I don't want to track but am gaining weight

(57 yo female started keto Jul '19) #1

I started keto a few months ago. Main reason was: being able to maintain without tracking. But it does not work. I do not have satiety; I keep eating too much. See graph below. Should I start tracking again (thus giving up the most important reason to start keto)?

In the graph is my weight in kg (left) and in lbs (right). The red dots are fasting days.

  • up until A: tracked all macros and calories
  • A: stopped tracking calories, kept on tracking carbs
  • A to B: tracked carbs only
  • B: stopped tracking carbs also
  • B to end: no tracking
  • “?”: lost weight while not fasting or tracking calories, reason of weight loss unknown

annja_weight_graph

(Edith) #2

A couple of thoughts:

  1. Carbs are sneaky. It could be possible that now you are not tracking carbs, way more carbs than you think have snuck back in.

  2. A few months of keto is not enough time for your hormones to regulate from your previous way of eating. Your body may not be able to figure out satiety signals until sometime in the future. You probably need to keep tracking until more healing occurs.

(Ellen ) #3

My daughter and I started keto woe 6 months ago. I weigh daily and have now lost 16lbs. My daughter on the other hand doesn’t weigh herself…until recently. When she got on the scale she hadn’t lost weight. By adding a tracking app to her regimen she saw how carbs were creeping in. She won’t get back on the scale. Some people shouldn’t. But she looks so much better. Happier and I can see thinner. Just try a tracking app. You may like it. It can make all the difference. Good luck Annja.

(Jack Bennett) #4

Re: satiety.

Are you getting enough protein? Enough fat? Those would be my first questions in regards to satiety.

Nice plot! :grinning:

(Susan) #5

I lost weight from Febuary-June then had to get rid of all artificial sweeteners as they were stalling me (and even making me gain a couple of pounds). Since Oct 18 I had to stop all Dairy (except butter) too. Maybe you could try eliminating both of these things for a while and see if it helps you. Many others on the forum have mentioned both artificial sweeteners and dairy causing them issues of stalling or weight gain as well, so if you tried getting rid of both for a bit, maybe it would help you too? =). I agree about sneaky carbs, that is the reason I track daily.

I use a free program called cronometer.com and it works great for me. Best wishes in getting it all figured out, whatever you decide to do =).

(Windmill Tilter) #6

Are you exercising? That’s always a killer for me. Nothing disrupts my satiety signals like exercise. I can lose weight/fat or I can exercise, but not both.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #7

When what you’re doing no longer works, do something different. There is nothing wrong with weighing and measuring food portions. It’s especially useful and maybe necessary for those of us who don’t have the same hunger/satiety signals that others do. I seldom feel hungry and never satiated unless I get to the point of being so full nothing more will fit. But that’s way more than I need, so I weigh and measure.

(57 yo female started keto Jul '19) #8

Thanks for all the replies. After reading them I decided to start tracking again. Maybe feelings of satiety come later, maybe they don’t, I can accept and adapt. I also plan to write a post about the NSV’s I have been assembling these months.

@Don_Q: yes I exercise. Maybe it is also (partly) the same here; not sure.

(57 yo female started keto Jul '19) #9

I wonder if the graph can indicate what my stable weight will be.

I felt very, very good when I was below 56 kg (123 lbs) in july and august. Also strange people seemed to act friendlier towards me. So I’m hoping for that, but I think I might be hoping too much. Psychologically I’m still a fat woman.

All this weight range is ‘normal’ BMI in my case.

(57 yo female started keto Jul '19) #10
(Hyperbole- best thing in the universe!) #11

Look up Dr Westman’s page 4. It is more restrictive than many of us eat, but is designed so that you can be successful without tracking. You might not always need to be that strict, but is a good way to get back on track.

(Windmill Tilter) #12

Wow. Congrats on getting down to into the healthy range! Here is a thought I’ll just throw out there. If you’re eating to satiety, and keeping on keto, it may well be that your body wants to be closer to 130 than 120.

I saw your other post about your 20+ non-scale victories and they were truly incredible. It sounds like you’re the healthiest you’ve been in ages in a ton of important ways. Be open to the idea that your body has a good idea of where it wants to be. It’s not always the size that get’s us into our favorite pair of jeans… :blush:

Not trying to be preachy at all; just putting that out there as a possibility. Congrats on the NSV’s! :+1:

(57 yo female started keto Jul '19) #13

Indeed. And I only became fully aware of the extent of it by writing them out and even more by your reply. I always have had a ‘low grade worry’ about vague symptoms. Sometimes I’d speak about things to a GP, but there was never a thorough investigation. Not by myself also. Now I see things disappear and realize I was not healthy.

(Bunny) #14

How tall are you?

I really like that chart, it demonstrates how futile fasting truly is for weight loss.

You could be weighing more muscle than adipose fat on the scale? Try using a tape measure and document body composition also?

image
annja_weight_graph

(57 yo female started keto Jul '19) #15

160 cm (5’3’’).

(Bunny) #16

I did not mean to sound so critical about the fasting but perhaps the fasting and level physical activity increased your skeletal muscle volume?

(57 yo female started keto Jul '19) #17

No: it is fat. It is very clearly fat :slight_smile:

Indeed for me. Maybe for you also. But it depends: I understand a lot of people use it as an important tool on their way out of obesity.

#18

How many different artificial sweeteners were you consuming? I only use Crystal Lite but that is said to have a combination of aspartame, acesulfame potassium and Sucralose depending on the specific product line and flavor.

(Susan) #19

I wasn’t using many at all -none in coffee/tea -but if I ate something that contained any -I would either not lose weight or gain some.

I bought Pur Gum that is listed as the best Keto sugarfee gum and I gained weight. So I just decided to cut out all -I wasn’t adding any to anything, only having them incidentally -ie: Sugar free Ketchup, Flavoured MCT powder and so just decided in June to omit these things from my life.

For now I am eating very very limited foods but about 1800 calories a day on my eating days -but I am doing Dr.Jason Fung’s IDM protocol -and fasting 3 times 44 hours a week:

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I have increased mine to 44 from the 42 as I keep to the 20:4 TMAD I have done since June and I basically eat proteins and some healthy fats and keep carbs very low, so days 0, and other days as low as possible. I don’t eat many vegetables most days and sometimes none. I mostly just drink water, and sometimes a black coffee, or a plain green or herbal tea.

I am dairy free (exceot some butter) since Oct 18 -I am not losing any weight but my body is getting smaller and adjusting, as clothes are getting looser.

I have lost 53 pounds since February -I am quite strict with myself, and I still have about 110 or so pounds to lose. I was 293, I am 240 and I want to weigh around 130, so it is a bit frustrating but I am staying on plan and I have lots of NSV’s and I will be Keto forever =).

(Bob M) #20

I think fasting is great for weight loss. For one, it affects fat in your liver and pancreas like nothing else. It also seems (for me) to cause something that causes me overtime to eat less.

It’s also the best chance we have to kick in autophagy.