Frustrated and waiting

(Joe Maholik) #1

I have been doing keto for 4 weeks and was expecting more change. I decided to do keto based on my research where I learned about weight loss, fat loss, clarity of mind, and just feeling better. I only want to lose about 6-8 pounds, but was hoping to move my fat from 20% to 15%. The keto diet was not a huge change for me because I did not eat hardly any breads, pastas, etc. I do miss sweet potatoes because I ate them 4-5 times per week previously.

I am not losing weight or fat and I have kept my carbs around 20 or lower consistently. I am also suffering from constipation and trying to work through that. I am not a quitter, so I do not want to give up but the constipation is annoying especially without the other results.

Please advise. Thank you!

(Connie Hobbs) #2
(less is more, more or less) #3

How do you define “doing keto?” What a normal day of eating for you? What foods are you avoiding? Are you keeping your carbs, total, below 20 grams?

(Connie Hobbs) #4

Try taking your measurements. And drink 8-10 glasses of water a day to help with the constipation. Also eating high fiber/high fat will help with constipation. Good luck :smile:

(Full Metal KETO AF) #5

Adequate salt will help you stay hydrated, constipation is the result of dehydration.

(Joe Maholik) #6

I am following a strict keto diet. Carbs below 20, high fat, and moderate protein. I start the day with:
1 drink of ACV, lemon drops, and a turmeric cinnamon addition.
2 my coffee contains brain octane, ghee, stevia and creative
3 typical meals in Claude 2 eggs and an avocado, maybe grass fed hamburger, some cheese but not too much. Etc., etc.

I workout about 40 minutes 4-5 times a day with some weights and some cardio. What am I missing here?

(Joe Maholik) #7

High fiber fat? What would that include?

(Full Metal KETO AF) #8

Too much exercise early on isn’t good. Tone down the work outs a lot for a while. Maybe 4x per week instead of 4-5 times a day. You’re body needs rest during the transition.

(less is more, more or less) #9

More details, please. This is insufficient to understand what you mean by “strict keto.” There is so much bad and misleading information on what keto means, it’s not safe to presume what you mean by this.

(Joe Maholik) #10

4-5 times per week. Sorry about that - I need my first cup of coffee.
I eat farm fresh eggs, bacon, home made fat bombs, steak, etc.

(Joe Maholik) #11

Let me add that my wife is eating the same items as me (less quantity) and has lost 8 pounds so far.

(Carl Keller) #12

Welcome Joe.

Vanity weight is the most difficult to lose. Our bodies look at fat much differently than our eyes do. Our bodies see fat as an insurance policy against starvation and will fight to keep some in reserve.

I was able to drop about 35 pounds in 3 months with keto but currently I’m about 3-7 pounds from my goal weight, depending on which way the wind is blowing, But not being able to shed that last bit of weight does not concern me because keto continues to give me consistent energy/endurance, I have almost none of the bodily inflammation that used to nag me on a carb based diet and I have never had greater discipline in my eating habits… to say the least.

Keto is about rehabbing our hormones and healing our bodies and weight loss just happens to be a positive side effect (in many cases). My advice to you is to ask yourself how many non-scale victories you can claim in the past 4 weeks and then ask yourself again if it’s really not working.

(Joe Maholik) #13

Great points Carl. I will attempt to stay the course, but noticing more significant wins would make it much easier. I appreciate the advice from everyone. It is great to have knowledgeable support on this forum.

(less is more, more or less) #14

Though we’re having an informal conversation, my question and your rather light on details response suggest to me where you need to focus more: when and what you’re eating.

When I see Dr. Westman, even after our many visits, his first question, and the majority of the time we spend during my office visit, revolves around what, when and how much I’m eating. Exercise can complicate weight loss, by the way.

FWIW, I don’t consume ACV, “lemon drops” (whatever that is) tumeric cinnamon, or whatever a “Claude 2 egg” is you don’t need to “hack” your regimen with unusual mixtures. The only hack is to keep your total carbs below 20 grams a day, and enjoy all the food at your local grocer. Eat to satiety. Don’t let the scale freak you out.

The low-carb diet is about our resetting our dinner plates to what it ought to be.

(Joe Maholik) #15

My ACV, lemon oil, cinnamon and turmeric drink is something I have been ding for a couple of years. It seems to help me maintain my immunity as I travel all over the US. Germs everywhere, but I am fortunate to hardly ever catch the common cold/other.

Does anyone know more about what exercise too much? I generally do interval training 1-2 days per week, and weights 2-3 days per week. Never more than 45 minutes per time.

Thank you!

(less is more, more or less) #16

Ah, very good. To be pesty and niggling, these are not “essential” on a low-carb diet.

Consider one of our forum’s luminaries, @juice. He actively maintains a running log of what he eats every day and details it here. Every day. So do others. There are several “accountability” threads that help the authors, and we readers, better understand how we should eat.

In some ways, low-carb or keto living is simple. The hard part is getting the old and wrong notions out of our heads. Fiber as we’ve long understood it isn’t as essential as we thought it was in the 90’s. BTW, some coconut oil, say, add a dollop to your next coffee, might just change any issues with constipation. However, not having daily bowel movements isn’t in itself constipation. I might go for days without log rolling. We’re all different.

Anyhow, welcome to the forum.

(Joe Maholik) #17

Lol! Before keto I would generally produce a log roll in the am after my bulletproof coffee. I generally add ghee or coconut oil to all of my cups of coffee ~ 4 per day. I am going to try to add more salt and see if that can help. Thank you!

#18

This seems just fine to me - I wouldn’t consider it too much at all.

(less is more, more or less) #19

That will depend on a large number of factors, including your genetics. age, sex, and level of insulin resistance. If you’re just starting an exercise regimen, take it easy. Don’t do that insane 400-pound tire flip popularized on “Biggest Loser”¹ Phinney and Volek argue that we have a basil metabolism for the day, and vigorous exercise will only use up your metabolism budget, leaving you lethargic for the rest of the day. I know on my vigorous run days I experience this, though I love, love, the rush of adrenaline, dopamine and endorphins I get when I run. For the older farts among us (hello!) focusing on weights may provide better weight management help. Again, do it for the fun, not for the “penance” of it, like on the CICO model.

¹ By “Biggest Loser” the network and show’s producers meant the audience who thought they were watching a show about weight reduction and management. Instead, they were watching a circus for pure entertainment.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #20

Increase your salt intake. Believe it or not, constipation is one of the symptoms of low sodium.

ETA: Hit enter too soon!

You are very close to your goal weight, so it is going to take some time for your body to move. Fat loss is slower, the closer we get to goal weight. And of course we and our bodies sometimes disagree on what our ideal weight is!

Be sure to keep your carbohydrate intake as low as possible, and be sure to get enough calories. Even in the absence of dietary carbohydrate, the body will not shed fat if it thinks there is a famine going on. The key is to eat to satiety: in other words, eat when hungry, stop when no longer hungry, don’t eat again until hungry again. In the absence of insulin (the result of keeping carbs low), the brain can start sensing satiety signals again, and hunger starts being a reliable guide to how much to eat. For me, the satiety signals started working again about 3 weeks into keto. Before that, it took a lot of food to satisfy me, and I suspect my body needed it all. Then, suddenly, my appetite dropped, and I wanted far less food.