Women on Keto -- question

sonjadimondi

I have a question for the ladies on the keto diet!
I am into my third week (started April 3rd). The first week I dropped 10lbs like it was nothing. Since then, I've lost a pound and a half. I haven't gone over 25g net carbs since I started, drink about 150-200oz per day, and have been utilizing the keto strips to check for ketones (the first attempt I made at the keto diet was maybe a week and never registered any ketones back then, this time I'm the darkest level). I definitely hit that few days of keto flu about 10 days in, but have had more energy and better sleep since then (tracked with my fitbit), probably in my entire life, plus decreased appetite. Even without the keto/carb effect, my calories are at 1400, a deficit of over 700 calories per day for my weight per the keto calculator, and I figured that deficit alone would help lose a lot more than I am. Is it normal for women to progress this slowly or am I waiting for my body to kick into gear? I say question for the ladies, because I've been told it's a bit easier for men to swing into action on keto.
I also don't know if it could be PMS as I have an IUD and haven't menstruated in over two and a half years. I'd love any comments/advice! I have one male friend who lost over 100lbs in a year and half and I'm giving this a serious effort!

laurens47

I am doing Keto, but not for long term. I am using it to cut. However, I will say this: the first initial weight loss is going to be more "water weight". This is due to depleted glycogen in the body and lack of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates also hold 2x's their weight in water. Naturally when someone restricts calories, they cut back on the carbs from what they were originally eating in their diet. In your case, you are metabolically changing the way your body processes energy. It's amazing that the human body can do that. Your stats also make a difference. You may not be able to drop weight as fast as others because you may not have the surplus on your body to do so.

You can find some very reliable information on the keto diet. It was actually developed in the 1920's for children suffering from seizures.

The calorie deficit will give you weight loss. Patience is key.

Also, if you are losing over 1 pound a week....that's terrific!!! Your deficit is set for that.

The Ketogentic diet is more than just that. More than just a weight-loss tool. Really know the life style you are following and why!


Side note: The "keto strips" are not usually accurate.

kimny72

sonjadimondi wrote: »

I have a question for the ladies on the keto diet!
I am into my third week (started April 3rd). The first week I dropped 10lbs like it was nothing. Since then, I've lost a pound and a half. I haven't gone over 25g net carbs since I started, drink about 150-200oz per day, and have been utilizing the keto strips to check for ketones (the first attempt I made at the keto diet was maybe a week and never registered any ketones back then, this time I'm the darkest level). I definitely hit that few days of keto flu about 10 days in, but have had more energy and better sleep since then (tracked with my fitbit), probably in my entire life, plus decreased appetite. Even without the keto/carb effect, my calories are at 1400, a deficit of over 700 calories per day for my weight per the keto calculator, and I figured that deficit alone would help lose a lot more than I am. Is it normal for women to progress this slowly or am I waiting for my body to kick into gear? I say question for the ladies, because I've been told it's a bit easier for men to swing into action on keto.
I also don't know if it could be PMS as I have an IUD and haven't menstruated in over two and a half years. I'd love any comments/advice! I have one male friend who lost over 100lbs in a year and half and I'm giving this a serious effort!

I don't do Keto, but if your deficit is 700 calories, then a lb and a half a week is exactly what you should expect. A deficit of 500 cals per day is for 1 lb loss per week. The extra loss in your first week was most likely water weight.

1 lb per week is not slow, it's a safe and normal pace to lose weight at, despite what the TV shows and diet products try to tell you

RedSquadronLeader

1.5 lbs in 2 weeks is great! Particularly because it doesn't look like you have a lot to lose to begin with. Keep in mind that that's predominantly fat, not water like the 10 lbs that came off in the first week.

You might find that the maintenance predicted for you by online calculators is off - it's normally distributed for the population of people with your height, weight, gender, etc. So you might fall a bit higher or lower, and that could explain discrepancies between your projected weight loss and your actual weight loss. Now that you've got some data (1.5 lbs/2 weeks as far as I can tell), you can calculate a better estimate of your maintenance calories for yourself. There are several different ways you can do this, depending also on how much data you've got, but a reasonable approximation would be:

(0.75 lbs/week)*(3,500 kcal/lb) = 2,625 kcal/week projected deficit

(1,400 kcal/day)*(7 days/week) = 9,800 kcal/week from intake (or whatever your actual week-long consumption was. I'm arbitrarily basing this on a week, you can average it to daily or whatever too if you want to).

So to maintain you would have needed 9,800 kcal + 2,625 kcal = 12,425 kcal, which works out to 1,775 kcal/day. So, assuming your numbers are accurate, you're actually eating under maintenance by about 400 kcal/day.

Of course you can refine this by fitting a trend to your weight loss over time (some apps will do this for you, I think maybe TrendWeight is the one I've heard of?) which will average out short-term fluctuations. As you get smaller, your weight loss will start to slow down, and a line won't be a good fit to your weight versus time data anymore. At that point, you'd want to fit or average over only later portions of the data, excluding earlier faster weight loss. That will give you a better approximation of your new maintenance at your smaller size.

ETA: my calculations above don't include any exercise you do. I suppose I'm assuming your 1400 kcal intake is net rather than total.

ladipoet

OP, I suggest you check out the following main low carber daily forum group here in MFP. It's where most of us Ketophiles tend to hang out:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/discussions/394-low-carber-daily-forum-the-lcd-group

nvmomketo

I would be patient. If you are in a deficit you will lose weight. You have already lost 11 lbs in 3 weeks. That's a great start.

DietPrada

How much are you expecting to lose? On any "diet" after the initial drop you can realistically expect to lose 1 to 2 lb a week if you're lucky. And not every week. Weight loss is not linear, you'll fluctuate up and down, you'll have periods where you weigh the same for 6 weeks, you'll get frustrated and annoyed and feel like nothing is working - then you'll look back at the last 6 months, the last 12 months, the last 3 years and you'll see how far you've come. There is no place for impatience when losing weight, you didn't get fat overnight, you won't get thin overnight either.

For me, 87lbs in 4+ years. Average of 0.4lbs a week. No cheating, no falling off the wagon, just 4 years of patience and work and more patience and some complaining and feeling hard done by and more patience and a little looking back at where I started.

sonjadimondi

ladipoet thanks yes, i just joined the group.
i'm definitely tracking everything I eat, and use a food scale to weigh most things. like i said, my best friend lost 100 in a year and a half, i think 40 in his first three months so i'm thinks i'm just comparing myself to him.
I definitely have a long way to go, SW was 284 and change, CW 273. I'm doing some kettlebell/body weight workouts or stationary rowing when I have the time. I do have a physical on May 5th, so I need to lay off the daily weigh-ins til then, they can be discouraging! That will be just about a month on keto. This has been a life-long struggle for me (as for most others). I was a chubby kid even while playing 3 sports a year since I was 7 up til I started college, most of my family is overweight. I had weight loss surgery back in 2011, but pretty much as soon as I hit my lowest weight around 170, I yo-yoed my way back up to my highest, partially due to side effects of various medications I was taking for horrible chronic migraines, and then I did worse damage over the last 2 years of a LOT of late night horrible snacking(candy, fast food, pasta, you name it to keep myself awake)/2-3 hours of sleep a night from working FT and over-time/ two jobs while prepping for several sittings of bar examinations. Now, I just see it's all excuses. I'm willing to do what it takes this time to get it done right and get healthy. I want to feel good when my boyfriend and I decide to get married and have kids, not uncomfortable in my own skin. It's just tough not to see results as quickly or consistently as I had expected from this wonder stories people post on MFP or reddit, lol.