I started keto April 2018 by December 2018 I had lost 46 pounds . Yay! However I am not done yet , I would like to lose another 8 for sure. Seems silly to be stressing over 8 pounds when I’ve lost 46 but during Christmas time I cheated - almost 2 weeks straight, so I probably am no longer fat adapted. I weight 138 , trying to get to 130. I’m trying to figure out if I should count calories or just focus on high fat and low carb for the moment. Because I’m at a healthier weight now and I’m basically starting keto over and so I’m not sure if keto works the same for weight loss if you have less to lose ( hopefully that makes sense) I just need advice on what would be best because I assume it will be harder for me to lose weight now. When I look up what my calorie intake should be for weight loss it says 1300. I think it’s kinda hard to stay around 1300 and be doing keto, before when I did keto I never counted calories just over time I wasn’t hungry and so I wouldn’t eat and that would naturally cause a caloric Deficiency. I’m 5’5 -female -25 years old
Hi- I’m back & feeling like a newbie
I think getting back into it, just cut the carbs and follow 5% carb 25 protein and 70 fats. I like carb manager as an app because it tells you what to do
Welcome back (don’t worry about the past, move forward),
Hmm, I’m in a similar boat a handful of pounds left but they don’t seem to wanna go anywhere.
Dr Volek has some research where one group of people just “ate a lot less”, another group did keto with no exercise, and finally another group keto with exercise. No prize for guessing the last group lost the most. Keto plus exercise.
So I’m starting to think I might have to exercise, but it’s so hot around here ATM …
Otherwise starving yourself is not the answer, I know that. And even if you did lose weight that way, it’ll only bounce back super fast … those apps do not understand the keto diet so ignore that “advice”, just use them to count carbs.
I reckon stick to your carbs, eat until you feel pretty well fed and give it a couple more weeks.
I think you’re dealing with some visceral fat. That can be extremely difficult to lose, but not impossible. Listen to your body, but lower your carbs a bit more and step up your exercise. Highly recommend NOT counting calories. Again, listen to your body. Eat when you’re hungry; don’t eat when you’re not.
The last few pounds are the most difficult and your body will, at some point, settle on a weight it is happy with on keto.
In that case - if that weight is a little higher than you want - here are some things you can do:
- Check on your sleep - if that is messed up, the body wants a bit more fat around “just in case”
- Check on your stress - same as sleep
If those are dialed in and you still want to be lower - here are some hammers:
- Try meal skipping - sometimes skip 0 per day, sometimes skip 1 per day, sometimes skip 2 per day
- Try a day or two of Carnivore each week
- Try a day or two of fasting each week
Each one of these will likely keep your weight lower than where your body wants to plateau on keto - and each one probably at a different lower weight. You can mix and match until you find the pattern that puts you where you want.
Per above - it is probably not best to decrease daily calories. That will likely slow your metabolism and make you bounce back up to the weight you do not want (or higher) so is not sustainable.
Eating carbs for two weeks is not enough to significantly change your adaptive State. Even then, you’d have had to eat so many that you not only refilled your glycogen, but chronically overcompensated it. It is the overcompensation the causes the negative adaptive changes including fat gain. You’ve probably just partially refilled glycogen and therefore were just in Maintenance.
You’re fine, just pick back up where you left off, and you may lose fat a little easier due to a little metabolic boost from the carbs.