Why does it take me so long to get into ketosis?

(Sarah Peller) #1

Hey there. I’m pretty new to this whole keto thing. I’ve been doing this diet for about 4 months now. It took me extremely long to finally get into ketosis - 3 months. I was measuring my breath and then my urine. I weighed and measured many of my meals (but not all of them). I tried intermittent fasting. I never cheated. But I could not for the life of me get into ketosis.

Finally, in December, I went to the city for the weekend. I didn’t bring super low-carb foods with me and I cheated a little bit (some milk, a whole lot of keto chocolate, etc.) But when I got home, I was in ketosis! I think the only reason this happened was because I went out dancing on Sat night for about 4 hours. I ate some fat bombs toward the end of the night to satiate me. Then the next day I went dancing for another 5 hours thoughout the day. I didn’t eat anything very low carb, but there you go.

Once I was in ketosis, I felt like I could eat anything! Before I got into it, I was painstakingly measuring food and keeping food items that I think are important out of my diet, like carrots, onions, and other veggies that I love eating. But once I was in it, I felt like I was invincible.

That’s where I went wrong! I thought I’d go off the diet for 1 day and enjoy a birthday dinner, then hop right back on the next few days. I’ve read that it takes about 3 days to get into ketosis for most people, but it’s now been 4 days of trying to get back on the wagon and my breath/urine meters keep reading that I’m at 0 ketones. WTF?! I don’t understand what I am doing wrong! Do I need to exercise for an entire weekend to get back into ketosis? Something doesn’t seem right. I am now back to weighing and measuring all of my food and trying to figure out what the hell I’m doing wrong so I can fix this.

I hope some people have some wisdom for me because it’s so frustrating!! :exploding_head::dizzy_face::rage:

(Full Metal KETO AF) #2

Maybe you’re back in ketosis and using those ketones. Are you feeling any better after the off plan meal?

(Sarah Peller) #3

Well, I hadn’t been in ketosis long enough to notice much of a change in how I am feeling. I am interested in what you are saying about using the ketones. This is something I’d like to know more about as it’s the first time I’ve read anything like this…

(Full Metal KETO AF) #4

When you eat fats and are low carb eating your liver processes the fats you eat into ketones. These are used as fuel to run your body in the absence of dietary glucose. When starting this way of eating your body isn’t good at utilizing them, so you spill them out in urine, sweat, and breath. As your body gets better reprogrammed to use them they can read very low or zero when testing for them.

(Sarah Peller) #5

Hmm… so then how do you know that you are in ketosis?

(Anaka) #6

Do you think you’re eating enough fat on a daily basis? Whenever I’m stuck, I chart my macros for a couple days and then the problem usually pops out at me.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #7

I got into ketosis on the fifth day. I went from feeling crappy and lo energy to feeling good and having more energy than I was used to eating a lot of carbs. Also I felt like I had gotten off of a roller coaster and was on level ground energy wise.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #8

I have never used a testing device.

(Sarah Peller) #9

I think I eat a ton of fat. For instance, the first day back from my cheat day, I fasted for 16 hours and went for a bike ride during fasting time in the morning.

For breakfast, I had some matcha tea with about 1.5 tablespoons of heavy cream, 1 tablespoon of MCT oil and a tablespoon of monk fruit/eurithrytol mix. (during the fast period)

Then I had 2 eggs, 2 tablespoons of butter, and a 1/2 cup of cheese for lunch.

Dinner I had fat bombs make of cream cheese, monk fruit/eurithrytol, butter, heavy cream and coconut oil.

I often try so hard (like this day that I describe), and can’t figure out where I might be going wrong…

(Full Metal KETO AF) #10

That sounds like a decent amount of fat to me offhand :cowboy_hat_face: Don’t you eat meat? It looks low on protein to me.

(Sarah Peller) #11

Right?! I’m stumped.

(Anaka) #12

I’m not great with eyeballing grams of protein but maybe? you’re a little high on protein- with the cheeses. I’ll plug it in, give me a bit.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #13

2 eggs and 4 ounces of cheese for a day?

(Sarah Peller) #14

2 eggs & 4 ounces of cheese just for lunch

(Full Metal KETO AF) #15

But that’s all I see besides tea for breakfast and fatbombs for dinner.

(Carl Keller) #16

Hello Sarah.

Take no offense but this isn’t really food IMO. Asides from the eggs, it’s mostly oils and fats and doesn’t have much nutrition. Your body needs more than this.

Include things like chicken thighs, salmon, pork chops and steaks along with leafy vegetables and cruciferous vegetables (cabbage family ie brocolli, cauliflower) and low carb nuts. At the very least, moderate protein might help things along better.

(Sarah Peller) #17

That’s how I’ve been eating. I just thought I would try fat fasting for a day or two to get back into ketosis. Isn’t that something that people do? I usually am a huge fan of the well-rounded and balanced meal and that was how I was eating for the 3 months leading up to finally getting into ketosis.

(Anaka) #18

So according to my gizmo (for my stats of course) your protein isn’t too high. Sometimes it sneaks up on me with cheeses but I don’t think protein is culprit.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #19

That makes more sense now. I would go back to your previous WOE. :cowboy_hat_face:

(Sarah Peller) #20

Yes, I should have mentioned that!! :crazy_face: