Your Cart is Empty
Are you doing everything right with keto and intermittent fasting, but still not losing weight? Well, I’m going to talk about some things that the YouTube gurus may not be telling you about.
As many of you probably already know, I have personally done really well with low carb/keto/intermittent fasting over the last year and a half or so. I’ve lost about 25 pounds, and I’ve kept it off. It’s been working really great for me. Well, does that mean that it’s going to work really great for you? Not necessarily, because everybody is different in some way or another. Even if you’re doing everything right with keto and intermittent fasting, you’re counting your macros, eating the right foods and fasting at the appropriate time; there still could be some other areas that need to be addressed first in order for keto and intermittent fasting to work.
The first and probably number one thing that we see at our clinic is stress. Stress could be playing a huge role in why you may not be losing weight when you’re doing everything right. Why is that? Well, your hormones control so much of your metabolism and your physiology. If you are stressed out or don’t think you’re stressed out, but your body thinks you’re stressed and your cortisol levels are high, well believe me, it’s going to block your weight loss because when you have excess cortisol, you have excess estrogen and this interferes with progesterone. It also slows down your thyroid. Having too much cortisol is not necessarily a good thing on an ongoing basis. This stress and these hormonal changes can block your hormone receptors and cause all kinds of other issues, for example, adrenal issues.
I know detoxing and toxins are a very big, popular buzz word, and it may seem woo-woo, but it is in fact real. We are bombarded with chemicals in our environment, we are exposed to over 80,000 chemicals on a regular basis. What does this mean for your weight? Well, numerous things. If your body is not able to handle the amount of toxins in your body, it’s going to make it difficult to lose weight. Your body stores the toxins in your fat cells. If you’re not efficiently removing the toxins from your body, it could slow down your weight loss. If you have a job where you are exposed to a lot of chemicals or just actually living on planet earth, toxicity is a big issue, especially if you live in the United States. Toxicity and excess toxins could definitely be another reason why you’re not losing weight.
A lot of people are eating foods that are considered keto and low carb, but they could be causing other issues if you have a problem with them. Inflammatory foods or foods that you’re sensitive to could be slowing down your weight loss because even though they might be considered the right type of food for the diet that you’re following, your body may be telling you something otherwise. In other words, if you’re eating foods that are inflammatory for you or you’re sensitive to, your body might be holding on to excess weight, especially fluid retention. Some of the foods in the keto category that you may be sensitive to and don’t realize it are foods like dairy, pasteurized dairy especially, nuts and seeds. Those are big ones. Keep in mind that it could be something that you’re eating that’s keto and low carb, but your body is having an issue with. You might want to consider doing some kind of elimination diet where you take out certain foods that you suspect you might have an issue with, and see if your body naturally starts to release some of the weight or some of the fluid when you stop eating the foods that you could potentially be sensitive to.
When you’re doing keto and low carb, obviously you’re doing a higher amount of fat and less amount of carbohydrates. However, and especially if you’re a woman, you may need to eat more carbohydrates sometimes. I’m not talking about the bad refined sugar type of carbohydrates, but there are certain types of carbohydrates that may be beneficial to you, especially at certain times of the month for women. Certain types of foods will help balance your hormones. If you’re a woman and you’ve been doing really strict low carb and keto and you’re plateauing, your body might be saying, “I need something else. I might need to have a little bit more carbohydrates here and there.” You should experiment with eating more carbohydrates at certain times of the month, especially around your period. In any case, you should try adding a little bit of carbohydrates, especially at dinner time. If you do your first meal or second meal without any carbs, then that last meal of the day, add some healthy carbs into your diet. Even though you might not weigh what you want to weigh the next day, over time, your body might start dropping weight because you’re getting some more carbohydrates, and you’re helping out your hormonal ratios. Experiment with different types of macro ratios. Don’t do the same thing all of the time.
I am a huge fan of fasting. I love it. I do intermittent fasting almost every day. I’ve done lots of long fasts, 24, 48, 72-hour water fasts, and that has been really beneficial. There are a lot of health benefits to fasting, but if you’re doing the same thing all of the time, that can also be a reason why you’re not losing weight. Try doing a variety of different types of fasts. In other words, if you’re doing the same type of intermittent fasting every day, where you do 16 hours of fasting and eating within an eight hour window, try to mix it up. Maybe change the time of when you’re eating, or maybe change the duration. Instead of doing it daily, maybe only do it five days a week, and then the other two days, you’re not fasting, or you can add in a longer fast here and there, maybe a 24-hour fast or 48-hour fast. Don’t forget to add in the feasting, because if you’re fasting too much too often, that again can be a potential issue because we never historically ate the same thing all the time. Our ancestors were always eating at different times of the day, eating different foods. You have to give your body the same variety even when it comes to fasting. Make sure you try different types of fasting, different lengths of time, and then throw in those feast days here and there where you eat basically whatever that you want.
If you have any questions or you need our help, we’re here to help you. If you want to get in touch with us, we offer a free consultation so we can help get you on the right track. Please consider subscribing to our YouTube Channel for our latest videos.
