11 Ways to Break a Keto Weight Loss Stall

Let’s uncover what’s causing your keto weight loss stall….in this video, you’ll learn about fat blockers that you may not be aware of, hidden carbs that are sabotaging your results, lifestyle factors that can play havoc with weight loss and many more fat loss inhibitors. Get our simple, actionable strategies to bust through any stubborn weight loss plateau.

SEE below for the full transcript.

GET NEW POSTS VIA EMAIL:

You’ll also receive our FREE 100 Ketogenic Foods List PDF and regular 30-minute keto recipes!

Your privacy is important to us. The information you provide on this form will only be used to provide you with updates from Appetite For Energy. Unsubscribe at any time.

---

FULL VIDEO TRANSCRIPT – BUSTING A KETO WEIGHT LOSS STALL

Anna Mazlin: In this video, I’m going to talk about keto weight loss stalls, and the strategies you can use to kickstart weight loss again. Hi, it’s Anna Mazlin, certified ketogenic diet coach, founder of Appetite for Energy. This is a place where we share 30-minute keto recipes and practical tips for making your keto diet work for you.

We’re going to talk today about ketogenic diet weight loss stalls.

This is the video for you if you have hit a weight loss plateau in your keto journey and are wondering what to do about it. It’s a really big topic.

First of all, I will just start out by saying that if your weight loss has plateaued for two weeks, then we would consider that a weight loss plateau or stall.

If you’ve only been a week without weight loss or a week and a half, that’s really not probably what we would call a true stall. You need to give it a good full two weeks to see what’s going on and allow things to settle down in your body.

What is a Keto Weight Loss Stall or Plateau?

If you have gone for two weeks or more without weight loss and perhaps you may have even gained a few pounds, then this is when you need to look at some different strategies to kick start weight loss.

Today I’m going to take you through quite a few things to think about and actionable tips again and strategies to help you just get on with it. First of all, it really is a natural part of the keto journey. You shouldn’t be worried about a weight-loss stall.

You shouldn’t be at all concerned about or stressed about it. Your body is going through a healing process and may just need some time to rebalance out the hormones before starting to release more fat.

This is really a mindset thing to keep in mind. Just see a weight-loss stall as a time to reassess what you’re doing and dial things in and also to level up what you’re doing and the actions that you’re taking. We’ve said that a weight-loss stall is two weeks or more without weight loss.

I’ve got a bunch of really important reasons why you may be experiencing this. 

Why The Keto Diet is Not Just about Weight Loss

First of all, just keep in mind, and this is an important one, the keto diet is not just about weight loss. There are so many other benefits and healings that are going on within your body.

You’re stabilizing your blood sugar. You’re improving your mental focus. You’re stabilizing your energy. Hunger is being reduced as well as cravings. Your cholesterol markers are being improved. You may see improvements in skin conditions. Your hormones are balancing out.

You’re fighting inflammation as well. These are all beautiful other things that are going on. It’s not just about weight loss.

You May Have Gained Lean Muscle

The second reason is that muscle is more dense than fat.  If you’ve been working out, particularly if you’ve been doing strength training, then you may have actually increased your muscle tone, your muscle strength, which means you could still be losing fat.

Don’t assume you’re not losing fat, you may still well be.

Hidden Food Sensitivities May be Sabotaging Keto Weight Loss

The third thing is hidden food sensitivities. This is a common one that we see. Dairy, eggs, nuts, shellfish and even seeds could be causing this for you.

You need to have a look at what you’re consuming. Ideally, if you’ve been tracking your intake, think about what you might be over-consuming. It could be a lot of dairy in your diet. Think about cutting those foods out for three to seven days and see whether you see a re-kickstart in your weight loss, or even maybe you notice that bloating reduces and you may have one of these sensitivities. That’s a really, really key one to think about.

Hormones are rebalancing

The next one is our hormones. The keto diet is quite well-known for rebalancing our hormones for women.

You may be experiencing a rebalance of your hormones and certainly a change in your monthly cycle. As this is taking place, you might find that you are retaining water or having water retention. Actually, what you need to do for this situation is to drink lots of fresh water even though that does sound counterintuitive, to get rid of that bloating and water retention. Add some lemon juice to every second glass of water you drink during the day. Just trust the process that it’s all going to plan.

Sneaky Fat Blockers That You Aren’t Aware Of….

The next one is what we call fat blockers. These are sort of types of processed foods typically that stall weight loss.

I’m talking here about deli meats like your hams and pepperoni, things like mayonnaise, even if you’re eating protein bars like Quest Bars. These sort of foods contain things like MSG, dextrose, maltodextrin [update – Quest bars do not contain maltodextrin but do have sucralose which can be a fat blocker]. These things do inhibit weight loss, unfortunately.

Another type of food that does this is some of the really highly processed oils like canola oil, which is in so many the foods that we’re eating and corn oil.

The solution for you may just be that you need to eat a cleaner diet in order to just bust through your weight loss plateau and get things moving along.

 

Hidden Carbs 

The next one is hidden carbs. What I call the ‘carb ghosts’. These are basically foods that sneak the carbs in, and you’re probably not even aware of it.

A good example of one of these foods is garlic powder, which if you have a tablespoon of garlic powder, you’re getting up to 6 grams of net carbs. If you’re just eyeballing your food and not checking portion sizes by weighing them, this could also be a way for carbs to just be creeping in that you’re not aware of.

You’ve got to be reading your food labels. Are you checking what’s on the labels? Are you checking for things like fructose or evaporated cane juice, which are often listed ingredients and basically are sugar.

You just might need to really dial in your macros. This is a common one at this stage of weight loss plateau.

What Happens if You Eat Too Much or Too Little Protein on a Keto Diet?

The next one is protein issues. We see both too much protein and too little protein coming into people’s diets.

If you’re taking in too much protein, you can actually be kicked out of ketosis.

On the flip side, too little can actually mean that you are not maintaining your fat burning because you’re reducing lean muscle mass. Something to think about.

I Thought Calories Didn’t Matter on a Keto Diet?

Calories is a big one. You can be eating too many calories. You can also be eating too few calories.

You actually want to encourage your body to use up its fat stores. If you’re eating too many calories, it’ll just be burning off those calories.

Ideally, you’d be tracking your calories. If you’ve reached a plateau, you probably want to be looking at tracking your calories. It’s really about the quality of calories that you’re eating. The whole foods, healthy whole food, high fats.

You want to check on over-exercising and burning so many calories, but you’re also putting your body into stress mode, survival mode. This is not where you want to be. That’s not a place where you’re going to be burning fat. Consider calories is another lever for you.

The Surprising Lifestyle Factors That Impact Fat Loss 

The next one is a really big one and it’s stress. This comes up so much with these types of issues.

If you’re stressed at work, in life, your body’s going to be producing cortisol. It’s going into fight or flight mode. You know what that does? It signals to your body that you are in danger. It’s going to instruct your cells to hold on to that fat and not release it because you just don’t know you might need that for a coming famine!

Also in this same bucket is sleep. If you’re not getting enough sleep, it’s going to throw out your hunger hormones ghrelin and leptin and cause you to just be out of whack with your hunger levels.

Another one again, I’m considering this category of lifestyle, is alcohol. If you’re drinking a couple of drinks some of the nights during the week, your body is going to be burning that alcohol before it burns fat. It’s basically going to stop fat burning in its tracks. If you’re really trying to lose weight, you shouldn’t be drinking any alcohol at all ideally until you reach your goals.

The next one is dehydration. If you’re dehydrated, you’ll find that this will actually kick you out of ketosis. If you’re bloated, it can also be a sign of dehydration. Just make sure you’re keeping up your water intake and drinking between two and three liters of water a day. That’s about 70 to 100 fluid ounces.

Keep up that water intake and don’t let yourself get dehydrated.

Are Your Macros Outdated?

The last one I’m going to talk about today, the cause of all weight loss plateaus is actually that your macros are outdated. The macros that you’re using may need to be updated. If you have been losing weight for a little while, you might have– Obviously, your weight will be different.

You may have changed your exercise levels and your goal weight may now be different. All those things can factor into the need to update your macros, your macro targets that you’re aiming for each day. Definitely get yourself an update of those.

The other thing to try in this category is actually dropping you’re your carbs down a little bit to kick things off. Drop your carbs down to 20 grams in total (total not net) for a couple of weeks and see if that keeps your weight loss back into track and then return to your normal level.

Keto Weight Loss Stall in Summary

Just to recap, weight loss plateaus are part of the journey, the ketogenic diet journey. You should not be surprised by them. Expect them, know that it’s going to happen, and it’s just all your body healing and rebalancing.

During this time, just remind yourself of all the other amazing health benefits that you’re gaining while you’re eating this way. They’re all taking place somewhat behind the scenes potentially, but just have faith and trust knowing that that’s what’s going on, you’re healing your body.

There’s a couple of common things again, just to recap. You need to really think about dialing in what you’re eating. If you have not been tracking your food using one of the apps like MyFitnessPal, then this is probably the next step that you need to take, because this is where you will really dial in what you’re eating and pick up these little trick points that are stopping your weight loss.

There’s many areas that you need to be looking at. Obviously, we discussed calories, we discussed carbs, quality of carbs, like for example, if you’ve been eating a lazy keto approach, then this is probably the time to look at a cleaner approach to get you to the next level.

What you maybe have been doing so far has worked really well for you, but it may not take you to that next level that you want to go.

Stress levels, again, really big one just to recap on. You can’t always remove stress from life, but you can manage it via techniques like meditation, journaling, taking walks in nature, whatever your method is, but just realize that that is a very, very, I can’t really emphasize this enough, big part of kicking through a weight-loss stall. It’s going to stop weight loss, so you’ve got to be relaxed.

I hope you’ve found this video helpful, and that you have got some practical tips now for breaking through any weight loss or ketogenic diet weight loss plateau that you might be facing.

Now I’d love to know from you what tips you have for breaking through a weight loss plateau.

Have you tried some of these tips, or have you experienced a weight loss plateau and broken through with your own strategies?

Just let us know in the comments below this video.

We’d love to hear from you. I’m Anna Mazlin, certified ketogenic diet coach and founder of appetiteforenergy.com. Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you in the next video.

[00:12:23] [END OF AUDIO]