Only way I can lose weight now is by reducing cal to 700. Do I need to change my macros?

Daya

I am down to 54.9kg from 63.2kg and want to get down to 53.5kg. I've been out of ketosis for three weeks now and the only way I can lose weight is by reducing my calories to 700. My dietician suggested I was in starvation mode. I have Chronometer adjusted to the Ketogenic Macros but just can't meet the targets. They indicate that I'm eating double the fat that I should be and not nearly enough protein. But I'm not eating nearly as much fat as it suggests. I'm only eating about 30g protein a day (about half my target) but can't reach it at 700 calories. I am wondering if this is the problem. I've been out of Ketosis for about 3 weeks now. I think I need to re-adjust my Macros but don't know what to change them to. I'm 44 and not in menopause. I eat between 10-15g carbs a day so that's not the problem. What can you suggest? At the moment I am entirely sedentary as I am quite physically ill. Many thanks, Danielle

Susan_RD_101

@Daya

I don't recommend eating below your basal metabolic rate (BMR) as this is what causes you to go into starvation mode and causes your metabolism to significantly slow down.

Remember, the closer you are to your goal, often the longer you need to reach it. Since you've already lost such a significant amount of weight, your metabolism has likely slowed and your body is in maintenance mode and trying to prevent further weight loss.

I'd work with your dietitian to discuss a realistic calorie target (likely, it won't be less than 1100-1200 kcal per day) and perhaps discuss activities that can be done in spite of your limitations. When it comes to weight loss, diet plays a greater role, but it's important to preserve/build muscle mass to protect metabolism and maintain the lost weight.

Kind regards,

Daya

Thank you so much for your advice Susan. That's really helpful and what I suspected. In the last couple days I've increased my calories by a couple hundred. I'm finding it very hard to eat the full amount of fat though at 900 calories. Only reaching about 70-80% though meeting my other targets. Right from the beginning I only ate at 900 calories. So it would feel very strange to increase my calories even more. Given this, I'd be very worried I'd start putting on weight if I increased them to 1100-1200kj.

Susan_RD_101

@Daya

True weight changes happen slowly... I'd suggest increasing calories by 50-100 per week and monitoring what your weight does week-to-week. If you start to add in more starches/proteins, it's very likely that you will gain some water weight, since keto diets tend to result in ++ water loss.

jefmcg

What makes you think that you are out of ketosis? Are you measuring blood or breath ketones? Apparently as your body adapts to ketosis, it starts making better use of ketones and you stop pissing them away - literally.

If you have been keto for a while, ketostix become an unreliable indicator of ketosis.

At 700kcal/day, it's almost guaranteed you are burning fat. Physics and all.

Daya

I've been using those ketone urine strips. Initially they were showing I was in ketosis. Now they're not. I didn't know ketostix were an unreliable indicator of ketosis.
I lifted my calories to 900 since two dieticians have suggested my body might be going into starvation mode. Curious thing, as soon as I did that I've become extremely hungry. Whereas before I wasn't, except just before bed. I'm wondering if my body is catching up on food that I'd deprived it? I just want to lose 1.5 more kg and don't know whether to go back to 700 cal or keep the calories at 900 so I have more chance of meeting all the macros that are set. At the moment I've reset my macros from the basic ketogenic ones on Chonometer to 48g Protein, 14g Carbs and 75g fat. So hard to reach that fat total, even at 875 cal. Any thoughts? Thank you!

StWilliams

You should definitely never eat that little calories as it is an insufficient amount to meet macro and micro nutrients goals. Eat more and ask your doctor if there are any activities and exercises you can perform despite your limitations.

comanchesue

If you are only eating 30g protein a day you are probably losing muscle, not fat. Atkins is awesome because you can eat more calories and lose weight. When I was on WW I struggled to lose on 1200 calories a day but when I began Atkins and followed it to the letter, I was losing easily on 1500 calories a day. On Keto diets, if you don't eat enough you'll screw yourself up. But seriously, you need much more than 30 g protein a day.

What are your fat sources?

Susan_RD_101

@Daya

I definitely think you were in "starvation syndrome" (which is essentially survival mode) at 700 cal. Now that you're at 900 calories, your metabolism is operating at a more optimal level which means you need food.

When it comes to the when of eating, I trust biological hunger as it's the most accurate indicator of when to fuel your body. I'd definitely suggest maintaining 900 cal per day min.

Kind regards,

Daya

I've actually increased my cal intake to just over 1000 because as soon as I started increasing it I started to become incredibly hungry. At this level I can satisfy my hunger for most of the day and go to bed feeling a bit hungry, which for me has always been the way I know I am going to lose some weight. I've also increased my protein from about 30mg to 60mg and think this is helping too. And as a result I've overcome my weight plateau and lost 0.8kg this week. So thank you both for your advice. I was so reluctant to increase my calories because I didn't understand how I could still lose weight doing this but your advice has been very valuable and I'm very grateful to you.