Hello, This will be my first post. I have been doing Keto since 12/1/19 this time very strict. No carbs other than vegetables fillers and the like(incidentals). I have a blood meter and a breath meter and am drinking no alcohol and a few products with Stevia. I listen to a lot of podcasts i am sure everybody does. I have tried to stop chasing ketones and stopped taking MCT products for the last week. I gained 2 pounds. I am not really overweight, i am trying to be an example in my family and get the people who really need to be Keto on it. I have a ton of energy, but have stalled like a lot of people after 10lbs loss, I need another 20 to go to be where I want. I take a bunch of supplements that I have read about to repair my Stomach from the last nine years of heavy drinking. Which has helped alot. I have been using the breath tester lately because my blood meter strips are unavailable but I used one anyway and had a 0.0 but my Breath meter was 14 ppm. I can only think its because I am not using any MCT products. Any advice?
MCT oil or none
You’ll need to give us more details about yourself and what exactly you’re eating for anyone to give you more specific advice. But just starting, you need to keep yourself in ketosis as consistently as possible. What ‘breath meter’ are you using? If it’s a Ketonix or a Levl, then it’s accurate and you can use it multiple times per day to confirm you’re exhaling BrAce. If it’s some other device, then it may or more likely not be accurate or even of slightest use. Don’t worry about blood tests unless you have some specific medical condition that requires you to measure β-hydroxybutyrate. You won’t do them more than once per day and you may be in ketosis at whatever time you draw the blood but not a couple hours before and/or afterwards. Or just keep it really simple by eating sub-20 grams of carbs per day, the fewer the better.
Keto is a normalization process, not a fast weight loss diet. When you start keto a lot of stuff happens all at once. Sometimes other stuff takes precedence over weight loss. Stay in ketosis as consistently as possible - 100% if you can - and good things will happen. They may not happen just the way you think they should or match the timeframe of your wishful thinking. Best wishes.
I can’t tell anyone else what to do, only describe what I do and may be it’s useful. I’ve been eating 40g net carbs, whole food for 2 years and also exercising. I track with crono and top off small amounts of D3, calcium and magnesium even thought that might not be necessary. Otherwise I don’t use any sort of suppliment.
I can’t say that exercise will help with weight loss but I believe that burning lots of extra calories by activity will accelerate what ever metabolic adaption you’re looking for and may be a few you aren’t thinking about.
Thanks for answering me. I have a ketonix breath meter. I use the cronometer app for tracking my food, i stay around 1500 calories a day with 70% fat 20% protein and 10% carbs. I have been in ketosis for 3 months, and have a lot of energy. I am planning on weening off the suppliments one at a time to try and determine what is causing me to lose my ketosis. As far as what i eat, Its a lot of grass fed beef, kerrygold butter, sour cream, cream cheese, macadamia nuts, celery, broccoli, chese, i make a coconut flour bread for my wife that i have a little of, heavy cream, coffee, olive oil, olives,. avacados, MCT oil. The only thing new is a K2 vitamin. i get around 14k steps a day with my job. Its not technically exercise but i know it helps. I have more energy than i know what to do with. It just seem lately i have not very many ketones on any device i test with. I have not compromized with carbs at all. I have no intention of stopping mind you. I finally have my wife on it for her hormone issues and she is noticing the change right away. I just had to break her of her Bread addiction. LOL
Let’s do some math.
1500 kcals x .7 = 1050 kcals fat / 9 = 116.7 grams fat
1500 kcals x .2 = 300 kcals protein / 4 = 75 grams protein
1500 kcals x .1 = 150 kcals carbs / 4 = 37.5 grams carbs
If those numbers are close (do you weigh/measure or guestimate?), then I think you’re eating too much carb and not enough protein and/or fat. You may also not be eating enough overall. 1500 kcal for a 160+ pound man is low. To lose weight on keto it is far more important to keep your carbs sub-20 grams per day, the lower the better, than to eat less overall. In fact, my guess is that you will lose weight faster simply by getting your carbs sub-20 than by anything else you can do at the moment. Although upping your saturated fat intake might help as well.
These would be my immediate carb suspects: sour cream, cream cheese, macadamia nuts, celery, broccoli, cheese and ‘coconut flour bread… I have a little of’, depending what’s in it and how much is a little of. If you must eat vegetables, I recommend bok choy, it has fewer carbs and is more nutrient dense than any other vegetable, so you get a lot of ‘bang for your buck’ carb-wise. It tastes good, the best of Romaine and celery, and contains significant vit Ks so you could probably drop the supplement.
Be careful with dairy and read the labels or look it up on the USDA nutrition database. There can be a lot of carbs in cheeses, cream cheeses, sour cream. Ghee (clarified butter) is a better choice than regular butter, even Kerrygold. Finally re dairy, make sure you don’t have lactose intolerance and/or any other negative reactions. Many folks do. It’s very common.
Nuts are also suspect. All nuts contain significant carbs. Most of the fats in nuts are PUFAs and that seems to cause lots of folks problems, especially combined with carbs. So eat with care.
Wow, I never looked at it quite like that. I will reevaluate what i am eating and change accordingly. I want success! I will check back in a couple of weeks. Everything you wrote is about what my cronometer app says. at the end of the day. I will look for more fat options and increase my calories and see what happens. I am documenting everything after all.