I’ve started keto with IF 5 weeks ago. I was at 128 kg (282 pounds). It feels great and got some results at the start. I lost 6kg (13 punds) in the first 3 weeks (guess mostly water) but now I am staying at the same exact weight for almost 2 weeks.
I’m eating 2-3 times a day in 4-8h periods. Eating eggs, meat, vegetables, avocados etc. My recommended calorie deficit intake I got from several sites to lose weight was around 1900, Im eating around 1500 which shouldnt be that problematic I’ve read? Im feeling full and good all the time so there was no need I felt. I even had a 48h fast which I also read could help.
I drink 2-3l of water every day, sleep 7-8 hours, still eat 2 or 3 meals at 1400-1700 calories, never go over 20g of carbs, doing either 16/8 or 20/4 IF daily and it still doesnt go down.
Is it normal, have I hit plateau this early or am I doing something wrong?
This is my first time actually on a diet, trying to fix my health and also first time on on any forum. I would rather ask to see if there is something I can do rather than getting discouraged which I probably would after another week
First understand that all calculators are just guessing based on whatever method they use. Sometimes they’re right, sometimes they’re wrong, sometimes they’re REAL wrong. In my case they’re really wrong all the time. Here’s why, I’m strong. So are you! Here’s how I know this without knowing a thing about you, you’re in the high 200’s! You know how much muscle it takes to move you around? A lot! You know how much horsepower it takes to just keep you running while sitting on your ass? A lot! That’s an advantage when loosing weight. You never want to eat at too much of a deficit for too long. I personally wouldn’t fast because of issues I’ve had personally from it but I’d recommend trying to find your sweet spot for loosing and don’t eat at any less that 15-20% of that. What are these calculators guessing for your BMR? Remember that’s not the number you go by, it’s your RMR which is BMR + Activity. Are you exercising or working out? That also changes things drastically.
1700 seems REALLY low for somebody your size. If your calories WITH deficit is 1900 that’s probably already including a 15-20% cut? You’re eating 200-500 below THAT? Not surprising you’re stalling.
Try this one, make sure you give it the measurements to the best of your ability. It uses a different method than most and seems to be pretty damn accurate for most people. Was even really close for me, and I needed to get RMR testing to figure me out!
You want to loose FAT while maintaining as much muscle as possible. You’re going to loose muscle, and you’re going to slow your RMR, that’s just how it goes but if you do them prematurely it will affect weight loss in the long run.
amwassil
(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.)
#3
I agree with @lfod14 you may not be eating enough. Aside from that I question the wisdom of starting keto and IF at the same time. A lot of metabolic changes start to happen when you begin eating keto and I think it’s a good idea to give yourself a few months to adapt to those changes. You spent how many years eating SAD? Fixing whatever damage that caused will take time. The only IF I would consider starting out is overnight, most of which will be while you’re sleeping. If you finish eating a couple hours prior to going to bed and don’t eat for a couple hours after awakening, you could do 12/12 quite easily. That used to be the ‘normal’ pattern of eating when I was young for pretty much everyone. I don’t think 16/8 or 20/4 is a good idea just yet, though.
I understand what u’re saying, although its hard for me to get the 1900 calories sometimes, I get full very quickly when eating high fat keto foods.
I tried to calculate on the site you sent, my RMR is 2162 kcal and it told me to consume 1974 kcal (183g protein, 108g fat and 20g carbs), Isn’t this high on protein tho? Im currently trying to eat around 170g fat and 120g protein.
Thanks for your comment.
To be honest, IF was the first I found I wanted to really get into to lose weight along with all the other benefits, I actually feel pretty good, think clearer and am not that hungry during my 16-20h periods.
Then I searched for what to eat during the eating window and found out about keto so I kinda put them together. Also plenty of sites recommended to combine it together so I went with it…
As for eating more, yeah it’s kinda hard for me to do sometimes as Im full all the time and the keto foods are really satiating
amwassil
(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.)
#6
You may be having trouble eating more simply because you’ve restricted your eating ‘window’. If you allowed yourself three meals over the course of the entire day, you’d probably have no trouble eating more. I’ve never been overweight nor lost much, so I’m not the person to advise about that specifically. There are also others on this forum who can advise you more specifically about fasting and I’m sure they will show up sooner or later. Keep in mind that what you have been doing has stopped working.
I’m knowledgeable about keto and the stuff that starts to happen when you get into ketosis and stay there consistently. You need a lot of energy to fuel those changes. The most critical period of time is the first several months when you transition from carb/sugar-based to fat-based energy. How easily and efficiently that transition goes or not depends on how much damage has to be fixed. I don’t think adding a restricted eating window helps during the transition.
amwassil
(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.)
#7
PS: On the other hand, excessive weight/fat is really a symptom of other metabolic problems. From time to time fixing other problems may take precedence and weight loss stalls. So that’s a possibility.
There’s no rule saying you have to eat super fatty foods on this, many people overdo it. Don’t shy away from good fats, but don’t look for reasons to stick it places it doesn’t belong either. Your body fat is a fat source for fuel, it’s true you still need to eat fat because you typically can’t mobilize stored fat as quickly as needed but you only need to make up the difference. My fat typically hovers around 75-85g/day.
Not high at all. The go-to for most that want to gain muscle or in many cases even maintain is around 1g/lb of bodyweight, now that skews off when your bodyweight is really high, so you start figuring by a good guess of muscle but at 183g, no way that’s even giving you the 1g/lb of muscle. Don’t forget your body is absolutely going to try to dump muscle (and it will) but it’s an active fight against as much of that as possible. I definitely wouldn’t have my fat that high, I probably would try to keep it 100g or below.
Make your calories a limit, don’t go over them. Make your protein a goal, get it in! Make the fat the rest, don’t go over what you set, but who cares if you don’t hit it.
This is interesting, I personally would rather eat more like this, to switch my fat and protein as you said but I really thought it should be around 70% fat and rest protein. It’s mentioned on almost every site I researched about keto to eat like this and that too much protein on keto could cause issues and may be one of the reasons why not losing weight, I actually thought I may be overdoing it with protein as Im eating meat a lot but based on your comments it doesnt seem that way… its confusing
Muscle doesn’t burn as many calories as most individual believe. That a misnomer that continues to be perpetuated.
However, increasing muscle mass does slight assist in weight loss.
Calorie Rotation
The body learna and adapts to calorie intake.
Research has demonstrated that the body will adapt to your caloric intake in about two weeks. When adaptation occurs, weight loss stops.
The research, as you noted, ia that decreasing caloric intake by around 20% maximizes fat loss while minimizing muscle mass loss.
Research found alternating going on a caloric deficit for two weeks, then going back to maintenance enabled individual to continue to make lose weight.
Thus, about every two week decrease your caloric intake by around 20% and then increase it back to your previous maintenance level for two weeks; keep rotating it for weight loss.
BMR/RMR/Activity Measurement Chart
These are incredibly inaccurate.
3 Day Recall Diet
The most effective method of obtaining reliable information is to count all your calories for 3 days, then divided by 3. That provides you with your daily average calorie intake. One of the three days needs to be a weekend day; when you diet usually changes.
If you are gaining weight, the means you caloric intake is too high.
If you are losing weight, that means you are in a caloric deficit.
If your weight doesn’t change, you caloric intake and expenditure are balance.
Protein Is Too HIgh For Keto!
Definitely, based on that you listed.
Let’s break it down.
Total Calories: 1784 calories
Protein Calories: 183 gram X 4 = 732
Fat Calories: 108 grams X 9 = 972
Carbohydrate Calories: 20 gram X 4 = 80
Macro Percentages
Protein: 41%. That going to take you out of ketosis. Protein should be kept around 25% or less.
Fat: 54%. That is too low. Fats should be at least 65% and higher.
Carbohydrates: 20 gram works. Carbohydrates have a definitive number of 50 gram or less, 5% of intake or less.
There an issue with the numbers this calculator came up with. Good analysis on your part, Dave.
Yeah, it was a very well believed myth when I started keto too… But it’s just a myth. There is such a thing as too much protein as we can overconsume about anything, you probably function fine with your 120g protein but 180g isn’t too much either (unless you are sensitive but if you feel right, it’s not the case).
Don’t worry about your percents, I am almost always below 70% because that’s what is comfortable for me. 80% feels fine but I can’t get that fatty meat, won’t buy white bacon and avoid added fat and cream as much as I comfortably can for reasons. And it’s fine, some people eat less fat than my 65%. Percentages don’t matter. Carbs must be low, enough protein, enough fat (hard to miss on keto but possible), enough calories… But 50% fat or 90? That’s individual (and depends on our calorie intake too. I would eat super fatty if I needed 5000 kcal a day as I can’t consider insanely high protein good and anyway, I love fat).
It’s best if you eat in a comfortable way as long as you can get your nutrients and calories that way.
Your calorie intake seems low but of course I can’t possibly know if it’s fine for your body or you risk metabolism slowing (or it already happened)… Some people can undereat while feeling fine…
IF is fine is it suits you, I did it before keto too as it’s natural to me. It’s not advisable to do and struggle with keto AND IF but you don’t struggle. But maybe a bigger eating window and some more calories would be better…?
Some big men can eat this little and lose quickly, perks of much bodyfat ready to give energy. But some people works differently, their bodies panic and start sparing energy… 5 weeks is a long time, your body doesn’t seem to do the first route at all, our food items seem to be perfectly okay so more food comes to mind, maybe it helps.
It seems like the elephant not being addressed is exercise. What are you doing for exercise? I would definitely add an exercise program into your daily routine (aim for 20 min) BEFORE breaking your IF.
I am planning adding workouts as well but first wanted feel comfortable in these new eating habbits and also with IF, its also hard for me now as I can hardly do a push up.
Once I would start working out my caloric need would increase as well if Im not mistaken? Which isnt exactly something I really want either ^^
That said I do wanna include some sort of excercise soon…
Two weeks is not considered a stall and perfectly normal. Weight loss is not linear and as frustrating as it is to not see results on the sale after being so “good”, it is a reality of ALL diets and the cause of many to give up.
Sometimes you will lose inches and not weight. Take measurements. Are your pants feeling looser or baggier? Shirts hanging a bit looser?
Focus on other benefits - how good you feel, how nice to not be hungry all the time. Look at the long term. I am 2-1/2 years on keto and it is the way I eat - not a “diet”.
Also, just like on the Internet in general you will get a lot of different (and conflicting) advice about keto. The reason is it doesn’t work the same for everyone. Some get full on protein, some get full on fat, some stall when they eat too much dairy, some it doesn’t bother them. Same with artificial sweeteners.
Bottom line is you have to find what works for you - trial and error. If you try something suggested here and it doesn’t work for you doesn’t mean you were deliberately misled - just it didn’t work for YOU. Again - think long term. You have the rest of your life to tweak, experiment and find out a sustainable way of eating you can maintain your health and weight at.
I am 61 years old and this is the first time in my life since I had my first baby at age 25 that I’ve been able to lose the weight AND KEEP IT OFF. Effortlessly. Rarely hungry, enjoy the food. Eating out or social situations can be a challenge but you get used to it.
There’s a lot of info out there on why. Maybe start by searching intermittent fasting and exercise on YouTube. However, the short answer is that exercising in a fasted state increases both lipolysis (the breaking down of fat cells for energy) and fat
oxidation (the burning of this energy by the cells).
Percentages doesn’t matter, grams do to some extent but it’s individual how wide is the ideal range… If I eat 180g protein (not realistic but 160 happens) I better keep my fat low! I don’t want to overeat, after all… Definitely below 100g unless I am very active. I had days with 3 times as much protein, it wouldn’t be ideal longer term but perfect for a day or two. 2 times as much fat can be perfect too, many ketoers use that… It doesn’t matter as long as we get the nutrients, our body is fine with the amounts and we can easily eat like that.
Of course, it’s up to everyone’s decision and experience with play with the macros. I am pretty flexible, I don’t even have fixed limits or targets, only for carbs and calories. Fat and protein may do whatever they can in my vague calorie range, it can’t go wrong but it’s not true for everyone, I am aware.
One can be in ketosis with any percentages (longer term is different but one can be in ketosis with 100% carbs for weeks for sure, it’s a very silly almost-fast but doable :D), it’s not about percentages but about carb intake in grams VS our personal ketosis carb limit at the time, as far as I know. Very much protein (I think about 2-300g, maybe more - not in any case but for people who needs way less) may interfere somehow, I really don’t know, never go there but I can imagine that this amount affects ketosis somehow…? Maybe not, I surely wouldn’t worry about that, I would worry about burdening our body with unnecessarily much protein. But percentages for ketosis? No, it doesn’t work like that, it’s not about percentages. The same for the carbs, it doesn’t matter if we go below or over 5%, it matters if we are below our ketosis carb limit.
