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How long to stay on keto diet?

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Alist33

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hi I have been eating very low carb diet for 7 months now and since April exercising daily swimming and gym resistance mainly. I have lost 4st so far but in the last month I have just stalled. Despite increasing the training and rigidly sticking to my keto regime I don’t seem to be shifting any more weight. My bloods are routinely under 7mml so this seems fine. Have others experienced this plateau and what have they done to get over it. I have at least another 4st to lose. Getting a bit disheartening
 
Hi @Alist33
I don't have personal experience of this myself but here is what I have seen 'low carb GPs and dieticians' advise:
1. As a T2 diabetic, keeping your BG under control is more important than continued weight loss. So don't adjust your way of eating so much as to raise your BG above 8.0mmol.
2. Sometimes weight loss just stalls for a while, but often this is due to eating too much fat (more than your body can easily handle) since fat has twice the calories of Protein or Carbs. Thus replacing some of the fat you are currently eating with extra Protein (or even in some cases a little more carbs) will often do the trick.
 
Yup, recently. But I think its moving downwards again now. Upped my exercise AND calories.

I had a massive weight loss over about 5 months then the stall. On the internet I have read of the body going into starvation mode if on very low calories for too long, which is very bad news once the calories are increased at the end of the diet/exercise. I read somewhere that a very low calorie diet should only be maintained for about 6 months tops or the body goes into starvation mode. However I can't remember where I read that or even if my mind just made it up and I now think its a memory.

I am not too bothered for myself as I am just over 1Kg from my ultimate goal of 55Kg. (I was thinking of changing it to 57Kg because I was getting more and more convinced that I was fighting a losing battle with my body, but me being me, I just battled on). Oddly yesterday I ate way more than on any other day so far and actually lost weight! Go figure.

I just kept going when things seemed to stall, but listened to my body. If tired I exercised slightly less, if hungry ate slightly more but always carefully measured and monitored. Sometimes the body is just readjusting itself which can take some time.

Just keep going as long as you feel well and have the energy to do so.

Good luck.
 
Well done on the 4st weight loss @Alist33

That’s amazing! Hope your work towards your target weight gradually and steadily starts up again 🙂
 
............ On the internet I have read of the body going into starvation mode if on very low calories for too long, which is very bad news once the calories are increased at the end of the diet/exercise. I read somewhere that a very low calorie diet should only be maintained for about 6 months tops or the body goes into starvation mode. However I can't remember where I read that or even if my mind just made it up and I now think its a memory......................
Hi, The problem with crash diets is that the resting metabolic rate reduces . Like you say, it is starvation mode in order to try to keep alive until a decent food source become available again.

This is an emergency state which both ultimately harms the body ( consuming lean muscle mass) but also leaves it running at a lower level of performance: energy, strength, brain activity. even skin temperature.

Most I have seen suggests 12 weeks maximum. But then there is the problem that it now take less calories to fuel the body and so the same number of calories that woulkd have kept weight constant before is now too many and so the dieter starts putting weight back on.
This is why crash diets fail in over 90% of 'slimmers' and why regular crash diets actually make people sluggish and fatter.
 
Thankfully I have suffered from none of the effects listed above.

Off the diet now! Just creeping up towards weight maintenance levels.
 
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