Stalled and mmol stuck

(Steve Harriss) #1

Hi all, firstly I’d like to say I’m loving the forum it’s extremely helpful and a great bunch of people.

So I’ve been on Keto for 11 days and have shifted 11ibs yay!. I’ve managed to avoid the dreaded flu so very happy so far. I’ve followed a clean keto diet as best I can. I’ve been pretty strict on my macros and have generally stayed under 20g of carbs a day but I’m usually about 800 calories short in my daily consumption. Truth be told I’m usually short by 800 to 1000 a day according to my fitness pal. Is this the issue?

I start the day with a bullet proof coffee with butter and mct 8, I then have a chicken salad with blue cheese, mct 8 oil, olives… And then for dinner a steak or salmon with veg stir fried in butter and olive oil. Pretty much the same most days. My coloric intake should be around 2200 calories a day according to my macro calculator.

Here’s the rub. My mmol has been at or around 5.4 the whole time, it hardly ever moves. I was going to the gym but the weight loss stalled a week or so ago so I stopped gym after reading a few posts on here and weight came off again. And now I’ve stalled for the last 3 days. Mmol this morning 5.4 so still in ketosis.

Should I eat more? I’m kinda stuck. Any help gratefully received.

(mole person) #2

Only the initial water weight drops so quickly on keto and now you’ve had that. Your body is resetting to the new normal. Three days without loss after 11 lbs in seven days is not a stall by any stretch. Just keep on going. Let the adaptation phase play out. Just keep your carbs under 20 grams and protein moderate.

If you don’t feel hungry or low energy skip the MCT oil. That’s just gives your body exogenous fats that it then doesn’t need to get off your body. The same with the buttery coffee.

(Carl Keller) #3

Listen to your body. If you have low energy and constant hunger, you need to eat more. Contrary to what is echoed as common knowledge, all calories are not created equal. The more nutrient dense foods we eat, the less of them we require to achieve satiety and the longer we can go without being hungry.

Most of the weight you’ve lost thus far is most likely water weight. When we restrict carbs, we prioritize the burning of glycogen stored in our muscles and liver. Every gram of glycogen is accompanied by 4 grams of water so it’s fairly easy to see losses in the first week or two.

The next step to losing weight is allowing your body and especially your hormones to heal. So don’t think that good things are not happening just because the scale stopped moving. Give it more time. The foods you are eating look great and I predict better results in the coming weeks. Just remember that it’s unrealistic to expect losing weight every single week. The process is a marathon, not a sprint. :slight_smile:

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #4

Too many newbies and even some veterans who ought to have learned from experience obsess over ketone numbers. Don’t. It’s a dynamic system, ketones are synthesized, used/unused and dumped. Don’t worry about it. In your case as an 11-day newbie, your liver is churning out ketones most of which just end up floating around in your blood doing nothing much simply because your cells and organs don’t know what to do with it yet. They’ll eventually figure it out and and as they do the liver will figure out not to synthesize a big surplus. The numbers will drop. The most important thing as a newbie is to keep the carbs sub-20 grams to stay in ketosis long enough to let things adapt to being immersed in ketones and fatty acids instead of just glucose. Takes a while, so be patient.