It's been a while....need some words of wisdom and support

(Jennibc) #1

I am back to chat and seek some support. So I took off a whopping 120 pounds adhering to a strict keto lifestyle. Felt great, looked great. Maintaining for four years. All that. Then this past 14 months we have been through a lot. My mother almost died, big conflict in my family etc, suddenly I have a sibling living with us for six months. Then my elderly mother for three months following that that. Suddenly, my household was no longer a keto safe place. Consequently, I’d fall off the wagon on occasion and have some jam on my keto toast, not everyday but maybe once or twice a week. I’d have margaritas and chips and queso a couple of times a month, that kind of thing. Otherwise I was pretty much the same, maintaining the typical calories in a day, eating the same kinds of keto friendly foods. Slowly, I gained about 8 pounds. But then I had to travel for a month in April and OMG, I put on 10 pounds that month which I still haven’t been able to take off. Anyway, 18 pounds up. I’ve been back on strict keto again for the past month plus - almost moderate to high GKI levels everyday according to my keto mojo. I feel great again BUT I don’t seem to be dropping weight. I can’t help but think that the year of not being in keto almost always messed me up metabolically again. I am wondering if any of you long timers that have had an experience like this can weigh in an tell me how long before it takes the weightless to kick in again. Sadly gaining 18 pounds means I am officially overweight again and cannot get into practically any of my clothes. I refuse to go buy new clothing because I will not accept this as a new normal. Thanks for any words of encouragement!

Also once again it goes to show a calorie is not a calorie is not a calorie as over the course of this I didn’t increase my calorie consumption. Those nights I had chips and margs I didn’t have dinner. I still rarely exceed 1600-1800 a day.

(Robin) #2

Welcome back. You are certainly not alone.
I have nothing concrete to offer but empathy and support.
Just by reaching out, you have signaled your body that you are ready to begin again. Maybe it will be slower and harder, but maybe not.

Patience. Trust the process. You already know it works.
You got this!

(Alec) #3

Welcome back to the wagon! My advice… do 4-6 weeks zero carb and go hard on weight loss… I don’t mean go hungry, I mean go low low carb and see what you can do. I think sometimes our “low carb” gets lazy and we don’t realise how many are creeping in.

Anyway, as @robintemplin said, you know what works, stick at it, and it will work again.

(Jennibc) #4

I track everything! Definitely have been in the very low carb range for last six weeks, like 20gs or less. My carbs are leafy greens and avocados. Yeah, it’s the laziness of the past year of stress that led to an uptick so that I was out of keto so frequently.

(Joey) #5

Stress is always foisted upon us, not taken up by choice. While honoring the need to be of support to others in your family, keep digging deep to find what it takes to honor yourself - by staying on the path you’ve chosen for yourself.

Regardless, you are an inspiration. And full of acquired wisdom. You could teach an insightful workshop on what works and what doesn’t. :vulcan_salute:

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #6

Welcome back to the forums!

It is common for a keto diet to be more difficult, the second time around. Just be patient with the process. As people have suggested, you may need to cut your carb intake even further. Also be sure to eat enough fat to fuel your body; if it thinks there’s a famine going on it won’t want to shed those extra pounds. Eat when you are hungry, eat enough to satisfy your hunger, and don’t eat again until you are hungry again. Your body will thank you.

(Jennibc) #7

Thanks, I am trying going from two meals a day to OMD about three times a week. I do use heavy cream in my AM coffee and iced decaf with heavy cream mid-day so not a true fast. So far so good in terms of feeling alright. I did that the other day before going to lift weights and much to my surprise, it was fine, I had plenty of energy. I am doing it again today. I was down this morning half a pound from yesterday which was nice. I’d lost more than that but that the preceding days but that was following a 2 pound jump after eating some food I put way too much salt in the other night. I should say that despite the scale not moving much, my waist has definitely gotten smaller in the past six weeks so I know it’s doing something not falling out of ketosis a day or two every week for the past year.

(Edith) #8

Hi @Jennibc. Welcome back to the forum.

It sounds like stress could be a contributing factor to your difficulty in getting your regained pounds to go away. Increased cortisol is the bane of all who want to lose weight. How has your sleep been with all the stress going on? How about your sleep? If you are not getting enough sleep, that can also contribute to increased stress. Definitely find ways to take care of yourself. Just doing something as simple as going for a walk can help get rid of any excess cortisol floating around your body.

Also (and this will sound mean) but it is your house. Stand your ground with your sibling. Let him or her know you don’t want that kind of food in the house. Or maybe if you are the one purchasing it for them, don’t. If they want that kind of food, they have to purchase it themselves. We did that with an adult child that moved back in with us. She had to eat what we ate or buy it herself. She lost 60 pounds. :grinning:

(Jennibc) #9

Luckily my home is now guest free! So we are back to being a keto-safe zone! That’s why I have been able to be religious about it again for the past six weeks. Luckily my husband keeps his carbs at work and my son, home for the summer doing an internship also follows a keto diet to keep his OCD and ADD in remission. When my sister was here she ate mostly what we ate but did have bread and cereal that did not tempt me BUT she had jam which did. She would frequently bring slices of cake into the house that she’d purchase at the grocery store and say things like a couple of bites won’t hurt you, but guess what, they did! I also drank too much wine while she was here. I really don’t know how I justified to myself I’d be okay other than I thought since it was infrequent and wasn’t a lot it wouldn’t be a problem. It’s not like it triggered binging or anything but I guess I am just someone who does not handle sugar/carbs well at all on any kind of semi regular basis.

(Robin) #10

Yeah… carbs in any quantity are a slippery slope for many of us. I have to draw a hard line in the sand. No in between. Either strict or headlong into a big binge.
No self control basically means I must have total abstinence.

(Edith) #11

I was listening to a podcast with an evolutionary biologist. He mentioned that when we are young and our bodies are more resilient, they can overcome bad habits for a while, but as we age our bodies lose that resiliency and we have to be more careful about what we put in them.

He did mention that with the extreme highly processed foods of today, even young bodies can’t handle them, and that’s why obesity and metabolic damage are starting at younger and younger ages.

(Jennibc) #12

I find that a few bites won’t cause a binge but after I exceed a certain amount, it can! For instance back when I first started the no sugar which put me into keto, I allowed myself to have dessert once every four months. But I’d go out for it rather than bring something home, like a cake or pie as if it were here, I’d keep going back to it and would binge. But when it’s a limited amount outside the house, I won’t. Part of the reason I put the 10 pounds on during my travels is because one of the trips some friends had a potluck for us and I’d been drinking, which alway reduces inhibition. There was a dessert table and I had about three desserts, so definitely can overdo sugar if it’s available. Luckily my sis would just bring in a single cake slice and share it, but even shared cake once a week helped me slowly put on 8 pounds over the course of a week. She is HWP and has never had a weight problem. She can sit and pick at a dessert and save the rest for later. If I bring a pint of ice cream in the house, it’s 2/3 gone in one sitting and the rest eaten the next day.

#13

That’s great, congrats! :slight_smile:

I sooo hate this as it’s so stupid and untrue…
(I do eat many things in tiny amounts but it’s what I decide and that’s not sugary store-bought cake ever. It’s very different if someone else wants to push something wrong on us! Very rude. If anyone would say that to me, they probably would get a lecture, I feel strongly about others trying to sabotage me or making me feel bad. )

Makes sense to me. A tiny bit is tasting it, getting the experience (okay, it can already derail someone but not everyone). But if it’s more… That’s somehow back to eating significant amount of carbs and anyway, I had that with food. Tiny? Fine. More? I hardly can stop. I only have that with a few items but they messed up some of my days… :frowning:

How adorable. Once I ate 20 (small) slices of cake (it was a cake competition and had to try them all, obviously… and went back for seconds in the case of the tasty ones)… I was on low-carb almost every day since several years buy handmade cake was my weak point. I only had it a few times a year but I wasn’t, couldn’t be modest with it…
I am glad it’s over. If I semi-accidentally eat 5-6 desserts in the end of a meal, at least it’s keto and some of those are tiny ones (and I count creamy coffee a dessert too as it feels like one).

Ice cream should be good, rich and homemade if you ask me, not those bad, watery but potentially triggering store-bought things. I made ice cream yesterday, maybe 38g? Perfect portion for me. (I have no ice cream maker, I just mix it when I have the whipped ingredients anyway.) It’s just a tiny joy in the end of a meal, I get satiated by normal food first :smiley:

(B Creighton) #15

I was trying to gain some muscle this last winter so did not do keto - I gained 15 pounds - unfortunately, my smart scale said only 6 of those were muscle. So, I had about 9 pounds of fat to lose - I have lost those 9 pounds. But instead of doing keto, I have been walking a lot. Walking is an efficient fat burning activity. If you don’t mind it, walk briskly about 10,000 to 15,000 steps per day - that’s about 10 km or 7.5 mi. It will boost your metabolism, and burn the fat. Otherwise, just stick to keto, but maybe cut some fat.

#16

The only jam in our house is a brand called Good Good. It’s - well, good. :rofl: It’s sugar free. My husband likes it on his Keto toast and it allowed him to give up the other jams and jellies completely.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #17

Most ketonians I know of find it easier and more pleasant to work out while fasting.

(Jennibc) #18

Thanks, but I already walk four miles everyday! I did break my toe in March though so couldn’t walk until the end of April which is probably one of the reasons I managed to gain so much during that month. I did do the elliptical for 30 minutes a day but it wasn’t the same.

(Marianne) #19

This has been my experience. In addition to the 15 lbs. I wanted to lose to my “goal” weight, I have gained about 15 lbs., I think mainly due to daily alcohol consumption. Even though my eating is relatively unchanged, I have found it more difficult to lose weight the second time around, even though my carbs are way under 20g/day. I think it comes down to perseverance and maybe some exercise - at least in my case. Certainly wouldn’t hurt. Also, I enjoy fat too much. Good luck - welcome back!

(Bean) #20

If this is a commercially-available product… consider dropping it. I ordered a GF Keto bread for a while. When I tried to manually put it into a macro- tracker, it got flagged because the numbers were impossible i.e. the label was fudged a bit.

ETA- welcome back!

(Jennibc) #21

No way! I am much too cheap to pay for any of those keto products! I make this recipe, slice in half and toast in the toaster oven. So good and so much cheaper. My son pays $11 a loaf for “Unbun” when he is away at college. That’s the only one we found that has all safe ingredients in it. https://www.dietdoctor.com/recipes/the-keto-bread