Are you on a keto or low-carb diet according to Weight Stagnation, but not seeing the results you expected? Does it seem like the scale is stuck and you still have a lot of weight to lose?
We know it can be frustrating to see other people lose weight easily on low-carb diets, and feel like you aren’t.
You’re still wondering, am I doing something wrong? What else can I do? Is this the right meal plan for me?
This guide will help you answer these questions and more. We explain what a real plateau is, explore how to lose weight, help resolve your situation, and provide links to other Diet Doctor guides for more detailed information. In addition, we give you our top 10 tips to break the plateau.
We want to help you make well-founded decisions, decisions that suit you. Our goal is for you to understand the pace of your particular journey and find options to get the scales moving again.
1. Is it really a Weight Stagnation?
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If you want to know why you are not losing weight with the ketogenic diet, you should first answer the following questions: How long has your weight loss stagnated? Has it been three months or more, even though you have consistently stuck to the plan?
We can’t speak of a real plateau until there has been no weight loss for more than three months, although you may feel different if you step on the scale every day and see no progress.
This is because body fat is almost never lost steadily and steadily. We lose weight with ups and downs.
Many factors can influence the daily number on the scale: fluid retention, a full or empty bladder, the contents of food in the stomach or intestines, and other factors, such as whether you have increased muscle mass through exercise.
If you think you’ve hit a weight loss plateau, it’s best to look at general weight trends over time, rather than daily weight variation.
Have a regular routine for measuring your weight: weigh yourself on the same scale, at the same time of day, under the same general conditions, and wear the same amount of clothing. Try to weigh yourself only once a week or less to keep up with the trend and not get caught up in daily variations.
Stalls are common
In a study of the outcomes of more than 300 patients in Virta Health’s type 2 diabetes program, the average patient on a low-carb diet was found to have consistent weight loss for nine months in the first year. This trend was then followed by about three months of plateauing, or plateau, which the researchers termed “weight stability.” With strict adherence to the diet, the weight again tended to decrease in the second year.
In addition to sticking to your diet, there are other factors that can affect the number on the scale and how your weight loss is progressing: nutritional history, resting metabolic rate, how much weight you need to lose, how much muscle there is on the body, the percentage of body fat, the degree of insulin resistance and whether there are any hormonal problems. Next, we will talk about these factors and how to treat them.
2. Track victories that happen off-scale
Weight is an arbitrary measure, often meaningless, that can have nothing to do with being healthy or not. Instead of focusing on the scale, you notice changes in certain general health indicators and how you feel.
Are the clothes starting to loosen up? Are you less hungry? Is blood pressure lower? Do you have more energy? These are all off balance victories (VfB, or NSV in English), showing that diet improves the underlying health condition in the long run.
Measurable Health Indicators
When following a low-carb or ketogenic diet, it is very important to monitor changes in measurable health indicators. Each of the indicators below (linked with further discussion) can be dramatically improved on a low-carb diet:
fasting glucose
Hemoglobin A1c (a measure of glucose, over three months)
blood pressure
Cholesterol level
Inflammation (measured by C-reactive protein)
body fat percentage
waist-to-height ratio
Symptomatic Health Improvements
Some health improvements are not measurable with a specific test with Weight Stagnation. However, they can have a significant impact on how people follow a keto or low-carb diet or Weight Stagnation.
