Will I lose weight even if I'm in the healthy weight range?

(Amber Gault) #1

Hi everyone, I started keto 1 month ago, I lost 9lb in the first 10 days but nothing since. I now weigh 154lb I’m 5ft 7in tall and now within the healthy range but would like to lose at least another 10lb. Am I not losing weight because this is where my body thinks its weight should be? or am I doing something wrong? I’m eating under 20g carbs and eating 2-3 times a day mainly salad leaf and meats with avocado with plenty of fats. Thanks in advance :blush:

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #2

You say you lost 9 pounds in 10 days. That’s a rate of loss that is unsustainable. So it’s not unusual you stopped losing. Most folks also find that the first 100 pounds come off easier and faster than the last 10 pounds. So your experience is not unusual in that regard either. There is also truth in the statement that eating keto will trend towards your ‘ideal’ weight and body comp over time and that sometimes that’s not what you had hoped or wanted.

You say you started keto 1 month ago, but in your avatar you say you’ve been eating keto 2 weeks. Not that it’s a big deal at this stage, but losing 7 pounds (avatar) or 9 pounds (post) in two weeks or a month is not bad. Most folks here would say that’s pretty good and nothing to be discouraged about.

Keep your carbs sub-20 grams per day - consistently, don’t guess - and you will give your metabolism and body the time to adjust and start to fix whatever needs fixing. What and how much needs to be fixed depends how long you’ve been eating SAD and what damage has been done. If you’re lucky, maybe not much and you will normalize quickly. I would suggest not to worry about those last 10 pounds you want to lose for a few months. They may very well go away as your metabolism and body regain normal again. And if not, it will be easier to lose in six months than now. Best wishes.

(Amber Gault) #3

Thanks for your reply. My first day of keto was 1st Nov so nearly a month I also caught covid that week but stuck to keto. What you’ve said is reassuring that it’s all normal and hopefully I’ll start to lose more but I need to be patient

(Laurie) #4

Welcome, Amber! Yes, those last 10 pounds can be very slow.

(Robin) #5

Sounds about right. I am same height no weight. I am happy as a clam right here, but trusting my body to say “when”. When I feel like I am ready to maintain, I’ll add a few more calories. In te meantime, slow is good.

#6

The initial weight loss is typical and usually is water and glycogen. Fat loss usually isn’t linear and targeting 1-2 pounds a week is a good goal. Some shed fat fast and some don’t. Others experience a nice body recomposition with fat loss and lean mass increase, sometimes not reflected by weight decrease on the scale. Some people have done a number on their RMR from calorie restricted diets and need to spend time eating sufficient calories before the body begins to shed excess energy. Past is prologue and our experiences are unique, so the journey can be individualistic with some variance to what others have encountered.

A month seems like a reasonable amount of time to reflect on some non-scale victories in your keto journey. Is your energy better? Sleep better? Mind feel sharper? Some come for the fat loss and stay for all of the other wonderful benefits and enjoy fat loss during the journey albeit sometimes slower than they would hope.

Welcome to the journey!

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #7

Although we mostly hear about a ketogenic diet in the context of people wanting to lose weight, it needs to be borne in mind that this way of eating is really a low-insulin diet that promotes metabolic healing and weight-normalisation.

Ketogenic eaters who have excess fat to shed are likely to shed it (though out body may determine that it likes a different weight from what we want, lol!), but it is not unknown for people to add lean mass, while simultaneously shedding fat. As you can imagine, this confuses the scale no end, so the fit of our clothing needs to be as important a measure of progress as the number on our scale.

Dr. Stephen Phinney, one of the primary researchers into the ketogenic diet, said in an interview with the Two Keto Dudes that what he has seen is that people who have excess fat to shed typically lose an amount of fat equal to 10-20% of their body weight.

Myself, I lost 80 lbs. (36 kg) of fat, which was, near as I can reckon, 27% of my starting weight. I wouldn’t mind losing the same again, but my body has other ideas. I’d probably be more concerned, but my primary goal for the diet was to restore my metabolic health (I was probably diabetic, and was certainly pre-diabetic), and the fat loss has been a delightful side effect.

#8

Hi Amber, congratulations on your successful month of keto and your weight loss so far.

I am curious about a few things— How old are you, and how is your general health and wellbeing? Have you ever tried to lose weight before? Why do you want to lose the weight? Do you have any other physical or mental health challenges?

I am coming at this from the perspective of decades of weight yo-yo-ing, crash dieting, bingeing and disordered eating, so please feel completely free to ignore this advice if it’s not relevant to you—

But if it IS relevant, then I would be cautious about trying to lose too much weight when you are already at a healthy weight. For those of us with a history of disordered eating, this can trigger all the feelings of hunger and deprivation that ultimately kick off another cycle of bingeing and restricting. I personally have not been able to find a happy equilibrium with my eating until I gave up hopes of being at the very bottom of my healthy weight range - even though I too would love to lose 10lbs, purely because skinny jeans would look much better on me!

So far, keto (or a WOE pretty close to it) has a lot to offer to me that doesn’t involve weight loss - healthy and satisfying food, good energy, management of my addictive appetite and cravings. I am trying to think of weight loss as a side benefit, rather than the main event. Ironically, through taking this approach, weight maintenance is pretty effortless right now. But the moment I focus on it, old and dysfunctional patterns start to rear their head.

Again, I am definitely not saying this applies to everyone— just something you may like to consider if you are one of the many people who come to keto after decades of disordered eating.

Good luck with your eating journey :grinning:

#9

PS. If anything in my post speaks to you, I recommend checking out the books of Gillian Riley for further reading.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #10

It should be noted that a ketogenic diet should be eating to satiety, not to a targeted amount of calories. The idea is that as insulin drops, it stops interfering with the hormones that regulate appetite, which then becomes a safe guide to how much to eat. Eating only when hungry and eating enough to satisfy that hunger is not likely to lead to disordered eating. In fact, the psychiatrist Georgia Ede uses a ketogenic diet as part of the treatment of her anorexic and bulimic patients.

My own experience was that eating to satiety led me to consume large quantities of food for the first two or three weeks of my ketogenic diet, but suddenly my appetite dropped, and the quantity of food that was enough to satisfy me was markedly less. I was able to go many hours between meals, before I would get hungry again and have to eat.

(Amber Gault) #11

Thank you everyone for your responses to my question, I am feeling so much more energised and healthy since starting and I weighed my self this morning and I’m another pound down so I am losing. Patience is key I’m just not very patient :rofl: but I’m determined to keep going

#12

Your body on keto will be leaner and meaner but never by that darn scale.

Thing is your clothes looser will change, you will feel so much better off junk foods in this world and your mental games changes and SO much more coming yet we ALL come into this ‘all about losing that darn lb.’ LOL

So hold tight. Your loss is covid and water weight and might come back on even for a few but key is eat this way. Health and food intake with good whole great foods is key here, and it could take time for alot more change in ‘that scale’ but realize time is what gives overall health and a size down ya know.

Time. Commit lifestyle and you got this! Long term change to an eating lifestyle will truly change us on that scale and clothes and body composition and more. Keep going!

(Robin) #13

Exactly! Also, be prepared for your scale to jump around occasionally for no good reason. And that’s really the point… there is no good reason. It too shall pass. be patient. Also… if you can break yourself from daily weighing, you’ll be playing fewer mind games with yourself. Maybe once a month or so. But, like stated, your clothes truly will be the ultimate proof. It’s weird how your body will reshape itself on keto, and the scale may not show a thing. Carry on… You got this!

(BuckRimfire) #14

This is a good point. Strongly recommend that you use a tape measure to measure your neck, waist, arms, hips, thighs, knees, ankles, etc carefully ASAP and every month or so. If you are recompositioning (losing fat or fluid, maintaining or gaining muscle) you may lose inches more than weight.

(Edith) #15

Totally agree. I’ve been keto/carnivore for over four years. Ive been maintaining the same weight for four years. Just recently I noticed my legs and tush were looking slimmer, but my weight has not changed. My body is still changing and remodeling.

There are many stories on the forum of people losing inches while their weight stayed the same. Definitely, take measurements.

On the Healthy Rebellion, they do the tight pants test: use how the pants fit over time to see how well you are doing with fat loss and recomposition.

#16

Everyone is different and it matters (or at least may matter, it surely do that, a lot, to many of us) what and how much you eat, even on keto.
It seems you do it right, you want to lose a bit fat and you lose it slowly! Sounds perfect! You can’t expect quick loss if you don’t have a lot to lose. Even not losing for a while is perfectly normal. Sometimes you do everything right but your body does something else for a while. And you want to lose fat, not necessarily weight.