Stalls - Plateaus - etc. Looking back and being 100% honest

(bulkbiker) #23

OK so I took the first 100 thread titles and put them in a spreadsheet… wanna know how many had the word “cheat” in the title?

ZERO!

(mole person) #24

Sometimes, often even, it’s a lapse in discipline but many times it’s just that what has worked to get you to your current stalled weight won’t work to get you any lower.

I’ve made loads of adjustments in order to get myself down to my current 104 lbs but though I’ve tracked calories, along with the rest of my macros from time to time when I was trying to understand a stall, I’ve never once limited them. That’s not because I think a bit of calorie restriction is a bad thing, I don’t. It’s because I just like eating until I’m good and full. Also, I cannot stand tracking. I think I’ve tracked no more than a month in the two and a half years I’ve been keto.

We often see people coming here with real weight to lose and they don’t lose anything but the initial water weight. These people have started at the weight that IS their set point on basic keto. For me, I lost my first ten pounds rapidly on basic keto but after that I needed to make adjustments. Nuts were a problem, dairy was a problem, cheats set me off on spirals of addiction and this includes any keto sweets, and eating in a tight window was a must. All of that together was needed to get me to goal.

I really don’t like to think of it as calorie restriction even if it actually is. With calorie restriction you are always wanting more. With this method my body is not hungry and is just wending it’s way down to the set point of my adjusted eating habits.

(hottie turned hag) #25

Yep.
From when I started (Aug 2017) until… around early 2019 I ate heavy on the cheese deli meat and lots and lots of -low carb ones- veg. I dropped weight swift and steady until I got to 122.
Then sat there. :neutral_face:

I had to eliminate cheese and almost all veg and go “almost-carn” to start losing again; I went to 116 pretty quick.
Then sat there.

Did a 48h fast. Went to 114 where I now sit.

Switched it back up, reintroduced cheese and veg and had a sickening nut binge as a result. I had NO BINGES before. None. Have never “cheated” on carbs, because like @FishChris my handy obsessive disorder won’t allow it.

Just FWIW.

(mole person) #26

Do you IF, @BlueViolet?

#27

I’ve been stalled for at least six months. I know the problem. I still eat too much food despite being keto/low carb, way too much. I’ve stopped proper fasting (though I do 14x8 feeding window most days). I also drink too much alcohol, have artificial sweetners and am unwilling to give up cheese :slight_smile:

If I were to address any of the above points as an intervention then I’m pretty sure that would get things moving again.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #28

You must be a Quaker, then! :+1:

My dad used to work for a Quaker (she was the director of the program) who still used “thee.”

(Dirty Lazy Keto'er, Sucralose freak ;)) #29

Your “handy obsessive disorder” :grinning: lol Love it !

(Libby) #30

Went to Quaker school for a few years in a Central American country. Had to go to Meeting on Wednesday since the schoolhouse WAS the Meeting House.

No more laughing No more fun, Quaker Meeting has begun! The whole community sat in silence for an hour. I still have questions about the religion, but since no one was talking I never really got the total gist of it.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #31

Another point to bear in mind is that the rate of fat-loss (much preferable to weight loss involving muscle or bone) depends on the degree of insulin resistance and on how much systemic inflammation needs to be healed. This per Dr. Phinney at Ketofest this year.

(Dirty Lazy Keto'er, Sucralose freak ;)) #32

But Tom, do you want to lose anymore weight ?

I wouldn’t give up artificial sweeteners, or cheese either… Wouldn’t drink alcohol if you paid me to.
But IF seems to be a great way to get the fat loss moving again.

(hottie turned hag) #33

Always, since the very start: once/24h.

#34

Well, I have a little more to lose, 10-20 lbs, especially around the love handles! but compared to where I was I’ve achieved 80% of what I was after. I’m building up the energy to have a bit of a push, might do a couple of extended fasts and try to address the food quantity/late night eating issues…

(mole person) #35

I think food wise you’re stricter than I am. You are no nuts, no dairy, extremely restricted veg and OMAD, right? Any fats in drinks during the fasted hours? I actually have about 240 calories in cream still in my coffee daily and most days eat a small carnivore lunch now.

The one thing that might be making a big difference for me is just how much I move. I walk almost all day. Looking at Samsung Health my phone tells me that I walked 17.5 km yesterday and burned 550 calories doing it.

(hottie turned hag) #36

Exactly! Erm except for the shameful binge times of late :stuck_out_tongue:

Ick, never, the very idea grosses me out. All I drink is water or seltzer with lemon in it, but I did this for years even before keto (though I also drank Coke back then).

lmaooo :laughing:

(Bob M) #37

What was the relationship? That is, more inflammation, less weight loss rate?

I see people losing 100 pounds in a year. I’ve often wondered why they could do that.

I also think one has to wonder what a “stall” even is. Here are my DEXA scan results over a year, where I gained 3.3 pounds of muscle and lost 5.4 pounds of fat.

image

Was this a “stall”? Based on the scale, which changed by TWO pounds over the course of a year, it was. However, overall, it was not. And you have to realize this was after shoulder surgery, so there was a lot happening to my body in that time.

I am still losing at somewhere around this rate. At some point, I’ll verify with another DEXA scan, but they are about $150/each were I live, and they are a pain to find and drive to.

And I can’t tell you the number of times the scale showed zero weight loss while I lost a hole on my belts. Right now, I’m at the point where I’m close to having to buy new belts, as most of them are at the last hole. This, my DEXA scans, and the fact that I can gain or lose 5+ pounds of scale weight when fasting more than 1 day, are why I no longer use the scale.

(Art ) #38

Good job Mark. Outstanding methodology!

I did the same with Shakespeare - I wasn’t able to find a single title with “iambic pentameter” in the title.

Of course, this means 100% conclusively there is none within his writings.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #41

As I understand it, inflammation => insulin resistance => difficulty losing fat.

This is why I have switched from talking about weight loss to talking about fat loss, and really harping on it, sometimes. Weight is not the issue—fat is.

(bulkbiker) #42

Wow… aren’t you the charmer…!

(Bob M) #43

I wish people (not specifically you, Paul) would get more specific about “inflammation”. I see posts all the time about how something (dairy, etc.) is “inflammatory”, yet it’s based on hand waving. For instance, what test can I get that tells me I’m inflamed? The only one I’ve ever gotten is HS-CRP, which isn’t too bad for me, depending on the test. But I can’t, say, eat some “dairy”, and test before and after I eat to gauge “inflammation”, as this test doesn’t really react to that. I don’t have any reaction I can tell to cheese, sour cream, cream, but if I eat spicy hot food, I instantly get allergic reactions (runny nose, watery eyes, etc.). Am I becoming inflamed due to spicy food? Am I becoming inflamed due to the dairy I eat, and I just don’t know it?

It would be great, even when starting a keto diet, to be able to get a test (or multiple tests) that would tell you what your current “inflammation” is. I’d love to know whether dairy affects me, for instance, but don’t seem to get a physical reaction to it. But maybe I am getting a reaction and just don’t know it. This would also help so that if Phinney’s idea is true, you could gauge how much weight you could lose. It might prevent/reduce all these “I’ve been low carb for X days/weeks/months and have only lost Y weight” posts. I mean, there has to be a reason why some people can lose 100 pounds in a year or less and others (like me) lose weight very slowly over time (about 60 pounds down in 5.5+ years, though that also includes shoulder surgery). Maybe inflammation is it, though if one can’t quantify it via tests, then it’s really not a useful concept.

(hottie turned hag) #44

It was the lamest sarcasm ever. I suggest you ignore. :neutral_face: