Good morning - newbie to the forum here. A bit about my Keto journey. I started last May and really haven’t looked back. I have lost 50lbs and would like to lose another 50-60lbs. The beginning of January I started to incorporate exercise: 2-3 days of walking/running for 45-60 mins and 2-3 days of strength training/weights for about 45 min. Since I have started exercise, every reading I have gotten on my blood ketone strips has read “Lo” and I have not lost any weight. I have tried modifying my macro’s to incorporate the new exercise regimen (increasing fat and a little bit of protien) but nothing has helped. I am loving how I feel with the way I am eating and the exercise but beyond frustrated that I am not seeing the outward results. Any ideas or suggestions??
Started exercising but cannot get back into Ketosis or lose weight
Don’t go by the strips, they’re useless, especially by this point. And if you’re working out, you’re likely gaining lean muscle mass, meaning the scale might not budge much. Buy a tape measure and go by what your clothes tell you.
Thanks, KetoCobra… Unfortunately, my clothes feel exactly the same and there have been no inches lost on the measuring tape. I measure myself monthly and unfortunately nothing has changed. I think that is why I am so frustrated… I haven’t seen ANY physical results.
If you want to make some moves - after being fat-adapted so long (if you really feel that is true) - try some IF or EF.
Keep in mind that over exercise (a very personal thing) can drive hunger.
Also, any ketone readings usually outside of the first few months may seem low (as the body adapts and produces ketones as needed, not leaving much in the blood).
Have you incorporated any fasting? Once I got below 200 lbs I really had to be strict as far as intermittent fasting. That seemed to help. You may be getting closer to your ideal body weight and those pounds don’t drop as easily as the initial pounds, especially when you start with a lot of body fat.
Before I offer any suggestions, can you tell us more about what, exactly, you’re eating?
Sure! Here is what I ate yesterday:
Breakfast:
Coffee with cream and 1 tbsp coconut oil
homemade breakfast casserole (eggs, sausage, cream and small amount of onions)
Lunch:
Caesar salad (no croutons)
6oz of grilled chicken
1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese
2 tbsp Caesar dressing
Dinner:
Homemade Keto chili:
diced tomatoes
ground turkey
pumpkin puree
peppers
2 tbsp of sour cream
snack:
2 homemade keto chocolate chip cookies (each cookie has .9 carbs)
And yesterday I walked/ran for 45 minutes at a 4.0 mph pace in the morning before I ate any breakfast.
I have not… and I think that is something I will start to try. I do enjoy my coffee with cream and coconut oil in the morning on my way to work… so that will be a bit difficult to cut out until lunchtime… but I will give it a go! I still have 50-60 lbs to loose so I am not at the point where I am close to the end… more in the middle. I am 6’ tall and weigh 263 lbs… so still a ways to go.
Hi Rob - I do EF… I am always working out in the morning around 5am and don’t have anything until my morning drive into work around 7am where I have my coffee w/cream and coconut oil. I am going to try to do IF - not having my coffee on the way into work could prove difficult… but I will give it a go!
Thank you! My stomach rumbles.
How do you “watch” your carb intake?
There’s growing evidence that mere exercise introduces complexity to weight management that may outweigh the benefit. Dr. Naiman explains why, and what routine you should consider if you wish to add this to your routine:
The Calories In Calories Out crowd would like you to think that “just moving” is sufficient, and if you don’t, it’s because you’re lazy. However, for low-carb, it’s optional.
I keep track of everything I eat in my keto diet app - I am always under 25 carbs… typically around 17-22. I am definitely going to take a look at that video. I have done a lot of reading on exercise and stalled weight loss… and I have heard a lot of exactly what you posted above the video. It just boggles my mind that if I am eating the way I used to before I started exercising, you would think the exercise would help not hinder…
Total or Net? I count total and strive for under 20 total carbs.
Just a thought but maybe cut the exercise to maybe a few long walks during the week. If exercise was the only thing you changed before the stall occurred it would make sense that removing that factor would initiate weight loss again. Myself personally I didn’t start doing any strength training, other than some body weight calisthenics, until after I neared my goal weight.
Those are net carbs… it is what i have always kept track of and what has let me loose 50lbs already… would that change if exercise was added?
So, you’ve been doing this WOE for 8+ months and I think exercise is a good thing now, don’t overdo it.
And you have only not lost weight for 4 weeks. Not too bad, it may straighten out with a dietary tweak of some kind. (Less nuts, cheese, cream and substitute some fatty meat or fish to make up for it) for instance. This is not a critique of what you ate that day but something I did to get past a stall.
Can you drink your coffee black and start feeding later in the day for IF?
Things like keto chili, pizza and lasagna are great to break up the routine. But multi ingredient recipes that have tomatoes, onions, pumpkin? and other foods that are ok if consumed in small amounts but the carbs add up quickly if you eat a little too much of it. (Like instead of 2 slices of Fathead Pizza you end up eating 1/2 or more of the pie. I like to keep my daily cooking fairly simple so it’s easy to count carbs. “I don’t need no stinkin app” 
Just my ideas, I hope you kick it up again soon. 
Since you said “stall” I zealously argue you should go to total carbs. No more than 20 total carbs. Net is useless anyhow. I understand why it exists, and some people do well with it, but it gives too much permission and you may be consuming far more carbs than you know.
Again, exercise complicates things. Low-carb is not a calories-in, calories-out proposition. Calories do matter, however, and you should only eat to satiety, not more. You can eat too little as well. Your body knows what it needs, learning to listen to it is made difficult after our having been the recipients of decades of bad standard nutritional advice.
Great convo here.
2 words: Extended Fasting.
I feel too that exercise may have contributed to a stall to my weight/inches loss. But I feel so good with exercise, I am not willing to give it up.
I am just off a 60hr fast after having done a few shorter water fasts (48 and 24). Fasting works for me as I can drop below my previous weight set point.
One ratio I heard that sounds right. 1lb of sustainable fat lost/converted to muscle for every day of fasting.
I can do fasted workouts as well, but I try to keep my workouts to 30 minutes or less.
Also have been adding teaspoon of apple cider vinegar to hot water ( a Dr. Berg suggestion) as part of my water fasts .
hope this is helpful.
all the best
I started the same month as you, and although I started at a lower weight, I am much shorter than you. I say this because I went through a little bit of a lull in my weight loss in December. I kept on because I felt great, and it has started going down again. Maybe you just need to be patient.
When are you testing your ketones? If you are testing soon after exercising, then the reading will be lowest as you have used up the ketones in your blood with the exercise. So if you do happen to test shortly after exercise, you may want to change that to another time, maybe within the first 15 minutes of waking up. Just be consistent and test as close to the same time as possible when you do test.
Hi, Well done on the 50 lbs lost. That is definitely something.
The pee stix not measuring is to be expected, they only register in the very early days because they only measure one type of ketone, not the long term one.
As for stall - has it been 4 weeks? Sorry to say the experts don’t call it a stall unless it’s been that long.
But it can be as simple as hidden carbs. I had some hiding in plain site, I miscalculated the amount of milk in the coffee from the local cafe. Somehow I thought they used the same amount of milk I use. I could’ve sworn no hidden carbs in my life.
Inflammation and infections can put the breaks on weight loss.
Any medication and pills can do it as well. Simple as that.
Exercise should make you lose more fat than just keto by itself. Unless you are sleep deprived? Or Massively stressed? Body will go into “safety mode”, store not burn fat.
If it hasn’t been 4 weeks, then let’s give it for 4 weeks. But do triple check for hidden carbs. Believe me I am super meticulous but they have gotten past me a couple of times (let’s not talk about yogurt then).