Don’t make weight loss your short-term goal

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weightloss
#21

This happened to me, too, as I lost four pounds in the first week of keto, but I put the weight back on and I have been stalled for two months now since I began keto. I haven’t lost either pounds or inches since. I’m sticking with it of course, but I was curious to know when you started losing weight again!

(Allan L) #22

Hi @Olivia1,

A friend of mine experienced the same thing, no weight loss but major improvement in health etc and stuck with the diet and finally after around 3 months she started to lose weight.

Maybe share details on your diet, the food you eat, are you using online tracking tools etc and see if people on here can offer you some advice / small adjustments that could help? Switch things up and trying different techniques helped me during my weight loss journey.

#23

You may need to cut out any artificial sweeteners.

Also, since you’ve been on it for two months you might be fat adapted enough to try intermittent fasting. Where you eat all your calories for the day within a certain timeframe. There’s many levels; 16/8 all the way to 23/1 (hours fasting/ hours eating).

What has worked for me is heavy cream and coffee in the morning and a giant lunch, no dinner.

#24

I started as I continue, tracking all my food on MFP, with 5-7% carbs (I learned MyFitnessPal doesn’t do net carbs, so that’s total carbs) 15% proteins, and 80% fat. According to MFP I need around 1400 per day to lose one pound a week, which I’ve been sticking to, and not increasing my calories to make up for the calories I supposedly burn in exercise.

I usually eat eggs for breakfast, sometimes just straight up, sometimes an omelete loaded with spinach, cheese and some mushrooms. I cook in ghee and refined coconut oil or butter. Vegetables, I eat spinach, broccoli, celery, brussel’s sprouts, asparagus, lettuce, cilantro and very occasional mushrooms, onions, cherry tomatos. I eat two meals per day, the other one either chicken or fish, cooked in lots of fat. The rest of the day I drink either tea with heavy cream and almond milk or herbal unsweetened tea. I eat very little nuts, either almonds or pecans, an ounce when I do.

I tried two weeks of intemittent fasting (16/8), the first one had no effect, the last one I lost a couple of pounds (but I think it was because I had a couple of days during that time where I had unusual exertion), but those came back plus the moment I returned to eating the 1400 calorie day.

#25

I don’t use artificial sweeteners as I find them vile, and only use erythritol very occassionally in a keto cheesecake recipe, the one keto dessert I found acceptable (all others like breads and other desserts are so eggy or taste so gross like the breads with psyllium husk…I threw away all my experiments)

I did try intermittent fasting, 16/8 for a couple of weeks, and as I mentioned above, I lost a couple of pounds only when I had unusual exertion during two days (so probably was water weight) and those came back promptly.

I wake up at eight, drink tea with heavy whipping cream, then have my first meal at around noon. I take a snack at around 5 or 6, then another meal at around 8-10 and I don’t eat later than that.

(Liz ) #26

Your diet looks good but your timing of eating maybe be undercutting your efforts. Every time you eat you boost your insulin. When your insulin is up it’s impossible to lose fat. So my first suggestion would be to eat within two 90 minute windows and that’s it. No snacking. If you are hungry between meals, you need to eat more at mealtime. That’s the first thing I’d try, Good luck!

#27

You mean I eat at noon, then again at 2 for instance, or at 2 and 4?

Thinking about it, I basically do eat in an eight to ten hour window, so sort of intermittent fasting in a way. When I did the strict intermittent fasting weeks, I basically ate from two to ten…but ate much less.

(Liz ) #28

You could eat a meal at 2, say, you have 90 minutes to finish everything you are going to eat. NO SNACKS. Then maybe you have dinner at 7, again, 90 minutes to eat everything, then stop for the day. This is part of intermittent fasting and it allows your insulin to drop sufficiently to let your body release fat.

#29

Oh, I see. So it’s better to eat what I consider a snack right after whatever meal, sort of consolidating my insulin release within that 90 minute window. What about drinking tea with heavy cream in between those two meals? Would that release insulin or since it’s only fat, it would have no effect on insulin production?

(Liz ) #30

Yes exactly! And if you get hungry between meals, increase your food intake at the meals next time. You shouldn’t be hungry except at meal times on Keto.

There’s a lot of individual response to dairy/fats. You will have to do your own experiments, I’d say. I’m not 100% sure if I have dairy issues stalling my weightloss or not, some folks do. So far I haven’t tried elimination. I have heavy cream in my morning coffee during what I’d consider my morning fasting period, and during extended fasts, as fats shouldn’t really spike insulin. But others would say there are carbs even in heavy cream, if a small amount, and any calories is too many calories to really count as fasting. Dr Jason Fung, whose advice I follow, says fats are a fasting “crutch” and though I would like someday to be a black coffee/water faster, I am not there yet and will keep using my cream crutch for the time being :slight_smile:

#31

Yes, I still need my cream crutch, as I can’t even think of drinking black tea or coffee (both of which I truly dislike and never drank before now, even with sugar) I have a habit of always having a hot drink at hand, all year round. What about almond milk? That isn’t allowed in fasting, is it?

(Liz ) #32

If you are going to put anything in your hot drink, high fat is best. Butter or ghee, heavy cream, coconut oil all great!

#33

Problem is, apart from heavy cream, I find all other fats taste yucky in hot drinks. I try to add a bit of almond milk with vanilla so I can bear the taste. Can I put vanilla extract or other essences, you think to make them more palatable?

(Liz ) #34

I don’t understand the question? Heavy cream is fine! No need to change it. As a tip, I do use an immersion (stick) blender to emulsify fats into my coffee. Good luck!

#35

I meant that when I tried any other pure fats (since it’s still debatable whether heavy cream is pure enough and if it triggers any adverse reactions) I couldn’t bear them. I do have a such a stick and it makes the taste marginally better for me, but I still feel a drink with butter that way is sort of a punishment. :persevere:

Thanks so much for all your input. I’m going to try the 90 minute window and hopefully this will make a difference.