I’ve been winging it here. Losing weight. Cooking meals for the week. I copy meals on YouTube Keto channels. I’m in ketosis and it fluctuates from mid 5 to 8. So far so good but yesterday I was perfect and I gained weight. So what happened? I decided it was time to stop being lazy and I counted macros.
Everything I’ve read says you eat until you are full. Don’t stuff. OK! I’m only eating about 800 calories a day. Less than half what I’m supposed to. I watched a Keto girl on YouTube make breakfast and it looked like an entire buffet. She was a big girl like me. I’m so confused. I don’t think I’m in “starvation mode” because this is how I normally eat but now I’m full faster. I see some people eating very little and others packing in major calories.
What’s the deal? Help! If I eat the 1650 calories a day which is an actual 20% deficit then I’m going to get even fatter. As of right now I’m down 44lbs from the beginning of the year. No longer diabetic and having less seizures. I’m not greedy. I’m thrilled but gosh darn if it doesn’t just chap my hyde to see weight gain!
I’m so frustrated I want to scream!
Sometimes I’ll eat 3000 calories in a day and still lose weight… don’t starve yourself. 800 isn’t enough.
If you e been eating 800 calories a day for a significant amount of time, you are definately in starvation mode. That isn’t enough for any body type, let alone someone big as you say you are.
You are carrying the CICO mentality with you into Keto, and it doesn’t work that way. You need to fuel your body to get to fat adapted. You have to start increasing your calories. You may see an initial gain, but it will be temporary (if it occurs at all). But if you don’t you will stall and become even more frustrated.
Thanks Annie. I’m going to start getting those calories in. I hope I don’t gain too much back.
One of the things we often encourage is to eat to your maintain macros, this helps you understand what the amount of intake you need is, and helps with hunger signalling which is often broken. Again the macros are guides, but you are not anywhere near where you should be. If you run constantly at a large deficit like that you will shut down a lot of the systems you need to burn fat, you will feel not so good to terrible, and your body will hold onto fat as hard as it can. Your BMR will be lowered, the real quick way to fix that is to eat enough food in esp fat.
As for getting fatter that is not likely you may gain some weight for a short time, but someone like me I can vary up to 5 pounds in one day. Think long term trend like the stock market, as your weight lowers you will have a few up days. The days oddly enough I have the most weight loss in recent weeks have been the days I have eaten the most fat nearly pushing double what I eat by macro. Your body will bleed off extra energy once it realizes that there is enough coming in again esp fat.
First off, fat loss is probably what you are after. And weight doesn’t equal fat. You can lose fat and still gain weight at least for a few days at a time. And on other days your weight loss may exceed your fat loss. Changes in water intake & retention have a bigger/faster impact on weight then changes in fat. A scale is mainly useful on time frames of weeks or months.
I’m a newbie… lazy keto - started in march. And I’d say I’m a big girl:)
I don’t count calories, I don’t own a scale either.
The only thing I stick to honestly is <20 grams in net carbs.
To be fair- I didnt’ start keto for weight loss , I did it for some health benefits that I ‘really’ needed to get under control.
So from one newbie to another - you are probably like me, I was a non-eater. I’ve spent the last months teahcing my system to EAT and to enjoy and to ramp up that intake. And you know…
I may have gained weight here and there - but I also notice other things…
My health issues are gone - completely gone.
I haven’t seen my wrist bones in years, they appeared the other day. It completely wierded me out:)
One of the guys at work today told me my clothes were getting baggy and I should go shopping.
Let it happen.
I think of it this way - it took decades for my body to get this unhealthy, it might take some time for it to get healthy - and thats okay.
I’m in it for the long term for sure. It looks like I need to train my brain to push past feeling full.
That is an excellent way to think, but thread lightly if I were you. That will work until it does not, changing up is almost a requirement in this WOE. It does not hurt to keep track, esp when starting out, that way once things stop working as is you can have some extra info to work off of. Not saying you need to but you may want to consider it, as well I tracked from day one and when I had to go to the docotor on an emergency visit I was able to tell her down to the day what I had eaten for the past 3 weeks. We were able to determine that i was way low on salt and it fixed a problem that could have been life threatening and did scare the hell out of me.
I am 8 months in, my hunger signalling has actually gotten worse, that said I very purposefully eat above my BMR level a couple days every week. You feel a lot better, have a lot of energy, and I loose weight. I am incredibly active currently so that does play into it. Unless you are completely sedentary, push your maintain macros if you can, it may take a few days for sure, try also to up your sct or mct fats they tend to used directly for energy. Eat your meals until full, maybe try overful a few times if you are keeping your carbs low then your insulin will not be strong enough to trigger any storage, and its not likely if you are in deficit that your body will store it, instead it will use it.
Oh I hear you on the low on salt thing!
That happened to me early on, I was out wit my horses and thought I was going to pass out then and there.
Went inside, drank about 4 huge glasses of preserved salt lemonade - felt better in about 10 minutes flat.
(its something I grew up on, and still make - and turns out its great for keto too -who knew!
I don’t count - but I also have developed a routine somewhat in what I do eat/drink since then.
BPC Coffee every morning, and I do monitor my electrolyte intakes. Food calorie wise in of itself - I don’t count outside the carbs in them. . (I should have been more clear, you are right! Still learning, I admit:)
No worries I still learn stuff every day this happened long before I landed here I wish I had.
I had really high potassium, I was eating lots of bananas previous to keto, that is stored in your fat unlike salt. I was also eating what I would term as but loads of spinach and avacodo at the time plus meat. Nearly zero salt, when my fat start to mobilize and water started come out me like a garden hose(I lost 22 pounds in ten days) a few days into keto I got spike of potassium and my heart went nuts, I was also bouncing off the walls and not sleeping.
I honestly thought you were going to complain about the “taquito” joke.
It the only thing ketogenic related that makes me want to scream, scream and break things… things that belong to whoever is trying to make that joke.
Let’s be honest. For me, and I suspect for most people, getting into and maintaining a state of ketogenesis is hard. Phiney compares it to standing on top of a sand dune. It’s a hard climb, and if you start sliding down, it’s hard to climb back up. It is an unfortunate coincidence that there is this crappy carbage food item that has a similar name.
Oh I never knew that about potassium - interesting! See I just learned something new:) you rock! (I knew there was a reason I’ve always hated bananas. HA!
I started keto after 40-45 lbs of weight loss the eat less move more way. So I went hard core keto (carbs < 10) and ate till full - all the keto goodies. Lost another 40-45 and was feeling great. All medications ended. Then I realized that I probably needed to repair my metabolism after decades of calorie restriction. So for 3-4 months I fasted and feasted. (My story is #9 on the great big public before and after).
I do believe my metabolism is better now. I probably burn 2500-3000 kCals a day (guessing). All I know is inches came off and I feel juiced all the time
If you are only able to eat 800 daily, you have a huge amount of metabolic repair to do. It will take time. Just eat fat fat fat fat. Then, eat more fat😀. Gradually you will repair your body. Then the fun starts
Give it time. Realize that no one can really gain or lose more than about 1/2 lb of fat in a day. Rest is water - noise
Don’t weigh. Just see how you feel. How clothes fit. Never be hungry.
KCKO
If you can, it might be worth it to hire a keto coach to help you reverse diet (this means to increase your calories responsibly and healthfully). I recommend Crystal Love (femaleketogenicathlete.com) or Robert Sykes (ketosavage.com).
Raj, where were you all this time while I’ve been complaining incessantly about plateauing (2017) and then gaining 4kg (first 6 months of 2018)?
We need to talk. For realsies.
Thanks so much for this post. I keep reading it over and over. It’s sinking in. I just had bulletproof coffee for lunch and I feel like I can’t physically eat and won’t be able to for hours. No one in my family is overweight and they don’t understand how I can eat so little and not be thin. I want to fix this more than anything.