Started Keto 6 weeks ago, lost 11 lbs right off the bat and stalled. Zero on the urine stick. I think I’m computing things as I should. I use the ketodiet app to record everything I eat. I am recording net carbs, maybe that is an issue? 350lbs semi active, starting to go daily to the gym and walk on treadmill, 20g carb, 100g protien, 150g fat, try to stay between 1800 and 200 calories, maybe too low? Bio meter 43%. Feel great, joints feel much better but need to shed weight. I have not varied at all, not even a glass of wine…I’ve read it can take months to make internal changes but hate to lose several months and find out I’m not doing the right thing. Lots of info out there and I’ve computed my macros a dozen time with different methods and it comes out fairly close each time.
Stalled weight loss - I know its been asked before
You will get some good answers here, but first, just relax. It will all fall together. The 2 Keto Dudes have a couple good podcasts about just this issue. I don’t know the episodes off the top of my head but I will find them, or someone here will know. I will say, don’t restrict your calories. Your body needs to have enough cal coming in so that it won’t think it is in starvation mode and try and save the fat on your body. Your body gets use to patterns.
If you’re not seeing indications of ketosis, you may want to switch from net carbs to counting all carbs, at least for the time being. You might also experiment with reducing daily protein intake by 10-20g and see if that makes a difference (making up the difference with fat).
Are you measuring blood glucose regularly? If so, what are your BG numbers like?
Ignore calories - I do - it’s inconsequential to whether I eat something or not. Colleagues at work still say things like “oh, there are less calories in this, than product x” etc.
Firstly I focus on the carbs to keeping them at 20 or less (probably not net, just what MFP shows me), then protein to about 80-120 (for me). I’ve even eaten small chunks of Kerrygold when feeling peckish, but my protein was a bit on the high side.
If you think you’ve been fairly consistent and on fewer calories than you were normally on, then mix it up. Yesterday I was listening to @carl and @richard talking about mixing it up and feasting, and after having a day where I was lightly grazing and really not all that hungry, I decided to eat some meat that was getting close to needing turfing out of my fridge, so I fried it all, melted some cheese over the top, and tucked in. I had 4 thin steak thingies, probably about 400g of meat, plus the Red Leicester I melted on the top.
This morning. Down 0.5 Kg on the scales
Mix it up. Don’t let your body get used to the pattern. Confuse the fuck out of it.
YMMV. Remember I’m doing an n=1 experiment, and I’m a unique snowflake.
It may be you are not stalled due to anything you are doing. It may be your body is requiring a time of readjustment before more movement happens.
I had no weight loss for 2 months. I was thinking to do something extreme but then decided to wait. It paid off. You can’t do yourself any harm by just waiting while eating the way your body needs . I counsel patience.
Even using net carbs, a cap of 20 should still get you in ketosis unless you’re eating a ton of Quest bars and the like all day.
Your calorie deficit doesn’t doesn’t seem too steep either, especially at this point with a bunch still to lose. I’d maybe try tightening up the accuracy of your weighing and measuring for a couple weeks and see what happens.
This is something that doesn’t come up often in discussions about stalls, but I’ve noticed the tendency in myself for tablespoons of coconut oil, almond butter, butter, etc. to get bigger and bigger until I decide to measure again and auto-correct.
Same thing of course with estimated ounces of anything, especially steak and bacon!
No processed foods. I cook everything. Mostly eggs, bacon, breakfast sausage, avacado, salad 2x, romaine and cuckes, tuna, chicken, steak, fish, nothing crazy. Kerigold butter, organic coconut oil, olive oil, cottage cheese, cream cheese, brie, heavy cream, blue cheese dressing, almond butter.
picked a day from my log.
carbs 27.6 net 12.9
protein 113.6
fat 165.1
calories 2026
Are you willing to skip a meal. Don’t restrict your calories…just keep a cap on carbs and protein (like what others said above), but eat fat to satiety.
So, the idea is this…pick a meal to skip…like breakfast or lunch. Eat as much food as you would have with three meals a day, but in the two meals only. Do this for a day or two to test your “fasting” abilities. Does it work? Do you freak out in hunger, or are you ok with that? If it felt ok, then plan on doing it for a longer period. Like a few weeks, and see how it goes. This will likely “push” your body into more fat burning mode, because you create a bit of a fasting window, and eating a ketogenic diet forces your body to burn fat, and not glucose for majority of your energy.
Little baby steps. Testing new strategies, and seeing what works, is the best way to outsmart your body.
Good luck with your efforts. I hope you stay in touch and keep us informed on how your are doing.
I’ll try it. I’m fine with eating 2 meals. Many times I eat to get the meal in but am not real hungry. Thank you for the help
Yikes…if you are eating when you are not hungry, you risk continuing your problem. If you are not hungry, don’t eat. This will allow you to achieve low and stable insulin levels, which then result in weight loss. When we learn to listen to our bodies, we get huge wins. I know their is a stigma out there for eating 3 square meals a day, but it is really not necessary. Eat the meal if you are hungry, and skip it if you are not. And you will likely do very well.
I’d also add that if you aren’t doing tape measurements of at least your waist and neck, it’d be a good idea to start. There will be times when the scale stalls, but the tape shows progress.
Induction using fasting
Absolutely. I second this. My weight goes up and down more than a bride’s nightie, but the general trend is downwards. My neck only went down an inch so far, same on the fat belly-button waist measurement. But my trouser waistband is down two holes and getting even looser.
Your protein is likely to high. Cut back to 75-80 for a few days, if you don’t start craving protein, then 75-80 is enough. 1 gram/kilogram of lean body mass is enough. So for really rough math-----if 220 lbs and 25% fat was the goal, that would be 100kg total weight, therefore 75 kg lean body mass.
It’s important to learn to trust hunger/satiation signalling to tell you when to eat, and when to stop.
If you are eating 3 meals a day, because you think you need to eat something at “Breakfast time”, “Lunch time”, and “Dinner time” … and you are not actually hungry at any of those times - then you will be almost assuredly eating too much and falling for the classic myth of “meal times”.
Having anything in your belly stretching it will cause insulin to be secreted, which will switch of the mobilization of body fat and redirect your digestion to dealing with incoming calories. It could take your system 5-6 hours before insulin goes low enough to unleash energy from body fat for use again. If you have 3 meals a day the only time you will be able to burn body fat will be 6 hours after dinner - while you are asleep, and your metabolic rate is lower.
I suggest in the morning when you wake, asking yourself “Am I hungry - RIGHT NOW” and if you aren’t skipping breakfast. You are in a low insulin state while you were sleeping, waking will make a little, but if you don’t eat you will go back to that low insulin state pretty quickly … and then you can ride that state burning body fat for hours until you are hungry. Eat then. Then maybe dinner time one day, lunch time another, and some days you might find you missed eating all together.
If you just can’t get out of the rut of eating 3 or more meals a day for cultural or social reasons … which are entirely reasonable reasons, then you will probably need to count your calories because your hunger/satiety signalling may become non-functional if you are always eating and if you aren’t able to perceive hunger/satiety signals then it becomes hard to eat fat to satiety.
Maybe I’m computing wrong? I’m not disputing, I’ll cut the protein, I’m just trying to understand how it all adds up and what I need to do to follow it…I get it that it is not exact, just trying to get some kind of baseline.
Body weight 368
Body fat mass 43.2% x body weight 368 = 162 lbs
368lb – 162lb = 206 lean body mass
Fat Loss (Active 0.8)
Carbs 20 = 80kcal (4%)
Protein 128g = 512 kcal (25%)
Fat 162g = 1458 kcal (71%)
Total = 2048