I just passed the 6 week mark on the ketogenic diet, and I’m still feeling great with few issues. The last 2 weeks have been a bit different than the previous 4. It feels like my body is now on the other side of an “adjustment” of some kind, and I’m back to feeling like progress is occurring.

When I wrote about keto after 4 weeks, I mentioned I wanted to slow down a bit on the weight loss, as it was averaging over 6 pounds per month. The plan was to lower my output slightly and take in a few more calories so I’d get back to just 4 pounds per month.

I didn’t quite make it to the 2,500 calories of intake I’d be aiming for, landing at 2,400 on average. I did almost exactly reach the 3,000 in calories burnt. Overall, then, that would amount to 2.4 pounds lost during that time.

But that’s not what happened. Instead, I’m at 1.3 pounds lost. So much for the almost exact calories in vs. calories out formula I had going. And so much for the keto magic that explains it should be even better.

But there is one difference in the past 2 weeks. I started doing heavier resistance training in the past 2 weeks. Nothing huge. Just around 20 minutes per day twice a week. And I think this has caused an adjustment.

Last week especially, I didn’t feel quite as good as I had been. I had some gastrointestinal discomfort, felt a little bloated, and was probably retaining a bit more water. Maybe my body has figured out a way to store more glycogen to prepare for more resistance training. That makes the most sense to me, as an extra pound of water retained water would explain the difference in calorie expenditures.

Last week, I also felt a bit more hungry, and I even had a couple of staring contests with some chips. I was mostly able to avert my gaze, but I did have just a couple of chips, a few french fries, and one Valentine’s chocolate last week.

By last night, it felt as though the adjustment was over. My hunger was again way down yesterday, and I barely consumed 2,000 calories while burning up almost 3,300.

Today, I broke under 190 pounds for the first time, and I feel like it’s going to stick under that weight this week.

As mentioned, my plan was to start increasing my resistance training and also increase my protein intake. I started up with a protein powder with 24 grams of protein yesterday.

Over the next week or so, I’m hoping to “up” my protein percentage from 20-25% to 30% or more. I’ll be taking blood measurements for ketones and glucose starting tomorrow to see if there are any differences.

I am also liking the videos made by Thomas DeLauer, who takes a scientific approach to the ketogenic diet. This video, which says that bumping protein up and fat down has proven worthy of a try.

This has essentially been my plan when I started. Do keto to get smaller and then bump up the protein percentage while still maintaining the low carb approach. We’ll see how it works over the next couple of weeks!