Hello,
I’ve been keto for 6 weeks now. The first week I lost 10 pounds. Every subsequent week after I’ve lost between 2.2 and 4.5 pounds. This past week I only lost 0.6 pounds. My question is this; is it possible to eat to few of calories to where you stunt weight loss? I’m now 259.6 pounds. I typically eat between 900 and 1200 calories a day and I feel totally fine. Not really hungry.
Male
259.6 lbs.
6’3"
Of note is when you are going through fat adaptation and the beginning stages of keto, you may be seeing less hunger but, there will be times when you might be ravenous.
Yes,
I am thinking you are on the order of 25% BF (WAG) and age of 50(also a WAG)
I would say you should be no less that 1900 a day and more like 2300.
If you operate too long on a restricted calorie intake you will slow your BMR(basal metabolic rate) and your body will go into conserve/starvation mode. Up your calorie intake in particular fat, preferable a little after consuming protein so the insulin spike is down. Do that for a couple days and see what happens.
ok that bumped it up to 2500 min and more like 2800 if you are somewhat active bump up the fat, you are eating at the level of 5’1 120 pound women.
That was a great video, but he never said anything about having to eat a certain amount of calories. At 37:40 he even says, “never having to count calories, never worrying about calories again.”
I’m just never hungry enough to eat 2500 calories as @In2steam mentions. Do I need to just force myself to eat? I feel perfectly fine with 1200 calories; I just want to lose pounds and get back down to 205.
I’m in the exact same boat and it’s as frustrating as hell. I’m definitely fat adapted, if I ever overdo it on carbs, and sometimes I do this on purpose to try and stir things up, I’m back in ketosis within 36 hours. Maybe we need to be super strict with our macros for a month and make sure we’re getting enough calories and see how that pans out?
…I think I’ll start drinking cartons of double cream 
I see that you are new to the forum and if you are new to keto then my suggestion would be yes. Understand that this WOE (way of eating) is not a quick weight loss system. It is designed for proper and sustainable improvements to your body and overall health.
Your first priority is to lower your carb intake to 20g or less, moderate protein (usually around 40 -60g) , and eat the rest in fat til you are full. The quickest way to properly loose fat is to raise you BMR (metabolism) and create a strong metabolic rate by the time your body becomes fat adapted. If you eat fat until you feel full, take a few more bites and quit. Do this every meal and tour Basil Metabolic Rate will continue to climb.
In the mean time your body will be going through a transitional period where your digestive tract is converting over to fueling your body with ketones instead of glucose, This can take a few weeks to a couple months. Don’t worry though because your body will also be busy repairing a variety of damages caused from the old carb feeding lifestyle.
It usually (if you stay true to the cow carb moderate protein macro’s) takes about 6 to 8 weeks to become fat adapted. This is when you can begin cutting back and start your weight journey. Some see fast results some see slow but steady results. Either way, this is weight loss that is going to stay. Keep reading here on the forum, there are great people willing to help and lots of information.
Stay strong and KCKO.
Lee,
Have you been eating calorie deficit for some time? You might have lowered your BMR to the point it is in starvation mode and need to get it back up to higher levels in order to restart the weight loss.
Ron, yes I have probably been eating at a deficit for the past 12 months or so.
What I don’t understand however is that people say eat when you’re hungry. Don’t when you’re not. This is exactly what I do.
I’ve just had a single sausage patty with Mayo for breakfast and I literally had to force myself to finish the last third of it.
I’ve been to see an endocrinologist about my difficulties in getting into a healthy weight range and he just trotted out the CICO model to me.
I’m so disillusioned and frustrated right now.
Eating at a deficit for a long period of time can make it hard to eat enough and hard for your body to send the right hunger signals. It’s so used to not getting enough. Similar to getting too much insulin all the time, the body becomes deaf to the signals. It also lowers the BMR so that it can sustain itself on the lower calories which isn’t optimal for what you’re currently trying to do. As far as trying to get enough now, when you are hungry, really go for it. Do things that might make you hungry like some weight lifting or other exercise. It doesn’t have to be crazy amounts but, just some extra activity in general. This is a part of your deranged metabolism journey with fixing hunger signals. The sky is the limit after that.
Thanks for your thoughts on this. Exercise is something that I don’t do much of. Maybe it’s time to for me to look at introducing that into the mix 
The way Dr. Phinney explains it, if we eat the recommended way (low carbohydrate, an appropriate amount of protein for our activity level, and the rest of our calories as fat to satiety), we don’t have to count calories, because our body will tell us when we’ve given it enough energy. He says that the people he’s studied who had a lot of body fat tended to automatically limit themselves at the beginning to around 1200-1500 calories by eating to satiety. The remaining 1000-1300 calories that they needed came from their body fat. Naturally, as they lost fat, their calorie count came up, because the body could no longer supply quite as many calories. By the time we reach the mainentance phase, apparently, we are eating all our daily calories, because our body has dispensed with its excess fat store. But we can do it without ever counting a calorie, because by eating fat to satiety, we will stop at the right level of calories to meet our needs.
I would say, from what you’ve posted, that you should listen to your body. When you stop being hungry, stop eating. If you are at an adequate level of calories, you should be able to go several hours before getting hungry again. Don’'t worry about what the scale is telling you; the weight will not come off in a linear fashion. You may find yourself at a certain level for days, and the next day you’ll be 20 lbs. lighter. The challenge of this way of eating is often to persuade people that fat is your friend, but it sounds as though you already got that message. What you describe is what satiety feels like to me. So just keep on doing what you’re doing, and keep us up to date with how things are going for you. If your waistline is shrinking, by the way, it means you’re doing it right—even if the scale is telling you something different. Sometimes people put on lean muscle, once they give their body enough resources, and that makes it appear that you’re not losing any fat. As long as you’re burning fat you’re doing it right.
Thanks for posting this. I struggle with exactly the same problem. Most days I don’t top 1200 calories and am not hungry. I force myself to eat more and am gagging.
I have only be doing KETO for about 5 weeks, but I have done restricted calorie eating before and it feels different than what I am experiencing now.
So I have decided to trust my body and not worry about the calories as long as I don’t get more than 20 carbs (often I am under 10) and am in the ballpark for protein I am going to let my body dictate how much fat to consume.
I eat like 1400 calories and I’m 5’2 female, I’d say you defiantly need to eat more!
What a lot of n=1 reports suggest is that yes, you will lose weight while restricting calories.
What also might happen is that you can stall after months and months of eating at that calorie level, at which time you will have to do something to raise your BMR again. Essentially your body has lowered its budgetary energy needs to match the budget cuts you’ve made. This happened to me after about 6 months into eating ketogenically.
Things like fasting (intermittent or extended with some solid high calorie days in between), exercise, making sure to eat during the day instead of at night, sleeping at the appropriate times, can all contribute to helping you get your BMR back up again. A lot of people here like fasting…check out the section on fasting here on the forums.