Hoping the Keto community can help please. Have been following a Ketogenic lifestyle for over 5 months now, am a female at around 59 kilos and 30% body fat. Turned to Keto after years of yoyo dieting and extreme exercise. Goal was to lose body fat which is high and not have my mind on food all day and be able to benefit from not being hungry constantly. I have been 100% committed to this lifestyle the whole 5 months, no cheating. Tracking macros on MFP and macros calculated off Keto Diet calculator. I think it’s 20g carbs, 75g protein and 97g fat or thereabouts. My issue is I am starving hungry trying to reach my first meal of the day at 12pm. Have always been a breakfast eater as soon as I get up so my body has had to adjust to that but thought it would have done that by now. Also my blood glucose is high after a meal and takes a good 4 hours to come back down to pre-meal numbers?. I sit about 80 fasting blood glucose and 1.5 to 2.0 blood ketones but I measure late 90’s or 100 one hour after meal and still there after 3 hours?. Ketones down to .5. Would the BG and hunger indicate I’m not quite fat adapted yet even though I am showing blood Ketones?. Over 5 months I have lost 6kg but slowed down to nothing the past month. I am very committed to this lifestyle but don’t really understand why I can’t achieve the loss of hunger even though I am eating low carb and high fat with moderate protein and only 2 meals per day. Advice or feedback very much appreciated.
Still hungry after 5 months on Keto!. Plus high BG?
Hi Claude
My first thought regarding hunger would be that you’re maybe not eating enough. I’m seeing only about 1200 cals there but you don’t mention your height so it’s rather hard to judge. I’m guessing you’re not very tall but even if you’re average height (5ft 3 or so) then a weight of 59kg is not very heavy & as you get closer to goal it gets a bit harder to lose. The body can be happy where it is so it ramps the hunger up to prevent further loss. If you’re really just looking to reduce your bodyfat percentage then maybe resistance exercise is the answer - chronic cardio can be highly counterproductive. It can also be helpful to mix things up a bit - have a few days at higher calories then drop back down again for a few days.
Oops - totally missed the blood glucose! Fat & protein lead to lower but longer spikes so that could be whats going on.
That blood glucose doesn’t sound out of line depending on how deranged your metabolism was to begin with. I’m nearing a year and my fasting glucose is still usually 110-120, but I don’t get spikes either. I might get into the 130s after a meal, but usually it stays in the 120s. The only times I’m ever under 100 is during extended fasts, and I eat mostly carnivore, so I’m generally taking in under 10 grams of carbs a day.
I agree with @anon54735292 in that you may not be eating enough. The macro trackers are great for identifying hidden carbs but the only fat “goal” is satiety. If you’re hungry, eat, and eat fat. If you’ve been leaving yourself hungry for the last five months, your metabolism has slowed and it’s working against you. It also may have prevented, or at least slowed, fat adaptation.
Go back to the basics:
- 20 grams or less of carbs
- moderate protein scaled to lean body mass
- fat to satiety
If you’re hungry; EAT, and eat fat
I’d agree that your BG doesn’t seem problematic to me, but I’m a Type 2 and don’t ever get readings in the 90s. My opinion (and it will differ from others) is that you should shift your meal consumption to morning through afternoon and begin the fasting after 4 pm. You mention that you are a breakfast eater by nature. Then eat breakfast! A nice big one. Then have your second meal mid afternoon. Then skip all the rest. I’ve been trying this and if I get my macros in by 3 it is not hard to go without in the evening.
Thankyou…I am 5 ft 5 (167cm) but the 1245 cals worked out on the Keto macro calculator was based on this height, weight and moderate exercise regime. I am concerned even if my blood glucose is Ok, the fact it stays higher for up to 4 hours after a meal doesn’t seem right. I have read it should return back to baseline or pre meal readings within 2 hours?. I have high body fat for my weight and it is quite visible on my tummy, arms and legs in proportion. I will try mixing up the calorie days and see if that makes an impact Thanks!
More fat it is then!. I thought the macros had to be adhered to in order to lose body fat. I can certainly bump up the fat and see if that makes a difference to how I feel. Thankyou.
Another thought - I was hungry with the standard macros. I upped my protein and lowered my fat and this works better for me. My fat and protein are around equal.
Yes breakfast has always been my most looked forward to meal of the day. Adjusting to 12pm has been hard but I still eat breakfast at that time (mostly omelettes or poached eggs) and then I can only seem to last 4-5 hours before I’m hungry again. I would love to experience the loss of hunger a lot of the Keto community write about!. The only reason why I time my fast this way is so I can get some good benefit from my morning walk/run…fat burning while in a good BG and blood Keto state.
This seems really strange to me.
Because at 5 months with no cheats and <20carbs a day you should be entirely fat adapted.
At this stage, you should be able to fast for 3 days without it even touching the sides.
The fact that you can’t last between meals is quite intriguing.
I am 13 weeks in, day 95, lost 10kg and can fast for 3 days. So i’m really curious as to why you can’t at this stage!
Yes I am very confused too!. I would love to be able to fast without thinking about it or counting down the time to my next meal. That was what attracted me to the Ketogenic lifestyle in the first place. Freedom from thinking about food all the time. Congrats it sounds like you are doing so well, it must make such a difference to your life.
Claude - don’t despair. We are all different. You may lose slowly but the hunger can definitely be resolved. I finally found my sweet spot but I am almost 4 months in and just resolved the hunger issue recently.
I could not figure out what is the optimum protein to fat ratio
But there is an optimum ratio. and this ratio may be slightly different for each person.
The first day of extended fasting can be very difficult even after fat adoption. second day is much less difficult. Third day you may feel that you do not want to eat.
IBS can make fasting little more difficult. and even then only first and second day the ones that are difficult.This difficulty maybe caused by disturbance to the gut bacteria or maybe some other reason.
The only issue I had with the EF is the difficulty I had to regain my appetite on the forth day . So in the forth day I bairy could eat anything which made me little panicky.
I am only assuming that you may have IBS which is causing your guts to be extremely unhappy about fasting.
I suggest doing some testing so you can make targeted adjustments. Getting a RMR test will help you figure out correct caloric intake and guide appropriate protein consumption. The test can also measure fuel composition (fat vs sugar burner). The test is typically available at university health centers, fitness labs, and hospital wellness centers.
Is your bodyfat measurement from a reliable source (ie. DEXA)? There can be a big difference in how the body responds as fat diminishes. Many middle age women struggle to stay below 30%. So if you think you’re at 30% but are actually at 25% that could explain the discrepancy in difficulty.
I’ve been strictly keto nearly 7 months and am only just now starting to experience less hunger. There have been many WTF moments but I finally just decided that my body knows what it’s doing and all I have to do is keep keto-ing on. Perhaps after a lifetime of binge/disordered eating, it takes a long time to lower insulin enough that fat storage can be accessed.
That’s what I’m telling myself, anyway.
I’m four months and can sometimes eat only twice a day but it is still hard for me, I am still pretty much at three meals a day. But I’m not worried about it. When my body is ready for less food it will let me know.
Interesting…I have been taking probiotics for some time but not been diagnosed with IBS. I will look into this a bit further. Thankyou.