Not Losing Weight On Keto Diet

If you are not losing weight on a keto diet then we need to examine a few different categories of your life. These can range from the simple (you’re eating too much) to the complex (you are suffering from hormonal or emotional issues), we’ll cover the most common reason why you can’t lose weight on a ketogenic diet even when you are in ketosis. 

 

Eat more fat. Typical keto dieters who are new to this way of life can often have hesitation about consuming higher amounts of fat than they are used to. Call it years of misguidance but eating more high quality fats such as coconut oil, olive oil and whole food proteins like wild caught fish, grass fed beef, elk, bison and pasture raised eggs, you’ll start consuming more fat to fuel your day. Often times if you are struggling to lose weight on a keto diet it if because you are not yet in ketosis. 

 

Get more MCTs in your diet. If you satisfied step one, by eating more fat in general, your body will have the resources it needs to create ketone bodies. The faster and deeper that you get into ketosis the greater your energy levels will be and your insulin levels will stay lower, accelerating fat loss.

 

Assess your training program. How often are you training? Are you really giving it your all? Do you have more time to sneak in a longer or extra workout? Often times your weight fluctuations on a keto diet have more to do with your training than what you're eating.

(Training hard? Read our keto pre workout and keto post workout articles) 

If you are following the keto diet and attempting to burn body fat then you no doubt exercise but hopefully you are training hard. Yoga, running, Crossfit, bodybuilding, it doesn’t matter as long as you do it consistently and with effort to improve.

 

Often times, a little more activity will go a long way. So where can you add more to your weekly workout?

 

How's your sleep quality? For real, your quality and quantity of sleep is going to go a long way in determining your body fat levels. Just one night of impaired sleep can create near diabetic levels of blood sugar resistance. Lack of sleep is only going to increase your anxiety, moodiness and cravings for sugar. None of which are helpful when you want to drop body fat.

 

As we’ve talked about before, make sure you are sleeping in a cool, dark room and getting to bed at reasonably the same time. It also never hurts to ignore technology and social media for about an hour before bed.

 

 

Now this is where we’re going to get conflicting and I don’t mean to confuse you,

Other Reasons Why You Can't Lose Weight On A Keto Diet

 

Eat less fat.

The problem that most people who can’t lose fat on the keto diet have is that they don’t actually measure or track how much food they are eating.

 

And let’s be frank, a lot of people love the idea of paleo because they think they can eat a lot more of their favorite fatty foods (butter, cheese, diary) but don’t end up adjusting their calories in other places as well. 

 

This is going to cause an excessive calorie load and weight gain. The first step is to measure, know exactly what you’re eating. Once you have a starting point you can adjust your food intake higher or lower depending on your energy and body fat levels.

 

Eat some carbs

 

Oh I can see the wheels spinning now. You can have a once a week refeed or, depending on how active you are, consume 100-200 grams of carbohydrates per night.  Without sufficient carbohydrate intake you may experience hormonal problems which will cause weight loss to stutter but you’ll also likely have less energy to workout. Training in of itself depletes stored muscle glycogen and that fuel source needs to be replenished in order for you to train hard.

 

Plus carbohydrates from quality sources will increase brain neurotransmitters and give you a sense of pleasure. Eating some carbohydrates will also decrease your desire to cheat on your diet.

 

Be honest with yourself

Are you cheating on your diet? Are you using keto as an excuse to have a bacon, cheddar cheese burger from your favorite spot?  Keto is a lifestyle diet that can and should feel relatively effortless to follow especially if you are exercising enough to merit nightly carbohydrate intake.

 

The ketogenic diet can be challenging, especially during the first few weeks when your body hasn’t produced adequate ketone bodies and you are coming off a sugar high but stay consistent, make these changes and you’ll start losing weight.