I am totally frustrated. I tried keto in the past and it worked great! I gave it very little effort and lost 40#. After I went off of it I gained it all back plus some and so recently I thought i’d give it another “go”. I try not to weigh myself too often because it’ll drive me nuts. So, instead I get weighed at the doctor when I go for injections every 8 weeks. I’ve been going to the gym 5 times a week (something I didn’t do last time) and mainly do cardio. After 5 weeks of gym and 4 weeks of keto i went in for my injection and I had GAINED a pound. I’m really frustrated and I think I need to evaluate what I consider “keto food”. My typical lunch is polish sausage and naturally fermented sauerkraut. I’m beginning to think that the sausage has too much crap in it and keeps me out of ketosis.
Success with keto in the past but not losing a bit this time
Not sure you should worry too much about a pound up or down. Weigh yourself daily
Same pjs or naked
Voided
There will still be some fluctuation
You can also measure ketones
Maybe you are just not in ketosis
I know you know this so. KCKO
It sounds like you aren’t testing for ketones. If you don’t test you won’t know if you are in ketosis or not or what foods might be kicking you out. I like to do breath testing. Although you are measuring a different ketone in breath than in blood, breath testing is easy and painless.
Multiple studies have shown that breath testing correlates well with blood tests for ketones. It also correlates well with weight loss: A reading of 2 ppm acetone is associated with a quarter to a half pound of weight loss a week while a reading of 8 ppm is associated with a fat loss of 2.5 pounds per week. The meter is portable and you can use it throughout the day- so it also becomes very motivating! The one I use is here: https://amzn.to/2PXWGp8
Also, just because you gained weight doesn’t mean you gained fat! I don’t agree with weighing daily, that can sure drive some people nuts. Focus more on how clothing doors, and how you feel.
As Allie asked, what injections? (Not trying to repeat her.). Depending on what they are, and anything else you might be taking, they could effect things. Steroids, for example, are notorious for messing with BG levels. Even some chemo agents can cause high BG…
Before focusing on ketones, at least keep a good look at what you are eating. It might be worth tracking for a few weeks.
Be patient, and remember that there may be other healing going on behind the scenes. Also, if it was a 1lb gain over 8 weeks, I wouldn’t stress over it. 
You’ve got this.
Thank you all for the words of encouragement and advice. I do feel better and I’m getting better sleep at night now that i’m cutting out most of the crap I used to eat (or maybe it’s the exercise). When I did keto before i would use the urine strips to measure ketones. It didn’t seem too accurate. I’ll look into the breath measurement. I get ustekinumab (Stelara) shots every 8 weeks for Crohn’s disease. They have been working for the past year or so but about a month ago they started to lose their potency which is another factor that drove me toward keto again.
You probably know this but getting gluten and (all) grains out of your diet can help with Crohn’s. What you might not realize is that pretty much all processed foods have gluten added to them (it is used as a binder and a thickener) - including processed meats like sausages. So you might want to dump the polish sausage even if you remain in ketosis when you eat it. And be careful with things like salad dressings, soy sauce and condiments because those usually contain gluten as well. (Not sure where you live but medical marijuana sometimes helps as well…
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I was on keto somewhere around 4.5 months last time when I lost the 40#
You might want to think back on what you were doing last time and rethink about whether it is a good gauge to go by this time.
Keto “should” be 2 or more months of fat adaptation (during which, after an initial water weight change, weight might not change much - or even go up - while the hormones sort themselves out) followed by a pound or two a week with the possibility of a plateau anytime. The positives of keto are that weight keeps going down and once down, tends to have a better chance of staying at least close to the new lower weight.
If instead you ate keto foods but actually were a bit overzealous and also calorie restricted - that would explain an average of 4 pounds a week without plateaus. It would also explain
It is probably best to not look at keto as a “diet” that should help you drop 40 pounds by April but instead, as a “way of eating” that can get you 40 pounds down by July but, keep you there long term.
You’re better off weighing weekly to watch for trends in progress. You will always have weight fluctuations my normal fluctuations are 3-5lbs during the week so anything in that range is ignored , if it trends more then I’ll act but not before. If you think of it that way you should be ok, worrying about 1lb (which you can put on by drinking a glass of water) is crazy.
Any reason you’re not lifting? Lots of cardio makes you “efficient” at burning calories (read, slow your metabolism down). It’s great for burning off calories but only helps you when you’re doing it and then theirs the metabolic effect. Resistance training cranks up your metabolism for hours after the fact.
I started to lift today. The reason I was mainly doing cardio is because I’ve never been able to run EVER. I get winded really easily. I can walk forever and ride I bike like a maniac but I just can’t run. So I was practicing my form and breathing. But I don’t think it’s getting me anywhere. So now the plan is to do cardio one day of the week and then the rest of the week i’ll just use it for warmup before lifting weights.
I think I may have found the root of my issue. I was just reading through the basics again to get myself re-familiarized with the keto ways. 20 grams of carbs. For some reason I had it stuck in my head that for me it was 50 grams. I’m not sure why. Lemme try 20 g for a while and get back to you.