Why didn't Keto work for me?
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This is what worked for me:
- Enter your information into MFP
- Select sedentary as your activity level
- MFP will give you a maximum number of calories to work with
- Eat that amount or slightly less (weigh your food to ensure you are consuming the correct number of calories)
- Stick with it
- If you exercise, log it, but under-estimate the time and intensity for a more accurate number of calories burned.
- Eat about half the exercise calories back
- Stick with it
- Go to your grocery store and browse the aisles reading labels and carefully considering all the options ... there are a lot of options available
- Experiment with foods to discover which foods have staying power and keep you full longer ... and which don't
- Stick with it
- But only stick with it for 3 or 4 months ... this is not a forever thing ... at the end of 3 or 4 months you can reassess the situation and decide if you want a short diet break or if you want to keep going for another 3 or 4 months
- Focus on other things ... start training to run a marathon or cycling event or kayaking race or something ... take night classes ... volunteer ... clean your house from top to bottom ... take up a hobby ... make your life about something other than food
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This is what worked for me:
- Enter your information into MFP
- Select sedentary as your activity level
- MFP will give you a maximum number of calories to work with
- Eat that amount or slightly less (weigh your food to ensure you are consuming the correct number of calories)
- Stick with it
- If you exercise, log it, but under-estimate the time and intensity for a more accurate number of calories burned.
- Eat about half the exercise calories back
- Stick with it
- Go to your grocery store and browse the aisles reading labels and carefully considering all the options ... there are a lot of options available
- Experiment with foods to discover which foods have staying power and keep you full longer ... and which don't
- Stick with it
- But only stick with it for 3 or 4 months ... this is not a forever thing ... at the end of 3 or 4 months you can reassess the situation and decide if you want a short diet break or if you want to keep going for another 3 or 4 months
- Focus on other things ... start training to run a marathon or cycling event or kayaking race or something ... take night classes ... volunteer ... clean your house from top to bottom ... take up a hobby ... make your life about something other than food
Thanks for the info. Most of that is what I did or tried to do. I feel like keto is the easiest way for me personally to stay on plan but when you go almost 3 months without a loss, I feel like something is wrong. Other diets produce a loss but I can't stick to plan long. Keto is a lifestyle for me. I wished I knew what I did wrong.0 -
sweetbug0130 wrote: »According to your food diary, you haven't tracked long term or consistently to achieve long term results, keto or not. And calories count. Period.
I haven't been doing keto. I did it in the past. I know calories count and I ate according to my calorie goal as suggested on here. I went two months with no loss.
Were you weighing your foods back then? From my personal experience, if keto does not have the predicted appetite suppression you could be eating too many calories without realizing it because the portions are so small and the margin of error is so big. Since keto is high in fat, it's important to be extremely accurate with portions if you don't have a reduced appetite. Even a tiny error of 5 grams, barely perceptible, when measuring vs weighing fat could cost you 40 or more calories. Compound that with errors all over the board with calorie rich items and you can very easily wipe out your deficit.
Edit: One more thing I also noticed. Since the diet was quite stressful for me, cortisol related weight stalls are not uncommon. Usually once you stop the stressful food behavior your weight wooshes out.5 -
amusedmonkey wrote: »sweetbug0130 wrote: »According to your food diary, you haven't tracked long term or consistently to achieve long term results, keto or not. And calories count. Period.
I haven't been doing keto. I did it in the past. I know calories count and I ate according to my calorie goal as suggested on here. I went two months with no loss.
Were you weighing your foods back then? From my personal experience, if keto does not have the predicted appetite suppression you could be eating too many calories without realizing it because the portions are so small and the margin of error is so big. Since keto is high in fat, it's important to be extremely accurate with portions if you don't have a reduced appetite. Even a tiny error of 5 grams, barely perceptible, when measuring vs weighing fat could cost you 40 or more calories. Compound that with errors all over the board with calorie rich items and you can very easily wipe out your deficit.
That's interesting but I felt I did pretty well with that. I tend to over estimate a bit on some things too just to make sure.0 -
sweetbug0130 wrote: »amusedmonkey wrote: »sweetbug0130 wrote: »According to your food diary, you haven't tracked long term or consistently to achieve long term results, keto or not. And calories count. Period.
I haven't been doing keto. I did it in the past. I know calories count and I ate according to my calorie goal as suggested on here. I went two months with no loss.
Were you weighing your foods back then? From my personal experience, if keto does not have the predicted appetite suppression you could be eating too many calories without realizing it because the portions are so small and the margin of error is so big. Since keto is high in fat, it's important to be extremely accurate with portions if you don't have a reduced appetite. Even a tiny error of 5 grams, barely perceptible, when measuring vs weighing fat could cost you 40 or more calories. Compound that with errors all over the board with calorie rich items and you can very easily wipe out your deficit.
That's interesting but I felt I did pretty well with that. I tend to over estimate a bit on some things too just to make sure.
If that answer means that you weren't weighing your food, then I have to agree that you weren't eating at a deficit. Eating at a deficit causes weight loss.12 -
Your calorie goal was enough to put you at a deficit - you were eating more than 1300 calories. At your height and weight the lbs would melt off at 1300 calories. You need to weigh your food and be honest with yourself.7
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sweetbug0130 wrote: »amusedmonkey wrote: »sweetbug0130 wrote: »According to your food diary, you haven't tracked long term or consistently to achieve long term results, keto or not. And calories count. Period.
I haven't been doing keto. I did it in the past. I know calories count and I ate according to my calorie goal as suggested on here. I went two months with no loss.
Were you weighing your foods back then? From my personal experience, if keto does not have the predicted appetite suppression you could be eating too many calories without realizing it because the portions are so small and the margin of error is so big. Since keto is high in fat, it's important to be extremely accurate with portions if you don't have a reduced appetite. Even a tiny error of 5 grams, barely perceptible, when measuring vs weighing fat could cost you 40 or more calories. Compound that with errors all over the board with calorie rich items and you can very easily wipe out your deficit.
That's interesting but I felt I did pretty well with that. I tend to over estimate a bit on some things too just to make sure.
If that answer means that you weren't weighing your food, then I have to agree that you weren't eating at a deficit. Eating at a deficit causes weight loss.
I said that in reference to his tip on weighing. I weighed and measured everything and on some things over estimated so nothing could sneak in...0 -
Your calorie goal was enough to put you at a deficit - you were eating more than 1300 calories. At your height and weight the lbs would melt off at 1300 calories. You need to weigh your food and be honest with yourself.
Why does everyone insist I'm lying about things I say? I repeat once again...I WEIGHED AND MEASURED EVERYTHING! Thanks.
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sweetbug0130 wrote: »Your calorie goal was enough to put you at a deficit - you were eating more than 1300 calories. At your height and weight the lbs would melt off at 1300 calories. You need to weigh your food and be honest with yourself.
Why does everyone insist I'm lying about things I say? I repeat once again...I WEIGHED AND MEASURED EVERYTHING! Thanks.
People aren't saying you are lying but even people who think they weigh and measure everything often miss log food and exercise. I wouldn't go lower than what you are doing but I would add a half hour or more of of walking a day and see what happens. Also, if you don't have a note pad or your phone with you and log immediately you might be forgetting to log something. This isn't lying, it's just what happens.
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So are you losing on the plan you are following now? And it's just Keto that didn't work?0
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sweetbug0130 wrote: »Your calorie goal was enough to put you at a deficit - you were eating more than 1300 calories. At your height and weight the lbs would melt off at 1300 calories. You need to weigh your food and be honest with yourself.
Why does everyone insist I'm lying about things I say? I repeat once again...I WEIGHED AND MEASURED EVERYTHING! Thanks.
Because the only weight you lost was the water weight that comes with cutting carbs. You are not an anomaly, your body is not special. It is not producing energy out of nothing, so if it does not need to take energy from your fat stores, you are giving it enough to use from food.
Let me repeat. Your body is like all other bodies. It cannot create energy out of thin air. If it does not need to pull extra energy from your fat, it is getting enough from food. This means no deficit. 1300 is a large deficit at your weight, I'm guessing 2lbs a week is your goal. Your BMR and/or TDEE is not 1000 calories off someone else with the same stats.11 -
So you say you weighed and measured everything and you still did not lose.
Something isn't right here.
Did you do it every day. Every single day? And you logged absolutely everything, every bite, sip, snack, taste, etc.?
I want to be clear - do you have a food scale?
And for exactly how long did you do this - did the weighing everything every day?
If you did this every single day for 6-8 weeks and had no loss, then you might want to see a doctor.
But Occams Razor and all - I think something I mentioned above is missing or off. The simplest answer is usually the correct one.0 -
sweetbug0130 wrote: »Christine_72 wrote: »Keto works the same as any other diet, but you need to still have a calorie deficit (sorry). If you didn't lose weight then you were eating too much. This also depends how long you did it for.. Some people don't start to see fat loss until 4 or so weeks in.
I was 10 weeks in with no loss aside of the initial 4 water lbs. I did eat at a calorie deficit is why I didn't want that as advice. If I have to ask questions about other things, I do know that much.
If you weren't losing, then you were not in a calorie deficit. I emphasized because I don't want you to think that I'm saying that I don't think you were eating at a deficit, because you said you were weighing and measuring and logging. I'm saying that despite following recommended numbers, something in the calculation is off.
Calories in (food) - Calories out (daily activity + BMR+ exercise) = Deficit
So something in that equation is jacked up. Food is usually the first culprit, but you said you've ruled that out. So now we look at calories out: could you have overestimated your activity or exercise? If you think those look accurate, then the next step would be to consider if you are taking any medications that could be causing an issue or if you have any medical conditions which could impact the calories out portion.5 -
Out of curiosity, were you following a plan? Or did you just lower your carbs to some allotment you devised?
Looking back a few weeks, it looks like your lower carb days were about 150grams? I didn't see many keto days, maybe TWO at about keto levels. And those included meals with 40 grams of carbs. How low were your carbs then and what were you eating when you were keto? For how long were you keto? Did you test?
IFF you decide to try keto again, consider joining one of the low carb groups here and, if you haven't, please do your research.7 -
I did keto for a year and lost 60+ pounds before stopping to run a bulk. I'm now back on keto so I can cut some additional body fat. If you weren't losing on keto, you were simply eating too much. I'm sorry, but there's no other way around it. Keto isn't for everyone and some people experience adverse side effects from the diet, but a lack of weight loss is NOT one of them. Considering your height and weight, you should have seen the pounds melting off if you were truly eating 1370 a day.0
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sweetbug0130 wrote: »Your calorie goal was enough to put you at a deficit - you were eating more than 1300 calories. At your height and weight the lbs would melt off at 1300 calories. You need to weigh your food and be honest with yourself.
Why does everyone insist I'm lying about things I say? I repeat once again...I WEIGHED AND MEASURED EVERYTHING! Thanks.
The recommendation to up your calorie expenditure by a couple hundred calories a day is good advice. Every little bit helps. Also if you kept the 4 pounds off then at least that wasn't a total waste.
You mentioned the website recommended 1370. Did MFP say to set your daily calories at that for 1 pound a week loss? You could set it for 0.5 pounds a week if you don't want to feel so hungry and stressed.
I do believe stress impacts weight loss. (At least it does in my case.) Exercise can be a good stress reliever also. Hang in there!
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@sweetbug0130 , when did you do keto? I tried looking in your diary to find what you logged when you were doing it. I looked at the first of each month back to July 2015 and couldn't find anything. If you can let us see what you were logging we may be able to help.4
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sweetbug0130 wrote: »Your calorie goal was enough to put you at a deficit - you were eating more than 1300 calories. At your height and weight the lbs would melt off at 1300 calories. You need to weigh your food and be honest with yourself.
Why does everyone insist I'm lying about things I say? I repeat once again...I WEIGHED AND MEASURED EVERYTHING! Thanks.
The recommendation to up your calorie expenditure by a couple hundred calories a day is good advice. Every little bit helps. Also if you kept the 4 pounds off then at least that wasn't a total waste.
You mentioned the website recommended 1370. Did MFP say to set your daily calories at that for 1 pound a week loss? You could set it for 0.5 pounds a week if you don't want to feel so hungry and stressed.
I do believe stress impacts weight loss. (At least it does in my case.) Exercise can be a good stress reliever also. Hang in there!
This op says she was not losing at 1300 calories, why would eating more calories cause her to lose weight?3 -
Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »Out of curiosity, were you following a plan? Or did you just lower your carbs to some allotment you devised?
Looking back a few weeks, it looks like your lower carb days were about 150grams? I didn't see many keto days, maybe TWO at about keto levels. And those included meals with 40 grams of carbs. How low were your carbs then and what were you eating when you were keto? For how long were you keto? Did you test?
IFF you decide to try keto again, consider joining one of the low carb groups here and, if you haven't, please do your research.
This is good advice and good questions.
OP, I tried to look at your diary, since often people have trouble picking the right entries -- MFP can be confusing at first -- and that leads to inaccurate logging. I was not successful, as I couldn't figure out when you were doing keto. What I did see was lots of unlogged days, and a lot of changing strategy--there were shockingly low calories in August for a while (and entries that weren't weighed, but apparently estimated based on serving sizes on packages). Then there were high calories on some days (goal calories, not logged), and days when only a large breakfast was logged (were you IFing?), and then some days that were around 1450 calories as a goal (reasonable) but not fully logged, and nothing that seemed specifically keto.
Keto is one strategy that will work and often (not always) is a good fit for people who struggle with hunger or are insulin resistant.
At your height and weight and age you definitely should be losing easily at 1370 (or even the 14-something). The 800 and 600 goals I saw will mess you up and are obviously not healthy. You don't seem to have logged consistently, unless I didn't look back far enough -- I'd be happy to give pointers on picking entries if you do have some consistently-logged days. My recommendation is to log consistently for 3-4 weeks, using keto if you like or just a lower carb macro or whatever macros you prefer, it really doesn't matter. The key is to log as perfectly as possible. Then see what your results are. If not losing on 1370, go to the doctor and have some tests and bring the log. You might also ask to be referred to a dietitian.4 -
AnabolicMind2011 wrote: »sweetbug0130 wrote: »Your calorie goal was enough to put you at a deficit - you were eating more than 1300 calories. At your height and weight the lbs would melt off at 1300 calories. You need to weigh your food and be honest with yourself.
Why does everyone insist I'm lying about things I say? I repeat once again...I WEIGHED AND MEASURED EVERYTHING! Thanks.
The recommendation to up your calorie expenditure by a couple hundred calories a day is good advice. Every little bit helps. Also if you kept the 4 pounds off then at least that wasn't a total waste.
You mentioned the website recommended 1370. Did MFP say to set your daily calories at that for 1 pound a week loss? You could set it for 0.5 pounds a week if you don't want to feel so hungry and stressed.
I do believe stress impacts weight loss. (At least it does in my case.) Exercise can be a good stress reliever also. Hang in there!
This op says she was not losing at 1300 calories, why would eating more calories cause her to lose weight?
Reduction in corisol levels and lowered water retention? Just guessing this was the intent.
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