Hit a plateau

#1

Hi all!

I’ve been doing Keto since June 1. First month I lost 20 lbs. Then it stopped. I haven’t lost anything since July 9. This stalemate has lasted now for a little over a month.
I am 38, 5’9", 220 lbs. I am eating about 1400 calories a day, 125-135 g fat, 50-80 g protein (I struggle to get enough protein in a day), and 10-15 g net carbs. According to test strips, I am in ketosis.
I am pretty sedentary (office job) but have started walking/running 1.5 miles about 5x a week.
I would understand plateauing if I didn’t have much more to lose, or losing only a pound in two weeks, etc., but I’m early in this and still need to lose another 50 lbs, at least!
I don’t have cheat days. I’m downright OCD with monitoring what I’m eating and logging it all.
An average day is usually Keto coffee for breakfast, some chicken or tuna with mayo and 1/2 avocado for lunch, nuts for snack, and some variety of meat, fat (evoo, butter, cheese) and veg (kale, spinach, or zucchini) for dinner.
I wonder if it’s too much dairy (I was doing Paleo before this - no dairy) or not enough protein?
Any advice?

#2

Still great fat-loss for 2 months but I understand you aren’t pleased, 1 month is long enough already and you eat little… Maybe too little? Probably too little?

What do you eat that protein is a problem for you? When I eat 1400 kcal (and I almost never use lean protein), I still go way over 100g protein sometimes, without trying. Okay, maybe it’s just me but not being able to eat 80g? How? Normal food has lots of protein. Meat, egg, even cheese… Oh but you eat lean meat. It must be a tiny amount then… Why don’t you try to eat more? Or meat for dinner too?

Whatever happens with your weight, you should eat more protein (unless you have some special condition but that’s rare).

I heard about dairy being a problem for certain people. I don’t know how it can ruin a metabolism but the human body is very interesting.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #3

Eat more fat and especially more protein. 50 grams of protein is terrifyingly close to kwashiorkor. I’d suggest 80-90 grams per day is probably the minimum you need.

#4

I’ve only been Keto for about a month, but I’ve dieted all my life. This is my 2-cents, take it or leave it, it’s all good:

You’re not eating enough calories. You’re pretty tall and that’s not many calories for someone your height (I’m a bit taller than you and weigh the same). You may have put yourself into what I call “nuclear winter mode”. I’m, genetically, an easy keeper and when I cut too many calories, my body goes in to reserve mode. It figures the nuclear winter is here and it’s time to save up the fat. When my body does this, it doesn’t matter how much I exercise, I won’t lose AND it starts taking fuel out of my muscles to squirrel away the fat. I can, LITERALLY, see it happening. I’m fat, but I’m also pretty muscular and I can watch my arm muscles fade away. I really, really think that you’re too low cal. You should probably be eating around 2000 calories per day.

Also, on this program you have to really eat a lot of fat. Start thinking “fat, fat, fat, I have to eat some more fat”. It’s EXTREMELY counter-intuitive, especially if you’ve been a life-long dieter. Are you hungry at all? If so, you’re not eating enough fat. It’s weird, I know, but it takes really changing our thinking.

I use a free app called “Carb Manager” to help track my food and to make sure that I’m getting the right number of macros in. I’m 58, and, basically, your size. I put this stuff in when I started the app and it has me eating 2105 calories. The nice thing is that it deducts your exercise, so you’ll see that, after exercising, your really only eating 1600 calories (or whatever). I have found it to be a LOT of food and I have a big appetite. You might try this app and see how it works for you.

Finally, you had a tremendous lost the first month. I know that I have a very severe plateau at 220 lbs (I just entered it last week. No movement on the scale). It is VERY hard for me to make the scale move at that weight as my body really, really likes being there. You may just need to be a bit more patient. Once I move below 220, though, I then lose pretty easily again until my next plateau. Try not weighing more than once a week - that helps a lot. Also keep in mind that old stuff about the fact that you’re also putting on muscle, and muscle weighs more than fat, blah, blah, blah. It’s true, tho.

Hope this helps!

#5

Thank you for the advice. No special conditions, I just struggle with protein because I’m not a huge fan of eggs or meat, so in order to be satiated I eat things like macadamia nuts. I also have keto coffee every day. I read in a few places that I should be tracking my macros more than my calories, so basically, once I hit where I think I should be at for fat in the day I call it a day. I do eat cheese, but it’s usually only an ounce at a time (6 - 8 g of protein).
I have not been hungry so I figured the lower calorie intake would just speed up the weight loss. I’ll try balancing out the fat with more protein and increasing my calories, to see where that gets me.
Thanks!

#6

Thank you, EquiPro, I can totally relate regarding getting stuck at a certain weight. I think my body likes the 220 mark too. I’ve been overweight my whole life. I’ll lose and gain thru the years but I tend to come back to a regular weight and stay there for a while.
Thank you for the encouragement. I hope once I get past this point I’ll find a NEW, lower weight my body will like!

#7

You absolutely will! I have about 3 plateaus to which my body wants to stick. 220, 192 and 174. The bad thing about those plateaus is that it’s REALLY, REALLY hard to get below them. The GOOD thing about them is that it’s also hard to go above them.

Seriously, try that Carb Manager app. I don’t even think about calories right now. I just think about hitting my macros. I’m the opposite of you. So many of the diets that I’ve been on were high protein, high carb, low starch. I’m used to thinking, “protein, protein, protein” and “veggies, veggies, veggies”. It’s been a real mind f&ck in having to limit the veggies and protein I eat in favor of fat. I have to say, though, I have no cravings.

Finally, do you know what blood type you are? I did the Blood Type Diet for years and still follow a lot of it within the parameters of Keto. Luckily for me, I’m Type O and we do best on Keto. If you know your blood type, I can throw a bit of info at you.

#8

I’ve been thinking of getting an app, so I’ll definitely look into that one.
I’ve never heard of the blood type diet - will do some googling later!
I am O+ so sounds like I should do ok, based on what you said. Very interesting concept

#9

I’d agree with not enough protein, you need to play with your numbers to see what works for you but I can tell you I wouldn’t loose weight/fat at 135g fat daily. My protein needs to be up and my fat needs to be around 70-80g for the needle to start moving. Dairy screws with some people but usually not the way people think. I’m lactose intolerant and eat the crap out of dairy, but I work around it, doesn’t affect my fat loss.

#10

If you’re an O, the concentrating on high fat beef is your best bet. Try to avoid doing much pork dairy and eating avocado every day. None of those foods are particularly good for us Os. I try to stick to dairy that’s non-bovine (cow), so I focus in on feta and other sheep and goat cheeses. It’s helpful to do this because it’s really hard to over eat feta and cheese can be a problem for me. I love eggs and do a lot of eggs. I also love cooking with ghee which is a great fat for us O types. It is really counter-intuitive, as I mentioned, but our Type O systems are really set up to handle all the fat and meat!