Hi … First time poster … Not too sure if this is an active forum?
Anyway i have been ‘Keto’ (under 30g Carbs/day) for about 6 months. Im 61, male 5’9 and generally pretty fit but my weight has stalled at around 180 pounds. In the time ive been doing it i have probably dropped about 14 pounds. So, its been a slow process but ultimately ive been feeling fit and healthy. I have been a bit lethargic and shaky at times but as soon as eat i recover quickly.
My question is this …Any tips for a restart? Or just keep doing what i’m doing?
One thing that has declined (which is a bit concerning) is my gym/exercise due to energy levels if anyone has any ideas? I’ve been considering upping my carb intake to enable some gym work.
Anyway …Thanks and take care.
Kind of stalled
Welcome! I think you’ll find this to be an active and extremely well informed forum but it seems Sunday mornings in most forums are usually quiet.
A traditional keto plateau breaker is five days on the egg fast. As long as you’re fat adapted it shouldn’t be a problem.
Have you been tracking your calories and macros? I’m the same age as you and weight loss at our age often means you need to really drill down calories and macros (double hard for me, I’m female, menopausal and limited in exercise due to health issues).
Thanks for the reply Harriet.
An egg fast !! Sounds hard core.
I do keep a check on my carb intake relatively religiously and do quite well on that front.
Calories not so much but will do a bit of research as to what my intake looks like.
Diet is eggs,cheese,meat,veg,fish, lots of water and electrolytes and pretty much zero sugar.
Probably need to look into high fat/low carb/low calorie.
Keto meter is around 20 (ketosis) so ive just got to get over this little stall but thanks again.
I can’t comment on keto meters. I’ve always done this with nearly compulsive weighing and logging.
Egg fast is … eh, not so bad. It’s never more than five days and you feel quite satiated, but there is a boredom factor because to do it correctly you consume 1 tablespoon of fat per egg and can have 1 tablespoon of cheese per egg as well. No matter what you make most everything starts tasting the same. some people have reported quite a bit of loss. I can’t remember how it went, been years since I did it and it’s so boring I’ve never done it again. I do have egg only days when I want to have a very low calorie day because they really kill hunger.
Looks great. The food is good, maybe you need a better timing or ratio or figure out what satiates you most or something? I don’t think you need extreme things like an egg fast (I hate it so much, I am the fat fast type, so much freer and no disgusting greasy food but tastes differ) but whatever works for you! If you happen to need to lose fat a lot (my SO is the same height and he needs to be at 140-145 lbs even with very muscular legs… and not muscular other parts), it’s better if your normal days get better too. One can’t lose much fat in a few days, after all.
Less energy in the gym is typical for newbies, the body needs to adapt and that requires a longish time, IDK how much, I never had that problem as I wasn’t very active and I already had low-carb before keto, maybe that mattered.
IDK how long is your stall but it’s normal here and there if you already hasn’t so much to lose. But it’s very easy for some of us to eat enough keto food to maintain lots of extra fat so just waiting for a change may not be successful.
Good luck!
And it’s an active forum, merely much slower nowadays than years ago. Those were the times!
Hey, welcome James.
You probably still have a little bit of insulin resistance going on. Try supplementing with a few grams of creatine and/or TMG daily. This may be able to “unstick” you. Do things to boost your fat burning profile… surprisingly, this is typically not the gym. Just do morning or evening walking in the cool times of the day - preferably in shorts - at least a brisk mile or two. This is a very fat burning exercise - alternatively, take a swim. I have found personally, that if I eat goat yogurt in the morning, I have good energy all day - very high in MCTs, which will become ketones. Eating a coconut oil fat bomb is a lesser option but has a decent percentage of MCTs as well. I add a scoop of Target’s Good and Gather cacao powder to mine, and sweeten it with stevia/monk fruit sweeteners. It’s much like fudge. I usually eat some of this before a workout to boost energy availability.
Track your intake, you’re either eating too much for your metabolic rate, or under-eating and now you’re body is grasping as what it can.
180 isn’t heavy for 5’9", I’m 5’10" and 215lbs, I’m not fat at all, I could lose a little, but BF is somewhere in the probably 13%-ish if I had to guess. At 180 I’d look like a walking corpse. You sure you’re not starving yourself?
I do a hybrid of targeted and cyclic keto for that exact reason!
If you’ve never done a hormonal panel espeically a Thyroid panel on yourself, it’s a good idea. If hormones are off, you’re not eating your way around that, and long term ketosis has tanked a lot of peoples thyroid levels, including me.
Thanks so much for all the replies.
Great advice. I’ll have some questions over the weekend (It’s quite a complicated process isn’t it:blush:).
Cheers all
I’m wondering about hydration and fat intake. Everyone is different but for me, I have an almost irritating amount of energy on keto and carbs put me to sleep.
Yes, good points. I was assuming that since the original poster has been keto for six months, that those were fine, but you could be correct: not enough fat and not enough salt could also be culprits.
Hydration is good with lots of good electrolytes.
Having read the replies i think my issue has been too many calories!!
Rookie mistake probably.
I would add that a basic low carb way of eating has got to be the way to go.
We also eat organically and hardly any processed foods, i appreciate that not everyone can do this but i’ll definitely be promoting the benefits of low carb eating to friends and family.
Thanks again.
Hi @Rob4420,
When I started keto, I cleaned out my fridge and cupboards. What does an average day of meals look like for you?
I did keep track of mine online food diary thing, but it did help me make sure I was getting my macros, and keeping my carbs low. I would think to stay with what you are doing, but add in just some sort of Macro calculator. I got very steady in losing just 1 lb a week, but I was 35 or 40 lbs overweight for my height. I hear folks with more weight to lose, lose faster, just hear that.
Also, water became my main drink and that helped with the sugar/carb cravings. Your mention of hunger-cravings reminded me of my situation. If you might still be eating too many carbs for your system, you might have in-between-meal hunger which I first try water for that. At least 8 oz. If that doesn’t work, I’ll eat a couple of eggs, or a beef stick with cheese, anything besides carb/sugar.
I am really glad you are here, and made a post so we can get to know you, and help where we can, Denise 
PS I don’t count calories, rarely only, but in the beginning, I think it is important to make sure we are eating enough, in order to supply our energy. I thought my whole life eating less, I would lose weight, not true, I eat more now up to 1700 calories, yes, I did count as I eat a whole lot it seems, for being 5’2" and 109 lbs. But I am building muscle with my workouts, so I need more