Hi folks, I was going to wait 5 days before writing this, just in case I got some okay news on the scales and felt a bit of encouragement, but I don’t want to sit here on my own feeling like crap for another 5 days.
I’ve been eating keto for coming up 8 weeks. I am definitely not fat adapted yet but I understand it can take a bit longer than a couple of months for some people. I’m 60, post-menopausal, and have come to keto from a high carbohydrate diet. I do not have a history of yo yo dieting and/or lots of calorie restricted eating but I’d guess I have a fairly slow metabolism. I really must force myself out of the house to go to the doc for a bunch of blood tests, thyroid being one of them.
Anyway, definitely not fat adapted if the signs of being fat adapted found on the internet are true - very little energy, not sleeping better, no increase in mental acuity, no increased fat loss (I just did my neck, waist and hip measurements and my neck is 2 cm bigger and my waist is 5 cm bigger!), I don’t feel satiated with less food blah blah blah.
Weight wise I lost 5 kg in the 1st month (some of which was water weight), 1 kg the next week, no weight loss the next week, 1 kg the next week, then this week a 1.3 kg weight gain. Like what the heck? I’m eating anywhere between a 15% calorie deficit thru to weight maintenance calories. I don’t count calories throughout the day but every few days I work out the day before’s food to make sure I’m on track. I haven’t had any cheat meals or binge days, I’ve just been making sure I eat very clean foods - just one or very very few ingredients.
“Eating to satiety” is a bit mixed for me. I have a life long history of over-eating and basically have to look at the food I have prepared and tell myself it is a meal. E.g. a 350 gram shoulder pork chop (approx 550 calories, 0 grams carb, 66 grams of protein, 29 grams of fat). According to the 1.0-1.5 grams of protein per kilo of lean body mass I’ve almost eaten my protein in one meal if I allow myself 1.5 grams! Another meal I eat is scrambled eggs (3 large eggs, 30 mls of cream) with 3 rashers of streaky bacon and about 50 grams of colby cheese melted on top (746 cals, 1.1 grams of carb, 41.6 grams of protein, 59.9 grams of fat). Or I’ll have about 400 grams of rump steak. I can’t find a single website that agrees with another regarding amount of fat and protein, but the protein amount is over my so called daily allowance. The last commonly cooked meal I eat is homemade patties (300 grams of ground 80/20 beef, 1 egg, 30 grams colby cheese) with 50 grams of lamb liver (approx 900 calories, 3.7 grams carbs, 81 grams protein, 55 grams of fat - tho the calories in this meal are a bit less b/c quite a lot of fat comes out of the patties when I cook them). I eat 2 meals a day (occasionally 3) and most days I’ll have a snack - a small piece of meat or 50-100 grams of cheese or a meat patty with a small piece of lamb liver. I don’t try to intermittent fast but approx half of the time I end up with a 16 hour fasting window anyway.
When I 1st started keto my appetite decreased a lot, the past couple of weeks I’m definitely feeling hungry a lot more often. I usually respond to feelings of hunger by eating one of the above meals (the 4 listed above are what I usually eat).
I stopped adding mct oil to my coffee once or twice a day 3 weeks ago.
I bought a blood ketone meter b/c I was hoping for some encouragement but it’s providing the opposite. I measure the same time of the day - before my 1st meal - I’ve had eight readings of 0.2, one reading of 0.3, one reading of 0.4. A couple of times I’ve measured 3 hours after eating my last thing for the day, and have only drunk water during the evening, and my blood ketones have been 0.2.
I love salt and liberally salt my meat and drink 2-3 liters of water a day (plus the water in coffee, if that counts as water). I was taking an electrolyte supplement and Berocca every day but I’m concerned about the sweeteners in them, even tho both have next to no calories, so I’ve stopped using them.
I’m coming and going on veg. Some days I’ll have a bit of green leafy and maybe celery, other days I don’t eat any at all.
I’m not enjoying this way of eating. Not b/c I don’t like the food and am craving other foods, more I feel like crap physically and emotionally. Disappointed, anxious (Am I doing something wrong? And if I am what is it? How do I fix it? Will it be something I don’t want to do?), frustrated, very low energy, feeling deprived, kinda empty or something. I’m worried I’m eating way too much protein, and if the answer is “Yes, you definitely are” I really don’t know what I’m going to do. Meat is the only thing I actually enjoy eating.
I’m going to give keto more time, maybe when I become fat adapted I’ll be one of the people who will start to feel great? Or at least a lot better than I currently am. But right now I’m miserable. Hence this post.
Thanks for reading.
It is an absolutely normal function to go up and down the scale but it is our overall down trend thru time on our plan that counts. Our bodies will do this, we all went thru this! So yea, absolutely normal process for our bodies so don’t truly worry on this part at all. It is all about downward trend over longer time that is what we focus on and only time lets ya see that on how you are doing thru your efforts.
I use these sites to chat our my fears, my curiosity, use them to find other’s experiences and maybe see if they work for me and it is wonderful to chat with people with the same mindset and same goals and it is smart ya came on and asked up some questions.
We also don’t eat much chicken, although I like it. Maybe once a week, my husband will get a rotissierie chicken ($4.99 here), and it is delicious. He eats most of it, although I enjoy some. I like to take the breast meat and dip it in a little mayo. That is typical of a “lunch” - eaten at the kitchen counter, nothing fancy, no work, but delicious and satisfying. I stop when I don’t want anymore.
