Why Are You Not Losing Weight On A Low-Carb Diet?

Eager to shed some pounds? Jump into the universe of **Keto, LCHF, Paleo,** and **Atkins** diets. They’re super popular, with celebrities, experts, and studies all giving them the big thumbs up. But, have you ever scratched your head wondering why the pounds don’t vanish even when you’re cutting down on carbs like a pro? It’s a common head-scratcher when trying to lose weight on these diets. Fear not, we’ve uncovered 17 hidden reasons that might be putting a stop sign on your weight loss journey. We’ll also share smart tips to kickstart the scale into high gear ASAP. If dropping weight is your goal, you’ll really want to hang tight. Why stick with us? Discovering these hidden traps could totally turn your weight loss story around!

1. You Don’t Have A Realistic Goal

Do you want to lose weight quickly? Well, most of the times, that doesn’t work. You need to be realistic when it comes to losing weight. Gradual weight loss is healthy, effective, and sustainable as compared to quick weight loss. So, instead of setting an unrealistic goal, set a realistic one. Smaller goals are more achievable, and you will not let yourself down. Losing between 0.5-1.4 pounds per week is realistic (1).

2. You Do Not Realize That You Are Losing Weight

Sometimes, the weighing scale is not enough to know if you are losing weight. You need to assess your body fat percent because excess fat is what you want to get rid of. In fact, if you are exercising regularly, it is quite possible that you are building muscle mass, and it is this muscle mass that shows up as “weight” on the weighing scale. Moreover, an unhealthy body image can make you feel that you are not losing weight, whereas, in reality, you have lost the flab and look toned up.

3. You Are Eating Too Many Nuts

It’s easy to go nuts over nuts. They are loaded with healthy fats, vitamins, proteins, and minerals but are also high in calories. Since they are small, crunchy, tasty, and a good option for a snack, it is easy to go overboard with nuts and consume a lot of them without feeling too full. So, keep track of the amount of nuts you are consuming per day

4. You’re Feeling Stressed

It isn’t always enough to just eat healthy and exercise. Taking care of your mental health is an important step in healthy weight loss.

Stress keeps the body in a state of “fight or flight” and increases the amount of stress hormones, like cortisol, in the blood.

Having chronically elevated cortisol levels can increase feelings of hunger and cravings for unhealthy foods (2).

Try meditation, deep breathing exercises, journaling, and other ways to manage stress.

5. You Are Not Cutting Back On Carbs Enough

You might assume that you are consuming the right amount of carbs, but the truth is some are more sensitive to carbs than the others. Moreover, fruits and veggies also contain good carbs, and you must limit consuming them to prevent your weight loss from plateauing. Start by consuming less than 50 grams of carbs per day, and when your weight loss stalls again, lower it to 20 grams of carbs per day. Make sure you eat healthy fats, protein, good carbs, and take vitamin and mineral supplements.

6. You Are Consuming Too Much Dairy

Dairy is a low carb food that can cause problems for some people.

Dairy products are often high in protein. Protein, like carbs, can raise insulin levels, which encourages your body to store energy.

The amino acid composition of dairy protein makes it very good at spiking insulin. In fact, dairy proteins can spike insulin as much as white bread (3, 4).

Even if you feel your body tolerates dairy well, eating dairy often can negatively affect your metabolism. This can stop you from getting the full benefits of a low carb diet.

You might see benefits from avoiding milk and cutting back on the cheese, yogurt, and cream. Low protein, low lactose butter doesn’t usually spike insulin.

7. You’re Not Eating Nutritional Food

A low carb diet is about more than just eating fewer carbs. For healthy weight loss, people need to replace those carbs with whole, nutritious foods.

Avoid all processed low carb products. Whole foods have far greater health benefits.

Replacing some carbs with lean meats, fish, eggs, vegetables, and healthy fats can help you lose weight.

Eating occasional treats is fine, but eating treats every day even if they contain healthy ingredients, like paleo cookies can slow down or prevent weight loss.

Healthy fats are an important part of a healthy diet. Avocado and walnuts are high in heathy fats.

Trying to cut back on carbs and fat at the same time can make you feel overly hungry.

Eating a diet with nothing but protein can be bad for your health.

A low carb, high fat, and moderate protein diet can bring your body into a state of ketosis, in which it burns fat for energy.

8. You Are Not Maintaining the Macros Percentage

When you are on a low-carb diet, it is very important that you stick to the macros percentage. Diets like Keto and HFLC are created in a way to induce ketosis in the body and use fat as the source of energy instead of glucose, which you get from sugar, carbs, and protein. If you do not adhere to the fat:carbs:protein ratio, you will not get the desired results. So, adhere to the diet chart and see a miracle happen!

9. You Are Cheating Often

Ah! We all cheat while we are on a “strict” diet, and to be honest, it takes a lot of willpower to go back to the low-carb diet again. Many dieters cheat too often – some do it consciously, and some unknowingly. The best way to prevent yourself from cheating too often is to note down what you are eating throughout the day. No matter how small the quantity is, noting it down will give you a clear idea of how many extra calories you are consuming. Try using a food tracker app or simply writing it down in a journal.

10. You Are Eating Too Many Fruits

Fruits are good, but they also contain fruit sugar. Fruits such as mango, grapes, and watermelon have a high Glycemic Index and can lead to a spike in blood sugar. Control your portions when it comes to eating fruits and choose low-GI fruits like apple, kiwi, grapefruit, orange, blueberry, and strawberry when you are on a low-carb diet.

11. You’re Not Exercising Effectively

Exercise is critical for both physical and mental health.

Exercise can help you to lose weight by:

• Improving your metabolic health
• Increasing your muscle mass
• Improving your mood

It’s important to do the right kind of exercise.

A mixture of cardio and muscle building can be an effective combination:

• Weightlifting: Lifting weights can greatly improve hormone levels and increase muscle mass, which may help you lose fat and keep it off over the long term if you maintain your exercise regime.
• Interval Training: High intensity intervals is an excellent form of cardio that boosts your metabolism and raises your levels of human growth hormone (HGH).
• Low Intensity: Being consistently active and doing some low intensity exercise each day, including walking, can make a big difference.

12. You Are Blindly Following Someone Else’s Diet Chart

This is one of the most common reasons for not losing weight. If you follow a diet that has worked for your friend and you expect it to work for you in the same fashion, you will be disappointed. Your body type is different, your metabolic rate is different, and so are your medical issues and height/age/activity levels. So, talk to a Registered Dietitian to know which low-carb diet to follow and customize the macros ratio so that it works for you.

13. You Are Not Exercising Enough

If you want to be fit, you cannot afford to be lazy. It’s time to cage the Garfield in you. If you have just started working out, start by exercising 3-4 hours per week, for 1 hour daily. As your stamina increases, do a mix of cardio, HIIT, and strength training for 5-6 hours per week. The more you train to be fit, the more addicted you will be to working out and keeping yourself fit.

14. You Sit Most of the Time

And you thought standing up was a punishment in school! In fact, sitting for long hours is a punishment for your body. Being inactive or sitting all the time in the office, coffee, restaurants, or during travel can make you gain flab and put you at the risk of diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and even cancer. Try moving around every one hour to keep your metabolism active and the extra weight away.

15. A Medical Condition May Be Preventing Weight Loss

Many hormonal conditions can cause weight gain or prevent weight loss, particularly hypothyroidism.

If you suspect an underlying medical condition, see your healthcare provider. Explain that you’re having problems losing weight and that you want to rule out any medical issues.

Certain medications can stimulate weight gain. Check the list of side effects to see if weight gain is on the list. You may be able to take an alternative drug that doesn’t have this side effect.

16. You’re Eating Very Frequent Meals

Many people in health and fitness circles believe that everyone should be eating many, small meals throughout the day.

Researchers have studied this thoroughly and haven’t confirmed the benefits of frequent, smaller meals (5, 6).

Many dietitians believe it’s natural for humans to eat fewer meals per day and sometimes go long periods without food.

Some people use intermittent fasting, an eating pattern where you only eat within a certain time window. This may be an 8-hour window each day or occasional 24-hour fasts.

Intermittent fasting can help some people lose weight. However, this eating pattern isn’t for everyone, and restricting food can trigger negative emotions in many people, especially with a history of disordered eating.

To stay safe, talk to your healthcare provider before trying fasting.

17. You Are Not Sleeping Enough

Not getting enough sleep can also hinder your weight loss. It raises cortisol levels, which causes inflammation and leads to inflammation-induced weight gain. So, you should sleep for at least 7 hours. Also, go to bed by 10:30 p.m. so that you wake up early, workout, and have low-carb breakfast before heading out.

18. You Are Consuming Invisible Calories

Additives, preservatives, and artificial sugar are all harmful to your health. Many low-carb packaged foods contain invisible calories and hinder weight loss. It is best to avoid all packaged foods and instead opt for some homemade low-carb recipes. You will lose weight, feel better, and save a lot of money.

19. You Are Starving Yourself

Starving yourself is not the way to lose weight. You will end up gaining weight instead of losing it. Eat 5-6 times a day and drink water 20 minutes before each meal.

20. You’re Taking Too Much Caffeine

Caffeine is a stimulant which increases your adrenaline. It stimulates the liver to release glucose from its glycogen stores. What happens next? This new high level of glucose causes insulin to be released again, fat gets stored and fat burning turns off. If weight loss has stopped, can’t sleep, too stressed, stop the caffeine. You don’t have to give up your coffee, but just has a decaffeinated coffee and see how you feel.

21. Not Achieving Ketosis

Usually, when a person does not lose weight on the keto diet, it is because they have not achieved ketosis.

The most common reason for not getting into ketosis is not cutting back enough on carbs. According to a 2019 article on the ketogenic diet, carbohydrates should represent only 5–10% of a person’s calorie intake (7).

Specifically, most keto diets require a person to cut down to between 20 and 50 grams of carbs each day.

Sometimes, a person may feel as though they have drastically reduced their carb intake. However, they may still be eating enough carbs for the body to produce energy from glucose, and this will prevent the body from burning fat.

A person who is not losing weight on the keto diet may benefit from purchasing a home testing kit. These kits contain test strips that check for the presence of ketones in the urine. A positive result indicates that the body is in ketosis.

Another option is to use a small machine called a ketone breath analyzer that detects ketones in the breath.

Home testing can be a helpful way for people to ensure that they are actually entering ketosis. People can use this information to make dietary changes that will help them achieve their weight loss goals.

22. Eating Maltitol

Sugar alcohols are typically a good option for people following the keto diet. They provide sweetness without increasing net carbs in the body. However, not all sugar alcohols are alike.

Maltitol is a sugar alcohol that is not keto friendly. Although maltitol is technically a low glycemic index (GI) sugar, it still affects blood sugar levels. This effect is enough to prevent a person from entering ketosis.

23. Drinking Alcohol

Many alcoholic drinks, including wine and beer, are high in carbohydrates. Most forms of the ketone diet do not allow these types of alcohol.

Hard alcohols, such as gin and vodka, are lower in carbohydrates, meaning that they are generally acceptable on a keto diet. However, these drinks are very calorie dense. As such, even these options can prevent weight loss.

Drinking alcohol is an easy way to increase calorie intake without providing the body with nutrients.

24. Not Counting Calories

A person who eats more calories than their body can burn is unlikely to lose weight. People who consume too many calories may gain weight, even if they are in a state of ketosis.

High fat foods tend to contain many more calories than foods that are high in carbohydrates and proteins. It is, therefore, important that people keep track of the number of calories that they consume.

Sticking to a balanced meal plan can help a person work toward their ideal weight.

25. You Are Close to Your Target Weight

Also keep in mind that losing fat gets more difficult as you approach your ideal weight – weight loss is not a linear process. In my own experience, if you need to lose a relatively small amount of weight like 5-10 pounds and your body weight is already at a healthy “natural” level, you will find it hard to lose more weight.

Helpful Tips 

The following tips may help a person avoid common dieting mistakes so that they can lose weight on the keto diet:

• Keeping a food journal: By keeping track of what that they consume throughout the day, a person can often identify any foods or eating patterns — such as snacking — that may be preventing weight loss.
• Drinking plenty of water: Drinking plenty of water helps fill the stomach, and this may help keep a person from overeating or snacking too much throughout the day.
• Chewing sugarless gum: Chewing sugarless gum containing erythritol or stevia may help stave off cravings for sweet foods. It may also help minimize unnecessary snacking between meals.
• Getting plenty of sleep: Sleep helps regulate the body’s normal cycles, and it may also help reduce stress levels.

Key Takeaway

Achieving and maintaining weight loss can be a difficult task for many people. The keto diet is strict, and it requires people to adhere to it closely to achieve results.

However, with some minor adjustments, most people can reach ketosis and start to work toward their weight loss goals.

Anyone who is unable to lose weight despite following the keto diet and exercising regularly may wish to consider speaking to a doctor or dietitian.

References