Why Am I Not Losing Weight This Time Around With Low Carbing
Even the small amount of calories in your coffee can sabotage this diet. You will likely still lose weight, but not as quickly as if you hadn't had those calories. If you are okay with your weight loss, then I wouldn't worry about it, but if you want lose more or faster, cut out the morning creamer or milk, or cut the coffee all together. Yes, it's possible to lose weight through diet alone, but you'll likely hit a plateau at some point. You don't need to spend hours in the gym; you only need to set up a reasonable workout schedule that you can follow each week.
But without a properly formulated low carb, high fat diet, you may not. Phase, this is crucial because it shortens the time in which you experience flu-like. In order to lose weight - no matter what diet you're on - you must be eating at a calorie deficit. 1% and my weight has increased about 2 lbs (not muscle mass weight).
A low-carb, ketogenic diet has ALWAYS worked for me. Until now. After 6 weeks AND introducing exercise into the mix, the scale isn't budging. What gives?I'm a 5'3' woman who weighed in at 150 when I was 26. I cut out carbs and sugar and dropped down to 116 by the time I was 28. Of course, I've gained some of the weight back, but, aside from a vacation in Thailand and the occasional weekend indulgence, I've stayed away from rice/potatoes/cake with success. I don't try to get into ketosis, but I make sure my diet consists mainly of green vegetables, good fats, proteins, nuts, full-fat dairy, etc. My two favorite foods are salad and scrambled eggs. However, I'm almost 32 and my weight has crept up to 133.
I would like to get pregnant in a few months and want to get my weight back down to 125 before this happens. 6 weeks ago I began limiting my carbs to under 20 and getting fair-to-dark purple ketostix (depending on the day). I've been eating anywhere from 1100-1500 calories depending on my level of activity. Three weeks ago I began an intense 45-60 minutes cardio/body weight training class that kicks my ass. It's a lot of burpees, jump squats, push ups that I can barely accomplish due to my currently pathetic level of fitness, but I can tell it's a good burn and I'm picking up stamina quickly. I'm sore after classes, which I'm attending 2x week (more when I sign up for the unlimited membership in another two weeks). Since the weather has gotten nice, I go on 10-30 mile bike rides on the weekends with my husband.
Nothing has helped my weight. Two weeks, the day after I attended an exercise class AND went on a 32-mile bike ride, my weight jumped up 3lbs. I lost my shit and cried to my husband, and we both decided to put away the scale except for weekly weigh-ins. But I just weighed myself this morning, and no success. I'm starting to feel like my scale lives in a funhouse world, because if it's this hard to drop a pound, then I'm doomed if I get pregnant.
Some factors:
1) I drink alcohol, mainly on weekends, though ketosis means I can't have more than 2-3 drinks a day without getting horribly woozy. On week nights I'll sometimes have a glass of red wine while reading a book. The weekday glass doesn't kick me out of ketosis for more than an hour because I will plan ahead and limit carbs elsewhere to accommodate it. On weekends I'm out of ketosis for 3 hours before dropping back in. Either way, ketosis has dramatically lowered my tolerance, which is good. I am not going to entirely eliminate alcohol from my diet unless I rule everything else out, as I'd like to (responsibly, moderately) enjoy my final child-free summer with friends.
2) Before mid-April, I was completely sedentary. I used to have a job that kept me on my feet all day, but switched to a very sedentary job in May 2014. The bike rides and the strength training class are very new to my routine.
3) My mother, sister and aunt have a history of hypothyroidism. I had mine checked in April by an endocrinologist, who said my numbers were fine (TSH = 1.03; T3 = 33.7; T4 = 6.0), though I do believe my T3 is low.
4) I use liquid splenda (zero carb) in my coffee each morning. This has never stalled me in the past.
5) I am TERRIBLE at drinking water, even when in ketosis when you're supposed to be thirsty. Yesterday it was a chore to drink an entire 33oz bottle of sparkling Perrier.
6) In general my macros are: 60-70% fat; 20-35% protein; 5% carbs (mainly from vegetables and small amounts of nuts and full fat Greek yogurt)
7) I'm on the low dose hormonal IUD, which is not supposed to cause weight gain in most women. However, I did get it at age 30 and that's when I noticed my weight creeping up.
posted by Namlit at 5:02 AM on May 20, 2015 [5 favorites]
Two: sleep is really important for fat loss and proper recovery. Messed-up sleep can negatively affect your progress in both fat loss and strength gain. It's something to check.
posted by daveliepmann at 5:04 AM on May 20, 2015 [7 favorites]
2) WATCH THE NUTS! They are sneaky snakes that add up to a lot of calories.
3) Are you TRACKING YOUR CALORIES? This is a must.
4) I'd really do away with the Splenda. I'm a Truvia (stevia) man, myself.
5) Water, water, everywhere, definitely, definitely drink.
6) If you use MyFitnessPal to track your calories and macros, add FIBER to the mix and make sure you're getting enough.
7) Do NOT focus on a number. IGNORE THE SCALE. Take a few before pictures now. Take progress pictures every few weeks. Compare the pictures as your body composition changes.
You need to realize that what worked in the past may not work now.
posted by Major Matt Mason Dixon at 5:21 AM on May 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
I don't eat more than 2 servings of nuts a week, and maybe 15g of hard cheese 4 days a week, otherwise I'll overeat them. I track my calories on MyFitnessPal daily. I eat a LOT of fiber based on vegetables alone.
I *do* gain muscle like it's my job, so I'm measuring with calipers, though only started this last week. I'll keep measuring each week.
posted by Hwaet at 5:37 AM on May 20, 2015
Other than that, introducing exercise might result in weight in the form of muscle mass, no? Perhaps not such a problem after all...
(I would count and track the carbs, not the calories, in any case [...matter of two fundamentally conflicting ways of looking at diet, it seems to me])
posted by Namlit at 5:55 AM on May 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Neekee at 5:58 AM on May 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
Not getting proper sleep (particularly increased sleep with your increased exercise level) can affect your metabolism. Are you sleeping more than you did before you started? A two-a-day workout with less than eight hours of sleep will now allow your body to recover and will stall your metabolism.
A hormonal shift or imbalance can also affect your metabolism. Where you are on your menstrual cycle can affect your weight. Over two weeks, my wife can do exactly the same things and gain five pounds, then lose it two weeks later. Consider that your sample size right now is very small.
Finally, if you are going from a 'pathetic level of fitness' to increased stamina in things like squats, push-ups, and climbing hills on your bike - you are building muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat does. It's why more people have rejected a pure scale reading or BMI as their indicator of body fitness over time - good activity will make you stronger and look better, but may not impact the scale. 'Which would you prefer and why' is a question you should ask yourself.
posted by buoys in the hood at 6:00 AM on May 20, 2015
Low Carb Diet Weight Loss Per Week
I would go with the measuring instead of the scale to see if you are doing well. Your waist to hip ration might be interesting to look at to see some movement.
Otherwise, I think you shouldnt pay too much attention to wight but focus on:
1) Eating healthy (lots of vitames, some protein, little carbs) and eating *real* food (fresh produce)
2) Drinking enough water
3) Sleeping at least 7 hrs on average
4) Exercising (you could do a fitness test (as in endurance, strength, felxibility, balance) if you havent already and repeat it after 8 and 16 weeks of training and see if your scores improve)
All these will be a great preparation for pregnancy and are much better measures for health than weight. Just stick to it :)
posted by Fallbala at 6:00 AM on May 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
I don't try to start exercising and trying to lose weight at the same time. I think its better to lose the first 10 pounds, or whatever, and then introduce exercise- BECAUSE as above posters mention, it changes the meaning of the number on the scale to something unidentifiable. Is that number due to muscle? Fat? Success? Failure? Who knows!?
Exercise also changes my appetite... and since I am a numbers control freak, I like to know what I am dealing with- and that means taking things one thing at a time. Diet first, Exercise second.
And I CERTAINLY don't weigh myself after a big dose of working out, I have weighed myself after a hike before and been up 8 pounds! Its because all the little tears in your muscles fill up with water you retain and it doesn't dissipate for a while.
So.... I hope that helps. It can be sooooo upsetting to have these initial troubles... and as a pregnant woman who started out being 10 pounds over normal when I conceived... its a good goal to have, that being said- now that I am nearing the end, I have gained the exact right amount of weight despite eating tons of things I wouldn't normally... I believe that you will gain what your body wants to gain regardless. My point is not to be too freaked out about any of it!
posted by catspajammies at 6:05 AM on May 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
Water is also key, you need to find a way to drink it and love it. Add lemon? Make berry, or cucumber water? 33oz is so not enough.
Finally, just a note: I've been where you are with respect to the 'losing your shit' over the scale, and I feel like you're beating yourself up pretty badly over a few pounds, which is not healthy to your emotional well-being, either. It can be more challenging to lose weight as you age, and at least my own experience is that there comes a time where you need to focus on being healthy and happy, especially if you're looking at trying to conceive in the coming months.
posted by meowf at 6:16 AM on May 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Yellow Silver Maple at 6:27 AM on May 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
Why Am I Not Losing Weight This Time Around With Low Carbing Back
posted by bfranklin at 6:55 AM on May 20, 2015 [18 favorites]
You also might want to join /r/keto and pick their brains.
Muscle gain is likely not a significant cause. A woman who is trying to gain muscle is generally going to top out at maybe a bit more than a pound per month. That's with squats and milk, not bodyweight exercises twice a week.
posted by Tanizaki at 6:58 AM on May 20, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by kinddieserzeit at 6:58 AM on May 20, 2015
posted by meowf at 7:18 AM on May 20, 2015
http://www.coachcalorie.com/reasons-youre-not-losing-weight/
http://www.healthyandnaturalworld.com/hidden-reasons-youre-not-losing-weight/
http://hiit-blog.dailyhiit.com/hiit-diet/diet-tips/18-reasons-youre-losing-weight/
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/9-more-reasons-youre-not-losing-weight/#axzz3agcv0daJ
Some of the less obvious ones here are not getting enough sleep and being stressed out.
Personally, I've had some very similar experiences and in my case the culprit was not eating enough while also working out. Sounds counterintuitive, right? But basically I was in a calorie deficit, which meant my body lowered its metabolism and wanted to store every bit of food I put in it right away. These two articles have a have a good, down-to-earth explanation of why that happens:
http://www.coachcalorie.com/not-eating-enough-calories-to-lose-weight/
http://www.eattoperform.com/2015/01/30/basics-of-losing-body-fat/
Key quote from the last one:
When someone reaches a fat loss plateau, the tendency is to keep pushing in the completely wrong direction – they eliminate all processed foods, reduce Calories, reduce carbs, work out more days a week, start taking fat burners – and that rarely if ever ends well. [...]
The issue is that if you keep it up, even mild Calorie restriction that doesn’t threaten your life (you’re not starving) results in metabolic adaptations that actually make it harder to lose weight. To make matters worse, once you regain lost body weight, it takes quite a while for these adaptations to reverse. Weight change models support the theory that these adaptations are predictable (at least in non-diabetics). [...]
There’s enough evidence to suggest that the longer you restrict Calories, the fatter you’ll end up when you go off your diet. The solution then is to only diet for short periods of time and spend most of your time focused on maintaining fat loss and staying the hell away from the adverse effects of Calorie restriction.
Finally, a very well-respected coach and nutritionist at a gym I used to go to says that it's very common to see overall weight stay the same while body composition changes (you build muscle while losing fat). He says this is especially true for women.
And this is exactly what I've experienced. I've lost maybe 5 pounds total since beginning my nutrition/exercise program in January, but boy do I have a whole lot more muscle and a whole lot less fat to show for it! And while the scale barely registers any change, the calipers show a world of difference.
posted by Questolicious at 7:24 AM on May 20, 2015 [3 favorites]
32 mile ride plus intense cardio on 1500 calories? That's crazy talk. Your body thinks you are starving it. Add more fat, see more gains.
posted by Questolicious at 7:29 AM on May 20, 2015
posted by apennington at 7:53 AM on May 20, 2015
Then there's the alcohol. I hear you on the fun summer with friends bit, especially if you're anticipating a pregnancy. But here's my understanding (and experience, fwiw). A keto diet is meant to prompt the body to burn fat first, and even if dry red wine is low in carbs, it does demand that your body burn the ethanol first. In some cases, that simply puts ketosis on 'pause' while the body dumps toxins, but with a keto diet, there's more fat being consumed, so hitting pause every weekend and here and there through the week while still taking in extra fats means those fats are waiting in line behind the ethanol. Just something to consider. Good luck!
posted by whoiam at 7:57 AM on May 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by puddledork at 8:29 AM on May 20, 2015
I am a religious MFP bookkeeper. I keep a scale at my office and on my counter top at home in order to weigh EVERYthing. We cook whole foods and eat very few processed-anythings, so I doubt the culprit is hidden ingredients.
posted by Hwaet at 8:54 AM on May 20, 2015
posted by culfinglin at 9:20 AM on May 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
But this:
>I lost my shit and cried to my husband
For the very small amount you are eating, the very major increase in high-intensity activity, and the strong emotional reaction over small day-to-day margin-of-error changes with no mention of feeling better or stronger, I'm kind of worried about you. Your current BMI is in the normal range and I haven't seen any literature indicating change in fertility within the range you describe. This kind of sounds like you want to start a family right away but have made an arbitrary line which needs crossing first, and are getting super stressed about that. Be healthy, toss the scale, start trying for a child when you want to.
posted by tchemgrrl at 10:44 AM on May 20, 2015 [13 favorites]
1000% agree with tchemgrrl on this. Stress does a lot of bad stuff to our bodies, and I wouldn't discount its role in your current frustrations. It could be worthwhile to take a few steps back and examine your motives: why do you want to lose these pounds? Will your quality of life increase proportionally to the effort you're putting in now? What is your quality of life like today?
This could be one of those watched-pot-never-boils situations, where your micromanaging is harming both your progress and your perceptions of it. I'd dial it back a little--keep eating healthy foods, keep exercising, keep spending good time with your husband and getting 7+ hours of sleep per night. Even for just a week or two, don't worry about the other stuff. Drink more water and don't be so hard on yourself!!
posted by witchen at 11:00 AM on May 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
I eat keto and have used it for weight loss. There have been months where the scale went up and down the same 3-5 lbs. Meanwhile, I dropped a pants size, dropped a belt notch, clothes suddenly turned baggy, etc. My body composition was absolutely changing and my body was absolutely losing fat. But, the scale didn't show it. Again, the scale is a poor tool for a complex situation that involves recomposition, water weight, waste weight, and exercise. Stay calm, remove the scale from the situation, and keep going. You're doing fine.
posted by quince at 11:59 AM on May 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by mysterious_stranger at 2:16 PM on May 20, 2015
posted by Barnifer at 5:38 PM on May 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
There was also this pregnancy app I had that said you shouldn't eat any extra calories until the 3rd trimester and then only 2-300 more than usual. I would have had a miserable pregnancy if I had tried to stick to that. Some days I ate LOADS, only to be ill the next week and consume very little. Once for about a week I would drink a gallon of ice cold full fat milk a day, in addition to my food- it turns out my baby was busy building his skeleton! But in my control freak days the fact I had just consumed 5000 extra calories from milk in a day would have horrified me. But guess what? I still gained just the usual amount between doctors visits... about 4.5 pounds...
But to start it was hard to let go and accept that I wasn't in control. And I am a little mad at the baby center people who made that app to put that kind of pressure on pregnant ladies.
Between weeks 20 and 26 I only gained 3 pounds. The next month I gained 7... and I don't know if it was blood, baby, uterus, I have no idea.
Let go of being so emotionally attached to numbers before you get pregnant, because it will be much harder to deal with the unknowns of pregnancy weight gain if you don't have a handle on that anxiety.
posted by catspajammies at 2:42 AM on May 21, 2015 [2 favorites]
(In other words, Nthing Barnifer) See also: http://lowcarbluxury.com/goldenshot.html
posted by getawaysticks at 7:37 AM on May 22, 2015
Low-Carb Tips and TricksAugust 26, 2013
Good bye, my delicious friends!October 20, 2011
Failing at low carbing.June 6, 2011
Share your slow carb recipesDecember 11, 2008
- An easy and all natural way to help fight headaches is to sip on a caffeinated beverage. Studies have shown that caffeine is a promising headache reliever.[3]
- Many times, headaches are from enlarged blood vessels in the brain pushing on your skull. Caffeine serves as a vasoconstrictor and makes those enlarged blood vessels become smaller and more narrow and thus relieving your pain.[4]
- Caffeine works quickly and you may notice some relief within 30 minutes. In addition, the effects may last up to three to five hours.[5]
- Both tea and coffee are sources of caffeine with coffee being higher in caffeine. Most 8 oz cups of coffee have around 80 – 200 mg of caffeine.[6] Try drinking one to two cups for headache relief.
- Although you can find caffeine in drinks like sodas, sports drinks, and energy drinks, these are generally not on the approved beverage list for the Atkin's diet.