So, you've cut out all white carbs and the diet is mainly fat and protein. But there's a snag - the weight loss has stalled!
The short answer is that you are eating too much fat.
There is the perception that so long as you have cut the carbs, then you can eat fat - as much as you like. This is wrong, as the fat you consume you will burn for energy, leaving stored body fat untouched.
The way to approach things from my perspective is to eat enough fat to achieve satiety and no more. Protein generally takes care of itself. Couple this with say 18 hour fasting and you've got it cracked.
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MikePollard
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Without meaning to be difficult, maybe our weight loss has stalled because we have lost enough. Maybe our brains have different ideas about a good destination from our bodies?
It is a good point, but weight is a poor measure as is BMI. I've been measuring my waist at my naval. A healthy level of fat (specifically visceral) will yield a waist no bigger than 50% of your height.
By this measure I have at least another inch to go despite a BMI of 23 and average build.
Just measured. Then put my info into an online calculator. ‘YOU ARE A PEAR’ it told me. Yup. I know. Not sure I needed to be told that. Maybe just, ‘you are in a healthy range’ would have done.
Can you explain what you mean? I can't tell the difference between my weight loss stall at 78kg, where I still had a way to go and presumably was eating too much fat and now, where I am settled at the moment 10kg lighter. My body is not indicating either was a set point. Maybe I should be trying to shed another 10kg 🤔
I know absolutely nothing guys. But it occurs to me that your body will lose weight to some degree at the rate it needs to. If we all go back to the adage “It took me a while to get this Fat” is it unreasonable that it might take us a long time to lose it. Plateaus are normal and we are not on diets , we are changing the way we eat. If it worked for you so far Subtle_badger it will work again. Maybe you do need to moderate the amount of Fat but then again maybe all you need to do is be patient. Be Happy ❤️x
I think you have the wrong end of the stick. I am at my goal weight. But there was no magical signal that let me know I was there. It is indistinguishable from a stall. If there is a magical signal, then I haven't had it yet, and this isn't my goal weight.
So how do you know what is too much fat, or whether LCHF just doesn't work for you? Also do you have to keep reducing fat as you lose weight to keep losing?
The idea with low carb is that your hormones can tell you when you are hungry or not, through the reduction of insulin. When your body has what it considers excess fat, it sends out not hungry signals through the hormone leptin. This rebalancing takes typically 3 months. Then you have to ask yourself every time you come to eat, am I actually hungry? Or do I just feel like eating something? And you have to be absolutely ruthless about only eating when you are actually hungry. In my view, how much fat you eat doesn’t matter as much as not eating when you aren’t hungry. Various low carb experts say that nuts and cheese and cream, while low carb, don’t tend to lead to weight loss in the way that meat does. This is because it’s easier to keep eating cheese when we aren’t that hungry, than to keep eating bolognaise on courgettes for example.
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Introducing carbs again
I need some reassurance, please