Lifetime stall

[Foxi]

Hi!

I don’t really expect a solution to this topic, but I’m a bit discouraged and thought I’ll share. I am a 22 (for 8 more days XD) female - I have asthma, hypothyroidism and MODY2 diabetes (genetic one, no medications, just base sugar at 115)
For as long as I can remember, I have always struggled with my weight. And now, please believe me - in my family, we almost never eat processed food. I ate fast food maybe 4-5 times a year. We buy fresh vegetables and really pay attention to sweets, as we all know that in this family, merely looking at something sweet makes you fat XD I am not saying we were (and are, I am back at my parents house) eating perfectly (we had chips/ice cream at least twice a week), but we paid attention to what we ate. And I remember this was already quite demotivating as a kid, seeing kids eating sweets every day for every meal, and me being chubby while being strict with myself.

Anyway, fast forward now, when I left for college, I was determined to loose weight (I was around 86kg then, so about 189lbs). I had karate twice a week. Swimming three hours on saturdays. Eating sweets once a week, modering my carbs. Went to a military check up, I was 1kg short from “obese” and the physician told me to “do more exercise”. So I ran ever morning - guess what? It did not work XD I even looked worst, “kind of swollen”, as my family told. This is when I discovered I was hypothyroidic. After starting a treatment, I went down to 83kg (182lbs) and stalled.

Since then, I’ve stopped “doing” something about my weight. I was still being cautious of what I eat, avoiding sugar and trying to limit fat (but I’ve always liked fat XD). The thing is, I gain weight sporadically -went to a wedding, gained 2 kg, then summer came, gained 1kg, without ever loosing anything significant.
This way, in may this year I’ve reached 90kg/198lbs and freaked out. A friend of mine, studying medicine, discovered keto, which seemed like a nice “diet not diet” for me. I’ve already done most of the things to be on keto, so cutting them out completely while increasing the amount of fat consumed wasn’t that hard.
Stayed rigurous on keto for 3 months, lost 5kg/2lbs (lost during a month, later I stalled). Then left 3w for holidays and allowed myself some moderate cheating (french croissants are definitely too good), so I gained 1kg. Ok, I was expecting this, so everything is fine. Came back, after a week did a LOTR marathon and cheated by eating one handfull of chips and two tbsp of ice cream. Gained immediately 2kg, which ok, I was expecting as well.

The thing is, you see, I’ve almost regained everything for minor cheats, when I never exceeded 50g total carbs a day (and most days no more than 35). I intend to stay keto even after weight loss, but let’s be realistic - I will have cheat days, for exceptional occasions, maybe once every other month, but they will happen. Even my friends started to feel sorry, as they loose weight doing 12h fasts and eating sweets everyday, when I’m, as always, stuck.
Tried to talk about it to my doctors, I always get the answer “stop eating at night” “cut down sugar” or “stop stuffing yourself”. Please believe me, I do not eat at night, stop eating when full and obviously don’t eat sugar. I’ve always done this. It is quite painful to always have the conversation “learn to eat properly”, where the physician doesn’t believe a word of what you say you do.

So… Yup. Maybe someone has similar experiences? I am not discouraged to the point to drop keto, because I believe it works, provided time. It’s just that knowing that eating anything remotely cheaty will make me regain in a day and I’ll take two month to loose is… Depressing XD Also, I am a college student. This year was calm, as I took a break, but I will be deprived of sleep, I will sometimes go to fast foods (but already know how to keto them out ). This won’t help my weight loss. \

Anyway, thanks for reading, maybe someone has a similar story to share?

[MarkGossage]

Maybe try a month of carnivore as the ultimate elimination diet then re-introduce things (if you feel the need)?

What’s 30 days?

[Momof5]

I can relate to being super athletic and yo-yo dieting, I had anorexia and bulimia for years, I was very underweight and sick; but was severely abusing laxatives, diet pills and starving myself. I was a figure skater, ballerina, swimmer, tennis player, pianist, trumpet player, in band, choir, clubs at school during all that time as well. I crash dieted for various occasions after that (40 pounds right before my wedding) by example. I lost over 100 pounds from 2002-2003, (in 8 months of intense exercise, and Susan Powter’s low fat dieting plan); then had my gallbladder out, the day after my dad’s funeral, the two things sent me into a depression where I gained it all back quickly. I can relate to being frustrated and upset about weight for sure. Since then I have done all the diets under the sun; lost 40, gained back 50, etc.

Basic Keto is 20 grams or less of carbs a day (the 35 to 50 you were doing is way too high, probably why you haven’t lost much).

If you do 20 grams or less of carbs a day, NO Sugar or sugar substitutes (as they can spike insulin and stall you from losing weight as well), eat adequate proteins and the healthy fats (butter, extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, etc), no seed oils, drink lots of water, and keep your electrolytes and salt intake up, then you will be able to lose weight. Your carbs you are having are way too high for your body get into Ketosis and burn fat.

The going carnivore is also awesome advice that Mark has given you; he has lost over 120 pounds and has kept it off for quite some time, so he certainly knows what he is talking about!

Do not give up, you can do this, it is not as complicated as you think! Keeping carbs 20 grams or less is very important though.

I use cronometer.com to track myself, it is a free download, you put in all your stats and set it to Keto and put 20 grams for the net carbs. It will help you keep track. Make sure to read all the labels on everything as well, as there are a lot of hidden carbs in things. If you have any questions, just ask, we all want you to succeed!

To give you an idea --this is a sample cronometer diet day:

Your numbers will be different, this is just to give you an idea.
This is based on three meals, breakfast, lunch and supper, no snacks. If you eat just the three, and do not snack in between, and nothing from supper until your morning breakfast (try to not eat for atleast 12 hours from supper to breakfast) to give your body time to process the food =). It will help for weight loss as well. Best wishes! Let us know how you are doing!

[Happyheart]

I agree with Susan. Another thing I would really avoid is anything with soybean and other vegetable oils in it. That means most store bought processed foods like Mayo. I believe this toxic fat may have a lot to do with many peoples health issues and possibly why they can’t lose weight. Eat eggs with yokes, healthy sources of protein and fats. Also try really hard not to cheat at all for the first few months. Just do it one day at a time. It will make it much easier to not cheat later. Think of the consequences before you put that unhealthy food choice in your mouth. And do what you can to get the sleep you need. Make it a priority.
You can do this, really!

[PaulL]

It is possible that you are highly insulin-resistant, and this is what is preventing weight loss and making it easier for you to gain weight. A well-formulated ketogenic diet can reverse insulin resistance, but it takes time to do that; it’s not going to happen in only a month.

I agree with the advice to reduce your carbohydrate intake. Try to cut it to 20 grams/day total. If that doesn’t work, eat even less carbohydrate, or cut it out entirely. What carbohydrates you do eat should be in the form of leafy greens, and fibrous above-ground vegetables, such as broccoli and cauliflower. Eliminate sugar in all its forms.

Your goal here is to reduce your insulin level to an amount that will allow your body to release fat from your fat cells. Insulin above a certain level causes fat to enter your fat cells and then traps it there. The fat cannot come back out to be metabolised until your insulin drops low enough. If you are highly insulin-resistant, that means you are producing a much higher amount of insulin than most people do in response to the same amount of carbohydrate, so you might have to eat much less carbohydrate than others, so as to bring your insulin down low enough to let excess fat out of your fat tissue to be metabolised.

Carbohydrate can act like an addictive substance for many people, and sugar even more so. You may have to treat your desire to eat carbs as a form of addiction, in order to avoid yielding to the urge to eat things that are not good for you. I can tell you that eating minimal carbohydrate, while eating fat and protein to satiety, does help, because the cravings for sugar and other carbohydrates are easier to resist when we are not dealing with hunger on top of it all, but the cravings take quite a while to go away, so you will need strategies to deal with them.

[Foxi]

Thank you for your answers and your encouragements I’ll keep them in mind in moments of weakness (like that LOTR marathon, but hey, one does not simply walk into Mordor without a scoop of ice cream)

Just to straighten this, before my vacation I was under 20 carbs a day - for two weeks I allowed myself some excessive carbs, but I am back to normal now ^^
I might try the carnivore solution, only thing is that meat is expensive around here - or at least meat which isn’t full of water. I even found bacon with 10g of sugar for 100g XD

A friend I’ve met yesterday suggested me to do build up some muscles (not the cardio type sports I’ve always done), so they use more calories, making my calorie deficit easier to keep. What do you think?

[KetoCancerMom]

Have you also been restricting calories? That’s something that isn’t necessary. Just keep the carbs under 20g, and eat protein according to lean body weight (maybe around 1g/kg) and eat fat to satiety.

BTW, what are your current macros? And what does a normal day of eating look like?

[goohsmom]

I was always heavier than my friends when I was young, despite lots of activity, however I have no experience with either hypothyroidism or MODY2, so can’t speak to how those would affect your hormones. I do think the recommendation of adding resistance-type exercise is a good one. Not because muscles “burn more calories” but because they are glucose sinks, and will help keep any off-plan eating from totally derailing you by loading the glucose into your muscles, where it’s easier to release it. Also, resistance exercise will help with body re-composition, so even if the weight isn’t going down, the size is.
I would also check doing some physician shopping to find one who is at least conversant with keto and can help you tweak based upon your existing conditions. In the meantime, keep working your WoE, not because it will make the weight fall off, but because it will keep your hormone levels healthier.

[Foxi]

Maybe not “restricting”, but not stuffing myself, avoiding that refill and so on.
As for my macros, they go as follows, approximatively: 1647 calories, 132g fats, 20g net carbs, and 94g protein.

My normal day of eating… Define normal? My days go from whole day behind a desk through whole day running errands by car to whole day plain running, lifting and getting tired. Usually I start my day with coffee with some cream. If I’m staying at home, I might drink a second one at my desk. Anyway, I eat lunch around 1pm - if I’m at home, it’ll be whatever is left from dinner or eggs, if I’m on the run it might be some sliced chees or anything keto I can buy while running by. If I have more time, I might sit at Mcdonalds and eat a burger without sauce and without the bun.
For dinner I’ll try to prepare something, a recipe from dietdoctor.com if I have the energy, something quicker if I don’t. Often zucchini. Zuchini and eggs are frequently on the menu lately XD

When I’ll be back to college (still got a month to dat), I’ll eat lunch at the cantine, so it will probably be meat and vegetables. I might become carnivorous, because in Poland vegetables usually equals carrots, potatoes or beetroot XD

[Katiekate]

When I first tried to loose weight with LCHF, it didn’t seem to work for me at all. After a month, I decided to go and do the Atkins induction phase…which is zero carbs for 2 weeks. Of course, I never got to zero…but pretty close. That actually got me started. Now I eat maybe 10g carbs a day.

Read those packages! Bacon? Make sure it contains NO SUGAR. Get uncured meats (usually cured with brown sugar or molasses). Make sure there is no sugar (or is many other names) in the products you buy. Avoid fruit. Fructose is far more damaging than sugar.

I was clearly insulin resistant…and border line T2D… I know it is tough to break through that, but you can do it. Just focus you will power on getting those carbs as close to zero as you can!

[ellenor2000]

do you take medication for your thyroid?

[ellenor2000]

I think 1g/kgtbw here may not be enough because the OP has an increased degree of gluconeogenesis than the average keto dieter.