So the reality is that much of the initial losses that people experience on low carb ARE primarily from water weight losses. Every gram of glycogen in your body holds 3-4 grams of water. So just by eliminating carbs, you typically drop 4-5 pounds of mostly water weight. The longer term fat losses come from the way low carb reduces cravings, which for many mean they just naturally eat less.

So the question is, what's blocking your water loss, and is this something that may also be blocking ketosis?

Some people start low carb after having done the typical standard american diet which is full of carbs. They typically see great results. Others start after having been on another diet regimen, and often had already cut many unhealthy carbs. They tend to see more moderate results, because they didn't have as much glycogen in the first place. Could this be you? If this is the issue, you should still be showing in ketosis, and should be seeing things like reduced cravings and appetite.

You mentioned that you are on day 3 of 30 day shred. Are you sore from that? Sore muscles retain water. Note that if this is the issue, you should still be showing in ketosis; it's just a sore muscle issue. Once the muscle soreness dissipates, you'll see some water weight loss.

Are you female? We get wacky water retention from all sorts of hormonal things. Same thing here though: you should still be showing in ketosis.

How's your protein levels? Excess protein can convert to glucose in the body. A lot of people start out doing low carb trying to do a combo low-carb, low fat diet -- which in essence means you are doing high protein. That's the wrong approach. Need to go low carb, HIGH fat, moderate protein. If this is the issue, this may prevent ketosis.

Just took a look at your diary - high protein is my guess as to the issue, with some possible water retention from sore muscles. Try to even out your protein and fat, meaning try to have as many grams as fat as protein at every meal. For example, you had 126 g protein yesterday and 79 g fat. I'm guessing you probably only need 70-90 g protein. That's just a guess though.

I find this keto calculator to be helpful: http://keto-calculator.ankerl.com/ It provides recommendations for protein targets built into the targets. Basically though if you are targeting 20 g of carbs, you want enough protein to maintain lean body mass, and the rest should be fat.

Ketostix may also be helpful to determine if you are in ketosis or not.

I'm seeing a few "light" items on your diary. Look for full fat alternatives for these. Usually to be "light", they've replaced the fat with carbs and fillers. Also note that the "sunflower cooking oil" that you are using doesn't appear to have the full macro nutrients loaded. Maybe check to see if there's another one that does have the fat content identified.

Don't be afraid of fat. Leave the low fat dogma behind.

I just peeked at your diary and have two thoughts to share:

1) Cheese -- personally, I never lose if I have cheese every day, and on days I do have it I need to limit it to 1 ounce or roughly 1 carb/70ish calories.

2) Protein -- looking at your macro numbers from the past several days, you've actually been doing high protein/moderate fat/low carb. Secret to success and keto is high fat/moderate protein/low carb. Google it or search the forums here for more info.

Use the calculator that I posted. It has the protein calculation built into it. I think the recommendation is .8-1 gram of protein per lb of lean body mass. But I usually use the keto calculator and use the minimum level that it identifies.

Sour cream, mayo, fatty cuts of meat vs lean cuts, heavy cream, eat pecans and macadamia nuts; lots of ways to eat more fat!

I'm kind of struggling to think of ideas to get my fat intake up - you say minimal cheese but there's only so much oil and butter I can use when frying bacon sausages steaks etc.

Avocado, mayo, coconut oil, cream cheese, macadamia nuts, heavy whipping cream, bacon (I add bacon bits to salads and other dishes), full fat salad dressings (with very low carbs - no sugar)

Good luck!

I agree with what others have said; try not to go over 100 grams of protein at the most. Ideally, you should always have fat higher than protein. It's one of the misconceptions of eating low carb in that it's supposed to be the other way around. I find I can't lose if that ratio is messed up.

For fats, try adding heavy whipping cream into you coffee, or even creating a "fat bomb." Google it sometime. What I do if I need to up the fat is melt 1 tbsp butter, melt 1 tbsp coconut oil (the flavorless kind) and melt some low carb chocolate or melt low carb peanut butter together in a small muffin tin with stevia to taste. I then put it in the fridge until solid. Off top of my head, that's about 28+ grams of fat right there without the peanut butter. Plus, it tastes good!

You don't have a lot to lose, and you've already lost. Your goal weight (we're the same height) is very LOW. That will all make the loss much much slower as I said below in your other thread. You've probably already cut back on wheat and other carbs (before starting atkins) so won't see as much of the water loss etc.

I suspect that from here on out you'll only be able to manage .5LBS a week. Especially if you're fit, which it sounds like you are.


http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1103213-started-atkins-at-140lbs-fast-or-slow-weight-loss?page=1#posts-17032407