In my last low carb update I said I was still steadily losing weight. And I was.
WAS being the key word, lol. 😛
The tables turned, and now I’m gaining weight just as steadily! 😯 😛
I weighed 151.6 pounds on Wednesday morning. This morning (Saturday) I am up to 154.4 pounds. Yesterday it was 153.4, so it’s creeping up steadily lol.
I gained almost 3 pounds in 3 days!
This is a hot topic around the low carb communities, so I thought we’d discuss it (and the possible reasons it happens) since I’m experiencing it this week myself.
I’ve included my complete Low Carb Diaries for the last 3 days below too, because you should always start by analyzing your food diaries for any changes or additions that might be causing your weight to fluctuate or stall.
You can see Monday & Tuesday’s Low Carb Foods here, and Wed/Thurs/Fri are below if you want to view the entire week.
TIP: When analyzing your food diaries, if you have more than one thing you’re doing or eating that’s new/different, you want to do a “clean test” to figure out your culprits. Cut out or change just one thing at a time for a solid week, keeping everything else the same.
If you’re not tracking everything, you should be.
What To Track, And HOW To Track It – Easily!
4 Things To Check If You’re Not Losing Weight
NOTE: If you’re just in week two or three of eating low carb, seeing a brief “hold” or even slight flucutations on the scale is totally NORMAL. That’s just your body adjusting to the initial weight loss. In that case – or even if you just started over and got back into ketosis – just keep doing what obviously worked so well the first week or so and let your body adjust. 😉 That “week 2/3 stall” is NOT a stall, and is NOT a time to throw in the towel or make any drastic changes!
Possible Weight Gain / Stall Culprits:
In addition to certain foods (cheese, cream cheese, any processed foods including bars & shakes, sugar free foods or artificial sweeteners, hidden carbs, etc) there are other potential culprits that could stall weight loss or cause you to gain weight.
Have you started a new medication, stopped taking something or changed the dosage? Have you started taking a vitamin or supplement? Some of those have sugar and hidden carbs, especially the gummies.
Consider anything and everything that has changed in your life since your weight loss stalled. Sleep Quality and Stress are both known culprits for affecting weight loss as well, so getting UNstressed and plenty of rest can make a big difference. 😉
As for me, I’ve been sick with a virus for over a week. I haven’t been sleeping well (extreme insomnia). I’ve been highly stressed – with a resting heart rate in fat burning mode (lol). I had dental work done, which was pretty rough (pain, swelling, I swallowed a lot of blood which made me sick – yuck!). I started a new prescription medication this week too, and also started taking Melatonin to help with sleep.
Those are all very good possible reasons my body is retaining water or “in a hold” at the moment. The key is to relax, keep eating eating healthy, be mindful of your food choices, and allow your body to heal and/or adjust on it’s own.
Don’t freak out. 🙂 Don’t do anything extreme. Don’t do any “extreme dieting tricks” either, because that is NOT healthy.
Above all else, do NOT throw in the towel! Being stalled or seeing a little weight gain is NOT a good reason to binge or eat unhealthy. That’s just going to move your scales in the WRONG direction – and FAST. 😛
Hold steady, eat healthy, be good to your body!
A great stall-breaker is the 3 Ingredients Rule.
It’s a great rule to “eat by” ALL the time, but this alone proved to break stalls and increase weight loss across the board in our challenge group. 😉
Below are my low carb meals for the last three days – while sick and recovering from the dental work. I identified a potential culprit right away! I’ll give you a photo tour of my meals, then share my thoughts on those…
This Week’s Low Carb Meals
I had dental work done late Tuesday afternoon, so I started the day Wednesday with soft foods. I had a GNC Total Lean “Strawberries & Cream” shake (3 net carbs) when I woke up, followed by 3 eggs scrambled with cheese.
I had a couple of appointments that morning, so I had lunch while I was out. I stopped in at Captain D’s (a fast food seafood restaurant) and got Grilled Whitefish with a double order of green beans (no bread, no rice). I normally get the grilled shrimp skewers with this meal, but I needed “soft foods only” that day. 🙂
I only ate one order of the green beans. I wasn’t feeling well, and didn’t have much of an appetite. I saved the other order of green beans and had those at dinner.
This looks gross, and it WAS weird, but I was really hungry and had very little to work with in the house. 😛 I could only eat soft foods too, which added to my limitations.
I took a can of tuna, stirred in some mayo, heated up the leftover green beans and stirred those in too. So it was tuna salad with green beans in it. 😐 lol.
I did NOT look at that while I ate it.
It actually tasted fine, it just didn’t look so great. 😛
Wednesday’s MyFitnessPal Food Diary:
Wednesday totaled at 1166 calories, 16 net carbs (23 total carbs), 83 grams of protein, and 81% fat. Those are great numbers…
On Thursday morning I had another GNC low carb shake when I woke up (so I could take Advil), then had scrambled eggs again. I also managed to eat an Atkins Peanut Butter Granola Bar (in small bites, on one side lol). For lunch I just had another Atkins bar and then laid down. I was NOT feeling well, not at all. 😛
By dinner I needed something solid but bland, so I made a quick batch of low carb bread. I made it plain (no garlic – just almond meal & parmesan).
This low carb bread is super easy to make, and it’s also gluten free. The carb count will depend on your brands / ingredients and your serving size, of course.
I usually make mine like this: 1 cup of Bob’s Red Mill Almond Meal/Flour, 6oz bag of Kraft Natural finely shredded parmesan, 2 eggs, 2 TBSP of real butter (melted). Mix it all together and form however you like on a parchment paper lined baking sheet, then bake at 350° until lightly browned.
It has a really nice bread-like texture:
This is a great base recipe. For a fun variation, see my Low Carb Biscuits. 🙂
I had a nice hot cup of Chicken Broth later that night, with another piece of the low carb bread, just to settle my stomach before I went to bed.
Chicken Broth is great when you’re sick, or have Keto Flu. It replenishes sodium & electrolytes quickly – and tastes good. It’s also good when you have an upset tummy, get a cold, or experience leg cramps from dehydration or ketosis.
Thursday’s MyFitnessPal Food Diary:
Thursday totaled at 1851 calories, 25 net carbs (33 total carbs), 126 grams of protein, and 66% fat. The numbers are slightly off, but it’s not bad.
Yesterday I was finally able to have my favorite low carb breakfast again. 🙂 This time it was 1/2 cup crushed pecans, 1/4 cup Daisy brand cottage cheese, and 4 small strawberries. (5 net carbs, 85% fat)
They’re frozen berries, so they “get juicy” when I dice them. Delicious!
Then I had a nice healthy low carb lunch at Applebee’s. I ordered the Cedar Salmon and asked for the “creamy artichoke topping” on the side (I wasn’t sure about it, lol).
I switched my sides and asked for zucchini & sauteed spinach. Plus I added sauteed mushrooms on the side. The parmesan artichoke spread was delicious, by the way! I ate it on my veggies instead of my salmon. Yum!
I wasn’t able to finish it all, so I brought home some nice leftovers to enjoy today. 🙂
I felt really rough last night, so I just had my last Strawberries & Cream GNC shake and an Atkins Bar and went straight to bed.
Friday’s MyFitnessPal Food Diary:
I’ve been drinking less coffee, and a lot more water this week. On Thursday I had 8 glasses of water (80 ounces). I was SO thirsty all day! 😛 Other than that my low carb meals are very close to my usual low carb choices, and my macros are close to usual too. Outside of one thing: the GNC Total Lean low carb shakes!
The Atkins Bars have never stalled me before. I know they do stall some people. Quest Bars stall me, and sadly those are my favorite! But they do stall my weight loss. So if there IS a food culprit to my weight gain this week… it’s the shakes.
That’s the only thing really new in my diet this week.
That’s okay though. A liquid meal was absolutely necessary several times this week with my jaw pain from having the back tooth removed. I only bought four, and they are all four gone now… so that’s that. 🙂
Of course it could be the fact that I was sick, the new meds I’m taking, the lack of sleep and stress – or a combination of ALL of those things. Now that I’m feeling better, less stressed, sleeping better – and out of shakes 🙂 – I imagine my body will get back to normal and shed this weight.
I hope that helps you examine possible culprits when you find your weight loss stalled, or have a mysterious weight gain. Sometimes it just happens. It may be as simple as hormone cycles (yes, even men have those!), it could be water weight from traveling or other sources, or even constipation.
My advice: analyze your food diaries, any changes in your diet or lifestyle, make adjustments… and let it work itself out. In the meantime eat super simple: Three Ingredients Per Plate and only eat “real food” – nothing processed.
How are things going on your end?
Gaining, Losing… or Holding Steady?
Leave a comment & let’s chat. 🙂
This weight gain is troublesome, but I am NOT going to let it stress me out or derail me in any way. I am traveling next week and still hope to be back to my ideal weight (under 150 pounds), but worst case scenario… I have SPANX. 🙂 lol…
Best,
Lynn Terry,
aka @LowCarbTraveler





Leave a Reply