S t a l l

#1

Having the slowest progress despite changes made. Counting all my macros and calories. Working out 5 times a week (walking or strength training) and recently eliminated dairy.

Been stuck on the same weight for weeks! Suggestions? Should I go carnivore for awhile? Has anyone had good results with this?

Should I change my 16:8 daily to 20:4 only a few times a week? Although I eat more when I restrict my window too much.

Anyone have any suggestions? I know this is a widely repeated conversation but I’m so sick of stalling!

(mole person) #2

How long have you been keto now? How much have you lost? What are you trying to lose? What are your macros, weight, and height? How long have you been dairy free?

(Scott) #3

I like to step back a bit and look at a stall. If I am not gaining weight I still look at it as a win. I had a three month stall after a three month loss of twenty pounds. I just watched and waited without changing my diet. Then I dropped some morning fat and the scale started to move a bit. Then it went back up a bit. I got tired of my lower fat breakfast and went back to my old routine. Now the scale is moving down a bit. It doesn’t really make sense at times. My takeaway is if you stay with a LCHF WOE long term you shouldn’t gain weight and with some tweaking you may experience random drops in weight. I am not talking weeks here but months or even years. I have time for this.

#4

I’m looking to lose my last 20 lbs. it’s like I’m stuck my macros are on point. I gave up dairy a month ago. The scale had just been stuck!

I eat exactly what I’m supposed to for my weight and height and I do strength 2xs a week and walk 60 mins 3-4 times a week.

I eat 1300-1400 calories a day which is what I’m supposed to to lose and this is subtracted from my exercise.

My body has been feeling so much better after giving up dairy but there are days where I eat more carbs because of fiber and such.

Do you think maybe varying my workouts more or mixing up my fasting would help?!

#5

My advice remains the same as it was the last time: put a hold on trying to lose weight and focus instead on trying to heal your metabolism. You haven’t helped yourself by trying everything under the rainbow at once, it’s probably just making the metabolism problem worse.

(Windmill Tilter) #6

If you’re under 20g total carbs a day, you’ve completely eliminated sweeteners, and you’ve eliminated dairy, the 4th horseman of the stall-calypse is often excessive exercise.

Exercise builds muscle or VO2 max. It’s not particularly helpful for weight loss. It frequently inhibits weight loss, because it messes with satiety signals. Done properly, keto revolves around eating to satiety. If your satiety signals are getting screwed up by excessive exercise, it’s like following a broken compass. A lot of people in the “not losing weight section” mention exercising 5-7 hours per week. It’s not coincidence. Some people are able to exercise 5 days a week and still lose weight long term. Not everybody can. Try cutting back exercise to one or two 20 minute sessions a week.

If your priority is building muscle or increasing VO2 max, or if your livelihood depends on it, obviously you should continue to exercise 5 days a week. The trade-off may be a reduced rate of weight loss.

If you can’t give up exercise, and you’re committed to losing weight, the “easy button” is extended fasting. It’s not right for everybody (history of disordered eating, thyroid conditions, adrenal disorders, etc) but it always works. It doesn’t have to be anything extreme. Something as simple as alternate day fasting will burn through fat with clockwork regularity. If it’s insulin resistance that’s inhibiting fat loss, alternate day fasting will sort that out pretty damn quick. For that matter, just implementing time-restricted feeding to something like 18:6 can do a lot of good.

Help...... no weight loss since week 1
(Windmill Tilter) #7

You can pretty much ignore what I posted above about exercise. I started writing my reply before I read you’re latest post. The exercise that you’re doing actually sounds pretty reasonable. Cutting back to one strength training day a week might be helpful, but two isn’t unreasonable. Walking won’t cause much trouble.

The thing that jumps out in the sentence above is that you’re eating to a calorie target. The one universal piece of advice on this forum is “eat to satiety”. When you fail to do so, you run the risk of slowing your metabolism down. How long have you been restricting calories?

(Jody) #8

I’m working through the 2 dudes podcast library and just listened to episode “Metabolic Rate”. Might be worth a listen. Carl discusses his stall AND how he fixed it.

(Jody) #9

I really like to hear someone with a balanced approach. For some of us not gaining is a pretty HUGE win.

(mole person) #10

Thanks. That answers two of my questions but it’s very difficult to troubleshoot without knowing a bit more. I’ll repeat the unanswered questions.

“How long have you been keto now? How much have you lost? What are your macros, weight, and height?”

The problem is that we are not cookie cutter versions of everyone else at the same weight and height. We each have our own hormonal milieu and we need to figure it out. It becomes even more sensitive the closer you are to your target weight and you are pretty close.

In my case I had to go to one meal a day to shed the last 15 pounds. Also, 1300 calories a day is what I eat, on average, at maintenance.

Plain keto is not a weight loss strategy that works well for the last few pounds. Almost everyone who is actually trying to get lean has to make changes along the way to get those last sticky pounds.

(Running from stupidity) #11

You and your “big picture” and “sensible advice.” #AWAYWITHYOU

(Carolyn aka stokies) #12

I feel you so hard about this. I am normally the encouraging one about how body is recalibrating in a stall. That sleep is paramount to progress. That weight loss is a side effect of healing. But OMG body, make up your goddamn mind lol. This stall has a 5 pound arc that is killing me mentally, even though I KNOW my body comp is shifting…

Hang in there - we feel your pain SO much! You got this and there is amazing advice above…

(MooBoom) #13

Red flags:

#1 calorie restriction
#2 exercise

= CICO mentality & potential metabolic slowdown.

Add to that: Close to goal weight (difficult to lose!)
Add to THAT: Stressing about last 20lbs (cortisol).

Remedy:
stop counting calories, count carbs (keep below 20g TOTAL to really ramp things up).
Continue with ‘no dairy’ as you feel better.
Eat to hunger, stop when satiety is reached.
Stop exercising.
Stop stressing.
Let it happen in its own time, you cannot force this- by trying to you’ll just perpetuate the problem.

(Robert C) #14

One thing to keep in mind generally is that a stall is also not gaining.

If you do too many things at the same time and start getting stressed about further fasting, fed up about exercising so much or slow your metabolism cutting calories too much - you could be back to gaining without any way to turn it around to going back down.

You might want to “lock in your gains” (i.e. weight loss) by upping calories a bit, lower exercise a bit and focus on something other than diet to let yourself get acclimated at this level before trying further descent.

Stalling is much better than being a bouncing yo-yo.

(Jennibc) #15

This is so true. I went and had my resting metabolic rate tested yesterday because I have been gaining and losing the same two pounds for the past close to 10 weeks. I have just 13 pounds to goal (as of today). I started tracking everything again to make sure I was sticking to the plan and because I was curious about where my calories had settled. I naturally eat between about 1500 and 1750 ish a day. I was sad to learn that my BMR is pretty slow for someone of my age and weight. I guess that makes sense because for so many years I restricted calories to try to lose. She said the average woman of my age/height/weight is burning 300-400 more calories a day.

I think that means I actually have to start considering calories in addition to continuing LCHF. I don’t think just keto alone is going to get me to finish line. Initially, she gave me this ridiculously low calorie plan and I said “won’t this lower my metabolism even further?” Then I suggested I cycle from lower calories one day back to my 1600-1700 the next day (kind of like Fung’s Obesity Code suggestion of OMAD). She replied, “people do that but it will take longer to drop” I responded It’s taken me over 8 years to take off 108 pounds so I think I can manage a several months wait on the final 15. The interesting thing was she didn’t even make the suggestion to try that although she was aware that doing it the cycling way wouldn’t have the downward pull on my metabolism that her 1200 calories a day recommendation would.

Then of course, she recommended 50% of the calories come from carbs, 30% Fat and 20% protein. I said Nope! I’ll keep my macro percentages are they are.

#16

Consider this: fast more + eat more + exercise less and track BG

Extended fasting will move the scale, the only question is dosage. If you’re patient, try 44:4 for a couple of weeks, your weight should trend down. If you’re impatient, do a multi day fast, your weight will drop precipitously.

Calories do matter. Eat slightly above your BMR. Don’t guess, get it tested so you have an accurate-for-you number.

Limit exercise to HIIT and weight training. This creates a metabolically favorable state for fat catabolism and muscle anabolism.

Carb counting may not be accurate enough to get the results you want. What really matters is your body’s personal response to specific meals. A blood glucose monitor can be very useful in managing diet.

(Jeramy Koval) #17

In my opinion I would stick with what you’re doing. Monitor body composition and consider weight to be a secondary goal. The benefits of gaining some lean mass far outweigh the negatives. Your improving body composition, increasing BMR, bone density, etc. Keep doing what you’re doing!

#18

Hi,

I know stalling is frustrating. Sorry if these points are already covered, I am mega busy at work, won’t have time to read every post here but :-

  • Are you pretty close to target weight? Expect a slowdown.

  • Have you had any Thyroid Function Tests? Thyroid function has a major affect and overrides anything keto may or may not do.

  • Are you taking any medication whatsoever, any pill of any kind, so much as one little pill can also override all keto efforts. You can fast 22/2 every day for a year and eat < 5g total carbs, it won’t matter (well it’ll matter and help in many ways but …)

  • Artificial sweeteners? Some people balloon from Diet Coke, max or zero … some people can get away with it.

  • Do you have any hidden carbs, something you thought was OK but isn’t?

  • Are you targeting Total carbs or Net carbs? Some people do digest fibre.

  • Sleep, stress and all the usual suspects …

(Maria Ortiz) #19

You may have already done this, but are you able to post what you’re eating on a daily basis? It would be helpful in a lot of ways. I’ve had many stalls and broke them all with the changes I’ve made over the years.

(George) #20

What kind of changes did you make? Fortunately I haven’t hit a stall yet since I keep switching things up every couple weeks, but love to learn different people’s methods for breaking them