Low Carb - Keto - Not losing body fat?

I have been low carbing since 5/23/16. As of 6/10 I was at 41.6% body fat. Today I showed 39.9%, the entire time in between it has fluctuated as high as 42 and as low as 39.8. I keep my carbs usually under 20 but most definitely have kept them under 50.
Anyone have any info on this? Thanks for your help!

Replies

britney_monica

Are you eating enough fat throughout the day as well as tracking your calories? I notice when I don't get enough fat or calories in, I don't see as much (if any) of a loss, sometimes even a slight gain. Also make sure you are still getting nutrients in your diet. I don't know what your diet looks like but aim to fit in more veggies & nuts. Dont go over board, but I get a good amount of my carbs from those locations, rather than processed food like atkins bars (which I am guilty of eating sometimes too). Just sharing my thoughts and what works for me, this may not work for you but its worth a shot!

Good luck!

ladipoet

OP, it would help if you opened your diary so that we could take a look. Something might jump out at us that you may be missing.

neweuquol

If you are not taking in enough calories your body could be freaking out and going into starvation mode. Human beings went through extended periods of famine throughout history and sometimes our bodies hold onto calories because it thinks we are in a famine.

angel381

Thanks guys! Sorry, I thought my diary was already open. It should be now, the thing with my diary is sometimes I just log something to know what I had and I have seen in some cases the carbs isn't right but I leave it since I mentally track my carbs. I have never tried an Atkins processed product - snack, frozen, shake, etc. I have weight losses and fluctuations, which I understand and I am fine with.

I am more wondering about actual Fat loss, not just the drop in weight. My % body fat just fluctuates and I want to get that number down more than I am concerned with my weight number (since it can mean so many different things). I am looking to get some adjustable weights to try to build a little muscle (which I hope would help). Just curious if anyone else is tracking fat % and has fluctuations like this.

Thanks again!!

piper_granny

have you checked ruled.me.com? I found tons of great websites devoted to keto and collected them on a pinterest page, but, of all the sites I browsed, Ruled.me.com was the best. It has a calculator to give you your precise % of carbs, fats, and proteins to make you lose weight! You plug in your age, weight, height, whether you're sedentary or active, etc, and it'll give you calculated numbers to MAINTAIN your current weight, gain weight, or LOSE weight. You're able to play around with the calorie intake, etc, and when you're happy with the numbers (calories per day, etc), you have the exact % of carbs, fats, & proteins for YOUR body. Plug those numbers into MFP (where you set your goals, etc) and then you have the exact number of grams of each you're allowed to eat per day. Easy as can be!! I've lost 30 pounds! (have a lot more to go, but am ecstatic with the results!) good luck!!! PS as much as I hate it, I found that forcing water intake all day really makes a big difference, too! I've never been a big water drinker, so this is probably the most annoying part of going keto to me. But, when I realized what a difference it makes, I try harder.

ThinVee

Never heard of this site, I'm going to check it out. Thanks for sharing
!

MelissaHaseley

I just looked up some into on making your body a more efficient fat burner. If you mostly do stretches, strength/muscle building, and/or low-impact exercises you may just need a small boost in amino acids to charge up the muscle to burn more fat. You can get BCAA (Branched Chain Amino Acids) at several different stores that sell supplements, but get the ones with L-leucine, L-isoleucine, and L-valine. Those are the must haves to get your body doing what you want it to.

HeartIcare

Has anyone tried BCAA is it worth it to add as a supplement?

Jo2926

Not sure how much weight you are losing - but it is likely that it is made up of some fat and some muscle.

Figures just for ease of maths (I'm not sure your weight etc). But, say you initially weighed 200lb with 41.6% fat. That means you were initiall 83lb of fat and 117lb of other weight (muscle and bone etc)

Now say today you weigh 180lb with 39.9% fat. You are now 71.8lb fat and 108.2lbs of other weight.

So you have lost 20lb in weight.
11.2lb of that is fat (just over half)
8.8lb of that is other wieght - probably muscle.

The answer isn't trying to lose more fat, but trying to lose less muscle. And the easiest way to do this in my view is some kind of strength programme. It could be as simple of body weight workouts (squats, lunges, press ups), it could be a home dumbell routine that gets progressively heavier, or it could be all out heavy lifting at a gym.

It will preserve and build muscle, bring your fat % down - and making you look slimmer and toned. It wont build you up because a) womens homones maje that almost impossible and b) you are eating at a deficit.

Hope that makes sense and helps

Jo x

prettydreamy

i'm having similar issues with losing weight eating 50-60g carbs per day. today i start trying to keep the carbs under 20g per day and increasing my fat intake. i also suspect i'm eating too much protein, which is causing a slight increase in muscle, but not in weight loss yet.

Jo2926

Hi prettydreamy - are you measuring fat loss percentage? I'm sure it will even out, beginner muscle gain is tempoary, you soon have to work really hard to build muscle! (Unfortunately!!) What sort of strength training arre you doing?

Jenn81

Low carb and keto are to different things, if your not losing body fat on keto you may be eating to much fat! Yes that is a thing. In order to lose your stored body fat you need to eat less fat. I have been on this woe for a yr now and ive learned a bunch. This is what i'm currently doing. I eat protein, so once i am hungry i drink a protein shake or eat some chicken i have in my fridge, tuna works well too. Then that keeps me full for a good while and maybe until dinner. I also snack on string cheese or other cheese. When dinner rolls around i eat what im feeding the family. So for example Eggs with cheese and some bacon . Or taco salad. I melted cheese as shell and had beef and avacodo and sour cream. Boom full . Protein is the most important thing you will eat on this diet.

I'm not a professional this is just want ive learned .