in Ketosis, not losing????

jobean12

I have checked, I am in Ketosis......... watching calories, exercising..... not losing, was down about 3 lbs and now today I am up a 1/2 a lb. I only weigh once a week..... I am so frustrated! What is going on?? I am recovering from foot surgery so walking very little but I am biking a lot, could it be I am doing too much??

Sunny_Bunny_

jobean12 wrote: »

I have checked, I am in Ketosis......... watching calories, exercising..... not losing, was down about 3 lbs and now today I am up a 1/2 a lb. I only weigh once a week..... I am so frustrated! What is going on?? I am recovering from foot surgery so walking very little but I am biking a lot, could it be I am doing too much??

Ok. So... You have not gained half a pound of bodyweight. You have gained half a pound of water.
Exercise will create some water retention. So will stress, hormones and TOM. Other things that create weight fluctuations are the contents of your gut.
Weight fluctuates dramatically from day to day and even from hour to hour!

Here's my past week weigh ins. All over the place!

Let's say I decided that Sunday was my weigh in day. The Sunday before the one shown in the image I weighed in at 136. The following Sunday I weighed in at 137.1. If I only weighed on certain days and used that number to represent all my weeks efforts, I would be very disappointed. And for no reason at all! I've lost 0.4lbs in the last week (close to goal), which is more than I've lost in that much time since September! This was my best week in a loooooong time, but if I just picked a day to act as the day my weight means something, I would be super duper bummed right now!
The recorded weight was my daily scale weight. The moving average is my real weight based on the average of the last 7 days. Apps like this help us to see past the daily fluctuations. This one is called Happy Scale.
Here's my last 30 days. Each blue dot is a daily weigh in.
See how it goes up and down all month long, but the average trends down over the course of the month.

klkateri

I do the same thing with my scale that has a built in app and I can watch the trend. I still get annoyed, no doubt, but at least I can see that the general trend and not just a one day thing. I only "count" one day, but if i weigh in on Saturday (my weigh in day) but I was at a pound lower the previous day I will "officially" record that weight here. Is it cheating, no, because my trend all week was down so I'm just giving the average low weight of the week if that day my weight is off. And, even in Ketosis, I find my weight doesn't drop like crazy either.

jobean12

Thank you so much for you input, I will check out those apps. Really what I am hearing is stay the course and trust the process, yes? Thank you.

Sunny_Bunny_

jobean12 wrote: »

Thank you so much for you input, I will check out those apps. Really what I am hearing is stay the course and trust the process, yes? Thank you.

Yes. Stay the course. Just eat the right foods to satisfaction and don't kill yourself with exercise. All will be well.

SuesNewImage

I do weigh daily only to learn how my body works. I also use happy scale to get my average. Even if I have a scale gain the moving average goes DOWN. I have never had the moving average go up, never. So I then don't worry about the up fluctuations, as long as my moving average keeps going down. And my graph of actual weight is like @Sunny_Bunny_ and not a steady smooth downward line. But when i get a result on the scales that's a new record low, of course it feels so good. Stick with it. This journey is not just for the last week's or months eating, in my case, it is a culmination of years of food neglect that I just didn't know to what extent. I cannot tell my body to ignore years of history.

It also depends if you are Keto adapted, your carb tolerance, your sodium & potassium, how much protein. We are human & don't fit every day the same way. So just sit back & enjoy the ride for the rest of your life. You and your health is worth ketoing.

macchiatto

I also weigh daily to get a better sense of trend and what causes fluctuations. I use an app called Libra to track the results; it also gives my "trend."

jobean12

Calories 1400
Carbohydrates 18 g 5 %
Fat 101 g 65 %
Protein 105 g 30 %
Can anyone tell me if my macros are ok? My calories where at 1600 but I dropped them because I am not losing at all..........

Sunny_Bunny_

jobean12 wrote: »

Calories 1400
Carbohydrates 18 g 5 %
Fat 101 g 65 %
Protein 105 g 30 %
Can anyone tell me if my macros are ok? My calories where at 1600 but I dropped them because I am not losing at all..........

Your body is not a calculator. You can lose fat without losing weight. I promise!
I've only lost 4 pounds since September but look at what that 4 pounds looks like. I didn't really exercise either so gaining muscle isn't the explanation for my lack of weight loss even though I average 1250 calories and 20 total carbs.


There is a lot of missing information to be able to give you ideas on things that might be a potential issue though.
Are you pre diabetic or diabetic, have PCOS or suspect insulin resistance? All of these make you more prone to convert excess protein to glucose. Which results in fat storage with these conditions. I am 40, female, 5'4" and I try to limit protein to less than 70g a day. I don't have any of the conditions but I just feel like it effects digestion for me at higher levels and I feel "heavy" in my gut and always have a few extra pounds due to the digestion on heavy protein days. I also seem to digest some proteins easier than others.
I wonder if your digestion of that high protein is masking fat loss you've actually achieved.

Have you read "The scale is a lying liar pants" in the launch pad.
Please, please do. ASAP!
I'm super worried for you that this focus on scale weight is going to derail your success.

jobean12

Thank you for your input, I am healthy as a horse so to speak....... 5" 10" muscular build. Just very frustrated. I will read that book/article. Thanks for the support and suggestions. I will let go of the scale and focus on how I feel..... You do look great and yes, 4 lbs. made a huge difference.

jobean12

I am not finding "The scale is a lying liar pants"....... do you know how I search it out? I googled it and it led me back to mfp but not the actual article.

ms_smartypants

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10067269/your-scale-is-a-lying-liarpants?new=1

jobean12

Thank you so much. GREAT article and great advice.

auntstephie321

I agree with sunny. The scale is a liar. I weigh 3 lbs more in my 'after' picture. Don't stress just keep doing everything right and maybe do some photos to compare to.