Could I get a second set of eyes?

(Pamela) #21

Great ideas Katie. I actually could do all those things and really mix it up. Thanks for the ideas.

(Pamela) #22

Thanks Paul. I am doing pretty darn good! I just need to have a bit more patience and give the recent changes a chance.

Really glad I posted this morning. Here’s what I plan on doing:

  1. Move back to full fat options on the coffee creamer, mayonnaise, and any yogurt or other foods I eat in the future
  2. It’s been painful even to contemplate, but I’m going to give up my daily peanut butter/almond flour/fake sugar snack in favor of fruit, yogurt, nuts, something natural. Edit: and that chocolate shake sounding concoction described below — wow!
  3. Ease up a bit on the protein.
  4. And be patient!

Thanks everyone for your help and suggestions. Stoked again!

(KCKO, KCFO) #23

Actually Megan has been speaking about using alternate day fasting for weight loss. Feast, fast, feast and repeat.

I would stop the half and half, if adding anything use heavy whipping cream, no reddiwhip, the kind you pour out of a carton.

Cut the carbs down lower, up the healthy fats, that can be more olive oil on your greens etc. If you don’t already know about the infograms on dietdoctor.com, go to that site and view the carb count of all the veggies, you will find more variety easier to live with, you mentioned a lot of kale, there are other greens lower in carbs.

Switch to fat bombs instead of that cookie dough thingo you posted. Tons of those recipes out there, sweet and savory styles. A good basic one is mix 125 grams of coconut oil with 25 grams of 100% raw cacao powder, add a few drops of liquid stevia, try the flavored ones for variety, but plain is fine, go easy, sample to your taste, a dash of vanilla. Mix well then pour into silicon trays or even old ice cube trays will work, or you could use mini cup cake pans as well. If no molds of any kind roll them in 2" balls, and place in the freezer. Have one of these when you really feel you need something or enjoy them after a meal as dessert.

Recipes forum has some good recipes including every thing from salad dressings to desserts, check those out.

I also 2nd the suggestion to get some autophagy going on and everything PaulL said above as well.

All the best to you.

#24

@davisgirl, Collaroygal’s post above is for you.

I know you want to find a way to eat that you can sustain, but the fat loss phase is going to be different from maintenance. If you keep insulin low (see all the posts above) and you have fat to lose, your intake might look something like
900 cal from outside food + 600 cal from your fat stores

Once you’ve burned through most of your fat stores, it would be 1500 calories from outside food.

[It’s not anywhere near this neat, of course, and CICO has a ton of issues if you use it too literally as a strategy - but basically you’re not really restricting calories if you’re accessing your body fat. That fat is food.]

#25

Actually if you’re fat adapted, exercise can be great for fat loss though it’s best to view it through the lens of hormones (looking at insulin and - as you mentioned - cortisol in particular) instead of the lens of calories. Phinney and Volek did a study of Keto without exercise vs Keto + exercise and the second group lost substantially more fat.

Though I agree that changing WOE and adding exercise at the same time… it can be too much change at once!

(Pamela) #26

I may change my opinion based on what you’re saying (and a few others alluded to). I just ate about half my lunch, and I feel full. I’m not going to force myself to eat the rest today. I’m headed out to the gym.

I really hate that I just outright reject new ideas, then 5 posts later I’m like, oh… :rofl:

Thank you so much for the help everyone. :slightly_smiling_face:

(Hyperbole- best thing in the universe!) #27

Huh… I think I can confidently diagnose you as human :wink:

(Pamela) #28

Yup! Guilty! :wink:

#29

First, I want to congratulate you on losing 11 lbs in 50 days. That is great work and right on target! There’s a myth that keto is going to make you lose weight super fast, mainly associated with the quick water weight losses that some people experience when they start. This doesn’t happen to everyone. And even if it does, after that people tend to settle in to a typical 1–2 lbs/week–similar to calorie-restricted, low fat diets. Most studies have shown that there isn’t much difference in the overall rate of loss. In general, men also tend to lose weight more quickly.

The important difference tends to be in what you’re losing. People on very low carb diets like keto tend to lose more fat, especially visceral fat, while people on low fat diets tend to lose more lean mass. Of course there are other benefits to keto as well.

I think the general advice to “eat to satiety” is fine. However, if you have a history of calorie-restricted dieting your satiety meter may be busted and you may need to eat more. 1250 calories for someone who is 5’5" and exercising heavily seems very, very low. Yes, you need to be in a caloric deficit to lose weight. But keto changes a lot of chemical and biological processes in your body and you don’t need to be as low as you might think. Personally, I think you need to eat more–and definitely do not cut protein if you’re working out a lot. I think you need more, not less.

Some rough estimates from https://keto-calculator.ankerl.com/ suggest that even if your exercise is moderate your TDEE is around 2269–so you’re close to a 1000 calorie deficit. But, you might be working out even more than that and have more muscle than the calculator is estimating. With those factors, maybe your TDEE is 2600. Sometimes people find that if they’re under eating this much, that their bodies just hang on to everything. Once they start eating more, they start losing.

(Pamela) #30

Thanks Zuleika! I was under the impression 1,200 calories was low as well. I will also now admit that I may have a burgeoning exercise addiction that has started to develop. I’m keeping an eye on it. I’ve nursed worser addictions. And I also think I’ve secretly figured that if I exercise MORE than I will lose more weight, faster. What has happened is I’ve added a lot of muscle weight. I think I might be the type who adds muscle easily. I could have added 5 pounds of muscle and lost 16 pounds of body fat. I think that’s what happened.

I was eating at about 1,450 and dropping a pound every 2 weeks. So I cut it to about 1,250 and so far I’m down 2. What would you suggest? I NEED to see the number on the scale. 2 pounds a week.

(Marianne) #31

Try to think of this as a way of eating and not a diet. Believe me, I want to get my weight off NOW (85 lbs. total), however, after a gazillion years of dieting and regaining, I am so adverse to anything that even seems like a diet. For me, that is the last thing I want to do - ever again.

I don’t weigh myself now (only time is when I go to the doctor), started out by eating three decent meals a day, waited until I was fat adapted (4 months) before incorporating fasting, never counted calories. Once you feed your body and get more acclimated to keto, you won’t physically want to eat as much or as often (prob. after 3-4 weeks). Fasting will occur naturally. Until that happens, be gentle with yourself and eat. Don’t force the exercise until your body is ready and you have sufficient energy - just another way of purging otherwise.

My husband and I eat very cleanly - meat, some cheese, veggie, eggs, mayo, bacon, bacon fat, etc. Keep the carbs as low as you can (def. under 20). No snacks, no “keto” processed food, artificial sweetener or shakes.

Keep us posted.

(Cancer Fighting Ketovore :)) #32

Why not eat the PB treat WITH a meal, instead of as a snack. For not, I haven’t read all the replies yet. But one main thing is to minimize the number of times you eat. Keep the calories the same, but easy less often.

Keep carbs under 20g.

(Pamela) #33

Thanks @gingersmommy and @KetoCancerMom! I’ve gotten so many great suggestions, and I’ll be implementing a few of them and chewing on some others. Posting here has really helped me to identify my biggest problem — my lack of patience. I shouldn’t even be questioning whether or not I’m losing enough fat, I can see it and feel it falling away.

I do have some areas of improvement to work on and I’ll be addressing those. I’ll be back in touch!

Thank you all again. :wave:

(Marianne) #34

Whether it’s this or anything else, relax and let it happen! (What a concept from where we’ve come - and so liberating!). Love that about keto. Live your life, and other than the rudimentary principles, don’t think about “doing it right.” It’s amazing how the days pass and how quickly and effortlessly you will get to your goals.

God bless.

(Susan) #35

I had a stall of no weight loss for over 2 months, it happens. I didn’t cheat at all and keep my carbs at 20 grams or less. Patience is a virtue and necessary for long term success on Keto =). Best wishes for getting everything figured out and continued success =).

#36

I’d also encourage you to take some measurements and then compare them to your starting point later on. I’ve had weeks where I lost nothing, but my measurements were down all over. Especially if you’re working out and building muscles. You’ve probably lost more fat than you think, just based on that 11 lbs. It’s just that you’ve also put on some muscle. You’ll notice that change more in your measurements.

(Pamela) #37

Hey folks, it’s been 10 days since my post and my starting weight this morning comes in at 215.6. Not at all happy with this result. To be honest, the changes I talked about making didn’t get finalized until the past few days, but this was yesterday, minus the avocado I forgot to eat:

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The organic mayo is heavenly—that and the strawberries were the high point of my day. I have not felt hungry except in the morning. Workouts have been frequent and challenging. Overall I feel really good, though maybe a bit over trained.

So I shaved another hundred calories, and it seemed to hit the carb number right too. The peanut butter almond flour thing is long gone. Oh, and I completely cut out the crystal light for straight water and lite salt. I feel like a nun.

I’ll be back in 10 days, hopefully with a 213ish weight. I will not cut calories below 1,000 but my target is 1,100 or so. If that doesn’t work, I’ll be looking at adding a fast day or two to my week. This weight has gotta go!

(mole person) #38

You are eating four small meals a day. This is keeping your insulin elevated and your fat cells locked down a lot of the time. You want to cut the number of meals and increase the size of the remaining ones. Give your insulin time to come down to levels where fat will be able to leave your fat cells.

I think you’d do better eating more food but much less frequently.

(Pamela) #39

Good point. I will fold the “snack” into dinner. The morning coffee I won’t play with, maybe I’ll cut out the cream a bit. Thanks!

(Barbara Schibly) #40

Pamela - I hate to see you so frustrated. Why not start incorporating fasting into your regimen? Start with just eating in a 6 hour time frame each day (two distinct meals - no snacking in between and no eating at all after the 6 hours. That includes thinks like cream in your coffee but you can have plain coffee or tea.). Do this for a while and then start adding in some 24 hour fasts (which would be one meal a day). Then 36 hours. Then, if you can, 42 or 48. Do this maybe once a week (or twice if you are just doing 24 hours) and eat your keto diet the other days.