Singing my song sister. I even dropped to 10 carbs a day and lost a little more but the yoyo was making me nuts. I so get it. Finally I went to 5 gm carbs and most of that was from HWC , eggs and cheese and a little lettuce and I started dropping. I plan on upping the veggie carbs as soon as I get to goal. I dropped about 40 pounds after going all the way down to 5 carbs a day in the last 6 months. Still slow but consistant downward except for small raises like in tenths up. Weight naturally does this daily. It is when it keeps going up that I am not happy. It is tough some times. I also lowered my calories to around 1000 or less. Mostly because I am just not hungry enough to eat more than that. I am NOT restricting calories. I just get full and stay full feeling for hours eating the very low carb.

I'm sorry; that's so frustrating. I hope you're able to hit on something that works for you. @KnitorMiss had posted something recently about re-setting your metabolism; I don't know much about that concept but is that something you've tried? (It involves gradually increasing to maintenance calories for a short time and then dropping back down.)

Have you seen a doctor with a clue ( ie, functional medicine practitioner or whoever it is that specializes in hormones) about it being TTOTM practically the entire month? You may have things going on that need more than dietary intervention, at least temporarily.

22 lbs in 9 months is something to be proud of! Okay, yes, I'm an American If you had put on 22 lbs in 9 months, you would feel terrible. You did the opposite, you should be ecstatic!

I understand it is frustratingly slow. Sometimes you have to go back to the basics though. I won't pretend to deal with the woman side of the equation, but even in low carb, the basics of ins and outs still apply.

Bottom line, what you are eating is fueling your body. Your deficit isn't large enough to cause a larger weight loss. Nothing wrong with that, you are losing, which is awesome. Keep it up.

To lose faster, you might be doing this already, but add 30 minutes of walking to your day. If you are walking already, add 30 minutes more. I know this is easy to say and MUCH harder to do.

Keep in mind, the people who post that they lost massive amounts of weight in a short time are at the beginning of the journey, where this is easier. As you lose weight, it does come off slower and slower. You have to make adjustments. Usually nothing major, but little tweaks to get the weight coming off again!

EbonyDahlia wrote: »

Thanks for all of your replies. I'm definitely at a sufficient calorie deficit for my age/height/weight/activity level, I realistically can't drop it down any more. I've tried to mix it up a little, eating 1900 or so on the weekends and 1300 to 1400 during the week to try and shake lose my metabolism.

As for the hormonal issues, I'm kinda out of options at this point. It started back when I had a mirena (6 years ago) but after the mirena was removed it settled down. I've been to maybe 4 different doctors in the last 6 years, and twice to a very good gyno, which cost me $300 a pop. The end result is really not much. The last doctor blamed it on the pill and gave me an implanon, telling me it was a different hormone and would settle down in 3 to 6 months. It's been 6 months. The gyno blamed it on the mirena and said it had caused some lesions which she cauterised and said would heal in a few weeks. She suggested a hysterectomy if I continued to have problems. I'm not ready for that kind of solution yet. It doesn't seem to matter which birth control I use, and in fact it wasn't as bad as it is until 2 years ago when I started eating strict Keto.

A good friend on mine had similar problems with various birth control, and the Implanon or Nexplanon, whichever, it made her bleed constantly, and it never eased up. She's currently pursing a hysterectomy. She has endometrious, and possibly also PCOS, though the latter is not confirmed. She's having all kinds of crazy blood sugar reactions, and nonsense, too.

As far as birth control and artificial hormones and all that, unless you require it for pregnancy prevention, I would drop it all like a hotcake. I would then look at hormone balancing supplements like Inositol and Vitex to help naturally restore your hormone functions. The body simply is not made to handle artificial hormones for extended lengths of time.

Keto does make me super sensitive to any hormone fluctuations (like if I take my pill 30+ minutes late, I might have spotting), and all kinds of mess. But, I have PCOS and the pill is actually part of my treatment for that and for my Pelvic Organ Prolapse. Yes, I take the pill, yes I know the risks, yes, I monitor all my blood work regularly.

As someone else said above, if you feel like you've explored all the sex-hormone side of things, consider looking into the endocrine side of things. They are all hormones and blood chemicals. If the body is lacking in one or many, it will literally steal the least critical hormone and convert it for it's own needs. My body was drained perpetually of adrenaline (verified with testing). I had no measurable progesterone on repeated tests (different measurements and all manner of craziness) DESPITE SUPPLEMENTATION. My body was taking the progesterone it decided was unimportant and converting it to adrenaline and cortisol, etc., that I needed to function.

I have since discovered the PCOS and changed a ton of things up. I have also learned I am hypothyroid and have been for a long time, since long before it ever showed up on tests. Any time blood work shows my hormones out of control, yup, my thyroid is wonky (one of the 15 tests or whatever my endocrinologist runs)...balancing it balances everything.

So personally, I would look for an endocrinologist who deals with the endocrine/hormone connections... Good luck. Hope you've had some progress by now, @EbonyDahlia