Do pregnancies make everything impossible?

hormones
(Danielle ) #1

Hi there,

So I have been doing the ketogenic diet for a few years now, although I am not losing a lot of weight or reduce in size. Last time I did this was about eight years ago, and I lost so much weight and reduced in size in a few months without any exercise. Almost too much weight loss too fast, and even had to increase my carbohydrates.

Yesterday I listened to Keto Women, Epidose 95, about women and hormones and according to Jackie Eberstein women with two pregnancies tightly are the ones having the most difficulties with ketone production. I had my kids 16 months apart, about 5-7 years ago, and I am still young (30), although I am so discouraged. Nothing works. Soon I am just going to give up.

Anyone with any experience of this with some good advice? Yes, I have been doing short fasts and extended fasts.

I am looking forward to any reply!

(Door Girl) #2

I had kids 18 months apart with the second just turning 5 a little bit ago. I dropped 27# quickly (I started at the beginning of the year at 5’7” 39yo and 185, now 158 for the past almost month) and I’ve worked hard to stabilize the weight loss over the past several weeks as I’m pregnant again.

So I would say that a past history of closely spaced pregnancies may play a role if the hosts have some data to back it up, however there is going to be some variability. I’m going to put that show on my to-listen list.

How old are your kids? If they are still in a very needy age it may be the pure stress of the age rather than the pregnancies. I ballooned up 30# in a couple months when an extra stressor piled onto the 2 under 5 fun.

(Danielle ) #3

They are five and six now, and I feel like they are not causing me a lot of stress.
I have always had stress in my life, more or less from time to time, so being stressed now is not something new. = )
The stress has been reduced since I started taking magnesium vitamins. As soon as I stop with them, intense stress comes back.

However, since my first child, I have fluctuated in weight substantially. I was very heavy with my son, and as soon as he came out, I lost all my cravings and lost weight quickly. Then my spouse decided he wanted to change his diet, so I just followed and started eating vegetarian/raw food diet, and I lost a lot of weight even when pregnant with my second one. I was probably lighter when pregnant with her than I am now. Haha!

After having her I kept losing weight and I started looking undernourished. I was breastfeeding for over 2 years.

Then I went to university and everything was fine, until I slipped and started eating some junk food and drank a lot of energy drinks to keep up and I completely ballooned in weight during a few months, and this is what I have been tackling for the last 4 years. I have lost a lot of weight since that first year of university (20 kg), although I don’t go further down than that. I stall on one weight for 1-2 years now. Doesn’t matter if I fast, exercise, sit still or whatever I do.

I am so close to giving up. = (

(Pri ) #4

I had my kids year apart and both are under 2. I started from December 1st 2018. I have hypothyroidism as well and I am 37 I have lost almost 70 pounds. Stuck in 40s since past month. My advice is don’t get motivated. Start as first day with motivation. How much weight do u have to loose? Try intermittent fasting.

(Door Girl) #5

Danielle,

Sounds like you have a whole lot going on in your life! Even though you have always had stress, that constant level could be what has you frustrated.

Do you enjoy the keto foods? How long have you been eating this way? Are you exercising? What kind and how much?

Maybe there is something in there that might help you see the results you would like.

(Danielle ) #6

I asked my doctor (that is very sceptic towards Keto) to take blood tests on me and I do not seem to have any problems with my thyroid, what I know. My values looks great, although in comparison with my spouse my ketones does not seem to go up.

One time I fasted for days and they were under 0.5 the first days and it was not until the third day that I had levels over 1. My spouse on the other hand with the same life situation have levels over 1.6 almost all the time without fasting.

I do intermittent fasting everyday and have done for over 1 year now. I never feel hungry and I fast naturally.

I have the typical hourglass figure, with a flat stomach and big thighs and behind. :rofl:

I just want to to go down about 10-15 kilos.

(Danielle ) #7

I do have a lot of stress, although always been stressed, so that is definitively not new. It might be the stress with the consequences of pregnancy that does it?

I like keto foods, but I have never been a foodie. I just eat for energy. I have been doing this for at least 3 years. I have done the whole tracking from time to time, and exercising sometimes (table tennis, swimming), although I do not have any time. Doing my MSc now, and I am very ambitious, so I study day and night and do part-time work on that. I think I would die if I exercised on top of this. :joy:

(Door Girl) #8

Probably stress. It is actually probably good that you don’t do cardio or anything like that since that would only be more stress.

I was about to start longer fasts (I naturally eat only one or two meals a day due to lack of hunger) while I still had enough fat on my body to support those fasts. I probably have about the same amount as you to lose to get to an ideal level. Of course being pregnant puts that on hold until after breastfeeding… Do I hope to have enough fat to support extended fasting for autophagy at that point? :slight_smile:

What does giving up look like to you? If you are satisfied with what you are eating, already used to eating this way, and have a family routine to support it I’m curious what you would change. Do you feel like you are depriving yourself? I’m really curious.

(squirrel-kissing paper tamer) #9

But you aren’t gaining weight either, right? And you know adding carbs will put weight back on you so use this as a place to hold you over until you can get it worked out.

Are you consuming enough calories when you do eat? What type of foods are you having? There’s a general list of low carb things that can put the brakes on weight loss. Maybe some modifications would get things moving again.

(Danielle ) #10

I am going up and down. So I am gaining weight and losing. :disappointed:

My experience in the last couple of years is that it does not seem to matter what I am doing. I have only seen one correlation in my values and that is the season. So, during term time I gain weight and at the end of the term, I lose weight. This made me suspect it is related to my studies.

However, stress is a tricky thing, because I need to work and I need to study and do all my duties. Thus, there is not much space for stress reduction.

(Danielle ) #11

The whole stress makes you fat-topic makes me stressed, because how do you stop stressing when you must do so many things. :joy:

I think breastfeeding eats you up from the inside, so I am not sure if you need to think about fasting for a while. :joy: After 2 years of breastfeeding, it was nothing left of me. Maybe I should just become pregnant again and breastfeed?

If I am going to be overweight my whole life, I can just enjoy it until I die from diet-related diseases. :joy:

I am just so darn fed up with looking like this.

(squirrel-kissing paper tamer) #12

You bring up a really good point. Stress may be the culprit so look at how you can decrease stress instead of doing the same dietary changes and not getting results. I understand you have a busy life but what about starting with yoga in your pajamas before bed, 30 minutes, no fuss. Or any other stress reducing practice (meditation, bath, breathing, etc.). Maybe bringing your body back to a calm place once or twice a day will really help.

(Door Girl) #13

It is super frustrating! But changing your mindset on it can help. If you can focus not on the weight you want to lose, but on supporting your body and letting it be that can help to reduce your stress. Focusing the attention you have been pointing to weight to things to reduce your stress might be energy better spent.

If you know eating this way keeps you in a weight holding pattern, that is actually super helpful. Keeping to the same eating while taking your eye off a goal of weight loss should give you comfort that even if you stop focusing on trying to lose weight, you shouldn’t worry about gaining with that loss of focus.

Turning fat into humans is my superpower. I gained 11# in one pregnancy and 12# in the other, ending up down 6# and 5# at my postpartum appointments. My weight breastfeeding was pretty flat too. I ate what I wanted when I wanted, but was pretty lucky my only craving was to demolish the bakery department but good gluten free bakery items weren’t yet available. :rofl:

Is your profile pic a recent picture? You look fantastic!

#14

If you have a good hourglass figure with a flat belly, you have already lost the easy pounds. Whatever is on the lower half of your body will be way more stubborn. You shouldn’t stress about weight loss, your stomach is good, you have a healthy figure, overweight or not. It will melt off slowly when stress is down, and cling on to you when stress goes up.

Perhaps you should investigate how you eat when stressed, and see if there’s a way to keep your weight from going up, rather than worrying about how to make it go down?