Why You Might Be Gaining Weight On Keto

12 min readJul 27, 2021

Anymore, people just want to know what the best diet is to lose weight to look and feel better. As of the last few years, the ketogenic (keto) diet has become one of the most popular diets around the world. Although it does have an array of benefits, the majority of people on the keto diet only care about it doing one thing: losing weight. However, many have experienced the opposite of the ketogenic diet. If you gain weight while “dieting,” what should you do?

Even on a diet like keto, it is possible to experience weight gain rather than weight loss. This can happen for a variety of reasons like eating too many calories, not exercising enough, stress, genetics, and more. If you start gaining weight, it’s a good idea to track your calories and exercise as a good starting point.

If you happen to notice weight gain while on the ketogenic diet, just breathe and know there are things that can be done to help correct. There are a handful of variables that can cause someone to gain weight while doing keto, but sometimes it’s simply making sure you’re following it properly, moving enough, and your body actually does ok with it. Continue reading to see how you can prevent weight gain on the ketogenic diet!

What is Keto?

In order to understand how we can properly adhere to (and manipulate when necessary) the keto diet, it’s important to know what it is and how it works.

The keto diet consists mainly of proteins and fats with a very minimal intake of carbohydrates, typically ranging between 5% — 10% of total daily calories. Since an entire macronutrient is essentially being removed, then someone on keto will need to increase their protein and fat intake according to their body type and lifestyle to make up for the lost calories.

Benefits

The reason the keto diet is so attractive to many people is the fact that there has been a lot of research and evidence to support the claims of increased overall health by switching to keto. Through studies, there have been endless amounts of positive impacts on people then went on the keto diet:

So if the keto diet can provide all these amazing benefits, one of which including weight loss, why is it that some people end up gaining weight while following the diet accurately? Below we will go through a variety of factors of what is driving the weight gain on keto, but also on how to reverse and course correct.

Reasons You’re Gaining Weight

There are times that people jump into the keto diet expecting the amazing results they’ve been reading all about, only to end up gaining weight. Unfortunately, that is a potential consequence of not just keto, but almost any new diet. Depending on your genetics, body’s tolerances, lifestyle, and overall response to certain foods, your body may have initial adverse reactions to what you had in mind.

Too Many Calories

It may sound a bit surprising, but it is very easy for someone to consume too many calories while on a “diet.” It is especially easy to do on the ketogenic diet, which is why people need to be mindful of the quality and quantity of foods they consume when trying out a new diet.

Fat Intake

The keto diet requires almost no carbs so that your body can get into ketosis, which is a state the body gets in with a high fat, low carb diet that resorts to targeting fat for fuel rather than glucose.

However, the high fat part of the diet is what can get a lot of people in trouble and see more weight gain. When we’re talking about calories, protein and carbohydrates each have 4 calories per gram. Fat has 9 calories per gram.

So when you are increasing your consumption of such a high calorie food already, it is imperative that you be mindful of how many more calories you are adding to your daily intake. That heaping spoonful of peanut butter that we all like to call a single serving…that usually ends up being about 2 to 3 servings, adding a quick 400–600 calories within a matter of seconds.

A higher fat intake can help keep you fuller longer, which also aids in weight loss, but it’s easy to still achieve a caloric surplus with only a few high fat foods that most of us would very likely deem as “healthy.”

Not Enough Exercise

There is a lot of good that can be done with proper nutrition alone, but when coupled with exercise, that is when there are even better results with someone’s overall health. It may take a few days and even up to a week or two for ketosis to settle in, so your energy may not be the best upfront. When your body reaches ketosis, it will have switched energy sources from glucose to fat due to being starved of carbohydrates.

When this happens, you’ll have more energy and should be incorporating regular exercise (ideal combination of resistance and endurance training) to your new lifestyle. When you improve your nutrition as well as add consistent exercise, the benefits are profound on weight loss, muscle gain, sleep, libido, cognitive enhancement, energy levels, and overall health.

High Stress

It’s no surprise that stress can drive many issues in the body, both internal and external. The same is true for weight loss, muscle gain, and overall physical fitness and performance. Starting a new diet can be stressful, but what other types of stressors might be at play in your daily life and are you able to reduce some of them?

With a new diet, you’re going to naturally be a little stressed, especially if it’s something you’ve never tried before. Pair that with any work or personal life stressors, the random things that happen throughout the day and the list can go on. Add exercise on top of that (yes it is “good stress” but is stress nonetheless) and it’s no wonder your body won’t respond well.

The goal is to manage stress as best you can in order to see and feel the physical changes you are going for. Sleep is another big piece of the puzzle, so if sleep is off then most other things will be too. If you get a solid 7 to 8 hours of sleep, then you will be able to better handle other daily stressors, which can lead to overall less stress and the changes you want to see on the keto diet.

Genetics

Whether we want to admit it or not, genetics play a huge part in anyone’s health and fitness journey. Some people can look at a set of weights and grow muscle, while others have to work twice as hard. Some can eat whatever they want and still maintain a great physique, others can smell cake and put on 10 pounds.

Depending on your genetic makeup, you might not do well with almost 75% of your daily calories coming from fat and may need to drop it to 50% or 60%. A little protein may go a long way with someone while another needs half of their daily calories from protein.

Not Actually in Ketosis

A common error that can happen while running the ketogenic diet is not actually getting into ketosis. On average, a person consuming less than roughly 20g to 50g of carbs daily for a consistent week should be into ketosis by then, sometimes by day 3 or 4. Actually being in ketosis is a critical element to ensuring the keto diet is effective.

Tools to Help Measure Ketone Levels

Luckily, there are tools and physical signs that can help you determine if you have achieved full ketosis or not. If not, you’ll want to double check how many carbs you’re actually consuming per day (and yes, vegetables count).

There are a few decent physical aids to help you know if you are in ketosis or not:

Urine strips: Urine strips are fairly affordable and very easy to use. The only issue with the strips is they might not provide as accurate of a reading as the other two methods. The urine strips measure any leftover ketones that the body is getting rid of, so if you aren’t that deep into ketosis, it might not register that you are at all.
Ketone breath analyzer: A ketone breath analyzer is an easy, non-invasive way to tell if you are in ketosis. All you have to do is blow into the nozzle for 3 to 5 seconds, and it can pick up any ketones on your breath. It will pick up what are known as acetones, which are water soluble ketones. The more you have, the further you are into ketosis. Some of these analyzers can also measure metabolism and body fat percentage.

If you are serious about diving into the keto diet and want to get the full experience of being in ketosis, then it might not be a bad idea to invest in one of the above tools to help ensure you are getting your body to the level it needs to in order to benefit from the diet.

Physical Signs You Are in Ketosis

If you aren’t ready to invest in an actual tool to measure your ketone levels or if you just want to try things out first to see if you can get there on your own, there are a handful of physical signs that may be good indicators that you have achieved ketosis:

Fewer hunger or sugar cravings: If you have achieved full ketosis, then your body has switched to burning fat for fuel rather than glucose. Since the body’s normal fuel comes from carbohydrates (sugar), it will crave that less the further you get into ketosis.
More energy and increased focus: Research has shown that going with a higher fat and lower carb diet has yielded cognitive enhancements due to fat being a very efficient fuel for the body, particularly the brain.
Maintaining a healthy weight: When your body has adjusted to the keto diet, you should be able to achieve and maintain a healthy weight without too much drastic fluctuation.

If you are new to keto or to specific dieting in general, it can seem a bit daunting just to make sure you follow the diet properly. It will take some time to understand what the goal is and how to go about it so it best fits your personal lifestyle, but once you get into it, things will become a lot easier fairly quick.

How to Lose Weight on Keto

Most people that jump on the keto diet are in it for the weight loss that they’ve heard all about. Although it can be a side effect of keto, you should also feel good and perform well throughout your everyday life while eating keto. However, not many will complain by figuring out how to get healthier while also losing weight in a safe manner.

Losing weight on keto comes off as something extremely easy to do. Not that it is extremely difficult either, but it does take some planning and strategy to ensure that the approach to weight loss is going to be not only safe, but successful.

Track Calories and Activity

One way to ensure you are following the keto diet properly is to track your daily calories. This might not be forever, but it should be long enough for you to understand what and how you should eat according to your personal body makeup and lifestyle, and simply what you will be able to be consistent with.

Tracking is not all that exciting, but it is a great idea to implement once in a while if you think you might be eating too much or too little, or if something is causing you to experience some negative biofeedback.

My Fitness Pal

One of the easiest ways to track your food is by using a simple mobile app called ‘My Fitness Pal.’ With this app, you just have to take a picture of the barcode of the food you are eating and it will auto populate with all the macro and micro nutrients, as well as the serving size and calorie count.

Some things you might have to give a rough estimate, like if you go out to eat, but overall it is pretty good about finding something pretty close to what you ate even if you type it in manually. You can even enter your own recipes, and it does get a little daunting, but then you can easily enter that meal again next time you have it and all the numbers are already accounted for.

Tracking Activity

In order to accurately track your overall activity, that may get a bit tougher if you don’t have something like an Apple Watch or WHOOP to monitor all of your total movement. If not, your phone can measure at least your steps, and most resistance and endurance sessions don’t get higher than 800 calories or so.

When you have a good understanding of how much you are moving, and thus how many calories you are burning throughout a given day, then it is easier to see what might be needed to ensure weight loss with your keto journey.

Make Sure You’re Eating Enough

It sounds backwards to make sure you are eating enough food while on a diet, but it is crucial that you give the body what it needs so it can function properly, particularly on a metabolic level. If you do not give the body the proper fuel it needs to keep making progress, then it will hold on to what it already has for dear life.

In order to lose weight, one must be in a caloric deficit. Sounds simple enough, right? Eat less, move more, and ta-da you lose all the unwanted weight. Close, but not quite that easy all the time.

For example, if someone is already in a caloric deficit and has plateaued then there are one of two things going on:

They need to go further into the deficit (considering that person has the calories to give)
They need to eat a little more food for the body to correct

What happens is when the body is depleted to a certain point, it goes into starvation mode. When that occurs, the body will hold onto anything it can (primarily fat) because it doesn’t know when it might be fed more, and thus the weight loss halts.

More times than not, when people in a major deficit add more calories, they tend to see those last few stubborn pounds drop. When we think of our bodies as any other machine that needs all the proper resources to do the job(s) we are asking it to do, then it makes sense that more fuel helps us to keep pushing forward and hit the desired weight loss goal.

Increase Movement

As mentioned before, increasing movement can be a game changer when it comes to losing weight on the ketogenic diet. We discussed the fact that once you are in full ketosis, you should have increased energy levels. If you aren’t moving that much and are seemingly following the diet properly, it might be worth it to give it a few more days or invest in a device to measure ketone levels and ensure you hit ketosis.

However, when you feel energy levels back to normal, it would be wise to increase your daily activity while keeping calories the same. Losing weight may or may not come with a side consequence of a bit of hunger, but you also should not be to the point of starving.

If you see a plateau with the pounds, start by increasing your activity level before reducing your calories.

Get Off Keto

No, this is not a joke, but nor is it an attempt to bash keto or deter people from trying it out. It can be a great tool when utilized properly for specific goals, and has worked out for millions of people showing very promising and positive results to peoples’ overall health. However, not everyone is going to respond the most ideal way to keto. The same can be said for any and all niche diets.

As with most things dealing with nutrition, the answer is usually, “It depends.” There are a lot of variables to take into account when someone is going to try a new diet:

Are they extremely active?
What is their body type like?
What is their current height, weight, age, and gender?
Have they tried other diets? If so, which ones? Which ones worked and which ones didn’t?
How does their body respond to certain foods?
Does the person have issues with too much fat, carbs, or protein?
Are there any intolerances or allergies that might inhibit properly following certain parts of the diet?

Everyone likes to ask, “What’s the best diet?” And unfortunately, the answer is the same in that, “it depends.” Everyone is different in so many ways and that will all determine the potential success or failure of the chosen diet, so all the factors need to be taken into account before blindly diving into a new plan.

Final Thoughts

Food can be a maze to try to navigate. Even those within the health and fitness space, particularly nutrition, are constantly learning and receiving new information and studies on this effect and that effect of a particular diet or bodily response(s). Information is forever changing and evolving, so staying up to date with everything can be daunting, especially for someone just looking to lose a little bit of weight and try a new diet.

At the end of the day, if a diet looks appealing to you, you can stay consistent with it, and you feel good with it, then that is going to be the best diet for you. If you’re gaining weight on keto however, try some of the troubleshoots above and get back on track!