One of the reasons why most people lose weight initially on the keto diet is they do not eat as much food (less over all calories consumed). So say your metabolism at rest burns 2000 calories per day. On the keto you give it 1500 calories. You have created a deficit. You will lose weight for a while. Over time your body will compensate for the lower amount of calories/food given and down regulate your metabolism to say 1500 calories per day at rest. Your weight loss will plateau. No deficit. Not to worry. Fasting can fix this. 1-3 day fast will up-regulate your metabolism. I use pink salt crystals when I get the urge to eat. Only water with minerals. Not sure why this works, but it does. If you are doing a true Keto with 90% of you calories from fat then make sure you keep up your caloric intake. Exercise from my experience represents only 10% of the weight loss equation. Itâs what goes in your mouth that makes the difference. You cannot do both carbs and fat in the beginning. (3 month minimum) Once you have become fat adaptive, experiment with carbs. Just make sure you deserve them.
Is the magic starting?
How were you testing your metabolism to quantify this? Could it just have been that eating 0 calories created a large calorie deficit that lowered weight but also lowered metabolic rate as well?
Eating to a caloric deficit does not necessarily lead to metabolic slowdown, no matter how long it is sustained. Daily energy requirement is satisfied by the combination of dietary and endogenous sources. If the dietary deficit is made up by endogenous fat, the metabolism will not slow down.
I think the key is hunger. If the combination of dietary and endogenous sources do not satisfy your daily energy requirement, you will feel hungry all the time. When that occurs, your metabolism has only two options: to make you tired and lethargic to persuade you to burn less calories; or, to slowdown to require less calories overall.
If the caloric deficit is not beyond the input of dietary and endogenous sources, you will not feel hungry all the time. You may feel hungry before meals, but that is just your metabolism telling you itâs time to eat. If you eat, then no metabolic slowdown occurs.
Many people lose weight on keto and report that they never feel hungry. They may be eating to a caloric deficit, but the deficit is being made up from endogenous fat. No metabolic slowdown will occur.
I think a lot of âstallsâ and âplateausâ occur simply because keto is a ânormalization processâ not a weight loss diet. Excessive weight/fat is a symptom of metabolic disorder. As metabolism trends towards the range of normal function, the symptom of excessive weight/fat trends towards normal as well. But from time to time other stuff takes precedence and weight/fat stabilizes to allow it to occur. Plus, the degree of damage to be fixed greatly influences the process and how long it takes to happen.
I also think that not weighing and measuring food portions leads to a lot of wishful thinking. Indulging in keto imitations of all the foods that got you into trouble may also lead to problems. Especially catering to âsweetâ.
You Have put my mind to ease,
I have been on this Keto since Jan 1st and I have noticed my calorie intake has dropped as I go, Naturally, not by force
The only thing I do try and push myself with is to skip breakfast during the week, I will still have some Coconut oil in the coffee in the morning However I do find if I do that I will end up not eating till eve,Because by the time morning is over I am no longer hungry, But I do it because I want to eventually fast for autophagy
However over the Last 10 Days I have noticed that many days my calorie count has dropped a lot and some days I have a 1200 or more calorie deficit, Some days 800 cal deficit but always in a deficit, I am very overweight so there is plenty endogenous sources
I am losing consistently but I have began to be concerned about messing up my metabolism long term based on some of the stuff I read
@Vic0628 Keep in mind that persistent hunger is the key early warning sign. The primary issue is that there is a daily limit to how much endogenous fat you can burn. There are numbers, but they donât seem to be based on anything other than speculation. So hunger remains your best guide. Also, keep in mind that keto is a ânormalization processâ not a weight loss diet. Calorie restriction should not be the goal but a by-product of eating enough not to feel hungry. You need to proceed with caution with multi-day fasts because you tend to lose your sense of hunger after a few days. But Iâll let others more experienced with fasting advise more specifically.
I dont know where this thread went, but I just wanted to say that once AGAIN- I am not hungry this morning. And I was not hungry yesterday morning either. I have quite naturally slipped into IF (eating only 12-6 and sometimes OMAD) and it took no effort. And so now I want to see what this does to the scale. And yeah- in the beginning I did eat a lotand enjoyed all of it and I also ate keto sweets because the transition to no sweets at all was too stark. So what if it took me longer to get into a state of fat adaptation. I was having a ball and still lost 5 kilos. Lo and behold: the sweet tooth has gone. All those sweet keto recipes I have gathered just lay there, and the ice cream machine is in the basement and waiting to be tested one day. But for now? Not hungry. Wow.
With the exception of preparing for a colonoscopy I have not done any fasting other than skipping breakfast maybe one weekend or two a month. I like to run and workout early in the morning so I plan on eating workout days but I am thinking about fasting till lunch on non workout days. I have put six pounds on over the holidays and just canât seem to shake them.
@Rclause
Funny. but I never thought of 16/8 as âfastingâ. So now I am even fasting and didnât know itâŠ
I had these spontaneous fasting moments too.
I found out that it was easy because those moments were full of activities, being away from the fridge.
Boredom and being close to the fridge triggers that bad habit I got from so long ago where you have nothing to do and open the fridge door even if you are not hungry at all and just grab some food to have something to do.
You can work out fasted and get better results. Sorry I donât have a resource for you but Iâm pretty sure Dietdoctor.com has some information on this.
@Tami_Proctor
Thanks but I am 67 years old and donât work out. No gyms for me- in fact now I âwork outâ in the kitchen because I am doing more cooking than I ever have before. Because I cannot eat any ready made meals anymore. Too many hidden carbs. Food has become pure now.
I`ll just take it slow. One of the reasons keto was so appealing to me was that exercise was not a necessity.
@sergiusens
Hi serge- yes I remember hitting the fridge too just for âfunâ. I have just noticed that climbing the stairs has become easier. Have you lost 20 kgs? Thats great!
Iâve been LCHF for 14 months. Lost 30 lbs in the first 2-3 months. Had the k-flu and experienced the energy explosion. 2019 holidays were sorta rough and have been struggling to âclean upâ my keto, but KCKO!
I gauge my âcleanlinessâ by the pain in my joints. When I cleanup I hurt less! The scale can be confusing. My pants are a better reflection of body changes. Sometimes my weight is up yet my pants feel looserđ€Ș. I typically IF 20/4 using only HWC in my coffee till around 4pm and am just not hungry all day. OMAD is great. Not feeling captive to food is such freedom. Some days I get home and eat just out of habit and the joy of eating, not necessity out of hunger. Listen to your body. Itâs smarter than us all. I mountain bike, fasted, with NO issues and Iâm 61! Keep reading and learning, or should I say relearn, how we used to eat before the industrial revolution put all these processed food in our lives, âto make life easierâ, AND TO KILL US!!!
Read Big Fat Surprise bu Nina Tycholz(sp)! Quite the eye opener
Good job. KCKO
DAVID
@Bobalu
âto make life easier AND TO KILL USâ
Amen to that. I now do the work of making my OWN béarnaise sauce because I saw all the carbs on the tetrapack of the prefab store kind. Now I mostly make everything myself!
I have not experienced the energy explosion. How did that come- suddenly or slowly? And some days the hunger returns. Its like a sputtering engine .- maybe I am not 100% fat adapted yet? But it sure feels good when I am!