1. You’re Still Eating Too Many Carbs!
When people are told to go on a low-carb diet in order to lose weight, there is a probably a good chance that have been eating a ton of carbs daily.
For them, switching to somewhere between 100 and 150 grams of carbs a day may seem like a radical change. But for the people that need to lose a lot of weight, they need to trigger ketosis in order to start seeing significant results.
For that to happen they need to go below 50 grams a day[1]. Once in this state your body will start using fat as the primary fuel source, at this point you will start burning your fat reserves at a rapid rate.
2. You’re Still Afraid of Fat
When you embark on a low-carb diet, it is imperative that you embrace the fat. Going low-carb/low-fat is a recipe for disaster. The natives would call this “rabbit starvation ” it was when their access to fatty animals was limited and they had to live off of the lean meat of rabbits, making protein their primary fuel source[2].
Which is what will happen to you if you decide to limit carbs and fat. Fat is good for you, good fat that is. Stay away from junky sources, and look for organic, grass-fed, pastured, unrefined, and natural sources. I know this is hard to believe after years of doctors telling you that fat is bad, but all signs point to them being wrong.
3. You Need A Little Patience
Sometimes we can just be impatient. For some people on a low-carb diet they will continue to see the same numbers on a scale and think they are not losing any weight. And technically, they’re not.
What is happening is that we are losing fat and gaining muscle simultaneously, especially for the ones that decide to exercise in tandem with the diet.
This is called body re-composition, and it’s a good thing for your weight to remain steady when this is the case, because muscle is denser than fat[3].
So instead of using the scale as your guide, use your mirror. You can even take body fat measurements if you choose, there are many methods available.
4. You’re Stressed and Not Getting Enough Sleep
One of the harder things for people to see is the effect our hormones have on our weight. A lot of us are under chronic stress. Just living in a modern society causes low levels of cortisol to be released into our blood daily[4].
If it gets high enough it will lead to stress eating and de-rail our diet plans. Getting adequate sleep is important too. By not doing so, you limit the release of beneficial hormones at night, this can affect your overall weight..
5. Some Foods You’re Eating Are Messing You Up
Even at times when we are very faithful to our new low-carb diet, we can still make mistakes that are hard to see. One of those would be continuing to still eat foods with a high glycemic index[5].
Although this group mostly contains high-carb items, that is not always the case. One of these exceptions is dairy. Butter is Ok, but limit anything else milk based because they may be packing extra sugar that you don’t need.
Fruit is another, even though it has moderate carbs, people still think it is a health food they can eat a ton of, not true, and juicing it is way worse. One that may be a little more obvious would be beans and root vegetables, there still are quite a few people who don’t realize this.
sources:
- [1] https://eatingacademy.com/nutrition/ketosis-advantaged-or-misunderstood-state-part-i
- [2] https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/25268/0000711.pdf?sequence=1
- [3] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/muscle-versus-fat/
- [4] https://www.bmj.com/content/332/7540/521
- [5] https://www.health.harvard.edu/glycemic