Need some help LCHF/Keto pals
eddiecastro77
Posts: 30 Member
Need some advice, please help. It has almost been a year that I've been religiously tracking all food intake. Last Feb. 5, I weighed in at 209.9. In Mid October, nothing seemed to be working as my weight had gone up to 213.9 so I started LCHF. I immediately dropped down to 207, and in December I started Keto which helped me get to 206.7. Today, a year after MFP, LCHF, and Keto, I weight 210 even!!! My diary is open people. Originally, I kept my net carbs under 50, then in December, dropped net carbs to under 20. I see so many with large drops, especially over this amount of time, and look at my own progress and get discouraged. I like the WOE, and can do it long term, but where is this weight loss that is supposed to come with the other benefits. I do have quite a bit of muscle and would consider myself in decent shape, but my ideal weight is 185 for my height of 5'9. My macros, that I strive to hit everyday averages 5% carbs, 20% protein and 75% fat. That should do it. I used Keto stix and I've hit purple a week ago, but now just faintly in Keto. Is it the almonds, or stevia, or coffee, or... I drink plenty of water, but I do sweeten with Crystal light packets...is that it? Help please. I appreciate it and will pay it forward.
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Since you've been following keto since December, the ketostix probably aren't reliable. After a month or two, your body stops producing more ketones than it uses and your urine ketone amounts go down. The most reliable way is to use a blood ketone meter.
185lb seems a little high for 5'9" (I'm the same height, and all the weights I've seen for it, for both men and women top out around 170), but if that is your ideal weight, then you don't have a lot to lose, so your losses won't be as dramatic. Additionally, you went from LCHF to keto, so you have less glycogen to drop than someone coming from SAD, which contributes to the big numbers a lot of newcomers see.
206 to 210 is within the realm of water weight fluctuation. You should see a 1lb/week loss on average, but there's also a "stall" period a lot of people see around the 4-week mark. I'd say give it another couple of weeks and see where your weight is again.
Also, consider strength training if you don't do it already (your diary doesn't show it). Even if it's just bodyweight. That will help change your body composition, so you lose fat, which is what you really want. The scale might not change while doing it (especially if doing a progressive strength program), so make sure you're taking measurements, too.
Also, check out baconslave's post "Your Scale is a Lying Liar Pants" (should be linked in the launchpad), for some more insight into why the scale isn't moving.0 -
Who says your ideal weight is 185 at 5'9"? I ask this because my husband is 5'10" tall, and his BMI is over 30 as he weighs in at a fluctuating 215-220 lbs (average 218). He was getting "advice" from doctors over being obese and they kept telling him he shouldn't weigh more than 175 lbs.
Well, I scheduled an appt. for hydrostatic weighing at a local university's human performance/sports lab for me, so I scheduled one for him as well.
His BF% is slightly high (he's 54, btw) at 21.45%, but his ideal weight is 202 lbs. How do you ask? His lean body mass is 172 lbs. Yep, you read that right! If he only weighed 175 lbs, he'd have less than the 2-3% essential fat that a man needs on his body. And he'd have to lose a lot of metabolically active lean tissue to weigh that little. So, their recommendation said if he were to drop down to 202 lbs, and only lost fat, his BF % would be an incredibly healthy 15%.
If your pictures are all recent, I'd say you may be carrying a bit more lean mass than the average man. It wouldn't hurt to get it checked out with a hydrostatic weighing or Bod Pod test. I wouldn't bother with calipers, bio-electrical impedence, measurement formulas, as they are notoriously inaccurate.
Otherwise, I agree with dragonwolf that since you were already doing LCHF, you wouldn't see the big shift like others do when transitioning from a high carb diet.
It is possible that you are eating too many calories, as some of us (like me) have to watch that because even on very low carbs and high fat, eating too many cals will make me gain.
Also, what is your activity level like?
Here are a couple more questions to ponder:
Are you eating too many calories, or do you need to change your macros? check this calculator http://keto-calculator.ankerl.com/
Does your weight fluctuate significantly from day to day? If so, this can mask weight loss, and it may be best to track daily in Excel spreadsheet and use a trendline graph.
Do you have diabetes, pre-diabetes, insulin resistance, thyroid disease? If so, these may complicate matters for you, and make it slightly to very much more difficult to lose weight.
Are you consuming alcoholic beverages, artificial sweeteners and/or sugar alcohols, a lot of dairy products? A fair amount of LCHF people find these affect their results. It's not fair, but it seems pretty common.
Should you be eating back exercise calories?
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This I great info!!! thank you so much. I eased into Keto from LCHF so I get that I probably would not see the dramatic drops others see. I didnt want to experience the Keto flu. Thanks for reminding me though. 185 is an arbitrary number from my youth, and may not be realistic for me now at 38, so I'll have to look at that. When i was doing P90x early last year, I gained quite a bit of muscle, so I have to consider that. I will take the advice of picking up weights again and not looking to do such much walking (cardio). I was doing stronglifts last year and loved that program. My weight totally fluctuates from day to day, today I'm at 209.2, but last night I was at 211.2. I don't even get excited about the small losses or gains because it will be different tomorrow. I have done the Keto calculators and I am using those numbers in MFP. But I do eat back calories, so that could be it. I will also have to cut back on the sugar alcohols as they don't agree with me as good as they are. I'm going to keep on keeping on, and just look at this as a journey. My scale at home (that I will now ignore), says my BF% 21-24%. I will read that post your recommended and will post in a few weeks to see if anything has changed. Again, thanks for the advice.0
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