What am I doing wrong?

#1

I’m on my 3rd month of keto.

I’m 36, 5’3" and ~150lbs. I didn’t have a scale when I started but I’m guessing I was about 160 when I started.

I lost an initial 5-7lbs or so the first month. Have been stagnant ever since.

Moved to FL 2 weeks ago. From week 1 to week 2 I went from 153 to 148. Great!

Then back up to 150 in week 2. Then up to 150.5 week 3.

Not sure what I’m doing wrong. I track my calories and macros diligently in MFP. I play high intensity, competitive tennis 1-2 times a week. I work at a restaurant where I’m on my feet and walking for 2-6 hours per shift.

When I’m at work I use Map My Walk to monitor steps/distance walked which syncs to MFP and adds the calories back in to MFP. Sometimes I am more strict than what the app says because they tend to go on time vs. actual steps and if it’s a slow night I know I did more standing than I did walking so I don’t use that to justify eating more calories.

I’ve had 3 cheat days (1 per month) since I started but otherwise have been pretty strict. Not sure why I’ve stagnated in months 2 and 3 after an initial weight loss. Feeling pretty bummed right now.

Any advice/encouragement is appreciated. Thanks!

#2

Since you are very active it’s not impossible that you replaced some fat with muscle with little weight loss… have you monitored your waist circumference? A better indication of fat loss than the scale.

#3

It’s probably not going to be just one thing that breaks your stall. Some options are: Intermittent fasting, extended fasting, cutting out dairy and keto-sweets, cutting out or adding caffeine, cutting back on the amount you’re eating, or incrementally increasing your calories if you’re already eating very low calories, etc. etc.

(Richard Hanson) #4

Hi Haley,

If you feel comfortable sharing a bit of your dietary data, that might give some clues.

What is a cheat day? On some days I eat outside of my caloric targets, not very often, but it is just more food, not different food.

Oh … how about a bit of encouragement … Three months shows a strong commitment to keto and there are a lot of people on this forum that can help you sort out almost any issue you are experiencing. It sounds like you are doing great and that you will do even better.

Warm Regards,
Richard

#5

I’ve been taking weekly progress photos but no real measurements. Apart from the first photo, no visibly apparent change in body shape from week to week :\

#6

I don’t do keto sweets so that’s not an issue. Maybe cutting back on dairy will help. I typically have 2 cups of coffee with heavy cream in the morning. Otherwise no caffeine.

Fasting could help but becomes difficult because I do need the energy for the days when I play tennis.

I might be able to cut back on calories even more. I feel full and satiated so that probably means I’m not starving myself.

Thanks.

#7

Cheat days aren’t purposeful typically. One was a celebratory occasion. I might have been able to stick to the keto diet but would have had to sacrifice a ton of fun to do so and decided I didn’t want to be a slave to my diet that night.

Other days have been due to catching up with old friends and having alcoholic drinks that probably took me out of ketosis.

Typical breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs, 1/4 avocado, 2 tbsp sour cream, 2 tbsp. salsa. Sometimes I add in 2 slices of bacon if I know I’ll be active that day.

Lunch: anything from bacon wrapped sweet peppers stuffed with laughing cow cheese to a simple green salad with O & V (with or without tuna in oil depending on activity) or leftovers from the night before.

Dinner: cod with butter and creamed spinach, keto pizza, or butter burgers

Snacks: almond butter, macadamia nuts, or salami and cream cheese.

Macros: pretty good at 70-75% fat, 8-11% carbs, and 20-22% protein, net calories 1500-1600/day (adding in exercise).

So :woman_shrugging:

#8

I think I might need to just eat fewer calories. On MFP, once I moved to FL and became more active I updated my activity level which allowed for more calories per day.

I’ll take that down from Active to Lightly Active. Also, I just updated my goal to losing 1.5 pounds per week instead of just 1 pound per week, which requires greater calorie deficit.

I think by doing this I should be able to move the needle once again. I appreciate everyone’s comments and encouragement! I’ll do a progress report if this works for me!

(Duncan Kerridge) #9

Have you tried fasting? Lack of energy is not a problem at all, your body has lots of energy stored away.

(Richard Hanson) #10

Hi Haley,

Thanks for sharing. :slight_smile:

There are many days that I have a glass of red wine. Alcohol is metabolized first and can temporarily interrupt ketosis, but this is not a cocktail with a lot of sugar. There is nothing at all wrong with celebrating life and a ketogenic diet is not a punishment.

With just a bit of back cocktail napkin calculations, it looks like you are eating about 30 g/day carbs and 80 g/day of protein. If that is total carbs, then that is not bad, but the protein might be a bit high. There are a wide range of recommended numbers for protein, but when I was prescribed a ketogenic diet by my doctor it was recommended that I eat a moderate amount of protein at 0.8 g/kgram of lean body mass. My target for protein is 50 g/day and I am 6’ 1.5" tall. I am rather insulin insensitive and if I eat 80 g/day of protein then my weight loss grinds to a halt. How each person’s body respond to different amounts of macro nutrients is quite variable, the processes are the same, but different people have different sensitivities and intolerance.

As you consume food, your body responds by releasing insulin, with some foods resulting in a much larger response. At the top of the list are various carbohydrates and sugars, then proteins, with fats being at the bottom of the list. When insulin is elevated, then your stored fats are locked away in cells and it is hard to use fat for fuel. When insulin is low, then that fat is mobilized. If you are eating a lot of snacks between meals, or especially late a night, what happens is that your insulin level does not have as much of a chance to be reduced, or for only a shorter amount of time each day.

So … a couple things you could try …

No more snacks at all.
Eat less protein which can have a surprising strong insulin response.
I love cheese, but hard cheeses tend to have less carbs then soft cheeses.
Eat less total calories. If you are in ketosis, your body will happily used stored fat for fuel instead of just exogenous fats.
Look at the macro grams you are eating and not just the percentages.

If this does not get things moving again, then you can pull out the Swiss army knife of weight loss, fasting. Start with intermittent fasting (eating in a reduced time window during the day) or even use extended fasting where you don’t eat anything for a day. This is amazingly easy to do if you are fully fat adapted and a good resource is Dr. Jason Fung who has both books and videos.

I hope at least some of this helps. At least, I hope it gives you some ideas to test to see if they will work for you.

Warmest Regards,
Richard

(Carolus Holman) #11

I noticed when i had a few snacks my weight-loss stopped and i started gaining. These were Keto-Snacks like cheese sticks, meat etc. Snacking raises your insulin levels, and after reading the Obesity Code, I now understand that insulin is the main culprit of the Fat storing machine. I stopped snacking went to OMAD, (eat when i am hungry). The weight is melting away!

#12

I try and do a 16-8 IF where possible but my work schedule can get a little wonky sometimes. I can try and work around it a bit more though because sometimes I find I’m not hungry after work anyway.

The bigger problem is playing tennis. I play at a competitive level and I KNOW from experience that if I have fasted or don’t consume enough calories beforehand that I can feel any combination of lightheaded to lethargic to easily winded and just general low energy.

So it just depends on how often I’ll be playing that week as to whether I can get a fast in or not.

Thanks for replying! I appreciate the advice!

(Duncan Kerridge) #13

You could start out practicing fasted - you’ll find a lot of people here (myself included) exercise fasted, once your body is well fat adapted there’s no need for calories before - you get the energy you need from your body fat.

#14

Folks often find that they naturally fast after being keto for a while, and then start to stretch that window a bit at a time. But if you’re playing competitively, you might want to wait until you’re not in season to further tweak things (sorry - I have no idea - is it seasonal?). Generally athletes find that they don’t notice performance stability/improvement until they’ve been keto a long time (3-6 months).

I don’t know if this helps you right now, but it would probably be good to move away from too much focus on calories for either exercise or food. Eventually, you’ll be able to go by satiation and instinct.

From what I’ve seen in both studies and anecdotes re exercise: enough movement to not be sedentary is terrific and important for so many reasons, but for long-term metabolic shifts there’s nothing quite like resistance training.

#15

I’ve read about working out in a fasted state and how it produces great results. But I’ve more seen it in the context of weight training or light cardio and other aerobic activities.

My understanding is that tennis is different due to the anaerobic nature of it. Such exercises like sprints deplete energy sources much more quickly than aerobic activity like jogging, swimming, or biking.

Again, my experience in this seems to be true. Last week when I played, the first hour was fine but I faded quickly in the 2nd hour of playing.

I was an All-American collegiate player so again I want to emphasize that this is high level match play, not just some drills where you’re standing around waiting to be fed some balls for half the time you’re on the court and pretending you’re actually getting a workout.

I can continue to experiment with my light hitting sessions to see if becoming more fat adapted allows me to consume fewer calories or even be in a fasted state while playing.

That being said, on days when I’m not playing, I do think I can incorporate more fasting into my routine.

#16

Hi everybody.
I don’t want’t to start new topic so I will ask here.

I am on keto for 3months now and mine weight is 93-95kg whole time.
I have lost 15kg with keto before and make a break for a month.
I gained only 1kg in first week, after break I continued keto but mine weight is always in range 93-95.
I am 187cm tall.

By one app I eat in average a day:
Fat 100-180g -this is cc80% someone suggested to go 60%, gonna reduce it in next month.
Carb 10-30g
Protein 60-100g
1350- 1900calories
This is minimum.maximum range, ussualy I am in the middle.

Food: Low carb vegies, rich in fat meat of pork, beef, chicken, fish, eggs and heavy cream, animal fat, butter, mayo, mustard.
Drinks: Coffe 2cups cc300ml, water, before two weeks I started to drink almond milk.

I ussually don’t have breakfast, have late lunch and dinner around 7pm. So I fast around 16h a day.

On weekends I drink about 1l of Coca cola 0sugars(started before one month).
I had one day break from diet before five days.
I work with mine hands standing for 8h/day.
Still 3 months and nothing, any ideas?

(Rob) #17

I’m no expert but it sounds like a little too much protein and definitely not enough fat and probably too few calories. I am a little heavier than you but I have a maintenance budget of around 2200 calories and find I lose weight when I have more rather than fewer calories, nearer to my budget (1900-2100). I dont think I’m deep enough in to do adapted fasting yet.

I’m sure others have better insights.

(Richard Hanson) #18

Hi Orgami,

I am also 187 cm tall. I have been keto for 17 weeks and I am down from 112.5 kg to 84 kg.

My doctor put me on a ketogenic diet and suggested adding fasting after the first month. I have been highly compliant.

Net Carbs < 20 g/day
Protein < 50 g/day
Total Energy < 1000 kcal/day

I now fast for 60 hours a week and eat my 7000 kcal/week in the remaining 5 days at 1400 kcal/day.

So … how does this help you?

Everything you are doing looks great, but those days when you are on the high end of your macros might be pushing you out of ketosis and it can take a while to get back in. You could try restricting your intake a bit more and keep a closer eye on your protein intake. Also you might try adding a bit of extended fasting each week. I started with one day a week and now I just don’t eat on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Something else to remember … You are doing great!

There is no official weight loss chart that dictates how fast or when a person is going to loose weight. In the long run it does not matter if it takes six months or two years and different people loose weight at far different rates and with a wide range of level of effort. Perhaps the most powerful tool we have is fasting, but I would not just embark on a fasting program without first doing a bit of reading. Dr. Jason Fung is a great resource in this area. If you increase your compliance so that you are not ever eating at the top of those ranges, and if you keto on … you will reap the tremendous benefits. Even if the scale is not changing much at this time, it is very likely that your overall health is improving.

My doctor, he is a bit crazy, he lost 32 kg doing keto, then gained it back on purpose and then lost it again so that he could test out fasting protocols. I love my doctor. He would suggest a protein goal of around 0.8 g/day per kg of lean body mass which works out to about 53 g/day for myself, but I am also rather sensitive to protein intake.

Keto for life!

Best Regards,
Richard

#19

Thank you all on answers.
This video makes me think you are right.

Definetly I feel better on keto, more balanced.
Mine biggest suspect have been coffein but it seems even fat sometimes can get in the way.

Thank you on reading suggestion.

#20

I thinked the same but some sources suggest that reduction can be beneficial, check video I posted for FatMan just in case if you ever find yourself in mine situation. Or if you don’t have time in summary he suggest reducing fat to 60%. I already have fat around 80% it would be hard to make menu plan for higher. :slight_smile: