Started Keto few weeks ago. Lost weight, is this water or fat, how can I identify?
I have been on low carb, have not been on high fat. I meet a protein minimum as I work out. Will this make a difference.Or will I lose muscle as not enough fat intake.
Keep your carbs sub-20 grams or less net per day and you will remain in ketosis. That’s where good stuff happens.
Replace the carbs with fat for energy. Don’t skimp, when you’re hungry eat.
Eat protein based on your lean body mass or total body weight. Don’t skimp on protein or you will lose muscle mass, bone mass, connective tissue mass. Search this forum for protein requirements if you need help figuring it out.
Best wishes.
PS: yes, initial weight loss is primarily water from glycogen.
I’m eating protein to my lean mass.
Carbs have been between 20-30g. Has shown weight loss. I don’t have a ketosis reader. How can I know when it is fat loss.
Will a day of eating a carb meal make a big difference. I understand we only store around 100g of glycogen. Will a long workout deplete it again.
We lost water weight quickly and in the beginning, usually. I personally always lost it in the first 2 days, now my weight doesn’t change when I go out of/into ketosis. But some people lose water weight slower as far as I know.
Ignore the first weeks and later, eventually you will see if you lose weight (if you lose nothing in a week, it means nothing as it’s a very short time and bodyweight fluctuates a bit). Your body still may choose to change the water amount due to various reasons… It’s fine and normal but avoid significant muscle loss. We need enough protein and calories. If you have lots of extra fat, you probably will get away with a higher calorie deficit but it’s still tricky if you eat very much below your needs. Whatever is the case, you need more than little fat if your protein isn’t high either…
Maybe tell us your stats and macro numbers… People consider very different amounts minimum or low.
Difference regarding what? But it doesn’t actually matter, don’t eat a carby meal if possible, you barely started, now it’s time to stick to eat, wait for fat adaptation, learn how to do it longer term… Your weight changes mean little at this point.
How do you know you’re in fat adaption. If you don’t eat enough fat, won’t you burn calories eaten and then fat in your body?
Macros: Carbs 24g Fat 40g Protein 80g
We probably can’t know. In my case my hunger and satiation changed so very drastically and enough time passed for it so I am very sure it was fat adaptation at 7 weeks (or some level of it, people say it improves later).
Yes, we burn body fat to get enough calories if we don’t get enough with food - but some muscle loss happens too. Ideally, it’s insignificant. If one eats well but don’t use the muscles, they will get smaller as the body loses fat but if one eats too little protein, the amino acids must come from the muscles eventually… And if one starves, it’s logical for the body to lose some costly muscles. Extreme activity with extreme calorie deficit results in very quick serious muscle loss but it’s nor for us mere mortals, it happens with extreme sportsmen during competitions. We still may have it to a much smaller extent.
If one has much to lose, the bodyfat easily provides very much energy, it’s worse for the ones who has less to lose. If the body can’t get enough energy even from the bodyfat, it hurts the metabolism and is definitely bad for the muscles. The energy must come from somewhere and if the fat isn’t adequate, the body uses what it can, muscles for energy, slowing down metabolism for needing less energy…
Your numbers are super low. I still have little idea about your needs but it’s hard to imagine anyone who is fine with this longer term.
Started keto to lose about 22 pounds. Specifically to lose fat in certain areas. Even if that meant less weight. I lift weights and do cardio.
I have been on a reduced calorie diet for some months before keto. Then lowered it when I started Keto to meet lower carbs. Eating other foods will raise that. Slowly will increase. Can keep this up for a few months if need be.
Eating extreme low-carb food doesn’t raise carbs. Your intake is very low and if you even exercise… Your deficit must be quite serious. But that’s it, I can’t know what will happen with you. I would like to be safer, slower but it’s your life. Hopefully you will feel if/when something is wrong.
Most foods have carbs in them. I’ll have to find a variety of low carb foods. Can’t eat the same thing repeatedly. Maybe will eat some higher fat foods.
I will do it safely, will increase as needed. Have been on lower calorie diet prior to keto. Have just reduced it a little further to meet the carbs. As I adapt can go up in stages. Find how many carbs i can have to meet my goal
You might reconsider that.
By eating lower calories, you could just be causing your resting metabolic rate to decrease. That’s bad.
I’d eat more, myself.
If you don’t eat enough fat (assuming you’ve cut out the carbs) you will force your body to shut down as @ctviggen notes above. Do NOT starve yourself. Eat plenty of healthy fat to fuel your metabolism - and to encourage your body to “fat adapt” which sounds like a primary concern.
If you want your body to burn off the 22 lbs of fat you’ve targeted, it needs to “relearn” how to rely on fat as a reliable/available source of energy. Eating fat (to satiety) is a key to getting there. Don’t limit your calories. That’s counterproductive at this point.
Best wishes! 
I have been on a calorie restriction and did hit a plateau. Wll have to now find my RMR and then increase.
If I eat more calories how will that help with weight loss, will I not have to burn the calories consumed first. Or if my metabolic rate is decreased, how can I correct it. Does keto help with that?
I’ll look at other food sources and test a higher calorie diet with fat over in a few weeks and see if there is a similar drop in weight. Currently I am losing weight. Could be water. Is going down, hasn’t fluctuated
Even if it would harm your weight-loss in the near future, you should eat properly. Slow metabolism isn’t healthy. It’s harder to get your essential nutrients from very little fod too.
I am on low-carb since a decade and I am very familiar with carbs in food.
It’s very easy to eat way below 20g carbs even if you eat 2000 kcal or more - if you don’t cling to plants. With plants, it’s trickier but with good planning and properly tiny amounts (for carbier items, I mean), it’s doable.
If added fat works for you (I need to avoid it as much as I can), well that is 0 carbs for any amount of calories.
It’s harder in the beginning, of course. The food items you are used to are too carby. But you can look at other people’s meals, labels… It’s easiest if you eat a lot of good, fatty animal protein mostly. You can add lower-carb plants (even higher-carb ones but in tiny amounts, fortunately many of them are very flavorful, a little may be enough) but focus on very low-carb, nutritious choices. For example, I get hungry, I often just eat eggs with cheese and sausage, maybe some meat. Spice, little raw veggies, onions in my stew… It’s easy to stay even below 20g total carbs that way. But if you base your meals on some meat, you can go super low - and the rest may be filled with vegetables and nuts if you fancy them. If quite a few vegans can pull off <20g net carbs, it’s very easy if we like our animal proteins.
I often saw beginners eating carbs with carbs all the time. They add up and if someone uses leaner protein, it’s easy to eat too much carbs and too little calories at the same time.
It can’t be said yet if it’s water, I say this again. If you measure yourself, say, every week, you eventually will see what happens. A few weeks can’t show much unless someone loses fat very rapidly.
If your clothes are looser, it was probably fat.
If you are trying to gain muscle, you want something in the neighbourhood of 2.0 g/kg of lean body mass, and it should be rich in the essential branched-chain amino acids (leucine, iso-leucine, and valine). Otherwise eat between 1.0 and 1.5 g/kg.
Eat enough fat to satisfy your hunger, or your body, thinking there’s a famine going on, will hold on to all its fat store.
Seven hundred seventy-six calories is a starvation-level diet, and your body will prioritise metabolising lean mass over fat mass until well into the process of starvation (the Nazi concentration camp survivors looked like sitck figures because they were in the end stages of starvation). Eat a reasonable amount of protein and fat to satisfy your hunger. This way of eating works by cooperating with the body’s hormones, not by trying to use calories in or calories out as a lever.
If we eat too little food, the body adjusts the metabolism to compensate. If we eat more food than we need, the body adjusts the metabolism to compensate.
Thank you all for your input. Will increase my fat intake and monitor the progress.
Not looking to gain muscle, if I do gain some is fine. am eating between 1-1.5g.
What’s the view on whey protein. Does it spike insulin
Prof. Benjamin Bikman and his team have demonstrated that the insulin surge from eating protein is balanced by a matching amount of glucagon when carbohydrate intake is low, with no net effect. In other words, the ratio of insulin to glucagon remains unchanged, so the body remains in ketosis. On a high carb diet, the glucagon secretion is suppressed, so the rise in insulin is not compensated for, and the insulin/glucagon ratio rises dramatically, which causes ketogenesis to be suppressed.
Not enough fat shouldn’t pull muscle off if you’re maintaining adequate protein for your muscle mass, however not eating enough fat will absolutely make it harder to gain muscle. Not enough fat equals less strength. Every cell in your body requires cholesterol, there’s a reason the bro’s were putting egg yolks in everything! Like many things bro science, they were right, they just didn’t know why! What’s your fat intake look like? The fact you said “not enough” is scary.
Macros above. Fat 40g. I will increase it. Find increasing macros a difficult balancing act as carbs will increase. Apart from meat, everything else will have carbs. Nuts are a good option, they are not carb free.
Thanks didn’t know that about Glucagon. Somewhere i read whey powder does cause spikes, even on low carb. From what you have shared sounds like may not be the case. Very useful
