Not losing weight, is it the wine?

[megkelly88]

Hi Guys,
I am a 30-year-old female, weighing 64 Kgs. I exercise about 3-4 times a week, including a combination of road running (5-10kms) and HIIT weight training. I certainly wouldn’t say that I am overweight. I lost 5 kgs for my wedding last year and looked like a supermodel in my bikini, no jokes… I felt like a Barbie doll and got so many comploments on my figure from random people at the resort. It felt good,a nd I felt good. Anyway, In order to lose those 5kgs, I basically starved myself (about 800 calories per day), used fat burners and was absolutely terrified of fat. Over the year, the weight crept back and am now back to 64kgs (141lbs)

I started Keto on the 1st of March this year. I bought ketone sticks and was surprised to see how quickly I was in ketosis. In that week, I lost 1.5kgs. That’s it! During the week I eat super clean and have managed to keep my carbs under 30grams a day. I have also, wherever possible been intermittent fasting, So won’t eat between 20:00 and 13:00 the following day. I do this about 3-4 times a week. When I log my calories on my fitness pal, I am on around 1400 calories per day, sometimes less when I excercise. I feel like I am being super good, I am just baffled and so frustrated at not having lost more weight! I want to get to 58kgs!

Heres the cruncher… I have to admit, I do enjoy a glass or two of wine over the weekend, so Friday- Sunday… I will have a glass of wine with dinner (Its low carb;). I have also had a few cheat weekends (out of sheer frustration at not having lost weight) …By cheat I mean, we went to the cinema and I had a mini popcorn and smarties, but then ate super low carb the rest of the weekend. The other cheat was a bowl of crisps and then on Saturday, I had half a bagel with my breakfast. The point is that during the week I am so good but have not lost any more weight!!!

I weighed myself this morning and I’m back to 64Kgs. AAAARGH!!! I suspect the alcohol could be the issue. Can someone just point me in a direction as to what I am doing wrong?

FYI: Heres a typical day of food for me on keto:

Breakfast/ Lunch: some days I have a bullet coffee at 08:00 (but know that breaks my fast) Other days if I am fasting I eat at 13:00 and then have 2 boiled eggs, lettuce, feta, tomato,6 olives, 1/2 avo salad with avocado oil dressing OR full fat greek yogurt with coconut flakes, chia seeds, small handful of blueberries and brazil nuts OR a big omlette with 3 eggs, cheese and spinach.

Afternoon snack: (I dont always have a snack, I try push through until dinner) a spoon of Macadamia butter OR 6 Almonds or a coffee with a teaspoon of MCT oil and a small splash of full cream milk OR a Tablespoon of full fat cottage cheese on a carb-free seed cracker.

Dinner: Banting wrap (1 gram of carbs), with chicken breast, 1/2 avo, carb free mayo, lettuce, onion, cheese OR Zucchini noodles with chicken or beef strips with 1/4 cup of cream and parmesan.

Immediately After dinner snack: 70%-85% Lindt dark chocolate x2 pieces. If I am till hungry I have a few berries and greek yoghurt.
I drink about 5 cups of Green tea a day, at least 3 litres of water and exercise intensely on the days I do exercise.

Is it the alcohol? Am I eating too little? Is it because my body is pretty close to my goal weight anyway so is holding on?

I would appreciate any feedback I can get.

Thanks, Keto friends.

[megkelly88]

Forgot to say, my body fat % is 23%. I use my fitness pal to log everything.

[LeCheffre]

So, if you are not fully fat adapted, cycling (have popcorn at the movies) is not really that productive, as it’s kind of keeping your carb burning going. Not great.

Also, be careful with the wine… You could try elimination and see if that’s the problem.

[megkelly88]

How long does it take to fat adapt? That means, NO cheating at all then right?

[LeCheffre]

Folks take different amounts of time to get there. I wouldn’t speculate.

But yeah, you want to keep a clean sheet until you’re there. It’s useful practice in itself, as habit formation is kind of key to success.

[collaroygal]

Your body will burn off the alcohol sugars first. Your liver treats it like a toxic substance and wants to flush it out as soon as possible. You didn’t mention how much alcohol you are doing, only foods. I would suspect the high carby stuff like bagel and popcorn to be your real issue.

I like my wine but I only have it a few times a week always with foods, and being fat adapted, it hits me harder, so I usually stop after one 4 oz. glass or I mix the wine (1 oz.) with something to make a 0 carb wine spritzer. On rare occasions I will make a keto cocktail with a diet soda OR a squeeze of citrus and hard liquor. I am almost a year into maintenance doing this. YMMV.

Being in normal body fat range, your losses may be slower. Once I hit normal for my age/height, I had to do IFing and some extended fasting to get the weight off.

There are many threads here on alcohol, do a search for more information. Just know that you can do a little alcohol and keto/lchf WOE together.

[Jason_v]

its either the alcohol, or the alcohol plus the “carb creep” from all the berries and dairy. alcohol is metabolized first since its a toxin 9thereby halting ketogenesis) and you may be eating enough carbohydrate to satisfy blood sugar needs without endogenous production

your choices are to eliminate more plant foods, the dairy and the alcohol, or increase exercise and eliminate the alcohol.

did I mention eliminate the alcohol.

[megkelly88]

haha, noted. I don’t drink a lot, but suspect it is wrecking havoc with the weight loss process.
I will cut it out and see how that goes. I will also cut down the dairy and see if that has an effect.
I was surprised at how quickly I originally went into ketosis based on the urine test, but since cheating last weekend I have not been able to get back in. That’s over 7 days… so is very strange. No cheat days, and no alcohol, noted

[megkelly88]

Thanks so much for your response. I think I need to become 100% fat adapted before tucking into treats here and there. I will give it another bash. I won’t lie, having a busy social life filled with weddings, kitchen teas, baby showers and all the lavish treats that go with it… its darn hard, I wont lie.
Anyway, communities like this really are great, so thanks again for the comments.

[collaroygal]

Ketosticks are better at telling you “you are dehydrated” than “you are in ketosis”. I ditched those right away. A good alternative is a cheap breathalyzer, search for that here, there are so great threads about them. Or the blood ketone meters, again, lots of threads about those here as well.

KCKO