What am I doing wrong?!?!

(Jennibc) #81

So then you know the importance of the no snacking. Okay, just wanted to throw that out there. Simple tweaks could be the difference between success and failure.

I really encourage you to make the time for the daily walk. Even if you start with 20 minutes a day to build it up, that’s better than nothing. If I don’t do it, I don’t lose. It’s not the calorie burning, it’s exercising the slow twitch muscle fibers. Something about doing that helps with blood sugar and insulin resistance. I know it’s hard to develop habits like that, but if you make some changes like plan it for the same time everyday, get some of your favorite high energy music on an ipod, or find a podcast you really enjoy, get some comfy shoes and you are good to go!

I am down 116 pounds with most of coming off post menopause. It has been slow but it is possible. I have a slower metabolism because of yo yo dieting when I was younger so I know how hard it can be sometimes. But really, remind yourself that you are worth the effort.

#82

Thanks jennibc. Depleting stored glucose I think is the reason for exercise if I remember correctly. Weight resistance is what I’ve read is good for that. But I think there are also benefits to a brisk walk. You are right that I just need to prioritize it!

#83

But you did 22 hours on your first try, which is excellent! You mentioned feeling a little queasy. That’s a sure sign of not enough electrolytes, usually salt in most people, but also magnesium and potassium. You can buy liquid drops to add to your water (get unsweetened ones!) or search the forum for “ketoade.”

If you’re not having success, I’d strong recommend tracking everything you eat for a couple of weeks. It’s really hard to know what’s tripping you up if you don’t know what you’re actually eating. You might be jumping through a lot of hoops trying to figure out if a little sweetener in your coffee is your issue (and just whatever brand is in your house right now), when you’ve actually been taking in so much cream in your coffee that it adds up to another 10g of carbs/day and hundreds of calories. Or maybe not. I was wildly estimating what I thought you might be eating, but unless you track it all for a week or so, even you don’t really know. I’m not saying you need to do it forever, but you don’t have much information to go forward with and to understand what’s really working if you a make a change.

If you do this and see that your energy intake is really low, you have some work to repair your metabolism. Fasting is only one way to do it. Another option is to stop trying to lose weight for a few weeks, say four to six weeks. Just eat like crazy; your goal would be eating at least what your TDEE should be. You’ll probably put on a few pounds, but if you can mentally cope with that, it may be just long enough to help nudge your metabolism up some. Ideally, you’d do it for more like three months.

This is true for sure. Again, I was wildly estimating, mainly because from @Ketogurl’s description sounded really low, along with her overall intake. But based on the Virtahealth chart, her protein intake should be closer to 90g than the 80g I mentioned.

In general the suggestion of a DEXA scan is a good one and getting an RMR test while you’re at it would tell you a lot about your metabolism.

(hottie turned hag) #84 
 *high five*

#preach
#IdRatherEatWorms

@Ketogurl, listen I’m a 5 yr postmenopausal 55 y/o female whose only exertion is walking a small dog 2h/day and I lost 60+ lbs with ease on “keto”, some call it “lazy keto” and I called it nothing at the start as I had no idea it HAD a cutesy name. I track nothing. Not saying this is right for all; saying it can be right for some and may work for you :blue_heart:

#85

I haven’t mentioned that I sip on electrolytes all day. I was using a mix of lemon, no salt (potassium chloride), pink salt and water but was sweetening with stevia drops to counter the lemon. I’ve recently stopped that and just putting the salt and potassium in plain water. Not as tasty, but trying to eliminates additional sweetener and the lemon. I also salt my coffee. And if I’m feeling a bit draggy I take a pinch of salt with a shot of water. I take 400 mg of mag glycenate every night.

(Kirk Wolak) #86

This sounds like a sodium/electrolyte issue. Are you taking sodium at all?
Do you salt your tongue to see how your body responds?

Keep in mind we go from a high sodium carbage diet to not eating, and releasing a lot of water and electrolytes. Throw some salt on your tongue every couple of hours. I have a shaker of pink himalayan salt on my desk.

I find that the salinity tastes GOOD when I am low on salt, and it is overwhelming when I have plenty of sodium in me. Your body kinda knows where it is at.

HTH

(Kirk Wolak) #87

Okay, not a big enough swing to worry me. The ketone test is important.
I like to have the morning Ketone and Glucose (GKI = Glucose/Ketone). You want to calculate your GKI and get a number below 3 (USA we do Glucose/18/Ketone)…

Since this is a KETO diet. The single most important variable is maintaining Ketosis.
I would like to see LOW GKI numbers, and adjusting your diet until you get there.
As well as making sure you are pulling 1.0 or so on your Ketones. 2.0 is better when you are not fully adapted. When the pee sticks stop working, you will have issues raising your ketones without fasting longer periods. That’s normal, and we don’t want to chase ketones. We want to make more than enough right now.

HTH

(Lisa marie t) #88

Water? How much do you drink?

#89

About two to three litres a day.

#90

Update. Haven’t had anything but water and salt all day. Just that coffee this morning. Just tested

BS 4.6.
Blood Ketones .7.
That’s over 8 hours of nothing and still not much in the ketone department.
GKI 6. :confused:

(Edith) #91

As far as I understand it, as long as your ketones are 0.5 or higher, you are in ketosis.

#92

I am. But it’s mild.

(Edith) #93

I recently discovered The Biohackers Lab podcast. It is very good. The two episodes linked below had discussions on what might be the cause of weight loss stalls. You may want to check them out. If you got to the website, there are show notes.

(Kirk Wolak) #94

GKI of 6 means MAINTENANCE (you wont be losing weight).

First, your BS looks better! Keep it up.
Second, your MORNING Numbers are the most important (BS BK, GKI).
This is the health of your liver. Is it emptying all of it’s carbs.

Third, your liver has about 72 hours of glycogen in it. It’s why most people take 3 days to adapt, and why (I Believe), Dave Feldman can use 3 days before your Cholesterol test to manipulate the result. Because it has a 3 day “memory” as well…

So, you are in a “low” level of ketosis, and your BS is still a bit high, but coming down.
And these are your “best” numbers. Morning numbers tend to be the worse numbers of the day, as you slowly deplete the BS through fasting…

Now you have the “INSTRUMENTATION PANEL”. You want to drive BS lower and push ketones higher.

I wont ask ANYONE to do any exercise. But do get some MOVEMENT. Walk for 5-10 minutes. Start with 1 minute if you have to. Stand in place and do big arm circles. Just enough movement to use your muscles. This will consume muscle glycogen, and lower you bs. Giving your liver a chance to UNLOAD its excess glycogen, speeding up your process. Dr. Boz has the 1 minute Jump Rope Challenge. You can do 1 minute of chair squats (Sit in a kitchen chair, hands on your knees, lean forward, stand up, exhale, site back down). See how many of those you can do SLOWLY in 1 minute. Do that once a day or as often as you wish. Write that number down. Write down a number 1-5 about how difficult it was, every time. And track your progress.

It’s perfectly okay (preferred, even) to lean your weight forward to stand up. This uses your legs and NOT your back. Your legs are your largest muscles. Moving them 10 times is like doing 30 pushups from an energy stand point.

NOTHING should hurt while doing this or any exercise. If it does, seek a professional.

=

To Reiterate:

  1. Ketosis stops the problem from getting worse
  2. Time in ketosis, starts reversing the fat in the liver FIRST, then the morning #s change
  3. After the liver is emptied, the body is forced to use ketones (more and better)
  4. Then fat burning really starts, and you start losing weight, and not being hungry.

You were kinda stuck in #1 … You were not getting worse, but probably not getting better. Lets get that liver in shape. Over time, I hope you add some walking for a few minutes a day. (I plan to walk 10-15 Miles on Saturday, and again on Sunday. My goal is to walk 2 marathons, one saturday, one sunday, while fasting + Electrolytes).

I am doing that BECAUSE that will force my liver to become AMAZING at producing ketones [I am at my target weight, just working on getting healthier].

And while this is happening I can no longer see the higher ketone numbers on normal days. I have to fast > 24 hours to get 1.x numbers. And it feels CORRECT to me.
But YOU should easily be ABOVE 1.x numbers until you adapt more. (This is why chasing ketones is frowned upon, IMO, by so many of the people doing it for a while, but they forget that NEWBIES should chase a little if they are not losing the weight, or their livers are not emptied). BTW, it took me MANY WEEKS to get my morning BS numbers down!

Good luck!

#95

Thanks, I now have some additional tools to continue my N=1 and a better understanding. I’m off to see what I can do about this! By the way. Got my DNA interpreted yesterday. My naturopath said I’m the only one of her patients that my DNA results support a Keto diet. She’s never seen where saturated fat shows as no issue. I have a few other minor things. But some appropriate food or supplements will take care of that.

#96

@daddyoh recently posted this great explanation of GKI and Boz ratios, which really helped me understand a lot about what those numbers mean. He’s doing great with ketones at the same level as yours. A GKI of 6–9 is “ideal for weight loss and maintenance.” So, you’re doing well. Don’t be disappointed in that! I think you’re right to want to nudge it a bit lower and you’ll see better progress. But don’t beat yourself up about where you are.

(Kirk Wolak) #97

I would Love to know what she is picking out of that… But regardless, if that is the case, then you MIGHT be more carb sensitive than others (Like I am).

Here is the deal. YOU KNOW where you are at. Now you can experiment with not eating longer, or your macros, and find out what is impacting them.

One warning: There are some foods that affect me for days… So a CLEAN test is to test this ONCE and not take it for 3-5 days on either side. YMMV. But for me, I can’t test things every day. The previous 2 days will confound me. And I have to wait 2-3 days for the full effect of some changes to show up…

BTW, the morning BS is down… How do you FEEL?
Has the scale moved at all?

#98

Haven’t been on the scale. Tested my “late snack” theory that my bs would be higher in the morning. Had 4 oz of cheese an hour before bed and bs was 5.8 this morning :thinking: ketones .2. Going back to not eating after 5. And see if it’s lower tomorrow morning.

#99

I have looked into some of those associations between FTO genes and sat fat. If that’s the genes you mean? The association doesn’t really pan out when they do clinical trials.

#100

That doesn’t work for some. I lost the bulk of my weight eating intuitively and it was great. But my hunger and satiety signals gavee me the middle finger at some point along the way and the weight loss stopped, maintained for months, then started creeping up. Long story short It went long enough that I had my RMR checked and it had slowed considerably, IMO from the fasting and OMAD cycles I had done, started macro tracking with my fresh tested horrible RMR as part of the equation and the weight started coming off again and that’s still the case now. I’m now very slowly working on getting my metabolism back up where it’s supposed to be.