When to cut bait and move on?


(Keto in Katy) #3

Excellent question.

Also, are you certain that you are keeping your total carbs to < 20g per day? This can be challenging because a lot of foods that you might think are low carb are not. You have to know exactly what you are eating, what ingredients are in everything, total sugars, different names for sugar that may not be obvious.

I suppose it is possible but I think very rare that there would be zero measurable benefits with going keto.


(Jason Fletcher) #4

What are your goals
what are your macros? are you tracking?
what is your height weight and body%
what foods are you eating to fill your macros.
Do you have any metabolic disorders?


(Ellie Green) #5

Waist and hip measurements have increased, bf% has increased. I’ve also developed inflammation in my hip… My carbs are kept in under 20 g, my protein around 75g and keeping my fat high.

I guess I can start exercising and cut my dairy (I love cheese).


(Ellie Green) #6

No metabolic disorders. I’ve tracked religiously.

5’7", up to 160 lb, 29% bf

My goal is to look good naked. Yes, I want health but I want to be confident in a bikini.


(Alan Williamson) #7

The key for most people to lose weight is to lower insulin level. Eating food will spike insulin, some foods more than others. Keto works for weight loss because the foods in the program will not spike insulin to much. Many people lose weight. I lost 50 pounds eating just coconut oil, butter, and beef jerky. I plateaued. To lose more, I had to fast. I lost 40 more pounds doing 3 - 7 day fasts.


(Ellie Green) #8

I did a three day fast about a month ago and didn’t lose anything. After listening to Dr Phinney talk about fasting I’m concerned that I will do more damage to my metabolism.

I have bulletproof cocoa brew in the morning, switched because I read that caffine can through off your hormones. Egg salad with avocado mayo, homemade to avoid soybean and such. Steak, bacon or sausage with butter or cream cheese for dinner. Usually have spinach at lunch and/ or dinner. No alcohol or sweets.


#9

May be too much protein?


(Jason Fletcher) #10

If you are working out I would say your macros would be best around 90P and 91F. Your bodyfat is about average right now. Try this for a couple of weeks and see if that helps.


(Adam Kirby) #11

Try carnivore diet for a while, I believe it is much more potent for fat loss than regular keto.


(Karen Parrott) #12

2-3 months for me. I wish I had set myself a time frame. Onward.


#13

I started with weight loss as my goal, but SO MUCH has changed since then. It’s up to you, but I’ve come around to the long-term view.

Here’s my post on this very topic:

BTW, I’m now down more than 30 pounds but look like I’ve lost a lot more.


(Dasha ) #14

I have to chime in. That was my story. I gained fat and weight doing keto. This time around I cut all dairy and lost 17 lbs in 7 weeks. I do count calories


(Deb) #15

Cheese is/was my kryptonite. Especially cream cheese!

And peanut butter.

And nuts.

Oh, crap…I’ll just admit it! Anything I can binge on, too! That Snickerdoodle Crepes recipe posted here did me in even!


#16

I would consider two things.
Firstly are there other factors that could be impacting - trauma, stress, sleep problems?
Secondly maybe consider an elimination diet for a month or two and test a few suspects. Something that you are sensitive to could be messing you up and causing inflammation. The most likely culprit is dairy but also consider nuts, eggs, nightshades and FODMAPS. I would be tempted to try a very basic diet for a month (2 if you can manage it) before you ditch keto. There is plenty of info about elimination diets online and it depends how much you cut out obviously.
Journal it all and a pattern might jump out at you. We tend to always focus on food but lack of sleep or consisted stress, for example, will have just as big an impact.


(Kate) #17

Have you tried dropping the fat a bit? If you are giving your body fat it doesn’t need to eat it’s own body fat. I have had times when I stop losing weight and I have a bit less fat, keeping carbs at 20gs and keeping protein moderate and it seems to start the process again. I also watch the carb creep and cut out things like nuts, dark chocolate and heavy cream etc for a bit. I also listen to my body when I am hungry or full and don’t try to push it.

Do you have any other issues like thyroid, hormone dysfunction or stress?

Also have you lost inches /cms at all? Sometimes I stay the same weight but I am going down in size. In fact at the moment my measurements are about what I was when I was 10kgs (22lbs) lighter, so I am a smaller size than when I was this weight last time which is completely weird lol


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #18

If I am correctly understanding the videos I’ve been watching lately, there several points to consider: First, Dr. Phinney advises eating no more than 0.8 to 1.2 grams of protein per kilograms of lean body mass. More than that will be turned into glucose and stimulate insulin secretions. Second, some people need to eat as little carbohydrate as possible. There are folks who can’t even eat 20g a day without leaving ketosis and gaining weight. Third, it’s important to avoid restricting calories. As counter-intuitive as this sounds, the reason is that eating too few calories makes the body feel deprived, and it will then turn as much of your food into fat as it can. Better to eat nothing at all, it seems, than to eat not quite enough. If you are eating enough fat to leave yourself feeling satisfied at each meal, your calorie count will take care of itself, because your body will adjust your appetite to the proper calorie level. (For me, it has been highly weird to have food on my plate and simply not want to eat it.)

Dr. Phinney, in one lecture I watched, said that if things don’t seem to be working right, the first thing to do is to cut carbs. If they still don’t seem to be working right, eat more fat. And if they still don’t seem to be working right, eat even more fat. (If I could remember which video it was, I’d post a link; I do remember, however, that it was on the Low Carb Down Under YouTube channel.)

For myself, I am finding that I do best with no carbs at all, except for any milk sugars in the dairy I eat. Kale and other leafy greens seem to do okay, as long as I cook them with lots of fat, drown them in butter, and don’t eat too much. But I tried making cauliflower rice recently, got carried away, and binged on it, and the results were unpleasant. (The popcorn I had for dessert didn’t help, either.) I was lethargic and groggy the whole next day. I know I’m addicted to sugar; perhaps I just need to view all carbs as addictive substances. It’s a lot easier to drink no alcohol at all than it is to try to drink moderately; it’s starting to look as though I need to adopt the same approach to carbohydrate.


(Linda Culbreth) #19

My 2 cents worth.

  1. You may need to ditch the cheese and nuts -or only have a few at mealtimes…
  2. If you are snacking at all on anything, including diet drinks, stop.
  3. Stop all artificial sweeteners and read all labels for hidden sugars named by many names.
  4. Add more salt and water. And then, even add more.
  5. Listen to some of Dr. Jason Fung’s videos on intermittent fasting and add that in.
  6. Stop weighing yourself and counting calories. Get a tape measure and measure yourself. Write those numbers down and date them.
    7.In 2-3 weeks, measure those same places with the same tape measure. Write them.down and date them. Compare the two numbers. You really might be surprised at what the numbers tell you.

#20

Mistakes are proof that you’re trying…


(Mike W.) #21

What is your fasting blood glucose?


(Gabe “No Dogma, Only Science Please!” ) #22

Dr Peter Attia, a staunch advocate for ketogenic diets, has said that he’s pulled several of his patients off the diet because it clearly wasn’t right for them. You may be in that category. Don’t despair! Do some research, especially into Peter attia, and find out what he and others recommend.

This could easily mean – I mean, one alternative – is a low carb healthy fat diet that isn’t ketogenic. I was on LCHF for a year before keto, and I’ll probably go back to LCHF once I’ve dropped the last few kilos. The bottom line (as far as I see it) is that cutting starches and sugars – especially highly processed foods – is indisputably good for you no matter what diet you subscribe to.

Once you cut out processed foods, the arguments between many of the different schools becomes academic to some extent. I think Gary taubes was the one who told a story of going to a conference that pitted low carb vs low fat scientists. Lunch was provided for both groups in a buffet style. But there was very little difference between the two lunches, because the low fat lunch didn’t include processed foods or substantial amounts of sugar.

I’m no doctor, but I’ve read a decent amount about this (including quite a few academic papers) in the past year. You just don’t need to be eating 80% dietary fat to see the benefits. If you end up eating lots of veggies and meat and fish and you’re losing fat, who cares what your macros are?

My anecdotal evidence is me. A year ago I switched from eating loads of crap to basically just cutting out sugar and starchy carbs. I ate meat, veg, fish, fat, and fruit (yes - fruit!) to satiety, and lost over 20 pounds in under 3 months.

So do some further research, watch and listen to Peter attia and Gary taubes. That’s my advice to you. I can’t guarantee it’ll get you washboard abs, but you’ll probably move the needle on your body fat %.