Okay, I am on week ten of keto. My BMR is 1650, which I know because I had a Dexa scan done immediately prior. I keep my macros at 70%, 20% and 5%. Only had two days when I fell off the wagon and those were last week. Pretty sure I am fat adapted because I can do an 18 hour fast easily and have done this two days a week the past two weeks. I work out (Crossfit) 5-6 days a week and have not stopped this the entire two months. However, getting frustrated because after an initial lost of 11 lbs the first month or so…nothing. Completely stopped seeing any progress the past month or so. Clothes are not really fitting any different either, after the initial loss. Do I need to lower my calories more? Just stick it out and hope for the best? Thanks in advance!
Ugh....advice please?
The body is funny. If we don’t give it enough calories, it starts restricting energy expenditure and hanging on to its fat store. (Paradoxically, this doesn’t happen when we eat nothing at all, which is why fasting helps so much.) But if you give your body plenty of calories, it relaxes, speeds up the metabolism, and starts burning stored fat. This is why we tell people to keep carbs low, keep protein moderate, and eat fat to satiety.
So as odd as it sounds, you may very well find that if you eat more, rather than less, you will start to lose weight. So increase the amount of fat in your food (fat is the only macronutrient that doesn’t stimulate insulin secretion). Be sure you eat enough at each meal to be able to go hours till the next one without getting hungry. If you do get hungry between meals, assauge the hunger with some fat, and increase the amount of fat in your meals. Once the body is assured of an abundant supply of energy, it will relax and start letting go of its excess fat.
Just be aware that, as a woman, you are not going to have the same easy weight loss that guys do. And the other women on the forums will help you deal with that. But keep calm and keto on, and sooner or later you will have results.
A BMR of 1650 and CrossFit 5 or 6 times a week makes your total calorie need what? 2000 or 2200 or something, BMR is lying in bed all day - CrossFit plus other activities add to that. So, to get fat adapted, you probably want to overshoot a little with lots of fat (to avoid raising insulin as much as possible).
Are you at that sort of higher calorie level at 75/20/5? Actually, the recommendation here is less than 20g of carbs - not a percent (and I would stick with total carbs and stay out of the “net” carbs game).
Keep in mind, you are not trying to control your calories on keto, you are trying to control your hormones.
Not sure from what you said but, if you simply try to eat with keto macro %s at your BMR you will miss the fat adaptation and fall into yet another calorie restricted situation.
***** NO! ***** Keto is about normalizing your hormones, not restricting caloric intake. For me, two different times early on in keto, a slight upturn in calories resulted in substantial weight losses.
THIS. It’s hormonal.
@RobC summed it up well. You have to eat enough to surmount the hormonal blocks that have been dragging your metabolism down.
Okay, so I should try putting my calories back up to at least 1600 and not change my macros yet? Even though I am fairly certain I am fat adapted? Not tracking calories completely freaks me out, although I understand the reasoning. My total carbs are around 20 grams daily, but I am 44 years old so I suppose I have to take that into consideration…
When I stalled out like that I decided to try upping my calories by just 100 calories per day as I figured that would be pretty harmless. If I started seeing the scale, etc. going the wrong way I could just lower back down.
Go figure I started losing weight again…So fiddle around with it by low increments if you want…Just make sure you stick with the change long enough to see the real benefits before stopping or changing again!
Hi! What kind of fats did you up your calories with? Just butter or heavy dairy and oils?
I just upped my calories in general not specifically just fats…However…I do tend to drink a lot of coffee with heavy cream… 