For the first few days on keto, I noticed a decent and steady decrease in my weight, a pound or two per day. But then, as mentioned in my previous post, I had to change my diabetes medication because my blood glucose was getting too low. At that point, I stalled hard. I’d wobble by a pound or two every day, but nothing but a slight upward trend. After a few weeks, I was back up to where I had been when I started. So of course, I consulted Reddit.
I got two good pieces of advice from there, first and simplest was to start tracking my measurements in addition to weight. Second was to take another look at my caloric intake. Now, I had originally gotten my macros from the Keto Calculator:
34/M/6’2″ | CW 325 | 39% BF | Mostly sedentary
* 2527 kcal Goal, a 15% deficit. (850 min, 2973 max)
* 25g Carbohydrates
* 120g Protein (119g min, 197g max)
* 216g Fat (30g min, 265g max)
This allowed for a 15% deficit in caloric intake. The general consensus from the conversation on Reddit was that my target was WAY too high.
Part of my issue is that I’m a grazer. I would bring a lot of smaller items to eat throughout the day, rather than eating one big meal. Well, when those items can’t be carrots or grapes or crackers with peanut butter, and instead they are meat or meat or cheese or meat, your calories tend to get higher. I also get up at 4AM for work. This means I’m eating breakfast at 4:30, and by the time lunch rolls around, I’m starving. So I decided to do two things: Get my calories down to around 2000, and adjust my eating schedule.
What’s worked for me so far is this: When I get up in the morning, I make Bulletproof Coffee, which is a strong cup of coffee, with 1tbsp of butter, and 1tbsp of coconut oil added to it. This usually keeps me sated until 9:00 or 9:30, at which point I eat the breakfast that I bring with me to work, 3 scrambled eggs with a tbsp of heavy cream and some spices, 2 pieces of bacon, and 2 pieces of Bob Evans sausage patties, coming in around 700 calories and keeping me full for the rest of the day. I bring a bag of pork rinds and a PowerAde Zero as a snack on the ride home. Dinner at 7:00 is usually meat and some type of vegetable, or a salad. This has worked pretty well for me so far, but I do have some days where I get really hungry. These are usually after days where I came in pretty far under my calorie goal.