No weight loss at all - Soon on day 4

fasting
stall
fastingwomen
(Danielle ) #1

Hi there! I have been stalling, despite always doing intermittent fasting every morning. My eating window hasn’t been very short, as I was home with the kids during the summer for almost 2 months. However, I wanted to break this extreme stall (could even be gaining weight), and went into a 120 hour extended fast. I am currently on 50 hours and haven’t lost anything at all. I drink coffee, without any fat or anything in it. I drink lots of water and add salt.

What’s the matter with me? Never happened before! How can I not even loose any water?

(David Brown) #2

this might help

(Ken) #3

You might be experiencing a Starvation Response. Consider eating evil carbs for two days. It’s a reasonable option, not Heresy.

(Katie the Quiche Scoffing Stick Ninja ) #4

Can you provide some more information?
How long have you been Keto?
Do you normally fast?
What’s your calories look like when you’re not fasting?
Are you eating too much protein?
Are you exercising?

All of the answers to these questions may indicate what’s happening so please respond if you’d like some help figuring it out.

(Danielle ) #5

Yes of course! :smiley:

I have been doing this for 1.5 years. I started IF fasting around Christmas and have done it continuously for a long while. I have also done many 24-44 hours fasts. This is probably the first time I didn’t see any change in the scale. However, this morning I was down 1 kg on the scale and I have 2.6 in blood ketones now after 65 hours fasting, in comparison with 1.6 yesterday and 0.6-0.9 on my non-fasting days.

I am not exercising regularly, as I am pretty active with my kids. So it is a lot of walking to activities, and I have a dog.

(Danielle ) #6

I have thought about that too. Is this like carb loading?
This summer I was pretty stressed and more hungry than usual, so I just ate when I needed. Thus, no EF and an IF with a window between 11-18.

(Ken) #7

Not exactly. “Carb Loading” is a fairly archaic term from around 30 years ago. It was recommended for athletes already following a carb based nutritional pattern. This is LIMP, the concept of limited carb intake for those following a fat based pattern, designed to mitigate metabolic slowdow. For you, since you appear to be experiencing that condition, I suggest simply flipping your carb and fat macros for a day or two per week. Eat at a caloric maintence level, so there is no chance of glycogen overcompensation and a consequential readaptation back into a chronic lipogenic hormonal secretion patern. Try it for a month and see what happens.

(Sheri Knauer) #8

I have been keto 2 years and naturally IF every day. I haven’t done many EF in those 2 years but when I did, I found that I did not lose any weight at all during them but a day or 2 after I ended the fast is when I would drop the weight.

IMO, I would follow your original fasting plan and see what happens in the days after you end the fast. It could all be hormonal as well. Just KCFO (keep calm and fast on).

(Danielle ) #9

This is definitively something I need to read about and implement. Does this include low carb recipes with higher carbohydrate amounts in them?

(Danielle ) #10

I actually never aimed at losing my fat weight during a fast, rather as a long term solution to help my metabolism. However, I have always lost weight after only a 24 hour fast, which I always assumed was more water weight than fat content. I was rather suprised this time that the scale didn’t move until day 4.

(Brian) #11

You have to get your energy from somewhere. Your body needs to keep the lights on, so to speak. The scale may not be a very good indicator of what may be going on. If you’re in ketosis, and it sounds like you are, you should definitely be burning fat. It’s not a huge amount but it’s the most readily available source of fuel and with your history, your body does know how to use that fat for fuel. It won’t be a huge amount. I’m thinking you may use something like 1/4 pound to maybe 1/2 pound per day, I forget where I heard that, it could be off a little. Your water intake, coffee, tea, and anything else you would be taking in with it (salt, other minerals, etc.) will be massive in weight compared to the fat your burning and just one extra half glass of water would probably weigh more than the fat you’ve burned all day.

I tend not to drink as much water when I fast but some may drink more. Adding salt to the water might change how much or little water retention is happening. Also, when I stop the supply of food going in, that tends to stop the exit from the other end… nothing in, nothing out, at least on short 1-day type fasts. Longer ones will usually see things “clearing” in a couple of days, but if it hasn’t cleared, it’s still showing up on the scale.

That’s just my take. Trying to see meaningful numbers on a scale seems like it would be awfully frustrating and probably not all that accurate an indication of what’s really going on anyway.

Don’t think I’m trying to discourage you from fasting. There are certainly reasons why fasting might be considered a good thing, just ask Dr. Fung. But there are limits on just how much fat a person can burn through while fasting, and they may vary somewhat from person to person.

One thing about it, you save on the food budget! :smiley:

Hang in there. Make good health the top goal. And it’s OK if it takes a while to reach those weight loss goals. Faster is not usually better. Relax and don’t stress over slow progress or even a plateau. I think we’ve all been there. No matter what it is… “This too shall pass.”

(Ken) #12

You could use any recipes you want, but you really want to eat low fat when you do it. That avoids the synergistically increased insulin response of carb-fat combinations. It’s really about 60-80 percent carbs, the rest protein, according to your caloric requirements.

You really don’t have to be so strict since it’s only for a couple of days, so you can just eat some carby foods you’ve missed.

(Danielle ) #13

You said some important things. Normally I don’t drink more water than normal or take salt. However, this time I drank loads of water and salt, as advices by others. My body must be using itself for energy because I wake up alert and full of life. Today I measured 3.6 in blood ketones, so they are definitively functioning.

Another thing, I am not very big. I have the typical hour glass figure, with little belly fat. This might make it even harder for me to actually loose weight. As well, I have heard that this type of body figure derive from having more oestrogen, and as oestrogen makes it harder to loose weight, this could be a factor as well.

I really want to know what is happening with me, but the doctors aren’t really helping.

(Kema V) #14

This is interesting. I am pear shaped with a very small waist. I’ll have to look into oestrogen.