Also, if one consumes a low calorie diet, be it keto, or whatever, one may end up with a lower resting metabolic rate and sustaining/maintaining a lower body weight may become super difficult.
Read about metabolic adaptation. Scary stuff! Like the paper about the big losers who had a lower than expected RMR even 6 years after dieting and regaining weight.
I have lost a lot of weight and height on keto how can I gain weight do I need to do it by more protein or fat
May I presume you want to regain lean mass, not fat? If so:
Eat about 1.5-2.0 g of protein per kilogram of lean body mass per day, being sure to get an adequate amount of the branched-chain amino acids, and eat enough fat to satisfy your hunger. A ketogenic diet is about weight-normalisation, it’s just that so many people come to it because they are obese that we think of it as just another fat-loss diet.
How much are you eating?
Height loss? I can’t see keto would cause that, sounds like something that needs to be checked by a doctor.
Trying to eat 1500 calories a day but not eating enough calcium so that could have caused that or maybe I never measured myself well? I try to eat like 12 tablespoons of fat a day and like 52 grams of protein.
Just curious and not being critical in a negative way. You’ve posted 4 separate topics asking basically the same question: ‘how can I gain weight’… This topic is iteration #4. In each of the topics multiple folks have advised you the same: eat more overall – eat more protein – eat enough fat so you’re not hungry – exercise a bit to help your body utilize the protein to add mass.
Now you say you’ve actually lost height! That does not compute unless you are elderly. I’m nearly 76 and I have not yet begun to shrink from old age. From things you’ve said, I don’t think you’re elderly. Do you have some health issue? Malnourished?
This also confuses me:
I try to eat like 12 tablespoons of fat a day and like 52 grams of protein.
Are you like just scooping tablespoons of butter or coconut oil or lard or something out of the container and gulping it down? Do you not have food choices that contain healthy fats? Does someone else control your food selection? I described those healthy fats for you here. Plus, there is no way you’re going to gain lean mass eating 52 grams of protein.
Time to get more informative about yourself. A lot of folks here would like to help you succeed with keto and improve your overall health and well-being. You have to help us help you. We need to know more about you physically: sex, age, height, built. Just saying you weigh 107 pounds and want to gain weight is not enough. We need to know if you have any health issues. We need to know exactly what you’re eating and how much of you’re eating. Stop with the generalities and get specific. Otherwise we’re all just dancing around the mulberry bush. And we’ll all get tired of that eventually.
Well my menstruation has lessened and my hair is falling out. I am eating olive oil. Build medium sex female height 5 5 age 25
Thank you. That’s a beginning. Are you still living at home with your parents? Are you able to select and prepare your own foods? I ask because in another post you mention that your mother thinks you need to eat more carbs.
At 5’5" and 107 pounds medium built you’re probably about 20-25 pounds under weight. If your mom wants to see you less ‘skinny’ she would naturally try to convince and/or cajole you to eat more carbs.
Are you vegetarian? Or vegan? Are you eating other fatty foods in addition to drinking olive oil? Or is that it - 12 tablespoons of olive oil per day? If olive oil is your sole or primary source of fat, then you’re missing or deficient in several essential fatty acids. If you’re OK with dairy, hard (as in ‘aged’) cheddar would be a better alternative. It has a much better fatty acid profile, plus a good 3/2 ratio of fat/protein. So you get both together. There are cheddars with zero carbs. It’s certainly not the only alternative, though. Various cuts of meat contain significant fat.
@Janie @Momof5 @VirginiaEdie @Polly1 @PetaMarie Ladies! Please. We need some input here from your perspective. Thanks.
If you put any faith in BMI as a measure of healthy body weight you would be at a healthy weight if you gained something between 9 and 40 lbs (or if you prefer it 4 and 18 kg).
If your menstrual periods are disrupted then re-gaining metabolic health should certainly be a priority for you.
I believe the best way to improve metabolic health is to eat a very nutritious real food diet.
Incidentally counting Calories is not a good way to achieve metabolic health. The very fact that there are 9Calories per gram of fat and 4Calories per gram of sugar make a Calorie counter more inclined to eat sugars than fats.
You have not said what foods you are eating or how often. Unless you feel able to give us some information about what you normally eat we are as @amwassil Michael said “dancing around the mulberry bush”.
Liver is the most nutritious food on the planet and foods from animal sources are way more bio-available to humans than any plant based food sources. There are no essential carbohydrates and increasing your sugar intake is not a healthy option whatever weight you are at.
Please post a couple of day’s menus for us to think about and offer advice on.
I agree, snapshot of what you’re eating would help us understand and give advice. Also, why are you doing a ketogenic diet? If only to lose weight, consider “low carb” and increasing more of everything (fat, protein and carbs). This could be done by including more veg, for example. If it is for other health reasons, and you feel comfortable sharing, this would be helpful to know.
I would say just not enough food to be honest, 1500 calories isn’t even maintenance…
It easily can be maintenance for her but when gaining is the goal, it’s a very small amount of food indeed…
I am curious about the menu too, it doesn’t seem it’s proper. We need those fats mostly from normal food. I mostly get those from meat and eggs, along with lots of important nutrients and my food is tasty… Tempting food is even more important when one wants to gain I suppose…
As there are already health problems, it’s really high time to eat proper food. But it’s always very important, obviously. It’s so sad to me when people harm their own health due to their eating.
Hi @eminem_44, I am going to weigh in without really knowing any of your details. I’m thinking you are a vegetarian because you mentioned using olive oil to get in your fat. While it is possible to eat ketogenically as a vegan or vegetarian, it is much more difficult to get all the nutrients your body needs. Many plants have anti nutrients and toxins, particularly oxalates. Oxalates in many of the vegetables that are considered super foods, bind with minerals and prevent us from absorbing them. So, getting enough protein and minerals that you body can actually use is challenging.
With that being said, the rest of this post will have nothing to do with omnivore vs vegetarianism.
I have been keto/carnivore of almost four years. In that time, I’ve been through many challenges following this way of eating. I’ve lost hair, had histamine trouble, developed heart palpitations. I’ve worked through these because I do think low carb is the best way to live my life.
I went through two periods of hair loss. The first, a few months after I stated keto. I believe that was the normal hair loss that occurs with dietary change. The second occurred a year or two into keto. That was because of nutrient deficiency. My hair even stopped growing. I am now in my mid 50s, I’m 5’3’ and weight about 120 pounds. I eat about 1500-1800 calories a day. As a twenty-five year old, you would probably need more calories than that. If I eat 70% of my calories as fat, that only leaves 450-550 calories to consume all the vitamins and minerals my body needs. Fat has some vitamins, but not much. Most of your nutrients comes from the non fat macros. What you eat needs to be as nutrient dense as possible. If you are chugging down tablespoons of oil, you are losing the chance to give you body nutrition through good whole food.
If you are not a vegetarian (well, even if you are) you need to get in more protein. Don’t worry about going over some arbitrary macro. I found eating a lot of fat when I first went keto, not only didn’t satisfy me, but I believe resulted in my nutrient deficiency since I wasn’t getting enough vitamins and minerals with all that fat. If you do eat meat, eat fatty meat, cook it up in animal fat. I let beef suet melt in the pan and then cook the meat in the rendered fat. You don’t need to drink the rendered fat.
I believe your menstural troubles are also due to lack of nutrients. It wasn’t until I upped my nutrient density, ate more meat and less fat, that the hair loss stopped.
The reproductive system is the first non-essential process to be suspended under conditions of malnutrition. Hair and nails also stop growing. So the cure is much more protein and fat. We strongly recommend eating to satiety; that is, satisfying hunger. Eat when you are hungry, stop eating when you stop being hungry, and don’t eat again until you are hungry again. If you find yourself needing a snack between meals, eat something low-carb, and then be sure to eat more meat and fat at the next meal.
Definitely eat more, more protein too and if eating to satiaty results in eating too little, eat more than that, even when not hungry. Or choose better food, fattier meat, cheese or something that is easier to eat in big enough quantity. I saw people starving while severely underweight, swearing they can’t eat any more. And they often chose lean meat and almost no-calorie salads. Yep, it’s hard to eat enough that way. Sometimes I say just eat more carbs if it helps from dying from hunger, I gave that advice before… But I would go for the cheese, fatty stuff, tempting things (I always can eat 5 more pancakes, even when satiated… not like I often need that) route first, maybe that helps.