UK Newbie Losing Heart!

#1

Hi all, I have nearly finished week 4 of Keto and so far, have not lost any real weight! I started at 80.4kgs and have yo-yoed about for 4 weeks and now at 80.2kgs! I have also taken measurements and there’s no discernible difference there either.
I just don’t know what I am doing wrong and would dearly love someone to point out what I must be missing…

Macros:
Protein 90g, Net Carbs 30g, Fat 131g. Also trying to stick to 1600 calories.

I have been testing with Keto strips and am at the perfect spot on 3/4ml so seem to be in Ketosis. I am also doing HIIT and weight training for 20 mins, 5-6 times a week and taking MCT oil (30ml per day).

I have read everything I can find on Keto and why it might not be working and have already dropped my carbs from 50g to 30g (which I am usually under). Is it just a case of dropping them further do you think?

I have previously followed very low calorie diets with good (but short-lived) results and now seem to be at a point where nothing works. I no it sometimes takes a while for your metabolism to recover but I am getting really down about working so hard, being so disciplined and not seeing any results.

Any help or encouragement appreciated!

Emz x

*Apologies for posting twice, I thought they were separate forums! :woozy_face:

(Ethan) #5

Keep calm and keto on. It can take a while for some

(squirrel-kissing paper tamer) #7

Sorry for all the admin fussiness in your thread. I’m still learning how to merge threads. Stick to one thread to keep the site tidy. Plus all of your responses will be in one place and welcome!

#8

Sorry, I just misunderstood how to post it.
Thank you for this message, I was feeling a bit rubbish after the auto-telling off! :wink:

(Carl Keller) #9

Hi emz.

My advice is to stop trying to eat to a predetermined number of calories and the fat and protein macros. Restrict your carbs (maybe 20 net might see better results) and eat fat and protein to satiety. If you are always hungry, you are doomed to repeat the failures found in calorie restriction diets. They don’t work because they force our metabolism to slow down so it’s very important to make the correct response to hunger. Please remember, it’s not how much you eat that is most important but rather what you eat.

Also the HIIT might be working against your efforts to lose weight. High intensity activities can raise cortisol and that hormone will rebel against your desire to lose weight. It might be better to commit yourself to long walks or something less stressful to your body at least until you are fat adapted. After fat adaptation, exercise is not only easier, it is less stressful to the chemistry that is happening inside your body. The healing metabolism and the shift in energy source can be quite a shock. Let it get comfortable before you stress it out too much with HIIT.

#10

Record EVERYTHING you put into your mouth.
Eat 20g carbs per day or less.
Don’t worry about calories for the first 6 - 8 weeks
Don’t worry about protein for the first 6 - 8 weeks
If you find you’re still hungry a couple of hours after eating, up your fat content of your meals. Fat helps reduce hunger pangs.
Record EVERYTHING you put into your mouth.

KCKO

#11

Well, I can offer encouragement! Keep on going! Your body might just need some extra time. I have been eating this new way since January 2. It gets easier and you learn more and more (especially if you mostly lurk here and read like I do). I usually go by actual carbs personally, trying to stay under 20, but I stopped sweating it if I was over a bit when net was low. Do you do any fasting? That seems to work for me.

(Robert C) #12

You might want to review this post just in case you fall into the same category:

#13

Don’t give up! You are healing your body in ways you may not see or feel yet. It is very common for it to take some time before you notice those changes, but they are happening. <3 <3 <3 . I personally didn’t notice anything in your post about what you might be doing wrong. It seems to me like you’re on the right track (possibly dropping carbs lower might help, though…it does help for a lot of people). keep reading other people’s experiences because along your journey you will want to do tweaking to find out what works and doesn’t work for your body.

#14

You are doing a lot of training very often. After having read the introductory chapters of “Body by Science”, a highly recommended book for anyone working out, I’m inclined to think that you are doing too much. As you are used to working out this much, I won’t tell you to stop, but I will recommend that you cut down on your training to two times a week at most, preferrably only once a week. Progress is not made during workout, but rather in recovery, and recovery takes a lot of time.

Working out on a calorie deficit is in no way recommendable. You may do your hiit on a fast, but do your body a favour and give it the energy to recover afterwards. I suspect you may need at least 150 g of protein a day with your current workout routine. If you manage to cut down on workout, you still need to get enough energy right after workout, and I’ll actually recommend overeating the day after. That will fire up your fat burning machine, rather than just turning on energy saving mode.

The best thing to do is to not count calories. Wait for 2-3 months before doing that. Don’t go looking for a deficit, your body (metabolism) may have gotten used to surviving on 1600 calories a day, and has turned the brakes on energy expenditure. A further deficit will only do more harm. Listen to your body, and don’t even worry about how often you eat in the beginning, just don’t be hungry. And have a good amount of protein with every meal.

You may gain in the beginning, but that should only be temporary. I have eaten as much as I could manage this week, and had a very slight weight loss instead of putting on more. And I focus more on filling myself with protein, fat is secondary, and helps with getting the vegetables down.

(bulkbiker) #15

How recently? Have you changed from a low cal diet to keto? If so you may be expecting too much… Your body will take time to recover from caloric restriction and if you have changed your way of eating and not gained I’d take that as a huge win!

(Amanda Zobava) #16

Hello! Also been Keto-ing since Jan 1 this year and agree with Kage here. I only lost 5 pound in the first 2 weeks then a month of nothing…I was also getting discouraged…then I found 2ketodudes! I tried my first 16-8 fast over the course of 2 weeks I mostly did it everyday and lost 5 more pounds! Now I am starting 20-4 fasts and losing weight again! Fasting is super scary at first but bulletproof coffee holds me over (fat-fast). At the 18 hour mark yesterday I got the hunger pains and had a piece of babybel cheese. This satiated me until dinner. I’m by no means a pro at this yet, but thankful for what I have learned so far. Keep calm and keto on!

(Little Miss Scare-All) #17

If youre actually doing legitimate HIIT, which is 95%-100% of your max heart rate, sustained for at least 30 seconds for a minimum of 8 intervals, its really bad for your body to do it 5-6 times a week. Do you actually know what your heart rate is during HIIT? Do you track it with a heart rate monitor? I say that because ita a term thrown around these days but few people are actually doing it correctly.

If you can say that youre at 100% max (220 minus your age), and youre doing that 5-6 times a week, and youre not a professional athelete, you are putting your body through needless amounts of major stress and youre probably pumping out cortisol like a mad woman. This alone can make the body hold onto weight.

For us average Jane’s, Joe’s and Joe-Anes’ 2-3 times a week is the MAX amount of true HIIT we should be doing. Anything more than that can actually be counter productive from a stress hormone standpoint.

(Windmill Tilter) #18

I agree with all of the above. Exercise builds muscle and increases VO2 max. It’s not especially helpful for losing body fat. It’s often counterproductive. A very large proportion of the posts in the “not losing weight” section describe 5-6 days of exercise. I don’t think it’s a coincidence.

Keto works best when you eat to satiety. Exercise changes satiety signals, and not for the better. Some peoples satiety signals significantly overcompensate when they exercise. I’m one of them. If you’re one of these people your choices are: ignore satiety signals and eat to an arbitrary calorie target (in which case you’ll force your metabolism to start fighting back against fat loss), follow the guidance of the overcompensating satiety signals that lead you to eat way too much (in which case you’ll stall), or reduce the amount of exercise that you’re doing. I chose the latter, and now only lift weights 15 minutes a week. Nothing else.The pounds are dropping at a nice steady clip now.

Consider reducing exercise as much as possible for a month. Eat to satiety. You may find that it sorts out your satiety signals and you start making progress to your goals. If so, add exercise back in slowly until it stalls your progress. Start with the basics (keto to satiety), add in complexity when progress allows. That’s my 2 cents, but everybody is different.

There is always the possibility that it’s something dietary in addition to the exercise. Maybe you could post what you eat on an average day, and it might shed light on a different issue. Many forum members have been thwarted by something as simple as 2-3 Diet Cokes each day spiking their insulin!

I know how frustrating it can be when you’re putting in a ton of work and doing everything right, but not feeling like you’re making progress. I wish you the very best of luck. KCKO!

#19

Thank you. I am using cronometer which I find brilliant so I am recording every last morsel. That may have led me to fixate on ALL the number a bit too much though. Will try reducing carbs and ignoring the rest for a while as suggested.

#20

Thank you for this. It never occurred to me that over-exercising could be a thing. Definite food for thought.

#21

Thank you! I didn’t realise the training could work against me. Did you find that you lost muscle mass when you dropped down to only once a week?

#22

Thanks everyone, going to try and cut down the carbs a little, easy up on the HIIT and try not to worry about protein and calories for now. I don’t mind sticking with it, just want to make sure I am doing it right.

Top advice, many thanks! x

(Little Miss Scare-All) #23

I do HIIT usually 2 times a week. 3 if I’m feeling spry. But I do typically weight train 4 days a week, but I’m a Legs Day, Shoulder and Back, Arms and Chest day kinda girl. 2-3 times for me is the perfect amount for fat burn and lean muscle building. Doing proper HIIT raises your body’s natural ability to create an otherwise slowing down HGH production, and is said that it’s like a heat seeking missle for fat. Paired with Keto it’s even more powerful in my experience, and I’ve done plenty of HIIT not on Keto. On Keto, I notice the effects even more pronounced.

#24

You worry about losing muscle mass, so I’ll just recommend the book again. “Body by Science” written by John Little and Doug McGruff. It’s available on Amazon Kindle. McGruff also has wuite a few yt videos where he talks about the principles of developing one’s full potential, and much more. This is serious research based information, so it’s worth reading/listening to.