I’ve been in ketosis for 5-6 weeks now. I have lost 20 lbs so far but since I started hitting the gym I have not lost any weight. I am eating 1600-1700 calories a day with a 5/70/25 ratio. I am fasting and eating one meal at 3pm and the other at 6pm then fasting the rest of the time. I am eating a rotation of rib eye steak, salmon, chicken, eggs, and ground beef. the fats I use are avocado, avocado oil, MCT oil, olive oil, and butter. I am eating kimchi everyday and consuming about 6-7 servings of vegetables a day as well. Tons of cabbage, zucchini, spinach, and cauliflower. I workout 5 days a week around 9am. I do a 20-25min fast walk incline with 130BPM, then I do a lift routine after for about 30-40 minutes. Other than that I sit a a computer all day. I am also taking an electrolyte supplement for salt intake and drink plenty of water. I do have the occasional diet soda 1-2 a week. I have been taking blood reading a few times a day and the readings are always between 1.5-3.5 Mmol per L. please help what am I doing wrong? I’m 40 and 280lbs
I'm doing everything right and not losing weight, please help
Increasing exercise can paradoxically stall weight loss, due to (beneficial) inflammation caused by the exercise, retention of more water in the muscles, and beginning of your body recomposing tissue from fat to muscle and even increased bone mass.
Those are all healthy vegetables, but maybe too much total carbs overall. However, I personally am a proponent of going as high on the healthy veggies as you can get away with (which is not a popular opinion around here). But maybe cut back a little and see if that helps.
One option is to keep on doing what you are doing now, and just let time take care of it. You are not gaining weight, so maybe just give your body time to adjust.
I have always found that making significant changes to exercise habits has about a 6-week lag time before things get into sync.
20 pounds in 6 weeks is over 3 pounds a week, which is pretty exceptional. Weight loss is not always linear so this may just be normal for your body. Unless you are trying to win a bet or get in shape for a competition scheduled for a specific date, there’s no rush, is there?
Search the forum for PISS - Post Induction Stall Syndrome. Happens to most. I can’t see anything you are doing wrong - just need more time for your body to adjust to running on fat and maybe doing some internal healing as well.
KCKO
Hi Tangos,
If you are often hungry I would encourage you to eat more food. If your body senses a pattern of restriction it can lower your metabolism so that you burn less calories in order to preserve your mass. Feasting occasionally is a good way to assure your body that access to food is not an issue.
I love cabbage but it’s quite high in natural sugars and I limit myself to a very occasional cup. The other vegetables are pretty low carb and safe to eat in moderation. Personally, I try to put my primary focus on a fatty protein since that is what fills me up the fastest and keeps me from being hungry the longest.
If you’re not tracking your carbs, I recommend cronometer.com. Give yourself a budget of daily carbs (20 net carbs is a good number to work with) and remember that you don’t have restrict calories. The goal is to keep your insulin levels low so that you remain in a fat burning state as much as possible and to not be hungry. Fat and protein and your strongest allies.
Don’t use a percentage of your weight to determine carb allowance. As @CarlKeller suggested use the 20 gram limit. Also maybe back off on the vegetables. I love them myself but it is easy to go over 20g. if you’re eating “tons” of them. Fermented vegetables have as much as an 80% reduction of carbohydrates. One cup of Sauerkraut has 1.2 grams carb, one cup of cooked fresh shredded cabbage is 5.6 grams. If you want lots of vegetables raw fermented vegetables like sauerkraut and kimchi are the way to go. 
If your goal is building muscle then the gym is great. If your goal is weight loss put the hard workouts aside for now and let your metabolism ramp up by eating adequate food until you’re fat adapted.
Percentages and ratios are next to worthless for weight loss.
Ketosis is driven by carb restriction. Less than 20 net carbs is the “rule of thumb”.
You should calculate your protein needs, typically based on lean muscle tissue.
After that, ideally, hunger should be your guide as to how much fat to eat. You shouldn’t be forcing yourself to eat fat merely to meet a macro, because some of your fat needs can be met by stored body fat. One advantage of ketosis is that carbs and insulin are no longer creating a false sense of hunger.
Forgive my flippancy but this^^^^ is what you’re not doing right.
Too much veg. I was doing similar; I could easily -and did- eat an entire head of cabbage and 3-4 large bell peppers, per DAY. I did lose but I eventually stalled and had to remove veg altogether to break it.
Veg is sneaky; one can eat a lot of them easy. Carbs in them add up; I was surprised to realize how many carbs (I track nothing) all that cabbage, peppers and tomatoes were providing.
If you feel like you really need/want to eat some veggies every day, consider Bok Choy instead of all those others. It’s nutrient dense and energy dilute. So you get a lot nutrient payoff for a very low carb tax. That’s keto friendly. 
There are multiple varieties to choose and all contain the same nutritional profile. I especially like ‘baby’ bok choy because it has very mild flavour that mingles well with other stuff. A Chinese market will have the most options, but even many mainstream supers will have at least regular bok choy.
I have been doing under 20 net carbs with the veggies i’m eating. Is it reg carbs or net carbs I should track
Do you have a gram scale? Are you weighing your food? If not, how do you know you’re sub-20 grams of carbs? That’s a very small amount and lots of stuff, not just veggies, contain carbs. Guessing seems to work for many, but when things aren’t going as planned, my first suspect is guessing amounts and quantities. You might be shocked to discover just how little 20 grams really is and how easy it is to miss it by a very wide margin just guessing.
I can’t tell you how many times I have read that someone started working out and their weight loss stopped - a LOT.
I don’t know the science behind it - maybe others can chime in - but it is VERY.COMMON
Your carbs look fine, your blood ketones look great, your eating window is keeping your insulin low - I think you just need to give it more time. While some may lose every week, most don’t and will stall out. Especially at the 4-6 week timeframe.
Just keep doing what you are doing and the weight will start dropping again. I promise! You didn’t put on the weight overnight and it won’t come off overnight or evenly.
Net carbs. That is, digestible carbs.
So you should be in ketosis. But that doesn’t guarantee weight loss. Weight loss is driven by caloric restriction. For most, ketosis just makes caloric restriction easier. But I could easily gain weight on ketosis if I let myself eat too many calories.
Tangos,
The best thing is to consider cutting the workout.
I had 3 hernias, so I could not work out, and I lost over 100lbs. No gym required.
Why are you working out?
I see this a lot. You are creating STRESS. Stress pushes Cortisol. Cortisol Pushes Insulin, and suddenly weight loss stops.
So many studies exist showing that all the exercise does is make you hungrier.
So, skip the exercise, and SIMPLY WALK. Walking is a natural human thing to do.
It actually reduces stress. Do this until you lose about 75% of the weight you want to lose. You should be able to walk further and further (longer and longer) or more often.
Honestly, that’s the first change I would make. The second change is to have FEWER foods per day. Eat your protein/fat first, and vegetables after. Let the strong stomach acid break down the protein which is more nutrient dense than the vegetables.
I am 99% Carnivore. So I get a tiny amount of vegetable once a month, and I am normal (Twitch, Twitch)… Honestly weak stomach acids from all that veg could interfere with the ability to digest the protein.
When you stall after a change, go back to what worked.
After losing 50 lbs, my coach had to remind me to adjust my food intake down to that of someone weighing 240, not the old me at 307… Turns out he nailed it. I was too afraid of eating too little.
Morning Ketone numbers and glucose numbers are the best ones to track. They reflect the health of your liver. Without exercise, etc. Once you start moving and eating, the numbers mean so much less…
BTW, if you are working out hard, then you are definitely confusing your body. You want it to lose weight right now, not build. You can build later. Your body is proof that it will be able to add weight later when you want it to!
Good Luck!
Yeah I have been weighing all my food and using MyFitnessPal to track. The net carbs are calculated using an html editor. It’s basically carbs minus the fiber. My veg intake is around 450g a day which keeps me under that amount and I do lower carb veggies. I stick with mostly green stuff
Thanks John. So my ultimate goal is to lose weight and get ripped. I don’t want to completely cut out the gym right now. I know that if I just give it time things should all workout, but not sure how this all works. Any advice?
You are asking the wrong guy. My own goal was to reverse morbid obesity and improve my health as I age into my retirement years. I don’t have any better advice than I gave you in my first post.
There are probably others who can help you if your goals are primarily related to weightlifting and body appearance.
Can anyone elaborate on the topic of working out. Like I mentioned I am obese and want to lose weigh and get ripped in the process. I know it will take longer but that’s ok with me
I usually workout daily. I run six days a week for a total of 30 miles and hit the gym three days a week. It is somewhat of an experiment to see what happens. I am at the 8 week mark and my weight has dropped two pounds while I am adding new muscle.
You being at the cusp of fat adaption I would try not to do too many changes at once. I think in your shoes I would ease up on the amount veggie servings, ignore calories, get moderate protein and fat to satiate. Once you settle in start adding in exercise gradually. I find that if add exercise at a rate that doesn’t cause DOMS I am at the right speed.