Ketosis is NOT the cause of weight loss. Many of the "ketogenic gurus" eat to keep their body in a state of ketosis for the health benefits but are maintaining their weight.

Calories for weight loss/maintenance/gain. Macros for health/satiety/fitness goals.

I have eaten low carb for 4 years. 1 year for weight loss and 3 years for maintenance. 1 of those maintenance years was a year targeted to being in ketosis for medically therapeutic purposes. I neither gained nor lost on purpose. You will not magically continue to lose weight just because you eat a ketogenic diet.

I currently have my carb macro set to 15% carbs which for me is still only 57 grams. While this may have me in ketosis some of the time, ketosis is not a goal and I sometimes go slightly over the carb goal for more leafy greens, a kiwi, whatever. To continue to maintain my goal weight, I stay hover around my calorie goal.

Ketosis is NOT the cause of weight loss. Eat your maintenance calories with macros set to however you want to set them, which can include keto levels. Or not. For me personally, a key factor to my approach is geared more towards WHAT carby thing I eat versus how many carbs. I got fat because I over ate cake, candy and cookies. That fat/sugar combo enticed me into over eating. No control. I stick to vegetables and some fruit for carbs and pass on the salty/sugary/fatty, highly palatable foods. Ocassionally I'll venture into a higher carb food item (with no ill effect) such as when eating somewhere other than home.

If you want to stay in constant ketosis, I would not increase your carbs by much unless you are exercising.

I tried increasing carbs up to 30-60g once I was at goal weight. It did not work well for me. I had less energy and the increased carbs were driving my appetite up. I try to keep my carbs under 30g on most days. Under 10g feels the best.

So when I was losing I ate about 20g of carbs, and about 80g of protein on a 1500 kcal diet. Now I am on a 2000-2500kcal diet. I still eat under 30g of carbs per day - I try to avoid them in general. Protein is up to 90g but often down to 80g and the rest is still fat. Just a bit more fat.

If anything it looks like my carb and protein macros fell because they make up a smaller portion of my diet. Now there is more fat.

If you aren't in ketosis for some health or appetite control aspects, then increasing your carbs some should work fine. It should not cause weight gain as long as your calories going in does not exceed your calories going out. CI<CO

Ditto @nvmomketo. I've been at maintenance for a while now and have experimented with different carb levels to see where my body seems to do best. I might stick with 50-80 gm/day but we'll see. I'm doing more strength training now so I'm experimenting again. (Keto was great for running endurance but a bit higher carb level might be helpful for strength gains.)

Phanny24 wrote: »

@kpk54 I thought that being in ketosis forces your body to use your fat as energy source therefore resulting in weight loss, so isn't it the cause of weight loss? Just getting a bit confused with so much info sorry. What was the difference in carbs you consumed for weight and maintenance? Right now I'm trying to stay at 50g a day so when I achieve my weight goal would I increase carb intake to maintain my weight?

A calorie deficit is what causes weight loss and body fat loss.

The lack of carbs is what causes ketosis.

One cannot generally "get into ketosis" on "high" carb levels.

The only way the body is "forced" to use body fat is through a calorie deficit

If you ate more food (fat, protein or carbs) than you need to lose weight, you would maintain or gain EVEN IF you were in ketosis.

Just because you are in ketosis does not mean you are burning BODY fat. It is easy to get fat on a ketogenic diet because the food is tasty and calorie dense. On the flip side, fat (and protein) is filling so people tend to not over eat. Also carbs are generally what drive hunger/cravings so by eating fewer carbs, cravings and hunger are minimized.

Lack of calories is what "forces" burning body fat.

Look at all the people in the "Success Stories" in MFP. People have lost huge amounts of weight and fat via a calorie deficit on all sorts of diets. Only a very small percentage eat keto.

I would argue that someone who went from 300 pounds to 150 pounds and a dress size 24 to a dress size 12 is "a fat burning machine" whether they were ever in ketosis or not. They are burning their BODY fat.

"Fat Burning" as it relates to ketosis is: you eat fat, so you burn fat to live and function. FOOD FAT. If you eat at a deficit, you burn the food fat you eat and the fat on your body.

Phanny24 wrote: »

@nvmomketo Thank you so much for your response! What you're saying makes sense,I understand a bit better now.

The main dietary difference for me is the amount of coffees I have with cream and protein powder (I add it to my coffee as I find it hard to get adequate protein). While losing I had 1 or 2 coffees per day. Now I have 4.

And maybe an extra pepperoni for a snack.

Also @Phanny24 to answer the question you posed to me about how many carbs I ate during weight loss...my max per MFP ranged from 120 total grams to 150 total grams. That would be 40% of 1200 calories up to 40% of 1500. That was "on paper". I often ate fewer. I had my macros "set" but didn't place a lot of emphasis on macros. I just chose to not eat a bunch of "junk" so the carbs stayed relatively low. I didn't even know what ketosis was when I was losing weight.

There are many in this forum who are low carbers vs keto and have lost/maintained successfully. Most just don't have their fingers n the keyboard often or mention their specific way of eating.

The year I ate keto (in maintenance) was of value to me because I learned:
1) eating fat won't make me fat
2) eating fat keeps me satiated
3) eating very low carb cuts my cravings
4) macros are important for ease of maintenance and it varies among individuals.