Advice needed - ketogenic diet, bad results

[Lexx]

My stats:

Age 27, weight 276 (down from 300). I'm following a basic ketogenic diet regimen of approximately 1400 calories/day, trying to stick to a 3:1 to 4:1 fat - protein ratio. I'm consuming below 10 grams of carbs/day. I've got the ketosticks and have been in ketosis for 3 weeks now.

And my weight loss has plateaued and now i'm somehow *gaining* weight. Yesterday I went from 275.5 first thing in morning, to 276.1 first thing this morning. Yesterday's food intake was 4 hardboiled eggs spread out over course of day, 2 cups black coffee, almost enough water, then 30 minutes medium intensity elliptical cardio at gym (175 heartbeat for most of it) followed by half an hour in a 90 degree sauna. I actually stopped sweating in the sauna, and decided to get out then ahaha. Immediately after leaving the gym I consumed 200g of deli roast beef and 50g of deli kielbasa, with 3 or 4 bottles of water.

SOMEHOW I GAINED WEIGHT yesterday. Someone, please, explain this to me. My only guess is that somehow I was more dehydrated on the first day in the morning, and had less water weight compared to the next day. My roommate guesses that I've put my body into starvation mode...which still doesn't make sense, as I only ate about 1200 cals yesterday and burned 400 of them doing cardio, and even in starvation mode, I must've consumed about 800 calories just walking around yesterday. How have I gained weight from a negative net caloric intake?

I'm not demotivated by this, just frustrated. I'm going to try upping the caloric intake slightly to about 1800 and doing more at the gym and getting better hydration today and see what happens.

[dynamo]

water retention from the shitty choice of foods you have chosen.

[Lexx]

I was losing weight more or less consistently for a couple week eating mostly hot dogs, slim jims, bacon, eggs, etc. I've been trying to decrease the saturated fat / salt intake lately though. In ketosis I'm thirsty pretty much all the time and it's super easy to dehydrate. How do a few eggs and roast beef create water retention? No salt there.

[Lexx]

In case someone questions *why* I'm doing a ketosis based diet:
-it doesn't hurt my energy level & hunger like a more rational diet
-I've done it before, or a variation on it (Bernstein) and it worked. Dropped 45lbs in 10 weeks. Granted that was 8 years ago.
-My physical goal isn't strength; it's to have the endurance for 84 hour weeks of moderate physical labor. Shedding weight load should do more for that than building muscle. (When I reach a healthy bodyfat %, say 15%, I'll shift back to a more normal diet and a strength training regimen)

[bgoose99]

At your weight, I would not be concerned with a deviation of 0.6 pounds in a day. Keep track of your weight, and look for the trend, not the individual gains/losses.

[greemah]

At your weight if you have been eating 1400 calories a day for a while that is likely the problem. Bump your cals up to say 2300 or whatever for a week and see how you respond

Happened to me when I was dieting low calorie a while back so bumped up calories and my weight loss picked up again when I was expecting to put on fat)

[Behemoth]

Weigh ins will never be linear. Fluctuation is normal, you just have to observe the trend overtime. Fretting about a 0.6lb increase overnight is almost comical and is indicative of nothing out of the ordinary.

1400 calories is extremely low for your weight. It's not sustainable, you'll lose weight on it but you're going to rebound at some point.

[Invain]

Cals are way too low. Increase your fat intake.

[Allen Cress]

That is an extreme way to lose weight and one that WILL NOT serve your body. Too many times individuals focus on the immediate and the long term effects. 1400 cal is way to low. If you do not change your approach you could cause damage to your metabolic rate which could take a long time to fix.

Fat based diets are fine as long as its from quality sources and you have scheduled carb up days as well. Glycogen is way to important to not be included in anyones diet. Pure Keto diets are not good for overall health and that should be a main focus as well not just weight loss. Your body at this point is in survival mode and will start hording fat not burning it.