WTF! Why am I gaining if I’m not eating carbs

(rosa) #1

So I updated my fat intake and bearly eating carbs if any. And I’ve gained 4 pounds. WTH am I doing wrong. Super frustrating:(

(Jay AM) #2

You provided no information that we can work from so, I’ll give you my general recommendations. Feel free to give us some food logs to look at and also tell us if you are supplementing electrolytes as well as your general stats like age, height, weight.

We have a few sayings here, “keep calm, keto on” and “trust the process.” Keto isn’t a quick weight loss diet. It’s a health gaining way of eating with fat loss as a side effect. If the scale is an unhealthy obsession, put it away for a couple of months or give it to a neighbor you don’t like.

There are two phases to ketosis and a ketogenic lifestyle.

Nutritional ketosis is phase one. Your body begins to produce and uptake some ketones while dumping the rest. It will still search for glucose to use as fuel. In this phase it’s not an efficient process. It has to work actively to get rid of stored glycogen, clean up excess blood sugar, and turn on the ability to use ketones.

Fat adaptation is phase two. Your body is efficiently producing ketones from intake and stored body fat and is also using them efficiently for energy. It takes around 6-8 weeks of strict keto to achieve for many but not all.

The basic “rules” I go by and many others can agree with especially for beginners are:

*20g net carbs max (you might tolerate more but, starting out, 20g net carbs or less will get you into ketosis.)

*Moderate protein (1g-1.5g per kg of lean bodyweight is a good goal based on the 2 Dudes recommendations.)

*Fat to satiety (add fat to every meal and, if you are hungry, eat more fat. Don’t be afraid of fat. It is energy.)

*Do not restrict calories

*Do not exercise excessively

*Drink plenty of water

*Get plenty of sodium and other electrolytes

(Ron) #3

This might help also. Scroll to top and read the whole conversation.

(rosa) #4

I’m 43 1 was 186 today I weight 190 5’5” I don’t count calories, I was eating more protein and was told to increase the amount of fat. My carbs I keep them to less 20g bearly eating any carbs. Here is what I had today

Breakfast I ate 3 fried eggs with bacon
Lunch cheese and chorizo
Baked chicken wings
Snack porkskin
Tea
Coffee with heavy cream
Plenty of water

(Jay AM) #5

Likely your weight gain is very temporary then. If you don’t count calories, you may be getting more than usual and that’s perfectly fine. If the scale causes stress, put it away for a while. Make sure to add electrolytes, here’s a thread about ketoade. You could just be retaining water which is extremely common in women.

(Ron) #6

How long have you been doing Keto and are you fat adapted fully ?

#7

CICO still matters. It’s just that carbs usually fuel appetite more than fat, so Keto lowers the cravings and hunger for many. It did for me. But, as always, YMMV.

(Angelica Lopez) #8

Sounds like water weight, for whatever reason. The scale is your enemy right now and it’s best to only weigh once a month at first so you can actually see loss. Us women are prone to fluctuations in weight due to hormones and fluid retention. If you weigh yourself frequently you will see those fluctuations too frequently and it will mess with your head. Oh yeah, don’t forget to measure problem areas, write it down, and repeat no more than every 2 weeks.

(Jamie Hayes) #9

You’re not adding copious fat I hope.
You’re getting 8 hours sleep I hope.
You’re not under too much stress I hope.
You’re avoiding vegetable oils I hope.

PS: I’m cynical about artificial sweeteners or artificially sweetened drinks.

(Ron) #10

I guess you could look at carbs mattering (not in such a good way) f you are restricting them.
This explains the process better than I.

(Trish) #11

I think someone already said it but be sure to get the tape measure out. Many people lose inches even without losing scale weight. Or use a pair of jeans that are too small to do up as a measure. I.e can’t get the button together. Then one day soon oh look I can do the button up. Then oh wow. I can wear these…if I don’t sit down and then OMG these fit!

(Brian) #12

Maybe nothing, but I saw breakfast, lunch, and snack. Are you grazing through your day? Have you considered losing the snack and eating so your meals carry you through until the next meal? Or even going to one meal a day?

Eating more fat can boost the fat burning at times but Ted Naiman has mentioned that you really can eat too much fat to continue the weight loss.

Have you spent time actually calculating your protein intake? An example is having 3 eggs. Sounds big. That’s only 18g of protein, a fine start for most of us, and good food, but not nearly enough protein to fulfill a large part of your daily needs. You’ll need more.

Good luck getting it figured out. Weight does move around, and not always the way we expect.

(8 year Ketogenic Veteran) #13

Eat fat to satiety.
Right now you’re teaching your body to use fat as fuel so give it lots of fuel so it understands. And women’s bodies can fluctuate in weight easily 4 lb a day just with water. I agree with the others throw the scale away pay attention to how your clothes feel, pay attention to how you feel. And until you are a good six to eight weeks in being strict ketogenic you’re not really going to know what’s going to happen with your body. Electrolytes are important. If you don’t get enough sodium your body will actually hang on to extra water. Seriously right now don’t worry about anything but keeping carbohydrate low. Nobody needs to be hungry on the ketogenic diet!

eat fat to satiety. And a few other people mentioned meal timing. This is true! the longer we keep our insulin low the more access our body has to its fat stores. So when you eat, really really eat. And then go as long as you can comfortably before the next meal. Eliminate snacking and eliminate artificial sweeteners.
both will keep your insulin raised. Kcko and give yourself time.

(Darren) #14

This may/may not be popular opinion here (im new) but caloric intake still counts. The beauty of Keto is you eventually dull down that hunger mechanism but while you are switching your response to calories might be wacky.

(Jay AM) #15

For those saying calories count, assuming you mean that people should count calories, I’d like your data please. Scientific articles or doctor written articles that you have available to provide in a keto context.

(rosa) #16

Thank you all for your intake and support. while currently stuffing my face with eggs and bacon. can you give give me an idea what your typical day consist of. i find myself struggling to find high fat food that i like.
yes will throw the :zipper_mouth_face::zipper_mouth_face::zipper_mouth_face: scale in the garbage

thank you :slight_smile:

#17

It’s just common sense. It wasn’t until I went from lazy Keto to a restricted calorie version of Keto that I started losing weight. Before Keto, I was using nearly a vial of insulin a day for my T2 diabetes. On lazy Keto, that dropped to about a third of a vial daily, but no weight loss. Since I started restricting calories 16 months ago, I’ve dropped 180 pounds and no longer use insulin or metformin for my diabetes. It wasn’t until I started to keep a food diary that I found out my portion sizes were too large, and I was eating far too many calories.

The hardest part for me was cutting back on the high-fat foods I love – bacon, sausage, butter, and cheese. I could easily eat a dozen sausages a day if I let myself. I used to joke that I could turn a 60-calorie veggie side dish into a 700-calorie one by adding “just a little” butter and cheese.

So, at least in my case, with morbid obesity, insulin resistance, and five decades of bad eating habits, calories do count. I can’t lose weight on this way of eating as an “all the protein and fat I can eat” program.

Or are you implying that as long as I keep my carbs low, I should be able to eat all that bacon, sausage, butter, and cheese, because their calories won’t count?

#18

I’ve come to believe that in a more general sense, calories do count. Not that they should be counted. My own experience of lazy keto all of last year - keeping carbs low, eating lots (and lots) of fats, I gained at least 10 pounds.

There are also several experts I’ve heard say that, yes, they do count. It’s not something stressed since counting cals seems counter productive. One I can specifically remember saying it in a video is Dr. Eric Westman. Maybe not count in the traditional way that strict caloric weight loss diets say, but… just because you don’t eat carbs does not mean you can eat your brains out and expect to not gain.

(What The Fast?!) #19

I’ve also heard Fung say that yes, they count. There is no magical world where you can way overeat (whether in fat or otherwise) and not gain weight. It might not be as MUCH weight as if you were a carb-burner overeating on sugar and carbs, but you’d still gain.

(KCKO, KCFO) #20

Have you upped exercise, if so cut that back. Exercising can make your muscles hold onto the water.

Also do you track your ketones with ketostix/breathalyzer/blood meter?

Have you been doing this long enough to be fat adapted? It takes some people months to get there. If you are coming off of CICO way of life yoyoing, that can make it take longer.

At first you should be lowering carbs and upping the fat, moderate protein. Don’t over do protein, best protein is high fat proteins.

Good luck on sorting it all out.