Steady (unwanted) weight gain...11 months Keto

#1

I’m extremely disheartened and frustrated.

Started keto last March at my normal and happy body weight. Was maintaining that body weight without effort of counting calories or anything. Just eating a clean-ish diet and a mix of cardio and weight training consistently for several years.

At start of keto in March ‘18 I lost the usual water weight—5ish pounds. By May I had gained a few back and by July I was back within a pound or two of start weight. Which was fine by me as I was not needing or wanting to lose any weight. Stayed there through October.

Since October I have gained 10 pounds. No sign that the weight gain is stopping.

During this time I have remained strict with carbs, always under 20 net and 50 total.

I feel lost as to how to proceed. I had a really difficult transition period in regards to my running routine—I pushed through some very difficult runs! My workout routine has not changed though, I stuck with it and do the same kind of work that I’ve been doing for years.

Anyway, I don’t want to stop keto unless I know I’m never doing it again because I never want to suffer through those workouts again. I’m in the process of having some hormone testing done and looking at MTHFR and other genetic testing results analyzed.

But I can’t take the emotional blow of another gained pound!! This is most definitely at least in large part a gain of fat. I can literally see thenlayer of fat in my upper arms and tops of my thighs, as well as the added forth of thighs and other areas overall.

Anyone with a similar experience ? Any insight?

Also should add I looked at calorie averages (I try not to restrict and eat when hungry but I do track/count). It seems my average calorie consumption has gone up 200 calories or so but I’m honestly more hungry. Was averaging around 2100 calories now around 2300. (So NOT under eating! )

I did notice a backslide in terms of PMS symptoms in November (and since). along with the increased hunger.

I’ve stopped IF which I had worked up to doing daily around 16 hours.

If you e read all of this I sincerely thank you. I’m no good at summarizing! I’m really feeling defeated and sorry for myself having tried so hard to do the right things for my body and feeling that I’ve just wrecked myself. I don’t know how to turn this around without doing more damage.

(MelissaH) #2

Can you tell us a little more about yourself? Age, weight, and what you typically eat in a day?

#3

ugh, this sounds frustrating. If you’re active and insulin sensitive, you might be one of those people that actually benefits from carb cycling. Once you’re fat adapted you won’t lose that adjustment unless you stop keto altogether. I don’t know much about carb cycling but there should be some decent resources online. @240lbfatloss often mentions using carbs regularly but I think he keeps ketosis as his primary/default state.

#4

Sure…I am 43 years old, 5’4” tall. Starting weight 117-118 pounds…leveled out at about 116 from May through October. Have been gaining since then…Stepped on the scale this morning and my eyes nearly popped out of my head at a 126 scale reading.

I eat around 2300 calories a day, I’m a pescatarian so I do lots of eggs, salmon and tuna, homemade mayo, I do some hemp and chia seed bars daily and I use coconut milk a lot for a chia pudding…leafy greens, avocados. Nuts and nut butters. I’ve quit dairy since start of January…
In the fall (when things started going wonky on me) I had been playing around with more keto desserts and using sweeteners…I completely backed off the stevia after a month of more frequent use…I consume setteners sparingly now as part of an occasional treat. No sweetener in my coffee or any other daily use.

#5

Thanks for the info…I have been reading a lot about hormones and carb cycling so definitely something I’m considering and looking into. Thank you!

(MelissaH) #6

Maybe it’s time to change things up, maybe eat fewer calories some days, different foods, incorporate some fasting maybe? Have you been under stress lately?

(PSackmann) #7

Is the Stevia the only change that occurred over the fall? Is it possible the bars changed ingredients? Or any of the nut butters? I ask because, when I did Protein Power years ago I suffered the same reaction when I added a soy-based protein powder to my routine.

(Edith) #8

We sound like we have similar body sizes. I’m 5’3" and weight around 120 lbs. I’m almost 53 so a little older. I ran into a similar problem and even went up in weight to about 125/126 lbs. I found that I really needed to cut down on my protein. Too much protein was really dropping my blood ketones down to 0.2 - 0.3 mmol/L range in the mornings and upping my morning blood glucose levels. As soon as I lowered my protein (I think I’m eating about 50-60 grams a day) my blood ketones went back up to the nutritional ketosis range. Within a few weeks I dropped from 125 lbs back down to 120 lbs (give or take.)

#9

I’m paging @SlowBurnMary.

She usually has way more insight than I ever do.

(Donna ) #10

I’d try two weeks at 20 grams carb/day, not subtracting any fiber. 50 carbs/day is pretty high, and perhaps you aren’t getting the “protection” from fiber, as you would hope.

It’s worth a try, right?

Also, I’d look into Intermittent and Extended Fasting.

All the best.

#11

Well, first things first - this is about body recomposition, not about weight per se. Personally, I don’t weigh myself, and I prefer to weigh more with good muscle mass anyway and am not aiming for the emaciated look - and for my height my weight is an impressive number. :muscle:

A lot of times with non-obese women, the only measurable sign of bodyfat recomposition will be in the actual measurements of your waist, hips, bust, upper legs, etc. Frequently there’s much muscle restoration to do, muscle gain is very healthy and protective weight. The same woman at 160 pounds with different muscle/fat ratios looks like a different body and has very different measurements.

Weight gain per se may not be a negative thing - I mean, keto will restore and build muscle mass (esp with effective strength training) - and that can be some pounds worth over a year. In addition, the microbiome material/good bacteria in the gut weighs around 6 pounds, and with nutrient density, you may be restoring it back to health. HOWEVER, if you’re regularly feasting with higher energy intake (2300cals etc) your body recomp may be extra slowed and you may be gaining water and fat. Also, cardio can increase cortisol levels which doesn’t help.

Last but NOT least - as a female in your 40s, you may well have some subtle biological metabolic slowdown happening. That being the case, you may find that moving towards more randomness (ie, varying your eating windows, doing IF a couple times a week, having higher carb days followed by very low carb days, etc) will help.

Phinney & Volek’s chart on fat-adapted maintenance indicates a lower energy intake that happens naturally with higher fat intake, and also reflects the body’s ability to draw upon its own fat stores as part of its daily fuel. That chart looks at maintaining recomposition at lower food intake levels.

Check out the blue line near the top of the chart, it indicates how energy expenditure when doing keto for body recomp requires LESS food intake (the calories are the left column) when the body fat stores are tapped for body recomp and that dietary fat increases a lot after recomp is mostly “done” or as part of cycling. If you look in the “weight loss” column (it’s really body recomp, when one is not obese) you’ll see that Dr. Phinney/Virta Health put that at 1500 cals (of course adding some more protein if you’re strength training). So, it could be that your body is being blocked from accessing your own fat stores due to a combo of abundant, regular food intake plus midlife hormonal realities.

virta

Something to keep in mind too is that midlife females and cortisol is a delicate dance - and many women seem to do better on two meals a day rather than one meal a day, and with intermittent fasting contrasted with good feast days with higher carbs - phase II Atkins and Phinney & Volek and the Drs. Eades consider up to a total of 100-150 gr of whole food carbs to be acceptable for some folks. I continue to recompose having some days with 50-80 total carbs. Veg fiber and resistant starch carbs in the large intestine feed the good bacteria and they produce huge amounts of butyrate, which in turn feeds the brain and helps balance hormones. I also take dry Ginger capsules daily (along with cooking with fresh), as Ginger is a fantastic adaptogenic, and reduces cortisol.

Personally I don’t really count cals - I rely more on the principle of randomness/antifragility and I make sure I’m not feasting daily (I’m 53, and continue to have amazing recomp as cells swap out fat for water and then swoosh every couple months). I have high energy intake days, but it averages out over the week really interestingly with 2-4 days of natural IF (not forced) maybe one that goes 24 hours, and most days only two meals a day!

Hope this helps :herb: :steakcake::sheep::coconut::avocado:

#12

You NEVER disappoint @SlowBurnMary! :+1:

(Carl Keller) #13

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#14

Thanks for that Carl!!! It’s exactly the kind of pic I wanted to add, but had no idea how to find some I’ve seen in the before/after pics thread!

#15

There have been plenty of great tips already. Many of them are exactly what I did and it worked for me.

I started getting rather loosie-goosie with my carb counting, started adding this and that, bit here, bit there … but I started gaining.

I went back to a strict 20g Net Carbs (thankfully I didn’t need to go right back to 20 Total Carbs).

It was frustrating to check, recheck and then triple check everything but I found some hidden carbs which were pushing me nearer to 30g net which obviously didn’t help.

I’m male and 160lbs, once upon a time athletic, I average about 1900-2000 Calories a day, so 2300 seems pretty high to me.

Here is what helped me. This is a link to Dr Eric Westman he has been doing keto for a long time and he’s totally up to date with all the current research as well.

I hope you find the reason.

Cheers, keep going, you’ll find it …

#16

Thanks for the thorough response @SlowBurnMary!

I should have been more detailed in my original post…

I’m also not a fan of the evacuated look. But you know what I like even less? Being hungry! Lol. But I should have been clear, at least some of the weight I have gained is clearly straight up fat. I can literally see a new layer of fat on the tops of my arms over muscle and in the tops of my thighs. Some added bulk on upper thighs and other places as well. I may be adding muscle as I sure am lifting as heavy as I can on my gym days but truly I literally see this new layer of fat.

I don’t like counting calories either and maintained a steady weight prior to keto without any counting or “dieting”.

My frame is small. I weighed about 110 lbs before I started working out…this was the weight before each of my 3 kids and the weight my body naturally went back to after each pregnancy. When I started lifting weights I gradually gained u til I was up to 116-118.

Now I’ve added fat on top of that strong and healthy base.

#17

@VirginiaEdie…thanks for responding. This is something I think I need to consider. My protein is On the high end. I started bumping it up around July I think it was…I was losing hair big time. I’ve kept it up at the higher end since and didn’t really want to mess with it because my hair finally stopped shedding a few months later and is just now barely showing some new growth. So I’ve kind of been in denial I think about this aspect…I will try dropping it down for a few weeks to see what happens.

This makes me feel good because I feel like it’s an actionable step I can take which really helps with the frustration! Thanks.

#18

@goohsmom…thanks for the tip! The bars are homemade so that’s not it…but I did start to bump up protein in July…

#19

@Monurse…thanks for responding!
I follow hunger each day so naturally do have higher and lower calorie days…sometimes by a lot. Was doing daily IF but have since stopped as I’ve read more about hormones and fasting and suspect this could be a contributing factor (had some PMs symptoms change at the time I noticed the weight gain starting)

#20

I know any sort of shock can cause hair loss, dropping carbs can shock the system, but it grows back (slowly, it takes a year).

Whenever I stop losing I don’t care about protein, fat or even total calories, I question my: carbs, carbs, carbs.