Can't seem to get into ketosis...advice?

worthit10

Hello! Can someone friend me?...look through my eating habits and tell me what I'm doing wrong? I'm not losing, but I'm staying within parameters according to the app. TIA

Really need help. Feeling discouraged.

yirara

Hello there!

First of all, ketosis has nothing to do with weight loss. If you enjoy eating keto then great, keep it up. The only actual effect keto has on 'weight loss' is that many people that start keto lose a lot of water at the beginning of their journey. But this is water and not bodyfat, which I assume is what you want to lose. Some people also feel super full and happy with this kind of diet, and thus being in a calorie deficit is easier. But keto tends to be higher on calories than other ways of eating, and hence it is absolutely crucial to weigh your food properly and find correct database entries.

Also, for how long have you been doing this and what are your current stats? If you have little to lose weight loss will be slower. And also, weight fluctuations totally is a thing and for menstruating women, at least one menstrual cycle is a good moment to wait because many women hold more onto water within different parts of their cycles, which masks fat loss. Next to lots of other things that lead to weight fluctuations, like a new workout, more or less salt, weather, how well you sleep, how stressed you are, etc.

Sod_Father

I can't figure out how to friend people. If your diary was set to everyone we could peek at it without the work

AnnPT77

Presumably you know that being in ketosis doesn't guarantee weight loss, and weight loss doesn't require ketosis?

Weight loss is about getting calorie intake lower than calorie expenditure, by any tolerable means. (Some people find ketogenic diets make that easier, by helping them reduce appetite/cravings). Some believe ketosis has health benefits (I'm a skeptic), but if they want to stick with keto, they will want to maintain weight with that way of eating eventually, not keep losing weight forever. If keto guarantees weight loss, how would they maintain?

Also, how do you know you aren't in ketosis? Are you testing, or are you assuming from weight changes, or . . . ?

Also, how long have you been at this? I don't have the patience to look at every single day, TBH, but it looks like you may've started logging around the beginning of November. Less than a month is not necessarily long enough to see a reasonable average loss rate. From your photo, you appear to be an adult woman likely not yet in menopause, so you'd want to compare your body weight at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles. It isn't the most common pattern, but some women only see a new low weight once a month. Hormonal water weight can be that weird!

Your diary is open, which is helpful. You're logging low calories (1200 or fewer, most days). That makes me wonder about your current stats (height/weight/activity level/age) and how fast you're trying to lose. Fast loss isn't always a good idea, can increase water retention or cause fatigue, for example. Neither of those stop fat loss, but water can mask fat loss on the scale, and fatigue (even subtle) can lead to burning fewer calories than you'd expect in everyday movement. Unless you're very petite, older, very inactive, it seems like that might reflect trying to lose weight faster than ideal, but I can't be sure. Most women would lose weight on the calories you're logging. (At 5'5", 130 pounds currently, 67 y/o, I'd lose really fast on that, even eating back all my exercise calories. Not everyone would, but I think most women with weight to lose would.)

I'm not a keto person, but notice that your routine includes some alcohol. (So does mine, so I'm not judging when I say that - looks like you're getting decent nutrition on quite-low logged calories even with that in there.) IMU, alcohol can slow down the process of ketosis, by providing an alternate source of energy. When we consume alcohol, the alcohol calories are burned preferentially (i.e., first, before other things). If you're in a calorie deficit overall, you'd still expect to lose weight, but I'm not sure how it would affect keto tests.

I'm also not seeing any fats logged for things like the scrambled eggs? Perhaps you're not using any, but I'm asking because fats are calorie dense. I only see a few things whose calorie levels I'd question (cheese cubes, for example: it's a generic entry, and size of cube matters). There are a lot of "1 slice" "1 serving" kinds of things: Anything you can put on a food scale will be more accurate. (I don't think everyone always needs to use a food scale, but it can give useful insights when not losing weight as expected.)

There are also quite a few compound entries (like zucchini in olive oil 1 cup) that I'd personally be wary of using: If it's a branded thing, maybe that would work out, but if you sauteed it yourself, the amount of oil really matters a lot. I'd log the oil & zucchini separately, if it were me, and weigh both of them.

There are also some days with only some meals logged (example: 11/19): Was that all you ate? If that was an indulgent day you didn't log, I'd encourage you to log those, even if you have to estimate. I don't freak out if I go over goal, but when I was losing I'd do my best to log it, so I could be real about the impact on my progress. Here again, I didn't look at every day, so I'm not sure how frequent days like this are, no matter what the day consisted of.

That's about all I've got in the way of detailed comments. What I'd suggest is that you do your best to log very precisely for a few weeks, avoiding those generic entries, and maybe using a food scale. (If you don't have one, they're only around 20 bucks on Amazon, and available at most big stores, too). Then, see how your weight responds when you look at the same relative point in two (or more) different monthly cycles.

I can't speak to the ketosis part of it, because I don't/wouldn't do that personally, but it's fine if it helps you. I'm just aiming at the calorie side of things, mostly, which is what matters for fat loss.

Best wishes!