News
Top blogs
Podcast
Topics
Events“I’m still hungry on a keto diet!”
, medical content by Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt, MD
in Intermittent fasting, Keto, Low carb & high fat, Q&A, Weight loss 
Does MCT oil help with weight loss? Why are you still hungry on keto? And can you get too high ketones?
Get the answers in this week’s Q&A with Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt:
MCT oil to help weight loss?
I was diagnosed as pre-diabetic. I’m 55, 5’3″ (160 cm) but 135 lbs (61 kg). Have been on strict keto diet for 3½ weeks. Not counting carbs but avoiding all foods not on the low-carb spectrum. No weight loss yet! Should I take MCT oil?
Marilyn
No. MCT oil does not help with weight loss. If you want to speed things up I recommend adding intermittent fasting instead. Bonus: it’s free.
Best,
Andreas Eenfeldt
Hungry on keto
I have been on the ketogenic diet for almost nine months. I eat between 120-140 grams of fat, 84 g protein and 20-25 g of net carbs per day. I’m very hungry! My weight loss has stalled so I have attempted to reduce to 100 g but feel soooooo hungry! I started supplementing with B5.
What could this hunger mean? Any tips?
Giulia
Hi Giulia!
Hard to say without knowing more, like your height and weight. For some reason, it seems like your body feels you’ve reached your ideal body weight and it does not want to lose more. So perhaps you have? Or, if definitely not the case, there may be other hormonal issues involved. Also – if applicable – remember that women 40+ sometimes may have to accept that they don’t have the same body weight as when they were younger, for hormonal reasons. The alternative can be a need for starvation that is rarely sustainable or empowering.
For more options see our guides:
Best,
Andreas Eenfeldt
Is it possible to have your ketones go too high by IF and a keto diet?
I recently lost 40 lbs (18 kg) on keto and then it stalled out and now I am gaining weight doing the same keto diet. My ketones are consistently around 2.0. When I did three 24-hour fasting days consecutively, the ketones hit 4.9. Now I have gained 8 lbs (4 kg) back eating three times a day. Please help me figure this out. My blood work has been amazingly good, but I seem to still need insulin. What do I do? Do I fast?
Ron
Hi Ron!
As long as you feel fine, 4.9 in ketones should not be any cause for concern. Regarding fasting, we generally do not recommend fasting more than 24-48 hours. This can be highly effective and there is rarely a need for longer fasting than that.
Best,
Andreas Eenfeldt
More
Intermittent fasting for beginners
More questions and answers
Many more questions and answers:
Read all earlier questions and answers – and ask your own! – here:
Ask Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt about LCHF, diabetes and weight loss – for members (free trial available).
Through my exhaustive trials and tribulations I have found that if you loose a substantial amount of weight your body wants to protect itself, so, you stop loosing weight. In time your body kind of goes hey, no crisis here and the weight starts to disappear again. Along with this I have also found that I will level off, and then gain weight (muscle increase), then loose weight. If I may, measure by physical size and scale not just scale.
As for the hunger, my experience has been, and continues to be, if Im getting hungry I was not eating enough fat or protein. I would find new was to increase the fat as much as I could while only increasing the protein modestly.
For me this was done through fat loaded scrambled eggs:
2 eggs;
1/4 cup 35% cream;
1 cup cheese (cheddar Shredded);
2 TS of salted butter to cook in;
Salt, pepper and hot sauce to taste.
2 g of carbs
34.5 g of protein
83.5 g of fat
This always filled me up for hours and eventually was no longer needed as a boost. It is now Saturday or Sunday breakfast. Yes, it is a lot of dairy but I found that some time after removing breads and the like I had no issues with dairy.
Hope this helps or lends itself to an idea or two.
Before jumping to fasting, you may wish to try lowering your carb count first. You can try our free two week challenge to get a good idea of how to start with very low carbs. You can find some good additional tips here as well.
https://www.dietdoctor.com/how-to-lose-weight
I developed T2 diabetes on 14.5yrs of Atkins, switched to keto A1c started coming down BUT it was only when I reduced protein did all my blood glucose return to normal values and no more dawn phenomenon either.
For those of us that are hyperinsulinemic [causes hypoglycemia] aka insulin resistant then excess protein IS an issue converted to a process glucose in a process called gluconeogenesis.
I'm now the lowest weight I've been in 30 yrs [lower protein fixed my weight stall by controlling insulin response better]
Still 20lbs to go but weight be up and down 5lbs for the past 7 months. However as diabetes in remission and also reversed mild retinophy the health benefits far out weigh a number on the scale.