Happy Keto Body Review Week 4: Scale Stalls and Diet Mind Games
I just finished four weeks of keto eating and I’ll be sharing my experiences and lessons learned with you. This was an interesting week…. it was not all sunshine and fat bombs. Lots of mental “diet stuff” to overcome and an unfortunate scale stall. Grab a fatty coffee and let’s chat!
In this post I’ll share:
How I planned for a successful week
What I learned from Week 4 of the Happy Keto Body program and from my own experiences
What I ate (you know, the fun part!)
How I felt (physically and emotionally) and my results
My best tips for Week 4 of Happy Keto Body
You can read other posts in this series here: Weekly Happy Keto Body Review Series
The Happy Keto Body program is a 12 week online video course and it is AMAZING! It has answers to all your keto questions, meal plans, shopping lists, recipes, and how to troubleshoot common keto problems. Check it out here: Happy Keto Body
Happy Keto Body Week 4
How I planned for a successful Week 4 on Happy Keto Body:
Much of my planning for a successful Week 4 of Happy Keto Body is the same as what I did last week. It’s also basically the same as what I’ll do next week. And that is to add these things to my calendar.
Weigh on Monday morning.
Schedule time every day to review the videos and bonus materials.
Download the Week 4 Journal (found on the Happy Keto Body Week 2 page) so I can take notes.
Plan my meals.
Grocery shop (or delegate this task)!
Prepare smoothie bags for my daily smoothie. (I use the keto smoothie recipe in this blog post.)
Schedule time for exercise.
Plan time every day to fill in my 12 week keto planner. I use this printable planner.
We had a birthday dinner this weekend at one of my favorite sushi restaurant, so I made a plan ahead of time. There are keto options…I could choose hibachi fish, chicken or steak with veggies and egg drop soup. But, I love sushi so I am going to use this as a weekly carb up. I’ll be able to enjoy my favorite Volcano roll, and probably a spicy crab roll, without one shred of guilt.
What I learned from Week 4 of Happy Keto Body:
Keto myths debunked.
One of the videos shed some light on common keto myths, which I found really fascinating. Some of these you may have heard one or more of these before, and some might be new. The Happy Keto Body video explained why these are myths.
Common keto myths:
You will lose weight super fast on keto. (Hint, it’s different for every woman.)
The fat adaptation period is the same for everyone. (Some people can take up to eight weeks to be fully fat adapted.)
You have to be in ketosis to burn fat.
The brain needs sugar to function properly.
Exogenous ketones will sabotage your keto efforts.
You have to limit fat intake to burn fat.
Intermittent fasting can be a strategy for weight loss in women.
There were two videos that addressed intermittent fasting this week. There is soooo much to cover, it’s worthy of a separate post.
Basically, intermittent fasting can be a strategy for some keto women to:
help increase weight loss without slowing metabolism
keep insulin levels low
increase ketone production
increase production of human growth hormone
reduce free radical damage
Different intermittent fasting strategies were shared, which is also worthy of a separate post. For me, I am going to LISTEN TO MY BODY. This has been a common theme throughout my keto journey so far. If I am not hungry in the morning, I will practice intermittent fasting. If I am starving, then I will eat.
For me, with a history of eating issues, deciding on a particular intermittent fasting strategy will likely bring me straight back into that diet mentality that I so want to avoid.
“If you’re not where you want to be on keto, your body might just need time. Most health issues take more than four weeks to develop, so it will take more than four weeks to fix. Be patient.”
Yes, this is sushi! It was also my carb up on Week 4.
What I ate on Week 4 of Happy Keto Body:
As I mentioned in my Prep Week Happy Keto Body blog post, I mainly focus on super simple meals that don’t require recipes or lots of effort in the kitchen. You may find my choices boring, and that’s ok. There are lots of recipes in the Happy Keto Body Mini Cookbook, in Leanne Vogel’s The Keto Diet Book, or you can find keto recipes by browsing the web or Pinterest.
Here are some of the things I ate this week:
Breakfasts
Green smoothies, usually with a few slices of uncured bacon. Drinking a green smoothie every day was my January Challenge. This week I’m using full-fat coconut milk with a little water, frozen mixed berries, baby spinach. I also boost the fat (and nutritional) content by adding chia seeds, ground flaxseed, and hemp hearts.
Fried eggs with veggies.
All my breakfasts are followed by coffee with either heavy cream or full-fat coconut milk.
Lunches
Dinner leftovers are my go-to lunch. I’ll often add veggies & olive oil, or avocado if I need to boost the fat.
Cheddar cheese, macadamia nuts, and the topping from one slice of pepperoni pizza. This was a lunch fail!!! I was babysitting and didn’t really think about my lunch in advance, so I just threw together these random ingredients. It was definitely keto, but not very satisfying.
"Throw leftover meat and veggies into homemade bone broth and call it soup.”
Dinners
Rosemary Pesto Rolled Pork Tenderloin. My husband chose this recipe and made dinner, but i only had a tiny piece. Truth be told, I HATE fruit mixed with meat. So knowing there was apple in the stuffing kinda grossed me out, to be honest. (By the way, the tiny amount of apple is not gonna throw you out of ketosis.)
Sheet Pan Lemon Parmesan Garlic Chicken. I am so spoiled…this recipe was also chosen and prepared by the hubby. I really, really liked it. It is basically chicken coated with almonds and Parmesan, baked with green beans and baby yellow potatoes. I ate chicken and plenty of veggies, but only had maybe 2 ounces of the potatoes. I am planning a bigger carb up for a birthday dinner on Saturday.
Smoked chicken wings and a salad with bacon, red onion, tomato, and blue cheese dressing from Jack Stack Barbecue. You can read more about how to make keto choices at a barbecue restaurant HERE.
Sushi was my carb up on Saturday night and it was oh, so worth it!
Ham and gouda with horseradish and a big salad with EVOO and low carb veggies.
SNACKS
Smoked Gouda with half an avocado mashed with jalapeno peppers.
Baby bell peppers with homemade blue cheese dip.
How I felt during Week 4, and my results:
Day 1 - Monday:
I lost 7 pounds in two weeks so I am super excited to see the scale finally move in the right direction! I’ve said this in Week 2’s post that my favorite result is no cravings and no feeling out of control around food.
I woke up and was not hungry at all so I started the day with a big glass of lemon water (it’s so important to hydrate!) and then had my usually coffee with heavy cream. I wasn’t hungry until noon which is highly unusual, but very nice!
This was my first carb up! I had a dinner of steak tips with sauteed mushrooms, onions, and garlic, served over about a 1/2 cup of rice. We ate dinner at 5pm and I noticed I was hungry at 6:45pm. I highly doubt it had to do with the really small portion of rice, but rather than I wasn’t hungry for breakfast so hadn’t eaten much up to that point.
Day 2 - Tuesday:
I haven’t written about it until this point, but I have been having heart palpitations for almost two weeks. I have never had this happen before, even when I was eating keto. My first thought was maybe it was due to my low carb lifestyle. After googling, I found that heart palpitations can happen when starting keto, due to imbalanced electrolytes. A common remedy suggested is to increase your salt intake and drink more water.
However, I did see my doctor on Friday and got my lab tests back. My electrolytes are fine. At this point I don’t have a cause, but it seems my heart “weirdness” is NOT related to keto eating.
Day 3 - Wednesday:
Today was a struggle with the old diet mentality. I was very hungry and ate a lot of food.
As I’ve mentioned, I haven’t been as hungry recently and, after the first week of eating everything keto that wasn’t nailed down, my calories have lowered - without doing the math I’m guessing an average is 1600 calories - versus well over 2000 during the first week. But I am still continuing to track my macros so I do have a good idea of how many calories I am eating. Today was 2100.
And, at 11pm, I was still hungry.
Thinking about how much I ate, and that I was hungry and wanted to eat MORE, brought such guilt and shame. It’s ridiculous how ingrained the diet mentality is. You know, if you eat more than a certain number of calories you are bad. Or if you have a bite of ice cream you’ve “blow it.” You get the idea.
This was a great opportunity to remind myself of my goals. Weight loss is one, to be sure, but also to reduce inflammation, stop the obsession with food, reduce cravings, and learn to listen to my body.
And, when listening to my body, to not feel guilt when I comply with what it wants. After all, our bodies want to be healthy.
Day 4 - Thursday:
OMG I was so stinkin’ tired today! I don’t sleep well normally, so I’m not blaming this on keto. However, as I wrote about in Week 2 not feeling well (in Week 2 it was a massive headache) or being tired or stressed can lead to cravings or the desire to eat to soothe ourselves. This was just something I wanted to be mindful of because, when tired I am not at my best.
Day 5 - Friday:
This has nothing to do with keto eating, but everything to do with real life. Sometimes we don’t feel well. Yesterday’s bad sleep and tiredness turned into a massive backache. I didn’t overeat, but the temptation to stress eat was definitely there. If I were “in the carbs” I am almost certain I would have caved and binged on chips or the stale pretzels I see in the back of the pantry.
I’m thankful that sticking to my diet helps me continue to stay on it, even when I’m not on my game.
Day 6 - Saturday:
Tonight we went to a sushi restaurant to celebrate a birthday. I had already decided I was going to enjoy their delicious sushi and just count this meal as a carb up. It was not an all day long carb fest, but rather one meal. I ate two sushi rolls, which were amazing by the way, as well as one of their tiny sugared donuts for dessert. I’ll be curious to see if I stay in ketosis tomorrow. I’m not counting on it, and that’s fine too.
Day 7 - Sunday:
I was not in ketosis this morning, and did not expect to be after my carb up. The scale also went up by two pounds which, though I expected it (because carbs cause you to hold onto water), was still a bit of a mind f*ck.
It’s the whole diet mentality thing again. If the scale goes up, we have been bad. If the scale goes down, we are good and all is right with the world. Messed up, right?
Truth be told, the scale does not give you the complete picture. It is almost IMPOSSIBLE to gain two pounds of fat in one day. My two sushi rolls and one tiny sugar donut is not 7200 calories. So my lesson was to be patient with myself, trust the process, and no obsess over the number on the scale. I enjoyed my meal, and got back to keto eating. It will be fine.
Week 4 Results:
Speaking of a scale mind f*ck, I gained 2.6 pounds this week. This morning (writing on Monday) I am back in ketosis, but I still have some of my carb water weight. Or female TOM water weight, lol. In any event, I am 100% sure it is not fat gain but it is still disappointing to see the scale move the wrong way, not gonna lie. Particularly when earlier in the week I was down about 1.5 pounds.
This week I lost some of my initial keto excitement, and had some days I didn’t feel well (nothing to do with keto), but since I had been faithful to the diet for almost an entire month it was easier to stay on the diet.
I am ready to start Week 5 and move forward!
“I wish I could lose weight as quickly as I lose my keys, my phone, and my temper!””
My best tips for Happy Keto Body Week 4:
Learn from your Week 4 experience! You’re probably going to see this every week because it is vital to learn from our experiences. Based on this week, what do you need to change? How can you improve? What amazing things do you want to continue?
Be vigilant if you’re in pain, tired, cranky, or stressed. Not feeling our best can bring up nasty OLD habits, like turning to food for comfort.
As I said last week, don’t be afraid to try a carb up. I was able to enjoy a delicious sushi dinner guilt-free, and get right back to eating keto.
That said, don’t be disappointed if the scale goes up after your carb up. It is perfectly normal.
If your weight loss slows or, as mine did!, you gain, remember it is temporary and it is just your body adjusting. Continue healthy low carb, high fat eating and trust the process.
I quoted this above, but it bears repeating: “If you're not where you want to be on keto, your body might just need time. Most health issues take more than four weeks to develop, so it will take more than four weeks to fix. Be patient.” —Dr. Nina Lewis
The Happy Keto Body program is a 12 week online video course and it is AMAZING! It has answers to all your keto questions, meal plans, shopping lists, recipes, and how to troubleshoot common keto problems. Check it out here: Happy Keto Body
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Are you a busy lady (like me) who really, really wants to live a healthy life? I get it because I’m obsessed with living my best life too. Here you’ll find simple ideas and strategies to plan a healthy and happy life.
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