Feeling defeated

(Q Ish) #1

Ending my fourth week on keto. Feel great but after the initial weight drop, my number is stuck in one place. Same with inches. I am not loosing anything. Ugh my urine test is showing large ketones but I need to see something but I see nothing. I might have gained a few pounds back. Any advice? I am doing 20g carbs, 113 g fat, and 86 g protein at a 1457 calories. I don’t always consume 20g carb, sometimes lower and sometime higher. Similar with fats and protein. I am 219 pounds. Started at 229 and went down to 216 the first two weeks of the diet and now stuck at 219- 220. Help!

(Running from stupidity) #2

That’s not many calories at first glance, without an other details like age, height, etc.

People often level off while your body changes fuel sources.

“Sometimes higher” than 20g isn’t a great idea early on.

Take the feeling great and plow on.

Paging @ava_ad0re for your speech.

(Chris) #3

This a million times over. Emphasis on your calories, how long have you been eating in the 1400 range?

Chronic caloric restriction is a fast-track to a dead metabolism. Your body adapts to run on what it’s given, it won’t burn extra calories at all if it’s not used to requiring them. The way to fix this is to eat more, not be afraid of a little weight gain, and then gradually reduce calories, but stagger them and bring them back up every so often. Monday eat 2500, Tuesday go for 1700, Wednesday 2200, Thursday 1800, Friday 2500, Saturday 2000, Sunday 1800, Monday 2300. Those are example numbers but once you fix your problem of needing more calories, your body will learn to burn fat faster.

(KetoQ) #4

Hi Q_ish –

You can’t change the reality of the numbers, but you can change your perspective.

A ten pound weight loss in one month is excellent – and for you – that’s nearly a 3.5% loss of total body weight. That is a good start. And consider that your body needs some time to adjust to the changes, and that ongoing weight loss will be slower.

If your macros are on point, just keep doing what you’re doing. I think keeping to < 20g carbs is a huge accomplishment in itself, because it shows this WOE is sustainable for you.

I don’t know your gender, but weight loss on keto can be slower for some women because their hormonal system is much more complex than for us dudes.

So be patient and give yourself credit for what you’ve achieved so far.

Good luck,
Q

#5

Weight loss is a long and slow process. Be patient and stick to the program. It’ll pay off in the end.

(J) #6

You’ve gotten some great advice here. I agree that your calories seem super low for your starting weight. Sometimes you have to start with the healing and let the weight loss follow in its own time. You need more fuel to run your body and then more to heal it. As your metabolism and endocrine system heal themselves, weight will probably start to come off. While the hormonal theory of weight loss doesn’t put calories front and center, you still need enough to fuel your life or your body will think it’s starving and slow your metabolism way down to compensate.

To share some perspective: I am a “normal” weight, average height woman. I do keto for my metabolic and endocrine health, not for weight loss. I had terrible reactive hypoglycemia and a number of other health issues prior to keto. I eat around 1700+ calories most days to maintain my weight with macros of 60-70% fat, 20-25% protein, 5-10% carbs (usually under 20g net or 40g total with some rare exceptions.)

My feeling is to increase your calories. Keep your carbs low and your fat high and let your body heal. KCKO!

(Q Ish) #7

Wow guys thanks. Anyone can suggest a good keto calculator I can use because the ones I have been using been giving me these calorie count to consume. I would not mind eating more. Lol

(Chris) #8

I don’t recommend calculators, all of them seem to be based on different variables. Which one did you use originally?

(Frank) #9

You said it right there. Listen to your body and if you’re hungry eat. Stay within your carb limit, adequate protein, and fat until satiety. Until you feel comfortable cutting back on meals don’t. Stay near or even above maintenance levels of calories. You’ll know when your bodies ready to eat the sticks of butter it has hanging on it. Once that starts let it happen and only eat when hungry. That’s when the magic really happens.

(Frank) #10

I used carb manager at the beginning to get baseline and then sporadically over the past 10 months when I’ve stalled and needed to troubleshoot.

(Q Ish) #11

I am using carb manager too. It’s a life saver. I think I got the numbers off ruled.me to be around 1500 calorie intake. Today I will eat close to 1800 calorie, p 114 and f 138g. I was doing this before but then thought I was eating too much. I am so confused with these numbers and ratios. Ugh

(Lonnie Hedley) #12

Carbs under 20g net. Fat and protein have a lot more wiggle room. Give your body the fuel it needs, and it will reward you by starting to burn fat. Eat when hungry, try to keep it to regular meals, not snacks. Fine tune later as you get more comfortable and less confused. The number 20 is generally considered the most important of all numbers in regards to keto.

(Frank) #13

Was it giving you that 1500 number based on a deficit goal for weight loss? If so, just change it to maintenance and ride that out until you’re ready.

#14

Totally this. You have lost over 3 lbs a week which is impressive. It will still be impressive if you lose nothing for the next month at just over 1.5lbs a week. It is very normal to grab the good weeks’ loss and set your goals accordingly but this is absolutely guaranteed to make you feel crappy because you have set yourself up to fail. Hardly anyone loses in a linear fashion and it is normal to have weeks and maybe months when you lose nothing or gain some back. I was ow carb and had weight loss surgery and would stall for months on end - frustrating as hell but completely normal and I got there in the end. Try to zoom out and look at the bigger picture - taking an average is just one thing you can do to switch your perspective from feeling like something is going wrong to actually realising you are doing really well and feeling chuffed with yourself :slight_smile:

(Frank) #15

In the beginning it’s about changing fuel from carbs to fat and allowing your system to get adapted to that.

(Stacy Tutka Longacre) #16

I started drinking a gallon of water a day and that seemed to break my stall.