Not losing weight with keto? Here are 4 reasons why!

 

Top 4 Reasons You Are Not Losing Weight With Keto

You started low carb or keto eating.  You probably joined some facebook groups.  You saw others losing a ton of weight.  You got excited.  You lost some weight the first week.  And then you stalled.  

Does this sound familiar?

There are many reasons why this might be occurring.  I’m going to touch on what I think the TOP 4 reasons you are not losing weight.

Reason #1 You are eating too many carbs and processed foods

This one may seem obvious, but often it is not.  Especially at the beginning of your journey, there is a tendency to see this big drop in weight (mostly water weight) and then people relax and expect it to continue.  

They stop counting carbs or entering their food into carb manager or MyFitnessPal.  Maybe they start eating out more often.  Or stop meal planning and prepping.  Or even none of these things and they think they are doing everything right.  

Either way, there are many factors at play here.  

1. Carbs hide everywhere.  Do you know how many carbs are in your spices?  As an example, there are about 5g net carbs in only 1 Tablespoon of garlic powder.  Say what??
2. When you eat out, even if you eat as clean as possible, you never know what they use for cooking oils or spices or fillers. Hidden carbs are abundant in restaurant food and fast food. 
3. Processed foods (packaged foods) are horrendous and often contain inflammatory ingredients such as corn and soy.   Inflammatory foods wreak havoc on our systems and often hinder things like weight loss. 

Reason #2 You are eating a lot of artificial sweeteners

I know, I know.  You miss your desserts and sweet little treats.  Me too.  Or at least in the beginning.  I ultimately grew out of it and my taste buds changed.  BUT, if you are going crazy with the artificial sweeteners, you might find that it is sabotaging your weight loss efforts[1].  

Diet soda anyone?  That is the most common one.  People remove sugar and switch to “diet” everything.  The better option is to remove the item and find a natural replacement vs a replacement with artificial sweeteners.

Reason #3 You aren’t moving your body

A common misconception is that you don’t need to exercise while eating keto.  This is categorically false.  I don’t recommend a REALLY intense program in the beginning while your body is adjusting, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do something.   Our bodies are meant to MOVE daily!

Reason #4 Stress

Stress is a root of much illness, disease, and inflammation.  Stress can be due to wanting to lose weight, comparing yourself to others, family, work, etc..  Chronic stress will sabotage just about anything.  Unfortunately, it has become commonplace for too many people. 

What can I do?

Like I said, there are MANY reasons for weight loss stalls, but these are the top reasons that I have come across.  

So what can you do about it?  

Here are my 3 suggestions (to keep it simple) for getting through the keto weight loss stall.

Tip #1 Walk

Assuming you are physically capable, make it a point to take a walk every day.  Rain or shine – walk!  Take the dogs, the kids, yourself and head out! Walking is a great way to just move.  It gets the heart rate up more than sitting on the couch, moves your muscles, and does what our bodies are meant to do. 

Walking is also a good stress reliever.  Getting outside and into nature can be calming and healing for our spirit.  

Tip #2 Be mindful of your carb intake

Make sure you are accounting for everything in a food, even spices. 

Try to cook your own food as much as possible and limit eating out. 

Lastly, track your food.  ALL OF IT.

Tip #3 Carb Up Day

Here is a counterintuitive thing to try!  Try to add one carb-up day per week.  This is a day where you increase your carbs.  How much to increase is up to you.  You can increase, but not kick yourself out of ketosis, or you can increase and purposefully kick yourself out of ketosis.  

I am not talking about crap carbs here either.  I am talking about healthy carbs like sweet potatoes.  

Carb up days can serve several purposes.  

1. Going in and out of ketosis can keep the metabolism revved up and it will also make your body more efficient at getting into ketosis.
2. Restoring your glycogen stores occasionally can help with hormones and muscle building.  I decided to institute carb up days due to my Hashimoto’s.
3. Keep your body guessing!

In the end, stalls happen and sometimes weight loss is slower than you might like or slower than someone else’s.  

Don’t stress.  Take it one day at a time.  As much as we don’t want to hear it – we didn’t gain the weight overnight and we aren’t going to lose it overnight either.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892765/