Please help me!

[Leeleepuss]

So, I wanted to find out what is happening in my body, having followed this way of eating for a few weeks. I bought some ketosis sticks and it would appear to be precisely nothing!! Why? 😔 I have put this down to one of three things:

1. The keto sticks are rubbish (they had great reviews 🤔)

2. My fitness pal is rubbish

3. I'm rubbish (most likely scenario)

Can someone who is great at all this stuff help me where I might be going wrong? These are my macros for the week, please ignore Sunday 🙈 but at least I was honest! 😂

[Leeleepuss]

Thanks for your reply. I was wondering about that. I read somewhere (seem to be doing that a lot lately!) that there's a max amount of protein worked out by your weight and I haven't been going over that but I do seem to be eating quite a lot.

[Leeleepuss]

The RI?

[Leeleepuss]

Not at all, so your advice would be halve the protein and keep the rest the same?

[Leeleepuss]

This is such a minefield!! 😫

[ChubbieChops in reply to Leeleepuss]

It really is. I've even started making notes in an attempt to understand it all!! I read you should eat 15 -20% of your daily calories as protein. Not sure how helpful that is except that I was surprised how low the percentage is

[Leeleepuss in reply to ChubbieChops]

I was eating quite a bit, probably 300-400g some days 🙈 but I'm going to cut that right right down as much as poss, and see what happens this week. Someone on here told me that it's impossible to eat too much protein but they probably underestimated my huge appetite 😂

[ChubbieChops in reply to Leeleepuss]

Haha, perhaps it is impossible to eat too much protein if you're eating enough fat. I made a keto meal a couple of weeks ago. It was delicious but I couldn't finish it as it was so rich and filling. Had the leftovers for lunch the next day

[Leeleepuss in reply to ChubbieChops]

Yes maybe. Although I thought I was eating too much fat!!

[ChubbieChops in reply to Leeleepuss]

I know. It's hard to know when to stop

[TheAwfulToad Ambassador]

I wouldn't pay too much attention to the ketostix. More importantly: are you eating healthy meals, do you feel full (with no cravings for carbs), and do you appear to be losing some flab?

If you're eating mostly fat for energy, it's virtually impossible for this not to work. It may actually be that your body has adapted very rapidly and efficiently to the new diet and hasn't gone through that (short) phase of excreting/wasting ketones.

[Leeleepuss in reply to TheAwfulToad]

Yes yes and slowly yes. Do the sticks only work when you are in that short phase then? Sorry for so many questions! 😊

[TheAwfulToad Ambassador in reply to Leeleepuss]

Yes. They only respond to acetoacetate. While your body is adapting, some of it "leaks", but under normal circumstances, your body just burns it (all of it) for fuel.

[Leeleepuss in reply to TheAwfulToad]

Thank you I didn't know that.

[Hidden]

The sticks you wee on are a it random. Especially if you have been doing keto for more than a few weeks. A blood test is much more reliable. .

[pcspetpro]

What are your goals?

[Leeleepuss in reply to pcspetpro]

I need to lose about 4 stone in total, would like to lose about half a stone a month? Is that unrealistic?

[Hidden in reply to Leeleepuss]

The whole thing about LCHF is that we stop deciding how fast we are going to lose weight & how much we lose. We put the right food in our bodies, get our metabolic hormones under control, trust our appetite & wait & see. This loss of control is driving me stark raving mad but it’s also very freeing. I will let my body decide. We lose weight faster when we have more to lose & slower as we reach optimum fat. There don’t seem to be any studies that tell us how thin people get on LCHF / IF /insulin management diets. Am I already there? Will I lose any more pounds? Will I ever get back in those pretty pyjamas that seem to be two sizes too small. What about that made to measure suit? My understanding is that it takes 6-12 months to lose 80% of our excess fat. Then a few more years to lose the rest. If your body agrees it has 4 stone to lose, you may lose the first couple at a rate of half a stone a month, then things will probably slow down. But in short, if you keep going you’ll be thin by Christmas (and so will I!)

[Leeleepuss in reply to Hidden]

Ok that makes sense. But there is the small matter of a dress and a wedding in August!! So my body better bloomin get a wiggle on!! 😂

[Subtle_badger in reply to Leeleepuss]

If you stick to LCHF I believe you will have a different body in August. A leaner, healthier, more attractive body. But exactly what shape? No one can say. In July, you can find the perfect dress to show off that new body. You can't buy one now, and hope to fill/not fill it in August. If you do, it may need altering. Spanx are also an option. Possibly both, depending on what your body decides on.

[Subtle_badger in reply to Leeleepuss]

Totally realistic. I lost well over a stone in my first month. Will you? I don't know.

2nd month has ground to a halt. If you are still losing weight week to week, then I would say "keep doing what you are doing."

When it stops, hopefully mine will have started again, and I will offer you hints!

😂 😂 😂

[Subtle_badger]

All the other comments I agree with.

What's happening with your weight?

[Leeleepuss in reply to Subtle_badger]

Going down by 1 or 2 lbs a week so far. I keep hearing of reports of the 'weight just falling off me' so that's what I'm waiting for! 😂

[Subtle_badger in reply to Leeleepuss]

OMFG! I lost 7.4kg in the first month and posted tops-off selfies! That's less than 2lbs per week. I took it as spectacular.

If you are consistently losing more than 1lb/week, then enjoy. More than that is a miracle that doesn't happen to everyone.

[Leeleepuss in reply to Subtle_badger]

😂 No one wants to see tops off selfies here, trust me!! OK so I'll stop panicking then. I didn't understand what the keto sticks did and thought I should be seeing purple ones and when I didn't that I wasn't doing it right 🤦🏻‍♀️🙄 Thank you 😊

[Subtle_badger in reply to Leeleepuss]

I hope I didn't come off as bitchy. That was not my intention. Sorry!

If you haven't - take some selfies. You probably won't want to share them, but I am really glad I did. Once I lost enough weight to not look obese, I was OK showing the images of formally fat me. Most likely you won't want to share them. That's fine too. No problem at all.

[Leeleepuss in reply to Subtle_badger]

No not at all, didn’t take it that way. I suppose I just needed reassurance that what I’m doing is ok. There is so much conflicting info on t’internet and sometimes it all gets jumbled up in there. Too many kids and not enough brain cells left!! 😂

[Subtle_badger in reply to Leeleepuss]

We don't get any more patient, do we? When we were 15 we wanted results now and now we are ..um..not 15, we still haven't learnt patience.

The NHS says "no more than 1-2lb/week" But no one actually loses that week after week, on their diets. A diet that loses you 2lb/week consistently would almost certainly be classed a crash diet by the NHS.

While we are losing that amount, it's 50-100lb/year. That's 3 1/2 to 7 stone/year, or 22-45kg/year. We might want to lose more, but we can live with that. When it stalls (and it will), then join me in bleating about it. healthunlocked.com/lchf-die...

[Leeleepuss in reply to Subtle_badger]

Oh I will, don’t worry!

[pcspetpro in reply to Leeleepuss]

Be patient...……. slow weight loss is preferred to reach long term goals and may be healthier. Make sure your Macronutrients are coming from non-processed sources. Try keeping snacking to a minimum.

[Leeleepuss in reply to pcspetpro]

I have to say that I'm doing really well on both of those so far. Just not sure what to expect with this. Thank you 😊

[pcspetpro]

Your doing great...…….. you could also try two meals per day in a shortened time window. For example first meal at 12PM second meal at 6PM. That would give you an 18 hour fasting period.

[Leeleepuss]

Doing that too! I’m trying everything lol!

[Cosmo501]

Hi Leeleepuss - just hang in there! a couple of weeks may seem like a long time.. and I remember feeling like that too... but it's probably going to take constant little adjustments here and there to find your groove and what works best for your own body. Rest assured that it will work though once you made a few trials and errors!

Re the ketosis sticks, I'm not sure why, but it took longer for me too until they started changing colour- but at the others have said, other changes will be happening anyway, whether you have ketones in your urine or not.

Looking at your macros, (and I know we're not supposed to 'worry' about watching macros) for me I generally find I need to keep my fat percentage at around 75%, and carbohydrates around 5%, leaving protein at around 20%. The type of fat seems to make a difference to my speed of weight-loss - if I increase cheese and cream, weightloss slows up, but it doesn't if I increase for example olive oil or avocado oil.

One sure fire way to give me a "stay-the-same" weigh-in for a week is alcohol. Even if it's just one or two supposedly keto friendly drinks on a saturday, it definitely stops me losing for around a week.

I lost 25kg between April and December last year, and had lots of fluctuations and falling off the wagon along the way.. but lovely people here and on the weight-loss forum kept me focussed!

I've just had a couple of months break from thinking about weightloss.. slowly getting myself back into the swing of it all again now. Onwards and downwards...

I hope you keep your focus and find your way through the balancing act - you'll get there in the end!

Best of luck

[Leeleepuss]

Thank you Cosmo, that's really encouraging 😊 you lost a huge amount, you should feel very proud and must be feeling amazing! I will try reducing my protein a bit this week and see what happens. Good luck with your onward journey too!

[OilpainterUS]

Leeleepuss, as another poster wrote, lab tests are more reliable. I found this to be true. Additionally, Ketone strips can become stale and nothing will change their color or give you a reading. I had some that worked well but didn't a year later. I think humidity and temperature changes may impact their longevity, too.

Stay the course! This works. 😊