Tips for getting past a plateau

(Christopher Kornelsen) #1

I hit my first plateau at about 3 months in. I went from 260 ish to 220 ish. I cannot seem to break the 220 mark. My goal is somewhere around 190. ive been 220 now for probably a month. About a month ago is the same time I stopped counting my grams and macros and stopped doing IF. Just to switch things up. Im thinking i may be eating in a manner to maintain weight not neccessarily lose it. But most advice i read is keep calm keto on, dont count things, just live, and doing that seems to not work. i read about platues and some forum advice but there is alot of different directions to take so just wanted to know how people got through theirs and maybe some tips.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #2

If you’d like a critique of your diet, to see if there are tweaks that might help, we’d be happy to provide one. We generally find it helpful to know your age, sex, and height, your current weight and goal weight, what medications you’re taking (some cause people to retain weight), and a representative description of your diet and your eating habits. Also, if you’ve recently had bloodwork done, your numbers can give an indication of how insulin-resistant you are, which affects both your level of carb tolerance and the rate at which you are likely to shed excess fat.

(Failed) #3

I did a 7 day fast about 3 weeks ago, stayed keto after that, gained back 2 lbs and hit a plateau. 2 days ago, I started supplementing salt so that I took in at least 4 grams a day. I was down .5 lbs the following morning and another .5 this morning. Prolly a coincidence, but I sure feel a lot more energetic and my morning temperature has gone up to nearly normal.

(Christopher Kornelsen) #4

Yes I can provide that
30 years old
Just under 6’
Current weight is 220 goal is about 190
No medications I take magnesium pill every morning
General day consists of
Breakfast-3 large eggs, 3 strips bacon, 125g of assorted green veggies fried in the bacon grease. Mct heavy cream coffee
Lunch - Genoa salami with cheese and or something along those lines. Maybe some almonds and peice of keto cake I made
Dinner - Meat of any kind chicken, pork, beef etc. With a salad or veggies
Dessert price of keto cake

Some days I’ll snack a tiny more or have diet coke and rum. I also drink salt and potassium water

(Scott) #5

I just watch and wait. If I get bored waiting I just pick one thing and change it. If I make multiple changes I will never be able to figure out what worked. Things that I have done over months and don’t laugh because some are obvious. Increase running miles, start a weight workout three days a week, stop drinking a beer each evening, fast thru breakfast on Saturday. Limit Scotch to three ounces a night.

I am seeing some results but honestly I think it is homeostasis at work and the plateau is your body waiting to see if your okay and healthy. I am only 4 pounds from goal but this weekend I had lots of craft beer and large portions of keto food. I did not exercise and was able to lose three pounds, go figure.

(John) #6

Those things.

(Ken) #7

Are you hungry when you eat? If not, you’ve probably just gone into Maintenance. Try cutting back to OMAD and make sure you’re hungry.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #8

So if I am reading correctly you lost for three months, changed your routine and stalled for the last month. Logic tells me go back and do what you were doing before the stall hit and learn that the last month was a failed experiment. That’s where I would start, doing what you were doing worked before so why fix something that isn’t broken?

:cowboy_hat_face:

(Susan) #9

@David_Stilley’s advice, go back to what you were doing

Go back to doing this, and cut out all the extras, as @JohnH aptly pointed out above -no almonds, Keto cake, snacks or diet coke and rum (artificial sweeteners can certainly cause stalls).

Good luck getting rid of the rest of the weight =).

(Christopher Kornelsen) #10

Ya I’ll do that. I just love good and cooking and baking and good drinks so I deeply enjoy the taste of such things. But I guess I gotta suck it up to repair the 30 years of damage then I can go to enjoying things more

(Full Metal KETO AF) #11

Christopher, you don’t need to forbid all these things. Just tell yourself maybe tomorrow. It’s easier giving up something with smaller goals rather than telling yourself you won’t be allowed to have them anymore. Your cravings will lessen and all the stuff you listed is potentially compatible with keto, just don’t make daily habits of them.

I don’t drink with any kind of regularity, but if an occasion calls for it I enjoy a couple of carb free drinks or wine.

If it’s someone’s birthday in the family or a holiday I make a Keto desert.

If I am at a restaurant and want a diet soda I have one.

What I never do is keep these things in my refrigerator all the time. I’m fine leaving a bottle of whiskey on my shelf for months so that’s not a problem. You’re 30 years old and there’s nothing wrong with an occasional drink or desert, KETO has to be a sustainable lifestyle for you and when I was 30 I don’t think it would be as easy for me as it is now. I have serious health issue motivation on my side. At your age I wasn’t thinking like you so live a balanced happy life and stay KETO. :cowboy_hat_face:

(Robert C) #12

If, when changing things up, you took on the concept “eat when hungry” - there is a little more to that.
You should be eating enough at a meal (that you are eating when you are hungry) to easily get you to the next meal.
“eat when hungry” doesn’t help you if it is many snacks/small meals that leave you hungry again in a short time. You can have some of those foods - just not at every meal and try to get to 2 meals a day.

If drinking alcohol is happening - probably best to make those two meals breakfast and lunch to avoid it completely (if weight loss is your goal).

(mole person) #13

There is a lot of excellent advice in this thread, the only thing I’d add to it is to drop the MCT oil. Drinking fat is generally unhelpful when people are stalled.

(Robert C) #14

Definitely! Some extra cheese sprinkled on your eggs is a much better tasting way to get that morning fat (if you tolerate dairy).

(Maria Ortiz) #15

I don’t know what’s in this “keto cake” but I’d drop it real quick. I’ve been doing keto for almost a decade and I have never believed that desserts have a place in this way of eating. To me, it defeats the purpose of killing those nagging cravings for sweets. Yeah you may have lost weight eating that initially, but you will eventually stall. The closer you get to your ideal weight the more difficult it is to lose, so some temporary sacrifice may need to come into play here if you truly want further weight loss. Also, I ALWAYS stall when I have heavy cream in my diet, it never fails, but that’s just me. Salami is a bit processed and is likely hiding sugars and/or starches in the form of 'dextrose" and ‘maltodextein’. I would suggest you first cut out the cake and give your body up to 2 weeks to respond correctly. If you hit a stall again down the road, then you know what to eliminate next. Eating as simple, whole, and clean as possible produces the best results.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #16

You’re getting some good advice here. Let me just add that since your goal is to lose about thirty pounds, they are not going to come off as fast as they will for someone who needs to lose 130 or 230 pounds. Those rapid-loss stories are all from people who had a lot to lose, and even they found the last thirty coming off at a much slower rate. The body is very conservatie and doesn’t take major risks.

So continue eating keto, try some of the suggestions people have posted, and be sure you are eating enough, but not too much. You can do that by waiting to eat until you are hungry, stopping eating when you stop being hungry, and not eating again until hungry again. In other words eat to need, not to the clock. If you do this you are likely to find that the urge to snack will go away—and if it doesn’t, eat more at the next meal. You are very likely to find that eating this way will naturally satisfy your hunger to the point that you might even find yourself down to two meals, or even one, a day, without even trying to make it happen.

As far as satisfying hunger is concerned, one last note: fat is the safest source of calories with which to replace the carbohydrate you are no longer eating. The reason is that its effect on your insulin level is so small as to be negligible. But some people find that they are more satisfied by protein than by fat, so you might need to experiment to find the proportion of fat to protein that satisfies your hunger best. Trust your body to guide you.

#17

I love this.

#18

I’ll echo what others have said about eliminating the sneaky-carb items (sweets, almonds, etc.), and add a little about my most recent experience. I was about a month or so in with this 5 pound bounce - where my weight would “bounce” between 192 and 197. I went entirely carnivore, and OMAD for a couple of days - and dropped to 190. It felt as though my insides shifted overnight, and suddenly my upper body felt slimmer. Felt pretty incredible.

I use steak/beef or eggs as my main protein most of the time, and use melty butter as a dipping sauce. MIght have a bit of cheese also. Coffee with HWC, unsweetened iced tea, water, or Keto-ade are my drinks.

I’m not saying this is absolutely the way to go, but it is an option that seems to work pretty well for a few us who’ve discussed it on other threads.
I have an addiction to macadamia nuts and pecans, so, had to cut those bad boys out temporarily.

(Christopher Kornelsen) #19

Ya I have a decent amount of will power I can power through extreme decisions. I did 2 months pretty whole food clean then kinda went to a mode to find a sustainable way to live. Now that I know that there us alot of yummy good tasting things I can make I have more will to go back to strict to get to my goals. But yes I believe daily induligance isnt a good thing at all. Thanks for the advice :slight_smile:

#20

Hey. I am a 6’5 dude who once weighed somewhere around 285, could have been more. I had two plateaus one at around 20 lbs initial loss then another around 40 lbs loss since I began my journey of weight loss.

Things that were contributing to my first plateau (when I cut them out I resumed loss):

  1. All dairy products
  2. all artificial sweeteners
  3. nuts (peanuts almonds etc.) they are VERY carby and hard to actually restrict
  4. any “keto” or sugar alcohol or otherwise “low carb” treats. Just don’t eat them anymore, they are not good.
  5. any cheating whatsoever (obviously)
  6. limit drinking to spirits or dry red wine and not more than once a week imho

Think Ted Naiman: avoid the trifecta of exogenous oils, sugar, and flour (even if “almond flour”) even if you can say it’s keto – almond flour, coconut oil, stevia or whatever…

Before I cut those things out I lost about 20 lbs on standard low carb diet, which was great but those things have to go. Dairy holds most people up… just look around the forum here for dairy posts.

After about 40 lbs I got stuck again. Things that helped me break plateau after being stuck for close to year at a second weight loss plateau:

  1. Extended fasting 36/48 hours twice or three times a week (this does the trick almost immediately)-- this was my first approach and it worked very well. But then I shifted to carnivory and I feel same benefits with dependable weight loss.

  2. Carnivore diet (no dairy, no veggies) meat and water basically.

now down almost 60lbs and still losing on Carnivorous diet, still eliminating dairy and no vegetables. Good luck!

PS. I disagree with people here who say “go ahead and have a diet soda” or “keto treat”-- just understand that doing that will set you back. Until you are at ideal range just don’t have any of the set back items. No one is perfect, but as a matter or principal it doesn’t make sense to justify consuming poisonous diet soda.

Alcohol, is it the final stumbling block?