Having a very discouraging time

(julie) #1

hello:
I have been on Keto for 4 weeks. I even bought a keto mojo machine which i have used once and am not in keto. I am struggling. For 4 weeks i use my fitness pal and religiously stayed under 20 grams of carbs and non sugar at all. i feel awful now, i am scared to get on the scales cause my clothes feel tighter…I have an addictive personality and like to do things right. Can anyone help me.

(Whitney ) #2

I’m right there with ya, Sister!!! Frustrating!

(Consensus is Politics) #3

There is a time when starting Keto where your body is going through a change. It’s re-tooling the factory to burn ketones instead of sugar. And since you aren’t supplying sugar, it’s using up its reserves. So, you should at the very least lose water weight, as your body uses up its reserves.

Give us a look at your eating habbits for a typical day. How many meals, what times, etc.

(Karl Bork) #4

Are you doing intermittent fasting?

(Dan Dan) #5

If you would give us an example of your daily meals, eating window, and your body composition it would be easier to help :grin:

“May the Force (fat adaption) be with you”

IF/EF Keto WOE is Self-Discovery :wink:

Good luck and much success in your journey in IF/EF Keto WOE :grin:

(julie) #6

Hi Dan
I have a bullet proof coffee at 7a, eat 2 eggs with some heavy cream mixed in with them scrabbled, 2 pieces of bacon at 11a, 2pm i had today a salad with romaine, a 4 oz hamburger patty 2 hard boiled eggs some blue cheese and some olive oil…2 string cheeses for snack and a ice coffee with 2 tablespoons of 1/2 and 1/2

for dinner tonight i usually eat maybe eat a few larges slices of cheese and have hot tea with heavy cream in it. one thing i would like to mention is i have quit excercising due to my work schedule for the next month. I did spinning religiously and now i have stopped. not sure if that could be it too.

#7

I would definitely look at reducing your eating window, or even just sticking to mealtimes and skipping the snacks. If I were great at that myself (I can fast easily but when I eat I really struggle not to snack) I would give you more advice on this :slight_smile: but basically: if you’re constantly triggering an insulin response, you’re staying in “fat storage” mode or at the very least, you’re not letting your body tap into its own fat stores. You can’t access your fat when insulin is high.

(Dan Dan) #8

you appear to be high protein and eat all day which will keep insulin all day :thinking:

cut out snacks and shorten eating window and add fat :smiley:

“May the Force (fat adaption) be with you”

IF/EF Keto WOE is Self-Discovery :wink:

Good luck and much success in your journey in IF/EF Keto WOE :grin:

#9

If you’ve only measured your ketones once, how do you know that you’ve not been in ketosis at some point during the past month?

The key to losing weight is to get your insulin down. A LC diet can help with this, but it may not be sufficient. IF or EF may be necessary. Blood glucose is a better proxy for insulin. Start tracking it at several times throughout the day: upon waking (fasting), before and after (60-120 min) meals. Assuming your not diabetic, it should be low initially, rise after eating, then fall back to basal levels.

If you’re getting inpatient, try a 3 day water fast. That should get you into ketosis and lower your BG. Then start IF, and monitor what happens to your levels. If they rise precipitously, that’s a signal to fast more and eat less frequently.

(Bunny) #10

I am willing to bet your not eating enough fat?

(Consensus is Politics) #11

What Bunny said.

I would also agree with the others about when you are eating. It’s a bad habit of mine to snack all day long. Then I discovered the effects of insulin. So now I force myself to only eat or snack within a 4 hour window.

Insulin does a lot more than shuttle sugar. It also will prevent fat from being used. So the key there is keep insulin low during the non mealtime hours so you will burn the fat instead.

Insulin also causes inflammation. Once I discovered that, I was able to stop the morning stiffness I would wake with. In the mornings it was hard to get out of bed. Not even weight related. Just sore all over like had a hard days work. Now I eat only until about Noon. After that I try not to eat at all to prevent insulin spikes. On the rare occasion I feel like I just have to have something, I’ll have a slice of bacon, or some pepperoni, or an avocado. High fat foods, low or no protein, preferably no carbs at all.

(julie) #12

Thank you everyone. Would you all mind tellin* me what you consider IF. I told to stop eating T 7pm and not eat until 11 am the next day. Would that be considered IF? I follow directions very well so just tell me what to do. :slight_smile:

(Dan Dan) #13

Yes it is but you have a eight hour window of insulin because you eat every couple of hours :thinking:

It would be better to eat the same thing but in two meals and a 4 hour window as your not getting much calories barely 1000 kcals and definitely not high fat :open_mouth:

(Bunny) #14

Now here is the real tricky part as Dr. Berg was describing in his video!

What little fat you are eating (or eating too much fat?) may be attributed to burning (oxidized) dietary fat and not your own fat?

So the ketone numbers you are seeing are dietary!

(Dan Dan) #15

@willow17 @atomicspacebunny

True but not the case here with barely 1000kcals daily :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

More likely starvation mode :thinking:

To become fat adapted more calories and fat are needed :wink:

(julie) #16

So Eating between 12 and 4 would be good with high fat foods then from 4pm til 12 the next day don’t eat except for water and coffee?

#17

Yes. You could extend it to 6 hours if you want, depending on what works for you and your home.

My first thought was that you were eating too many small meals and snacks

(Nick Eagle) #18

In my experiences I know that for induction (the start) I HAVE TO limit my dairy (cheese and cream specifically) and keep my protein much lower than maintenance. Also be sure to not drastically reduce calories in the beginning. The goal in the beginning should be only fat adaption… trying to do to many things at once will only complicate things and most of the time end in failure. Keep calories around maintenance and focus on high fat (keep protein at your lowest recommended amount) and keep carbs low and from green leafy veggies. This is how I do it and only meant for advice. I know I could probably do things better but the best thing to do in my opinion is to focus on only fat adaption and the rest will fall into place when its time.

(julie) #19

I can’t thank you all so much for your advice. This is really helpful.

(julie) #20

Hi Nick
What do you eat as high fat for food?