Hey guys, I started Keto March 1 and lost 9 pounds in 10 days, but since then nothing. I’ve been sitting at the same weight for almost 3 weeks now. I’ve been using the urine strips and I’m definitely in Ketosis and I’ve lazily been keeping track of my macros, some days more than others, but overall I seem to be doing everything right. Or as right as I know how. I don’t want to stop, but if it isn’t what my body responds best to, I would like to know sooner rather than later so I can switch to another style of eating. Am I missing something?
Does Keto just not work for some people?
matt
(matt )
#2
Why are you doing keto? What are your long term goals? Keto is not a good plan for dropping a little bit of weight and then thinking you can go back to “normal”
Melanie
(Melanie Armistead)
#3
That’s completely normal. If you search the newbies section, you’ll see variations of your story over and over with a stack of suggestions about what to do and comments to be patient and not focus on the scales.
jambobam
(Jamie)
#5
It’s a lifestyle change for me. I want to find eating habits that get my weight down and keep it there. Of course I want to lose 20 pounds right up front and then maintain into forever. I’m just trying to find the best style for my body. I know everyone reacts differently to everything so I just wanted to know if Keto is something some people just don’t respond to.
Bellyman
(Brian)
#6
20 pounds is a pretty small window for a lot of us. A good poop is at least 10% of that.
When you change from a sugar burning way of eating to a ketone burning way of eating, your body has a lot of changing to do. Gotta give it a chance to get things done inside, way more than 3 or 4 weeks.
If you’re feeling good and you are not having severe health issues, give it a good 3 or 4 months or so and see how you’re doing by then. You don’t go to the gym as a weenie-wimp today and in a couple of weeks come home looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger in his glory days. It takes time for the body to do stuff. And it will.
KCKO
jambobam
(Jamie)
#7
Cool, thanks dudes and dudettes. Speaking of poop, is constipation a concern on this diet? Also, I’m super glad I found this forum.
IF_keto_lifestyle
(Moriah )
#10
Hey Jamie, maybe catch the keto woman podcast.
I have been doing keto since the 3rd week of January due to a stall on a fasting regimen. I lost around 10 lbs over 2 months doing the fasting but have been very slow since then. I’ve lost maybe 2 lbs since January. I have many more to loose than 20 lbs. It depends on your age and whether your metabolism is “deranged” as Richard says. I would say that loosing the last 20 is going to be really slow and depending on your BMI and your lean muscle mass you may have to do some weight lifting type exercise to increase lean muscle mass. I once read (I don’t know where now) that carrying extra fat as women esp belly fat, puts a woman as high a risk for cancer as if they smoked. Believe me, that did it for me as far as keto. Cancer patients are advised from the cancer society not to eat carbs because cancer thrives on carbs. The point being, extra fat for women is unhealthy. keto helps with lowering insulin and preventing type II diabetes and puts you at a lower cancer risk. Both are true whether or not you have been loosing weight. I am still playing around with trying this and that, I’m going to try fasting (I do 36 hour when I do it) but I’ve had trouble fasting since starting keto. I think my body is still getting used to it. KCKO!
J_A-M
(Jay AM)
#11
No. It’s a metabolic mechanism that everyone has the ability to activate. It’s impossible for most people not to enter ketosis if you are under 20g of net carbs. When you go keto, you are committing to repairing your insides. Whatever form that takes it what it takes. We have a couple sayings around here, “keep calm, keto on” and “trust the process.” Your changes aren’t anyone else’s changes and don’t waste time comparing yourself to how everyone else changed. Adding a reminder that your body doesn’t care what arbitrary number you use to judge it by. You input the right things, it works on the rest in its own time.
Though, with all things, I’m sure there exists a rare disorder that makes it impossible to enter ketosis. I’m highly doubtful we will see it as anyone’s problem in this forum.
There are two phases to ketosis and a ketogenic lifestyle.
Nutritional ketosis is phase one. Your body begins to produce and uptake some ketones while dumping the rest. It will still search for glucose to use as fuel. In this phase it’s not an efficient process. It has to work actively to get rid of stored glycogen, clean up excess blood sugar, and turn on the ability to use ketones.
Fat adaptation is phase two. Your body is efficiently producing ketones from intake and stored body fat and is also using them efficiently for energy. It takes around 6-8 weeks of strict keto to achieve for many but not all.
Basically, the whole point of doing the ketosis is to reach the fat adaptation. People who stop short won’t ever experience the true reason for the work they and their body have put into this metabolic shift.
The basic “rules” I go by and many others can agree with especially for beginners are
*20g net carbs max (you might tolerate more but, starting out, 20g net carbs or less will get you into ketosis.)
*Moderate protein (1g-1.5g per kg of lean bodyweight is a good goal based on the 2 Dudes recommendations.)
*Fat to satiety (add fat to every meal and, if you are hungry, eat more fat.)
*Do not restrict calories
*Drink plenty of water
*Get plenty of sodium and other electrolytes
*Do not do excessive exercise in an effort to make the scale move
Capnbob
(Rob)
#12
I would verify that. We can find something to read somewhere that will say that ANYTHING will increase your risk of/cause cancer. I find it highly improbable that there is anything causative from the body fat for create cancer. I can well believe that it is correlated because the cause of the excess body fat is the SAME as the cause of many mitochondrially driven cancers but that does NOT mean causation. Many chronic disease risks are said to be increased by obesity/body fat but that is because scientists have only researched the correlation, not the root cause - the very story of keto and T2D.
Glucose does feed tumors BUT it doesn’t cause them per se. The chronic inflammation from hyperinsulinemia (driven by excess glucose) is probably what will derange your mitochondria (cell walls) that will enable a cell nucleus mutation (of which you have many, many due to the toxins of civilization) to become a tumor. It is the same pathway that will create insulin resistance in your adipose tissue and cause excess fat deposition.
TL:DR - fix your metabolism (lower insulin levels and inflammation) with keto and fasting, get to a healthy weight, don’t obsess about body fat and you will be cancer preventing.
If you want to slog over that last 20lbs feel free but I don’t think it will have any impact on cancer risk.
jambobam
(Jamie)
#13
Thanks, that’s extremely informative. I try to eat as close to zero carbs as possible, which is of course nearly impossible, but it keeps me in check. I know I’m in ketosis since I’m using the urine strips so I’ll just give it more time to start working for me. Just checking to see if for some people it’s like “I’ve been in ketosis for 100 years and I’ve gained 20 pounds” but it seems our bodies have no choice but to burn fat for fuel once we starve it of carbs so I won’t worry about it.
Rajseth
(Raj Seth)
#14
You keep saying will Ketogenic “work” for you. I think the implied sub text is will Ketogenic WOE work for you to lose weight! Fat loss is only one of many benefits of a Ketogenic WOE. In many ways, I now believe that the fat loss may even be one of the less important benefits of KWOE.
Mental clarity, cardio vascular health, metabolic syndrome reversal, freedom from constant and dire hunger are just a few that come to mind.
jambobam
(Jamie)
#15
Yes, thank you, my original question was whether or not some people have just never seen any results with keto. That question has been answered a few times now, so I got it. I agree that there are probably many other benefits, I just had a single question about people responding to it differently or perhaps not at all. I get now that it was probably an ignorant question, but I’m extremely new to this.
Rajseth
(Raj Seth)
#16
arent all questions born of ignorance? If you were not ignorant of the answer, you would not need to ask the question!!
No worries, that is what everyone else is here for - to answer your questions, express our opinions, well thought out and misguided alike 
You got to sort the wheat from the chaff yourself though!! (what is the Keto version of that cliche - sort the Saturated Fat from the PUFA?)
jambobam
(Jamie)
#17
Cool, thanks, I’ll check out the podcast. 20 lbs may not seem like a lot, but I’ve been trying to lose it since I had my third kid over a year and a half ago and I’m just over it. I stumbled into keto and once I was here found out there’s a whole community that surrounds it, which is super helpful, and tons of resources so I’m just really trying my best to keep up with it and maintain. As far as extra fat on women causing cancer? Maybe. But I think extra fat on anybody, if enough of it, can cause all sorts of problems. But that’s I think excessive fat, not just a few pounds because then everyone would be on their death bed, except maybe Victoria’s Secret models. I have been told, though, that keto is a recommended diet for cancer patients and people with diabetes so I know it’s gotta be good for a person of good health.
This fasting thing, though. I haven’t read much about it. Can you give me some bullet points? Like, is it no eating just water or something like that? I don’t know if I can go more than 12 hours without eating before people should run for cover, but I’m interested to know what it’s all about.
Rajseth
(Raj Seth)
#18
Fasting - Jason Fung and Megan Ramos are the Fasting Jedis
look at idmprogram.com blog posts and search for fasting. Jason has near 30 blog posts (numbered) on fasting - absolutely free. His book is “Complete Guide to Fasting” (Jason Fung and Jimmy Moore) which takes the knowledge in the blogposts, and puts them in one place in book form. Jimmy Moore is a bit of a mook, but Jason’s knowledge and presentation is fabulous.
If you would rather listen to a Podcast - Fasting talk podcast (episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 14, 18, 22). After episode 22, Jason and Megan parted company with Jimmy Moore, and I did not find the podcast useful for me.
Fasting changed my life for the better. I feel in control over my body now. It is incredible, and hard to explain till you feel it for yourself.
jambobam
(Jamie)
#19
Ok, I’m going to look into it. Probably try it, but it seems dangerous for everyone around me. Hangry is a frequently used term in my household. But if it’s good for my body, then the general public can just deal with it.
Rajseth
(Raj Seth)
#20
My recommended steps
1 go keto
2 get fully fat adapted
3 try fasting
4 never go back because you feel so F’ing AWESOME