Plateau and bloated

(Luinmir Avafaila) #1

Hello there, I’m new to the forum and pretty new to keto as well (started two months ago). I have been having sort of a plateau for the past two weeks, so I have a few questions about it.
First off, a bit of story about my journey, so you can understand where I’m coming from.

I am 33yo, female and have POCS and insulin resistance. I was 265lb/120kg (or even more, I was too scared to weight myself, but I knew my clothes size) and I’m 5’ 7’’/1.75m, then I started IF two years ago (20/4 and omad) and dropped to 221lbs/96kg. I exercised for a couple of months, when I was around that weight, and dropped 6 pounds/3kg more. Then I regained them. So last year I started exercising more, no change. I quit my exercising and went for long walks (1.5h everyday) and still no change. Since quarantine, I started exercising everyday, and this time was high intensity training for 30 mins everyday. I could see my muscle growth, but still no “positive” change in weight (I know building muscles makes you put on weight, and by the end of quarantine I was 216lb/98kg again). I never cheated on IF during that time.
I stopped exercising in July because summer in Italy is just too hot. Even with more pauses, I couldn’t manage to exercise because I was dripping sweat and slipping constantly, and I didn’t want to injury myself.

That’s when I started keto.
During the first week I didn’t lose much (I guess 2 pounds/1kg) and I felt very weak, but I know that’s normal. Then I steadily started to lose 1 pound/0.5kg every week and I was very happy. I reached 197lb/89.5kg and I was feeling beautiful for the first time in my life. I added two days of water fasting to speed up the process, and it was working great. Then, it all happened: I had my period, I bloated as usual. My period is not the usual one - it starts very slowly then I have massive bleeding for two days and then it stops suddenly. After ten days from when it starts, I am usually back to my normal weight. I reached This time, though, I had a cheat meal after one month right after my period, since a friend from another city came to visit me. It has been ten days since then, and I’m still bloated.

I have also noticed that since I’m doing those two days of water fasting, I suffer from constipation and subsequently, diarrhea. Nonetheless, it worked, so I kept doing it.

I would like to know if one cheat meal really can throw my progresses out the window so quickly, and if it’s too early for me to have a cheat meal in general (I’ve only had two so far, once a month and once was my birthday). I know it can take up to two weeks to get back into ketosis, but I have been doing IF for two years and I dared to think I was already quite fat adapted?
One more thing, I admit I have been eating a bit of fruit in the last week or so (2 figs or 2 pricky pears), where I was only eating a handful of berries. I checked and it seems they can be consumed in moderation, so I don’t think I’m overdoing the carbs?
Now, when I weight myself after my 44hours water fast, I’m 199lbs/90.5kg where I used to be 197lbs/89.5kg. On average, I’m 2-3pounds/1-1.5kg more. Is it water or fat? I’m so scared a cheat meal actually made me gain fat again.

I’m eating 1600 calories per day, and my BMI is 2200. I track all the calories, and I never go over my daily amount. I eat plenty of veggies and drink 1.5/2 litres of water a day, lately with apple cider vinegar.

Since I started keto, I stopped having cravings for carbs and sugary sweets (although I would still love to enjoy them!), while I still have some for fruits, probably because is summer and I see a lot of them that I would like to enjoy. My daily treat was berries with whipped cream and a tiny hint of erythritol, or cold coconut milk with cocoa and erythritol.

As supplements, I take curcumin, choline and potassium+magnesium.

I’m sorry if this post is too long, and I really appreciate everyone who has read so far. Maybe the amount of weight is not a big deal for you, but I don’t want to mess things up and I’m really doing everything I can to drop the last 33lbs/15kg (sure, I have to start exercising again, but I will). I hate my body, because I have soggy skin on my arms, legs and belly pouch, and I really want to get a surgery as soon as possible. I’m tired of checking everything everyday, and while I know I’ll keep doing IF forever and keto on periods, I also want to have the freedom to enjoy food and social life again.

(Polly) #2

Welcome to the forum @Luinmir_Avafaila

Congratulations on your fat loss so far.

My instinct would be to avoid the fruit and avoid cheating until you have reached your goal, but I do realise that sometimes life gets in the way. Also eating more is often a good way to lose weight, so long as you stay below 20g carbs per day.

(Luinmir Avafaila) #3

So you think I eat too little for my BMI? I guess I’ll have to avoid fruits at all costs then, besides berries. Thank you for your reply!

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #4

If you are using an app to dictate your food intake, you will probably do better by setting it to Maintenance. Alternatively, you can dispense with the app by simply eating under 20 g/day of carbohydrate, a reasonable amount of protein, and fat to satiation.

(Edith) #5

Yes, it’s depressing. For some of us, one cheat meal can take several days to lose the bloating it caused. The other problem is hormones and our monthly cycle. Everyone is different, of course. I found that I would bloat around the time I ovulated. Then as I approached my period, my weight would drop, only to go up again when my period started. Sometimes I would gain four pounds during my period. I know it was water weight, but it was still annoying. Remember it is the trend over time that matters.

It sounds like you may be quite insulin resistant. I would keep cheats to almost zero until your body has time to heal. As we like to say on the forum: it took a long time for your body to get where it is today. Don’t expect the healing to occur over night.

(Tracy) #6

I haven’t done a cheat bite in 15 months of starting Keto. I don’t think you can put regular gas in a Diesel engine every once in a while and expect anything good to happen. Speaking for myself - If I wanted to be healthy, get rid of diabetes, lose weight and keep it off and not have dementia when I’m 70, then I had to overcome my carb addiction. After you are off carbs long enough they are ancient history. If I can do it anyone can.

#7

BMI is a meaningless number and should always be ignored, it was designed as a way for medical professionals to be lazy and not check your actual stats. That, said the fruit probably isn’t a problem but try to limit it. I also wouldn’t drop your calories any lower than the 1600 no matter what. You’re always going to have a couple pounds of water fluctuation. One tall glass of water will put a lb on you until your body deals with it. All that matters is that it’s not body fat. Weighing yourself to track trends is good, but you can’t always take scale weight at face value either, it’s only one part of things. Also, two weeks isn’t a plateau, stall maybe.

(Deb) #8

I have a few thoughts about your issue but with limited time at the moment, just want to say that you don’t have to exercise. Some find it counterproductive actually.

#9

The only people who find it counterproductive is people looking for an excuse not to do it. Pretty much why the go-to excuse for it is “you can loose weight without exercise”. Yup, and? The person who exercises will be healthier and typically retain more or get more muscle which on top of looking better aesthetically, it has metabolic benefits like an increased metabolism which is a positive for anybody looking to loose body fat. There should never be an argument for being sedentary, it’s literally the worst thing we can do for our bodies.

(Edith) #10

I think @skinnyjeans13 may be implying that there are people who overdo exercise and the stress they out on their bodies IS counterproductive.

#11

Yes, actual over training isn’t good, but let’s be realistic most aren’t doing that. It takes a LOT to actually over train, as somebody that’s done it a handful of times, you KNOW your body is pissed off at you when you’re doing it and it takes giving your body the finger and continuing on anyways.

(Ken) #12

Are you hungry by the time you eat? Tracking aps are merely estimates.and generalizations, to be used as simple guides. Hunger is the best determinant, if you’re not actually hungry, don’t eat.

And no, consuming those few carbs did not convert to fat.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #13

I don’t know about that. I am pretty much a couch potato, and sixty or seventy pounds just melted off me when I went keto, with no effort on my part. There are apparently studies in the literature that show that exercise has no effect on fat loss, but I haven’t seen them, so cannot vouch for the quality of the data.

That said, exercise does promote metabolic health, so it’s still a good thing to do. And a ketogenic diet gives people a lot of energy, some of which they may choose to burn off by exercising.

As for me, whenever I get the urge to exercise, I simply lie down until it passes. :bacon::bacon:

#14

I agree all day long you don’t need to exercise to loose “weight”, I lost 70lbs of my first 100 without walking foot into a gym, but I also lost a lot of muscle as well. That was the first time. I repeated that stupidity again sadly. My argument is that exercising will never be counter productive, you’re always doing better with it in there. Whether it be cardiovascular, better energy, better metabolism, mobility, you name it.

(Luinmir Avafaila) #15

Thank you everybody for your replies!
First off, I didn’t know there was a difference between plateau and stall! Thank you for pointing that out.
And yes, I do keep my carbs at 20net carb max.
I don’t feel hungry during most of the day. I usually feel like that around my usual dinner time, but if I go to bed I reset completely and can go on for another entire day without food.

I exercise because of two reasons: one is that I want to look as good as possible and have as little skin removal surgery as possible. I don’t want to be thin (well, I have a big frame anyway so I can’t really be… shoe size is US 12/EU 43) and soggy. The other reason is that I lost my father during the covid peak here in Italy. He has always been obese, and while he never smoked, I’m sure his extra weight didn’t help a bit. I want to breathe for him as well, as much as I can. Exercising might not per se make you lose weight, but it keeps your expenditure high, hence you tap more into your own fat (and that’s why it’s better to work out in a fasted state, which I always do. Also because I would throw up otherwise)

Anyway, the weight is going down again, although not as quickly as I hoped (which might have been unrealistic, at this point). One thing that made me drop two entire pounds was a long nap the other day. I was sleeping 7-8 hours everyday, but it seems that I needed more for some reason. Since then, I kept losing. Another thing might be that I am retaining a lot of water due to magnesium deficiency. I ran out of supplements before these crucial weeks, but I honestly thought I had enough of them and that I could do fine without. A couple of days ago I had a morning cramp in my calf and I limp since then. Then I got a constant twitch under my left eye. I watch Dr. Berg and by what he says, it’s magnesium deficiency. I got more supplements, this time three packages!

At this point, I do really think I’m not allowed to have any cheat meal until I’m back to a normal weight. I don’t crave carbs, I cheated because my boyfriend took me out for my birthday, and then because my friend from another country came to visit me. So it’s mostly social pressure where I fail ._.