Struggling staying in Keto

(Brad) #1

Started a Keto diet October 8th and since have lost 25lbs started at 255lbs now at 230lbs. I eat no sugar, and keep to under 20g of carbs a day and exercise 1-2 hours daily. I was in moderate keto and now using a blood monitor I’m tracking .3mols to low keto levels per day. Any suggestions, I usually stay between 1500-2000 calories per day. I would like to get around 210lbs and keto has played a huge part in me reaching that goal.

(John) #2

Are you still seeing positive results? Weight and inches? If you have become fully fat-adapted, your body will burn fat efficiently without wasting as much of it by creating ketone bodies. So you can be in lipolysis (fat burning) without necessarily seeing a high amount of ketones in the blood.

(Raj Seth) #3

1500-2K caps daily seems low for 220lbs with 1-2 hours exercise daily…

(Brennan) #4

If Brad is burning body fat, that calorie count seems pretty reasonable (not encouraging CICO). Don’t need as much fat on the plate if there’s fat in the body stores.
1-2 hours a day seems excessive for exercise to me. I’d want to give the body more time to recover between workouts (just my thoughts).
Brad, if you’re under 20g carbs and seeing results you’re in keto. The exercise may be helping your body use more ketones so there’s less in your blood to test.

(John) #5

Not necessarily - depends on what you are doing. Walking is exercise, but it takes a while. When I have the time, and it is not raining (like today) I go for walks that are a little over 3 miles, and that’s about 1 hour. I usually do some type of bodyweight / calisthenics or some light weightlifting exercises most days, and that’s about 30 minutes (including resting between sets). So it’s easy to put in that much in a day (doesn’t have to be all at one time).

(Jennibc) #6

If you are losing and feeling great, don’t get caught up in the numbers. I’d only worry if suddenly you have changed the diet up and are no longer losing and or are gaining. Those meters are tool for this and the numbers that show up are not an end in itself.

(Jennibc) #7

Yes, I do just over an hour a day of a light jog in the AM and sometimes in the PM I add a walk if it’s nice out. Not necessarily for weight loss but because it feels so good to move. Never underestimate the impact that a good brisk walk has on one’s mood and outlook. Back when I was young, and didn’t have a car, I walked everywhere so probably easily ‘exercised’ over three hours a day. Our bodies evolved to do that kind of exercise so it’s definitely not excessive.

(Brad) #8

Thank you for all the suggestions. I travel heavily for work, and with the change in diet also came the change in appetite. I also completely cut out soda/caffeine so it’s been a pretty drastic change. So all of this made me less hungry, and I find I’m havin and egg/bacon breakfast, with a no carb snack lunch and usually a chicken vegetable dinner. I was dropping weight pretty quickly and now it’s slowed to about a 1lbs a week. I was just wondering the possible reasons.

(Brennan) #9

I was not thinking of low impact exercise such as walking when I made that statement. You are correct, you would not need recovery days as often if you were cycling those in every other day or if that what you were doing everyday.
I was thinking of someone going to the gym everyday for 1-2 hours. Weight training and/or cardio, separate or in combination for that duration daily sounds extreme to me.

(Jennibc) #10

One pound a week is great! I wish I could lose a pound a week. I am averaging between 2-4 pounds a month now and I am showing higher levels of ketones on the meter.

(Brennan) #11

I’m ~12 weeks in and 20 lbs down. So probably averaging 1 lb a week after the initial water weight loss. Very little exercise, just a change in diet to strict keto.

(Brad) #12

Thank you for the info. Really new to this, and most of the exercise is just due to hotel stays and down time. So the 1-2 hours may not be super high impact, but always 1/2 cardio-1/2 weight train.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #13

Weight loss slows down as we approach the weight our body is aiming for. A pound a week is still pretty good, even if it’s not what you’d like. :bacon: