I’ve been keto for about 4 months now and loving it but ever since I started I have noticed a steady gain in belly fat, which evidently appears to be visceral fat. This is the fattest my belly has been in years. The rest of my body is pretty lean but my belly is slowly getting bigger by the day. Ive been tracking my macros since the beginning but have been more dilligent lately due to my belly. My macros are pretty spot on at about 80% fat, 15% protein 5 % carb. My calories are slightly below maintenance and still no change. Ive even started to eliminate dairy and nuts to see if anyone change will come. Ive tried to research this and the only thing ive come close to an answer is I might have a fatty liver which might be impeding my metabolism of fats and proteins. God i hope not because I do feel pretty good on this keto lifestyle. Please help, ANY insight will be helpful. Thank you
Gained fat
if fatty liver is at the heart of it might be useful too keep in mind these things:
- Eat green leafy vegetables to support liver and/or take liver support supplements
- consider having ACV either as drink (1 tsp in hot water) or over salad
- consider fasting for longer periods of time if you feel fat adapted to help lower insulin levels - either IF or EF.
- make sure you’re going number twos every day to eliminate the toxins being released from liver
What’s happening with your body composition - I know you say you are putting on belly fat but are you loosing generally or gaining weight.
I have been experiencing the same thing. My intake is 89% fat (about 118g), 10% protein (30g), 1% carbs (2g). I´m in ketosis, today 2.4 and my glucose was 4.8. My calorie intake is aroung 1200 per day. Really, I think I should lose weight fast but I´m not. I´ve had stomach problems all my life and had a bad experience taking pencillin in the beginning of the year so I might have severe hormonal problems that takes time to heal. But it´s really hard to know. I lost weight a couple of years ago eating lchf with much less calories than now, I went down easy to my ideal weight. But now I don´t want to lose weight like that, I want to feel good at the same time and I love ketosis for making me so healthy and alert.
I started IF, 18h, a couple of weeks ago. That made a change but I havent been able to do in every day so It´s hard to know if it will fix the 5 kilos extra I have but I think it will. So my best advice for you is IF, and be sure to eat protein *80 of your goalweight.
I recently noticed this too. I don’t always go number 2 everyday. Is it safe to take a psyllium husk supplement or will it kick me out of ketosis?
Is your stomach tight and feels like a basketball is inflating or flabby and loose?
Mine is more flabby, like I just noticed what looked like an extra roll of fat when sitting down.
Are your measurements increasing? You may be losing fat elsewhere, making your waist fat more prominent. Is your weight actually increasing?
Are eating when not hungry? Your caloric intake may still be too high, it varies on an individual basis. Hunger is the best indicator.
Your body may run on fat very efficiently, your fat macro may be too high. A lower amount may cause you to draw more on stored fat. Consider switching to the 60/35/5% macro for a couple of weeks and eating only when hungry.
Usually, the first place excess fat is stored, is the last place it leaves.
Can you recommend a good liver support supplement? I’m trying to heal my fatty liver through fasting and and trying to find something to take.
I give my son phosphatidyl choline, and a milk thistle blend. Drastically reduced his fructose intake. Switched his diet to very low carb (not keto because of other issues). There is quite a bit of info online regarding liver supplements.
He had beginning of NAFLD, and we have reduced his enzyme levels although his ALT is not quite to normal…it’s close. I think if I could get him keto it would have been back to normal by now.
He has lost 50lbs, and is close to where he should be but after xmas I will be looking at IF for him, possibly switching to keto if we can. It has taken over a year for him to get to this point, but again, there are other issues factoring in to this.
The dark leafy greens either as themselves or as ‘digestive greens’ supplement support liver beautifully. Milk thistle also is an anti inflammatory and cleanser and will support liver.
Remember elimination is as important as cleansing - otherwise all those toxins have no where to go
If you feel good, you have no reason to stop. If reducing nuts (a problem for some) and/or dairy doesn’t help, you might simply reduce fat (80% is actually a bit high) and increase animal protein a bit. Don’t fear protein if your goal is to be lean.
Are you sure it isn’t just that the decreased proportions elsewhere isn’t making your belly appear larger?