Weight loss has stopped. Ketone readings steady at .1 all day long?

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(Kyle Grzelak) #1

Hey Keto Community! This has been my glorious WoE off and on since 2017. I got strict and focused on tracking everything in February of 2020. (last year) I’m down around 60lbs and my A1C has dropped from pre-diabetic to 5.2. I’ll eat this way the rest of my life no doubt.

I’m hoping someone out there is having a similar experience because I’m finding myself frustrated and not able to find some answers online. My weigh loss has STOPPED. Obviously not the first thread to worry about a prolonged stall but I have definitely fluxed the same 10lbs on and off for the last 6 months so I thought maybe I’ve gotten loose on restrictions and allowed myself more carbs than I had thought. Started tracking macros again and introduced IF at the start of this New Year. (Which works great for me since I’m on my feet all day at work and I don’t think about food.) I got the KetoMojo to better understand my ketone levels throughout the day and to my surprise I have basically NO KETONES. No matter the time of day my readings hold steady at .1. THAT’S IT. As far as I understand this isn’t even in nutritional ketosis which starts at .5 I believe. I guess this could explain why my weight loss stopped but my macros are tracked. Carbs are way below that threshold and only coming from veggies and occasionally a ramekin of nuts and cheese. Has anyone else experienced ketone levels steady at almost nil? If you’re out there, what did you do to restart the engine so to say?

Don’t know what else I could do but my starting weight was around 400lbs. I’m currently around 340 or so and was really hoping to lose another 100 or so in the next two years.

Any and all suggestions are welcome! I’m all ears.

(Jane) #2

Can you post more details on what a typical day of eating is like and what times you eat?

#3

Congrats. Do you ever get hungry? I started Keto over 10 years ago under the supervision of a Dr. and Sports Scientist. I measured everything in the beginning. “Nothing white or could be white” I was a super responder to Keto. Over the years I found I was never hungry and I was eating only 1-2x /day. Maybe 1000-1200 calories a day. My opinion is the body goes into some sort of downregulation of the metabolism. My initial response was to eat less and increase my fat intake. I also increased my level of activity and still, nothing really changed. After 3 years, I reintroduce carbs (bread) into my world. I shifted from Keto to a very low-carb diet. I doubled my intake from 50-100grams per day, sometimes more sometimes less depending on my level of activity. I noticed a big difference in my level of energy and within 4 weeks, I was once again at my goal weight. WHY? I believe that maybe there is a dysfunction that occurs with the Leptin and Ghrelin hormones over time. Initially, the Keto does wonders for both. However, I am not sure longer-term how both are affected. Just my 2 cents worth

(Kyle Grzelak) #4

Thanks for the reply! Happy to.

Starting 2022 I worked my way into the following and have been on it consistently for about a month. Every morning I’ll start the day with coffee. Most days it’ll have a couple TBSP of Heavy Cream and a single shot of a Skinny No Sugar Carmel syrup. I’ll go to work until 5PM and won’t eat throughout the day. Around 5:30 or 6:00 dinner will be finished and is centered around Chicken Thigh, Pork Loin, Burgers (without buns obviously), Salmon, ect and some assortment of vegetables. Last night I ate Keto Swedish Meatballs that totaled 8oz of meat in a Swedish Cream sauce and about a cup of Green Beans. I then ate 5oz of leftover pork tenderloin about an hour later. No sauce, just salt. Around 8PM I had a bag of Hilo Life Snack Puffs. Water throughout the day and an afternoon coffee too. (Sometimes HWC but not always.)

Today will be the same but for dinner we’re having air fried chicken thighs (bone-in, skin-on and I’ll probably eat 2) and asparagus. It wouldn’t be uncommon to have a couple ounces of gouda or cheddar with some marcona almonds or macadamia nuts as an after dinner snack too. I’ve got to be missing something cause I don’t really see room for error when I’m pretty much operating on a 20:4 IF and more or less OMAD. I saw those as solid reasons to eat with this pattern since it takes a lot of the chance of overeating out of the equation and I like how it makes me feel. I’m just dumbfounded by the lack of progress. My ketones not raising into the “nutritional ketosis” range has me concerned something else is going on that’s keeping me from seeing real results. But I can’t imagine what it would be so I’m hoping for insight from y’all.

(Kyle Grzelak) #5

This is interesting. I’ll have to look more into Leptin and Ghrelin hormones cause, quite honestly, I’m totally unfamiliar with these.

And you’re saying that after reintroducing some specific carbs your energy levels increased. Did your weight fluctuate as expected or were you able to maintain/lose lbs during that time??

#6

Leptin is known as the satiety hormone. Its produced by the fat cells in your body, Its main role is to regulate or send a signal telling your brain how much fat is stored in your body’s fat cells. Look up Leptin resistance.
Sort of. I started to eat some of my wife’s sour-dough bread and fresh fruit and occasionally potatoes. For the first few years, I weighed myself every morning. I stopped doing that and then maybe once a week. It was then, that I noticed the weight loss. I reached my goal weight in a very short time. I also noticed that my weight would go up (5-10lbs) every fall and would decrease in the spring regardless of how I ate. I am told this is probably an evolutionary thing. When my wife plateaued, she felt the culprit was dairy, so she eliminated all dairy and allowed herself more carbs from fresh fruit. blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries) She lost 30 lbs in 30 days (not common) Fast forward, we both eat LCH - (virtually no grains) Her homemade sourdough bread is a staple but not every day and only at dinner time, lots of vegetables, and fruits(lower carb types). We try and eat the best quality meat (grass-fed) chicken/eggs (free-range) wild salmon and grass-fed butter. We do eat bacon but not on a regular basis. We both do IF 2-3x per week, 16-8 or 20-4. A function of our busy schedules. Maybe once a quarter we both do a one or two-day fast during periods of lower stress.

(Robin) #7

I will repeat my favorite piece of advice…. Make sure you are eating enough. After years of abusing your body, it doesn’t trust you. (Been there.) So if you don’t eat enough, your body will sabotage you and your efforts. I “stalled” for months once then started eating more. Bam! Back to losing that fat. Now I think of stalls as my body taking a break during the marathon. All you have to do is provide the fuel. You’ve come so far, it’s very inspirational. You got this!

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #8

What was your starting weight? Dr. Phinney said in one of the Dudes’ podcasts that they typically see a loss of about 20% of the starting weight, as I recall. He says in a more-recent lecture that sometimes fat loss starts up again after a couple of years on keto; it seems that the body wants a period of stability before shedding further resources.

Another thing to do is to go over what you are eating and look for what we call “carb creep.” For one thing, it’s easy for the quantity to rise while we are not paying attention. How much could one French fry hurt, after all? For another thing, manufacturers are prone to reformulating their products without warning, and something that used to fit into your 20 g/day might now be busting your carb budget.

I’ve been going up and down in the same 10-pound range since December of 2016. If I weren’t more interested in the metabolic results than in the fat loss, I’d be pretty frustrated. But I’ve already lost 26% of my starting weight, so I’m happy about that, even though it would be nice to be thinner.

(Allie) #9

That doesn’t seem like much food so I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re body isn’t holding on to all its stores through fear of famine :slightly_frowning_face: Long-term sustained calorie restriction is well known to slow the metabolism and when it gets to the point of not being able to slow down any more, it will hold on to what it has as a way of trying to keep you alive.