Get Through Any Keto Diet Plateau - How To Stop Stalling On Keto!
Do you feel like you're stagnating during your keto diet? It might be the case that you have to overcome another plateau.
It can be really frustrating to stop losing weight even though you are trying hard. But before even giving you tips on how to break any keto plateau you have to make sure that you are actually stalling!
Are you actually in a Keto Stall?
Especially during the first days & weeks, people are going to have the tendency of overestimating the results that they gain.
If one person managed to lose 5 pounds per week, it doesn't mean that you should be losing the exact same amoung. (Even if you eat exactly the same!!!)
The human body is complex and reacts in a different way for each human, which is why stalling has nothing to do with "only" losing 1 pound a week.
Don't think that you are on a ketogenic plateau if you just haven't lost weight for a couple of days.
Furthermore, the weight scale can be an inaccurate way to measure your overall progress for two reasons:
Do you measure your weight at the right time?
When stepping on the scale it is important to measure your weight at the same time as the days. Also, it is important to weigh yourself before eating or drinking. Just a glass of water already adds 300g onto the scale which obviously changes your weight.
Weight loss doesn't mean fat loss
Sometimes you might have lost a lot of weight during just a couple of days but in reality you a significant part of it was water.
Of course, in the long run, the weight scale is going to help you to keep track of your progress, but it isn't the most accurate tool if you try to track your daily progress.
But it is important to not see the weight scale as the ultimate tool that tells you if you are on a plateau or not.
In fact, it is possible to get a lot slimmer even without losing any weight at all. Especially if you are working out you will gain muscle while losing fat, which makes you appear more fit without actually "losing weight" but more importantly you are losing fat!
Causes For Weight Loss Stall
So if you haven't lost any weight or didn't see/feel any changes at all during the last 2-3 weeks, then you can actually say that you are keto stalling.
To get through such weight loss plateaus, the primary factor is to change & recalculate your ketogenic diet.
There are some very common causes that tend to get people stuck in their process which you will find right below:
Carb intake is too high
Calorie intake is too high
Low-quality macronutrients
Protein Intake
Too many carbs
As you know, you have to be in a state of ketosis in order to get the lean body mass quickly. One of the main problems is, that your body prefers using carbs as a source of energy by turning them into glucose.
Now every gram of carbs is going to be a minimal hindrance to reaching the state of ketosis, which is why you should keep your carb intake below 20g.
You might be thinking, "But I'm tracking every single meal and my carb intake is below 20g?!"
The problem usually is, that tracking your macronutrients in a very accurate way can be quite tough due to two reasons.
- Hidden Carbs
One common reason for a weight loss plateau on keto is that you tend to forget about the hidden carbs. When looking at the nutrition facts of heavy cream for example you are going to notice a pattern.
- One brand has 1g of carbs per 100g
- The other one has 0g of carbs per 100g
The problem now is, that in fact both of them have the exact same amount of carbs per 100g which is 0.4g. Unfortunately, the food brands are able to round up or down the macronutrients.
Considering that there are plenty of foods with hidden carbs you can already imagine how many carbs you might be eating without actually tracking them.
Just a few examples are
- Eggs (0.6g in a large egg)
- Cinamon
- Dairy Products
- Many Types Of Meat
- Cheating
Another possibility might be, that you are cheating on yourself. When telling yourself to only eat 2-3 strawberries per day but then picking the largest ones it is obviously likely that you eat more carbs than you actually should.
The same goes for other situations, where
Calorie intake is too high
Despites eating too many carbs there is another big problem, that might be holding you back from going through a plateau.
No matter what type of diet you are doing it is unlikely to lose weight when consuming more or as many calories as your body needs.
Especially after losing weight, your daily caloric intake is going to be lower than before. If you started with 75kg but now only weigh 68kg and still want to lose more weight you might have forgotten that a person that weighs 68kg is going to need less keto food then sb weighing 75kg!
So if you are stuck for more than 3 weeks whereas fat burning seems to have stopped you should consider recalculating your caloric intake, in order to adjust your diet.
An excellent way to lower caloric intake can be intermittent fasting. The first couple of days can be challenging but many people find themselves liking to have a fasting period within each day.
Try to skip breakfast, and see if it feels like a good option! But please don't decide for or against it before you haven't tried it for at least 2 weeks! With any change, the first couple of days can feel confusing or hard, which is why it is so important to stick with it for longer until you decide for anything!
Poor quality of macronutrients
Maybe you're eating the right amount of calories and even the exact macros that you require, but you are still stuck in that keto plateau.
So what next?
As you might have heard there are "good" and "bad" fats, the same goes for protein and any type of macronutrients.
If a lot of your food is frozen or processed food that you heat up in the microwave it might be the case that you are missing out on essential micronutrients.
Also, it is likely, that you will be eating too much of the wrong macronutrients. Probably one of your worst enemies is trans fats, which you should avoid at any chance!
But any type of processed food is likely to either have hidden carbs or artificial sweeteners which can mess up your hormones.
Try to get your diet clean & organic in order to cut down the chance of eating food that works against body fat loss.
Protein Intake
One unexpected factor, that people usually tend to forget is that your protein intake can easily lead to keto stall.
How is that possible?
In fact, it might be possible that you are eating too much protein.
You might be wondering how too much protein should possibly affect weight loss in a negative way.
But in reality, any protein that is not used by your body will be transformed into glucose, similar to your carbs.
Now since most people eat a large amount of meat, eggs & fish it is likely that you eat more than 1.5 grams of protein per kg of your body weight.
Anything above the 1.5g ratio is likely going to be unecessary protein which will be used by your body to produce energy/glucose instead.
How To Track Your Nutrition On Keto
For a Keto Diet to be successful you are going to need some sort of tracking device or a keto calculator. Personally I recommend you to use ketogains which is a very detailed site asking you several questions in order to figure out the right amount of calories & macronutrients that you are going to need.
Once you have successfully calculated how many carbs, protein & fat combined with the caloric intake you need that works best for your goals it is time to track your nutrition.
If you want to go oldschool you can use a pen and paper, although it is an unnecessary effort from my point of view. Instead, I would use a tracking app, whereas I recommend MyFitnessPal if you don't want to spend any money.
The only downside to the app is that it is not optimized for keto which is why you shouldn't look at the caloric intake & amount of carbs that it recommends you to eat.
Bonus
Now I know that this sounds like quite a lot of effort just to get out of one frustrating plateau. But there is a way to get out of this vicious cycle with less effort.
Follow a Keto Diet program, that does all the jobs at the same time!
Now to be honest there are just a few options that give you an accurate carb/protein & fat intake while keeping the right caloric intake in mind.
Personally I have been following the "Custom Keto Diet" which is going to give you the exact meals (with ingredients & tutorial!) that you need to eat which are already adjusted to your caloric intake & macronutrients.
You won't need to count calories again if you simply follow the app & you also have the option to chose the types of food that you prefer.
If that sounds like an interesting choice for you I would recommend you to read my review to find out if it is the right choice for you or not!
Conclusion
By personal experience, I know how hard it can be to get stuck at a plateau during a keto diet. Unfortunately, there is no clear answer to how quickly you are going to get through it which brings this challenging aspect of uncertainty.
But hopefully, if you follow the aspects mentioned in this tutorial you are going to get through it.
Don't be naive and expect immediate results within days, but you are going to get there eventually!
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