Yo-yo weight

(Liz Santiago) #1

Hi, Everyone!
I started keto on Jan 4 and so far I have lost 22 pounds but I have noticed that I might lose 2 pound in a week but then next week I might gain 1 or 2 the lose 3. I also notice that I usually gain during the weekend but the thing is that I only 2 meals (breakfast and lunch) all week except Friday that I eat dinner. During the week, I do fasting after my lunch at 1pm. I was wondering if anyone has an idea why I keep losing and gaining weight like a yo-yo. Friday and Saturday is usually hard for me to do fasting because I stay up past midnight so I get hungry; however, is usually Friday when I tend to have dinner. I rarely have dinner on Saturdays.

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

Weight/fat loss is not linear. It’s typically up/down lose/gain. But the trend over time should be generally down. That said, what and how much of it are your eating? Keto is carb restriction, not calorie restriction and you can overdo the fasting if not careful.

22 pounds in about 11-12 weeks is nothing to get disappointed about either. That would add up to 100+ pounds in 12 months. :slightly_smiling_face:

(Liz Santiago) #3

I get discourage sometimes because I read of many people losing so much in a month. During the week I am mostly eating the same things because I have not much time to cook or experiment on recipes. My breakfast is either 3 boiled eggs with a small hass avocado or a sandwich with two slices of ham, 1 slice of cheese and the bread two slices that have 12 g of carbs and butter. I drink a cup of coffee with 1/2 cup of almond milk and 1 tbs of MCT oil. For lunch, I make chicken strips coated with pork rinds and I eat like 3 small pieces the size of a finger with 1 cup of either asparagus or green beans with garlic and a 2 tbs spoons of cheese and a small hass avocado. The weekends is when I try experimenting with recipes and try other things. My frustration comes from the idea that I do not think I am eating that much to not be able to lose more weight, although I have to say that I do not do any exercise and I am sitting all day at work.

#4

Set up cronometer, track everything that you eat, even when you get stupid, and you’ll see plain as day whats going on. I’d agree it seems you’re not eating much which by itself can be a problem. But when you don’t have a real breakdown of what you’re eating it leaves a ton of gray area to try to guess though. There’s literary been studies done just to prove people suck at mentally tracking their dietary intake. You can always fix the exercise problem.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #5

The people with large, fast fat loss are (a) guys with (b) lots fat to lose. And absolutely everyone slows down when they get closer to their healthy weight. The last 10 kilos come off much more slowly than the first 100.

Don’t get me wrong—women can shed large amounts of fat, too, as witness many of our before and after threads, but they tend to shed it more slowly. A woman’s hormones have a great effect on the process. Not only that, but women who have starved themselves over the years in order to get the scale number lower tend to put on lean mass even while shedding fat. This is why we always tell people not to use the scale as their only indicator of progress.

I was given a pair of trousers for Christmas of 2017, after shedding around 80 lbs./36 kg of fat. The trousers were too small to fit over my butt. By Christmas of 2018, my weight remained unchanged, but the trousers fit just fine. Obviously, I had continued to shed fat while gaining the equivalent amount of lean mass (because my weight remained stable).

Furthermore, fat loss is never linear. As long as the trend is going in the right direction, you are fine. So keep your carbohydrate low, be sure to get enough protein, and eat enough fat to satisfy your hunger. You’ll be fine.

#6

I agree with every post here. I track my weight loss two ways, my scale app and my garmin app. I prefer my garmin app because it has a weekly average. This way, I don’t have to stress too much about a bad day or weekend. I know if I had a bad day and how it changes my weekly or monthly average. I don’t know of any free weight loss tracking that has an average you could focus on. Maybe someone can help with that.

#7

Indeed. Like you. 22 pounds this year? It’s terrific! I never could do it myself, not even close and it’s perfectly fine as I never was very heavy (or active), I don’t know about you.
I have read stories about people losing a pound a month or less. And they often were quite strict and maybe even had a big amount to lose.
We are different.

It’s called yo-yo when one loses a lot and gain it back. The described thing is perfectly normal and it probably has little to do with fat, it’s mostly water, sometimes waste (but one should eat a lot then or weigh at the wrong time). The body does that.

Your number of meals say little about energy intake… I can eat way less in 4 meals than in some other single one, it depends on various things. (Though there is a strong correlation especially using the same choices and timing, especially regarding the average intake, it’s probably true for most of us.)

If you get hungry, eat, I don’t know why anyone forces themselves and suffer unless they really don’t have any other options for some reason. It’s fine to have more meals on the weekend but if that’s too much food (it is for me under normal circumstances but I prefer more substantial meals), you can do something with your timing, maybe. Or food choices. Or don’t care about losing in the weekends and see what happens then (you probably will lose just fine even then)…
I am horrible at guessing macros or even calorie intake from a no matter how detailed menu and yours has vague amounts and I don’t know the numbers of your bread either, whatever, I still would be bad at it, I don’t know your needs or stats either and that still wouldn’t be enough info - but it’s possible you should eat more and different things. I eat a few times more from my protein sources I am sure. You eat a few eggs, almost no meat, little cheese… I don’t intent to criticize your meal as I don’t have enough information for it and anyway, some people need less food etc. I am just thinking about possibilities and your food strikes me as little or not necessarily having enough protein. And possibly having too much carbs, it’s very individual. If I wanted to avoid hunger without eating much more, I would add protein and take away carbs. And probably swap the added fat but it’s very individual. But your weight-loss is great (I have no idea what your muscles are doing except they must go down a bit as you lose weight and don’t exercise. you surely loses fat at a nice place), I would check if I eat enough, enough protein, low enough carbs.