Do you have trouble losing weight? Or would you like to lose it
faster? Here are the 17 best tips
for you.
For some people losing all of their excess weight is easier said
than done. But there are many common errors people make. Correcting them can
restart or speed up your weight loss.
Based on a decade of experience treating obese patients, reading
studies, going to obesity conferences and discussing this topic with the
world’s biggest experts, here’s my best advice for maximizing your weight loss.
Start at the top of the list (most important) and go down as far
as you need. Perhaps you only need the first piece of advice?
1. Choose
a Low Carb Diet
If you want to lose weight you should start by avoiding sugar and
starch (like bread). This is an old idea: For 150 years or more there have been an infinite number of
weight loss diets based on eating less carbs. What’s new is that at least 17
modern scientific studies have proven that, yes, low
carb is the most effective way to lose weight.
Obviously
it’s still possible to lose weight on any diet – just eat less calories than
you burn, right? The problem with this simplistic advice is that it ignores the
elephant in the room: Hunger. Most people don’t like to “just eat less”, i.e.
being hungry forever. That’s dieting for masochists. Sooner or later a normal
person gives up and eats, hence the prevalence of “yo-yo dieting”.
The main advantage of low carb diets is that they cause you to want to eat less. Even without counting
calories most overweight people eat far fewer calories on low carb. Sugar and
starch may increase your hunger, avoiding it may decrease your appetite to an
adequate level. If your body wants to eat a suitable number of calories you
don’t need to bother counting them. Thus: Calories count, but you don’t
need to count them.
A 2012 study also showed that people on a low carb diet burned 300 more calories a day
– while resting ! According to one of the Harvard professors behind
the study this advantage “would
equal the number of calories typically burned in an hour of moderate-intensity
physical activity” . Imagine that: an entire bonus hour of exercise every
day, without actually doing it.
Bottom line: A low carb diet reduces your hunger and makes it
easier to eat less. And it might even increase your fat burning at rest. Study
after study show
that low carb is the smart way to lose weight and that it improves
important health markers .
How to do it: LCHF for beginners
Inspiration: Weight
loss stories on low carb
2. Eat
When Hungry
Don’t be hungry. The most common mistake when starting a low
carb diet: Reducing carb intake while still being afraid of fat. The problem is
that carbs and fat are the body’s two main energy sources. It needs at
least one.
Low carb AND low fat = starvation
Avoiding both carbs and fat results in hunger, cravings and
fatigue. Sooner or later people can’t stand it and give up. The solution is
to eat more natural fat until you feel satisfied. For
example:
·
Butter
·
Full-fat cream
·
Olive oil
·
Meat (including the fat)
·
Fatty fish
·
Bacon
·
Eggs
·
Coconut oil, etc.
Always eat enough, so that you feel satisfied,
especially in the beginning of the weight-loss process. Doing this on a
low carb diet means that the fat you eat will be burned as fuel by your body,
as your levels of the fat storing hormone insulin will be lowered. You’ll
become a fat burning machine. You’ll lose excess weight without hunger.
Do you still fear saturated fat? Don’t. The fear of saturated
fat is based on obsolete theories that have been proven incorrect by modern
science. Butter is fine food. However, feel free to eat mostly
unsaturated fat (e.g. olive oil, avocado, fatty fish) if you prefer. This could
be called a Mediterranean low carb diet and works great too .
Eating when hungry also implies something else: If
you’re not hungry you probably don’t need to eat yet.
When on a LCHF diet you can trust your feelings of hunger and satiety again.
Feel free to eat the number of times per day that works best for you.
Some people eat three times a day and occasionally snack in
between (note that frequent snacking could mean that you’d benefit from adding
fat to your meals, to increase satiety). Some people only eat once or
twice a day and never snack. Whatever works for you. Just eat when you’re
hungry.
3. Eat
Real Food
Another common mistake when eating a low carb diet is getting
fooled by the creative marketing of special “low carb” products. Remember:
An effective low carb diet for weight loss should be based on real
food, like this:
Real
food is what humans have been eating for thousands or (even better) millions of
years, e.g. meat, fish, vegetables, eggs, butter, olive oil, nuts etc.
If you want to lose weight you’d better avoid special “low carb”
products that are full of carbs. This should be obvious
but creative marketers are doing all they can to fool you (and get your money).
They will tell you that you can eat cookies, pasta, ice cream, bread and plenty
of chocolate on a low carb diet, as long as you buy their brand. They’re full
of it. Don’t be fooled.
Here
are three examples of what to avoid:
.
Atkins’
Fairy Tale Cookies
2.
Julian
Bakery’s High Carb Low Carb Bread
3.
The
Dreamfields Pasta Fraud
These
three companies are not unique. There are thousands of similar companies trying
to trick you into buying their “low carb” junk food, full of starch, sugar
alcohols, flour, sweeteners and strange additives. Two simple rules to avoid
this junk:
·
Don’t eat “low carb” versions of high carb stuff, like cookies,
bars, chocolate, bread, pasta or ice cream – unless you are SURE of the
ingredients (perhaps by making it yourself).
·
Avoid products with the words “net carbs” on them. That’s
usually just a way to fool you.
Focus
on eating good quality, minimally processed real food. Ideally the food you buy
shouldn’t even have a list of ingredients (or it should be very short).
4. Measure
Your Progress Wisely
Tracking
successful weight loss is sometimes trickier than you think. Focusing only on
weight and standing on the scale every day might be misleading, cause
unnecessary anxiety and undermine your motivation for no good reason.
The scale is not necessarily your friend. You may want to lose
fat – but the scale measures muscles, bone and internal organs as well. Gaining
muscle is a good thing. Thus weight or BMI are
imperfect ways to measure your progress. This is especially true if
you’re just coming off a long period of semi-starvation (calorie counting), as
your body may want to restore lost muscles etc. Starting weight training and
gaining muscle can also hide your fat loss.
Losing fat and gaining muscles is great progress, but you may
miss it if you only measure your weight. Thus it’s smart to also track the
disappearance of your belly fat, by measuring your waist
circumference.
Here’s
how to do it:
1.
Put the measuring tape around your middle, like in the picture
above, slightly above your belly button (to
be exact: at the midpoint between your lowest rib and the top of your hipbone,
at your side).
2.
Exhale and relax (don’t suck in your stomach).
3.
Make sure the measuring tape is snug, without compressing your
skin.
4.
Measure
Compare
your result to these recommendations:
I
recommend aiming for “excellent” but it’s not always realistic. Young people
can usually achieve it, but for some middle-aged or older women it may be a
major victory to get all the way to “decent”.
Measuring progress
I
suggest measuring your waist circumference and weight before starting and then
perhaps once a week or once a month. Write the results down so that you can
track your progress. If you want you can measure more areas: around the
buttocks, the chest, the arms, legs, etc.
Note
that your weight can fluctuate up and down several pounds from day to day,
depending on fluid balance and stomach contents: Don’t worry about short term
changes, instead follow the long-term trend.
If you can, try to check other important health
markers when starting out, like these:
·
Blood pressure
·
Blood sugar (fasting blood glucose and/or HbA1c)
·
Cholesterol profile (including HDL, triglycerides)
These markers are almost universally improved on a low carb
diet, even before major weight loss. Re-checking these health markers after a
few months can be great for your motivation as they’ll
usually show that you’re not just losing weight, you’re gaining
health too.
PS: Don’t have a measuring tape at home? Try these options:
·
Use any piece of string. Wrap the string around your waist and
clip off the extra on day one. This string could magically appear to become
longer and longer every week you wrap it around your waist.
·
Comparing how an old pair of jeans fit is also a decent option.
5. Be
Patient
It
usually takes years or decades to gain a lot of weight. Trying to lose it all
as quickly as possible by starving yourself rarely works well long-term, that’s
just the recipe for “yo-yo dieting”. To succeed you need something that works
long term.
What to aim for
It’s common to lose 2-6 pounds (1-3 kg) within the
first week on a strict low carb diet, and then on average about one
pound (0.5 kg) per week as
long as you have a lot of weight remaining to lose. This
translates into about 50 pounds (25 kilos) per year.
Every
5 pounds of fat loss roughly equals 1 inch lost around the waist (1 kilo = 1
cm).
Young
males sometimes lose weight quicker than this, perhaps twice as fast.
Post-menopausal women may lose it at a slightly slower pace. People eating a
very strict low carb diet may lose weight quicker, as well as those who
exercise a lot (a bonus). And if you have an enormous amount of excess weight
to lose you could start out much faster.
As
you get closer to your ideal weight the loss slows, until you stabilize at a
weight that your body feels is right. Hardly anyone gets underweight on a low
carb diet – as long as they eat when hungry.
Examples: Weight
loss stories.
Initial stalls
Are you coming off a period of semi-starvation (calorie
counting)? Focus on your waist circumference and health markers (see advice #4)
at first as it sometimes takes several weeks before weight loss is apparent.
Weight loss plateaus
Expect
weight loss plateaus: Days or weeks where nothing seems to happen on the scale.
Everybody gets them. Stay calm. Keep doing what you’re doing and eventually
things will start happening again (if not, check the other 16 tips).
How to lose weight forever
Losing a lot of weight long-term and keeping it off forever
won’t happen unless you change your habits forever. If
you lose weight and then return to living exactly the way did when you gained
weight, don’t be surprised when the excess weight returns. It will.
Maintaining weight loss requires long-term change and patience.
If this doesn’t seem possible for you, then you’re perhaps more interested
in one
of these magical diet scams.
Forget
quick fixes: If you lose some weight every month, eventually you’ll get
rid of all your excess weight. That’s inevitable progress. That’s what you
want.
PS: Long-term change is only hard in the beginning, especially
during the first couple of weeks. It’s like quitting smoking. Once
you develop new habits it becomes easier and easier every week. Eventually it
comes naturally.
How to lose weight faster
Keep
reading these tips!
6. Women:
Avoid Eating Fruit
This is a tip that goes for men as well, of course, but eating
fruit is a more common obstacle for women trying to lose weight.
This advice is controversial as fruit has an almost magical
health aura today. People may believe that fruit is nutritious
but unfortunately fruit contains a lot of sugar –
around 10% by weight (the rest is mostly water). Just taste an orange or a
grape. Sweet, right?
Five
servings of fruit per day is equivalent to the amount of sugar in 16 ounces of
soda (500 ml). Contrary to what many people believe the sugar is more or less
identical (about 50% glucose, 50% fructose).
Sugar from fruit can shut down fat burning.
This can increase your hunger and slow your weight loss. For best results
avoid fruit – or enjoy it occasionally as a treat.
Bottom line: Fruit is candy from nature.
7. Men:
Avoid Drinking Beer
This applies to women too, but men drink more beer on
average. Beer contains rapidly digested carbs that shut down fat
burning. That’s why beer is sometimes referred to as “liquid bread”.
There’s a good reason for the term “beer belly.”
Here are smarter
alcoholic options for losing weight:
·
Wine (red or dry white)
·
Dry champagne
·
Pure spirits like whiskey, cognac, vodka (avoid sweetened
cocktails – try vodka, soda, lime instead)
These
drinks hardly contain any sugar/carbohydrates so they’re better than beer.
However, large amounts of alcohol might slow weight loss somewhat, so
moderation is still a good idea.
8. Avoid
Artificial Sweeteners
Many
people replace sugar with artificial sweeteners in the belief that this will
reduce their calorie intake and cause weight loss. It sounds plausible. Several
studies, however, have failed to show any positive effect on weight loss by
consuming artificial sweeteners instead of plain sugar.
Instead, according to scientific studies, artificial
sweeteners can increase
appetite and maintain cravings for sweet food .
This could be because the body increases insulin secretion in
anticipation that the sugar will appear in the blood. When this doesn’t happen,
blood sugar drops and hunger increases. Whether this chain of events regularly
take place is somewhat unclear. Something odd happened when
I tested Pepsi Max though,
and there are well-designed studies showingincreased insulin when using
artificial sweeteners .
Furthermore,
artificial sweeteners can maintain an addiction to sweets and lead to snack cravings.
And the long term effects of consuming artificial sweeteners are unknown.
If
you’re having trouble losing weight I suggest that you completely avoid
sweeteners. As a bonus you’ll soon start to enjoy the natural sweetness of real
food, once you’re no longer adapted to the overpowering artificial sweetness of
junk food and “diet” sodas.
9. Review
Any Medications
Many prescription drugs can stall your weight loss. Discuss any
change in treatment with your doctor. Here are the worst three:
·
Insulin injections, especially
at higher doses,are probably the worst obstacle for weight loss. There are
three ways to reduce your need for insulin:
A. Eat less carbs,
which makes it a easier to lose weight. The less carbs you eat the less insulin
you need. Remember to lower your doses if you can.
B. If this
isn’t enough, treatment with Metformin tablets (at a dose of 2 grams – 3
grams/day) can decrease the need for insulin (at least for type 2 diabetics).
C. If this
is not enough to get off insulin (again, for type 2 diabetics) you could try
newer promising drugs like Victoza or Byetta. These reduce the need for insulin
and cause weight loss.
·
Other diabetes medications. Insulin-releasing tablets (e.g.
sulphonylureas) often lead to weight gain. These include: Minodiab, Euglucon,
Daonil, and Glibenclamide. Tablets like Avandia, Actos, Starlix and
NovoNorm also encourage weight gain. But not Metformin. The newer drugs Victoza
and Byetta (injectable) often lead to weight loss, but possible long-term side
effects are still unknown. More on diabetes
·
Cortisone as an oral drug is another common culprit
(e.g. Prednisolone). Cortisone often causes weight gain in the long run,
especially at higher doses (e.g. more than 5 mg Prednisolone per day).
Unfortunately cortisone is often an essential medicine for those who are
prescribed it, but the dose should be adjusted frequently so you don’t take
more than you need.Asthma inhalers and other local cortisone treatments, like
creams or nose sprays, hardly affect weight.
These
other medications can also cause problems:
·
Neuroleptics/antipsychotic
drugs, can often encourage weight gain. Especially newer drugs like
Zyprexa (Olanzapine).
·
Some antidepressant medications can cause weight gain, especially the
older tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) such as Tryptizol, Saroten, and
Clomipramine; as well as newer drugs such as Remeron (Mirtazapine). Lithium
(for manic-depressive disorder) often leads to weight gain. The most common
antidepressants known as SSRI’s (for example Citalopram and Sertraline) usually
don’t impact weight significantly. More on depression
·
Some contraceptives often contribute to slight weight gain,
especially those that contain only progesterone and no estrogen, for example
the mini-pill, the contraceptive injection, or a contraceptive implant. More on fertility
·
Blood pressure medicine, in
the form of beta blockers can cause weight gain. These drugs include: Seloken,
Metoprolol and Atenolol. More on high blood pressure
·
Epilepsy drugs may
cause weight gain (e.g. Carbamazepine and Valproate).
·
Allergy medicines called
antihistamines can cause weight gain, especially at high doses. Cortisone is
even worse (see above). More
on allergies
·
Antibiotics can
possibly lead to a temporary weight gain by disturbing the gut microbiota and
increasing the amount of energy we absorb from food. This is still
speculative for
humans but it’s another reason not to use antibiotics unless you truly need it.
10. Stress
less, sleep more
Have
you ever wished for more hours of sleep, and a less stressful life in general?
Most people have – and that can be bad news for their weight.
Chronic stress may increase levels of stress hormones such as
cortisol in your body. This can cause increased hunger and result in weight
gain. If you’re looking to lose weight, you should review possible ways to
decrease or better handle excessive stress in your life.
Although this often demands substantial changes, even altering small things – such
as posture – may
immediately affect your stress hormone levels, and perhaps your weight.
You should also make an effort to get enough good sleep,
preferably every night. Strive to wake up refreshed of your own
accord, independently of the alarm clock. If you’re the kind of person who
always gets brutally woken up by the alarm ringing, you might never be giving
your body adequate rest.
One
way to combat this is to go to bed early enough for your body to wake up
autonomously before the alarm clock goes off. Letting yourself get a good
night’s sleep is another way of reducing stress hormone levels.
Sleep
deprivation, on the other hand, comes hand in hand with sugar cravings. It also
has an adverse effect on self-discipline and makes it painfully easy to give in
to temptation (it’s no coincidence that induced sleep deprivation is a common
interrogation technique). Similarly, sleep deprivation weakens your resolve to
work out.
Sleep issues?
Do you have trouble sleeping even if there’s ample time for it?
Here are five tips from an expert :
1.
Stick to a certain bedtime every evening. In the long term, this will help the body
prepare for sleep at that time.
2.
No coffee after 2 pm. Just don’t – and remember that it takes
time for caffeine to leave the body.
3.
Limit your alcohol intake three hours before
bedtime. While
booze might make you woozy, it worsens the quality of sleep.
4.
Limit exercise in the four hours before
bedtime. Physical
activity can perk you up and make it difficult to get to sleep for several
hours afterwards.
5.
Get 15 minutes of sunlight every day. This is good for your circadian rhythm
(your “body clock”).
Finally,
make sure that your bedroom is dark enough, and stays at a pleasant
temperature. Sleep well!
Difficult, but worthwhile
Many
may find the above guidelines difficult to follow, perhaps because of a lack of
time (or the equivalent – small children!). But stressing less and sleeping
more doesn’t just feel good. It can also play a part in helping you get
thinner.
11. Eat
less dairy products and nuts
Can
one eat as much as one likes, and still lose weight? Yes, it tends to work just
fine with a low-carbohydrate diet, as appetite regulation happens effortlessly.
However,
despite the fact that a low-carbohydrate diet generally makes it easy to eat
just enough, there are foods classified as low carb which become a problem in
larger quantities. If you find yourself having a hard time losing weight on a
low carb diet, you could try to be more careful with:
·
Dairy products (yoghurt, cream,
cheese)
·
Nuts
Dairy products all contain a varying amount of lactose (the milk
sugar), which slows down weight loss. What’s more, part of the protein in milk
generates a significant insulinresponse, which can have the same effect.
Consequently, cutting back on dairy products may accelerate weight loss. This
applies especially to dairy products typically lacking in fat, such as regular
milk and different yoghurts, but be careful with full-fat dairy such as cream
and cheese all the same. And don’t forget whey protein powder, which is pure
milk protein.
Exempt from all these dairy product warnings is butter ,
which is almost pure fat. Butter may be consumed liberally as desired.
Nuts, which are the second food to watch, contain a fair amount
of carbohydrate, and it’s very easy to unwittingly scarf down large quantities. Cashew
nuts are
among the worst carb-wise – you’ll find that they contain around 20%
carbohydrate by weight. For someone following a strict LCHF diet with a 20
grams of carbs per day allowance, this means that consuming 100 grams (which
happens in a flash!) will have filled their daily quota. Peanuts tend
to be around 10-15% carbohydrate – not putting them in the clear either.
So, for those of you having trouble losing weight: use nuts
sparingly. When in a situation where nuts are an absolute must, know that the
most harmless ones carb-wise aremacadamia
nuts (usually
around 5% carbs), or Brazil
nuts (around
3%).
12.
Supplement vitamins and minerals
Your
body needs a certain amount of essential vitamins and minerals to function
properly. What happens when you don’t get enough of them? What happens when you
eat too little food, or when the food you eat isn’t sufficiently nutritious?
Perhaps our bodies catch on and reply by increasing hunger levels. After all –
if we eat more, we increase the chances of consuming enough of whatever
nutrient we are lacking.
On
the other hand, reliable access to vitamins and minerals could perhaps mean
decreased hunger levels and decreased cravings, thereby promoting weight loss.
The
above is, of course, speculation. But now there are well-performed studies
which suggest it might not be far from the truth.
Vitamin D
A lack of vitamin D is probably the most common deficiency in
northern countries such as Canada, or most of the US. Three recent studies
indicate that, when compared to a placebo, a vitamin D supplement can decrease
your fat weight or waist measurement [1 2 3 ].
In
one of the studies , 77 overweight or obese women received either a
supplement of 1000 units of vitamin D, or a placebo, every day for 3 months.
Those who took the
vitamin D supplement decreased their body fat by 2,7 kg (6
pounds) – significantly more than the placebo group, who hardly decreased their
fat weight at all.
Multivitamins
A
study from 2010 involved
around a hundred women with weight issues, separating them into three groups.
One group received a daily multivitamin supplement, the other a daily calcium
supplement, and the last group only a placebo. The study carried on for half a
year.
Unsurprisingly, the results showed that nothing had happened to
the weight of the women receiving calcium or the placebo. However, the group which took the
multivitamin lost more weight – about 3 kg more – and improved their
health markers. Among other things, their basal metabolic rate (the rate at
which the body burns calories when at rest) increased.
Furthermore, another earlier study found that subjects decreased hunger levels by
taking multivitamin supplements during starvation diets, compared to a
placebo.
Conclusion
Nutrient-dense,
good food is certainly the foundation of weight loss. But an adequate amount of
vitamin D can be difficult to ingest via food. In the case of a lack of sun
(such as during the darker months of autumn and winter), it’s wise to
supplement for multiple health reasons – and perhaps even for your weight.
If
you’re overweight and not entirely sure that your diet provides enough
nutrients, it may be worthwhile to take a multivitamin pill. Unfortunately,
they still contain only minimal doses of vitamin D, so you need both for the
full effect.
13.
Exercise smart
Do you wonder why this weight-loss tip doesn’t show up until
number 13 on the list? It’s because few things are so overrated for weight loss as exercise is.
Have
you ever watched “The Biggest Loser”? The participants take leave from their
jobs (and family) for months. They are allowed only small portions of food, and
work out as though it was their full-time job – 40 hours a week, sometimes
more. This method is clearly unsustainable for your average person in the long
run.
Just taking the stairs instead of the elevator, or getting off
the bus one stop earlier, isn’t going to change the numbers on your bathroom
scales. It’s
a myth. Sorry about that. Studies show that if you just start
exercising, you’re going to need at least one hour of tough workouts every
single day to noticeably lose weight.
Basically, the effect
of exercise on our weight is vastly overrated . That’s why
it’s only number 13 on this list. There are other things you need to take care
of first. It’s not a good idea to eat bad food, drink sugar water (so-called
“sports drinks”) or be on medications which force you to train for hours daily
just to compensate. Metaphorically that’s like digging a hole, into which you
put your ladder, on which you stand and paint the ground level windows of your
house.
Exercise
cannot compensate for other issues in your life. Those must be addressed first.
The good news
If, on the other hand, you’ve already taken care of steps 1-12, you
should have a rested and recharged body which is already happily burning fat.
In this case, increased activity will accelerate your weight loss, and act as
an nice bonus. You’ll be burning even more fat from the very first step.
For
example, you could take long walks (golf), cycle, dance, or play any sport
you’re happy and comfortable with.
Exercise also burns the body’s glycogen stores, which are
essentially carbohydrate. This means that after a workout, you can eat a little
more carbs than you otherwise can permit yourself, without negative effects on insulin or fat storage. Also, don’t forget that
the non-weight-related health effects of exercise are quite impressive.
Hormonal effects
For even more impressive effects on body composition: aim for
exercise forms which elicit a positive hormonal response. This means lifting
really heavy things (strength training), orinterval
training . Such exercise increases body levels of the sex hormone
testosterone (primarily in men) as well as growth hormone. Not only do greater
levels of these hormones increase your muscle mass, but they also decrease your
visceral fat (belly fat) in the long term.
As a
final bonus, exercise can both make you feel and look better.
What
kind of activity suits you?
14.
Achieve optimal ketosis
Warning: Not
recommended for type 1 diabetics, see below.
We’ve now arrived at tip number 14. If you’re still having
trouble losing weight, despite following the 13 pieces of advice listed above,
it might be a good idea to bring out the heavy artillery: optimal
ketosis. Many people stalling at weight plateaus while on a low carb diet
have found optimal ketosis helpful. It’s what can
melt the fat off once again .
So how does this work? A quick run-through: The first tip was to
eat low carb. This is because a low-carb diet lowers
your levels of the fat-storing hormone insulin,
allowing your fat deposits to shrink and release their stored energy. This
tends to cause you to want to consume less calories than you expend
– without hunger – and lose weight. Several of the tips mentioned above are
about fine-tuning your diet to better this effect.
How do you know you’re getting the maximum hormonal
impact from your low-carb diet? You do that by achieving what’s known as
“optimal ketosis”.
Ketosis
Ketosis
is a state at which the body has an extremely high fat-burning rate. Even the
brain runs on fat, via ketone bodies. These are energy molecules in the blood
(like blood sugar) which become fuel for our brains after being converted from
fat by the liver.
To
encourage ketone production, the amount of insulin in your bloodstream must be
low. The lower your insulin, the higher your ketone production. And when you
have a well-controlled, sufficiently large amount of ketones in your blood,
it’s basically proof that your insulin is very low – and therefore, that you’re
enjoying the maximum effect of your low-carbohydrate diet. That’s what’s called
optimal ketosis.
Measuring ketones
Today,
there are reasonably-priced gadgets available for measuring ketone levels at
home. One needle prick of the finger, and in just a few seconds you’ll know
your blood ketone level.
Blood
ketones are best measured on a fasted stomach in the morning (before breakfast,
that is). Here are a few pointers on how to interpret the result:
·
Below 0.5 mmol/L is not considered “ketosis”. At this level,
you’re far away from maximum fat-burning.
·
Between 0.5-1.5 mmol/L is light nutritional ketosis. You’ll be
getting a good effect on your weight, but not optimal.
·
Around 1.5 – 3 mmol/L is what’s called optimal ketosis and is
recommended for maximum weight loss.
·
Values of over 3 mmol/L aren’t neccessary. That is, they will achieve
neither better nor worse results than being at the 1.5-3 level. Higher values
can also sometimes mean that you’re not getting enough food. For type 1
diabetics, it can be caused by a severe lack of insulin, see below.
Ketones in urine
Ketone levels can also be measured in a more old-fashioned way,
with urine test sticks (sold prescription-free in pharmacies or on
Amazon ). Ketone sticks give less reliable results for several
reasons, and the above recommendations can’t be straightforwardly applied to
them. They are, however, much cheaper.
My personal experience
Feel
free to read my accounts of a two-month personal trial:
1.
Experiment:
Optimal ketosis for weight loss and increased performance
2.
Four
weeks of strict LCHF and Kenton monitoring
3.
Final
report: Two months of strict LCHF and ketone monitoring
Although
I was quite happy with my weight before these trials, they resulted in a
further loss of 4.5kgs (10 pounds) and 7cm (3 inches) around my waist – without
additional exercise or even the slightest resemblance of hunger.
How to achieve optimal
ketosis
Many
who firmly believe they are eating a strict low-carb diet are surprised when
they measure their blood ketones. They may be at around only 0.2 or 0.5 – quite
far off from the sweet spot! Why?
The
trick here is not only to avoid all obvious sourced of carbohydrate (sweets,
bread, spaghetti, rice, potatoes), but also to be careful with your protein
intake. If you eat large amounts of meat, eggs and the like, the excess protein
will converted into glucose in the body. Large amounts of protein can also
raise your insulin levels somewhat. This compromises optimal ketosis.
The secret to getting around this is usually to eat your fill
with more
fat. For example, if you have a bigger helping of herb butter to
your steak, you might not feel like having a second steak, and instead feel
satisfied after the first one.
A
popular trick people use to ingest more fat is “fat coffee” (sometimes called
“Magic Bullet Coffee” or MBC). It involves adding one tablespoon of butter and
one tablespoon of coconut oil to your (morning) coffee, and requires a food
blender for the right texture.
More
fat in your food will fill you up more. This will ensure you eat less protein,
and even less carbohydrate. Your insulin will drop and, hopefully, you’ll be
able to reach optimal ketosis. And that’s when many a stubborn weight plateau
is overcome.
If it doesn’t work
Being
in optimal ketosis for a prolonged period of time (say, a month) will ensure
that you experience the maximal hormonal effect from eating a low-carb diet. If
this doesn’t result in noticeable weight loss, you can be certain that too many
carbs are NOT part of your weight issue and not the obstacle to your weight
loss. There are, in fact, other causes of obesity and being overweight. The
next three tips in this series might help you.
Try it
Order a ketone meter online and start measuring. There are a few
different models, take a look at this
one and this
one .
More
Watch my video interview with the American doctor Peter Attia,
on a strictly ketogenic low-carb diet: Very
Low Carb Performance
A word of warning
If you have type
1 diabetes, you should not follow the above advice on optimal ketosis – it
may be risky. If you have ketones in your blood at all, you must be sure that
your blood sugar levels are normal. If they are, you’re in normal ketosis –
just like the ketosis of healthy people who stick to a strict low carb diet.
High blood sugar levels coupled with high blood ketones, on the
other hand, will mean that you have a pathologically low level of insulin –
something non-diabetics do not suffer from. This can lead to ketoacidosis – a
potentially life-threatening condition. If this happens, you’ll need to inject
more insulin; if you’re at all unsure of what to do, contact a medical
professional. Coveting really high blood ketones for weight control is not
worth the risk for type 1 diabetics.
15. Get
Your Hormones Checked
So
you’ve followed the previous tips, implemented major lifestyle changes and
established that neither medication nor vitamin deficiency is an issue. You’ve
even tried being in optimal ketosis for a while (ensuring low insulin levels).
And you still can’t hit the normal weight mark?
If
this applies to you, it’s high time to consider the possibility that hormonal
imbalances are the cause of your troubles. There are three common problem
areas:
1.
Thyroid hormone
2.
Sex hormones
3.
Stress hormones
Thyroid hormone
Some
people, especially women, suffer decreased metabolism as a result of thyroid
hormone deficiency – hypothyroidism. Common symptoms are:
·
Fatigue
·
Cold intolerance
·
Constipation
·
Dry skin
·
Weight gain
In
these cases, weight gain resulting from decreased metabolism usually do not
exceed fifteen pounds.
Your
doctor can easily arrange for you to take a blood test to measure the
concentration of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH). If the test comes back and
everything looks good, your thyroid gland is probably fine. For a more exact
diagnosis, you can ask them to measure the actual levels of thyroid hormone in
the blood (T3 and T4).
Two
ways to avoid becoming deficient in thyroid hormone:
1.
Make sure you consume enough iodine, which is a building block
of thyroid hormone. Good sources are fish, shellfish and iodised salt (or sea
salt).
2.
Very low levels of thyroid hormone usually indicate an
autoimmune reaction to the thyroid gland itself. This means you’ll have to take
thyroid hormone supplements orally, usually the stable form T4 (Levaxin), which
your doctor can prescribe for you. Your body will transform this into the
active T3 hormone when necessary. The supplement dose should be adjusted so
that you reach normal hormone levels (TSH, T3, T4) and sufficiently alleviate
symptoms – though a few people feel best when keeping TSH slightly below
normal.
Some
people feel better supplementing the already active T3 (sometimes prepared from
pig thyroid glands), as it can give a stronger effect than the T4 hormone, but
its effect is often harder to control. Swedish healthcare rarely prescribes or
offers such T3 treatment, as it often lacks advantages and may pose a risk when
doses are high for an extended period of time.
“Hypothyroidism
Type 2″
Some
alternative health coaches will diagnose you with the condition “hypothyroidism
type 2″ if you’re experiencing symptoms of fatigue etc., despite normal blood
levels of thyroid hormones, and will recommend supplementation anyway. Be
skeptical of this. You’ll likely end up trying to mask other health issues
(i.e. the real causes of your symptoms) by slathering your system with
overdoses of thyroid hormone.
Of
course, some people will certainly feel more lively and alert (at least in the
short term) running on an overdose of thyroid hormone. On the other hand, many
people feel more lively and energetic when using amphetamine, too. That doesn’t
mean their fatigue was caused by a lack of amphetamine!
Sex hormones
Sex
hormones also affect your weight:
Women: Women
can suffer from the endocrine disorder PCOS – polycystic ovarian syndrome –
which elevates testosterone and insulin levels. This can mean weight gain and
menstrual disorders (very common), infertility, acne and male pattern hair
growth (such as facial hair). A low-carbohydrate diet is a good treatment for this. More
on PCOS.
During
menopause, a woman’s level of the female sex hormone estrogen drops. This often
causes some weight gain, especially around the gut (so-called central obesity).
Any excess weight gained after menopause will tend to be less femininely
proportioned, less curvy.
Men: From
middle age and onwards, men experience gradually declining levels of the male
sex hormone testosterone. This leads to slight weight gain, also typically
around the gut, and decreased muscle mass.
What
can you do about sex hormones?
Testosterone deficiency can be at least partially treated
naturally by engaging in smart exercise routines, conscious
body language and supplementing
vitamin D.
Of
course, you can also affect testosterone levels by getting your doctor to
prescribe a testosterone supplement (a blood test will confirm any deficiency).
Women can use estrogen supplementation for climacteric problems.
It’s
important you take into account, however, that supplementation of testosterone
or estrogen for years on end, in doses that are abnormally large for your age,
will increase the risk of prostate cancer (in men) and breast cancer (in
women).
It
may be wise to accept that you don’t (and shouldn’t!) have the body of a
20-year-old when you’re several times that age. A better option might be to try
and focus on a healthy lifestyle instead, and to be as happy and grateful as
you can for the body you have.
Stress hormone
The final possible culprit behind stubborn weight issues may be
the stress hormone, cortisol. Too much cortisol will increase hunger levels,
bringing along subsequent weight gain. The most common cause of elevated
cortisol is chronic stress and lack
of sleep (seetip #10), or cortisone medication (tip #9).
It’s a good idea to try your utmost to do something about this.
In rare and extreme cases, you could be dealing with a specific
kind of tumour that drives cortisol production. The condition is called Cushing’s
syndrome . If you suspect you’re suffering from this, consult your
doctor and they will run the appropriate tests.
