My husband is getting discouraged

#1

My husband and myself started Keto on 1/01/2020. We have not cheated at all and this is a big deal for my husband. He hasn’t lost anything in 2 weeks and is getting discouraged. I am hoping that you can tell us if we are doing something wrong.
A little background about my husband. He is 56 and 5’7 and started out at 277. He has had his thyroid removed. He has lost 16 lbs. but has lost nothing in 2 weeks. Yesterday he had coffee with heavy cream, 3 pieces of bacon, tuna with mayo, onion and eggs, pecans (measured out to 2 carbs) and and Atkins bar (4carbs) the atkins snack is not typical. For supper he had hamburger steak and green beans with salad with Italian dressing and 1/2 cup strawberries with swerve.

Any advice?

I have lost 7lbs.

(Barbara Schibly) #2

I don’t think he is doing anything wrong particularly but dairy, nuts and artificial sweeteners can all be problematic. I also would be sure to eat distinct meals and not snack in between or even drink coffee with cream in between (Sounds like he is doing that?)

#3

2 weeks is a short time and he lost 16 lbs since the beginning of the year, it’s great (I lost 4lbs, all water in my first 2 months. I had way less to use, though, less muscles and so on but still, 16 lbs in 6 weeks is good, water weight or not. Getting used to keto should come first anyway). One shouldn’t expect losing a lot every week and tiny “stalls” are normal. I consider it a stall if it’s over a month.
Of course, heavier people tend to lose weight at a nice pace but not all of them. So maybe there isn’t any problem. I would be patient for a while. But if he’s impatient, give up sweetener, maybe the fruits, optionally the vegetables and the nuts… But that is probably harder, it would have been impossible for me for long but I was very patient. So many things can interfere.

(Marianne) #4

I’m sure you will get lots of responses.

I would say to have him eat more. I’d make bacon (or sausage) and eggs (3) a staple for breakfast every morning; lunch could be an 8-10 oz. cheeseburger with salad with blue cheese, a few cuke slices, couple cherry tomatoes, etc., or chicken breast with cheese sauce (home made); dinner could be a whole pork steak, or two pork chops supplemented with bacon grease (otherwise not fatty enough for me), brussel sprouts with bacon grease and salt (or broccoli), salad with blue cheese, or chicken breasts (supplement with additional fat [cream sauce] because they don’t have any), or chicken thighs, steak, etc., with simple steamed veggie. The choices are endless. I believe he can eat this way and still lose weight - I did and I’m a woman.

I’d stay away from nuts (hard to control for me, and aren’t that satisfying for the amount that you can have), and don’t eat keto bars. For dessert, instead of strawberries, he could have Frankenfluff (jello, cream cheese, full fat yogurt and a little swerve - very satisfying).

Good luck - both of you are doing great!

(Bob M) #5

The thyroid could be an issue.

I don’t think that’s a bad weight loss. I have had many times in my journey when the scale stopped moving, but I’d lose a belt hole. (I personally no longer use the scale due to this.)

(Susan) #6

I lost 20 lbs in the first 2 months and nothing the the subsequent 5 months. I am discouraged about it, but wouldn’t think of going off the diet as my blood glucose levels are normal for the first time in 20 years and I don’t have to worry about loss of vision or toes. If he was diabetic, reminding him of his decreased chance of complications might be enough. As the others have said, a 2 week stall isn’t really a stall. Also, the longer it took him to gain the weight and get into his current condition, the longer it will take to get back to health. I’ve noticed that those with massive weight loss seem to be younger. I’ve been diabetic for 2 decades, 7 months is nothing compared to that.

(Ellenor Bjornsdottir) #7

heavy cream has carbs in it

get him to replace the fat from heavy cream with increasing the mayonnaise on the tuna.

(mole person) #8

Don’t be discouraged. It’s not over until you’ve pulled out every stop that you are willing to try.

People with very high insulin resistance don’t always have the best luck with weight loss on the standard ketogenic diet. Some people really need to take additional steps to really get that needle moving after the initial drop.

@Momof5 is an example. She’d stalled out pretty completely. Standard keto was holding her initial losses but not giving her any more. But she has now incorporated three regular 44 hour fasts into her week and is steadily losing weight again.

There are also several dietary changes people make without fasting that often times can help. But it does, in one way or another, require a bit more restriction than just standard 20 net carb keto.

#9

I’ve lost from 339 to the 260s, I’m jealous of your husband being down around 250.

Has he tried eliminating the artificial sweeteners?

#10

Early weight loss is typically mostly water. That’s because glycogen stores are dwindling, and all of the water bound to the glycogen is being released. That’s often called “the honeymoon phase” of a ketogenic diet.

Note that being in ketosis is no guarantee of weight loss.

As with any way of eating, it takes time to lose (or gain) a pound of fat (or muscle). Most short-term fluctuation is simply a change in water retention and digestive tract contents.

For me, a big advantage of keto is that I’m no longer ravenously hungry all the time. That means I’m eating less on a sustainable way of eating, because carbs and insulin are no longer giving me a false feeling of hunger.

(Susan) #11

I know I’ll eventually be able to add fasting, but for now, I’m still having a LOT of hunger issues. I’m often hungrier after a meal than before - even though I’ve eaten more than my fit, active 6’3" husband. (I’m 5’7" and weigh 40 lbs more than him.) After 6 months of this I decided to go ahead and add fat bombs to the menu if I was hungry and truly eat to satiety after reading the thread ‘Starving yourself on keto is stupid’. I’ve gained 5 lbs in the last month. Sigh. I’ve got some more tweeks to try out.
As I said, the truly great thing about this is my HbA1c is 5.5 and I’m off metformin and the statin. I’m never going back.

#12

@tking66
That sounds like more than 20g of carbs to me. A LOT more. Onions have a lot of carbs. Nuts always stalled me. And strawberries? I only eat them for special occasions. I dont know about green beans because I don’t eat them, but cauliflower has the least carbs for veg. And 4 carbs for the Atkins bar is HUGE. I dont think I even eat anything which contains 4 carbs. The trick is to get full with fats- to replace those foods which have carbs with fatty alternatives. I think his problem is the carb creep up. Does he track his macros?I bet if you put these foods in cronometer.com - he would be way above 20g of carbs.

#15

It’s pretty normal in my life and often true after a not big but decent meal (like 1500 kcal). That’s one very good reason to fast for me, I don’t need to get hungry so many times if I skip meals :smiley: I rarely get really hungry when well-fasted. Maybe it’s different for you. Fasting suits me I guess (I still don’t want to skip whole days too often) but it’s not true for everyone and it’s fine. Even our actual diet matters A LOT. The above is true for my old, too carby keto. When I drastically lowered my carbs, a lot of things changed. Almost everything regarding my eating, it was surreal. No hunger after meals anymore. But it comes back if I add carbs again.
Adding (even more) fat is the best way to overeating for me. It does very little to my satiation, I need protein for that (and enough calories so yep, fat has its role too but protein is way more important and it’s not like I can avoid lots of fat, I have fatty protein sources and I love fat). Almost everyone writes about fat for satiation and it’s surely fine for them and probably for most people, some even need way more fat than protein but there are people like me too.
So try out different things, something should work for you as well… I am very used to the fact common advices are usually useless or even very bad in my own case.

(Bob M) #16

You probably don’t want to add fat bombs, especially if they are made with nuts or avocados. Try some made mainly with cacao butter and maybe coconut oil. And add them at the end of the meal.

Eat more meat if you’re hungry, preferably meat from ruminants (cows, sheep).

Try to limit your chicken, fatty pork (lean is OK), bacon, nuts, anything with polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs). Increase butter, and dairy if you can handle it (hard cheeses, sour cream, cream). Even limit olive and avocado oils. See what happens.

This is an effort to increase your saturated fat content. I actually eat cacao butter, raw.

(Natasha) #17

I don’t know if this will help or not (just my n=1) but I often feel that the more I eat the hungrier I feel and the more I just want to keep eating (always keto, and have been eating this was for 18 months) however over the last month I’ve challenged myself to push through the discomfort and incorporate some regular fasting. I’ve noticed something amazing - it has really helped get my appetite under control during my eating days. I don’t know if it’s psychological or physiological but I’m definitely not experiencing the same feelings of being extra hungry (not sure it’s real hunger, just that I love food, love eating and have a history of binge eating) - I’m loving the feeling of control, even if I don’t particularly relish the thought of beginning my fast. I only weigh myself once a month so won’t be able to comment on weight-loss until next week, but I feel that it has boosted that too.

In case it’s useful, my fasting schedule is this:

Sunday: finish eating 6pm
Monday: fast all day
Tuesday: fast until 6pm, then eat 6x hard boiled eggs with 1tbsp mayo
Wednesday: fast all day
Thursday-Sunday: eat as normal, to satiety, without intentionally restricting calories.

Hope you find something that works for you! :grinning:

(Katie) #18

I avoid all fruit because of the fructose… it is sugar… it will raise your insulin.

Remember the whole purpose of keto is to eep your insulin levels low and consistent. Insulin’s purpose is to take glucose out of your blood and make fat cells. You cannot burn fat in the presence of insulin.

Eat during a small window of time (eating anything will raise insulin…maybe not by much … but some even without carbs). That way your body is spending most of the 24 hour day with the lowest insulin level and holding steady.

(Jenny) #19

there Is a thing called PISS… “post induction stall syndrome” … basically a lot of people stall after their initial loss. It’s common and the remedy is to keep going :blush:

(Susan) #20

My fat bombs are 1/3 unsalted butter, 1/3 cream cheese and 1/3 coconut oil. My most common flavoring is lemon extract and lemon juice. Yep, I also add sucralose and
Truvia. I know they say it’s better not to add sweetener, but it’s also better to stick to the diet than cheat. I’ll look for cacao butter.

(Scott) #21

Somebody posted something about Atkins bars. I was listening to a podcast this morning during my run that questioned the “Net” carbs in those. The fiber is processed and therefore may not act the same when ingested. It was more of a “I don’t know” than a proof they are bad. Just saying.

(Bob M) #22

Those aren’t bad.

It’s really satiety. You want to eat things that increase satiety and don’t eat things that decrease satiety.

For me, I can’t eat nuts or bacon, as they cause me to eat more. Every time. Yogurt also. Avocados, similarly.

I prefer higher protein, lower fat, though lately I have been trying a higher saturated fat diet. I’ve been combining it with higher saturated fat, though, by eating butter/stearic acid/cacao butter, and still eating lean meats (most times, though not all the time).

So, if you find that you eat more when you eat something, that’s probably something to avoid eating.

If that means that eating sweet things causes you to eat more, maybe don’t eat those?

I find sweet things to be confusing. Most times, I avoid them. Sometimes, I’ll eat them. I’ll have some tonight (for Valentine’s day). But I do try to avoid them.