Frustration with results

[KetoMomof2teens]

But Mark, nobody should be looking for rapid weight loss, no matter what the method is, keto, paleo, or whatever… (but keto is best hehe). We humans should be striving to be healthy and then weight loss is the by product. At the rate the body needs to go. Cutting out sugar, grains, gluten, and carbs is the healthiest way to live, in my personal opinion. If you do it for health first, then your body will reward you in all sorts of ways, you just have to be patient. Try eating more, limiting your carbs as much as possible, and listen to your body. It’s smart!

[striperseeker]

@Freefall_Doug it is aspertame.

[Freefall_Doug]

For many people aspartame can have a huge impact on insulin levels.

There is a stevia sweetened soda that I like called Truvia, they have a number of flavors that are close to name brand sodas.

I would suggest cutting the diet soda, see what changes with your ketones.

When you say you tried fasting, was it water fasting or did you consume diet soda on those days.

[Jennibc]

I have a friend, 52, he cut out diet coke last year and changed NOTHING else about his diet and he took off almost 20 pounds. Artificial sweetener can affect insulin levels. I have never been diabetic or prediabetic but that doesn’t mean I didn’t have hyperinsulinemia. If you have too much insulin in your blood, you are not going to lose weight. Consider reading The Obesity Code and see if the timing of your eating might be sabotaging your weight loss efforts.

[cw2001]

Why aren’t I in a measureable consistent ketogenic state of 1.3 or higer5?

Sorry, Mark, I’ve never used pee sticks, ketone blood meters, etc. I knew if I kept my carbs <20g/day, I had to be in ketosis after the first couple of days. In fact, I didn’t want to measure because I knew I’d tend to “use” that…as in, lots of ketones, I might give myself permission to cheat a bit. Low ketones and I’d beat myself up for not doing better. Best, for me, to just give this time to work, without any number expectations in my head.

Some folks track calories, some don’t, but the calories do not guide the food consumption, they just report on it.

I love the way you phrased that!

I will say that you can do everything perfectly ketogenic and something as simple as stress can prevent you from losing any weight.

I think that goes back to people expecting some sort of result…either what they see others doing, what they think they should be losing according to calculators, etc. It’s hard to NOT stress about it, but the stress is so counter-productive.

We humans should be striving to be healthy and then weight loss is the by product.

^That, so much!

[Regina]

Me. 20 pounds in a year.

[KBG]

I was surprised to see no one really commenting much on your ketone levels. You seem very perturbed that they are low. Low doesn’t mean ineffective. The article below does a nice job of discussing this.
Scroll about half-way down to the section titled “What’s the optimal ketone level for your ketogenic diet?”

What's a Ketone Blood Test And Do You Need One To Succeed?

It looks to me like you are on track. KCKO🤓. Please stop comparing yourself to others. Every body is different. You said you’d seen positive changes so you aren’t stagnant with this WOE. Your body is probably healing. Give it time to get around to the fat loss part. Best wishes.

[Freefall_Doug]

I was surprised to see no one really commenting much on your ketone levels. You seem very perturbed that they are low. Low doesn’t mean ineffective.

I tried to address it, but you did a much better job with a link to boot!

I will say that I recall that some keto researchers have said that any range of ketone production is a good sign (to caveat, it may have been someone citing someone else in a related discussion), and that there isn’t truly a low point where you aren’t ketogenic.

If you are making ketones then you have depleted your carbohydrate and glycogen stores, and have switched to alternative metabolic systems

[MooBoom]

whole foods dick

I can’t add anything to the already excellent advice you’ve been given, but I am having a giggle at your whole foods dick typo. Hint, the little pencil icon at the bottom of the post will allow you to fix the error if you’re so inclined- but I kinda hope you don’t!

[PaulL]

You don’t know how many calories you expend in a day, because you’ve never had your resting metabolic rate tested.

@striperseeker And on top of that, if you did have your metabolic rate tested you would know what it was on that day, but not necessarily what it is today.

The variation between 2 ribeye’s could be 40% just based on marbling and trimming.

@striperseeker And just to make it even worse, a gram of carbohydrate does not contain precisely 4 (kilo)calories of energy, nor does a gram of protein. Likewise, a gram of fat does not contain precisely 9 (kilo)calories, either. So rounding error alone ensures the inaccuracy of your calculations,

So your choice is really whether or not you will force your metabolism to fight back, reinforcing a vicious cycle, or trust your satiety hormones to slowly guide you down to a healthy body weight.

@striperseeker Nick is right. Your body evolved its hormonal regulatory systems over something like 2,000,000 years. It can easily adjust your metabolism to meet the conditions it encounters; down, in times of scarcity (whether real or self-imposed), up, in times of abundance (so why not eat abundantly?).

Do you really want to try out-thinking your body? Why not let it tell you how much it needs on a given day?

@Don_Q Nick, many thanks for providing such a great framework of comments.

[Don_Q]

@striperseeker And on top of that, if you did have your metabolic rate tested you would know what it was on that day, but not necessarily what it is today.

You ain’t kidding. This is the RMR chart of my friend Neil over at the IDM clinic forum. He owns an indirect calorimeter and tracks his RMR every single day. The blue dots are his daily RMR in Kcal/day, and are measured on the left Y axis. (Ignore the notes in red text, they refer to an experiment we’re doing, but the image was handy.) Admittedly, Neil is a special case, but the point stands.

RMR is a moving target to put it mildly. He can move from 2400kcal/day to 1800kcal/day in the same week. He and I both own indirect calorimeters, and we both eat to satiety. Why would we do that when we have thousands of dollars worth of metabolic testing equipment? Because satiety is more precise and reliable! Neil doesn’t even track calories.

[ZuleikaD]

Some folks track calories, some don’t, but the calories do not guide the food consumption, they just report on it.

I really want to “heart” @Don_Q 's post twice. I would make one small tweak to the above sentence to say that for some people calories may guide food consumption, but do not restrict it. If your “eat to satiety” meter is busted (and it is for a lot of people who shoveled masses of carbs in our mouths and never met a donut we couldn’t eat a dozen of), then having a guidepost where you can stop and think “Am I hungry and should I eat more, or is this just really yummy?” is useful. But I wouldn’t worry about this until you’ve spent at least a couple of weeks just eating.

[Tallchick]

I have to agree with all the sound advice you’ve been given. I’m female and started 01/15/19, I’m down 17 lbs, but I’m losing inches and I’ve never felt better. I’m me, you’re you, Bob is Bob, and Jill is Jill. I’m not going to lose the weight like anyone but me, it took me years to gain and it’s gonna take time to lose it. My body is not like Bob, Jill, or You, does it suck? Absolutely!!! My impatient self is like WTF! My reality self is like slow and steady, trust the process and tweek where necessary. Take a deep breath and KCKO.