For many individuals embarking on a ketogenic diet, the initial allure lies in its promise of rapid weight loss. However, the journey isn't always smooth, and some may encounter unexpected hurdles like constipation and even weight gain. While the keto diet can effectively suppress appetite and facilitate fat loss, it's not a guaranteed outcome for everyone. Understanding the potential causes of these issues is crucial for navigating the keto landscape successfully.
Weight Gain on Keto: Unmasking the Culprits
Experiencing a plateau or even weight gain while on keto can be disheartening, but it doesn't signify failure. Often, a few simple adjustments can steer you back on course.
Calorie Surplus: The Energy Balance Equation
The cornerstone of weight management, regardless of the diet, is energy balance. To effectively burn body fat, it's essential to consume fewer calories than your body expends, creating a calorie deficit. Overindulging in keto-friendly fats, such as butter, coconut oil, and other pure fats/oils, can easily lead to a calorie surplus. When you add too much fat to meals, your body will burn that fat and store any excess energy it doesn’t need. A simple solution is to moderate the addition of extra butter and oil.
Snacking Habits: Mindful Consumption
Snacking on keto-friendly foods like low-carb nuts, nut butter, and full-fat cheese can prevent hunger between meals. However, excessive snacking can contribute to weight gain. If over-snacking becomes an issue, opt for lower-calorie and/or higher protein snacks such as hard-boiled eggs, sugar-free deli meats, beef jerky, sardines, mackerel, pickles, and kale chips. Also, consider the reasons behind your snacking habits. The urge to snack in the afternoon often stems from a nutritionally inadequate lunch and/or breakfast. It’s usually best to reduce or eliminate your snacking habits by eating well-balanced meals that can keep you full when you’re not eating.
The Importance of Nutrient-Rich Whole Foods
Regardless of the diet plan, consuming nutrient-rich whole foods is the key to healthy, sustainable weight loss. When meals are composed of these keto foods, the body receives healthy fats, protein, fiber, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. As a result, satisfaction and energy levels increase throughout the day, reducing the need for snacks. Examples of this include low-carb nuts, nut butter, and full-fat cheese.
Read also: Easy Low-Carb Cheese Crackers
Portion Control: Developing Awareness
Developing an awareness of appropriate portion sizes is crucial to avoid overconsumption.
Cheat Meals: A Balancing Act
While cheat meals can provide a psychological break from dietary restrictions and aid long-term adherence, they can also hinder progress. Eating high-carb foods causes the body to retain more water than it does while eating keto. It’s surprisingly easy to consume enough calories on a cheat day to gain more fat than you lost throughout the week.
Alcohol Consumption: Moderation is Key
Alcohol intake can impair keto weight loss results in several ways. Cutting it out completely is generally the healthiest option, but you can still get the results you want with a moderate alcohol intake. Limit alcoholic beverage consumption to below two servings per day for men or one serving per day for women.
Sleep Deprivation: The Hunger Hormone Connection
A lack of sleep has been shown to increase appetite and cravings, making it harder to resist and restrict our intake of unhealthy foods. You can lower stress and improve sleep quality at the same time by adding meditation and/or journaling to your bedtime routine.
Metabolic Adaptation: Counteracting Conservation
The body may enter an energy-conserving mode when food is limited, potentially hindering weight loss. To counteract this, consciously increase physical activity throughout the day.
Read also: Keto Calorie Counting: A Detailed Guide
Tracking Macronutrient Intake: A Tool for Precision
Monitor your carb, fat, and protein intake with an app like MyFitnessPal, Cronometer, or Carb Manager to help you reach your keto intake goals. Since typical diets contain 45-65% of calories from carbs, decreasing that intake down to 5% for ketosis is a rather steep drop.
Underlying Medical Conditions and Medications
Certain medical conditions, such as hypothyroidism, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), Cushing’s syndrome, and depression, can contribute to weight gain and difficulty losing weight. Certain medications can cause weight gain or make it difficult to lose weight as well. However, it is still possible to improve your health and body composition.
Weight Regain on Keto: Breaking the Cycle
Relying on severe calorie restriction leads to weight loss, but a significant portion may come from muscle mass. To break the cycle of weight loss and regain, aim for a gentle calorie deficit that promotes a weight loss rate of 1 to 2 pounds per week.
Hunger Management on Keto: Strategies for Success
Hunger is a complex phenomenon influenced by various lifestyle factors.
Adequate Food Intake: Finding the Sweet Spot
While overeating fat can cause weight gain on keto, severe food restriction is not the answer.
Read also: Magnesium Supplements for Keto
Prioritize Nutrient-Rich Foods
Obtain most of your fat and protein from minimally processed keto-friendly whole foods.
Protein Power: Suppressing Hunger
Add a protein-rich food to each meal to help suppress hunger and curb cravings.
Stress Reduction: Calming the Cravings
Chronic stress can drive hunger and reduce your ability to resist cravings. Implement stress-relieving practices such as maximizing sleep quality.
Sleep Quality: A Secret Weapon
A lack of sleep is a major driver of hunger, cravings, and subsequent weight gain.
Limiting Alcohol: Minimizing Disruptions
Alcoholic beverages can increase hunger and cravings due to their impact on blood sugar, ketosis, and sleep quality.
Increasing Activity Levels: Curbing Appetite
Aerobic activities, such as walking, cycling, and jogging, can help curb your appetite.
Addressing Cravings: Quick Fixes
When an intense craving strikes, consider these options:
- Coffee/Tea: Black coffee, green tea, and black tea contain ketosis-boosting caffeine and phytocompounds that can help decrease appetite.
- MCT Oil: MCTs have been found to increase ketone levels and feelings of fullness.
- Keto Snacks: Choose a tasty keto snack with similar textures and flavors to extinguish unhealthy cravings.
- Ketoproof Coffee or Tea: Combine MCTs and healthy fats with morning coffee for a hunger-fighting beverage.
Keto Myths Debunked
While overeating protein can impact ketosis and weight loss results, it is often overestimated how much protein is required for this to happen. Limiting protein intake only makes dieting and weight loss harder to maintain. Once you get to a carb limit that helps you maintain ketosis, there is no need to push your intake lower and lower. If your carb intake is already low enough and you’re still struggling with hunger or weight gain, apply one or two of the keto diet tips described in previous sections instead. For example, instead of relying on olive oil, coconut oil, and butter to get most of your fat, think of these fats/oils as a garnish.
Dirty, Lazy Keto: A Word of Caution
The keto diet is primarily used to manage seizures in children with epilepsy. Ketosis is a metabolic adaptation to allow the body to survive in a period of famine. To achieve ketosis, the diet requires you eat 75 percent of your calories from fat, compared to 20-35 percent normally. It also requires 5 percent of calories from carbohydrates, about 20-50 grams per day, and 15 percent of calories from protein.
Keto and Constipation: Understanding the Link
While the keto diet may help you burn fat, there can also be side effects. Many of these side effects are related to your gastrointestinal (GI) tract reacting to the absence of carbs. One such side effect is constipation. This means that you have three or fewer bowel movements per week. Being constipated may also make your stools hard and lumpy and difficult to pass.
Adjustment to Fewer Carbs and More Fat
When you follow the keto diet, your carbohydrate intake is drastically reduced. Because carbohydrates like fruits and whole grains are some of the most common sources of fiber in the diet, transitioning to this low carb way of eating can lead to digestive issues like constipation. Plus, some people may have a hard time transitioning to the very high fat content of the diet, which can also cause GI upset.
Not Enough Fiber
Since higher carb, fiber-rich foods like fruits, whole grains, and starchy vegetables are off limits or significantly restricted for those following a keto diet, it can be a challenge to get enough fiber in the diet. Fiber is essential for maintaining healthy bowel movements, so if a person following a keto diet is not consuming enough fiber from keto-friendly foods like nonstarchy vegetables, they may experience digestive issues like constipation.
Not Consuming Enough Low Carb, High Fiber Foods
While only about 5 to 10 percent of the food you eat on the keto diet is made up of carbs, the key is to make sure you’re eating the right kind.It’s best to aim for nutritious, high fiber, keto-friendly foods like:nonstarchy vegetables,nuts, flax or chia seeds, limited amounts of berries. A person following a keto diet can enjoy small amounts of lower carb fruits like raspberries as long as their total carbohydrate intake remains under 50 g or whatever amount is needed to maintain ketosis.
Remedies for Keto Constipation
Long-term constipation can lead to complications, including anal fissures, hemorrhoids, and abdominal pain. If you’re new to the keto diet, you may find that your constipation only lasts a few days to a few weeks. As your body adjusts to digesting more fats and fewer carbs, your constipation may get better.
If your constipation continues to be an issue, try one of these home remedies:
- Drink more water.
- Add more fiber-rich foods to your diet, such as leafy greens, broccoli, nuts, seeds, and berries.
- Go for a brisk walk after meals.
- Try bowel training, a method where you pass stools at the same time every day.
If your constipation is not better after 3 weeks, be sure to make an appointment with a doctor.
Preventing Constipation on Keto
One way you can prevent constipation is by introducing the keto diet gradually. Another way to prevent constipation with the keto diet is to make sure the fats and proteins you eat come from whole foods. Eating a lot of processed meals and fast foods can put extra stress on your GI system.
It’s essential to make sure you’re regularly eating keto-friendly, high fiber foods like:nonstarchy vegetables, including greens, broccoli, asparagus, and cauliflowernuts and seedsavocadoschia and flax seedsunsweetened coconut.
The Constipation-Weight Gain Connection
Having infrequent bowel movements does not cause weight gain, but there's definitely a connection between the two. That's because the most common constipation culprits - poor hydration, poor diet and lack of exercise - can also lead to weight gain. These behaviors slow your metabolism and lead to excess body fat, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Habits That Help Prevent Constipation and Weight Gain
- Load Up on Fiber: Dietary fiber helps to increase the weight and size of your stool by keeping water in the GI tract. The recommended amount is 14 grams per 1,000 calories.
- Stay Hydrated: Not drinking enough water on a daily basis can lead to dehydration, and dehydration leads to constipation. I generally recommend 64 ounces of water intake a day as the bare minimum, and half of your body weight in ounces daily as best practice.
- Keep Things Moving (Literally): People who are physically active don't often have constipation, according to Harvard Health Publishing. Good muscle tone in general helps keep you regular, as the abdominal wall muscles and the diaphragm all play a crucial role in the poop process.
Ketosis: The Metabolic State
Ketosis is a process that occurs when your body uses fat as its main fuel source. Normally, your body uses blood sugar (glucose) as its key energy source.
What is the Ketosis Diet?
The ketogenic (keto) diet changes the way your body uses food. The keto diet reduces the number of carbs you eat and teaches your body to burn fat for fuel instead. The keto diet is high in fat, moderate in protein and low in carbohydrates. The standard keto diet consists of 70% to 80% fats, 10% to 20% proteins and 5% to 10% carbohydrates.
How Many Carbs Do I Need for Ketosis?
You’ll need to stay under 50 grams of carbohydrates per day to enter and stay in ketosis.
How Long Does It Take to Get Into Ketosis?
If you eat between 20 and 50 grams of carbohydrates each day, it will usually take you two to four days to enter ketosis. However, the time it takes to enter this state varies based on several factors. It may take you a week or longer to get into ketosis. Factors that may influence how long it takes you to achieve this state include your:Age, Carbohydrate, fat and protein intake, Physical activity level, Metabolism, Sleep health, Stress level.
What are the Benefits of Ketosis?
Research has shown that ketosis may have several health benefits. One of the biggest benefits of ketosis may be weight loss. Other possible benefits of ketosis include treating and managing diseases such as Epilepsy, Other neurologic conditions, Type 2 diabetes, Heart disease, Metabolic syndrome. Ketosis has also been shown to increase your focus and energy.
What are the Side Effects of Ketosis?
One of the signs of ketosis may include “keto flu,” which includes symptoms such as upset stomach, headache and fatigue.
Addressing the Keto Diet's Drawbacks
Because of the stringent food restrictions, many find the keto diet hard to stick to. Because the keto diet is so restricted, you’re not receiving the nutrients - vitamins, minerals, fibers - that you get from fresh fruits, legumes, vegetables and whole grains. The high-fat nature of the diet could also have negative impacts on heart health. The American Heart Association recommends limiting saturated fat intake to less than 6%. The keto diet may not be appropriate for everyone, specifically people with kidney disease. The keto diet can cause your blood pressure to drop in the short term due to a reduction in blood volume and changes in your fluid balance. Symptoms of low blood pressure include dizziness, lightheadedness or fainting, especially when standing up quickly.
Alternative Approaches: Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting is an approach that allows you to receive the benefits of ketosis while still eating a varied and balanced diet. By cycling between periods of eating and fasting, your body enters “mild ketosis” during the fasting phase.
The Importance of Personalized Strategies
No one diet fits all, and what works for one person may not work for another.
Navigating Keto Side Effects: Keto Constipation
Keto-induced constipation is painful and inconvenient-and part of the deal for many dieters. Anytime you radically change your diet, as you probably would with keto, your gut is going to react. Because keto is so different from the way people normally eat, it can cause gas, bloating, constipation, and/or diarrhea.
Getting Regular Again: Strategies for Relief
Eat all the veggies you can-or at least as many as are allowed on the diet, like leafy greens, asparagus, and mushrooms-for roughage. Staying really well hydrated and getting enough exercise also helps, and you can try adding a psyllium husk supplement of one or two tablespoons into a glass of water every day.
Weight Gain on Keto: Identifying the Root Cause
Weight gain can happen on a keto diet for a number of reasons. Luckily, most of them are fairly easy to assess and correct in order to get you back on track.
Macronutrient Imbalance
If our macronutrients are out of balance, we may be having a hard time staying in ketosis. It is recommended that no more than 5-10% of calories are coming from carbs on a keto diet, which generally falls between 20-50 grams of carbs per day.
Quality of Food
Make sure you’re getting adequate nutrients on your keto diet. This includes essential vitamins and minerals as well as at least 25 grams of fiber per day. Nutrient deficiencies and a lack of fiber can quickly lead to things like microbiome changes and constipation.
Stress Management
Stress is a part of daily life, but finding ways to manage it is key to keeping those stress hormones in check.
Seeking Professional Guidance
Your healthcare provider that is familiar with your unique set of circumstances can help guide you in the right direction.