What are we doing wrong?

#1

Started Keto 8/10/2018

My wife and I decided we were tired of being unhealthy pigs. We provide part-time caretaking for my mother; she is in stage IV which is stressful. We joined a CrossFit box to get out and relieve stress. A friend of mine suggested Keto. I have a lap band and have trouble with traditional diet foods. I have 60lbs to lose to be in prime shape, she has about 100lbs to lose.

We bought bacon, eggs, and sausage and fried it all up. She eats those things, and some hotdogs here and there. Also, some keto casseroles I make for her.

I have been making a lot of taco meat with the McCormick taco seasonings – I do not drain the grease. I also made a ton of cauliflower-mashed potatoes and that is pretty much, what I eat for dinner. For Breakfast I have a protein shake and almond milk – it has low carbs (4g) and 160 calories. Lunch, 1 cup of chicken salad of lunch…

I have not weighed myself but my clothes might be a bit looser, but my belt still will not fit, my old shirts are still tight.

My wife lost 3Lbs then gained a few ounces.

Please help. We don’t know what to do – should I be draining the meat? Should we be doing something different? I never went through the Keto flu symptoms but my wife did.

(Ellie) #2

Ho long have you been going?
Weight fluctuates daily - especially for women. Try not to sweat the day to day numbers.

As far as your food choices go, the only comments I would make are

  1. sausage and hot dogs can contain carby fillers - sometimes quite a lot - check the ones you buy.
  2. 1 cup chicken salad for lunch is tiny. Are you hungry afterwards? Do you snack in the afternoon?
  3. does the protein shake contain sugar alcohols, or maltodextrin? If so drop it and go for a coffee with butter and cream instead.
  4. Definitely don’t drain the meat!!! That’s the best part!

Basically aim for
20g carbs or less
moderate protein and fat to satiety - eat enough fat so that you aren’t hungry and don’t need to snack between meals.

Edited to add - check out www.dietdoctor.com and the 2ketodudes podcasts for all you need know about keto!

#3

My shake as two sugars. We started 8/10 - we have been watching the carbs on all the meats, which is what is getting me. We have been shooting for 25 carbs a day. The chicken salad maybe 2 cups at most. I have a lap band so I have to be careful how much I try to eat or I throw it up. At night, I eat probably 2 cups of taco meat, 1 tablespoon of ranch dressing, and 1.4 cups of cauliflower-mashed potatoes. Sometimes I eat this twice if we stay up late – I know piggish lol.

I know how diets go, when I had my lapband I lost 200lbs. I gained 60 back because I started eating sliders – shakes, chilli, anything that slips down easily. But I still am 140lbs lighter. What I am not seeing in her or myself is the rapid weight loss that people rave about. She is close to giving up so I need to motivate her – I LOVE this way of eating because I can eat good things for me, actually keep it down, and have energy…but I want lose fat for serious.

(Ellie) #4

Rapid weight loss is not something that happens often in keto. There are some luck people, but they are usually men and often very overweight. But that doesn’t mean that all overweight men will see rapid results.
Energy takes time as you need to become fat adapted. At just over 5 weeks, I would expect that to happen sometime quite soon.
Stick with it, but watch the hidden carbs in things.

(Banting & Yudkin & Atkins & Eadeses & Cordain & Taubes & Volek & Naiman & Bikman ) #5

You are 140 down. Expecting rapid weight loss after losing 140 with lap band diet is unrealistic. I’m curious how long ago you had the lap band done. They can slip when you slip up, and eating nearly 4 cups at a sitting would have been great discomfort/barf for folks I know who have had lapband or gastric bypass.

You don’t say if wife has had bypass or lap band or much about her, other than that she has 100 lbs to some idea of optimal health. Your wife probably needs more salt and potassium (keto flu).

Sausage, hotdogs, taco meat with bagged seasoning. Protein Shake. Almond milk. That’s a lot of processed food, imho. Eggs, steak, bacon, pork chops. Whole foods. The taco seasoning has whey solids, sugar and potato starch. Not huge amounts, mind you, but processed junk, ntl. You could very simply whip something very similar together with some chili pepper, cumin, oregano, pepper flakes, onion powder, paprkia, garlic, dried lemon peel and salt. Or even simpler: Chili powder, salt if the chili powder doesn’t have it, and dried lemon peel. But really, the less you use from the center aisles of the stores and the more discerning you are on the margin of the grocery, the better your results will be, both in terms of weight loss and general health.

(Jane) #6

Some people don’t get the big whoosh of water loss up front - some not at all. Keto is not a quick weight-loss plan in spite of the hype or exceptions. You will never see a headline screaming “I lost a half a pound a week - ASK ME HOW!!!”

Weight loss isn’t linear so that doesn’t mean it will take 2 years for your wife to lose 100 lbs. But then again - it might. What difference does it make if she can lose it w/o being hungry and keep it off?

You guys are getting close to the point where your bodies will be switching over to burn fat instead of glucose and it really makes a difference in how you feel. If you give up now you will have to start all over if you want to try keto again. If you give up now what would you try? Nothing else but keto worked for me, so I know what my answer would be… and I tried every diet under the sun over the year’s.

#7

I had my band checked recently; it is in tip-top-shape. I lost the weight from 2008-2009. I slowly gained 60 back over the years. My doctor is happy with me being 240-250ish; he says lots better than 400 lol. Yes, I am cheating the band a bit with the taco meat because it slides down easy - but if I am going to make this a “lifestyle”; it has to be somewhat easy, not a huge effort. Wife has not had any surgery - she refuses and honestly her insurance would not cover any of it - so it would be self-pay…which we cannot do has we are giving large cash infusions to my parents for my mother’s treatment. We don’t have room or time for all that homemade stuff, and money is tight. We are cooking out of microwave and an oven when my father is not using it upstairs - so it is hard for us to get “fancy,” lol we are doing our best. I guess it is not enough - I have heard you can eat keto cheap from a few YouTube Docs, but they are YouTube personalities after all, but it sounds like we just need to start counting calories instead. Whole foods market, even Trader Joes is not in our budget. Kroger barely.

#8

Hey Janie,
I love my wife as she is, I don’t care how fast she loses weight, I just want her to be healthy as well as myself. She is complaining that when she counted calories she lost weight and a good pace. Its just when we moved in with my mother to help out she hit the fastfood again, and got large again. We like Keto, it is tasty, but honestly, we feel like we should be losing more - but maybe we should just be patient.

Would you all suggest that we measure ourselves?

(Banting & Yudkin & Atkins & Eadeses & Cordain & Taubes & Volek & Naiman & Bikman ) #9

Nothing I suggested could not be procured at Kroger or below. And honestly, expecting fast weight loss after 140 lbs loss is not within the realm of reality.

("Don't call it calories, call it food") #10

Hi! Welcome to the forum

It sounds (from what you have written) that you are sticking to the parameters of a keto way of eating… So stick to it! I would guess you will start to see results within a month or two… Yes measuring yourself is a great plan :slight_smile:

I understand about having difficulty cooking, I fed me and my husband and my young baby out of a hotel for a year. And I was pregnant at the time :slight_smile: I wasn’t keto, so we had a lot of carbs, but I was vegetarian in a country that wasn’t particularly welcoming to vegetarians! Sounds like you have a plan and methods that work for you and your particular situation. I cling to the phrase “keep calm and keto on”, it helps me when I start to panic about the ways I feel that I am failing or when I feel that I am not seeing results. Not feeling hungry all the time is also a great reward and helps me stay the course.

(Renee Slaughter) #11

My humble suggestions
Invest in a crock pot. You can cook 2=3 days worth of food for cheap.
Shop your local ethnic sales if available in your area. Cook cabbage kale in a pot with onion garlic in a jar and preferably bacon. Cook the whole cabbage and 2 bunches of kale. Lasts 2-3 days.
Do you have a dollar tree or 99 cent only store. Loads of great keto finds for 1.00
Ex. Dollar tree has a bacon wrapped chicken filet for… Yes you guessed it 1.00. They also have coconut oil 7.25 is for 1.00. I stock up when I see them. Cheap snack. Pork skins and salsa. With guac a total fav. You tube has great keto crock recipes.
Weight loss comes and goes. Focus on health.
Keep calm and keto on

(MelissaH) #12

Suggestion for your wife… keep it simple! I’ve been doing keto for 6 weeks and am still learning. If I could go back now I’d tell myself to relax and just eat whole foods. Eggs and sausage or bacon for breakfast. And say steak, salmon, or chicken thighs for dinner. Add veggies with every meal. At first I was discouraged by the scale. I stopped weighing myself. I’m fitting into jeans I couldn’t wear a month ago so it’s working! Just make minor tweaks and find what works for you.
Also, watch out for bottled dressings with crap oils and preservatives in pre mixed packets. Good luck! And don’t give up!

#13

You can make a decent poached egg in the microwave just crack one in a mug of water and microwave for about 1 min.

I’ve had a couple explode on me though, so don’t cook for too long.

(Katie) #14

Check out AD Keto’s vidoes that he does with his wife, who recently started the ketogenic way of eating. These will be especially helpful for your wife.

(MelissaH) #15

Measurements are often better than the scale