Newbie Questions

rklein71

I started this woe on 10-23-17. In the first 16 days, I lost 16 pounds (I know, mostly water weight). I am limiting myself to 1200 calories per day, per my doctor. I have my macros at 96g fat, 66g protein, <20g fat, and am staying within those numbers consistently. I have not been weighing myself (No Weigh November!), and instead have been focusing on how I feel (wonderful!) and how my clothes are fitting (loosely!). I have also joined a gym, focusing mostly on cardio. Today, I decided to weigh myself when my husband weighed himself and the dreaded scale indicates that I have gained back 9 of the 16 pounds I lost! I am not crying about it (reminder, I feel wonderful!), but I do have a couple of questions...

- Can artificial sweetener prevent weight loss (I have a sugar free coffee syrup that I have been using and I use premium protein shakes to help meet my protein needs)?
- If I am working out, should I be upping my caloric intake and macros or can I work out and continue to stay under 1200 calories?
- Any other advice?
- If other people have had similar stories, I would love to hear about them!

I know that we are all different, and I am more than aware that it took me a lot of years to put all this weight on and it will not come off instantly. I am not comparing my journey with that of anyone else. I just want to make the best choices for me, and would love feedback from others.

cstehansen

Artificial sweeteners can cause insulin to spike. Insulin is the fat storage hormone, so yes, these can cause weight gain. Every study out there shows that replacing regular soda with diet soda does not help with weight loss.

Exercise has little to do with weight loss. There are numerous advantages to exercise, but weight loss is not one of them. You lose pounds in the kitchen and ounces in the gym.

When you first start this WOE, a few things will happen. One is white fat (bad) will often start converting to brown fat (good). Brown fat is denser, thus you may lose size without losing weight. It is brown because it has more mitochondria which are required for burning ketones. Brown fat burns energy to produce heat. This is a good thing.

Second, especially for women, hormones start getting re-balanced. This is applicable to any "diet" and why men will frequently lose more weight faster than women. However, once hormones get properly balanced, women typically will catch up somewhere between month 3 and 6 if they stick with it.

The total macros, while important, are only part of the story. The other part is frequency of eating. Although carbs cause more of an insulin spike than any other macronutrient, the simple act of eating anything will cause insulin to go up. Having at least 12-14 hours a day (generally between dinner and breakfast) where you are not eating allows for periods of low insulin. Of course there are many people who do keto and find they fall into a pattern of IF by default just because of not being hungry in the morning so their fasting periods end up being 16-18 hours.

I don't know your size or what caloric intake is appropriate, but cutting calories too much will slow your metabolism and end up being counterproductive. Eating slightly more, but during a smaller window, has been shown to have better long term results because it does not have the same negative effect on metabolism.

rklein71

Thank you for that information... I am definitely sticking with it, just want to understand the hows and whys as I continue along I generally do not eat breakfast, eat lunch around 12:30, eat dinner around 7:00 and then nothing again until lunch the next day. I am 5'0 and started at 204, was down to 188, and this morning was 195...

Xerogs

My weight has bounced around quite a bit over time. It's usually within a 5lb range but it has steadily trended downward since I started low carb. At first it was a bit discouraging but now I realize that is just how I lose weight and gain weight. I remember when I started gaining weight many years ago it would go up 10lbs then lose 2lbs then up again and so on and so forth.

I try to weight myself at the same time (usually right when I wake up). I've noticed in the past that through out the day your weight can fluctuate a great deal. It might depend on hydration, food, clothing, etc. etc. I don't really get down on myself if my weight pops up a few lbs because it generally drops off down the road. Plus I've hit plateaus where my scale doesn't budge but my clothes start fitting better. I always chalk that up to whatever muscle I am building is offsetting any fat weight loss.

I try to exercise daily and it helps with stress, tones muscles, and burns some calories. I only upped my calorie intake and adjusted my electrolytes when I felt like I was wiped out after a normal workout, which hasn't happened in a very long time.

Artificial sweeteners...I've really cut back on using them as much as possible. Once in a great while I will have a diet soda at the movie theater since they don't carry iced tea and have a dash of some in coffee but I've even tapered off the coffee and prefer half and half or unsweetened ripple or vanilla almond milk instead. For some reason the artificial sweeteners in my protein bars and protein shakes don't have the same effect as a diet soda or added sweetener. The only thing I can think of is the bars and shake have a lot of fiber so maybe that prevents a large insulin spike compared to a drink.

Shron123

Congrats on yr learning curve and successes. Personally all artificial sweeteners seem to affect me. I am worried about Christmas so Sunday dinner I experminented w a low carb desert - basically sugar free lime Jell-O, 2 tbsp fresh lime juice and cream cheese which worked out to 100 calories per serving and .3 carbs. Well, the first fail was I obviously still have issues with controlling treats. Hubby had about 3 of the 8 servings and I had the other 5 - ate it til it was gone. Next morning, up 5 lbs. and still up 1 lb 3 days later. The worst part is, I have been hungry all week and looking for something sweet. Lesson learned. Will continue my journey w/o artificial sweets at all. Christmas I will allow myself one celebration day, Dec 26, and eat the “real” thing if I choose in moderation and back on track Dec 27. Good luck on your journey!!

tcunbeliever

Artificial sweeteners bother some people, they do not bother me.

Since your doctor recommended the 1200 calories, you should probably talk to him/her before increasing that for exercise.

Regarding the 9 lb gain - the 16 lbs you lost was just water, your body has adjusted water accordingly, this isn't a real gain, it's really an overall 7 lb loss in a month, that is quite an accomplishment.