Results are becoming sparse and body not entering Ketosis

#1

Good day,

A friend of mine recommended Keto to me back in late April, and I was all for losing weight

I’ve never been thin or in reasonable shape for that matter my entire life; my friend had seen some great results from the diet and so I thought I would give it a go.

I started my journey back in early May, planned out my macros and how I was going to go about my plan, as due to the nature of my job with long hours and very little movement I based it off of zero exercise.

My starting weight was 17stone 5lbs (243 lbs / 108kg approx) with a target of 12stone (168lbs / 76kg)

Within the first week I saw a great drop due to water retention going down to 16stone 7lbs (231lbs / 105kg), I found myself skeptical still as I was aware this would probably be the case, and for the first few weeks my weight was dropping lower and lower significantly each week. Urination strips were the darkest purple for many weeks.

It’s now nearing the end of July and I’m currently weighing in at 14stone 6lbs (202lbs / 91.5kg) however, over the last 2 weeks I have only added avocado to my diet but the strips are no longer changing at all. I fear in my own mind that I have plateaued and no matter what I do I can’t get the strips to change colour.

Can anyone please recommend a logical reason as to why this is happening? I am extremely self conscious about my body and with the strips not changing, I get the feeling I am doing something very wrong, it causes me great stress.

PS. I do also intend to reduce my hours at work and start cardio exercise back up shortly as I think naively this is my only option.

(Susan) #2

Welcome to the forum, Tom.

Congrats on all the weight that you have lost so far on Keto, that is really great. Avocados are awesome for Keto, so they shouldn’t be messing you up.

This might help, check this video out!

I will add that I have personally never used any test strips, or any monitors, etc. due to the cost of them and us on a tight budget, so I try to do Keto very economically and have managed it pretty well so far. I just broke an almost 2 month plateau personally by doing 2 72+ hour fasts, (with a break of less then 2 days between). I always do an eating window of 20:4. Have you tried this? I eat lunch at 1pm, and then supper at 4:50 for a daily IF of 20 hours fasting, and 4 hour eating window, with no snacks.Sometimes you just have to shake your body and eating up a bit, to keep your body losing. Good luck =).

#3

Thanks for the reply, that video sort of helps, I guess my eating habits aren’t really ideal, but I rarely get hungry. I’m 31 and generally I tend to eat the same things every weekday and try to mix it up a bit on the weekends.

I work as a driver from 3pm - 3am Monday to Friday and generally find this is my intake.

Weekdays: I start my day (Midday) with Scrambled egg (2 eggs) cooked in a small amount of butter with black pepper, I sometimes get the chance to have a snack around 5pm which i normally buy a small block of cheddar cheese, but not every day if I’ve been stuck in traffic, not ideal at all really, I do however drink around 7 to 10 pints of water during the day. So as you can probably guess I consume around 350 calories a day at a push.

Weekends: I tend to only eat one meal on weekends as I don’t get hungry, usually a salad: Lettuce, Onion, Tomato, Cucumber, Jalapenos, Avocado, 1 Hard boiled egg and a protein, mostly half a can of tuna, drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, roughly 350-400 calories, and at least ten pints of water each day is compulsory.

Slap me on the wrist for eating so little.

(squirrel-kissing paper tamer) #4

Welcome to the forum. You’re losing 5 lbs a week and eating roughly 400 calories a day. If rapid weight loss is what you’re after, you are succeeding, however at some point it will slow your metabolism and the losses will become less. Consider eating more calories when you have a meal. Not getting enough protein will lead to muscle loss. Scale weight is only one indicator of success. Urine test strips aren’t very reliable and certainly shouldn’t be an indicator of success.

Listen, stress will cause more problems than you know. This is a long game. You’re running the risk of yo-yoing back up by starving your body now. Two eggs and a piece of cheese may be dropping weight quickly, but what’s the maintenance plan?

(Cancer Fighting Ketovore :)) #5

I’d try to find ways to eat more, as having too few calories can actually cause a problem (they body holds onto weight because it fears starvation mode). I’d up the fat and protein, and keep carbs under 20g.

Also, the pee strips are worthless and you shouldn’t stress on them not showing any colors.

#6

Thank you both kindly for your responses, I do try my best to consume more food but I really don’t get much of a chance at work (and I sure as hell ain’t eating before I go to sleep - no thank yooou :stuck_out_tongue:)

I guess I’ll just see where it goes, I will try to eat a bit more and hopefully in a few weeks time, I’ll come back and report on the progress.

Also I’m pretty sure I need to be exercising, so for sure I’m going to get back into that.

(Ken) #7

The only thing that is happening is that because you’re eating so little is that your body is burning all the ketones it produces.

Not being hungry is not always a good sign. It can mean that your body is in a severe conservation mode, which can slow down fat loss. If you’re still losing weight, you’re fine. If you Stall for several weeks you probably have a problem. No need to panic yet.

(K-9 Handler/Trainer, PSD/EP Specialist, Veteran) #8

“The only thing that is happening is that because you’re eating so little is that your body is burning all the ketones it produces.” -Ken

This right here. When my body started making use of the ketones I was producing, nothing registered on the strips, because strips only measured the excess of what my body was making. There was no measurable excess ketones to measure.

(Wendy) #9

Welcome! Check this out it was excellent and has some new ideas and recipes that may spark your interest and help.https://www.ruled.me/using-fat-fasting-technique/

#10

Sorry, short of time presently, so couldn’t read all the post here… but keep in mind that you body will also become more efficient in using ketones, hence, not wasting as much afterwards. (shown in urine) This is why a lot of folks recommend not using the urine strips, but in the beginning. … But as some others have stated, some do find them useful even after some time. Just don’t let the color of the strips drive or fool you. It could be a number of things causing this.

Congrats on your loss thus far, and as they say KCKO. :+1:

(MooBoom) #11

image https://media0.giphy.com/media/l44Qhk5OcV42sMelO/giphy.gif

I’d like to see you prioritising energy dense foods into your one meal a day. Build your meal around a fatty protein and make the salad a side, not the core of your meal.

You can snack on nuts, cheese etc outside of meal times to lift calories out of current (likely) starvation mode.

Please eat more, more often.

(Wendy) #12

You may ck Amazon for the Keto Mojo
It measures Blood Ketones, and comes with Glucose tester also. That’s what we changed to after the strips proved to not be an effective measurement tool.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #13

You may find this lecture by Dr. Phinney to be helpful (it is in two parts):

(K-9 Handler/Trainer, PSD/EP Specialist, Veteran) #14

Thank you; appreciate the thought!

I’m one of those people that stopped checking my ketones after I was adapted, though.
Got rid of my T2D and then used keto and fasting for my lean bulk/cut. Rode out the drop in workout performance for about two weeks, and then just worked out like I did before.

The strips were an afterthought in the beginning, to see if I even started making any.

(Wendy) #15

We started with the strips also. Just to get a good idea as to where we were. I had Low Bloodsugar. Ended up with heart problems due to it. Started Keto in April, so far about half way to my target goal, husband had been on it since Nov 2018, and has gotten to his target weight. Hes lost a total of 65# . My Bloodsugar has leveled out! Still on Metoporlol. Blood pressure was crazy due to heart rhythm being out of wack. But seems to behaving. Have a heart doc appt Thursday will be interesting to get his view on the weightloss. My PCP that I’ve had for 30yrs was totally on board. He is my husbands hunting buddy and gave him the whole rundown. Science behind Keto. BTW Love your job and your Awsome dog!

(Hyperbole- best thing in the universe!) #16

Isn’t this amazing! I’ve occationaly had low blood sugar issues, especially in the heat, since adolesence. I stop eating sugar and limit other carbs and not one problem since, even though I live in a hot climate. I guess once we stop interfereing our bodies can figure it out by themselves.

(Carolyn aka stokies) #17

Things to think about that I wish I was able to know sooner in my own journey:

  1. WELCOME :slight_smile:

  2. Strips are only really helpful in the beginning as they measure the surplus ketones your body dumps as it is not yet proficient at utilizing them, as the body is recalibrating cells mechanisms to use them.

  3. Body also has its own agenda - its priority will always be healing and health. Weight loss is a side effect of repaired metabolism - it takes time so while the scale may not be refelcting massive moves, your chemistry, hormones and metabolism are undoubtedly improving.

  4. SLEEP and dinural/circadium rhythms both dramatically impact coritsol and insulin levels, influencing body’s ability to process, repair and burn off fat stores. This has been my major stumbling block for myself personally.

  5. Hydration and electrolytes - these are likewise important to monitor as they assist with satiety and ability to process/eliminate waste.

Not for nothing, you’ve lost a good amount of weight in a relatively short time. It’s the long and steady journey that gets us where we need to be. I have months of feeling stucked, but a year later, I am 105 pounds down… Granted I have a lot more to lose - each person is unique. Comparing progress or lack thereof to othrs just steals our joy and pride in our own dedicated efforts. IMHO.

You got this!

Carolyn aka stokiesgoneketo

(Wendy) #18

Low sugar run s in my family. Glad Keto fixed mine. Hot climate is hard on everything . I’ve been a Arizona resident for 37yrs. The heat doesn’t care how old you are or what kind of shape your in. Mother Nature holds no bars!

(Susan) #19

I always heard that the air/climate is Arizona is amazing and really good for asthma.

(Wendy) #20

Yeah, its warm climate and elevation is good for alot of health issues. Although where I live there is alot of farmland. And they do alot of spraying. When we first moved here,my husband had alot of sinus problems due to the defoliant they spray on the cotton fields.
We have had a very mild summer this yr. Our Monsoon season is around the corner and am wondering what to expect?