Three weeks in and gaining weight

#21

I definitely wasn’t on a low cal diet before, I’d estimate at least 3000.

Not sure how I can cut down protein much more. I try to only eat fatty cuts of meat and drown everything in oil/butter/mayo. Doing a BPC for breakfast, usually meat and salad for lunch, similar for dinner and my only snack may a be raw ball my wife makes. Measurements the same again this morning and 97kgs. So practically no change after 8 weeks. Still seeing strong ketones on the pee strips.
I’ll give it another 8 weeks and reassess.

(Chris W) #22

How much are you working out, there was a long period that I was not loosing on the scale, but I was gaining muscle mass. My BF was dropping pretty quickly, there was a several week period esp when I was really hitting the wieghts hard that I went up slighlty. I was on the order of 1.1 for protein then, but I have been all over the map with it so that I don’t think matters as much your cravings.

#23

I only lift three times a week for about an hour, strength not hypertrophy focused.
Fairly heavy and intense sessions though.
I have been getting really good pumps.

#24

I had my third cheat in 2 months and had 4 or 5 beers on Saturday, according to the pee strips I was producing ketones again within 24 hours.
But I was actually hung over Sunday and my guts are still not right. If this diet has completely ruined beer for me I will not be happy.

Also still really hungry, my skin is getting bad and my joints are hurting. This is not going as well as expected.

(Ron) #25

You are sabotaging your progress to adaption and not allowing yourself to become adapted. This is not going to let you get the benefits of the ketogenic diet. You can turn a pee strip color just from not eating during the night. This might explain more.



#26

That is good info I wish I had read much earlier.

But I’ve quit now anyway.
Going back to my normal diet which is still relatively low carb.

Was never going to be a viable lifestyle for me long term, and I only felt good 1 week out of the 10 I was doing it.
Overall up around 2 kilos and 3cms added to my waist.

(Empress of the Unexpected) #27

What is your “normal diet?.” Why can’t you hold the course and experiment. I have been doing keto 13 weeks, and I change things up every day. I lost most of my weight after week 8. I have had GI issues. I have gone off program. But I am still here. How are meat, fish, veggies, berries, dairy and nuts not healthy, or complete, enough? Please, just keep asking questions on the forums. We are here to help. What do you have to lose if you try it for six months? I have been through every up and down, and am confident I will lower my triglycerides on this WOE. Any new change or habit takes a while to implement.

#28

Hey man don’t get discouraged! Honestly reading this whole thread i think it wasn’t working out for you because you didn’t do enough research prior to starting so I’ll tell you what I know and have learned so far(I am in no way a pro at this) and hopefully this helps

  1. YOU DONT HAVE TO EAT THE 75% FAT!
    so basically the diet tells you 75% fat, 20% protein, 5% carbs, but the 75% of fat doesn’t have to come from your immediate diet, it could come from your body. For example, You could one day only eat 80% of the fats you are supposed to eat daily and your body will take the other 20% from your body fat, that’s what makes you loose the weight so fast.
    From what I can tell you are fulfilling your macros every day (even the fat) and this makes your body say “hey, I’ve got all the energy I need from all this food he’s eating, I don’t need to go looking in his body” and that makes you gain weight.(I hope this was understandable, I’m sorry if I just confused you more but make sure to ask if you have questions).

  2. Don’t eat too much protein, this could knock you out of ketosis and that’s a big no no.

3.-Fasting goes amazing with the keto diet (if you can take it). Here’s the (sort of) science behind it:
So basically when you start the keto diet and go into ketosis your body decides to turn fat into ketones and use that as fuel. Usually that fat is the fat you ingest/eat, but if you decide to fast (not eat for a certain amount of time) your body is STILL in ketosis and it is STILL burning fat as fuel, but now since it’s not getting the fat from food, it will use the fat from your body (body fat).
The two most common types of fasts are every day and once a week.
The every day fast is basically you choose 8hours of the day to be your estupido window and in that window you have to eat what your macros tell you(but don’t ignore tip 1) and then once that window is closed you can’t eat again untill 16 hours have passed, completing the 24 hours of one day.(so for example eating from 9 to 5 every day and not eating from 5 to 9).
And the once a week fast is as simple as choosing one day a week to not eat anything for 24 hours.

A great resource is this guy called Thomas DeLauer on youtube, he has amazing videos explaining all this and the science behind every food you should and shouldn’t eat, I recommend looking into him and watching his videos.

Hope this helped

#29

My experience is that I’m not able to get into ketosis unless I have both a low carb, low protein macro-nutrient balance AND an aggressive calorie deficit.

Color me clueless, but I don’t get how eating 3,500 calories of anything will force my body to burn body-fat. Seems to me I will only tap into my fat reserves in the absence of dietary calories.

(LeeAnn Brooks) #30

That would only be the case AFTER one becomes fat adapted.

It would be really hard not to overeat protein if you aren’t making up the difference in dietary fat. Unless you’re advocating for a reduced calorie diet, and that’s going to slow down the metabolism. It’s especially bad during the adaptation phase.

#31

Right only if he’s in ketosis which as I understand (I might be wrong) he is most days and as for the second thing tbh I’m not a bodybuilder so I can only speak from personal experience but bc he’s eating a lot of protein he stays hungry and then eats more protein because he’s hungry so I say eat more fats than proteins (but that’s just my opinion) and if he’s trying to cut down body fat then yeah eat less calories than normal.

As far as I can tell his main issue is being hungry and that’s where fasting comes in. You see when you eat a lot your stomach stretches out to be able to fit in all the food you eat and it gets used to being stretched so the next day you have to eat a lot again because your stomach is stretched. But what fasting does is it gives your stomach a chance to “destretch” or become tighter and then when you start eating you won’t need as much food to get full because your stomach will be smaller in a sense and easier to fill.

Again this is just my experience and I’m not an expert.

(LeeAnn Brooks) #32

At 3 weeks in, it’s highly unlikely he would be fat adapted. You’re confusing that with being in ketosis. The body will begin to produce ketones within a few days if it stays low enough in carbs (we say 20 net grams around here) and doesn’t do anything else that would interfere like drink alcohol or eat way too much protein.

But it takes 6-8 weeks for the body to adapt to using those ketones for fuel. That’s fat adaption, and before that point, limiting fats would not draw fat from the body as it isn’t trained to do that yet.

(LeeAnn Brooks) #33

And if one is fat adapted, they shouldn’t have to deal with hunger for fasting. Being fat adapted naturally lowers ones hunger feelings, making it a natural process. We advise NOT to fast until one is fat adapted.

Yes, they can go your method, but it would be torturous and it is likely to backfire with over eating or carb loading on refeeds.

(Todd Allen) #34

Poor sleep has been shown to significantly increase hunger. I suspect sleep and stress issues are more critical for many than swapping a few grams of protein, carbs and fat.

(Erin Wilson) #35

For what it’s worth–it took me 4 months to become fully adapted, even though I was producing ketones within a few days of starting this WOE.

#36

The only real difference the last couple of days is that I put less oil on my salad, ate an apple and a bannana and had a protein shake when I worked out.

I think you might be correct.
That is all good info, thanks, you guys have all been very helpful.

I was actually 10 weeks in.

That was relatively short lived. I get a solid uninterrupted 7-8 hours a night. Although we are expecting our second child in a few months so that will change.

I might give it another try in the future, but I was really not enjoying it so taking a break for now.

(LeeAnn Brooks) #37

[quote=“Nugs, post:36, topic:43030”]
I was actually 10 weeks in.
[/quote

Right, I was responding with you’re OP in mind.

Im still not sure you were full fat adapted though. It took me 9 weeks of strict Keto to know I was adapted. Had I added in alcohol on various occasions I’m sure it would have taken me longer.