Down 70+lbs on keto

[barack_obama]

I'm 5'11, 230lbs (down from 305lbs roughly 6 months ago). My daily calorie counts are about 1500-1800 on weekdays and 1800-2100 on weekends. I attempt to keep my carbs under 20g a day INCLUDING fiber. My weight loss seems to be plateauing and I don't feel I'm putting on enough muscle to account for the plateau.

Extras: I'm hypopituitary with all kinds of hormone imbalances from a head injury 5 years ago. Things have gotten better with weight loss adn diet. I'm on Hrt/Trt at 50mg Test C every 5 days. It sounds strange, but I aromatize test quickly and this keeps me at 600ng/dl test (good) with about 50pg/dl free test (a little high, according to doc).

I'm insulin resistant and have taken metformin for quite some time, but seem to not need it while on keto, I keep it on hand but don't use it when blood sugar is not high. Previously had high blood pressure and bad blood lipids that have both normalized with the weight loss/diet.

I am a secondary addison's disease patient so I do not make enough cortisol or adrenaline and am prescribed prednisone at 5-10mg daily depending on feeling. I try to keep it at the 5mg a day dosage as I know it prevents me from losing weight when I'm at 10mg, but sometimes I just feel like garbage and need it.

My endocrinologist has warned against the keto diet, but has rescinded his negative comments based on my results. He has more recently warned me not to drop my calories any further as it is unhealthy. I know he's basing his diet advice on the common practices that are pushed by most dietitians.

Any advice to keep slamming through the weight? I'd like to drop down to about 185lbs or 10%bf...whichever comes first.

Member Pictures Post:
305 down to 230, bf%

Average daily meal plan:

Breakfast -
protein shake (2tbsp of heavy whipping cream, zero carb protein powder, 2tbsp peanut butter)
or
4 eggs + 1oz sharp cheddar

Lunch -
Salad (raw spinach/lettuce, blue cheese crumbles, olive oil, tuna/chicken)
or
Grilled Chicken w/.5oz parm cheese and hot sauce
or
Seared tuna steak

Dinner -
Chicken pan fried in peanut oil w/.5oz parm cheese and hot sauce (optional: Asparagus/Brussel Sprouts)
or
Pork Chops pan fried in peanut oil w/hot sauce (optional: Asparagus/Brussel Sprouts)
or
Ground Beef pan fried in peanut oil w/hot sauce (optional: Asparagus/Brussel Sprouts)
(Weekends)
Various Steaks and other fatty meats (optional: Asparagus/Brussel Sprouts)

Drinks: water, black coffee (sometimes creamer added, but also added to calorie/macro counts), diet Pepsi

All meals are portion controlled down to +/-.5oz with a food scale to meet my calorie counts.

[RaginCajun]

You are not eating enough

Go read the stickies and figure out what your TDEE is

[barack_obama]

You are not eating enough

Go read the stickies and figure out what your TDEE is

My TDEE is about 2600. My goal is to drop 2-3lbs a week. Thats a deficit of 7000-1000 calories.

I would agree with you if I was trying to get bigger.

[davidtheman100]

You don't wanna eat 1,000 cals under especially with a diet that would have you burn stored body fat even at your TDEE...You wanna spare muscle, don't you? I would say lose the weight a little slower and spare some bulk...Just my opinion

[barack_obama]

You don't wanna eat 1,000 cals under especially with a diet that would have you burn stored body fat even at your TDEE...You wanna spare muscle, don't you? I would say lose the weight a little slower and spare some bulk...Just my opinion

In all honesty, I've never had trouble putting on muscle or size. I've always had trouble keeping the fat off.

I've never tried dieting to the extreme level I'm doing right now. Even if I throw a few lbs of muscle down the tubes, I'm not too concerned. I might even fit into some XL shirts for work again if I could shrink my shoulders, back, and lats down a bit...heh

I am extremely sedentary and for the next few years I don't have much of an option to change this between my full time job(50-60hrs a week), school (PhD, every other hour), and new baby at home(wishing there were more hours). My only option is to control my weight loss through my diet or something else in my life needs to give.

The diet has been working exactly as I wanted up until the last 2 or 3 weeks. I'm not sure what has changed. I may try to bump my calories up for a couple weeks and see if anything changes. If not, then I'll drop back down.

The advice I've gotten so far is to increase calories. Anything else?

[novastepp]

X2 on keeping cals higher. Do not sacrifice muscle. Even if you can build it, dont waste it. Your body will adjust after a couple weeks and if you need to slowly reduce cals, you can at that point. Don't short change yourself.

[Splifton]

I've given up on having this arguement with anyone who makes the obnoxious baseless statements and sadly it all stems from unadulterated ignorance that they continue to foster themselves. For some reason a lot of physicians misinterpret the world ketosis as being directly linked to diabetic ketoacidosis, but they are completely obvious to the factually proven phenomenon that coincidentally shares a similar root word. Nutritional keto-adaptation or simply nutritional ketosis can be accurately measured via appropriate blood tests quantifying the most relevant ketone body, beta-hydroxyburtyrate. ( β-OHB)