Frustrated and Confused
TriLaura
Posts: 34 Member
I feel like this should be my nickname.
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Apologies. I have tried to write this post twice and both times it has failed. I am too frustrated to re write it a third time.
Bottom line is that I am gaining weight despite eating LCHF and can't figure out why. It has discouraged me so much that I'm considering going back to low fat which allowed me to lose 75kg.
I don't know. Hence the title confused and frustrated.0 -
Dealing with discouragement and our emotions is probably the toughest thing we face in our journey to health. Good luck to you - without more information an intelligent response / comment isn't possible so I simply wish you the best.0
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Can you open up your diary so we can see what your days look like?
Fwiw. Low carb isn't for everyone. We are all different and dont all react the same way. When you ate low fat, how did you feel?0 -
You can eat too much and break any diet
If you burn more than
You take in, you will lose weight
I hope you find a way of living and eating that works for you!0 -
Thanks for your replies. I have made my food diary public, if anyone wanted to take a look. Please be aware I've just recently reset my macro %.
I came back to add a little bit of detail. Firstly, I'm 5ft 9 and currently about 90kg (not exactly sure - too scared to hop on the scales at the moment).
Between 2008 and 2010, I lost 75kg by following a low fat "balanced diet" that involved calorie counting. I felt fine while doing it. Never really went hungry, never really felt deprived, exercised moderately. Of course, going low fat meant I unwittingly went high sugar and high carb - although it wasn't excessive carbs. I lost weight gradually, slowly reducing calories and basically shrank my way from size 28 to size 12-14 over 2 years. My overall body shape stayed the same, I just got smaller. Got my body fat % down to 22%.
It just all seemed to work the way it was supposed to.
Then I got into triathlon and I think that's where things went a little haywire. Stayed on restricted calories, trained like a maniac and fell into the "athlete's" high carb mentality. We're talking 75% of my diet came from carbs, and in particular, a lot of "sports" nutrition. Under-ate, over-trained and dug myself into a massive hole. Suffered from massive fatigue issues, blood sugar issues, mood instability and so forth. A knee injury (which I now attribute to a lack of nutrition and tearing down my body with exercise) forced me to stop. That was around 2013.
In 2014 I tried to heal myself with gentle exercise, a "balanced diet". I put on a bit of weight but nothing that rang alarm bells.
In December last year, I went LCHF with the intention of healing my body. I was probably about 10kg heavier than I wanted to be and while I lost weight initially, I haven't seen any more. I started out pretty hesitant, took my fat up to around 50%. Around March or so, I pushed the fat, dropped the carbs down to 50g. I did have a few days of very low carbs, around 25g but just couldn't maintain that.
So, while I do eat some fruit and quite a bit of veg, I don't eat pasta, rice, bread or cereal. My day looks something like:
Breakfast: 2 eggs fried in butter; coffee with cream
Lunch: garden salad with roast chicken; some strawberries and full fat greek yoghurt
Dinner: assortment of steamed vegetables (broccoli, cauli, carrot, brussels, string beans) and protein;
I usually include 30g nuts (dry roasted almonds), sometimes there's cheese (went a little overboard there for a while) and sometimes we have strawberries & yoghurt after dinner.
I average around 2000cals (I know we're not supposed to calorie count, but I track my foods for record purposes rather than calories). I also exercise 6 days out of 7. I did try some IF for a few weeks recently - fasting for 12-14hrs on a Monday and Wednesday but I found it does a number on my mind and all I do is think about food. Not ideal.
It frustrates me that I'm gaining because I believe I've got a good balance going - but clearly I'm doing something wrong. I believe in lowering carbs and since doing so have experienced a number of wonderful health benefits - my mood is stable; I sleep much more soundly; my libido is up (although, stopping the Pill might have something to do with that). But then, I'm gaining weight and size. I'm up 2 dress sizes and running out of clothes.
Psychologically, I don't know how I'd cope gaining much more weight. I was obese from the age of 5 to 32, and I finally feel like I've found the real me, I don't want to lose that again.
AnglnCanada - it's interesting that you ask how I felt eating low fat because I never really experienced any issues with it until I hit the training hard (I was averaging 12-14hrs of training on top of a full time physical job).
My partner keeps questioning why I persist with this WOE if I'm putting on weight unexpectedly. I'm starting to question it too. I mean, how was it that I could lose weight so well on low fat? Is that just what my body prefers and therefore I should go back? Is there some way to get the best of both worlds and not drop fats so low that it lands me back in that dark hole?
Hopefully I've offered a little more info and someone can help me out a little more. Much appreciated.0 -
You are supposed to calorie count!
That is a myth that you can eat unlimited calories on low carb diets
I eat 1800 calories from lower carb sources unless I am doing lots of exercise
So far I have lost a little over 130 pounds net after adding back 20 or so of muscle
Low carb has benefits that I like with sugar control and it is very filling getting lots of fibrous veggies
Not counting calories does not work for me. Maybe I am the exception. I have to monitor total intake and keep it below total output to lose weight0 -
That sounds so frustrating! You have my sympathy. I would suggest that the salad, all those veg, nuts, strawberries and yoghurt are likely to add up to more than 50g total carbs. You may therefore be taking on more carbs than you thought and that might be the root of the problem. If you eat high fat with anything other than very low carb at the same time that is a quick route to putting on weight on in my experience. I also agree that many of us do have to watch calories as well. I try not to eat my exercise calories (not that I exercise a lot - nowhere near what you do!). Plus I have now added in one day IF to get through a stall - I would suggest that you only do this when adapted to this WOE and on a day you are NOT exercising. Sometimes when metabolisms and bodies need to heal, I think we need to stay very low carb for a while and only add in the more veggies that we love when we are moving to maintenance. Anyway, I wish you well and hope that you find the right way for you.0
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I count calories too.
I'm wondering if you aren't getting enough hunger control because you haven't achieved fat adaption??? Just thinking out loud here... Your carb level is teetering on the Keto threshold. I don't know if that's even part of your plan, but my personal experience has been that my carbs need to stay below 30g for me to get the kind of hunger control that I like and it allows me to IF a few days a week with no problems.
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Ditto Sunny. Until I drop my carbs, I still feel hungry. Once I am below 30 net for a couple of days, I am much less hungry. The more carbs I eat, the more food I eat, in general.0
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I always count my calories and eat back some of them on days I swim. Weight training days I don't eat them back. I shoot for 70g or less of carbs right now because it works for me. I may try to lower that in the future but I do it slowly and let my body adapt to it to see how I feel (meaning I don't do it for 3 days and stop, it's at least 2 weeks).
I hope you can find a solution and can get your weight loss jumpstarted again.0 -
Just tossing this out there
And the beauty of our group is true diversity and tolerance mixed with kindness...
If you are able and inclined to exercise it can be magical at getting the ball rolling
Cardio level exercise at 80% max heart rate burns out glycogen and kind of will bring you into a glycogen depleted state
If you look at my food diary, do not follow what I do. I exercise intensely because I am just an all out kind of person.
But.... You can burn off carbs if you have a slip or just want to get into keto state
But don't do like I do it unless you burn off 12,000 or so calories a week exercising
Best wishes and I hope you get to that sweet spot!0 -
If you are gaining weight, it is probably because you are consuming too many calories. Unless you have developed a thyroid issue or started taking a med that is causing water retention or other issues...?
Input your stats into this calc:
http://keto-calculator.ankerl.com/
Set your desired carb level and set it at a 20% or less calorie deficit (I recommend about 15% so as not to be too aggressive and be hungry) and it will suggest your macros and your calorie goal. Set it to "sedentary" if you plan on eating back exercise calories (which you need to be careful of as MFP is notorious for overestimating calorie burn.) Fiddle with it and find the appropriate calorie intake for you.
See if you can tweak your macros and calorie intake and give it a good go for 4 to 6 weeks. If it still isn't working optimally for you by that time, maybe low-carbing isn't your perfect match. Or maybe a higher carb level (100-120) is better.
HTH.0
