In a bit of a conundrum:
I started the keto diet on November 10th in an attempt to help me get past a plateau I had been at for several months (I couldn't dip below 260 pounds; my starting weight was ~308). I lost roughly 10-12 pounds in first 3.5-4 weeks, but then didn't lose a single pound for the next
four weeks thereafter. Mind you, I was tracking all my calories in MyFitnessPal. Based on the Keto Calculator (
http://keto-calculator.ankerl.com/), my macros on a 20% caloric deficit should be:
2650 calories
~180 g protein
~185 g fat
I adhered to this very strictly, yet didn't drop a pound in nearly 4 weeks. On keto (which by itself is supposed to make you lose weight). On a 20% caloric deficit. It was very frustrating. My friend told me to just cut down to ~2100 calories/day and see what happens, but I feel this is much too little for me (I'm 6'1"/260 and lift weights 4x/week; my BMR alone is like 2150 calories). I may drop to 2250 cal/day, but I wanted to know if anyone ever plateaued so quickly, and plateaued for 3-4 weeks, on a keto diet while running a high caloric deficit. Basically the only weight I lost over 8 weeks on a keto diet/20% deficit seems to have been water weight. How is that possible?
My friend says I may have overestimated my activity level, which is possible, but even when I select "sedentary," and vary my estimated body fat % by a few points, I still get 2500-2650 cal/day as my requirement. I'm just baffled is all. Obviously I can just keep cutting calories, but 2650 is already a 20% deficit - 2100 cal/day would be like a
40% deficit. Just seems extreme to me to see any results. I'm not down to my last 10-15 pounds or anything - my lean weight is probably around 205-210, so I have ~50 pounds to lose.