Plateau for three months

(Shromona Das) #1

Hi!
I’ve been on keto for two years, and was not following for a few weeks in between. I’ve been back to keto, tracking my macros, gyming and also intermittent fasting- and in the last three months I have consequently gained weight. For the last one month, doing keto at my strictest, I’ve been stalled at a good 55 kgs. I don’t wish to get into egg fast, I’ve rather been unable to- I have an immense craving for leafy greens, also I feel really unwell due to the tremendously hot indian summer. Here’s a sneak peek into my keto life:
I’m 5 feet 1
24 years
55 kgs
I eat around 1300-1500 cal
70% of which is fat, 12-16% protein and 5-7% carb. My net carbs are always below 20 gms.
Please help.

(Ethan) #2

I plateaued for 25 months… went carnivore and immediately dropped another 15-20 pounds. I’ve been at that new level now for a couple weeks.

(Robert C) #3

55 kilograms is 121 pounds which puts you very near the middle of these height/weight tables (linked below).

Keto will likely plateau forever once your body thinks that you are getting near or at the lowest level of body fat it thinks it needs for long term survival (i.e. Keto is unlikely to get you ripped - just healthy).

Per @EZB - an elimination diet (Carnivore, egg “fast” etc.) or fasting (skip eating one day a week) will probably move the needle quickly and significantly to a new lower plateau level if that is what you really want.

https://www.bcbst.com/mpmanual/HW.htm

(Shromona Das) #4

So my lowest weight doing keto was 42 kgs, that was December 2017. I’ve just not been able to move my plateau scale any lower.

(Carl Keller) #5

The older we get, the more our body wants to keep some fat on our bones. This is an insurance policy against starvation, injury or pregnancy. So even if we once thrived at a lower weight, it’s probably going to be very difficult to get back to that number.

Some things you can try to break a stall:

  • Lower your carbs. Switch from total carbs to net carbs. Dr. Westman says that total carbs is prescription strength keto while net carbs is over-the-counter keto.

  • Reduce or eliminate dairy, nuts and even vegetables and replace those with a little more protein and fat (if you are hungrier). For me, this shaved about 300 calories per day off of what I was eating and made a difference.

  • Try fasting if you haven’t already and make sure you are switching things up. Patterns of restriction come with the risk of our body slowing our metabolism to compensate for what it perceives as famine. Occasional feasting may sound counter-intuitive to lose weight but it’s how humans have prospered for more than a million years. We eat a lot after a successful hunt and we fast when our luck runs low.

  • Consider reducing or eliminating artificial sweeteners. While they will not raise your blood glucose levels, many can spike your insulin moreso than even table sugar. This is counter productive for weight loss. The goal should be to keep insulin on an even keel.

  • Consider the stress in your life and find ways to relax and sleep well. Stress can mean our adrenal glands are more active and that translates to higher cortisol levels. Cortisol raises blood glucose levels and that leads to an insulin response. Having both of those constantly elevated can not only cause a stall, it might even lead to weight gain.

(Robert C) #6

42 kilograms is 93 pounds - that is likely an unhealthy low weight for a 5 foot 1 inch female (in fact it is underweight for a small framed 4 foot 10 inch female - the lowest weight on the chart I linked to is over 100 pounds - this should make you think).

Keto (even with stress, sleep etc. dialed in) will probably not get you anywhere near 93 pounds (in fact, simply trying to maintain a ripped weight close to that might be perceived by the body as a stress).

If you are going for aesthetics - you’ll probably have to consistently fast to maintain that low weight.

Maybe also, start by choosing a more realistic long-term weight goal. Given the chart I linked to, you are pretty much there so, maybe give some thought to adding muscle to improve aesthetics?

(Shromona Das) #7

Yes yes I’m not going for the aesthetics, but fitness now. Honestly, when I was my thinnest I was extremely weak…I had given up on exercise and was always fatigued. But I believe I still have the last ten pounds to lose.

(Running from stupidity) #8

And if your body doesn’t agree, you’re stuffed. Bodies generally know better than desires.

(Cindy) #9

Are they “net” because you’re not counting the fiber? Or are they net because you’re not counting sugar alcohols in the keto sweets? If it’s due to the sugar alcohols, you might want to remove those. Some people find that sweeteners of any type (even keto approved ones) will still increase insulin. Higher insulin levels mean less weight loss.

(Shromona Das) #10

Net carbs. I deduct the fibre. Yes, i am cutting out stevia.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #11

Definitely not all equal. Erythritol and stevia are pretty safe. Stevia has been shown to increase insulin sensitivity. Still a bit controversial. I found this interesting.

:cowboy_hat_face:

(Carl Keller) #12

From The Obesity Code:

Despite having a minimal effect on blood sugars, both aspartame and stevia raise insulin levels even higher than table sugar.

The study he references is: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2900484/figure/F1/

And this is the graph he refers to:

image

Having posted all of that, I still use stevia in my morning coffee. :stuck_out_tongue:

(Running from stupidity) #13

:smiley:

(Full Metal KETO AF) #14

From the article I referenced, the dispute still seems to be alive maybe.

The Dispute about Stevia

In general, Adam’s article is an excellent article on nonsugar sweeteners. But on Stevia, what Adam says is in direct contradiction with what Jason Fung says in The Obesity Code about Stevia (See “Obesity Is Always and Everywhere an Insulin Phenomenon.”) Here are the two quotations:

Adam Nally: Stevia in the liquid form is a non-caloric natural sweetener which contains no carbohydrate. It is derived from a South American shrub and has been widely available for use in Asia for many years.

… Stevia does not increase blood sugar and appears to improve insulin sensitivity in the pancreas (Metabolism, 2003 Mar;52(3):372-8.).

Jason Fung: The important question is this: Do artificial sweeteners increase insulin levels? Sucralose raises insulin by 20 percent, despite the fact that it contains no calories and no sugar. This insulin-raising effect has also been shown for other artificial sweeteners, including the “natural” sweetener stevia. Despite having a minimal effect on blood sugars, both aspartame and stevia raised insulin levels higher even than table sugar.

This dispute should be possible to resolve with additional lab experiments with human subjects. I’d be glad for any references that illuminate the situation for stevia.

Stevia Update, January 19, 2019: In a study with what sounds like a good design, bringing 20 obese individuals in twice wasn’t enough to get great precision, but the effects of Stevia on insulin didn’t look that much different from the effects of a placebo. Here is the bottom line:

… between stevia and placebo (glucose, 15,285±4,531 vs. 15,101 ±3,955, p=0.89 and insulin 8,507 ±5,858 vs. 7,652 ± 5,020,p=0.62) Insulin sensitivity derived from OGTT using Matsuda index was not significant difference between stevia and placebo (4.74±1.86 vs. 5.84±2.96,p=0.09). Insulin secretion using Insulinogenic index was not significant difference between stevia and placebo (p=0.155).

Conclusions: Stevia does not affect in acute glycemic and insulin responses to OGTT in obese patients. This findings need to be determined in longer duration of ingestion study.

*Note that this result was based on getting Stevia in a pill, so it doesn’t include the cephalic effect of sweetness itself.

It’s hard to know what to believe, I don’t consume them in beverages just occasionally to accent flavors usually. Might be something to dwell on if you have a daily habit of using them though. :cowboy_hat_face:

(Alec) #15

Those 2 quotes are not directly contradictory. Nally is talking about BG and Fung is talking about insulin. Very different things.

(Running from stupidity) #16

They are different, but they are not “VERY different things.” Often they correlate reasonably well.

(Carl Keller) #17

I’m pretty sure that tasting the sweetness plays a role in the activation of insulin. This certainly must trigger some type of reaction by our brain. Even aromas can trigger insulin spikes as our brains anticipate incoming food.

Bypassing the taste buds defeats the purpose of sweeteners so I’m puzzled why they would even do this study in this manner. I’m still pulling for stevia since I do use it… but I’m skeptical that we can fool our hormones, completely.

(Running from stupidity) #18

Yep, there are studies around that show exactly that, agreed.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #19

I think they wanted to know the placebo effect.

Maybe I don’t understand the improving insulin sensitivity part after the BG mention. :cowboy_hat_face: