There are exactly 5 ways to lose weight in the LONGTERM- WITHIN a low carb, keto/carnivore dietary paradigm
•Preventing Carb Creep
•Time Restricted Feeding
•Protein Leverage
•Hunger Re-Assessment
•Exercise
Preventing Carb Creep
In any dietary paradigm, when it’s new, a person naturally restricts until they get accustomed to eating within the framework. As time goes on they learn how to cook/bake within the framework & may slowly increase intake over the months/years.
As people eat more they also tend to eat more sugars/carbohydrates. It’s best to periodically reassess what you are eating and exactly how much? Are you overdoing the protein bars & keto cookies? Make sure you reassess your dietary composition.
Time Restricted Feeding
Snacking, late night eating, heavy cream in coffee… EVEN if they are low carb, they are great for weight maintenance and not necessarily weight loss. Time restriction has hormonal and glycemic effects outside of reducing intake.
It’s a great way to force you to have big filling meals and limit snacking, otherwise you will not be able to maintain your window. I find implementing TRF down to OMAD is a great way to reignite fat loss
Protein Leverage
Empirically, I find that every patient who is merely maintaining weight (when they want to be losing) on a low carb diet is typically eating a lot of heavy cream, cheese, cream cheese, fatty cold cuts, nuts, and fatty cuts of meat …
While these foods have a definitive place in a healthy keto diet, they can easily be overeaten. I’ve never met someone who can eat 3 little cubes of cheese & 2 macadamia nuts & then call it a day. Consider increasing protein:fat ratio
Think sirloin versus bacon
Hunger Re-assessment
It’s very important to understand why your intake is higher than you want. Is it stress? Is that Diet Coke triggering you? Is the sugar free gum making you more hungry? Are you not sleeping enough? Did that fight with your partner drive you to eat?
Did adding butter or marinara to shrimp allow you to eat twice as much as you normally would?
I will often ask patient to track their hunger and track their appetite triggers to ascertain what exactly is driving them to eat.
I’ll also ask patient to consider eat/pause/eat which is pausing at a point of 80% fullness, to reassess hunger, I’ll ask them to sip a coffee, tea or seltzer, wait an hour & only if hungry then to continue eating. Often then the perceived hunger is gone.
I’ll sometimes recommend patients who are stalling to consider trying to fill the stomach with water or fibrous vegetables mid-meal, say in between 2 1lb steaks. Sometimes the perceived hunger will disappear with this tactic.
Exercise
The last modality to kick yourself outside of a weight loss stall is to exercise. I love HIIT + RT, martial arts, etc. I find they Weight Loss stallers typically are just doing slow cardio or taking too much rest in between sets. Switch to HIIT, and active rest RT.
SUMMARY:
I have found there to be 5 keys ways to lose weight in a low carb, keto/carnivore framework, to break a longterm weight loss stall:
•Preventing Carb Creep
•Time Restricted Feeding
•Protein Leverage
•Hunger Re-Assessment
•Exercise
