Not Losing Weight.. question for experienced Ketoers

#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.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #21

@Silvian Dr. Phinney says that when people tell him they can’t cope with the amount of fat they are eating because it’s making them feel sick, it almost always turns out that they are consuming too many polyunsaturated fatty acids, which in quantity cause nausea.

The only fats we are required to eat are ω-3 and ω-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids; they are essential to the human diet because the body cannot make them. We also don’t need too much of them, and ω-6 fatty acids cause inflammation if over-consumed. Saturated fat, on the other hand, has many beneficial effects; in particular it raises HDL cholesterol, and is the only substance that does so, apart from a drug with nasty side effects that never made it to market. Monounsaturated fat is used by the body as fuel.

The fact that butter, tallow, lard, and bacon grease are nearly fifty percent saturated and nearly fifty percent monounsaturated fats and contain almost no PUFA’s is why they make such great cooking fats. The fruit oils, avocado, coconut, and olive, contain more PUFA’s, but not so many as to cause nausea. Most of the seed oils, on the other hand, have extremely high percentages of PUFA’s.

Weight loss in women seems to be more hormone-related than in men. A further complicating factor is that many women have restricted their caloric intake for so long that when they go keto and finally give their body enough energy, the body wants to put on lean muscle as well as shed excess fat. This can cause the appearance that keto is not working for them. The good news is that, since muscle is considerably denser than fat, it is possible to shed inches while not losing many pounds.

I suspect it doesn’t help that we generally speak of “weight,” when we really mean “fat.” If you are not losing weight, but your clothing size is shrinking, I would suggest that this is exactly what you want to happen. Putting on muscle causes your basal metabolic rate to increase (because you have more mitochondria with which to burn fat), as well as making you stronger and healthier; and losing excess fat can only be a good thing.

(TJ Borden) #22

I finally figured out that was omega. I couldn’t figure out when Wu Tang became relevant to keto.

(Running from stupidity) #23

Nice Martin Shkreli content.

#24

@PaulL What a wonderful response. Very informative!

Thank you so much. :+1:

#25

@bbRVA Thank you for reminding me keto isn’t a sprint. We didn’t get were we are overnight, and we won’t get where we’re going overnight either.

@Sheri_Knauer Thank you for the encouraging advice on the NSV’s. It’s so easy to keep or minds on the weight, we can fail to see all the other improvements in our lives. Also, I can’t believe you’ve never eaten beet greens before. Your suggestion for cooking some up sounded wonderful. :drooling_face:

@Callisto great advice on the meters. We have a Keto Mojo, and it does measure glucose, but honestly we really don’t use it anymore. It’s seems we got to a point where our glucose levels were always good and we were always in ketosis, so why waste the money on the strips? :grin:

@PaulL My Man, what can I say? You ALWAYS have some helpful and informative advice. I’m always glad to see you contribute to a post. I know I’m not going to regret reading what you have to say. Even though your advice was directed to @Silvian, I appreciated reading it very much! :clap: :clap: :clap:

@Baytowvin, @juice, Thanks for nothing. :wink:

@Silvian I have nothing to contribute, as far as advice, but there have been some great responses so far.

I just wanted to thank you for bringing this topic up, and generating this helpful information that will help others on this forum. Even if we aren’t personally dealing with this issue, we might know somebody who is, and can pass the info on to them.

Though you haven’t been eating keto for that long, I think your questions/concerns are quite reasonable, and appreciate very much that you brought them to us.

(TJ Borden) #26

Anytime :rofl:

(Running from stupidity) #27

Lumping me in with him? #deadset

#28

Low fat diets are what kills your gallbladder. When you don’t eat enough fat to regularly empty your gallbladder, and the bile just sits in there, that’s when you get gallstones. If you eat fat and empty it regularly, anything starting to crystallize gets emptied out. Often the advice for people who have had or may develop gallstones is to avoid fat. I cringe whenever I hear it, because that’s how you let the bile salts build up until it becomes a problem.

When I first started keto I had some classic right shoulder pain, probably due to built up sludge in my gallbladder. I started taking sunflower lecithin and TUDCA, and in two weeks the pain was gone. I stopped taking the lecithin then, and finished the bottle of TUDCA. It’s been over six months and I haven’t had a twinge of gallbladder pain since. Think of it this way: How can you keep the inside of your gallbladder clean if you never wash it?

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #29

I used to be low fat and had to be tested twice for gallbladder problems. Lucky it was never bad enough to remove. No problem going high fat.

#30

Thanks for that info! Very good.

It kinda makes sense when you think about it, but we’ve been thinking backwards about diet and health for so long (fat makes you fat), that we can’t seem to get passed it.

(Nicole Silvia) #31

Thank you. I haven’t been eating hardly any polyunsaturated fats. Aside from meats, cheese and butter, my fat is avacado.

I honestly have gained fat and lost water weight so far. I can tell I am fattier. I can see it aND my waist has grown and is very jiggly. I can even see fat hang from my arm in a way I haven’t before. I’m not so sure this is the right diet for me.

I agree hormones are a major factor. I am in perfect health aside from asthma and my weight. My friend is doing strict keto and having a hard time as well.

I am looking into Bob Seebohar’s work. Although he discusses diet induced ketosis and fat adaption, his approach is very different and makes more sense to me. So I’m going to go that route and use a monitor for ketones and blood sugar.

(Nicole Silvia) #32

Idk, most people I know who had their gall bladders removed ate a ton of fats.

(Nicole Silvia) #33

I am not looking for instant gratification. I want to live a long healthy active life. I feel like this diet opened up a lot for me, but am not convinced it is my ideal diet. At least not in the way I am doing it. I am going to look into diet induced ketosis and metabolic efficiency and make some alterations.

I need weight loss, but it’s not my sole focus abs I don’t have a desired timeline.

I was very fit and lean for several years and I can tell this isn’t right for me. I do believe I’m enlightened and " onto something ", but I need to make some alterations that are not “strict keto”. I’m going to follow the path Bob Seebohar discusses as he makes the most sense out of anyone I’ve heard. I’m using all my accumulated knowledge and personal experience to figure out what works for me.

#34

Sure, but were these people on a ketogenic diet? What was their carbohydrate intake like? That seems to be a factor we don’t always consider when talking about eating lots of fats.

Also, I think what @PaulL pointed out earlier is important. Not all “fats” are equal.

#35

Excellent! We’re all different, and we all react to food differently. That’s why we have to do what’s works for us.

(Nicole Silvia) #36

Idk, but I’m not convinced every gallbladder on the planet is defective because the owner wasn’t on a keto diet. That was my point.

As far as my own gallbladder, I’ve been everything from extremely fit and lean to eating total crap and obese. I know my body fairly well and I’ve never had a problem digesting anything before. Not even dairy or gluten. I have a pretty iron stomach up until now. So something isn’t right.

(Nicole Silvia) #37

Don’t worry, I do get anal about anything diet or exercise related :wink:

Yes! A “ketogenic diet” is a generic term for intentional ketosis with diet and/or exercise. So, I feel like the strict “no more than 20 carbs, eat tons of keto friendly fats” experiment did teach me some things, but this approach just made me fatter. So, I’m going to continue on, but try a very different method.

For the record, the method I’m trying is an even longer and harder process, so this isn’t a sprint at all. Obviously if I had been feeling awesome all the time and losing weight that wasn’t water, instead of getting fattier, I’d be completely estatic. I’m frustrated this easy approach didn’t work well for me, but I think I’ll figure it out.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #38

It may not be. I’m sorry that you haven’t found this way of eating as helpful as I have, and I hope that you can find some way of eating that will really help you.