I’ve talked a little bit in Week 1 of this blog about the fact that I’ve gained back about 10 pounds that I had originally lost on keto. This has happened in the last 6 months or so. It’s not a big deal. But that’s easy to say, and more difficult to accept in real life. I decided to do two weeks of counting calories on keto to see if that would make a difference. Just track what I was taking in, to feel more confident that I wouldn’t gain back all 65 pounds I had lost. After last week, I realized I might not be eating enough, so I decided to try increasing calories on keto.
Lessoned Learned from Week 1 of Counting Calories
The first week of tracking my calories, I simply tracked what I was eating and recorded it. This exercise showed me that I was actually eating fewer calories than was recommended. I was averaging about 1500 calories a day, which is below the recommended 1800 minimum for women my age. Much of the research I’ve read indicates that this will put your body into panic mode, and you start storing more fat because it feels you are going to starve.
Increasing Calories on Keto this Week
This week, my calories are carbs were:
- Sunday – 1603 calories, 19 grams carbs
- Monday – 2171 calories, 11 grams carbs
- Tuesday – 1610 calories, 16 grams carbs
- Wednesday – 2108 calories, 21 grams carbs
- Thursday – 1608 calories, 17 grams of carbs
- Friday – 1909 calories, 18 grams of carbs
- Saturday – 1792 calories, 16 grams of carbs
The grand total average calories was about 1800 calories a day.
A Summary of the Week
You’ll notice there were a couple of days that I went over 2000 calories and one day that I also went over 20 grams of carbs. On the Monday, we went out for supper and while I didn’t have a lot of carbs, I did eat a lot of food.
Then, on Wednesday, we had pizza and I ate 4 pieces! I was hungry, and tired, and stressed, so I over-indulged. But, it was fine because the rest of the day I was on track, so one meal didn’t hijack my entire week.
Again, I don’t worry about a gram of two of carbs at this point in my journey. It’s been 2 years, so I’m not likely to get kicked out of ketosis. Even if I do get kicked out, my body will readjust and quickly get me back in. We all slip up once in a while, but truly I slipped up by over-eating a keto pizza, so it was totally fine.
If you slip up and eat 4 pieces of a regular pizza, you are still okay. Like we have said before, keto is a lifestyle – not a diet. We are in this for the long term and if you have a meal that is not keto and get kicked out of ketosis, that’s ok too. You’ll get back in and you’ll keep on going.
How I Felt Increasing Calories on Keto
Overall, I felt much better this week. While it felt like a lot of food I was taking in, I certainly did have more energy. I also ate more foods from home. That means more planning and more cooking. Here’s the thing – if you want to continue to maintain a lower weight or keep losing weight, you do have to put in the work. It’s unfortunate, but true. I was getting a little lazy. I am going to keep tracking my calories and carbs for a bit. It really helped me to be aware of what I was putting into my body.
So, what was the final result? My weight was 175 pounds. That’s down 4 pounds from when I started this experiment. Wow. This means that I ate more good food, felt better, and lost weight in the process. That seems like a win, win, win!
Wendy
