Fat-Adapted?

(Joni) #1

I’m on Day 20. Lost 7.5lbs, but since then has gained back 4lbs! I have kept my carbs below 20 but it’s likely my calories are a little too high for me. I stopped logging the last 5 days cause I have been eating the same thing. Just wondering if I should test for ketosis by blpod to make sure I am in it and on my way for being fat adapted?? How long does it take to be fat adapted? I know it’s okay to be a slow loser and I’m okay with that BUY just want to be sure I am on the right path. Tks!!!

Should I be concerned?
(ketohealthclub) #2

Hi!! Congratulations! A little info: a ketogenic way of eating isn’t a weight loss diet. It’s a method of metabolic repair. As your metabolism heals, metabolic issues like Type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, PCOS, some hormone-driven cancers and other metabolic issues are decreased and even reversed. Weight loss is a happy side effect of all this healing.

When you use up your glycogen stores, which hold a lot of water, you’ll see an initial whoosh of weight loss. The more water you’ve been holding, the greater that whoosh can be. Getting rid of that excess water weight is pretty awesome. Next, your body begins to adapt to burning ketones instead of glucose. Focusing on becoming fat adapted is better than focusing on weight loss. The weight will happen. It can take up to three week or up to three months (estimates) to become fat adapted. I think it took me about three months. Exercising helps teach your body to burn fat as fuel, by the way.

It was around fat adaption time that I really focused on weight loss more, and started Intermittent fasting. Now I’m starting to add exercise. It’s a journey!!

(Christopher John Howson) #3

Fat adaption is different for everybody and there is no straight forward answer. Unfortunately.

If one is rather overweight, then perhaps inevitably there will be weight loss plateaus

And this can be related to stress response and an evolutionary hang up

But as your body figures out what’s going on, weight loss will resume as normal with perhaps more plateaus until you reach your body’s natural intended weight.

Bear in mind that the weight you have in mind may not match what your body want.

Well done though Joni for sticking with it. A lot of people don’t get this far. Keep on trucking!! Beep beep!

(Christopher John Howson) #4

In case anyone might be wondering how water weight loss works actually works,
here’s a brief explanation as it eluded me for a while so thought I’d share…

When you change diet, any diet, not just to ketogenic - sodium (salt) and water are drawn to the kidneys.
As we all know, water and salt attract.

On a high carb diet, the body processes sodium differently; it is retained by the kidneys - however, in the absence of carbohydrate, as insulin levels and blood sugar drop, water is drawn to the kidneys for sodium excretion and flushes it out.

This is the body reconfiguring itself, and a reason sodium intake might have to increase (and other electrolytes) as your body continually flushes it through your system. This does correct itself though, over time, once you are through the keto-adaptation phase.

Hypertension can be quite common on high carb diets aswell excess water retention.
Cut the carbage, and hopefully you can rid yourself of these ailments of “modern civilisation”

Welcome to a better you!

(Joni) #5

Thank you all. I was honest because I did start solely for weight loss but then read and listened and realised that this could be my WOE forever. I’ll keep plugging along. Got nothing but time. Tks again.

#6

I would amend this to be more like, “a ketogenic way of eating is so much more than just a weight loss diet. It’s a method of metabolic repair.”

#7

No harm in that; I’m sure plenty of people first look into following a Keto diet for similar reasons. I hope you find the honesty in this KF community refreshing; yours is certainly appreciated. Keto is great for weight loss, no question; however if its treated as a quick fix or a meal plan to follow “just until” a goal weight is achieved, then the moment one reverts back to a non-Keto diet, it’s more than likely that the weight will pile back on…as well as all the other nasties that come with consuming a diet high in sugar and carbohydrates.

Like @ketohealthclub notes, many people who have found success with Keto came to this way of eating in response to illness (metabolic or otherwise) and have tried many different ways to improve their health only to be stymied by the poor rate of success with the low fat, calories in vs calories out approach that numerous health professionals promote. Consequently, the appreciation that many on this forum have for Keto is the overall health benefits that can be achieved with weight loss being a happy little side effect, indeed at times it can feel like a miracle cure. You’ll find many stories on KF where people have found symptoms for a variety of complaints and markers of disease not only improve but reverse due to this way of eating.

If people come to Keto in the first instance with only the intention to lose weight that’s fine; hopefully like yourself, they can then spend some time reading the great information here, find support from the KF community and maybe even decide after giving it a red hot go for a while that Keto is something that they’ll stick with well past hitting a certain number on a scale.

Unfortunately there’s no “one size fits all” with Keto which is why you’ll see so many references on the forums to n=1. Everyone’s starting position is different. Some people lose a stack of weight incredibly quickly, some (like yourself) initially have a good loss and then put on a little before losing again and others even consistently gain weight in the first month or two before seeing the scales move in the opposite direction.

What we can’t see so readily, is all the benefits occurring at a cellular level that don’t necessarily translate to a weight or waist measurement. Rest assured they are happening though.

Hang in there, be patient with both this way of eating and your body’s response to it (though at times that can be easier said than done), listen to the 2 Keto Dudes podcast on a regular basis and of course, keep doing what you’ve done by visiting us regularly here at KF to start, or join in, discussions and let us know how you’re going. KCKO :blush:

(Joni) #8

Hello! I’ve been doing this since the 1st. I’m doing it solely for weight loss BUT plan on continuing this way of eating because I feel great and I know it’s healthy. That being said, I originally lost 7lbs and now gained back 4lbs. I am keeping below 20 carbs and eating to satiety. Some nights not hungry for dinner. I have not logged my food after week one because I basically eat the same thing. Should I be worried and go back to logging? Or just keep plugging along waiting for the “woosh”? Should I test for blood ketones, so that tell me if I’m in ketosis and should just keep plugging along? What should I do? I truly hate logging food but will go back if you think I need to…

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(Liz Curtis) #9

Everyone is different and they have to learn what works for your body. If you don’t like logging don’t do it. Give your body a chance to change because it takes a while to start seeing results. I think it took me like 4-6 weeks before I started to feel slimmer regardless of what the scale said… she lies.

(AnnaLeeThal) #10

Don’t log if you hate it. That being said, sneaky carbs are everywhere so if there is something you are unsure about it is helpful to look it up or log it.

Give yourself a good couple months eating under 20 carbs and fat to satiety, then look at tweaking things if you aren’t moving towards your goals.

(Genevieve Biggs) #11

Yes, definitely too soon to start worrying. Give it a few more weeks. :+1:

#12

Congratulations for finding a way and making the choice to feel better because so many people don’t make the effort or just can’t get over the cognitive dissonance this requires when rethinking everything we’ve been bombarded with by current medical dogma and CI:CO.

That being said, I would suggest that anyone who’s overweight has some form of carbohydrate intolerance even if that doesn’t translate into detectable insulin resistance (IR), so even though some people report incredible weight loss early in the process, we have no way to compare their IR to our IR, so no way to know if we should expect the same results.

If carbs are truly low, keeping in mind what @AnnaLeeMI said about “sneaky carbs”, then testing for blood ketones is something I only do weekly or longer, unless I’m specifically testing my response to some change in diet and/or exercise.

@Joni you’re doing great and although some people fat-adapt quickly and lose weight quickly there are many that don’t, so Keep Calm and Keto On. :sunglasses:

(Arlene) #13

Hello Joni, I initially lost 6 lbs., then stayed there for 2 weeks…nothing, the scale wouldn’t budge. I was frustrated, so I looked at what I was consuming. The only suspect item was the amount of cream I was consuming in my coffee. I cut the cream in half, and within 2 days I started losing, and the weight is still slowly going down. It is helpful to look carefully at everything you put in your mouth. Be a detective, but stay calm. This is a process, and no two people are alike. Stay with it. Never give up. Best of luck to you.

(ketohealthclub) #14

I appreciate your perspective. Keto was not developed for weight loss, but it was found to have that effect. That feature has been emphasized to the point that people learn about keto as a “weight loss diet” and expect their body’s response to it to be similar to other “diets.” For this reason I purposely state that it’s not a weight loss diet, and I explain why. Knowledge is power.

(Meredith Loring) #15

If anyone is interested in more info on keto-adaptation, see this post that Jeff Volek and Steve Phinney just published: https://blog.virtahealth.com/keto-adapted/