30+ BMI on keto. Will weight loss sustain ?

Hi Friends,

My BMI is 30+ and I started on keto this week. I think i lost 1 kg already, but i read online that people usually gain weight after they stop keto. Can anyone share their experience on how they managed to reduce and stay at ideal weight.

Replies

  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,858 Member
    edited April 2023
    Keto is no magic for weightloss. All you need, regardless of what you eat is a calorie deficit. If you're not in a calorie deficit with keto you won't lose weight. Simple. One side effect of keto is that you might drop a pile of water weight first, as water binds to gycogen from carbs. But that's not bodyfat, thus not what you want. If you eat more carbs again you'll gain water weight.

    Do you enjoy eating this way? So why not try it. If not then keto is not the right thing for you. Hey, the weight loss period is a great moment to figure out how much you need to eat to stay on your new weight and what keeps you full. If you only want to eat keto for weightloss and then go back to your old way of eating then you've not learned anything for maintenance.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,160 Member
    edited April 2023
    First let me say, when calories are controlled keto doesn't lead to greater fat loss, so if you believe keto has some kind of advantage, it doesn't, and pretty much all the studies and meta analysis bear this out.

    What keto does, for a large percentage of people is, reduce hunger. A major problem with most diets is compliance and one of the reasons why 95% of diets fail is people at some point and it's generally after the first 3 or 4 months give in to their hunger, eat more and gain weight and quite a bit of the time it's more than when they started and with a metabolism that has been slightly reduced, not a good thing to be doing, especially over and over, so in that sense a keto or a low carb diet can be beneficial if you have a propensity for this type of diet.

    One problem is most people eat a lot of tasty ultra processed foods which are difficult to give up and that's mostly hormonal but nevertheless, unless a person is willing to change their dietary strategy most people will just end up going back to all the foods they love to eat.

    Anyway, there is no special advantage to ketones over glucose for energy and they both can and do work in synergy and even reducing carbs by a small amount can offer some people hunger satiety so I would encourage you to try different carb ratio's if your finding keto difficult to adhere to. Keto for the most part is a whole food diet high in animal products so if this isn't something you find appealing the chances of success is greatly reduced but a whole food diet is the right way forward regardless of the diet your on, so maybe look at that strategy and reducing some of the processed foods you might be consuming in another diet. Cheers.
  • JaysFan82
    JaysFan82 Posts: 853 Member
    If Keto doesn't seem like something you can sustain then maybe it isn't for you. I've lost 165 pounds over the past year and a bit. I eat bread, pizza, potatoes etc... I just exercise and stay within my calories. Not once has this felt like a chore.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,919 Member
    ANY DIET will help you lose weight if you follow it. You SHOULDN'T do a diet that you won't continue with once you lose weight. People regain because they can't sustain the dieting regimen they used to lose weight in the first place. Maintenance comes when you continue the same diet but eat a little more.


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  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,733 Member
    I lost weight mostly doing low carb. For me, the advantage was restricting all the sugary processed foods I loved too much. I knew however that i couldn't do that for the rest of my life. So when I got closer to goal I switched to counting calories. That way i could gradually add in fruit, bread, etc. and the occasional sweet. I was able to maintain my loss for several years by continuing to log calories and exercise. It helps that I enjoy exercise and burn 500+ extra most days.
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,134 Member
    The only diet that will work is one that is sustainable after the weight is lost. Something like KETO that eliminates a macro almost completely generally is not sustainable post weightloss.

    Some people lose on KETO due to the satiety of the fats however calorie for calorie on a weekly basis there is no advantage over a carb inclusive diet. Once they go back to their old eating habits the weight goes right back on.

    There is an initial weightloss due to water loss and not because of fatloss.

  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,160 Member
    The only diet that will work is one that is sustainable after the weight is lost. Something like KETO that eliminates a macro almost completely generally is not sustainable post weightloss.

    Some people lose on KETO due to the satiety of the fats however calorie for calorie on a weekly basis there is no advantage over a carb inclusive diet. Once they go back to their old eating habits the weight goes right back on.

    There is an initial weightloss due to water loss and not because of fatloss.
    Well, if the diet people were on caused the weight gain to begin with, which diet should they then adopt after the they lose weight?

    If going back to old eating habits mean they just gain the weight back does that mean carbs make you fat?
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,134 Member
    edited April 2023
    The only diet that will work is one that is sustainable after the weight is lost. Something like KETO that eliminates a macro almost completely generally is not sustainable post weightloss.

    Some people lose on KETO due to the satiety of the fats however calorie for calorie on a weekly basis there is no advantage over a carb inclusive diet. Once they go back to their old eating habits the weight goes right back on.

    There is an initial weightloss due to water loss and not because of fatloss.
    Well, if the diet people were on caused the weight gain to begin with, which diet should they then adopt after the they lose weight?

    If going back to old eating habits mean they just gain the weight back does that mean carbs make you fat?
    no, it means that if keto was causing loss due to the satiety factor of the fats and lower weekly calories being consumed and you go back to less filling foods which for most included a certain amount of processed carbs you will take in more calories to reach satiety.

    For most, the best Fatloss diet is one that still allows for the foods they want in a limited amount while keeping within their calorie target.

    Anecdotally, when I’m on a 1,800 calorie Fatloss program I have a cheeseburger or tacos pretty much everyday for lunch.

    If someone is carbphobic and they like KETO and can sustain on it then more power to em.

  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,160 Member
    edited April 2023
    The only diet that will work is one that is sustainable after the weight is lost. Something like KETO that eliminates a macro almost completely generally is not sustainable post weightloss.

    Some people lose on KETO due to the satiety of the fats however calorie for calorie on a weekly basis there is no advantage over a carb inclusive diet. Once they go back to their old eating habits the weight goes right back on.

    There is an initial weightloss due to water loss and not because of fatloss.
    Well, if the diet people were on caused the weight gain to begin with, which diet should they then adopt after the they lose weight?

    If going back to old eating habits mean they just gain the weight back does that mean carbs make you fat?
    no, it means that if keto was causing loss due to the satiety factor of the fats and lower weekly calories being consumed and you go back to less filling foods which for most included a certain amount of processed carbs you will take in more calories to reach satiety.

    For most, the best Fatloss diet is one that still allows for the foods they want in a limited amount while keeping within their calorie target.

    Anecdotally, when I’m on a 1,800 calorie Fatloss program I have a cheeseburger or tacos pretty much everyday for lunch.

    If someone is carbphobic and they like KETO and can sustain on it then more power to em.


    Not sure those actually address my questions, nevertheless, your suggestion that fat is the satiating factor in the keto diet is false. Fat is actually the least satiating macro. What makes the keto diet satiating or at least for me when I did the keto diet for about 2 years and stopped 5 years ago and now I'm just low/er carb, was the amount of fiber I got from the vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, brussel sprouts, salad green et al. For me my ceiling for carbs to stay in decent ketosis was around 75g's and a cup of those examples are around 5-7 g's of carbs and that's a lot of vegetables, like 10 cups and not net carbs and a major reason why the ketogenic diet is satiating and of course the higher protein content from standard diets.

    The actual ketogenic diet I was on is called the Targeted Ketogenic Diet (TKD) which is for people that engage in sports and weight training which I did then and still do 3 or 4 days a week which allowed a glycogen fill up to fuel these episodes and generally would add about another 50 to 75g's of carbs and the carbs should be the high glycemic type that get absorbed and used quickly for obvious reasons. a few examples would be pancakes, pastries,
    that kind of thing before the gym and pasta, hamburgers, a rice curry etc, a couple of hours before hockey. Anyway, the ketogenic diet isn't that depriving and I'm still low carb with similar carb grams with a little more flexibility and still get to eat my hamburgers and taco's too and definitely not a carbophobe, I love carbs.

    I stopped keto not because I felt deprived because I wasn't, I stopped because it was in my head occupying too much of my conscience time making sure or testing I was in ketosis and I suspect my unconscious self disapproved as well, yeah, not going to happen and when I go through periods of counting calories for different objectives like bulking or leaning out to maximize outcomes like weight training, the feeling is similar. I think it was Groucho Marks that said "I could never be a member of a club that would have me as a member" or something to that effect, lol. Cheers
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,134 Member
    TKD isn’t a true KETO diet. And yes most people on a true KETO diet with high fat derive the satiety from the fat. Your results may vary.
    Cheers….
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,160 Member
    edited April 2023
    If you say so. Cheers.
  • Very insightful comments. Thanks and appreciate all the help.

  • crb426
    crb426 Posts: 661 Member
    Personally, I don't like being forced to follow "rules" that force me to eat a certain way. I want to be free to eat whatever I want as long as it fits in my calorie goal (or at least below maintenance). It does seem that after several years I have found which foods will best keep me satisfied and that works just fine.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,160 Member
    yirara wrote: »
    Can we agree that we disagree? Some people find a high fat diet satiating, others don't. And those who don't won't be happy on a keto diet. Simples, no?

    I went further, and said he was right.

    I wasn't expecting much of an answer, and I was rewarded. Facts are important. What's the old saying, facts don't care about your feelings.....anyway. Cheers