juraitwaluzka's Journal, 28 Jun 19

It is really good. Good luck with the next stage 

Thanks. It's hard to put a number on it. It's really not about the weight number for me as much as body fat percentage, which I have had no success at reasonably measuring, but I know I'm not there yet. My thought is that I need to get down lower than I want to be so that when I start gaining there will be some amount of fat that comes with the muscle. I have no idea if this is sound logic, I haven't really researched it much yet because that's been off the radar until recently. 

Makes sense, thanks. That's pretty much how I've managed it in the other direction. Basically just guessed at a caloric average starting point, arbitrary really, then just dialed it in based on progress over time, pretty straight forward when I feed it consistent data. 

Nice drop 

what's your secret?? 

You are doing amazing 🙋 

@chrisw77 The timeframe for the surplus would be August at the earliest, we'll see how the next month goes. It will be weird, intentionally eating more - and thanks for the article you gave, that is a wealth of information and will be very helpful, already I understand a great deal more about how the cyclical nature of this works. 

@Jopenn there is no secret, only FatSecret ;-) Seriously though, that is a good question so I just typed up a journal entry about it if you are interested. 

Yes, how do I read it? 

I think if you just click on my profile that should do it, but I entered it in the website not through the phone app which I'm on now, I don't know if that makes a difference. 

I read your comments and really good advice. However, what percentages fat/protein/carbs did you use? I've tried 5 carbs/70 fats/20 protein, then 10/ 60/30, now 2/75/23.....seems nothing works to lower my weight much!!! I started out 1600 calories, then 1200, now 1000!!!! Why can't I lose weight? What kind of food combinations. Thank you so much for explaining more to me. 

Jopenn, have you been tested for thyroid and type 2 diabetes? 

My A1c is 5.5...I don't take any meds at all. I've had blood tests this year but if the test for thyroid, nothing came back unusual. 

Jopenn, you really shouldn't lower your calories that much. Here is the calculator I use: I always choose "sedentary" : https://keto-calculator.ankerl.com/ 

Thank you gz9gjg. I tried your calculator and it helped me understand the macros percentages. I need a hip replacement badly so need to lose 6 lbs per month...which then in 5 months I will be at weight the dr wants me at. That would mean an additional 30 lbs to lose on top of the 40 I've lost already. That would mean I will have lost 70 lbs in a one year time period. That puts me into Nov 2019. Calories 1000 day, 7% carbs, 68% fats and 25% protein. Unfortunately, I've been close to doing that and only losing 4 lbs average per month and sometimes stalled!!! Sometimes those numbers just don't work out right.  

Jopenn, I really didn't put too much effort into the macros other than I just tried to target fat at 65-70% when I started then went from there. I wish I could help with the trouble you are having but unfortunately I haven't had that issue this time, although in the past that was the case (but then I never stuck to the plan like I have this time so I must take the blame for that). I feel like the intermittent fasting was important for a variety of reasons, but for sure psychologically, this essentially killed all my bad habits, such as late night snacking (now the price is if I late night snack,fine but it'll be at least 16 hours until I eat again, most of the time I skip the snack). The key for me was to make everything a conscious choice. If I must answer honestly to myself it's kind of hard to sneak around the rules. I do think the lack of carbs was helpful in that I'm never really hungry. This was a big failure point in the past. If Keto did nothing besides that it was a huge advantage. Mainly the calories are the statistically most significant part, but not the whole story. Also there were a couple of times I did a 36 hour fast and both times I had a weight breakthrough that stuck. And I don't think it was necessarily a calorie reduction deal, on one of the weeks I ate the same amount of calories for the week but just one particular day I did not eat (ate more the other days). Not many data points so it could be coincidence but perhaps that is something to look into. Maybe these numbers will help. For the 18 weeks so far, my averages are: Calories: 1795 Carbs: 41 Net Carbs: 21 Fat: 130g Protein: 105g Percentage averages: Carb: 9% Fat: 67% Protein: 24% This is why I log everything, having all that data has been incredibly helpful in analyzing how things are working which helps with the results. Since I simplified my intake the analysis is way easier. I absolutely needed to have max data on what I was doing if I wanted my adjustments to be meaningful. You can look through my diet calendar (at least on the computer) and you should get a good sense of what I've eaten. It has been very consistent, especially what I call "breakfast" although that could come as my only meal at 8pm (like today, just finished a 26 hour fast because I was too busy to eat). Seems like I'd get bored of the same thing most days but actually that consistency has been a huge benefit, I think because it makes it so that I'm thinking about food even less, nothing to really think about, I know what I'm going to eat and it's absurd that what I'm eating is called dieting. Typically it would be something like this. I'll dial it up or down depending on when I eat and some sub-ingredients come and go but this is generally it: 4 eggs + 10g butter in the pan + 18g Smoked Gouda and 35g chorizo sausage in the eggs 4 pieces of bacon 2 pieces of sausage patties (usually around 70g) 1 Low carb tortilla toasted with 10g butter, 25g Shredded sharp cheddar 1 Monster Absolutely Zero energy drink (2 carbs) 60g Herdez Roasted Salsa 40g Guacamole or roughly half an avocado (weighed) At night some sort of meat and green vegetable (broccoli, salad, green beans, ...) Pretty simple and I've had more than one person tell me my heart is going to explode, but my blood numbers are good so to hell with them lol. I'm re-evaluating soon anyway. 

Also, an important number to mention - my weight loss has been pretty consistent when measured week by week. All together I'm averaging 1.1 pounds per week so it seems close to what you are experiencing. There are all kind of weird patterns though. Just recently I gained weight for 5 or 6 straight days but then it dropped. This is why I highly recommend weigh daily/analyze weekly. What I do is every Sunday, add up the weights for all 7 days and record that, then graph that compared to previous weeks - you get a much better visual on what you really weigh - it sort of mathematically compensates for the normal daily weight fluctuations and I think gives a truer picture of what is actually going on. Analyzing daily is too granular to be of much use and in fact can be counterproductive mentally - still you need the data. Weighing only weekly costs you in both precision and time from an analytical perspective. 

Thanks everyone so much!! I think my carbs were too low at 5%...moving up to 10% and proteins not high enough so moving from 25% to 35%. That leaves fat at 55%. Calories come out to about 1300 on that. I'll see if it works...wish me luck!! 

I upped my calories to 1173 today and held my macros to 10% carb/55% fat and 35% protein....this is what your calculator stated my macros should be to lose 6.7 lbs per month. I'm not weighing myself until Sunday to see if there's any progress and weight loss. I feel like I've eaten so much today!!! Can't wait to see scale on Sunday morning!! 

Sounds like you've done an evaluation, made some adjustments and now you can execute your plan, nice job, keep that cycle up and I'm sure you will get results. Keep getting after it and your determination will pay off, I have no doubt, I wish you well!