.
And how if you have plateaued yet your fasted insulin is really quite low then you can eat less and draw down energy from storage. Heck you can probably eat just your essential nutrients (ie: 60g of protein and some vitamins and minerals) and let those fat bombs on your belly bring you into a graceful landing.