Tough love needed. Tell me what to do

#1

I’m 5’7", active lifestyle, and weighed 163.5 after the holidays. Started keto March 16 weighing around 158 (which is my “normal” but not my “ideal” weight). Went down to 154 after a couple weeks, then stayed there for a month or so. I actually would have been ok staying at that weight, but tried changing up a couple things on keto (focusing more on eating higher fat and making sure my protein didn’t get too high; tracking macros; and intermittent fasting til noon each day) to see if I could lose a few more pounds (150 would be great). Well I ended up going back up to 158 and stayed there for a couple weeks. Then I had a cheat day for my birthday (only my second cheat day on keto) and went back up to 163 yesterday :frowning: I know some of it’s water weight but when it passes, I’ll likely be around 161 or so :frowning:

After the cheat day, I had a day of almost zero carbs (ate only meat, pork rinds, and an egg), just to have a strict keto day. This morning I ate meat and pork rinds–too many. And now I feel fat and depressed. I know I can’t expect to lose weight if I’m eating 3000 calories per day (which I am, and sometimes more; I’m not limiting calories, only carbs). I just don’t understand the lack of hunger people experience. I started to get a LITTLE bit of that after my first month, when I was doing mostly zero carb…and then my hunger shot through the roof when I tried the other stuff (higher fat, IF). So basically I’m just completely lost.

Really thinking about just ditching keto. I’d be fine not losing, but now I’m actually GAINING–which again I know is not keto’s fault; it’s because I eat too many calories. But the bottom line is, it’s not working to control my hunger, and I’m gaining weight. Depressed today :frowning:

(Omar) #2

Do you have IBS?

#3

No. Zero health issues.

(Karen) #4

Go go back to ZC. You sound super insulin resitant. If you get hungry eat a TBSP of fat., Wait. Still hungry, eat a TBSP of fat. It will kill the hunger. I like melted butter with a tiny bit of kemon. Reminds me of eating lobster .

K .

(Omar) #5

I have similar experience but I have IBS.

In addition I crave for sugars more when eating fat meat or butter. But many members here found it strange and not normal.

Because I feel the pain in my colon when eating meat due to my IBS I think it was causing inflammation resulting in hunger and carbs cravings.

So I switch my fat source to HWC. I still eat red meat but reduced a little.

I am much fine now. no hunger no carb cravings.

Sorry I could not help any better.

(Brian) #6

Have you figured out your macros, even approximately? You say you’re keeping the carbs low. How about the protein and the fat? Where are they? Are you eating any non-starchy veggies?

Fill in more of the details and maybe some of readers here will have some suggestions as to what you might try.

It does seem like it is way more frustrating for the person looking to take off the last 10 pounds of extra weight vs the person looking to take off an extra 100 pounds of extra weight. And it seems to be doubly hard for the ladies. Sorry about that. I’m not sure ditching keto is what will be the most helpful for you. But I do suspect that you may need to be a little more careful about what you’re eating. (?)

#7

Thanks everyone for the replies.

Karen–I tried eating straight fat at the point when I decided to change from zero carb to higher fat. I found that fat did NOTHING to curb my hunger. The second day of that, I actually ate like 1000 calories of coconut oil straight from the jar and I still wasn’t full. I realized I was (slightly) less hungry doing IF than eating fat. So, fat doesn’t help me. But protein does seem to. I will try going back to zero carb.

Alpha–I do get carb cravings but they are not unbearable. In 2.5 months, I’ve only caved and eaten sugar twice–and one time it was planned because it was my birthday (I realize I could have stuck to one slice of cake, but I did cave and have 3 slices).

Brian–my macros are usually roughly 20 g net carbs per day, roughly (very roughly) 140 g protein, and sometimes like 250 g fat. I know that’s a lot. I had insatiable hunger for the last month…I started to wonder if counting calories was actually making me stressed out and therefore more hungry. And same thing with IF.

(Karen) #8

I love your plan. Lots of fat and do not want more BUT protein is more satiating.

K

(Brian) #9

This might sound bad in the current setting but if the fat isn’t doing anything for you, you might consider bumping that down a bit. I don’t have the entire context but a few of the docs, I’m thinking Dr. Fung and Dr. Naiman (I could be wrong) have said that you really can eat too much fat. Plus, if you are eating enough fat that your body has no need to look for any in the storage areas, it will be frustrating that the body never takes any out of the storage areas.

Wow, you do eat some protein, though. Dang, you eat more than I do.

Probably not of any help but just what comes to mind.

#10

No I absolutely agree with you. I know what I need to do. I guess my question is, why am I so insatiably hungry in the last month?? I’ve always been a hearty eater, but I never experience these levels of hunger EXCEPT when falling off the wagon after a low calorie diet (most people know the pattern…stick with traditional low calorie dieting for 2 weeks, fall off the wagon for a week and gain it all back…that’s what I always did). I no longer believe in restricting calories. I wonder if intermittent fasting made me overeat. Once my eating window started, I could easily eat 2000 calories in the first 2 hours, and NOT even feel uncomfortable. These were not out of control binges. I was just hungry!

#11

For some of us, excess protein (a lot excess, I mean, not just a little) can cause some of the same issues that excess carbs do, including triggering hunger. Not sure if that’s the issue here, but your protein intake is almost threefold higher than mine and I’m 5’4". I’m not suggesting going down to my level, but if you try modifying macros, it might be worth decreasing it for a while and seeing what happens.

(Katie) #12

This is what I was thinking. I have had that issue so what I do is consume so few carbohydrates that I know that I am under 20. I roughly track my protein, knowing I am around my target. For that I track up to about 50%-70% of my target grams of protein, then I add unknown small amounts for dinner until I feel like I had enough. And for fat I eat fat to satiety, but I know that it is the highest percentage of my calories. This is the best way that I can be mindful of percentages and grams, without actually counting. I tried tracking for about 4-5 months, and it was a mental battle. I totally understand how counting would make you feel hungrier.

(Karen) #13

Sweetners??
Dairy??

K

(Brian) #14

You speak of the insatiable hunger. It makes me wonder if there is something in your diet that’s missing that’s causing you to be so hungry, something you’re not getting, something that’s leaving your body craving whatever it is. I don’t know, just wondering. I’ve heard a few other people talk about that concept but a lot of people kinda poo-poo it. Don’t know.

Just curious, do you take a good multivitamin or anything like that?

#15

I don’t use sweeteners ever, except when I ate real sugar on my two cheat days. I have a massive sweet tooth but actually hate artificial sweeteners.

Dairy–yes. I still ate eggs and a limited amount of cheese when I was doing zero carb. Once I went to higher fat, I ate a LOT of cheese. I also ate a lot of nuts but I stuck to macadamias because I could eat them without going out of control and going over on my carbs (my carbs were ok, but calories are another matter…)

Brian–I do take a multivitamin and magnesium, though I’m not very consistent. On the days that I eat a ton, I figure I’m getting plenty of nutrients from food…

Answering these last two questions, I’m starting to think it’s something that I added back to my diet when I stopped zero carb, that made me hungry. Likely nuts. Possibly cheese. I don’t really like the idea of only eating meat forever; there are things I liked better about being traditional keto rather than zero carb (one thing being my bathroom habits…). But I’m willing to go back to zero carb-ish (my version still includes some dairy), getting the hunger under control, and then maybe SLOWLY adding things back and seeing how my body responds. If I add back nuts and my hunger goes crazy, I’ll know that’s the culprit.

#16

I will say that I’ve already noticed, after my small binge on pork rinds this morning, that I’m actually FULL for once. I almost never had this full feeling in the last 3-4 weeks. Nuts don’t make me full. Avocados don’t make me full. So I think maybe I know what I need to eat…

(Karen) #17

Just are some people’s kryptonite.

K

#18

Kate–my new approach in the last couple days is to just write down what I eat, but not quantities, only carb counts. So if I eat ground beef I just write down “ground beef,” but if I eat nuts then I will estimate the carbs and write down “2 carbs.” That way I don’t get obsessed with the calories but I am keeping track of carbs.

(Karen) #19

Climbergirl, that’s a GREAT idea! I am copying!

K

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #20

I was watching Dr. Phinney’s video on troubleshooting keto, and one point he makes that you might want to consider is what the fats are that you’re eating. The fats in dairy are mostly saturated and mono-unsaturated, which is good, but if you’re cooking with the so-called “healthy” polyunsaturated seed oils, you might want to consider switching to coconut oil, tallow, lard, bacon grease, butter, or ghee. Dr. Phinney recommends olive oil, but some of us feel that its smoke point is a little too low for cooking, so we use the other fats I mentioned, saving the olive oil for making salad dressings and mayonnaise.

But the idea is to make sure you’re getting enough monounsaturated fat, and not too much polyunsaturated fat (we need a bit, particularly omega-3 and omega-6 in the right ratio, but not too much).