Frustrated and want to give up (new to Keto)


#1

I started keto on 7/10/19. I have been using the Simply Keto book for meal ideas and planning. With the exception of some red wine, I haven’t cheated. My partner has lost 15 lbs, I have lost…2. Actually, I lost 4.5 the first few days, then gained, then lost some more, then gained, gained, and gained. Now, I’m 2 lbs from my baseline starting weight.

How do you stick with this? I feel so discouraged. You hear all these stories of folks losing 30 lbs in 6 weeks. I really need to lose weight. I have several important health goals. I’ve recently had to go on blood pressure medication and I’m in my 30s?! I want to start a family. I’m the biggest I’ve ever been and it’s miserable.

I don’t really know what I’m looking for in this forum, just feeling hopeless :disappointed:


(Susan) #2

Welcome to the forum, Ally =).

Your partner is a male; males almost always tend to lose a lot faster then us ladies for some weird, annoying reason! It frustrates all women, seriously! Please don’t give up. I weighed 293 in February when I began Keto, and I am now 250, and my goal weight is 120. I still have 130 pounds to lose, and I just had a stall of almost 2 months, with no weight loss. I was very frustrated, but I didn’t give up, and now I am losing again.

If you try to stick to these simple rules this should help:

Eat no more than 20 grams of carbs a day, NO sugar (some people even have issues eating artificial sweeteners so maybe for now, cut them out as well), get enough calories! from proteins and healthy fats, and drink a lot of water, and Electrolytes. I started Keto when my blood pressure was over 200 and my doctor wanted to put me on the blood pressure meds and I said no, and have brought it down significantly with Keto.

I am 54, I have 5 kids and 2 grand children, and have a terrible history of eating disorders and yo-yo dieting since I was a pre-teen, so if I can do this at my age, you can do this, 20 years younger than me! You will feel amazing, and get in great shape, and then be able to start your little family, and have the entire family on Keto.

I wish I knew back then what I know now, and could have done that for my own children. Please stick around here, we all want you to succeed. There is a wealth of information, support, guidance and encouragement on this forum. Please don’t give up =). You can do this!


(Joey) #3

EVERYTHING SUSAN SAID (before I hit refresh on my browser) and here’s my reply:

I’m so sorry to hear that you’re feeling so hopeless and frustrated … it’s certainly understandable.

Everyone’s situation is different so it’s hard to give actionable and prudent advice from a distance (and, in my case, being such a newbie myself doesn’t give me much credibility or confidence to help either).

Not everyone gets through the changeover to ketosis as quickly (or easily) as others - so one possibility is that it will simply take you a bit longer.

But I’m guessing another potential challenge may be that you THINK you are sticking to a highly restricted carb diet … but the reality may be that you’re not quite as restricted as you think. If you need to get <20g daily - for example - and you’re really still eating say 30-40 carbs/day, then the fat you’re eating is not getting burned … it’s getting stored by your body for a rainy day. And that glass of red wine is contributing about 4g of carbs (20% or more?) of that 20g carb ceiling.

QUESTION: Are you testing for ketones (ideally in your blood, but even in your urine from the outset)? If so, what do these results suggest?

SUGGESTION: Perhaps more importantly, are you really counting your carbohydrates CAREFULLY? An app like CarbManager might really help you get a clear handle on how much you’re eating from each of the macronutrient groups. The free version is more than enough to get to the bottom of this issue. This will help you narrow down where your intake is coming from.

Finally, I’m afraid the red wine may not be ideal for you at this early stage. I say this as one who really enjoys a glass of dry red with every dinner - but apparently I’m able to “get away” with it at this point without jeopardizing ketosis. Your body will metabolize the alcohol before it is forced to metabolize the (hopefully minimal) carbs in your food, which also is before it ever seriously gets to metabolize proteins and ultimately the fats … the latter of which is the way of forcing your body to transition into ketosis.

In short: you may have to put the red wine aside for a week or two until you get into the groove, then reintroduce it slowly - counting your carbs carefully - and ideally testing along the way to see what effect it has. You may comfortably enjoy that daily glass of red without upsetting your overall progress, but maybe not quite yet in your trajectory towards your larger health goals.

Please look into one or more of these suggestions - along with the sage advice you’ll likely get from far more experienced keto’ers hanging around here.

In any event, please DON’T just give up. You need to explore further to see what’s getting in the way of your own unique progress and resolve the issues so you can enjoy the great benefits awaiting you on the other side!


#4

The health benefits can happen before you notice a significant weight loss. Maybe banish the scale for a bit and start taking BP readings instead?


(Cancer Fighting Ketovore :)) #5

It’s great to use books for inspiration, but I’ve found they don’t always have the best macros. I’ve found recipes that have relatively high carb counts for how people who are trying to eat <20g of carbs a day. There are lots of sneaky carbs out there too.

Another thing is to make sure you are eating enough at each meal so you don’t need to snack. Remember, this is about carb restriction, not calorie restriction!

If you want feedback on the meals you’ve been eating, feel free to post them and we can offer insight.

Also, make sure you are drinking enough, and getting enough salt!


(Scott) #6

Look on the bright side, you didn’t gain weight. At 15 days in you haven’t even scratched the surface of keto. Stay with it and keep reading and watching YouTube to educate yourself. I would also recommend the 2ketodudes podcast starting at episode one.


(Full Metal KETO AF) #7

Not just the carbs in wine, but alcohol stalls ketosis and fat adaptation because your body is going to process alcohol before even looking at glucose and fats.

Fat processing by your liver into ketones is a crucial part of keto and fat adaptation. Drinking alcoholic beverages can really stretch out the time that takes or even keep you from becoming fat adapted. I would recommend abstaining from alcohol at least for 2 months to let your body adapt to keto without hindrance. Going back to carbs won’t help you in anyway so stick to keto and do your best to make it work. Keep your goals in mind and look for your power inside to keep them moving forward. There’s a lot going on with keto other than fat burning. Keto is about getting hormonal responses healthy and that fixes lots of issues including excess weight. Look for improvements other than on the scale. Changes in the way clothes fit often appear before actual weight loss.

I don’t find eating this way restrictive at all. I have missed what I gave up less and less as time goes on and enjoy keto meals very much. I feel better and my health has improved drastically in the last 10 months. I am on this for life because of my health issues that have gotten under control now and I won’t loose that for carb eating pleasure that’s dubious now with me being so improved.

Check out this thread and others for inspiration from what others are eating.

I wish you the best and success with KETO.

:cowboy_hat_face:


(Katie) #8

Stop drinking any alcohol. Wine too. You might be having a tough time with weight loss because of a fatty liver…combined with provoking your liver by adding alcohol to its load, this could be a problem with losing weight.

What worked for me. Make a bunch of easy to grab snacks in advance.

I make 12 muffins with eggs, bacon, cheese. Back them in a muffin papers. Boil lots of eggs. Make some fat bombs…my favorite is shredded salmon mixed with cream cheese and basil. Bake up a bunch of chicken legs (I love cold chicken and cold turkey). Wrap you favorite cheese up with prosciutto or other deli meat.

Have these available all the time.

Start with eating only these things for snack. Prepare nice meals once a day… grilled salmon, ribeye steak, buffalo burgers, oxtail or sheep. Mix it up to keep the diet from becoming boring.

Only when you are able…cut back to 2 meals a day…then to one. But don’t force it…your hunger will abate with time.


(Full Metal KETO AF) #9

I agree except that OMAD doesn’t work for everyone, myself included. I just can’t eat sufficiently on OMAD because my stomach has shrunk and I don’t want it stretched out again from huge meals. Twice a day with IF is working a charm for me. I am not saying I can’t do it but have found it not to be an optimal choice for me. I have to push to get above 1500 calories doing TMAD often and I would tend to under eat on OMAD to avoid GI discomfort.

:cowboy_hat_face:


#10

Thank you so much for the replies! So much to be learned! I appreciate the support, and I agree. Wine needs to go! :slight_smile:


(Robert C) #11

Most of the people with these fantastic weight loss stories are actually calorie restricting while eating very small amounts of Keto-type foods (so claim to be Keto but are not really doing Keto as a “way of eating”). Any positive Keto effects are drowned out by the negative effects of calorie restriction.

A general characterization of Keto in the first 2 months is small weight loss or gain while your body is fat adapting (sometimes a little weight change as the body adjusts the amount of water it wants to hold on to based on the dietary change).

The real plan is to fix a broken metabolism that can have you still gaining weight because previous regular dieting slowed it so much. Think of moving from 1500 calorie burn on a sedentary day moving up to 2500 or more on a sedentary day. Then regular, sustained and permanent weight loss takes place. The calorie restricting (but eating Keto) people will likely bounce, just as they did with the last 10 calorie restricting diets they attempted. Their metabolism will slow and they’ll still gain weight on fewer and fewer calories.

After you are fat adapted - you’ll have no trouble skipping some meals (you won’t be hungry) and pulling the calories directly from local fat stores - that is where the magic happens.

I would say you have several health goals - drinking wine means they are not “important” health goals.


(Trish) #12

Hi there, and welcome to the group. I will echo what all the others have said by saying, stay strong and hang in there. I promise you it will be worth it. My suggestions are as follows:
Use a food tracker such as cronometer.com. It’s free and the GUI (graphic user interface) is easy and appealing to use. Be sure to track everything. It’s easy to forget the little things like condiments, or the butter or oil you fried something in, the salt and pepper you added to your fried egg, etc. Yes, it can be a bit of a pain, but totally worth it to monitor for ‘carb creep’. Also good to be able to see at a glance any nutrients you are routinely low in getting.
Stick to less than 20 grams of net carbs. This is a given.
Do urine keto tests. The strips are inexpensive and it’s super easy. It will let you know if you are indeed in ketosis. If not, reduce your carbs further to get into ketosis.
Avoid artificially sweetened stuff especially keto junk food. Keto cheese cake with almond flour and a cup of Swerve is not your friend. Eat real food. Meats and veggies.
No alcohol for the time being. None. Nada. Nil. Zilch.
Please give us a bit more information about you. Age and weight for starters. Also a sample of what you are eating in a day would be useful.
It would also be helpful to know what if any other health problems you may be battling. For instance, do you have PCOS, diabetes, autoimmune conditions, highly irregular menstrual cycles, etc., as all of these can and will affect your results.
Please get a tape measure out and measure yourself. It is a known fact that people will have dropped a dress or pant size or two despite the scale showing no weight loss. Personally, I don’t care if the scale says 200 pounds if I’m a size 5 LOL.
Back on the topic of food, make sure you are not snaking or effectively eating all day long. Try one or two meals a day such that you are ‘fasting’ for 16 or 18 hours, if possible.
Ok, I think that’s probably it for now. I don’t want to overwhelm you or make you feel like you have homework now LOL.
Hang in there girl. You can do this. :smile:


(Bunny) #13

I was curious about something?

Are you hungry doing this?


(Parker the crazy crone lady) #14

I have the same problem. I can easily eat one meal a day (omad), but I canNOT get enough calories that way.


split this topic #15

24 posts were merged into an existing topic: Momof5’s Accountability and Random Ramblings Thread =)


(Gemma) #16

Hi maybe not relevant but sharing in case it is…do you have hot drinks and use a sugar substitute? We had been using what we thought was a zero carb sugar alternative that was purely sucralose. How dumb we were to not realise how absurd that sound and to find it was 1% sucrolose and the rest MALTODEXTRIN! How the heck we were staying in any form of ketosis I will never know but our weight loss started to halt a bit, this week we switched up to erythrotol and its worked wonders. Acetone breath reading have doubled, energy and motivation have increased and weight is falling again

Just a thought in case you do


(Wendy) #17

Hi Alley! Just hang in there! When I started in April my husband had already lost 50# and I asked him if he minded being married to a fat woman. At that point I was in tears. Cause we had been together since we were kids and both have had the weight ups and downs. He had seen me on so many diets, with minor results. Last yr ended up in the hospital. Didn’t realize low blood sugar affects your heart. All my yrs of dieting reared its head finally. So I asked him for help. Progress was soo slow!!! So I got on this forum looking for help, and hopefully some answers. Found a few things that helped. Even today I learned something new. Maltodextrin!! Geeze I have an allergy to Dairy. I thought had found something that I could use as a treat, with my coffee. Well Thanks to some of the forum users, the Leaner Creamer went in the trash! Did some research, and it’s bad stuff. And brought my attention to look harder at the label of foods that I am consuming. Anyway, I read that this gal was in a stall. So she started eliminating things from her daily diet. And she eliminated dairy. And her weight started falling off! So my husband said wel have our coffee black for a week and see what happens. Well the scale finally started to move. And now I’m 32# down. I wasnt about to give up! He has now lost 65# pretty much at his goal weight. Me I’m half way. So just be patient, and read everything you are questioning. Hopefully you will find some help and ideas to try. Best of all you will get the Support from everyone!!:heart:


(Susan) #18

Awesome, Wendy, congrats =).


(Wendy) #19

Thank you Susan! :blush:


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #20

This lecture by Dr. Stephen Phinney, may answer quite a few of the questions raised in this thread. The lecture is in two parts.

I have just re-watched these videos for the fourth or fifth time, and have picked up more new stuff that I hadn’t caught the first few times.