Frustrated slow Loser

(Briton) #1

M 42 t2 diabetic. Been keto 9 mo only lost 25 lbs. I do a moderate calorie deficit and follow keto macros. I workout 3x a week doing StrongLifts 5x5 and Tabata HIIT. I’m getting super frustrated and I’m confused because I’ve been stalled for a month but before this weight loss was only .5 to 1 a week. I think I am going to go to IF to lose anymore weight but it seemed I should still be losing with what I’ve been doing. I have a good 45 lbs to reach my goal weight.

SW-245
CW- 219
GW- 175

Suggestions???

(Emma Cohn) #2

I think it’s great that you’ve lost 25lbs in 9 months. .5lb to 1lb weight loss per week is considered a healthy and sustainable rate of loss. Especially considering the exercise your doing is building dense heavy muscle as well. How are your Clothes fitting? Do you take body measurements? You are probably not getting the whole picture with just your scale weight. What does your blood work tell you? Try IF if you want to, (I love it). But don’t feel like you have to. You’re already making great progress, dont stress it.

(Briton) #3

Thanks. Blood work is much better and I’ve dropped a size.

#4

Definitely, do IF and perhaps extended fasting once you get the hang of IF! It seems to work for many people myself included.

(Roy D) #5

Briton,

I’m wondering if you are coordinating with your physician during your keto weight loss, and if your medications (for t2 diabetes) is impacting your weight loss.

A focus of a keto diet (for weight loss) is to reduce the body’s production of insulin. If your current medication includes the intake of insulin, then this may be making weight loss more difficult. Dr. Eric Westman has multiple videos posted on YouTube related to his clinical experience, and indicates a reduction of medication while applying a keto diet. If this is the case, it may be helpful to coordinate your keto diet with your physician for potential reduction.

It may be helpful to diagnose your situation if you list target macros, daily calories, and maximum daily carbs. Targets for macros on a keto diet I’m familiar with are;

5% Carbs
20% - 25% Protein
70% - 80% Fat

Maximum daily intake of total carbs is 20g

If you have not yet had a chance, I’ve the book “The Obesity Code” by Dr. Jason Fung a good read that discusses not only the Keto diet, but also impacts on t2 diabetes, and IFing.

Another item I found helpful is to track food intake with an application such as MyFittnessPal (free version). This helped me learn which foods are better on a keto diet, and also helped me find “hidden” carbs in the foods I was eating.

(Mary) #6

I lost 30 lbs in 2016. My body would really like 30 more lbs but it has been hard to get it to move.
I realized more than anything, I’m messing up by “thinking” about losing weight…
I’m working hard at just maintaining the thought …I want to be strong and healthy…and active…and slimmer, but that is no longer my only aim…If I think about the scale, which I see daily, it is a “world” view that you must be slim or skinny or whatever…

I made 60 last JULY. I have a 92 year old dad, very inspirational…strong and maintains a trim figure and is sharp as a tac! Every possibility I will live another 30 years…so this body has to be at its best…

My two cents. You are doing what you need to to be your best. Make time for peaceful occupations…meditations, easy walks, prayer…cortisol will lower and weight will go down…

I’ll chime in when mine goes down again…been a long 15 months at this weight, only started keto this week officially.

(Brian) #7

Losing slow is still losing!

Don’t turn your victory into a defeat by your thinking that it should have been more or faster. You are a success! Continue to be one. In other words, “keep calm and keto on.”

That’s not to say that intermittent fasting thrown into the mix would be a problem. If it’s something you’d like to try, do, and see how it goes for you. Or not.

There are stalls along the way for almost all of us. That’s pretty normal.

Congratulations on a good start to your journey! :slight_smile:

(Briton) #8

I do track my macros with my fitness pal and stay under 20 net carbs. My insulin has been reduced from 60 units x2 daily to 10 units 2x daily. Trying my best to get off insulin all together.

(Roy D) #9

Briton, there are 2 schools of thought with respect to the maximum goal for daily carbs;

  1. School #1 is 20 grams of net carbs,
  2. School #2 is 20 grams of total carbs

I’ve had success following the 20 grams of total carbs per day. (It also seemed simpler for me as MFP automatically tallies total carbs, and I didn’t want to go thru the effort of tallying carbs from fiber to subtract to obtain net carbs.) If you are severely insulin resistant, you may want to reduce your daily carb count to a maximum of 20 total carbs. (The total carb count is a method Dr. Westman recommends. I have not heard what other keto gurus recommend.)

It is possible to gain weight on a keto diet if excessive calories are consumed. With a loss of 25 lbs, your metabolism may have slowed enough to take a step down in the daily calorie count.

There are multiple applications of IF, some define an daily eating window (i.e. only eat during 4 hours every 24 period), some define only eating twice a day, some define eating One Meal a Day (OMAD), while others define IF as a multi-day effort. One strategic factor with all of these is to space feeding windows wide apart, and eliminate any eating/snacking between the eating windows. One advantage of this approach is to allow insulin levels to decay to low(er) levels between the feeding periods. One downside side to this approach (especially if on medications) is the risk of hypoglycemia.

There are other websites (run by medical professionals) that may contain additional hints/information that may have article/FAQs/blogs be of help to you;

https://idmprogram.com

(Allan L) #10

IF or OMAD works for me.

Try dropping your fat macro (NO added fat like BFC etc, only fat from fatty protein), keeping your protein as per lean body mass and change carbs from net to total 20g.

This is the approach I have had to take before to get the scales moving again.

(Allan L) #11

And have you adjusted your macros after losing weight?

Use an online tracking tool too, watch those macros!

(Briton) #12

Yes I have adjusted my macros everytime I weigh in on a weekly basis.

(Allan L) #13

Try removing all carbs other than carbs that come from protein & fatty food like avo’s. Total carbs no more than 20g.

Dairy can also cause stalls.

Fast

Remove all added fat, only fatty meat like ribeye, 80/20 mince, pork belly etc.

(Briton) #14

Like carnivore?

(Allan L) #15

Well, thats an option for a week or so, the goal being driving your carbs low for a short burst and watching the results.

But I just try to remove all the added veg and stuck to total carbs < 20g, not net carbs. Only needed to do it for a week or so and once the weight started to drop again I moved back to net carbs without any negative effects.

Switch it up, try new things, one day eat loads of food, the next day just one small meal. Keep your metabolism guessing. This is what helped me and my weight loss.

(Briton) #16

Thanks. Sounds like a plan.

(Allan L) #17

It could also be fat, maybe you need to drop your fat. If you have lots of added fat like BPC etc then this could be stalling your weight loss.