Need help.. :( running out of things to try

[ash777]

hi, ive basically been on a predominantly eggy diet for about 3 months now… but have been unable to get into solid ketosis.

I have been diagnosed with fatty and enlarged liver. During the first month on keto / egg diet, i lost about 7 kgs… but then stalled… or so i thaught… 2 weeks back i got too frustrated at lack of progress… so i got the the optium neo meter to check ketone numbers and was shocked to see only 0.3mmol!!. shocked cuz i was nailing the macros but still was in feather light ketosis!..

So that things would be clearer, here’s my bio + meal plan… i’m 5’5’’ , 45 year old M and have a desk job… plus i do not exersize lol, i was 95kgs about 5 months back, reduced 10 kgs by mostly portion control and then another 7 kgs on egg diet.

my regular diet… is as follows…
b.fast… 2 egg omlette in olive oil + black pepper
Lunch …2 egg omlette in ghee + black pepper
Dinner… 4 egg curry +2 tbsp of ginger garlic paste + green chillies + ghee(with full cream cheese sumtimes)
total ghee used per day is about 50 grams

Macros in % ages :

carbs 2%
Protein 16%
Fats 82%

total fat consumption per day 121.7 gms
Thas about a 1290 cal total .

i have cheat days nearly twice a week. on such days, in addition to the regular diet, i have either 50 additional grams of chicken or 200 ml of cream with stevia.

i do also have 30 grams or so of either okra or bitter goud once a week

yes… i do … over do cals on cheat days… but dont think that should kick me off ketosis…

so after getting 0.3 on the meter, i tried mixing up things to get a higher number on the meter… things i tried were :-

IF with a 8 hour eating window… that had absolutely no effect on my keto reading and gluco was at 101
3 meals a day with glucophage (metformin) 850mg ket at 0.6mmol and gluco at 100
36 hour Butter and cucumber fast (25 gm of butter and 100 gms of cucumber) ket at 1.1 gluco at 91
55 hour Butter and cucumber fast (25gm of butter and 150 grms of cucumebr) ket 0.8 forgot to buy gluco strips

at this point i am completely clueless on how else to increase ketone production (other than physical excersize) IF at 16/8 dint have any effect and dont wanna do 24 hour ifs let alone longer…

so… wot do i do? … feeling pretty frustrated now.

[Shortstuff]

Stop chasing numbers and concentrate on getting your diet right. Why so many eggs? Do not count calories, do not limit yourself. Work on making yourself feel good, that should be your priority, the other things will follow. If you are stressing yourself out chasing numbers that in itself will harm your progress. Ease up on yourself.

[ash777]

i guess eggs are just easy to do with minimal management of macro nutrients and preperation time… yer absolutely right… i should ease up … as soon as i figure out wots broken lol.

[Shortstuff]

If there’s nothing preventing you from eating meats etc, no religious reasons or intolerances, then it’s best to get as much variety as possible - the body needs this for so many reasons. Are you tracking your food intake to make sure your carbs are keeping low enough? It can be a pain to do but really is a helpful tool until you’re confident and able to get things right without it.

[ash777]

nopes… no intolerances that i know of yet… juss super fixated on getting into a good keto mode… i do plan to increase the foods im having… As for carbs… my daily carb intake ranges from 6 grams to 16 grams depending on if it’s my cheat day… i’m 100 % sure i’m not overdoing carbs… i am however more worried about protein… maybe i’m converting too much of it into sugar? @blood sugar

[Shortstuff]

I very much doubt you’re over doing protein with your main source being just eggs. As I said before, ease up on yourself You have to allow your body time to adapt, no need to chase numbers.

[kcfricke]

Maybe not enough calories. Eat more fat so your body knows you’re not starving, then it will burn more calories. I know that’s not what we’ve been taught our whole lives, but what we were taught was wrong

[MiKetoAF]

Start with a 24oz ribeye including all the fat and go from there.

[onlyjeffdavis]

Have some bacon with those eggs!

[Ken_Breeden]

Hey @ash777, you mentioned stevia in your food list, have you considered eliminating all artificial sweeteners for a while (at least a couple weeks) to see if that helps. I know that they cause me to stall - especially stevia. Different people respond differently to artificial sweeteners, I’m just suggesting it could be a possible source of the stall. It sounds like a good chance for an n=1 experiment.

More importantly, KCKO! Have a great one…

[atomicspacebunny]

4 CRITICAL STEPS TO REVERSE FATTY LIVER DISEASE https://youtu.be/Vw6_o8457qA

And https://www.ketogenic-diet-resource.com/fatty-liver-disease.html

Also FOODS RICH IN METHIONINE (your body converts this {biosynthesis} to CHOLINE) https://www.healthaliciousness.com/articles/high-methionine-foods.php

[4dml]

Fasting is the quickest, most effective way to get into a state of ketosis. Doing a water fast for 3-5 days should result in high ketone levels. Then as you start eating you can monitor how ketone levels decline and adjust your diet accordingly. Many folks who are severely metabolically deranged find that they need to fast in order to fix their issues.

[FatMan]

Good Morning Ash,

My doctor prescribed a ketogenic diet.

Net Carb < 20 g/day
Protein < 50 g/day
Total energy < 1000 kcal/day

I was also told to try some intermittent fasting and extended fasting.

There is a lot of contention over how much protein is appropriate without there being a definitive “correct” answer but my prescription specified 0.8 g/day per kg of lean body mass which works out to about 53 g/day. I think you are likely eating more protein and you are also eating about 50% more total calories. This might be fine, or it might not.

I think the advice to try fasting is great. Personally, I think the advice to eat more food is not good, rather I would eat less. If you are eating low carb, then when the body has fully utilized the exogenous source of energy, calories from food, it then is forced to utilize endogenous energy, first sugar stores and then fat stores. At the extreme, fasting, the body is getting all of its energy from endogenous sources and you can be quite certain that you are not eating anything that is forcing you out of a state of ketosis as you are eating nothing. If you look at eating as a smooth spectrum of consumption from 0 kcal/day (fasting), to perhaps 8000 kcal/day, gorging, then I think the closer you are to the 0 kcal/day the more likely you are to be in nutritional ketosis. The idea that eating more is going to help, when we know that eating nothing is going to force one into ketosis, leads one to to think the relationship between energy consumption and nutritional ketosis is complex with inflection points. At certain points on the continuum as you eat more the state of ketosis declines but at other datum the opposite happens, as you eat more then ketosis increases. I think this situation is rather unlikely and would require some dramatic metabolic mechanism but I would be fascinated if there was any clinical science to show otherwise.

A few specifics suggestions:

I don’t eat a lot of chicken. I pick higher fat meets like bacon and steak. Don’t bother with lean protein.
At most I eat 3 eggs in a day.
Try adding a day of fasting each week or at least one day with only one meal.
Reduce total energy intake.
Keep an eye on protein intake.

Now … how about a big Awesome! Wow … It sounds like you are just doing fantastic! All that is needed is persistence, experimentation, and determination!

Keto for Life,

Best Regards,
Richard

[atomicspacebunny]

Niacin might help your body utilize energy better, not sure if this is related to your concerns!

optimal ketone and blood sugar levels for ketosis

[ash777]

Firstly guys, ty very… very much for your time and replies… truly heart warming to see the responses… really do appreciate it… Update : got the gluco strips … and for the first time… glucose was in 70s. . 77 to be exact. next day’s weight… after feasting was 76.5 kg… thas also sort of a first … atleast since i got on the keto diet, was previously (2 months or so) been bouncing between 77 and 79 kg.

So prolly gonna try one 36 and 55 hour fast per week for starters

[ash777]

ty… will definately ease up… now atleast i have a plan of action lol

[ash777]

keto cal says i need approx 1400 cals… so i basically have least that much… other than cheat days which are higher.

[ash777]

@Ken_Breeden i got 3 bottles of 200 ml stevia when i started keto … barely used a quarter of the first bottle lol… but yes… will try having cream without stevia for a month… tyty

[ash777]

@atomicspacebunny ty for the share… fatty liver was my driving factor for the search that landed me at keto

[ash777]

Many folks who are severely metabolically deranged

yup… thas me right there lol… and yes… trying to incorporate fasting into weekly routine now