Carb Loading: Breaking The Keto Stall, Good Or Bad?

Weight loss plateaus are a common occurrence on the keto diet. This happens when your body has shed the water weight it was retaining on a higher-carb diet and has adjusted to ketosis. While this can be frustrating, there are several strategies you can use to overcome this hurdle and get back on track with your weight loss goals.

Firstly, it's important to evaluate your diet and ensure you're not consuming hidden carbs or too many calories. Keep a food journal or use a calorie-tracking app to gain a better understanding of your daily intake. Make sure you're sticking to the recommended ratio of 75% fat, 20% protein, and 5% carbs.

Secondly, intermittent fasting can be a useful tool to enhance the effects of keto. By limiting your eating to a certain window of time each day, you can reduce your overall calorie intake and boost fat burning.

Thirdly, exercise plays a crucial role in weight loss. Aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week, and consider incorporating strength training or high-intensity interval training for added benefits.

Additionally, managing your stress levels and getting adequate sleep are important factors that can influence weight loss. High-stress levels can lead to increased cortisol, which may contribute to weight gain.

Remember, weight loss is not always linear, and there are other measures of progress besides the scale. Keep track of your body measurements, how your clothes fit, and pay attention to improvements in your energy levels and overall health.

Evaluate your diet: Are you eating too many carbs, calories, or the wrong foods?

When it comes to evaluating your diet, it's important to consider the amount of carbs, calories, and the types of food you're consuming. Here are some detailed tips to help you evaluate your diet and make adjustments to overcome a keto stall:

Evaluate Your Carb Intake

• Look for hidden carbs: Even a few extra grams of carbs here and there can add up quickly and prevent you from entering ketosis. Use an app or food tracker to monitor your daily carb intake, and be mindful of hidden carbs in processed meats, condiments, seasonings, and starchy vegetables.
• Adjust your carb ratio: A healthy keto diet typically follows a 75:20:5 ratio, with 75% of calories from fats, 20% from protein, and 5% from carbs. Tracking your daily macros will help you adjust your diet to achieve and maintain ketosis.

Evaluate Your Calorie Intake

• Track your calories: While keto doesn't require strict calorie counting, a calorie deficit is essential for weight loss. Use a calorie tracker to monitor your intake and ensure you're burning more calories than you consume.
• Create a mild calorie deficit: Aim for a mild caloric deficit of around 5-10% fewer calories than you expend. This will help ensure sustainable weight loss without triggering metabolic adaptations that can slow down your progress.
• Adjust your calorie deficit over time: As you lose weight, your calorie needs will change. Recalculate your macros every month or so based on your new body weight to ensure you're still in a calorie deficit.
• Take intermittent breaks from calorie restriction: Consider alternating between periods of calorie restriction and energy balance. This approach has been found to be more effective for weight loss in some studies, as it may reduce compensatory metabolic responses that slow down weight loss.

Evaluate the Types of Food You're Eating

• Avoid inflammatory foods: "Dirty keto" foods like highly processed snacks, alcohol, and foods with hidden sugars, suboptimal fats, and preservatives can trigger an inflammatory response, making it challenging to lose weight.
• Be mindful of dairy and nuts: While these are keto-friendly foods, it's easy to overindulge. They are calorie-dense, and a small serving can have a significant impact on your calorie intake. Some people also have mild dairy sensitivities, which can affect weight loss.
• Ensure adequate protein intake: Many people on keto don't eat enough protein due to the fear of being kicked out of ketosis. However, moderate to high protein intake (~30% of calories) is compatible with weight loss and helps you feel full, improves your mood, and promotes muscle development.
• Limit snacking: Snacking can lead to overeating and slow down weight loss. Try restricting yourself to a regular schedule without snacks, or practice intermittent fasting by limiting your eating window to a specific timeframe, such as 8 hours per day.

Track your macros and calories

Tracking your macros and calories is key to achieving and maintaining ketosis. Macros, or macronutrients, are the energy-supplying nutrients – fat, protein, and carbohydrates – that the body needs in large quantities. The keto diet is made up of these three components, in that order.

Fat is the most energy-dense nutrient, with nine calories per gram. Protein and carbohydrates each supply four calories per gram.

To track your macros, you'll need to determine your daily calories and divide them into macros. The number of calories your body needs will depend on factors such as your goal (lose weight, maintain weight, or gain weight), age, weight, and activity level.

The ideal ketogenic macros are 65-80% fat, 20-30% protein, and 0-10% carbs. You can calculate your macros by multiplying your total calories by each macronutrient percentage and then dividing the answer by the number of calories per carb, fat, and protein.

For example, let's say you're a female on a 1,300-calorie diet for weight loss, and you've chosen a keto macro ratio of 65% fat, 30% protein, and 5% carbs. Your calculation would be:

1,300 x 0.65 = 845 / 9 = 94 grams of fat per day

1,300 x 0.30 = 390 / 4 = 98 grams of protein per day

1,300 x 0.05 = 65 / 4 = 16 grams of carbs per day

You can use a food journal or a macro-tracking app to record your daily food intake and macros. Weighing your food before cooking and logging it in an app can help make tracking more accurate.

• Get familiar with keto-friendly food items. Animal-based foods like eggs, meat, and seafood have very few or no carbs, making them ideal for achieving ketosis.
• Plan your meals in advance to ensure you're meeting your macros.
• Make adjustments to your macros as needed. If you've stopped seeing weight loss or have increased your activity level, recalculate your macros using a keto calculator.

Remember, achieving ketosis requires a precise intake of macros. By tracking your macros and calories, you can ensure you're following the high-fat, moderate-protein, and very low-carb plan that is essential for ketosis and successful weight loss on the keto diet.

Try intermittent fasting

Intermittent fasting is a great way to break a keto stall. It is an eating pattern that involves periods of fasting and non-fasting. When combined with the keto diet, it can help you reach ketosis faster and burn more fat.

There are several different types of intermittent fasting, but the most popular is the 16/8 method, which involves eating during an eight-hour window and fasting for the remaining 16 hours of the day. This is a good method for beginners.

Intermittent fasting can help you reach ketosis faster because it causes your body to shift its fuel source from carbs to fats. During fasting, insulin levels and glycogen stores decrease, which leads your body to start burning fat for fuel.

Intermittent fasting can also help boost fat burning by increasing your metabolism and reducing hunger and calorie intake. Studies have shown that it can decrease hunger and promote feelings of fullness, which can aid weight loss.

It is important to note that intermittent fasting may not be suitable for everyone. Pregnant or breastfeeding women and those with a history of disordered eating should avoid it. If you have a medical condition, such as diabetes or heart disease, it is important to consult with your doctor before trying intermittent fasting.

Some people may find that intermittent fasting on the keto diet is too difficult, or they may experience adverse reactions such as overeating on non-fasting days, irritability, and fatigue. It is not necessary to combine intermittent fasting with the keto diet to reach ketosis, as a healthy, well-rounded keto diet is usually sufficient.

However, if you are experiencing a keto stall, intermittent fasting can be a useful tool to help you break through it and continue making progress towards your weight loss goals.

Exercise more or differently

Exercise is an important aspect of any weight loss program. It is recommended to get at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise per week. You can also experiment with new activities to switch up your routine, such as running, cycling, swimming, or strength training. Strength training, in particular, can help you build more muscle and increase your resting metabolism, which can help you burn more calories throughout the day.

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is another efficient way to get fit. HIIT involves short bursts of intense activity followed by brief periods of rest. This type of training can help improve your cardiovascular health and increase your metabolic rate, which can aid in weight loss.

In addition to cardio and HIIT, consider incorporating resistance training or weightlifting into your routine. Building muscle mass can help improve your body composition and increase your resting metabolic rate, which means you'll burn more calories even at rest.

If you're new to exercise, start slowly and gradually increase the intensity and duration of your workouts. It's also important to find activities that you enjoy and that fit your lifestyle so that you can stick with your exercise routine in the long term.

Remember, exercise is just one part of a healthy weight loss plan. Combining regular exercise with a healthy diet, stress management, and adequate sleep will help you break through your weight loss plateau and achieve your fitness goals.

Measure progress in inches, not pounds

While the number on the scale may not be moving, there are other ways to measure progress. Weight loss is not always a linear process, and there are many factors that cause minor fluctuations in body weight, such as water retention, a full or empty bladder, food contents in the stomach or intestine, and stress levels. Therefore, it is important to look at the overall trends in weight and consider other measures of progress, such as improvements in mood and energy levels.

There are several non-scale victories (NSVs) that indicate your keto diet is improving your health, even if the scale is not moving. These include:

• The fit of your clothes becoming looser
• Increased energy levels
• Improved mood
• Enhanced attention levels
• Better skin and less acne
• More endurance at the gym

Additionally, you can consider measuring your waist-to-hip ratio or body fat percentage using a tape measure, body fat scale, or skin-fold test. Changes in your blood sugar, blood pressure, or cholesterol levels can also help determine whether you are on the right track.

Remember, weight loss plateaus are common on the keto diet, and it is important to be patient and consistent. There are also several strategies you can try to help break through a plateau, such as intermittent fasting, cutting your carb or calorie intake, exercising more, and reducing your stress levels.

Frequently asked questions