Stalled for Over 1 Year

fasting
extendedfast
intermittentfasting
female
(Jess) #1

I apologize, for the long post. I’m at my wits end!

The pertinent info:

Current Me: 32 years old, female, 5’ - 2", approx. 130ish lbs, 26% body fat. AIC of 4.9
Pre-keto Me: 184 lbs with an A1C of 5.6
Pre-keto eating: 1-2 large carby and fatty meals a day. sweet tooth.
WOE: strict keto with 16/8 IF for 10 months. 7%C/25%P/68%F 1,200 calories per day with foods weighed and tracked using MyFitnessPal. Mostly home-cooked meals consisting of meats, cheese, heavy cream and butter, green leafy vegetables in abundance, nuts and nut butters, salt, supplements, and a small amount of sugar alcohols. Mostly home-cooked meals. Very little cheating. 1 drink a month of hard liquor.
Methods of tracking: body weight on scale, measurements, body fat using electronic monitor, & blood ketones.
Weight lost in 10 months = 54 lbs.

Length of stall: + 1 year.

The details:

After a couple months of losing no weight, I began to cheat on Keto a little. Usually 1 cocktail a week, or an order of french fries. But the next day I’d be back in ketosis.

Then, after long periods of strict keto, I began to suffer from extreme lethargy, low mood (think the worst kind of pms: anger, sadness, extreme sensitivity), and also extreme sensitivity to cold (I was cold ALL the time). I discovered by accident that eating an order of french fries or some starchy (but not sweet food) helped me to rebound and I would immediately feel great and the next day be back in ketosis.

Finally, the times I did have too much sugar or carby breads, the next day I would be in agony. Every inch of my skin from my chest to knees would hurt. I would bloat like a balloon and just having clothes touching my skin was painful.

However, I decided to try to be better and break my stall, so I started working out (HIIT + light weight/resistance workouts). While I got physically stronger and for a few months gained muscle definition, after about 90 days, I saw no change in either my weight or my measurements. However, I continued to work out and do keto (not strict, little to no tracking) through the end of the year.

Beginning this year, I decided to try extended fasting. The entire month of January I fasted from Sunday night to Thursday or Friday night. I felt great! I had so much energy and weight was dropping off. Only, because my weekends were not strict keto, I would regain a couple of pounds before the next Sunday.

February was a terrible month of work stress, stress eating, and 20 hour days (still mostly keto). So all of the progress I made in January disappeared. Now, I’ve tried EF again and I cannot seem to make it beyond two days. I suffer from extreme cold and lethargy.

When I’m not trying to do EF, I maintain my 16/8 IF and try to stick to keto, but I’m no longer tracking or weighing my foods (so possibly over eating or not hitting my macros correctly).

I’m extremely discouraged. A year is a long time to stall. I don’t know what approach I should take next. I’m worried that I may have damaged my metabolism. I’m also concerned there are hormonal factors at play.

I might be too close to my ideal body weight and my body is just fighting back, however, I still have a high body fat percentage and carry a lot of excess weight in my thighs and stomach. I want to get from 26% BF to 20%.

I really enjoy nutritional ketosis as a WOE. I love the mental clarity and the energy increases. I love not feeling bloated. I really enjoy the foods and love to cook and make keto-friendly meals. However, I’m losing all motivation since I’ve been stalled for so long and all of my methods seem not to succeed.

A year is a really long time to stall.

Does any one have any advice on how to tackle this?

(Full Metal KETO AF) #2

Have you tried cutting out nuts and dairy? Or maybe dairy except HWC and butter? Those items might be a stall point, especially if you’re eating more than on ounce of nuts daily or the same in cheeses. The protein casein is known to stall some and nuts are nutrient dense and easy to overconsume. :cowboy_hat_face:

(MooBoom) #3

From what you’ve said, you haven’t stalled so much as ended up at the same weight as you were one year ago despite some losses and gains over that year.

You’ve eaten some crappy carbs during that time, and sounds like there’s been some calorie restricting too. If you’re getting cold with the fasting your body does not want to do it.

My sense, after reading through everything, is your poor body needs more quality nourishment.

Forget tracking calories, start tracking carbs again and do not exceed your 20g per day. Forget fasting, even IF. Eat when hungry, stop when satiated. Take it right back to the basics.

Oh and try quitting the nut butters and sugar alcohols for a month. See what happens.

#4

26% is a ‘normal’ BF% for woman of your age. If you want to get to 20% which is in the ‘athletic’ range then you will probably need to do more than :point_down:

& for longer than 90 days :slightly_smiling_face:

(Jess) #5

Thank you for the suggestion.

I have not tried cutting the dairy or nuts. I admit they are now a regular staple of my diet. I usually have 1 - 2 ounces of cheese per day, and 1 1/2 servings of nuts (30g + 1 T of peanut butter). Now that I think about it, I avoided peanuts in their entirety during the first 10 months of keto and now I consume a lot of peanut butter or salted, roasted peanuts.

(Alec) #6

First cab off the rank, this is fantastic progress on keto and fasting, especially your A1C. Don’t discount the fantastic progress you have made. Don’t throw it all in and drop keto because the last stretch is harder. To do that doesn’t make sense.

You mention being cold a couple of times, and this sounds to me like the body shutting down non-critical jobs (like heating you) because of a lack of resources/energy. You also talk about eating to a calorie target, and I think this may have been a mistake for the long term objective. There’s no doubt you will lose weight on a low calorie diet but there comes a point when it just stops. It sounds to me that is where you are.

So, what to do now? My opinion to drive through your plateau is that you could do a few things:

  1. Forget your calorie target, and eat purely to satiety. This may mean you eat more or it may mean you eat less. But let your body decide and see what happens.
  2. Eat strict keto (no cheats) for a minimum of 8 weeks. When you’re hungry eat, don’t worry about calories (for now).
  3. Drop anything that affects ketosis eg alcohol, make sure you keep under 20g carbs
  4. Review what happens to your weight after 8 weeks. Take note of whether you are eating more or less than you have been used to. If you have been eating less (I doubt it, but it may happen), then I would bet you may have lost a few pounds over 8 weeks. If you have been eating more (I reckon this is what will happen), then be aware you may not lose weight over the 8 weeks, and you MAY even gain a few pounds. Realise that if this happens, what is happening is you are rebuilding your metabolism and you should not panic. Stick with it, you should be feeling ok to great. If not, then a regime shakeup is called for and you should try something else (and ignore me totally and do the complete opposite :joy::joy:)

You are on the final stretch and it is proving longer than it looked at first. It sounds to me that your body right now just wants to be at your current weight. My hunch is it wants more energy in, and then it will be happier to drop some more weight.

Best wishes and good luck.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #7

Try without for a month, not long to endure if it doesn’t help. You will probably see results sooner if it’s working. You can still have some if that’s what caused the stall just not every day I think.

(Alec) #8

Jess
I think nuts are problematic for a lot of us. Theoretically they should be great keto food, but my experience is that they are simply not satiating enough compared to other fats and protein. So I have dropped them, and I am feeling MUCH better and staying on course is easier.

So maybe try giving up the nuts first, and then try my ideas (or of course other people’s). Note you will get and read lots and lots of different ideas and opinions on your problem, and some of the advice will work, and some won’t. Your task is sorting the wheat and the chaff for you.

(MooBoom) #9

Seriously, we said the same thing again :joy:

(Alec) #10

I just said it in 1000 words when you said it in 30! :joy::joy::joy:

But my sense is that Jess wants to understand mechanisms here as well as what to do. And she needs to know what might happen and why.

(Jess) #11

Thank you both! I really do appreciate the information. What you’re saying makes a lot of sense. Both you and Monique have mentioned not focusing on a calorie restriction and just eating to satiety. I think that, combined with cutting the cheese and nuts may help.

I do enjoy things like working out but because I was holding myself to a 1200 calorie restriction, I simply could not strike the proper balance between the workouts and the eating. I’d up my calorie intake, up my protein, up my fat, but never seem to get it right. The part of me that likes to track data was just so thrown off. Formulas are easier to understand than just following your body. Especially when for years your body has tricked you (or maybe you tricked your body).

For now, I’ll focus on getting my eating back on track. I’m very interested to see if this will work. I hope it does. But I probably also have to learn that the same thing won’t always work forever.

(Alec) #12

This is true, BUT those formulas can trick you as well, and I think this is what has happened here. If you are sticking to 1200 cals AND you are exercising, I am more confident in my analysis. I think you are stuck because your body just wants and needs more calories/energy. Indulge it!

Relearning hunger signals is an important part of keto, and I think for you this is a critical step to getting to your targets. Good luck!

(Carolyn aka stokies) #13

What is your goal? Is this a previous set pount for your weight? How is your sleeping?