The last 10 pounds

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(German Ketonian) #81

I get it. Perhaps you need to “reset” and get out of keto for a little while, carbing up and get back to it?


(Gabe “No Dogma, Only Science Please!” ) #82

Good idea… I’m trying a bit of intermittent fasting now. Will report back!


#83

Hi all,

Just went through this thread, very interesting. New to this forum :slight_smile:

I was close to 200 lb in Jan 2017. Since then I have lost overall ~42 lbs and down to ~158 lbs now. I’m 5’8", medium build. Some of it was with “diet & exercise” initially, some with IF (anywhere from 18-24 hours). I was only really doing keto for the last 5-6 months I think. Initially I did mostly cardio HIITs and weight training, now I exclusively do weight training because I read everywhere that cardio doesn’t really cause fat loss. Because of my intense weight lifting I have also increase my muscle mass a bit so actual fat loss may be greater. Like some people here I am struggling with those last 10-15 lbs (could be greater).

I experimented with various foods (even went vegetarian for abour 8 months), but LCHF worked for best for me so far. Presently I exclusively eat beef, eggs, avocadoes, nuts (walnuts, pecans, cashews - I know Dr Berg says not to eat it but the carb content is closer to other nuts and I love them - , macademia, pistachios). I gave up peanuts because they would cause constipation and increase my scale-weight for some reason.

My goal is to see my abs! Haven’t seen them in the last 30 years of my life :disappointed:

My body is apparently very happy with its current weight with a bulge around my belly and a bit around my thighs. I know not to look at the scale that much but the fat is still there, I can see it for the last 1-2 months. I have increasingly started consuming one big meal a day but even that doesn’t seem to work. I don’t feel horribly hungry and when I do I eat a meal.

One caveat is I love (raw) whole milk and that could be one of the problems. I’m not sure whether to give up milk though because I love it in my coffee and in my protein shakes (whey/bone broth protein powders, no sugar only stevia). I have maybe 1-2 cheat meals a months.

Any suggestions/your experience would be helpful.


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #84

Funny—I gave them up for the exact opposite reason, lol!

Do you measure your serum glucose? If so, do you notice an effect from stevia? I don’t measure, myself, but I know that some artificial sweeteners can cause some people’s insulin to spike. I started getting concerned about my stevia/erythritol blend because of craving it more and more, and thinking back, it seems my weight loss stopped when I started using stevia. I stopped using it a week ago, and it may be coincidence, but my weight seems to be dropping again. (fingers crossed)


(linda) #85

What happened with Gabe??
I’ve been keto adapted for 10 months and have had great symptom relief but haven’t lost a pound!
I’m 5’6" 62 and 143. The hormones ghrelin and leptin being altered due to keto makes the “bandied about term”: satiety an illusion for me so I think I have eaten too much fat! The foods are very seductive!
It seems like the weight loss success is for those who are obese. I, too, believe the set point is a regulatory function for our bodies but there are ways to manipulate it.
hen reading about Gabe’s frustration and admiration of Tim Ferris - the king of self hacking it-it reminded me of some points - some may be redundant
Not being in ketosis and eating high fat isn’t a good idea- Get a glucometer and see where you are at.
Eating most calories late at night 7-10 pm doesn’t allow for you to burn them off and sits in your stomach-and leaves you overfull for the next day - sleep hygiene is really important- reduction in stress via meditation is valuable and going meats and spinach and laying off the nuts and other yummy high fat foods may turn things around — In my experience is the the high fat needs to be cut back after we have adapted!


#86

I did the regular blood test that measures 3-month avg. (it was 100) and fasting glucose (which was 89 even though I had a coffee with some milk in the morning 4 hrs before the test). Interestingly my fasting insulin was 3 which was perfect, atleast I don’t have hyperinsulinemia.

I will try to stop eating and drinking anything remotely sweet and see if notice a difference. If not, I guess the next thing to try is 24+ hours of fasting; I’ve already done 24 many times. Maybe a bit of HIIT cardio would do the trick :thinking:


(Gabe “No Dogma, Only Science Please!” ) #87

Thanks for this. I’ve talked about my subsequent weight gain here. I was plateaued for the longest time, and then suddenly around December after 18 months of LCHF, I started gaining fat. A few kilograms. So I was around 79.5kg before; now I’m up around 83kg and I definitely feel it.

No idea what to do. Though your suggestions are great, and I’m def planning to try restricting my late night eating, sleeping better, and checking my blood ketones/blood glucose to see if something I’m eating is causing this issue.


(christina d kornhauser) #88

I started Keto going on a year ago with the goal of dropping my sugar levels from mid-fives to mid-fours. It worked, so I’ve stayed on it.

I would like to drop just 10 pounds (from 120 to 110 pounds–I’m a female, 5’1"), but I can’t seem to lose these few pounds (which seem to be stuck in my middle as unhealthy belly fat).

Any suggestions please?


(KCKO, KCFO) #89

What is your routine? Do you intermittent fast or do extended fasting? What are the staples in your diet, nuts, lots of dairy, fat bombs, etc. Hard to make a suggestion when we don’t really know what you are doing.

For me, I had to start intermittent fasts and then did extended fasting. In a month, those last lbs. were gone. Kept eating as I had been for the previous six months.

Good luck sorting yourself out.


(christina d kornhauser) #90

After a year or so on keto, I have done a touch of it all then stopped when I realized it’s either not working or making matters worse. Up 2-3 pounds, down 2-3 pounds. I do an 18-6 intermittent every day, but find it hard to go longer.

No; no more bombs, no dairy in my coffee, lost the nuts, etc. I feel like if I get past this hump these 10 will go.

On a 2 keto dude episode last year a woman wrote in saying she had a similar problem. The dudes voiced that perhaps it was associated with the small amount she wanted to lose. As far as I know, they never readdresed the issue. My problem isn’t earth-shattering, but I feel better when I’m lighter.

Thanks for responding.


#91

Just my opinion, but I think you have to ask yourself if you want to battle for that last ten and then go to great lengths to keep it off. At at healthy weight, our bodies have a range that they prefer, and pushing to go below it can take heroic measures both to get there and to stay there.
If you are determined to do it, be prepared for it to take time—longer than you would want. Dial in your eating per Dr. Westman’s page 4, and forget the scale for a few months, focusing instead on enjoying your health, mobility, and simpler way of eating.


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #92

Yeah, those last ten pounds seem to take much longer than the first hundred. Someone even coined the term “Phinney weight,” because there’s a video of someone asking Dr. Phinney how much he should weigh, and the doctor said, essentially, it’s the weight you can get to without too much trouble, and when you’re there, find it easy to maintain.

The trouble comes, in my opinion, when our Phinney weight and the weight we really want to be aren’t the same. For instance, my Phinney weight seems to be about sixty pounds heavier than I’d prefer. Fortunately, my goal for eating keto was to reverse pre-diabetes, and I’ve achieved that. The weight loss so far is just gravy.


(Gabe “No Dogma, Only Science Please!” ) #93

A few months after I began this thread, I had what I regarded as alarming weight gain, because I thought it would never stop. You can see my concern in this other thread, aptly titled Alarming weight gain.

Well, I have some thoughts now that it’s been over a year and a half since I started this thread. I track my weight daily and put it in a spreadsheet, and I look at the 30 day average (ie the sum of the last 30 days’ worth of weight, as measured in the morning in kilograms, divided by 30). This allows me to ignore daily fluctuations and focus on the trend. Take a look at the last year and a half:

The only variable that changed around January 2018 was that I had to go on steroids for a medical condition for a couple of weeks. I strongly suspect that this affected my hormonal balance and brought my homeostatic weight up to about 83kg.

Back when I posted this thread, I just wanted to get from 80kg down to about 75. For the past year, though, all I’ve wanted is to get back to 80!

I suppose my conclusion from all this is that, whilst eating a lazy LCHF diet, I can eat ad libitum and I guess I’m at my Phinney weight. I could fast a bunch, hit the gym every day, and try not to eat past satiety quite so much, and I’d probably drop a few kilos, but it’d be hard and I suspect that when I returned to a normal, sustainable lifestyle, I’d creep back up to my Phinney weight.

I expect many of you have had a similar experience. Do you have any advice for bringing my body’s set point down a few kilos, or just KCKO and hope for the best?


#94

Gave, your tenacity is commendable. I’ve followed a similar path… Dropped a bunch of fat, got pretty low using extended fasting but could not maintain that low weight comfortably.

I tried Upping protein, and going OMAD. All that seems to have done was sour my mood.

So I’m deciding to really return to the high fat moderate protein range and continue a daily basis calisthenics routine for strength & muscle.

So far? Mood had greatly improved, story
Satiety & “sweet cravings” subsided once more.

I think I will add in a fatty lunch, doing 16:8 with lunch and dinner instead of OMAD. Wish me luck, hope you find the right answer soon!


(mole person) #95

To be honest, after two years of experimenting, I don’t actually believe in the ‘Phinney weight’. I believe that our weight set point is entirely based on our hormonal milieu. If I’m TMAD my set point is completely different than if I’m OMAD. If I’m carnivore it’s different from keto, and if I’m eating dairy different than without. The difference in my easy set point from a basic keto diet to a strict carnivore diet is a whopping 15%+ of my body weight.


(Gabe “No Dogma, Only Science Please!” ) #96

Yeah but the thing is, the weight gain has occurred with no substantial discernible change in how I eat.


(Gabe “No Dogma, Only Science Please!” ) #97

Aaaaaand here’s an update, years later!