Newbie here...it's been 2 weeks on Keto with NO weight lost

(Marianne) #28

Welcome! I am coming in late on this.

In the beginning, I got my fat and protein macros and tracked for about a month until I got a sense about how many of each the foods I was eating contained. I found that easier to calculate (loosely), than percentages. I didn’t read all of the responses, but if you only have a small amount of weight to lose, it will come off more slowly than if you have a lot. I wanted to lose 80 lbs., and it came off relatively quickly. Lastly (and I’m sure others have mentioned it), I’d encourage you to stay off the scale. You do not have to weigh yourself and it will only serve to mess with your head, whether it’s “good” or “bad.” The number doesn’t matter; let it go. Let your appearance and how your clothes fit be your guide. Honestly, the scale is the devil (to me). The only time I get weighed is at the doctors. For me, that’s about every 3-4 months as I am being monitored for different stuff and they want to see me regularly.

Eat well, keep the carbs low, be content with your food, don’t overanalyze, and let the days pass. It will happen. Best and good luck to you!

(Sharon) #29

Thank you so much, @gingersmommy! Your thoughts are comforting. Thank you again. :slight_smile:

#30

Except no shortage of people drop the carbs, then overeat for their metabolic rate and not only don’t lose, but gain. Far from uncommon.

If you can only deal with 2300cals a day, drop the carbs and eat insane amount of fat up to 3k, which is incredibly easy to do, you’re not going to lose anything.

(Joey) #31

@lfod14 Your point about a gallon of water (= 8lbs) makes the point beautifully. :+1:

But as this thread concerns anxiety over body weight, I’m going to jump onto the soapbox …

TL/DR: Weighing oneself is largely a complete waste of time.

You can stop reading now, because what follows is my gentle rant.
. . . . . . .

While it’s risky to take comments without context, allow me to indulge since there’s no context in which this particular guidance seems wise:

This may be fine advice for some. But it’s a bad idea for most. Moreover, even an accurate trend of one’s weight still misses the point.

Weight is virtually irrelevant to anything anyone truly cares about.

For those prone to obsess about personal health data (myself included), there are far better markers of successful progress than the Earth’s gravitational pull on our bodies.

Presumably, one’s goal is to become healthier (i.e., trimmer, fitter, more energetic, stronger, less flabby, disease-free, etc.) As such, weight is largely besides the point.

Better choices for tracking progress on meaningful goals: waistline, muscle strength, aerobic capacity/endurance, hours of sleep, ability to concentrate, digestive condition, energy level, joint/muscle function, blood pressure, glucose levels, etc. And of course (properly understood) bio-marker bloodwork results.

All told, weight is perhaps the least relevant indication of health progress.

But since we all purchased bathroom scales, we step on and expose ourselves to the perils of feeling “good” or “bad” to start the day. This is a corrosively bad idea for the vast majority of us.

Back to the point about water weight:

Being under-hydrated, and therefore weighing less, is the opposite of good health. OTOH, feeling down about extra weight when one is more properly hydrated only compounds the silliness of checking.

I confess that I too am guilty of such silliness. But I certainly wouldn’t recommend it to others. :vulcan_salute:

(BuckRimfire) #32

Watch the “net” carbs thing. Eric Westmann, who’s been doing this for a long time (over 20 years) says “total carbs.” You can look up his methods easily by searching for “Westmann page 4”

Using a lot of fake breads, crackers and bars that claim low net carbs is risky at first. Try to be really strict for a few weeks. If nothing happens then, I’m out of ideas!

(Kirk Wolak) #33

I’ve suffered through a lot of struggles. There are so many variables.
Avocados are fruits, and have carbs.
And MAYBE you need 5g of carbs/day.

The trick is to count TOTAL Carbs, and test to see if you are in ketosis.
This diet is much harder when you are not getting into ketosis.

But you might find many hints in here…

(Kirk Wolak) #34

Shinita, I am curious. Do you measure your blood ketones/glucose?
I would be very curious to know your morning numbers, and your post-prandial numbers.

Of course, my fear is that you simply don’t measure…

#35

No, I can’t measure these things. But as I don’t care about them, it’s okay. I go for feeling right. As I often wrote, I don’t even care about ketosis. It’s another thing that I probably inevitably get ketosis when I go low enough to feel really okay.

I am actually slightly glad I don’t know my ketones as apparently they aren’t informative, like, at all…

#36

PREACH IT!

@SweetMeNot, you got great advice on the board. Just eat and let the magic happen :slight_smile: Mostly never ever on our time frame how fast we want some lbs. gone does it happen easily, lol, but it will happen! And ya got time, alot of time for healing and change cause a lifestyle means you are in it long term, so time is on your side.

Using anything like pants, shorts is a great way to measure your progress without using the scale. The scale lies on what is happening in your body to gain better health so that is a good way to roll cause many can become leaner/meaner body machine and not lose a lb. on that darned scale but lose a darn size in clothing easily so…you hold strong!!

(Doug) #37

Very well said. :clap:

(Kirk Wolak) #38

Shinita, I could not disagree more. This is immediate feedback as to what Chemistry is going on in your body. For people who care about stalling, being truly healthy, or the impact of their food decisions on their health. It’s incredibly informative.

FWIW, Shinita. I “feel better” mentally when I have some carbs, and especially combined with caffeine. Of course my BP spikes, and my weight goes up, and ketones drop. And I don’t feel as great physically… But I realized I was “getting high” with the carbs… And it leads to a bender on carbs. I could not fathom using how I feel. Even 5yrs into this WOE. Partly because I feel worse when I transition back to being healthier… Until I’ve been there for 3-5 days.

it was dreading that process that would always push me to “Start Next Monday” in my past life.

Now, I see clearly the damage I’ve done to my body’s energy systems.

But maybe you meant ketones by themselves, and not combined with Glucose. Yeah, that’s kind of useless, because 2 different numbers. They have to be combined to estimate your INSULIN levels via the GKI.

#39

It’s easy for me as I obviously feel and function better as I get near to my ideal woe :slight_smile: So I don’t need more tweaking, I know what to do, I merely need to learn to stick to it.
Yep, the not informative thing was for ketones only.
Good thing I don’t need any other info either, just how I feel. My body is helpful like this. I couldn’t use my feelings to see my ideal woe right out of high-carb but eventually I figured it out. If it will change again for some reason, I surely will notice. It seems working for me. As long as I do what I should.

(Brian) #40

I know how you feel…I’ve been doing Keto for a couple of months now. Barely any results. I have not had more than 20 grams of carbs per day for over 2 months. For whatever reason I can’t seem to get into Ketosis…I’ve done the test strips (reliable???) and had 1 good result. I tested every day. I have kept strict track of my carbs, been eating steak, bacon, eggs, any veggies have been very low carb, no potatoes or carrots just broccoli cauliflower cabbage etc. Occasionally a tomato but only half. Even then, no over 20 grams in a day. Any advice???

(KM) #41

Testing for ketones can be dicey. The urine strips can go bad, or your body may only be producing as many ketones as it needs, so there’s nothing left over to measure. The two ways of producing more ketones that i know are going carnivore / close to it, or fasting.

Are you experiencing some of the improvements or benefits you were seeking, even if the ketone testing isn’t going so well?

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #42

Welcome to the forums!

While a 20-g/day limit works well for most people, you might be one of those whose insulin-resistance is so high that you need to restrict your carb intake even further. If you want help troubleshooting your diet, you can post a few days’ worth of what you eat, and we can see if there are any obvious problems. It would also be helpful to know your age, sex, current weight, goal weight, and medications–assuming you feel comfortable sharing them.

Also, the suggestion to go full carnivore is not a bad idea. Beef and water is the ultimate elmination diet, for example, and a lot of people have found things like the Lion Diet and Dr. Berry’s beef, bacon, butter, and egg diet (BBBE) to be helpful, as well.

Lastly, because you are eating in a way that works better with our human biology, you don’t need to fear eating too much. Be sure to eat enough to satisfy your hunger. That may be a lot of food at first, but people generally find that their appetite drops, once their body is assured there’s no famine going on. Also, our metabolism speeds up when we eat less glucose and more fat and protein, so that even with the lower appetite we are burning more. This allows the body to draw down its store of excess fat, while also metabolising the fat in our diet. You will find lots of posts from people on these forums who found that their fat loss began in earnest once they started eating more, not less, paradoxical as that sounds.

So be patient, keep calm, and keto on!

#43

I’d encourage you to stick with it and give it a full 6 months. By the end of my 2nd month I had only lost about 3-4lbs. That’s it. Everyone else raved about dropping 5-10 their first week! And over 20 after 2 months. Why wasn’t it working for me?

But my body was different. There was a LOT of internal repairs it had to do. It did not want to give up any fat while it was doing those other things. I also couldn’t get ketosis to register regularly on the urine sticks. (Still can’t after 2 1/2 years, only when I fast.)

So why didn’t I give up? Two reasons. 1) I felt fantastic. Lots of energy, and was starting to not need some of my medication. 2) I measured with a tape measure every two weeks and I was shrinking a bit. Enough to keep me motivated and committed.

After 4 months I really started to see changes. A lot of inches came off too. I was able to stop the rest of my many prescriptions. Six months in I had lost a total of 35 lbs.

My road has been slow. After 2-1/2 years I’ve only lost 55lbs, and I have 20 to go still. But I have lost over 9-10” from my belly/waist/chest, and 5-1/2” from my thighs. I’m so much healthier.

You might be like me and it just needs to be a slower road for you. But it’s worth it. I will never go back to how I ate and lived before.

(Robert Jesionowski) #44

What is an OMAD week?

(Robin) #45

One meal a day

#46

OMAD (see Robin’s comment) for a week. I never could do it for long, even one week was exceptional.

#47

I´m about the same % -wise. But I saw the % using an online calculator, I only wanted to check calories just to make sure I´m eating enough. I´m not watching %, just keep the carbs low ( I like 5-15 g).

Patience - and stop weighing every day, you will go crazy doing that. Good luck!