My daughter and I are both doing Keto. She is not losing weight. Please help

newbies
(Ellen ) #15

I remember there was something different when it comes to calories in the cronometer. Should she just follow the questions the app asks?

(back and doublin' down) #16

Just ignore that part…LOL. Get enough protein, and keep carbs under 20g net and eat enough fat so there’s not hunger between meals.

Eat More Fat! ~0~ what a joy to know when I’m eating I can have all the butter and whipping cream and it doesn’t make me gain! ~0~

(Ellen ) #17

Okay. That’s making the app easier. She’s at 5% now.

(Ellen ) #18

Well I guess 5% is 5g? I’m confused as well

#19

This is just what I was going to say. Can she see any difference in her face? Waist? Heck, even hands or legs? Chest? It doesn’t always come off where we want it to first. :wink:

All great advice above. Also tell her to keep trying, stick with it! Come here for support. If she was so thin before and rather not so much now, you are probably right that her body has a huge adjustment to make.

(Kirk Wolak) #20

First, understand that EVERY body is different. I cannot tolerate vegetables, especially nightshades. (Tomatoes, Eggplant, Peppers)… No dairy, No egg whites.

My carb limit is about 5g/day to GET INTO ketosis.

Is she measuring ketones? Morning? Evening? Does she have time to watch some YouTube Videos (Dr. Boz is great for breaking things down)

Is she willing to test her blood? (Pee stick is okay… But it tells you NOTHING). She could be releasing a TON of glucose in the AM as part of the Liver Healing Cycle. Then her weightloss will begin. She could simply be eating beyond HER carb limit.

My article on the “Levers” of weight loss explain the big levers you can use. She could be not sleeping very well. There are a lot of variables that can prevent weight loss.

HWC in coffee will do it for me. Just 2TBSP a day and I am done. I will not lose a pound. Remove that, and I start losing. Artificial sweeteners for others. Caffeine for some.

The Levers of Power (What to Measure, What to Control) to avoid stalling/stalls

IMO, the approach should be letting her test her blood, and find what works for her. For example, in the beginning, I would NOT touch artificial sweeteners. Now that I made maintenance, and had to cut down on Pork Fat (including bacon), I let them in. I am not looking to lose a lot. I just want a little something in my coffee (since HWC and Butter are a non-starter for me). It’s self limiting b/c I don’t like coffee all that much (when it is not a dessert, LOL).

But she is showing the signs of a stall. Which means she is consuming SOMETHING that is holding her back. (Read the article). She could be eating too often.

Finally, while stalling out, ALWAYS Count Total Carbs. Add Intermittent Fasting. If she can avoid eating on her non-working days (OMAD those days, no snacking). This usually fixes things. Work eating is self-limiting in many ways.

Once she gets a Keto-Mojo or something and starts testing her blood, post her morning numbers, before she puts anything in her mouth. A week of those numbers will tell us a lot.

Watching Dr. Boz talk about the problems with EATING LATE, or not getting 16,18 or more hours of fasting in, which ALWAYS improves blood ketones! (my best #s are after 5 days of fasting… Trust me! Always in ketosis then. LOL).

HTH, reach out for more!

(Ellen ) #21

Thank you Kirk for all your advice. My daughter started tracking on cronometer. It turns out the bags of Perdue’s organic chicken breast that she made chicken salad with are 27g of carbs with one bag per serving. The bag says 0 carbs. Onions are pretty high in carbs. Who new. Seems hidden carbs are most likely the culprit. Amazing how companies can lie like that. I’ve learned a lot through my daughter’s pain. Her mood today is 100% better than yesterday. Good to know where the problem is…hopefully. Grateful for all the help and suggestions.

(Wandering) #22

Are you sure carbs aren’t sneaking in ? It doesn’t take much … a little too much sugar in a salad dressing, a little too much ketchup on a burger, etc.

What works for me is going hard core for a few days, no more than a few grams of carbs total, only eating foods that are zero carbs per serving, or maybe up to 1 gram if it is swiss cheese or something that is almost pure fat.

Hell I wouldn’t eat a breath mint for fear it has a gram of actual sugar in it.

(squirrel-kissing paper tamer) #23

What do you mean? So nobody else has the same problem can you explain?

#24

A serving size is likely small - I.e. a 1/8 of the bag and they can say 0 carb per serving but she uses the whole bag to make her meal and that’s not 0 carb is what I think that means.

(squirrel-kissing paper tamer) #25

Ok, I see what you mean, but what on earth is in the chicken that brings the carb count up so much?

(Ellen ) #26

The 6oz bag of Perdue’s SimplySmart organic chicken breast says it has 0 carb so my daughter was eating 2 x a day with mayo, onions, and tomatoes when she worked. 6 months on keto and she still weighs the same at 238lbs, no weight loss. Suggestions were to track on an app. When we did that today. The app with exactly the same name said Perdue’s bag was 27g carbs. So with all the other additional things she was way over daily carb limit. This has to be the reason for absolutely no weight loss in 6 months. Started anew today and I even a bit lighter. Go figure.

(Ellen ) #27

Right like 3 strips

(Ellen ) #28

I totally can see that now that I’m watching her track. She’s really into it now. Like a new toy, lol.

(squirrel-kissing paper tamer) #29

Man, that stinks. I’m sure she’s bummed but it’s good she got the app. Tricky liars make the serving size so small it looks safe. I like to make fun of our American products because a serving size will be a teaspoon for a product people use a ton of. Hopefully the app will help her out a lot!

(Ellen ) #30

Yes, thanks PetaMarie. The atmosphere at home is much lighter today.

(Cancer Fighting Ketovore :)) #31

Was that the breaded chicken? Looking at the Perdue website they have lots of different chicken strip bags. Make sure that you are actually logging the one that matches. I recommend scanning the barcode to make sure.

(Ellen ) #32

We read them all and finally found the one that wasn’t breaded. It said the exact words that were on the bag. Word for word. I didn’t know you could scan…another toy. Lol. I’ll tell her that tomorrow. Thank you.

(Kirk Wolak) #33

Wow, that is a TON of carbs for chicken.
But these companies are pretty horrible.

BTW, if you ever get to the point that you want to cook chicken breasts for chicken salad.
I love using Sous Vide. It leaves the chicken very moist!

What my daughter does is let me buy a Rotisserie Chicken, and eat the dark meat and skin, then she takes the breasts and makes Chicken Salad, using Avocado instead of mayo!

BTW, this is another reason to test her blood sugar and ketones. THAT amount of carbs would have kept her out of ketosis… And jacked up her glucose. It should have been obvious with some testing.

Good luck to her… Have her watch some Dr. Boz videos. It felt good to know that a DOCTOR made some of the mistakes that Dr. Boz was making… We are all human!

(Robert C) #34

If she is doing long shifts and getting through the end of the day with caffeine - this is likely to mess up sleep. If the shifts are night shifts or a rotating schedule of shifts - that will also mess up sleep. Sleep is really important for hormones.

Technically a job may be perceived as less stressful but - a CEO doing 100 hours a week that loves their job might not feel any stress where a part-timer flipping burgers at diner (even with slow table turnover) might still feel tons of stress if they really just don’t want to be there (but feels they have to be for money).

There is a sweet spot for exercise - too little exercise or too much exercise can cause hormone problems (it can be a perceived stress if overdone, not supplying any pressure for change if sedentary).

This might be hitting the nail on the head. Keto is trying to manipulate hormones through diet. If sleep, exercise and or stress are all over the place - diet will not make the difference you want in hormones to make progress. The diet itself - if one becomes obsessed - can increase the stress problem (especially if you are constantly thinking about it, planning for it, getting orthorexic etc.).

Finally, remember that scale changes of 8 ounces to a pound a week are going to be fat. Bigger changes than that are usually going to be water weight, time of the month, stress related, diet change related, scale error etc. But, most are interested in fat loss so the scale is somewhat useless.