12 Keto Weight Loss Tips for the Morbidly Obese!

I’ve spent some time over the last few weeks after finally reaching my weight loss goal of 200 lbs thinking about the lessons I’ve learned over the last 3 or 4 years.  If I’m being honest, it wasn’t all sunshine and roses as the weight fell off.  There was some hard work involved!

But you might be surprised to learn that most of the really difficult things I had to deal with weren’t sugar cravings or sticking to a schedule or really anything that most people would associate with a weight loss routine.  No, the hardest work I had to do was between my ears.  It was discovering all the mindset issues that allowed me to get to 400 lbs and then slowly but surely unpacking those issues and reversing them.

I’m not going to lie, if you found this post because you are morbidly obese and ready to make a change, you are in for a journey.  It’s going to be long and difficult and you are going to learn a lot about who you are and how you’ve chosen to live your life up to this point.  Some of it won’t be pretty.  You will feel shame over your weight, anger that you’ve let it get so far out of hand and fear that you might not be able to fix the problems and get your health back.

I want you to know here at the outset that you can do this.  You’ve lived with this weight for far too long and now it’s time to get rid of it.  If you need help, I would love to help.  If you join our ketogenic meal plan group I will send you a weekly ketogenic meal plan and you will join a community of other people who are dropping the weight and regaining their health with a ketogenic diet.  You will also get access to nightly live videos that will teach you about the ketogenic diet as well as offer accountability and encouragement.  Click here to join today!

Without further ado, here are 12 Keto Weight Loss Tips for the Morbidly Obese

Your Ideas About How to Lose Weight Are Probably Wrong

This was a difficult lesson to learn because I was so cock-sure in the beginning that all I had to do to lose weight was eat less and exercise more.  Turns out that is a great way to make yourself hungry, not lose weight!  It probably took me a year of studying weight loss, listening to podcasts, and reading medical literature, books and articles before I felt like I had a handle on what I was doing.  In fact I can track my continuing education to my slide from no sugar, to no sugars or grains, to a ketogenic diet to where I am now which is a ketogenic diet with a healthy dose of intermittent fasting.  You can read more about my story here if interested but my point is to not be so proud that you aren’t willing to learn.  If you are morbidly obese, chances are you don’t know the first thing about health and if you are laboring under the illusion that you do, that’s not going to end well.  You can find out more about the basics of the ketogenic diet here.

I Know You’re Tired, Keep Going

Yeah I know, you are tired.  You want ice cream, or cake, or cookies, or whatever your carb of choice was.  You are struggling with sugar cravings and possibly lack of energy as your body switches over from burning sugar to burning fat for fuel.  This new way of eating is tough in the beginning because all change is tough but please hear me, it’s better than the heart attack, stroke, Type 2 Diabetes, or cancer that you are on track for now.  This diet works when you make good decisions today.  Don’t worry about tomorrow for now, just focus on today and your next meal.  You lose the weight by eating one low carb, high fat meal at a time so that’s all you need to do.  I promise that there will be a day when it will feel weird to not eat this way and it will happen automatically but for now, just keep going.

You Aren’t Hungry, You Are Bored

You hunger signals are totally messed up.  I know, you are thinking “I know exactly when I’m hungry.  In fact I’m hungry right now!” But hunger is controlled by a team of hormones, among which are Ghrelin and Leptin.  Ghrelin stimulates hunger and Leptin suppresses it.  The thing is, if you are morbidly obese, you are almost certainly Leptin resistant so you have trouble picking up the hormonal signaling that tells you that you are full.  Over time, you begin to confuse the body’s other signals for hunger.  So if you are deficient in salt, you mistake it for hunger.  Or if you are thirsty and a little dehydrated, you mistake it for hunger.  But the most common one is that you are just bored and eating seems like a great way to pass the time.  The awesome thing here is that hunger passes.  Drink some water, go for a walk, play with the dog or do almost anything for five or ten minutes and the feeling subsides.  Over time you will become more leptin sensitive and have a better feeling for when you are actually hungry.

In the Beginning, Track Your Food

It’s helpful to track your food intake at the beginning so you can start to see exactly how much you are eating.  You can do this in an app or take pics of your food but you want to be able to review what you are eating after the fact.  You will start to see patterns and notice that when you eat certain foods, you lose weight faster or not as fast.  You can learn that you are sensitive to certain foods and may have to cut out things like dairy or nightshades.  Or you may just see that you are eating too much entirely.  Whatever you learn it will only help you along in your journey.

It Helps to Plan Your Food

Something else you can do is instead of tracking food after the fact, start planning your food in advance.  This way you aren’t having to decide in the moment what you are about to put in your mouth.  You can also sign up here to have a ketogenic meal plan mailed to you each week.

Stop Eating Out

Restaurants don’t care one bit about your weight loss goals.  They don’t care about your commitment to cut carbs or PUFAs out of your diet.  They just want to put the most food in front of you they can for cheapest cost and if that means using poor quality ingredients, so be it.  The truth is, you really have no idea what is in the food at restaurants.  I remember I was at a very nice steakhouse one time and asked for olive oil and vinegar for my salad.  I was informed that they didn’t have olive oil, just cottonseed oil.  Gross!  What else were they using this industrial byproduct oil on?  Probably cooking the steaks in it.  You just don’t know so stay out!

Keto is a Set of Parameters, Make Changes That Work for You Within Those Parameters

You don’t have to do it exactly the way I do it.  You might be more insulin sensitive than me and can eat a few more carbs than me and still lose weight.  Great!  You might not be able to tolerate cheese.  Great!  The important thing is that you figure out what works for you and do what it takes to meet your goals.

Change is Hard, Being Fat is Harder

I know at the beginning it can seem like you are giving up a lot.  No bread?  But how will I get food into my mouth?  Like the fork hasn’t been invented or something.  Any change is hard but this is why you have to be crystal clear what your “why” is.  You need to know exactly what it is that is motivating you to lose weight and keep that front and center.  For me it was my crazy high blood pressure and the knowledge that it killed 2 of my grandparents and eventually my father.  You need to keep that motivating factor front and center in your mind to get you through the early days of the diet.  Remember that you are overcoming years of bad habits and it’s going to take some willpower to set new habits over old but when you do and you start seeing results, nothing will be able to stop you.

You Are Going to Blow It, Keep Going

You blew it, it’s going to happen.  You are going to get into the car one day and feel compelled to pick up some Ben & Jerry’s or a Coke.  You will be at a restaurant and absent-mindedly eat an entire loaf of bread or a bowl of chips.  Just get back on the horse and keep going.  The past is the past and you are looking towards the future.

You Will Learn More From the Screw Ups Than From Weeks of Eating Right

I can easily tell you that I was a paragon of willpower for the entire 3+ years I did this but that isn’t true.  I screwed up but I made sure to learn from my mistakes.  What did I learn?  I learned not to allow the bowl of chips and salsa to even be on the table when I ate Mexican food.  I learned to stay out of the frozen food aisle with the ice cream on it.  I learned I am prone to eat whatever is in front of me so I needed to be aware of what was in front of me.  I learned my insulin resistance decreased over time and weight bearing exercise helped correct most issues that arose from “slip-ups”.  I’m grateful for my mistakes as they helped me become the man I am today.  I’m certainly not suggesting that you purposely blow it but when you do, learn from it.

Don’t Concern Yourself With How Other People Are Losing Weight

I used to get so frustrated when I would see other people losing weight faster than me.  People would post on message boards how they were keto for like 10 minutes and lost 50 pounds.  It took me over 3 years to get where I wanted to go!  It was slow and nothing ever seemed to happen as fast for me as it did for other people.  I had to put that aside and just do me.  You will have to do the same.  Focus on your own wins and losses and don’t worry about what is going on for other people

Support Can Be Hard to Find, Keep Going

This way of eating is much easier if you have people in your corner that understand what you are doing and the science behind it, especially if they are doing it with you.  Unfortunately if you start telling friends and family what you are doing, you are far more likely to see a look of horror cross their face before they inform you that eating fat will make your heart burst out of chest.  If you want a community of people that understand what you are trying to accomplish, join our ketogenic training facebook group.  It’s got over 1000 people in there who are all taking charge of their health and losing weight on the ketogenic diet.  You will get the support you need as well as informational videos every night explaining one part of the ketogenic diet as well as weekly ketogenic meal plans to make your journey to health easier.

Have questions?  Reach out here or chat with me in the little chat box in the corner.  I’d love to hear from you!  You can also leave me a comment below.

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12 Keto Weight Loss Tips for the Morbidly Obese!

31 thoughts on “12 Keto Weight Loss Tips for the Morbidly Obese!

  • i am 252 and 5’4 at 67- hubby 224 5’10 at 69 – we were SKINNY in the 60’s when we were dating.. so we call this WOE eating 60’s style – we did not grow up with processed foods, chips, sodas… so we are used to eating veges etc.. but wow do chips and sodas get ahold of you!!! He is type 2 and has 2 stents… this is day 19 for us- he was on 72 units of insulin.. today NONE- we wont way again (2-26-18) til April…. I dont want to be a scale junkie…

  • Aaron, What are your thoughts on this? I’ve been doing keto for 2 months. I lost 7 lbs and then stopped losing. I am not cheating, eating clean, eating around 20-30 carbs per day. My meals contain meat, eggs, and veggies. I can’t figure out what i’m doing wrong. I did Atkins years ago and lost 20 lbs in no time. But i can’t figure out the difference with what i’m doing now versus then. Please help???

    • It’s really hard to say because I don’t know you but there are some common issues that you might not be aware of. #1 Snacking, especially nuts. Calorie dense foods like nuts, even though they are technically keto can stop weight loss. Remember that even though you might only be eating keto foods, your body will use the energy from that food before any stored body fat. This is why Intermittent Fasting works so well on keto because your body can easily move fat out of body fat for energy. #2 Water. Your body needs water to break down fat for fuel so if you are dehydrated, weight loss is slow. More info on that here. https://mysugarfreejourney.com/keto-tip-5-reasons-you-need-to-drink-more-water-on-a-ketogenic-diet/ #3 Stress or sleep. High cortisol levels slow weight loss so make sure you are doing what you can to improve in these areas. #4 Maybe your body just doesn’t want to lose weight right now. Sometimes your body becomes more focused bon healing in other areas before losing weight. This happened to me many times along my journey as I would stall but I would see improvements in my asthma, overall body composition or other things I dealt with. Let me know if this helps!

  • I’m super excited to read this. I’ve raised my son sugar free because I’m so very aware of the dangers in this addiction. Yet here I am, 10 min after finishing dinner dreaming of ice cream.
    I’m really looking forward to cutting the sugar.
    Because tonight …. I’ve chosen not to have it !

    One small victory at a time

  • Is it safe for someone who is over 250+ lbs to jump into Keto? I took baby steps. I gave up gluten first and found it helped my aching joints to give it up. Once I was comfortable with that, I gave up grains. then I went sugar free. it took me 9 months to get to that point. I started tracking my food using a keto app and aimed at keeping my carbs under 100 per day, then under 50, now I am trying to get to 20-30 carbs per day. I do not think I could have just jumped into it head first. I am struggling now- I am under 50 carbs per day, and have figured out how to hit my protein and fat levels, but it sure is not easy.

    I lost 15 lbs my first 2 weeks eating under 50 carbs and hitting my fat and protein macros. but then I went away for 4 days and ate out at restaurants, I thought i stayed in the range, but I gained 11lbs in 4 days. I could not believe it. I learned from that mistake, next time, I will rent a place with a kitchen and bring food with me. My question to you is did you just jump into Keto or did you lose weight first and then choose keto?

    • You can read my weight loss story at MySugarFreeJourney.com/200lbs but I went from low carb to keto after about 18 months and 100 lbs so I was keto at about 300 lbs and have kept most of it off.

  • Hey! Thanks for making this page! I am trying to figure out if I need to eat so much fat when I have a lot of excess fat? I am 5’7 and weigh 308. I started keto almost a month ago and have lossed 25 lbs. I was eating fat bombs and trying my best to eat 70% fat 20% protein and 10% carbs which was always around 20 carbs or less. I want to keep losing but I don’t want to slow it down by eating fat that may not be necessary. I hope you can help! Thanks and congratulations on your weight loss!

    • Great question and one that isn’t discussed enough. In fact I should probably write an entire post about it. The following is my opinion based on my experience losing 200 lbs and I know that there are other people that feel differently. My opinion is if you are morbidly obese, you need to keep your carbs below 20g and then just concentrate on eating fatty meats and veggies with cheese and/or butter to satiation and not worry about ratios for a while. I’ve seen people drink fatty coffees and fat bombs every day and wonder why their weight loss is so slow. Why would your body used stored fat for fuel if there is a ready supply of fat constantly coming in? This is another reason why I’m a big believer in Intermittent Fasting because it gives you a large window where your body has to used stored fat for fuel. In short, eat to satiation and keep carbs low and I bet you will see faster success.

  • Health wise..is the Keto Diet good for me meaning its not going to lead me to having any heart issues or high cholesterol? Anything that can endanger me while trying keto to lose weight. I’m 5’1 and weigh over 250lbs and would love to reach my goal of 150lbs for my 42nd bday within a year.

    • 100 lbs in a year is a lot but it can be done. I would read Cholesterol Clarity if you are concerned but the short version is that you will probably see an increase in total cholesterol for the first few months on Keto but it is nothing to be worried about. The cholesterol that actually damages your heart is the small dense particles of LDL that have been glycated by sugar. Once you stop eating simple carbs you will make much less small dense LDL and more large fluffy LDL that is good for you. Plus once your blood sugar levels go down, you will have much less glycated particles. Add to this the drop in inflammation that comes with the keto diet and you’ve got a recipe for a very protected heart. Keep Calm and Keto On!

      • Thank you for replying back to me. I will definitely look into that about the cholesterol. I will also see my primary doctor for a full physical before starting the keto diet. My sugar level is pretty good, it ranges from 75-114 before and after meals. Do you recommend any keto menus or cookbook to follow for meal prepping?

  • Hello Aarn, I found your story today while Googling Keto diets. I wasn’t sure it was safe or recommended for the morbidly obese when I read how it helped you so well. Thank you for posting the story in its full glory (mistakes and all lol) and for creating a Facebook for people like to me to get support and encouragement!
    Jennifer

  • Hi,
    I’m a female and 330 pounds and 5’8. I have an EXTREMELY SWEET tooth and would rather eat dessert for breakfast lunch and dinner than other foods. Is Keto good for me? I’m also a very picky eater (hate avocados, mushrooms and eggs, and allergic to nuts) how do I even do the Keto well. Tried this past week and kept giving in to y sweet cravings even though I have cooked and planned all my Keto meals.

    • I would say keto will be very good for you. After you remove the sugar from your diet, your taste buds will change and the sweet cravings will lessen. I used to struggle with them as well and now not so much. Commit to doing it for 60 day s and see what happens. You can join our FaceBook group for support as well. MySugarFreeJourney.com/28Day

  • I am obese and have been on the Keto diet for about 1 month. I cut out sugar and all sweets. No rice, pasta, noodles no beans. No fruit. Just meat and veggies. The 70 fat, 20 protein, and 5 carb percentages. Do I need so much fat in my diet if Amy body already has plenty of fat? If I don’t need the 70 percent fat should my protein remain the same ? If not what should it be?

    • You are asking a very common question. Eat fat to satiation. In other words, don’t worry as much about hitting those marks, just make sure your meals are mostly fat and then stop when you are full and don’t eat again until you are hungry. Once your hormones normalize, hunger will fade because you will actually be taking energy out of your own fat stores Come on over to the Facebook group for more support! MySugarFreeJourney.com/28day

  • I am over 500lbs and tried Keto in the past but didn’t follow through. I am determined to get this weight off. I have been on chronic steroids for over 10 years and have had extreme weight gain. I am so happy to have found this sight as I thought that eating fat makes you fat, until your website and testimony really made a difference for me. Thank you so much for your inspiration. I know it will be a long journey for me.

  • Hello, I’ve been reading up on this diet. I’m 5’10 and near 400lbs, I’m 36 and I want to live to be 40. I’m so glad I came across this article, it’s very inspiring.

    • We have the same story! Go to MySugarFreeJourney.com/200lbs and read how I lost the weight and then go to MySugarFreeJourney.com/28Day and join the FB group. I would love to keep in touch and answer any questions you might have. You can do it!

  • Hi, started keto 4 days ago and I’m inspired by you! I’m 52 and am 400lbs. Tried so many diets never lost significant weight and always gained it back! I work during the day leave 5am no breakfast and general grab a cookie or crackers here and there ,but to busy to stop for a meal. When I get home usually very hungry grab a donut or have toast while drinking coffee and preparing dinner. Usually meat potatoes and vegetables. Then later ice cream or chips and dips. I have not really been a big eater my portion sizes are large but not an entire pizza like most people think obese people eat! Ice cream never more than 3 scoops. Don’t eat a whole bag of chips cereal bowl full. With that said eating this way has kept me at this size since high school..Hope this works!!!

    • Our stories are very similar! It sounds like you need to get the junk food away from you. Clean out your pantries and do whatever you need to do to stay away from the carbage foods. Eat real food, mostly red meat and stay full until your body adapts to this way of eating. You can join the FB support group at MySugarFreeJourney.com/28day also. Good luck with your journey!

  • It is right that for morbidly obese the better way to go is count calories in keto??? Am in keto but I count calories and my fat intake is less than what any keto app suggest. And also doing 16/8 IF…

    • I don’t think so. Counting calories usually leads to less fat because fat is more calorically dense. I would just eat to satiation and worry about calories much later if needed.

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