Needs Some Help! No Longer Losing Weight on Keto!

(Liam Reynolds) #1

Hi there,

This is the first time I’m writing on this forum because I’ve always had no problems with the Ketogenic diet like this.

I am getting really annoyed with myself as I’ve been on the same weight for a good week and a half now and not shifting. I am either adding 0.5 pounds back on or off. But never more.

So I started off my Keto journey at a total of 22.5 Stone! I am now 14st 10pounds.

I am trying to get to atleast 12.5 stone but I am having a really big problem with this now.

I am planning on going back to the gym to boost the progress of my weight loss, but I have only ever heard exercise is only 20% of your goal to lose weight compared to 80% reliant on your diet.

So for nearly 9 months I’ve been different things with Keto. I started at the usual Keto diet and opted for an OMAD (One Meal A Day) Keto diet about 3 months back which has worked wonders.

Now I’m still on that OMAD Keto diet and only eating between 1000-1500 calories a day after carefully counting but even still I’m not losing weight? Why? I feel that I may be in a starvation mode? Or the Keto Diet isn’t simply working anymore for me.

I have checked I am still in Ketosis and I very much am, and I haven’t changed anything in my diet…

Please can you someone help! I am not looking to be on Keto for very long I just want to get to my goal so I can opt for a more balanced diet eating three times a day with moderate visits to the gym…

Many thanks!

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #2

Welcome to the forums.

Firstly, a week and a half of not losing weight is nothing to panic about. If this is the first time in nine months that you’ve experienced a week of stable weight, then you’ve been doing pretty well for yourself, so keep calm and keto on.

Remember that fat loss is not a linear process, and the rate of fat loss will vary considerably over time. The scale is not always a reliable guide to progress, since many factors can influence your scale reading. Have you done anything that might have caused your muscles to grow? That alone could affect your scale, hiding any change resulting from fat loss. If your clothes are continuing to get looser, despite your scale reading not changing, you are doing fine.

Another thing to bear in mind is that the last 20-30 pounds come off the slowest. It is also possible for our body to disagree with us about its ideal weight. For example, I lost somewhere between 60 and 85 pounds and would like to lose another 60 or so, but my body likes the way it is, and I’ve decided not to fight it. It helps that my principal reason for going keto was to improve my metabolic health; the fat loss was a nice bonus. Since my blood work is now completely normal, and I can get up and down stairs with no joint pain, and I wake up in the morning without feeling old and creaky, why I’ll take what I’ve got and not complain.

This is not to say you can’t or won’t lose the remaining fat you want to lose, but a week and a half is too soon to start worrying about it.

(Liam Reynolds) #3

Thank you for the response,

I haven’t done anything different for muscle growth to be a factor. I have been drinking a lot more water. Could this be a factor? I do check the scales in morning after been to the bathrooms but I do understand body still retains some water.

When should I start to worry if I can’t lose any more on keto? Problem is I’m still not happy with my physique as of yet and my BMI is overweight. I understand also BMI isn’t a reliant thing to go off but I still feel I need to lose a good stone or two more.

Many thanks

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #4

Once your weight has remained stable for a month and your clothes haven’t gotten any looser, then you can start to worry. In the meantime, it sounds as though you are doing well. Try not to worry just yet, eh?

(KCKO, KCFO) #5

As PaulL stated a week and half is nothing to worry about.

You might want to try Intermittent fasting for a few weeks, and have the other two meals. OMAD is recommended for those who have reached their goal weight, not for losing. Megan Ramos has addressed that issue on several podcasts.

All the best in sorting yourself out.

(Liam Reynolds) #6

Thank you!

I’ll keep you updated.

If the diet finds itself not to work anymore I will start to introduce carbs back into my diet slowly and maintain a healthy balanced diet and hopefully that will shift something.

Many thanks

#7

Sounds about like what I went through. I was doing fine until I got into IF/EF and OMAD. I slowed by metabolism and it became impossible to loose anymore. It took VERY drastic fasting and I’d only loose ignoreable amounts which would come right back a day or two after eating again. Took a lot of dietary changes, beating the life out of myself in the gym and reverse dieting to get the metabolism back up. I’d have to eat around ~1300 or so cals to be able to VERY slowly loose, now I’m averaging around 3k cals and slowly loosing at that. Took a while though!

(Liam Reynolds) #8

Thanks again for the replies! This is really helping as I’m not the only one that’s going through or gone through this.

As for intermittent fasting. As I only have one meal a day currently at around 1000-1500 calories daily should I just spread my portions out between an 8 hour gap a day?

Many thanks

#9

I can only speak to mine and my wife’s experience, but we both started going downhill the fastest with OMAD, on the spreading stuff out, we’re both doing MUCH better since spreading meals out. She’s more or less on 3+ a snack or two, I eat around 6/day now. I think constant intake is one of the big changes (Aside from the reverse diet) that’s getting my metabolism back up. Conventional wisdom was eat constantly to “keep the metabolism going”, I think it was probably the fasting crowd that dispelled that. But for me it’s absolutely helping plus my digestion is much better this way.

#10

I doubt IF is an issue as long as you can eat properly and IF feels right for you but few things are certain in this world. 1500 kcal isn’t much food but works for many people, 1000 is super low for almost everyone. I would eat more, it shouldn’t matter if it’s OMAD or not, do whatever feels right for you. I do OMAD only when I don’t get hungry twice but my meal is usually at least 1500 kcal then (it’s a pretty normal mealsize in my world since decades but it’s very good for a daily intake as long as I can get satiated well and for long and OMAD helps tremendously with it). You need your individual optimal range but 1000-1500 kcal for a day is probably too low. If we actually need more than what we can comfortably eat on OMAD, it’s not the right IF for us.
The size of our ideal eating window or number of meals is very individual. Listen to the signs of your body if they are reliable. My body strongly prefers bigger meals especially when hungry, I mean more calories than half of my daily energy need so only small eating windows work well. But the perfect food choices may do wonders. And we may need different patterns on different days. What works for others, may not work at all for you.