Very slow weight loss?

(Jess ) #1

Hi All,

I’m new here on the forum and just looking for some advice regarding weight loss.
A little about me-- 36 year old female, ideally looking to lose about 30 pounds to reach a healthy weight for my height.
In the past couple of years I have followed the Whole 30 diet two separate times (basically a modified Paleo diet for 30 straight days) and successfully lost 20 pounds (this after years of hypothyroid issues and no success losing weight with any diet or caloric restriction). Since my last Whole 30 a year ago, I have managed to control my eating habits, thyroid levels tested within the proper range for the first time in 10 years, and I was able to go off my blood pressure meds. However, the weight loss stopped at 20 pounds.
I have a very good friend who did a keto diet for 8 weeks earlier this year, and I watched his body melt away before my eyes (He lost a total of 65 pounds in 8 weeks). In talking with him, he sold me on the Keto diet. I didn’t really struggle to get used to it, as my attempts at Whole 30 really were a good stepping stone into keto.
I have now been following a keto diet myself, entering my 9th week. I do not typically weigh myself, as I don’t want to get discouraged by the number on the scale. Instead, I rely on how my clothes fit as an indicator and I also do measurements once per month (arm, chest, waist, hips, thigh). 8 weeks into this diet I have had very little change in measurements or fit of my clothing–nothing different or drastic that I can see, no tangible results. The only marked improvement is my energy level. I do track all of my food intake via myfitnesspal.com, I try to stay below 20g net carbs per day (my highest day of carbs in 8 weeks has been 40g net carbs). The carbs I do eat are all from vegetable sources. My diet mainly consists of meat, eggs, vegetables, healthy fats. I do not snack very much (if I do I go for a handful of almonds, a few slices of salami, or occasionally cheese). I have goals for total caloric intake (which is set as a deficit for weight loss), carb limit, protein limit, and fat limit. I eat to those goals most days, I will occasionally go over on carbs by a few (again from vegetables) and sometimes shy on the fat intake (I find it hard to always hit that many grams of fat). Logically in my mind I can’t see how I would NOT lose weight with the diet that I have and I am slowly getting frustrated and losing my motivation.
Does anyone else have any experience with extremely slow or nonexistent weight loss with Keto? I was so encouraged by my friend’s results and I’ve seen nothing near his level of success. Are results of the diet very different for men and women? Is there something else I could be experiencing that is preventing weight loss (i.e. should I avoid dairy? could there be metabolic resistance at work?)
I’m just looking for some advice or encouragement–please help convince me NOT to give up.

#2

I’m in a rush so can’t give you the thorough response that I’m sure you’ll get from others, but - yes, women often have a very different weightloss path than men; thyroid issues can significantly affect speed of weight loss; closer to your goal weight tends to mean slower results.

And -yes, dairy can often stall progress, and cutting it out for a few weeks might be a relatively simple thing to try. Did you find you had any effects with reintroduction of dairy after your whole 30s?

Have you played around with IF?

(Annika) #3

How much protein and fat do you eat. I did not loose that much either but I was too high on overall intake. Now I eat less around 1200 kcal, 45 grams protein and around 120-160 grams of fat. I started fasting periodically 18/6 and that gives big results right away. My bloodglucose is now around 4.5 and my ketones 1,8.

(Jess ) #4

When I used the macro calculator, it works out to 115g fat, 69g protein, and 20g carbs.
I’ve not had any blood work done recently, but I do check with ketostix usually every couple of days to make sure I am in ketosis. I have read that too much protein will kick you out of ketosis, but according to my ketostix that isn’t the case. Should I adjust my protein intake? Also, my friend did recommend IF so I have considered giving that a try as well.
My macros were calculated online using a reference that he gave me–do you possibly have a reference for calculating macros?
thanks!

(Jess ) #5

When I did Whole 30, I did find that reintroducing dairy caused bloating and a general feeling of sluggishness the day after. So, I do know that I have some type of reaction to it. It is the ONLY thing I have been reluctant to let go of since starting my dietary journey 2 years ago. The only dairy I routinely eat anymore is down to butter and sharp cheddar cheese. I don’t typically eat a lot of cheese, definitely not a daily occurrence, maybe a couple times per week. I KNOW that I should not eat it, and have considered restricting myself of dairy for 30 days to see if that shakes anything up.
I haven’t done any IF yet, but is something else I am considering as well. Would IF be a daily thing like 18/6 EVERY day, or would 18/63 or 4 days per week count as IF?
thank you for the thoughts.

#6

@jm315999 Hey Jess, it’s kind of neat that you have a clear indicator of your reaction to dairy (W30 is great for that!) AND many folks find that it keeps them from losing fat. So… yeah, it seems like it would be worth a try at least temporarily. I’m sure you’re familiar with clarified butter after two Whole30s, but in case not: you could make up a big batch of clarified butter so that you can keep using that.

IF can be so many things, and generally keto folks find that they gravitate over time/experimentation toward certain patterns that work for them. The nicest way to do it is to follow your hunger signals. I don’t think that works for people who are very insulin resistant and still adjusting to keto, but if you’ve been pretty consistent with your postW30 eating, you might find it comes pretty easily. You could start by just delaying breakfast until you’re really hungry, then you’ll probably find that you easily move to 2 meals/day. From there you can experiment with a few 24 hour fasts (dinner to dinner basically, or lunch to lunch) and see how you feel and see what happens in terms of measurements. I would listen to the 2KD podcast with Megan Ramos who talks at length about the importance of mixing things up in fasting/eating patterns. She doesn’t recommend moving to OMAD (one meal/day) for more than a week or so until you’re at your goal size.

Keep doing the measurements! I know you’ve heard this a ton on W30 as well, but for women in particular our measurements often move pretty dramatically when the scale isn’t budging, so if you’re going to deprive yourself of cheddar, it would be good to be sure that you really know if it’s helping!

One more suggestion - and you can take a look at SlowBurnMary’s posts about this for much more in-depth info - intensive resistance work really seems to be fantastic for our metabolism. I’m in my second week of trying bodyweight exercises to failure (like, really to failure - shaking, can’t move another inch - kind of agonizing but also very satisfying) per Doug McGuff’s recommendations and I’m really excited about it. It’s quite unlike the (many other) things I’ve done.

(Elizabeth) #7

Are you testing your glucose/ketone levels? I too had been on Paleo so I thought it would be an easy switch. I have been trying to do Keto for 2 months. I decided that I wasn’t sure I was really in ketosis, so I bought a monitor. Guess what? I’m NOT.

I’m going to use this little tester to help me figure out what I’m doing wrong. It might be not enough fat (I track) or maybe too much protein for my body. I’m determined to figure it out. Maybe you should try testing your levels too?

(Doodler for @KetoKailey) #8

Hello! Whole30-grad here, too, and when i started this WOE (not a diet) 10/02/17, I reintroduced dairy, and I just couldn’t lose weight.

Last week, I gave up heavy whipping cream (HWC), and in 7 days lost 2 pounds.

Although I have 13 pounds to lose, I do not think of keto as a diet, and not expecting to lose weight fast.

Let’s give ourselves a break from the scale, and remind ourselves that we did not gain all the weight overnight.

You can do it! Cheering you on!

(Jess ) #9

@Madeleine I appreciate the information. I think I’ll definitely be kicking dairy to the curb starting this week. I’m hopeful that changing that aspect of my diet and then working in some resistance training as you’ve suggested will give me a spark. I’m thankful that I stumbled across this forum this morning–you are all so informative and helpful!

(Adam Kirby) #10

You don’t need to be in ketosis to lose weight, though. Ketosis is only one of the two pathways that fat can be metabolized. The other is to be combined with glucose or protein byproducts to complete the Krebs cycle. Ketone levels by themselves can be a poor method to judge if you are in a state of fat burning.

(Karen) #11

Reading through this thread here and am curious what your sources of fat are? I have a hard time getting over 100 gms in per day.

(Annika) #12

I take butter and brain octane (mct) in my coffee. I eat fatty sauces with majonaise in it. I also eat fat fish and meat with as much fat as possible. For me it´s the other way around. I had to slow down on the fat intake. It´s easy to get too much with all this bulletproof coffee. I don´t eat any dairy.

(Karen) #13

I see. Thanks for the reply. I have a dairy intolerance so I have to be careful. I do (usually only one cup) BPC with butter and MCT a few days a week and then MCT oil and almond milk on other days. I do IF at 16:8 most days so just two meals per day…ribeye, eggs, bacon, avocado, chicken thighs, salmon and leafy greens are pretty much my mainstays. I suppose I can add some more olive oil and mayo here and there.

(Beth) #14

FWIW, I have hypothyroidism (among other things) and my weight loss picked up when I incorporated intermittent fasting. I switch it up from 16:8 to 20 hours to 24 hours, 36 hours, 48 hours. Whatever works with my life schedule.
The other thing I found is that nuts and dairy slow or stop my weight loss.
In the meantime, it has helped a lot to keep a log of all the other benefits I see. That helps me stay motivated when the scale’s not moving like I wish it would.