Gaining weight first week of keto


#1

Hello all!
Lots of questions
So I am 1 week into keto. Last Sunday I was 194lbs, went down to 192 on Wednesday and today on Sunday I am 195.2

Everyone I know has SOME type of weight loss but I seem to stand still. I’ve weighed all my food, eat less than 20g net carbs, high fat, I’m in ketosis (pee sticks says around 15) and check my sugar. About 82 in the morning.

Do I just keep going on? I am just so afraid of gaining weight. I know I haven’t been sleeping well but I’m working on that.
I’m also working out 3+ times a week.


(John) #2

When I started I committed to 6 weeks.

I didn’t even weigh myself when I started, so I don’t know if I lost, gained, or maintained in week 1. My first scale reading was in week 2 when I had a regular scheduled doctor’s office appointment.

Those are such small fluctuations that they are not something I would even pay attention to. I usually see a 2 to 4 pound variation in my weight any given week. I only pay attention to Monday morning weigh-ins.


(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #3

Female weight tends to vary a lot more than male wt. Hormone flux and all keeps the weight going up and down.

Just keep calm and keto on KCKO. Let the long term “Trend By Your Friend”.


(Scott) #4

My wife and I started LC/HF WOE on July 10th. I lost weight faster than she did but as I slowed she kept on losing. You are going through a lot of changes right now so don’t get sidetracked into just focusing on the scale. Stay with it and you should start seeing results on the scale and in the mirror.


(Robert C) #5

Weight in the beginning is unimportant.

Focus on what you are doing - you are getting going your fat burning machinery.
You are investing in making it go from non-existent or weak to strong.

Give your body what it wants to do this and it will pay off later (i.e. regularly eating large and satiating keto meals without guilt).


(Carl Keller) #6

Hello and welcome to the forum.

I echo what the above posters suggest. Be patient and give it some time. Daily fluctuations of 1-2 lbs could easily be water and not ‘true’ weight gain. Just do your best to relax and get plenty of sleep. Lacking sleep and stress can be counterproductive to weight loss.


#7

Hi and welcome,

Hang in there. Sounds like you’re doing the right things, the 20g carbs is the most important thing to track. That will keep the burn-fat-not-sugar switch turned on.

As for those weights, they seem too frequent, you’ll need to average them out over a week or a month.

I check my weight daily, and if that’s all I did I’d be disheartened but over 4 weeks I lost 10lbs and 2 belt notches. An average or longer term number is better, not daily.

Your body regulates water within +/- 4.4 lbs so it’ll go up, down and sideways …


(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #8

A couple of things are going on here.

First, by your username, you appear to be a woman, and therefore your hormonal cycle is going to affect your fat loss.

Second, remember that you want to lose fat, not weight per se, because one of the things a well-formulated ketogenic diet can do for you is to increase your muscle mass and your bone density. This means that you can lose fat without necessarily losing weight. It is why we often say that keto is not a weight-loss diet, but a weight-normalization diet.

Third, a well formulated ketogenic diet has numerous health benefits, including reversing insulin resistance, lowering inflammation, increasing mental clarity, and improving cardiovascular health—all because of the lowered serum insulin level such a diet permits.

Fourth, the real goal is not so much to be producing ketone bodies as it is to become fat-adapted, a state in which muscles are using fatty acids for metabolic fuel in preference to glucose and even in preference to ketone bodies. This allows your body to make use of its store of excess fat, part of the weight-normalization I mentioned above. Fat-adaptation can take up to eight-weeks, sometimes even longer, so what happens in your first week is essentially irrelevant.

Lastly, if you are approaching your ketogenic diet as you would if it were a normal weight-loss diet, you are probably restricting your caloric intake. For various reasons, this is a mistake. Eat enough food to satisfy your hunger. At the beginning, this will be a scarily large amount of food, but as your serum insulin drops, your brain will start registering your satiety signals again, and it will set your appetite at a more reasonable level. You will most likely be eating at a caloric deficit, but the point is that you won’t be imposing such a deficit on your body, your body will be signaling to you, through your appetite, that you have given it enough. Only then will it feel safe parting with your excess fat.


#9

Working out you may retain quite a lot of water. So if you weighed yourself after a work out day that may explain it. Are you eating enough calories?