All I am going to write is very anecdotal so take with a grain of salt lol, but I think you just have to stick to the diet a bit longer. My first time going into keto it took about 2 months before I felt my body kick over and show results. What did help was staying consistent, listening to those signs of hunger, and when hungry having fat on hand to eat. Having fat bombs or something like that was a lifesaver because I would hit satiation much quicker. Things like salami rolled up with cream cheese, or coconut oil fat bombs frozen in the fridge, theres a ton of options its just finding them lol.
I am in now way a master on fasting, but for me it was super hard to do IF if I started too early, you wanna make sure you are fat adapted before starting. Stay consistent for another couple weeks and then start up IF to kick that motabolism is what went well for me (infact im doing the next Zorn fast, first one after starting back up on keto and its been about 2 months).
Main thing is just stay under the 20g of carbs, keep fat always with you, and keep listening to the show because I know it keeps me motivated to stay on track lol!
Not seeing many results after ~1-2 month
Thanks for the input! I’m “encouraged” when I hear other folks had a longer induction experience too. I’m happy to “KCKO”, but thought it was time to reach out for suggestions to the awesome Keto community.
And a good point on the fat bombs, I know I often struggle to limit the protein macros. And fortunately, I haven’t struggled with Keto flu much. That’s either a good thing or an indication I’m missing something 
Lol yea I only had keto flu symptoms for about 2 days that was all, sometimes if we have really screwed up our body it takes longer for it to heal and kick over to the new diet. What you can also look at if you continue to stall is you didnt mention if you are doing net or total carbs but try restricting to under 20g total carbs instead and see if that does anything. Everyone is different so different perspectives is a great way to motivate yourself and get ideas of how to progress, I think its how we all have gotten so good at this keto thing lol.
To make sure you are hitting your macro markers, even if you struggle with doing it, keep a proper food diary (ad maybe even use a food scale) until you get 100% used to the keto lifestyle.
When eyeballing food quantity it is easy to under estimate what you are truely getting macro wise unless you track it. From the information you provided on your first post, I am wondering how much protein you are taking in. Too much protein can keep you out of ketosis
I am on week 3 of keto. I keep a strict food diary so that I know if I overshoot macros, or undershoot macros. I do get all the signs that I am in ketosis (keto breath/dry mouth, good amount of energy, appetite decrease, added mental acuity). There have been a couple days where I overshot my protein intake, and i knew that I had to dial it back a bit. The food diary allowed me to realize that and make it a 1 day lapse versus a 3-4 day lapse.
Also with keeping the food diary, I am gaining an “eye” for kind of knowing what the macros are for some of the foods I regularly eat and kind of knowing if I want to scale back on protein for dinner, or add more fat to my dinner etc.
Hmm, yea, I just find it so hard with “eating out” so much. We essentially have to order from restaurants/pubs (e.g. what ever is in GrubHub and still open), so they can be challenging to track. It was helpful when I was tracking, as you said, because then I’d for sure know what to avoid or eat with a next meal/snack.
This would be my bet, along with the “days off” which you can’t really afford when getting started.
The problem with shift work is that it can really mess with circadian rhythms. As I understand it, the result of that is higher than normal levels of cortisol, because you end up needing it to stay alert and awake. Cortisol, in turn, can affect glucose levels (through GNG), and I think it also has an effect on insulin directly, though I’d need to look that up to be sure.
Although I don’t work multiple jobs, proper sleep is an ongoing issue for me, and I think it’s something that has slowed my progress. Still better off than sleeping poorly and eating carbs, but I think I’d be better off still with better sleep.
Not knowing your situation, I’d nonetheless suggest that if you can work towards a job situation where you can get into a more normal sleep pattern, that would probably help.
FWIW, testing methods for ketosis are not dubious. All of them work, to one degree or another:
- Ketostix (urinalysis) work fine, particularly in the early stages. Where they potentially fall down is that for some people, urine content of the particular ketone they test for can drop off, and so provide a false negative. But this doesn’t usually happen until you’ve been doing Keto for a good while. Personally, I’ve found that Ketostix (or the cheaper alternatives) work find for me as a broad indicator of ketosis, even though I’ve been doing this a long time.
- Breath meters (Ketonix, etc.) - these measure acetone in your breath, and while they don’t provide exact measurements, they provide an adequate indication of range, and whether you’re in ketosis.
- Blood meters - these are accurate and will tell you precisely the level of ketones in your blood. They’re also crazy expensive, so most folks use the ketone test strips sparingly.
If you want to know if you’re in ketosis, at your stage, Ketostix are probably more than adequate, and they’re not terribly expensive. Later, if you want a more exact reading, you could pick up a blood ketone meter (probably just get the one that does both glucose and ketones), and perhaps a Ketonix, or a cheap breathalyzer, so that you can roughly correlate readings from one to the other, allowing you to use the blood meter less frequently and save money on the strips.
Hope that helps.
Sorry, but no. You don’t “have to” eat anything you don’t choose to. You can bring something to eat, or you can fast.
Not trying to be mean, but it’s easy when we don’t want to buckle down to make excuses for why we can’t. You can. You just need to decide that it’s important enough to do it, even if it’s uncomfortable or awkward.
Sorry, but no. You don’t “have to” eat anything you don’t choose to. You can bring something to eat, or you can fast.
That is definitely true. Mostly “have to” because someone else is paying to keep my grocery bill lower!
Working on that for sure! Hopefully not too much longer, I’ve been on this schedule for almost 18 months.
Thanks for the run-down! I saw a lot of folks on the /r/keto Reddit pretty dismissive of Ketostix is being largely useless. But seems like they could be helpful in this early stage. I thought about picking up a blood meter, but yea the strip-cost was pretty tough to get over.
Thanks!
Lack of quality sleep does matter but hey, we all have to make a living. Gotta bring home the bacon.
Try to make your meals big enough to actually fill you up to prevent snacking.
For now, buckle down on limiting carbs, even the incidental ones
Don’t jump into IF just yet. It should come by naturally.
Give it more time while the body adjusts to running on fat.
Hang in and Keto on.
is there anyway you can eat mostly food that you have prepared?
it’s easier than most ppl think 
salami/pepperoni and cheese roll ups, deviled eggs, egg salad with mayo and bacon, tuna salad with mayo, chicken thighs and avocado, fat bombs, egg “muffins” with cream cheese, meat, cheese, bacon, olives, pecans, etc etc
i was keto for at least 3 months before i even had anything that i hadn’t made myself…if i couldn’t track it i didn’t eat it.
track for just a week or so and see where you land? you could even be eating too little.
sleep is really important.
sleep directly affects all of the hormones we are trying to fix/regulate…glucose, cortisol, insulin, leptin, gherlin…probably more that the more sciencey folks know LOL
lmao we sound as bad as Brian Williamson (Ketovangelist) with all the salami and cheese suggesting we have done, its just so simple and good!!
no cooking, no utensils…just open package, grab slices…throw in container, tin foil, plastic wrap, or baggie and run out the door LOL
and we know if it’s an “emergency” we can get it at 7-11 or almost any gas station LOL
Salami + cheese is soooo good! especially with cream cheese
Anyone have favorite salamis? I’ve been mildly concerned about eating too much salami because of nitrates? Or am I making that up? haha
not sure on the nitrates
Genoa is hands down my favorite, LOVEEEE IT
We’ve been getting Lebanon bologna from Wegman’s lately. It’s really more like salami than bologna, and it’s tasty wrapped up with a slice of American cheese.
This week I also got some mini andouille sausage links (cooked, in the deli section) and just had some, wrapped with cheese, for lunch. Tasty with a nice spicy kick. And almost no prep or cleanup.
i used to worry about nitrates when i was doing the crackheaded Fast Metabolism Diet (still annoyed that i have multiple books from that author)
nitrates are naturally occurring in a lot of vegetables (more than in deli meat or even bacon…nitrates are a preservative)…for sure celery is used as a “preservative” in “natural” offerings and our bodies produce nitrates.
some ppl have bad reactions to added nitrates (who knows if they would if they were LCHF? maybe not?)
if you don’t i wouldn’t worry about it
right now i have the gallo uncured salame but i think i like the columbus dry better
Do you log the food you eat to track carbs? Or just making a mental note and “guestimating”?
Yep…that will get people in trouble.
The general recommendation is log food meticulously for at least a month. It helps teach you how to measure and gauge carb and protein content in food. It becomes an eye-opener experience as people usually “guesstimate” wrong the first time.