You have been following a Ketogenic Diet plan, counting your macros, and aren’t losing any weight? What is wrong you might wonder? Why am I not losing weight on Keto? Learn 10 very important factors to losing weight on Keto.
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10 Reasons You Are Not Losing Weight on Keto
The Ketogenic Diet has been shown to be one of the best ways to lose weight and sustain weight loss. But like anything, weight loss is a process, with ups and downs (hopefully all downs!).
If you have been following the Ketogenic Diet for a while, or if you are brand new to it, there are times when the weight loss just stops. There are some common reasons why you are not losing weight on Keto, and below are the reasons along with some simple solutions that can help you get back in the weight loss game.
1. You haven’t set your macros
One of the most important things that you can do when following the Ketogenic Diet for weight loss is to set your daily macronutrient requirements.
These are based on:
- Your current weight
- Your height
- Your age
- Your physical activity
- You goals
To set your macros properly it is recommended that either you use a coach to set them for you, or you use a detailed calculator. I prefer this detailed macro calculator.
2. You haven’t updated your macros
If you set your macros at the start, and have tracked them faithfully, and now have stopped losing weight, you may need to reset your macros using your new weight.
If you have just been winging it up until now, this is the time to get serious and try tracking to make sure you are reaching the macros you need to.
3. You are eating too much
As much as you may hear that on Keto calories don’t matter, there is a caveat to this. If your weight loss has stalled, you may be eating too much. This is much harder to do on the keto diet as fat is just so satisfying.
However, if your eating is not solely driven by hunger, it is still possible to over eat.
RELATED: My experience after 45 days on the Keto Diet
4. You are not eating enough
Conversely, if you are not eating enough calories, your body may feel that it is heading in to, or in the midst of a famine.
To counter this, your body can slow your metabolism down. This is less than ideal, as this is what makes the weight gain spiral with other starvation diets happen.
This should not happen on Keto. Make sure you are at least eating 1200 calories on most days.
If you are having trouble keeping your calories and fat macros high enough you can continue eating how you are while supplementing 1-3 meals with additional fats by adding in a tablespoon of either:
- MTC Oil (Medium Chain Trigylceride Oil for Keto Diet)
- Cold-Pressed, Unrefined, Virgin Coconut Oil
- 100% Pure Avocado Oil
Adding healthy unrefined oils with mild flavors and NO CARBOHYDRATES is a great way to increase calories and fats on your Keto Diet so that your body doesn’t begin to slow down your metabolism.
5. You are insulin resistant
If you are insulin resistant, you will struggle to lose weight. But, it is not impossible.
You need to keep your carbs at 20g of net carbs or less each day. If you have hit a stall, try dropping your total carbs to 20g for a week or two and see if that helps you.
To find out if you are insulin resistant, grab a tape measure. Measure around your waist and divide that measurement by your height. Your waist:height ratio should be less than .5, if it is over .5, you are insulin resistant.
6. You are retaining fluid or growing muscles
There are times, especially if you are a woman, that your body will retain fluid as you lose weight, or you may be growing muscle as you are burning fat.
Water and muscle both take up less room than fat, so your measurements will still change even when the scales aren’t.
If you have been deliberately working out, then it is more likely that you are gaining muscle while burning fat.
If the scale isn’t moving, you should check your measurements instead. Go by how you feel more than what the scales are saying.
If it is in fact water that you are retaining, your body will intermittently release it and you will find that you will spend 24-48 hours peeing a lot, and you can lose 1-4 pounds in 24 hours when this happens.
7. You are experiencing Carb Creep
You may not realize what you are eating is full of carbs, as you get used to living la vida keto, some things tend to sneak in. Keep an eye on the foods that you can eat on the ketogenic diet and the foods that you should avoid on a Ketogenic Diet.
- Nuts. Some nuts are full of carbs, like cashews. Others like macadamia nuts are much lower in carbohydrates.
- Sneaky sugars are in mayonnaise, mustard and ketchup. Pay attention to your condiments.
- Herbs and spices all count, they all have some kind of carb count.
- Onions and garlic are fairly high too, especially onion powder.
Related: Keto Pumpkin Bread
8. You are too stressed, anxious or depressed
We all know that insulin is the gate keeper to weight loss. But after insulin, the next most important weight loss hormone is cortisol. Raised cortisol will keep you fat.
There are some natural things that you can do to help lower your cortisol levels
- Get the bad stress out of your life. Make a plan to tackle it and start to DO IT. It might be a job, a toxic relationship, too much on your plate or self imposed limitations.
- Deep breathing – yoga, meditation or simply deliberate, deep breathing is the only way science has found that actually swaps your body from the ‘flight/fight/freeze’ panicked and anxious state to the relaxed and safe ‘rest and digest’ state.
9. You allergic to dairy
Some people aren’t great with consuming dairy. If this is you, you may find that too much heavy whipping cream, cheese or cream cheese might cause your weight loss to stall. A typical Ketogenic Diet is heavy in lactose products and lacto-intolerance should definately be considered.
Try eliminating dairy for two weeks and see if that fixes your weight loss stall.
RELATED: Keto Cranberry Bread
10. You have an underlying medical issue
If you have tried everything above and nothing is helping, then you need tosee a doctor that really understands weight loss and hormones.
Find a GOOD doctor. You need to optimize your hormones first. Start with your insulin and cortisol as previously mentioned above. If it is more than that, you need your doctor to check:
- Thyroid with a complete panel
- Sex hormones –progesterone, estrogen, testosterone
- Adrenal hormones
- DHEA
- Vitamin D
From there you need to work with your doctor to correct or optimize them.
There are also prescription medications that are known to raise your sugar and insulin levels and these may cause astall
These medications include beta blockers, psych meds, steroids, statins, niacin, antibiotics, decongestants and cough syrups.
The Ketogenic Diet is the best way to lose weight and maintain a healthy weight, while gaining all the other benefits of following the Keto way of eating.
Weight loss stalls are inevitable, but these 10 reasons that you may not be losing weight on the Keto Diet will help you troubleshoot your plateau, and help you get back on track on your weight loss journey.
This has been a guest post from Dana at Natural Earthy Mama.
Dana is a homesteading, homeschooling mama to 3, based in the south of New Zealand.She is a Certified Ketogenic Living Coach, and natural wellness expert, as well as a Registered Nurse, with post grad training in mothers and babies. She has struggled with infertility and PCOS and conceived all 3 babies naturally.
Dana is passionate about natural health and gentle parenting. With a background in well child / baby nursing she loves sharing what she knows with mamas, mamas-to-be and mama-want-to-be’s.
KETO RESOURCES FROM VIGOR IT OUT:
- What is Keto and 8 Satisfying Keto Dinner Recipes
- Chocolate Blueberry Cheesecake Fat Bombs
- Keto Snacks You NEED to Keep on Hand at all Times to Ensure Diet Success
- How to End Keto Flu With Simple Drinks, Recipes, and Diet Adjustments
- Raspberry Cheesecake Fat Bombs
Some of My Other Free Resources You Might Totally Love:
- I have available a printable Ingredient Replacement Guide
Because you don’t have to eliminate your family favorites to move in a healthier eating direction! You simply need to be aware of ingredients and with this substitution guide you can still have all of favorites! Just slightly altered to add in nutrients and eliminate empty calories and bad fats.
