Brenda Khan
If you've hit a weight-loss plateau on the keto diet, there are several things you can try. Firstly, it's important to remember that weight loss is not linear and that it's normal to experience fluctuations. Make sure you're measuring your progress in terms of non-scale victories, such as how your clothes fit, your energy levels, and your overall well-being.
- Recalculate your calorie intake and ensure you're in a calorie deficit.
- Adjust your macronutrient ratios to 75% fats, 20% protein, and 5% carbs.
- Try intermittent fasting by restricting your eating window to 8 hours per day or trying alternate-day fasting.
- Cut back on dairy and nuts, as these can be high in calories and stall weight loss.
- Increase your protein intake to preserve muscle mass and curb hunger.
- Get adequate sleep and manage stress, as these factors can impact weight loss.
- Exercise regularly, but not excessively. Try weightlifting and high-intensity interval training.
- Stay consistent with the keto diet and avoid cheat days, as they can knock you out of ketosis.
- Check for hidden carbohydrates in processed foods, sauces, and condiments.
- Try a fat fast by eating mostly fat and restricting calories for a few days.
- Address any food sensitivities or allergies, such as dairy or gluten intolerance.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Not losing weight | Try intermittent fasting, reduce calories, exercise, cut out alcohol, increase sleep, cut out dairy, reduce fat intake, recalculate macros, check for hidden carbs, cut out processed foods, reduce protein intake, increase water intake, check for medical issues |
| Losing centimetres instead of weight | Take measurements of your body, not just weight |
| Eating inflammatory foods | Identify inflammatory foods and cut them out, e.g. sugar, wheat, alcohol, dairy, nuts, tomatoes, eggs, soy |
| Stress, sleep and hormones | Manage stress, improve sleep, consider seeing a doctor about hormonal issues |
| Weekend treats | Avoid returning to carbs at the weekend, as this will undo progress |
| Not exercising | Consider exercising to optimise health, e.g. yoga, team sports, interval training, weightlifting |
| Eating too much fat | Reduce fat intake |
What You'll Learn
Recalculate your macros
Recalculating your macros is an important step in breaking through a weight loss plateau. When you lose weight, your calorie deficit will get smaller, and you will start losing weight more slowly until you plateau. To tackle this, you should recalculate your macros with your new body weight every month or so.
Depending on how much fat you want to lose, you may need to adjust your calorie deficit. If you still have 50 to 100 pounds to lose, a 20-30% calorie deficit is manageable and will help you lose fat rapidly. For leaner people, a smaller calorie deficit of 10-15% is more suitable, allowing for a steady weight loss of 0.5-1.0% of body weight per week.
Each time you recalculate your macros, try reducing your calorie deficit to make the diet easier to stick to and prevent your metabolic rate from slowing down. If the deficit isn't manageable, you can try taking intermittent diet breaks instead.
For those on a ketogenic diet, your macros should be 75% fats, 20% protein, and 5% carbs to get into and remain in ketosis. These ratios can get out of whack if you let things slowly creep into your daily intake.
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Try intermittent fasting
Intermittent fasting can be a great way to break through a weight loss plateau. It can help increase insulin sensitivity and burn fat. If you are well into ketosis, you can start slowly with the 16/8 method, which means restricting all your eating to an eight-hour window and fasting for the remaining 16 hours of the day. You can eventually work your way up to a 24-hour fasting period.
Intermittent fasting can also be done by skipping a meal, such as breakfast or dinner. This is called time-restricted eating or TRE. This usually involves eating three meals a day with nothing in between and never eating after 6 pm.
Another form of intermittent fasting is alternate-day fasting, where you skip meals one day and then eat normally the next. This can help you avoid the slowing of metabolism that is often seen with chronic, daily calorie restriction.
If you are new to fasting, it is recommended to start with short fasts of 16 to 24 hours maximum.
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Cut out dairy
Dairy is a contentious topic in the keto world. While some people love it, others hate it. Some people will eat only butter but not cheese or yogurt, while some can only manage sheep and goat dairy, but not cow.
If you are one of those people who do not do well with dairy, you may want to consider cutting it out of your keto diet. Dairy allergies obviously mean no dairy, while lactose intolerance might restrict you to only butter and ghee.
Even if you are not allergic or intolerant to dairy, you may be curious to see how you would feel if you cut it out of your diet. Dairy products contain milk sugar (lactose) and milk protein (casein), and casein stimulates insulin secretion more than other types of protein. This explains why milk is great for a growing baby but not for an adult trying to lose weight. Cutting out dairy may therefore help speed up your weight loss and aid in reversing type 2 diabetes.
If you are eating a 'normal' diet full of processed grains and sugars, your body has a lot of healing to do before it will start letting go of excess fat. Dairy is one of the inflammatory foods that could be preventing your body from healing. Inflammatory foods are different for everyone, but sugar, wheat, alcohol, and for many people, dairy, are without a doubt not good for us.
If you are unsure whether dairy is causing problems for you, see a nutritionist for a food allergy test or try an elimination diet.
If you decide to cut out dairy, you can still enjoy real butter as it contains only trace amounts of milk protein and sugar. You can also replace butter with coconut oil or olive oil.
- Breakfast: Choose one dairy-free keto breakfast to eat every day, such as classic bacon and eggs. If you're not hungry, skip breakfast and sip a coffee instead.
- Prep your meals: Cook at least two servings for dinner, eat one, and refrigerate the other for tomorrow's lunch. Freeze other portions for later.
- Try no-cook plates: Sliced deli meats, boiled eggs, and veggies make an easy lunch.
- Dairy-free keto meal plans can help simplify your health journey and set you up to succeed.
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Reduce alcohol consumption
Alcohol is not a health food and can slow down your weight loss goals. While on the keto diet, your body uses fat for energy instead of carbs. When you drink alcohol, your body begins to metabolize it, which means it breaks it down. Until all the alcohol has been processed, your body won't produce ketones from fat, slowing down the fat-burning process and potentially your weight loss goals.
Alcohol has about 7 calories per gram, so it's sometimes classified as the fourth macronutrient. However, unlike carbs, fats, and protein, it's not essential, and you don't need it to survive.
If you're a very occasional spirits drinker, alcohol probably won't derail your keto lifestyle. But if you find yourself drinking high-carb beverages or drinking often, you might be slowing down the fat-burning process you want on keto.
Alcohol and Keto Tolerance
Carbs are great for managing that tipsy feeling. This is because your body burns the glucose from the carbs relatively quickly, which slows down the metabolization of alcohol, helping to reduce blood alcohol levels.
But when you're living a ketogenic lifestyle, you're eating very few carbs. That means when you drink alcohol on the keto diet, it gets processed faster, which leads to you feeling tipsy or drunk much quicker.
Diminished Willpower
Maintaining a healthy ketogenic lifestyle requires focus and willpower. When you drink, your inhibitions and willpower weaken. This is why it's so easy to go for a few slices of pizza at 2 a.m. after a night of consuming alcohol instead of a handful of pistachios and a glass of water.
So, even if you choose your low-carb alcohol carefully, the choices you make after those drinks may end up throwing you out of ketosis.
Alcohol and Weight Loss
Alcohol can provide a significant number of calories, which may impede weight loss. Additionally, alcohol tends to reduce inhibitions and increase cravings, often leading to choosing less healthy foods and eating more of them.
Alcohol and Fatty Liver
Anyone with any fatty or fibrotic liver issues should avoid fructose and alcohol until the liver has healed. Unlike glucose, fructose and alcohol go straight to the liver, where they are metabolized almost exactly the same way.
Lower Tolerance and Worse Hangovers
Many people on a low-carb or keto diet report that their alcohol tolerance is much lower, and their hangovers are much worse. While there isn't much scientific research to explain why tolerance seems to be reduced, it does appear that people on a low-carb or keto diet can become intoxicated at lower levels of alcohol consumption.
More severe hangovers may be the result of dehydration and electrolyte imbalances. Carbs tend to cause the body to hold on to water, whereas a low-carb or ketogenic diet increases fluid loss, especially in the beginning.
Alcohol and Cravings
The keto diet can reduce alcohol cravings and may even help curb alcoholism. Many people have found that the keto diet has helped reduce their cravings for both sugar and alcohol.
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Get enough sleep
Sleep is a crucial factor in weight loss. Research shows that stress and lack of sleep can negatively impact weight loss. When your body is stressed, it produces excess amounts of a hormone called cortisol, and elevated levels of cortisol can encourage your body to store fat, especially in the belly area.
Some of the toughest times for weight loss can come when you are working, travelling too much, and are stressed out all the time. To lower stress and improve your sleep, try techniques like meditation or yoga, and spend less time on electronic devices before bed.
It is also important to establish a regular routine for taking your weight. Weigh yourself on the same scale, at the same time of day, under the same general circumstances, wearing the same amount of clothing. Consider weighing yourself only once a week or less, to track the trends and not get caught up in day-to-day variations.
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Frequently asked questions
There are many reasons why you might not be losing weight on keto. You might be eating too many calories, not enough protein, too much fat, or too many carbs. You might also be eating inflammatory foods, experiencing high stress, or not getting enough sleep.
Try tracking your calories and macros, cutting out processed foods, reducing your alcohol intake, and getting more sleep. You could also try intermittent fasting or exercising more.
You might feel nauseous, constipated, or have to run to the bathroom frequently. You might also find it difficult to stick to the diet due to social limitations or find that you're not losing weight.
You might be eating too much protein, which can decrease ketone production and increase your reliance on sugar burning. You might also be eating hidden carbs or have a food sensitivity or allergy.
Recalculate your macros every month, take intermittent breaks from calorie restriction, decrease your calorie deficit, and eat the right amount of protein. You could also try a fat fast or make sure you're getting enough sleep.
