advice - critic me and my ketosis way

Ok on low carbhydrate diets you should not be retaining water, in fact when people go low carb and lose a lot of weight in the first week or two it is usually a large loss of water. The reason people put on weight is that they are either holding water, putting on fat or putting on muscle. Since you are practically no-carbing it I would doubt you have held onto water unless you have loaded up on salt, started taking creatine or any other similar practice. You may have a problem with dairy that is causing bloat though so you may want to remove it from your diet to see. Stick to meats and vegetables (lots of fibrous ones) and see how you feel.

Now you may be in ketosis but the main thing to look at for any diet is whether you are under at or over your calorie needs. If you are eating low to no carbs but are still intaking to many calories you will be putting on weight no matter what. So put up what you have typically eaten every day and then work out the calories. From there work out your BMR (lots of calculators on the net) and work out your expenditure from exercise and see what your calorie intake to calorie needs are.

hey!! good to see another girl on board!!

dont be deterred by the scales, trust me i've been fighting that battle for 2 years, i go by the mirror and how i feel about my body shape.

i find that dairy bloats me horribly esp if i am due for my period, even if i am on limited low carbs, i easily gain 2kg during that time of the month.

keep up the good work! PM if you want to talk!

Mrs Noobs makes a good point about "that time of the month" but I am sure you would have factored it into your weight gain and perceived bloating if it is happening.

dave said:

Mrs Noobs makes a good point about "that time of the month" but I am sure you would have factored it into your weight gain and perceived bloating if it is happening.

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lol yeah you're probably right Dave she probably has, its something that no girl can just not remember.lol

I doubt she forgot about it but we do not always link up things we should especially when we are the working things out in regards to our own bodies. Your point is a good one, it is best to rule that out before we go off into more detailed things.

Good point Mrs Noobs

Ahhhh it's good to see another lady too
yeah I've done low carb before but this time it's just not working... I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong! I don't eat normally eat dairy and I had a little during the week so maybe it is that... ?
I also think it could be sweetners? Like mints etc so might give them a break and see..
I def am not going over my caloric intake.. I have approx 1100-1200 a day...
Hahaha and I have just finished my lady friend this week but it doesn't feel like that sort of bloating?! It feels like something I'm eating is affecting me... I use calorieking.com.au to track calories and carbs etc....
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Wait till next week and see how you are doing, if your going up or have not budged then your are obviously doing something wrong. Until then just keep doing what you are doing.

Another female here too..... but have been MIA for a while due to pregnancy. (now that can mess with your head... sitting 10kg above your maximum ever weight... but I digress)

Welcome sarah, I'm concerned that you are having only 1100 - 1200 cals per day considering your height, weight, and the fact that you are training as well. Maybe tweak your cals up and down until you start seeing results - I'm worried your body has gone into starvation mode.

Have you read Hussman's 10 principles?
Hussman Fitness - The Plan: Ten Keys to Fast Fitness

just want to encourage you to have a balanced approach and not be too focused on calories etc.

hope you stick around ausbb!

Sarah, that is way too low a calorie count. You are damaging your metabolism and will have seious weight issues in future if your that low for too long

PTC said:

Sarah, that is way too low a calorie count. You are damaging your metabolism and will have seious weight issues in future if your that low for too long

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I got into the same mentality at the start that the lower you go with calories the quicker you will lose the weight. When i did this i found i 1. had no energy and felt like shit all the time and 2. stopped losing weight due to my metabolism going to sleep (i was told my body was going into starvation mode and slowing my metabolism to the point where it was hanging onto my weight).

I readjusted my diet and reduced calories by 500 under maintenance. Sure i wasnt losing 5 kilos a week but i was allot more healthier, had much more energy to workout and was allot happier.

The way i find my BMR is to take your bodyweight in pounds and times by 15. After that i just take 500 calories away from that.

So going by that, if you weigh 60kg (132lb x 15 = 1980 calories for maintenance) 1980 - 500 = 1480 calories which is heaps more than what you are consuming currently.

Hope this helps.

BigJim said:

So going by that, if you weigh 60kg (132lb x 15 = 1980 calories for maintenance) 1980 - 500 = 1480 calories which is heaps more than what you are consuming currently.

Hope this helps.

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I agree that 1500 cals is a good starting point for Sarah. I'm also 60kg like Sarah (although shorter) and 1200 cals was what I was eating in the days I didn't know better and was forcibly starving myself.... eg. apple, salad, and tiny piece of meat for lunch and dinner. I shudder to think back to those days!

When I was weight training I actually would eat quite a bit more (around 1800 cals perhaps?) as my body needed fuel to grow.

The thing that worked best for me was eating in moderation... I found that the more I worried about calories the more hung-up I would get about food. Are you able to eat intuitively, Sarah? eg. more on some days, less on some others? Ultimately I found that this approach caused me the least stress, but everyone is different.

wow I just ate about 1200 calorie 10 minutes ago

I would reassess your calories but I would also recalculate what you are eating you will probably find you are eating more than you think. Once you have that set go from there.

thanks for all your advice and feedback everyone!

i thought i would post what i have been eating last few days so you guys can see, obviously give or take a 100 cals (i might get the weight of the meat wrong as i am waiting for my scales to be delivered this week!)
breaky - cals approx 200
ASN protein shake
sml apple with almond spread
green tea
snack - cals approx 200
black coffee with handfull almonds/walnuts/macadamias
lunch - cals approx 180-200
approx 120-150g lean meat grilled with onion and mushroom
green tea
snack - cals approx 180-200
black coffee, few more nuts or tin of tuna in oil drained
dinner - cals approx 200-300
150g lean meat grilled with onion, mushroom, capsicum and poached egg on top with brocolli and baby spinach steamed

this is an approximate day, sometimes i dont have an egg at dinner and sometimes il have more nuts etc.. i was worried i was maybe eating too much and thats why i was becoming bloated etc?

i havent been training for the last few months no where near as much as i used too... so i am just getting back into it.. i used to do alot of cardio, sometimes up to 2 hours a day... now i am trying to do more weights work to tone up.
im drinking dandelion tea to try and reduce water retention and also taking fish oil, green tea tablets, l-carnitine and a supp called poison? its supposed to assist thyroid function.
i think my body goes into starvation pretty easy, due to my bulimic history... so for me to eat more its really tough to get my head around... i am trying though! its just hard for me to understand that eating more might help me weigh less! hahaha

miss_sarahx said:

its just hard for me to understand that eating more might help me weigh less! hahaha

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Ask yourself this question: will what I'm doing be viewed as being normal by my body?
If your answer is yes, then you've got nothing to be concerned about no matter what anyone says. However if your answer is no, then you've got to take a breather and examine where you're going with this ketosis diet.


Fadi.

There should be no snacks. You need 5 or 6 equally divided meals to keep your body in a positive nitrogen balance.
You are not achieving this with that diet.

Are you perpetually hungry on 200-300 calorie meals? I tried 300 calorie meals once to see what it was like, I lasted about a week before I could not take the constant hunger any more.

thats the thing, im not hungry really at all. anymore then 200-300 and i get way too full and feel kinda uncomfortable.
i dont cope well with being 'full' i like to just be comfortable.
okay so maybe rather then having the snack on nuts i should try having some veggies and meat ?? i am happy to give that a go. i was just scared it was too much food ( i know i sound kind of retarded but thats why i am here, to get help and advice)

I have lost 5 kg the last 6-8 weeks and it has all been body fat 78kg to 72-73kg.... I use to eat similar to you however I had more meals , bigger portions etc however I snacked on nuts like you and drink about 8 cups of green tea a day.I simply cut all nuts reduced carbs where possible and substitued steak for fish or kangaroo and walah. I currently help a lot of people including women with food plans ... Beside each of your meals is my suggestion which I think will make a difference along with a few compound excercises thrown in.

your current meal plan is as follows.......
breaky - cals approx 200
ASN protein shake
sml apple with almond spread
green tea
Scrap the almond spread and apple... And add a quater of a cup of oats or
some psyllium husk .

snack - cals approx 200
black coffee with handfull almonds/walnuts/macadamias


scrap the nuts.... have 150 gram of tuna or boiled/ steam chicken breast with brocoli or baby spinach etc


lunch - cals approx 180-200
approx 120-150g lean meat grilled with onion and mushroom
green tea

(changing from steak/pork/lamb to fish or kangaroo or chicken breast all adds up)

snack - cals approx 180-200
black coffee, few more nuts or tin of tuna in oil drained
(scrap the nuts and add some fibre brocoli)

dinner - cals approx 200-300
150g lean meat grilled with onion, mushroom, capsicum and poached egg on top with brocolli and baby spinach steamed

(you are consuming your biggest meal all day at dinner time..... no no no you ever hurd the saying breakfast like a king and dinner like a pesant... Breakfast shodl be your highest calorie intake... take the egg out of dinner and try and have fish or kangaroo with dinner as they have far less fat comapre to steak.. i know its hardd I love steak more then anyone but it will work. )

Thats my opinion... and for me what has worked is not reducing how much or how often I eat but really being smart about finding the lowest calorie substiutes yet still contain the same if not better macro nutritional value....
Good luck with it

thanks for your feedback

i appreciate your thoughts, the only thing is with a few of your suggestions is that i dont eat certain things.
no rice, pasta, oats, grains etc.... and i dont like kangaroo. it tastes weird.
hence why i eat lamb or steak or chicken (i eat mainly chicken to be honest)
i agree i need to eat more during the day and less at dinner... i will implement this and see how i go.
and i will cut the nuts and try eating more meat and veggies rather then having nuts for a snack.
i eat nuts mainly cause they are at my office desk and easy to grab... rather then walking to the fridge and getting meat out (plus i feel awkward getting meat out to eat at 10am hahaha) but who cares. i should do this for me.