Today my MIL paid me a compliment, stating I’ve definitely stream-lined since the last time I saw her. However, there is no change on the scale. It made me think about all the non scale victories I’ve read about, and perhaps that’s a thing on keto that as the body begins taking fuel from one’s fat storage, this body reshaping happens perhaps on a more frequent scale than actual weight loss? I am, currently consuming a lot of fat. Some protein. And between 0 and 15 carbs a day. Most days much less than 10.
My staples are cream, cheese, bacon, eggs, beef burgers, chicken legs, and various cuts of pork, pork belly being my favourite, as well as fish, mainly smoked mackarel. Anyways, catching a glimpse of myself in a full length mirror in the restroom at the dentist, I definitely thought I was looking quite a bit slimmer, but I blamed the effect on the mirror, lol. Have any of you experienced your body reshaping without actually seeing a change on the scale? I am 5.2, 51kg currently, and much more interested in reshaping than actual weight loss.
Possibly reshaping?
Yes while I have lost 32 pounds since the past September I have been stuck on a plateau for almost a month now. But I am seeing my belly and waist shrinking as well as my thighs. From my experience with the many yo-yoing weight loss and gaining I should drop quickly once a get off this plateau. But this is the first time I have noticed such a change in my body without losing weight.
Yup, it’s referred to as recomposition, and it’s half real. It’s real in the sense that you can gain muscle and lose fat in a proportion (not equal) that results in the scale not moving while you lose fat and gain muscle. But it’s a very short lived process if you’re not intentionally working at strength. It’s slow as hell but can happen, but that doesn’t mean you can’t keep losing fat while gaining muscle mass, it’s just not typical while the scale sits put for long. End result is that it doesn’t matter, but always nice when it does!
It happened to me. After the initial loss of 80 lbs./36 kg, my weight was stable for the next twelve months, but at the end of that period I could fit into trousers that at first I couldn’t even pull up over my butt. Clearly, for my weight to remain stable, I was shedding fat but gaining an equivalent weight of muscle.
Hi, I’m sure if one was exercising the idea of gaining lean muscle whilst also losing fat and thus it not showing on the scale would be highly plausible. I on the other hand live quite a sedentary life, I’m not a couch potato per se, in fact I seldom find myself on the couch, but apart from my children who certainly keep me busy, housework, 40min morning walks and the occasional trip to the local shops, I can’t say I do any exercise to warrant putting on any muscle. Perhaps it is the type of food I eat, predominantly fat and protein? In any case, this recomposition thing is a great thing, deeply encouraging.
Hi Paul. Were you doing any exercise at all? I am pretty sedentary apart from my 40min morning walks, but I am finding I am slimming down without exercise.
I am 75 years old and my activities are walking the trails around here, yard work, mostly leaf removal as a I have a yard that never needs mowing. I also do some of the housework since I retired. We love to travel but haven’t done much since Covid started. We are hoping to get our camping trailer back out and do some camping and traveling with the trailer.
Hi Chuck, congratulations on your continued progress! It is interesting what happens to our bodies on a ketogenic WOE, and perhaps it is only on this kind of WOE we would be experiencing this sort of thing. Certainly before I embarked on keto I only ever thought weightloss was possible and had never heard of this recomposition. But once I started doing my research regarding keto (before I dared to start it myself) I was reading about just this sort of thing all the time, which makes me wonder if it happens more frequently on keto due to the body using fat as fuel.
Hi Chuck, sounds to me like a very healthy lifestyle, keeping active with walks, yard work and housework and getting plenty fresh air, my own fitness consists of housework and daily walks, all very gentle, nothing strenuous. But I don’t see the point of going to the gym 5 days a week let alone 1 lol. I haven’t got the time or patience for that. And would much more prefer a walk anyway.
Lucky you Chuck! If I had one, there’s just no room in my cluttered home with my children’s toys taking up so much storage lol, I would certainly use it every morning after my walk, before lunch. Oh well, perhaps in the future, when my boys are older. It sounds to me your lifestyle is the epitome of healthy.
It is just my wife our two small dogs, my neighbors small dog and me. our neighbor had a stroke and is in rehab so we have her corgi for now.
You’d be surprised. I’ve seen multiple studies where people gain muscle while being sedentary and using keto. Even walking and the like can cause muscle to come on. These are even more apparent in higher-protein studies. They almost always show muscle growth or at least much lower muscle loss. Like this one (higher carb, though):
No, I’m a couch potato, for the most part. I began keto with a type of fatigue syndrome, and only in recent years have I had the energy or inclination to do much in the way of physical activity. The initial fat loss and the period of body recomposition I mentioned occurred without any real effort on my part.
Yes, I have had a totally different experience than @lfod14…. In that the transformation has remained permanent. It happens oh so slowly but surely, and does not require additional muscle or exercise. For the first time in my life I have a real waist. A totally new shape.
And it just keeps getting better, even when the scales do not move.
That has been my experience, anyway.
Sounds really good to me, I am very active once it warms up enough in the spring until it gets too cold in the late fall. But only if it is warm enough in the winter to enjoy being outside.
I had a set-back to my energy and stamina after contracting the omega COVID variant a year ago. It has been a long, slow recovery, but I’m almost back to my pre-COVID levels. For a while there, however, it would take a day or two to recover from mowing the lawn, or whatever. That was sadly reminiscent of my condition pre-keto. I’m happy to say that in recent weeks I’ve been feeling the actual urge to go outside and do stuff (we are having a very mild winter this year, so I have no excuse, lol!).
Hi Robin, that is wonderful. It must be so much more encouraging to experience a real transformation like that rather than just weightloss. Weightloss could also be unhealthy, and leave one looking worse rather than better, especially in my case with my lipoedema, thin on top, curvy at the bottom. However, it was when I complained of this to my MIL she remarked that I had definitely stream-lined since starting keto, even though my scale shows the same. And I am both deeply encouraged and excited by this idea of recomposition, as I am looking at keto not as a diet to do short term, but a WOE for life, and am not really interested in further weight loss. This idea we can continue, however, to slim down in a healthy sustainable way whilst also remaining a healthy weight and then maintain that shape is a greatly appealing one.