Mixing it up, but still at a stall! Keep Calm and Keto on?

[Juke88]

But I didn’t have to unlearn low fat, for example. I already didn’t believe the bullsh*t about cholesterol. I knew sort of why carbs were harmful but it was with Keto I learned about the role of insulin and meal timing/fasting. And that science is the game changer.

I struggled a bit with the high fat at the beginning, but the more I educate myself the more I feel reassured that it all makes sense and I’m doing the right thing by my body. Loving this community!

[degogirl2000]

Story. Of. My. Life.

[Austruck]

Still in a stall here. Started mid-January. Lost 15 lbs. quickly. Stalled since then. No real inches lost anywhere. Finally lost another 3 lbs. this past week (ironically, after being mostly OFF the diet while out of town at a conference), but still in a basic stall.

My thought is to look at my dairy intake (I love my cheeses and HWC mason jar ice cream), but I have a question about that: Assuming my stall is dairy-related (I’m going to isolate variables till I figure this out)… do I have to ELIMINATE dairy for that variable to work? Or can I just severely reduce the dairy intake?

In other words, when I’m testing a variable, does it have to be elimination or will reduction do it?

[LizinLowell]

That’s an experiment you will have to do on yourself, I think. Everyone is different.

Do you use sweeteners though? They can cause stalls.

[Dan_Dan]

Do you use sweeteners though? They can cause stalls.

But which one or all

Do Artificial Sweeteners Cause an Insulin Spike?

"There are multiple types of sweeteners, all of them chemically distinct from each other. A more useful question would be “What effect does [specific artificial sweetener goes here] have "

Do Artificial Sweeteners Cause an Insulin Spike?

FACT CHECK: Is Splenda Inadequately Tested and Unsafe?

[Kayla_J_Hower]

@LizinLowell and @Dan_Dan Thank you for the information. I do use a Monk Fruit/Erythritol blend (not everyday) and occassionally enjoy some Halo Top ice cream or a diet soda here and there. So I could just cut those out for a couple weeks and see what happens.
My stall that caused me to write this post was broken by a 60 hour fast, and then having the stomach flu… I have about 40 more pounds that I would like to lose so any little stall feels like a big deal!
I guess it’s time to do some self experimentation.

[Madeleine]

Decrease BMR so that your requirement for y Calories is also decreased!

I think everybody here is on board for the first solution. If we fast more often, longer, or differently, we can hopefully reduce our basal insulin levels so that less fat is required to get the same Calories out of it.

I think the second solution is going to hit people like a ton of bricks. We tend to talk about increasing BMR or at least not reducing it so that we don’t stop losing weight. However, I posit that a high BMR results in more need to keep more fat reserves on hand. I have experience with this, too. The times I have lost weight in the past never resulted in a stall–except this time. I think it’s because I am not Calorie restricting this time. My body has kept its high BMR, so I keep gaining back losses after my extended fasts. My body wants to keep some fat storage to keep the BMR functioning. I am curious what the @dudes, Dr. Fung, and @meganjramos think about that theory.

There’s another aspect to this, which is that a high BMR might not actually be great for long-term health and longevity. Fast-burning engine, lots of metabolic byproducts…
It seems to me that once one is at a healthy weight, keeping energy needs low is a good plan in the long run.

[warburg]

A true “elimination diet” for the purpose of identifying the specific foods that cause a certain response in your body requires two things for each candidate food: 1) eliminate it for an extended period of time (usually a week or two), and 2) introduce it in major quantities on a single day. I did this years ago to identify allergies. For two weeks I abstained entirely from every food I thought might be a problem. Then, starting with the most likely candidate, I consumed a large amount of that item in all three meals for one day, and recorded the results. Waited one day, then did the same thing with the next candidate. Etc. Etc. For me, “dairy” was too broad a category. I tested milk, cream, butter, hard cheese, soft cheese, and yogurt all as separate items, each on its own day. Milk was a very serious problem, butter was a minor problem, all the rest were fine. I stopped drinking milk for several years until I got over my intolerance to it.

[jshaf]

I would say to just be patient and try some things, til you figure it out. I just broke a stall today, I cut my intake across the board and it seemed to work. also cut way back on nuts, slightly less dairy and less sweet stuff like drinks and jello and it seemed to work.