Anyone had success losing weight after baby?
I have been keto-ing hardcore for about 3 weeks and have lost a total of 4-5 lbs despite my efforts (most in the first week). My husband eats much more than me and cheats a lot more often and has lost about 15 lbs.
I follow my macros in an app, continue to hit around 20-30 carbs per day, and stay under about 1400 calories. I typically eat eggs, meat and veggies, sometimes almonds or an Atkins shake. I just really don't understand how I can change my entire eating habits upside down and it barely makes a dent. This is typical of how it's been my whole life. I eat like a bird to be a size 16. I was taken off Metformin when we found out we were pregnant. Do you think this is the culprit? Do you have any success with Keto? Is there something I can to do better achieve ANY results, considering the PCOS factor?
edit: Also wanted to add that I bought keto sticks and have regularly measured that I am in "slight" ketosis, with no weight loss.
Posted Apr 27, 2018, 1:50 PM UTC · edited
I mean honestly, if you've lost 4 to 5 pounds in 3 weeks that's about right. 2 pounds per week is supposed to be the high end of what's safe to lose a week (supposedly, I'm not a doctor) and can be difficult to do outside of having wooshes. Based on five pounds in three weeks you are losing at a rate of ~1.5 pounds a week.
For me, I try to aim for 2 pounds a week. I dont always hit it and sometimes I dont lose anything at all that week. I've added in fasting and cut out all of my carbs and that seems to help me the most. On the days and weeks that I do lose, I average about 0.3 pounds a day.
You are losing and that's what you need to focus on. You're only 3 weeks in and it's a marathon, not a sprint. Dont give up!
I agree, it sounds like you are doing great! I think unfortunately you'll just have to keep at it slow and steady. I hope you can feel encouraged by your progress, you are doing so well and you've kept it up 3 weeks!
Hm, what worries me is that most people lose at least 3x that. I know that you stall quickly and often need to then be super strict. I am not sure that I can take a stall based on 5 lbs of loss. It seems really preposterous considering that the difference in eating and calorie consumption is night and day. Eat 2200 calories, with carbs and sugar = 255 lbs. Eat 1400 no carbs no sugar = 250. Seems insane.
So a part of that could be your cycle if you're menstruating. I notice with myself that I plateau going into my period and then have a tiny woosh a few days after my period. So for me the plateau is around 10 days long.
Another thing you could try is fasting. I personally do OMAD during the week and then a 16:8 during the weekend and mix that with keto. It really helps with ketosis since when I'm not eating I'm not breaking my ketosis with any carbs. Another thing to keep in mind, you may be eating little to no carbs but your body may still be having an insulin response that can mess up your ketosis. For example a sweetener or something else that's carb free may be causing you to have an insulin response and kick you out of ketosis.
I havent done a ton of reading on this yet but my sister (who has a ketones monitor since she manages my nieces type 1 diabetes) was saying that if you are actually staying in ketosis you wont be able to pick up the ketones on those keto sticks. More so that if you can still detect ketones on the sticks you are going in and out of ketosis or something. I havent looked into it much yet since I havent been tracking with keto sticks but something to keep in mind and research.
I honestly believe I lose at the rate I do because of the fasting. When I'm strict about the OMAD I literally weigh myself every day and can see a loss of 0.2 or 0.3 pounds. When I add in my 16:8 weekends I tend to stall out over the weekend and then start losing again come tuesday once I've gone back to OMAD.
Edit: to give you an example here's my weigh ins
4/25: 205
4/26: 204.7
4/27: 203.9
4/28: 203.7
4/30: 207.6
If my pattern from the last two months continues by Tuesday or Wednesday I'll have shed the water weight I'm likelyholding on too and then Thursday through Saturday I'll be on my downward trend again. If I just did OMAD 24/7 it would probably just be a downward trend with plateaus here and there but for me to stick with it, I like to have the extra meal on Saturday and/or Sunday. It let's me be more social.