Why can't I get into ketosis?!

#1

Last year I went on a keto cycle for 3 weeks, and it was great! I lost 15 pounds, had lots of energy, and was sold on doing a keto cycle at least once a year.
Two weeks ago I started again, with the same diet as before, and the same exercise regimen, but I’m not getting into ketosis, and my weight isn’t budging. Can anyone help me understand what I’m doing wrong?

I’m 62, weigh 176 lbs. (and am 6’ 2"), and am a vegetarian.

Meals: all within an 8-hour window. No snacking before or after that window.

Breakfast:
coffee with stevia sweetening and 1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream
6 brazil nuts
a smoothie made with 1c. half-and-half, 1c. full-fat yogurt, 1/2c. frozen raspberries, 25g. whey protein
Total fat: 85g
Total protein: 48g.
Total carbs: 21g.
Total calories: 945

Lunch: salad made with 1 avocado, 8 oz. high-protein tofu, a cucumber, some sliced mushrooms, and a dressing made of 2 oz. of olive oil and 1 oz. of ponzu, and a little wasabi
Total fat: 92g.
Total protein: 40g.
Total carbs: 12g.
Total calories: 1,005

Dinner: omelet made with 4 eggs, 2 oz. of TVP, 1/2c of shredded full-fat cheese, 14 Kalamata olives
Total fat: 34g.
Total protein: 54g.
Total carbs: 14g.
Total calories: 590

Between those meals, I also eat 1 oz. of butter (28g. fat & 220 calories x 2)

This gives me a grand total of 267g. of fat, 155g. of protein, 47g. of carbs (but much of that, good carbs), and 2,980 calories. Same as last time.

Every day I either lift weights for an hour or run one mile.
Piss strips say “no ketosis”, as do blood sticks.

So . . . what am I doing wrong?

(Bob M) #2

Blood shows zero? Or something low?

(Cathy) #3

How are you measuring for ketones?

Ketogenic diets will typically allow a person to lose excess weight. You are 6’2" at 176lbs. You have no excess weight. The only weight loss you might expect is from your liver dumping fluid.

(Joey) #4

@RCH Welcome to the forum! You’ve gotten two replies above worth evaluating further. But I’m curious … after just 3 weeks on “keto” last year, when you returned to your usual eating habits, did you put the 15lbs back on again?

There’s a lot going on here… including whatever your healthy body weight might be per @clackley’s comment and some misunderstandings about what various biomarker metrics are likely to be as @ctviggen asks about.

But I’ll note that while vegetarianism is possible as a basis on which to build a high fat, low carb diet, it is extremely difficult to do so and ensure you’re getting certain key vitamins and essential protein combinations as required for good (sustainable) health. I’d strongly encourage you to do some serious research into this topic.

Assuming you’re against eating animals and/or animal products: Getting proper nutrition for a “high fat/low card/adequate protein” way of eating will remain extremely challenging without careful planning and supplementation.

Weight loss would then be the least of your problems.

:vulcan_salute:

(Central Florida Bob ) #5

While I think all the comments here are good, let me pitch in what I first thought of.

You might want to try cutting your carbs more. 47g/day is nowhere near the standard diets, but it’s still high for going keto. Dr. Eric Westman, who has been treating lots of patients with keto for decades says to get people past the hurdles that people trip over while going keto, recommends 20 grams/day total carbs, not net. Once you’re keto adapted, you might be able to increase carbs back to where you can eat 47g with no issues.

As for why it worked for you last time but not this time, I really can’t guess.

#6

The menu contained both eggs and dairy so nope. I wouldn’t worry about nutrition here. I did vegetarian low-carb/keto myself and it was easy though a bit boring as I had to eat cake and other desserts all the time to keep my carbs low enough but that was my personal problem, normal vegetarian ketoers don’t have that. Even I could do it better now.
20g carbs may be very challenging but if we can afford 40+ g, it gets easier to have a nice menu, we just need to handle the lack of other things (like a proper amount of vegs, that was the toughest for me but raw vegan quisine helped a lot. I liked raw veganism, I just needed another diet along with it to provide me with actual food :wink: ).

Even so, I am glad I have a different diet now but vegetarian keto wasn’t ideal for me anyway. It easily can be perfect for many others! And we can eat lots of nutritious animal products on vegetarian keto. I surely did just like I did it on vegetarian high-carb.

#7

For many people, it’s not too high. I was just a not active short woman, I had to stay below 40-45g net carbs (total was way higher, maybe double), okay it still meant I got lucky as even taller, more active, more muscular people can’t always afford that much on keto… Still, they have better chances for 47g carbs! Some people can go way higher! And it helps if we put the carbs around exercise… BUT indeed, 47g may be too much for the OP, that was my first tentative thought too reading the original comment. It may be fine but it may be much, maybe it’s worth it to try to go lower if possible. I always made sure I was very near to 40g net carbs as I would have quit otherwise and it was no problem. As I said, lucky!

Very unnecessary painful restriction for me (and I imagine, for many, especially on a vegetarian diet. I had quite high fiber and sugar alcohol on vegetarian keto, I couldn’t have done it without my, IDK, never tracked, 80-100g total carbs!). Except on carnivore, I can do 20g total there (but doesn’t want to. I do try to stay below 40 and I usually succeed. as long as my plant carbs are near zero, my body seems to be happy with my diet).
As a hedonist who can’t do <20g carbs keto, I always considered very important to do what works for us instead of causing very unnecessary pain to ourselves. I do understand if one wants to be totally safe and they sacrifice things. It’s their prerogative. Some of us try the easier way and see if it works first even if it means we potentially waste time (it wasn’t the case for me, it was easier for me to lower carbs a bit gradually, in a few jumps. and by easier, I mean possible… I couldn’t go very low suddenly, I have tried and my new, lower-carb recipes helped a ton too and they needed time).

(Alec) #8

Problem.

(KM) #9

Not to be rude, but I think @CFLBob 's suggestion is a good one. We’re not talking about you, and the OP is having trouble getting into ketosis at 47 carbs. It makes sense that they could experiment with fewer to see if that helps.

@RCH, according to charts, the number of calories you are eating may be somewhat high for your height and age, if you are looking to lose weight. There are a lot of thoughts here about calories not mattering, but if your metabolism is slowed for some reason, and if you’re also not in ketosis, 3,000 calories is maintenance or on the high side. Don’t know if you are biologically male or female, but that can make a difference too.

#10

Sure, it’s my opinion too, the thought come quite obviously when it’s about lack of ketosis and the carb intake is 47g! :smiley: I wrote it would be too much for me too. And I wrote about people in general, mostly, at least I have tried. Some needs <10g (total?) and some are fine with 100g net, we are just that different. I was against the idea that “47g is way too much for keto” as no, not for everyone, it’s not uncommon that it’s not too much. But if result doesn’t arrive, it’s worth to try less. It may be worth it anyway as mere ketosis may not be much or any better than the previous diet, I experienced that. But it’s individual, of course, some people need more carbs on keto - or off keto. Very low-carb isn’t for everyone.

#11

The majority of people can’t eat almost 3k and lose, but that said you’re 6’2" and 176lbs, that’s pretty light for that height to begin with.

Why are you trying to lose?

That said, are the blood tests saying 0.00?

Also, Ketones are made on demand to meet energy needs, you’re trying to run off fat as a primary fuel source, and eating almost 300g of fat. Not a lot of need for fuel in that situation.

(Bob M) #12

I’ve been able to produce blood ketones at 100+ grams of carbs per day, at least for 100g of rice noodles two days in a row. Not high ketones, but ketones. But the first day, I had done body weight training and ate the carbs at my first meal of the day, which is about 3 hours after body weight training. I felt fine. I think the carbs had somewhere (my muscles) to go. The next day, I ate 100g of rice noodles but did not exercise. I felt terrible. Sleepy, hungry, etc. I think the carbs had less of a place to go. (Still got ketones that day and next morning though.) This just shows that one can eat higher carbs and still produce ketones (though I’ve been keto for over 11 years, and might not be the best person to test this.)

Personally, while carbs are a factor in ketone production, I haven’t figured out how they work. There is supposedly a large difference between people: two people can eat the same diet and get vastly different ketones.

I’ve had low ketones of 0.2-0.4 mmol/l in the morning for YEARS now. Lately, I’ve been taking 500mg of liposomal glutathione at night, and now the LOWEST morning reading I’ve gotten is 0.9 mmol/l, most are 1.1-1.3. Still confused as to how that’s possible.

And I don’t think we know enough about ketones. I take 1-2, sometimes 3 ketone readings a day. That’s probably meaningless. This is from a study where they were looking at the feasibility of a continuous ketone meter:

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If you set the level of 0.5 mmol/l as being in “ketosis”, this person drops out pretty much every day. Even for me, my lowest ketones tend to be in the morning and my highest are at night. If I test in the morning, I’d think I had low ketones, but testing at night, I’d have high enough ketones to be in “ketosis”.

And, if you’re really insulin resistant, maybe you need very low carbs to encourage ketone production?