Thank you for your resonses. I am a 42 yo female. My weigh is 186 and my hight is 5 5. I am following a keto diet, 75% fat, 20% protein and 5% carb. Here is a sample of my carb manager report.
Not getting results:(
Behnika
(Behi)
#6
Ilana_Rose
(mole person)
#7
Can you tell us a bit about what you eat and when you eat? Also, do you find that you are still hungry or is the amount of food you are eating right now satisfying you completely?
Behnika
(Behi)
#8
I normally eat cheese, butter, heavy cream, zucchini, cauliflower, green beans, lettuce, cucamber, reddish, a little bit of nuts and raspberries, eggs, chicken, ground beef, 1 slice of keto bread per day ( 1gr net carb), stevia. I track everything I eat through carb manager so I don’t eat more or less then I should. Some days I don’t feel hungry and sometimes I still am at the end of the day. depending on my activities.
Ilana_Rose
(mole person)
#9
When do you eat? Do you have three main meals? Do you have any snacks throughout the day, and if so how often?
I’ll start an answer while waiting for this last bit of information. First of all don’t worry about not losing weight yet. The first 6 weeks or so is a period where your body is adjusting to a very different style of eating. Many, many people don’t lose any weight in this initial stage.
What is happening as you make this transition is that your body is getting better and better at using fat for energy instead of glucose. Once this happens you will start to feel much less hungry than you used to and your body will very easily take the fat from your body instead of your plate without you feeling any discomfort. You do not need to eat every gram from your macros. The only one that you should try to hit is your protein macro in GRAMS not as a percentage. So in your case, from your screenshot, it looks like that’s about 73 g of protein. You can have UP to 20 net grams of carbs but you can have fewer if you want, and you can have UP to about 100 grams of fat. Now you do need to have some fat. Fat is where you are getting almost ALL your energy from and you’d feel terrible if you didn’t eat it. But you do not need to eat it all if you are not hungry for it and that’s part of where the weight loss comes from on this diet. Your body becomes more and more happy to eat the fat off your body instead of your plate.
People get very confused by the macros at the start of keto and think that all the macros are targets to hit. Only protein is. But, this is not a diet of calorie restriction. You are not supposed to starve yourself. Keep eating until you are satisfied and you should find that in the next few weeks you can naturally drop some of the fat.
So listen to your body. If you’re not so hungry sometimes add a bit less fat.
Meal timing is also VERY important however and I’ll get to that after I hear when you eat.
Behnika
(Behi)
#10
Thank you so mych for the information, it’s very helpful. I eat anytime and I usually eat snack, mostly cheese or greens with dressing or coffee with crwam, in between meals. Sometimes I try not to eat until noon and try not to eat after 8 pm. Having said that, most days I will eat my BF around 8-9, my lunch around 1 and my dinner around 6-7.
Janie
(Jane)
#11
By eating 3 meals a day and snacking in between you are keeping your insulin elevated all day and that prevents your body from accessing your body fat stores for fuel.
You are just getting started so I wouldn’t try fasting yet. Start with eliminating the snacks first - eat more at your meals if you have to.
Then in a couple of weeks you should be getting fat-adapted and the first signs of that is hunger is reduced. Then start skipping breakfast and eat your two meals within a 6-7 hour window. That way you are fasting for 17-18 hours so your insulin should drop and you should start losing fat.
Ilana_Rose
(mole person)
#12
Exactly what @Janie said. This diet works best when your insulin is very low. This is when your body opens up your fat stores for energy. The longer the periods where you get no food, the lower your insulin will drop. For some people, insulin never gets low enough if they eat too many times during the day. So if you can, start leaving out the snacks. If you’re too hungry, then just keep going like you are for a few more weeks, but eventually, to maximize your weight loss you want to reduce snacking.
This doesn’t even mean you have to eat less in a day. You can eat more at the meals that you do eat. You just want LONGER periods between food. Trust us, this works amazingly well.
You may feel a bit hungry at first at the times that you are used to snacking, but this is just because your body is habituated to getting food at these times. After a few days of leaving the snacks behind you will feel that hunger reduce and eventually disappear.
Behnika
(Behi)
#15
Hi again. One more question. What about eating a snack with almost no calorie like lettuce or a lemonade made with stevia? Woukd that affect the insulin levels as well? Thank you
Ilana_Rose
(mole person)
#16
Yes, both are likely to have some insulin response and so it’s best to have nothing but water. On this diet it’s better to have less frequent larger meals and leave snacks behind as soon as you are able. If you find you are really hungry, just have a meal. If all you want is a snack, chances are you could wait until the next meal. We don’t work the same way once we’re fat adapted; you won’t be as hungry as you used to be on a carby diet.
Ilana_Rose
(mole person)
#20
Yes, you’re absolutely right. We’re told that many small meals are good but it’s actually just a way to keep your insulin nearly constantly high.
Janie
(Jane)
#21
And increase the profits of food companies who produce a bag of snacks that cost them 50 cents to make and can sell for $2.50.
The big food companies made sure they had their people placed at all levels of government to ensure messages like “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” and “healthier to eat 6 smaller meals than 3 large ones” made it into official dietary recommendations.
Behnika
(Behi)
#22
Hi all,
Thank you again for your feedback.
Since our discussions, I’ve been trying to eat 2 times a day, sometimes three times, with no snacks but I haven’t noticed any change in my weight loss pattern which is not very promising.
I have two more questions:
1- If I don’t something before my workout, I feel quite weak. I also cannot eat a meal before the session because I need to be able to jump up and down. What should I do? Is eating a protein bar going to be too danaging?
2- Is there any nutritionist who is specialized in keto that you can recommend to me? Of course the consultation should be done on the phone or online.
Thank you
Janie
(Jane)
#23
That right there tells me you aren’t fat-adapted yet. You are coming up on 6 weeks of keto which is where most people feel the shift - hunger goes away and energy increases. For some it takes longer.
With a little more patience you should get there! You have enough fat stores that you should be able to work out in a fasted state w/o needing to eat beforehand.
I can’t help you with #2 but someone else here might.
Behnika
(Behi)
#24
Hi everyone,
It’s been two months since I started my strict keto diet. Based on the recommendations I got in this group, I changed my eating pattern. I eat twice a day, usually at 12 and 6, no snacks in between. I continue my kick boxing 3-4 times a week. I don’t get hungry as much these days, my energy level is good but I can’t sleep well. My calorie intake is still 1300 and I am not seeing any results. Some of you mentioned that I had to increase my calorie intake. Do you think that would help? I am quite desprate. Your help is appreciated. Thanks.
Ilana_Rose
(mole person)
#25
Don’t be desperate. Everyone can lose weight but there are big differences in initial levels of insulin resistance and so for some the intervention before much success is greater. Of course it makes no sense to be much more restrictive than you need to be, and everyone is different in what interventions are necessary.
Almost everyone has plateaus and has to dial things in eventually. In your case it’s just sooner but you’re by no means alone in that either. There is a wealth of experience on this forum for busting plateaus.
There are several possible food types that cause stalls for some people. You mentioned you use stevia in an earlier post, do you still? And if so, how much, what foods?