Not Losing Weight.. question for experienced Ketoers

(Nicole Silvia) #1

Hey guys! I’ve been doing keto since Aug. 10th. So, still pretty new. I have noticed a lot of great changes as far as how I feel and my relationship to food. But I have had some issues.

Once in a while I feel like my digestive system is screwed up. This worries me. It seems to have gotten better, I know it has to do with bile and my gallbladder, and honestly I am not used to eating so much fat. It worries me because it makes me feel awful and because my mother had her gallbladder out around my age. I certainly don’t want to aggrevate my sensitive organs. It does seem better, but it still worries me… and yes, I am huge on hydration and electrolytes. I’m even taking probiotics and multivitamins as a precaution.

I’ve “cheated” 2 times since beginning. The 1st time was because I felt so awful and was desperate for relief. The 2nd time I just felt like it and was curious about how it would effect me.

I learned 2 great things about cheating (probably ate 120 carbs the 1st time and 90 the 2nd, both involved sugar) I learned that:

A). I was completely over the hype of these foods. I enjoyed eating them, but no more than I enjoy eating keto. I CHOSE to eat them, and they were nice, but not AMAZING and I could take my time eating them.

B) I found that I went back into ketosis very fast. At least that’s what I believe the urine strips indicated. It took me less than 24hrs, maybe sooner for the 1st time and just a few hours the 2nd.

I want to point out that I have NOT been really losing weight. I have even done IF 3 times the past couple weeks. Not forcing it on myself, but my body was cool with it and I make sure to eat if I’m truly hungry. I feel like I have a 100x better connection with my hunger on this diet. Another pro.

So, all these wonderful things are going on except the digestive issue that comes and goes rarely. And it is certainly boggling that I’m not losing weight. I lost about 4lbs total. I’m confident I will lose more, but this seems really really low for 4-5 weeks in, especially if it’s mostly water weight.

I am wondering if I have a higher carb tolerance (which I do suspect based on past nutrition) and that I should up my carbs to wherever that threshold is.

I wonder this because my body DOES like this diet, but sometimes it’s very unhappy and carbs might help. Also, if it doesn’t take me long to get back into ketosis after a carb load, maybe my threshold is high and I would actually benefit from eating more… I’m not losing weight, so maybe my body will let go of some more fat if I raise it???

I guess I would need to get a ketone blood monitor and play around to see where my threshold is. Any input on this??? Thanks!

#2

I would go a month without cheating until you’re fully fat adapted. Then you might want to experiment with fasting as you’ll be less hungry anyways.

(Brian) #3

In a way, I hated that this happened to me. There were things that I REALLY liked before keto. Now that I’ve been keto for over a year, the few times I’ve tasted some of my old favorites, I’ve been so underwhelmed as to not even really want to binge on any of them. :frowning:

But I can’t really complain about that. I have new keto things that have taken their place that I now really like. :slight_smile:

Honestly, you shouldn’t be all that worried about the weight yet. It takes time, especially for the ladies. Keep the carbs low, the protein in an appropriate range and don’t stress over eating plenty of fat. I never have been one to ingest shots of olive oil or similar things. But I don’t avoid fats at all. If I want a couple of tbsp of butter on my broccoli, I do it. If i want a quarter cup of heavy whipping cream in my big coffee mug (with the coffee), I do it. If I want some browned butter over a piece of fish or chicken or beef, or asparagus (a favorite), I’ll not think a thing about it other than enjoying it.

Good luck!

(Nicole Silvia) #4

What about when I experience extreme digestive upsets?

Or that I didn’t cheat the first 2 1/2-3 week’s but didn’t lose hardly any weight?

I didn’t force myself to IF, I just didn’t feel the need to eat, so I went with it. You still think I should not do it?

The fact that I readily bounced back into ketosis after cheating, does that not mean anything? Normal?

(Nicole Silvia) #5

Thanks! I’m not stressing over the lack of weight loss, I just wonder if it means anything.

I’ll probably lose more since I’m getting back into exercise and my relationship to food and hunger is so much healthier.

I probably am eating too much fat. I like your method of handling that :slight_smile:

My question too, is there a benefit to finding my carb threshold and upping the daily carb intake if the threshold is say 50g?

#6

Unless you have other medical issues, I would guess this should go away. Might eat some food with probiotics like sauerkraut.

Some say it can take 6 weeks to become fat adapted, so you’re almost there.

Some say to get fully fat adapted and let your body get used to it before fasting.

I wouldn’t cheat if you can help it. It’s a slippery slope if you’re consuming a ton of fat and then throw in carbs.

#7

upping carbs never helps to lose weight, unless you are a genetically blessed hyper insulin sensitive 19 year old athlete/model who is intensely exercising daily

(Running from stupidity) #8

Does ANYTHING really mean anything, though? #philosophy101

My takeaway is that it means everyone’s different, and your body does it’s thing it’s way, when it wants. And give it time, it’s a marathon not a sprint (or something). I’ve been doing it for a couple of weeks longer than you (and learning about it intensively for 2-3 months before we started), and it’s clearly really variable.

(Nicole Silvia) #9

Thanks! I hope I don’t kill my gallbladder, but I’m very healthy other than asthma and being overweight.

I like saurkraut and heard from another source that it was very good for you, so I’ll add it.

I think you’re basically on point with the rest. I just had some cake for my birthday :confused: but I’m right back on the wagon. It will all be good!

(Nicole Silvia) #10

Lmao… thanks :slight_smile:

(Barbara) #11

For me, getting fat adapted was not a fast and easy matter. I am over 40, female and had been obese for over 10 years. At first, I was following the advice of eating a lot of fat…more than I wanted…and wasn’t losing. After a while it hit me in the head that I already had a huge supply of fat to tap into to–on me! Why stuff myself with fat my diet when I’m already wearing it and lugging it around? I stopped pushing fat into myself and started using what is already there. I love it when I can skip meals and feel absolutely no hunger because I am hooked up to continuous feeding from my own automatic “fat I.V.” It is so freeing not to be tied to so many meals or worrying about macros. I focus on keeping to 20 net grams of carbs a day and Keto On! While calories don’t need to be tracked it doesn’t mean they don’t matter. I’ll take in more fat when I’m wearing less of it :laughing: I do still eat fat regularly but I just don’t focus on making sure my diet is 70% fat,

(Sheri Knauer) #12

It probably just means that you were carrying around less water weight than others who seem to lose a lot more quickly. If its not there, its not there to lose. Focus on how you feel, measurements, and how your clothes fit and not by what the scale says because it lies. Also if you followed a low fat diet for years pre keto, your gall bladder/bile may just be a bit sluggish since it hasn’t been called into action very much over the years. Eating beet greens can help with bile flow.

(Nicole Silvia) #13

Awesome post. Makes total sense. I honestly don’t even like eating tons of animal fats. I tried pork belly the other week and wanted to vomit after. I think I need to stick to fata I love, like cheeses, avacados, salmon and plant oils. I have really enjoyed using butter, which I never used in the past.

I think “pushing the fat” on myself was an issue with my digestion for sure.

(Nicole Silvia) #14

Actually the 1 extremely consistent thing about my diet for over a decade is my very good ability to stay hydrated. I average a gallon a day and have for as long as I can remember. I did make an effort to add a lot of electrolytes because of keto, but always added salt because of my water consumption.

I think the key was indeed this idea of forcing fats on myself that I don’t even really like… but it’s been a big experiment to say the least.

I have heard of beet greens being beneficial. How do I eat them? I’ve never prepared them, they look like they should be cooked.

(Kel Ta) #15

Women tend to stall when eating too much dairy and nuts and vegetable oils with high Polyunsaturated fat content (PUFAS can prevent adipocytes from releasing fat freely into circulation) likely though you may need more time to become fat adapted but once you do, you might consider burnfatnotsugar.com approach to cut fat…

(Nicole Silvia) #16

I do think we’re all different and I am more tuned into my body now. I’ll have to play around, but too much animal fat literally makes me feel awful, so I think the key lays somewhere in the amount and types of fats I’m consuming.

#17

I think experimenting with eliminating possibly problematic foods and maybe switching up your fat sources (even if it’s just a preference thing) is a good idea.

Just wanted to add that if you do buy a blood meter, I’d just recommend getting one that measures both glucose and ketones, and maybe see if tracking your GKI (glucose ketone index) gives you additional insight into where the problem may lie. Every measurement tool has its limitations, but I have found at times the GKI gives me info that just my ketone level isn’t giving me. I’m also recommending it because recently a friend of mine (who hadn’t had any change in weight or measurements over 3 months on keto) was also able to figure out some useful information specific to herself this way.

Not that everyone has to be measuring these things, but when not getting results sometimes this can be super helpful. Here are what I believe are a couple of the better articles on this that I could find, in case you haven’t already read up on this:

Best of luck to you!

(Nicole Silvia) #18

Thank you so much for the info! I do plan to utilize a good meter and I’m grateful for this information because I was not sure what to get.

Are there certain brands of meters which are best?

#19

I think there are probably varying opinions on this, and perhaps others will chime in. You’ve probably heard already about the variability in accuracy with home measurement of glucose, but I’m not sure there’s been a consistent reason to think one brand is more accurate than another. I personally use a Precision Neo and have been pleased with it, but that’s based on nothing other than the fact that it always spits out a number at me. :joy:

Except, actually, I have definitely noticed that the physical ways I can tell my body is undergoing a period of greater ketosis (taste in my mouth, etc) and similarly when in periods of greater insulin resistance (usually for a couple of weeks prior to each period with some bloating and increased hunger, etc.) the meter results have correlated with what I guessed I would see.

Addendum: a lot of people on the forum like the Keto Mojo, but I don’t know if it measures glucose. There’s nothing wrong with buying a separate meter for each, of course. It would, if nothing else, save you from having to change out the strip while trying not to inadvertently wipe the drop of blood off your finger. I’ve gotten good at it now, but it took a little practice at first! If you get the Neo, I’ll tell you the glucose strip gives you a reading much faster than the ketone strip does, so I always do the glucose reading first.

(Sheri Knauer) #20

I have never actually eaten or prepared beet greens but I would assume you could cook them like any greens, sauteed in bacon grease or some garlic and olive oil, or perhaps butter.