How Long Does a Keto Plateau Last?

Keep losing weight with keto

If you’ve done keto for a certain period of time, you may have noticed that you eventually stopped losing weight. 

This is because your metabolism has adapted to keto, so you stopped losing weight. 

But you might be wondering, how long does a keto plateau last? 

In this article I’ll give you the answer on exactly how long does a keto plateau last, and how to keep losing weight.

What Is Keto?

Keto is a diet that is high in fat, but very low in carbs. This lowers your insulin, putting you body into a state of ketosis. This helps you burn your own fat for fuel, making it much easier to lose weight.

A keto diet reduces your carbohydrate intake dramatically, usually down to less than 40 grams a day. 

The keto diet is designed to have an impact on your body composition by increasing your fat intake, while also reducing your carb intake. 

This means that your body can reach ketosis & start using its own fat for fuel when it sense that you’re eating less calories than normal.

What Is a Keto Plateau?

A keto plateau is when you’re doing keto, but you can’t seem to lose any more weight. Keto plateaus happen because your metabolism adapts to your new way of eating, so it decides to burn less calories each day. This causes you to lose less weight. A keto plateau can be frustrating, but it doesn’t have to be permanent.

You’ve been doing keto for a while, and you’re finally at a weight where you feel comfortable.

But now, you seem to be stuck, where you can’t seem to lose more weight no matter what you do. It’s annoying, right? 

This situation is very common, especially when you’re just starting out. 

There are a few things you can do to get yourself out of a keto plateau, but most of them include some form of fasting.

How Long Does a Keto Plateau Last?

A keto weight loss plateau will last forever until you make a change. That is because your metabolism has adapted to keto, so you must add some type of fasting on top of keto to keep losing weight.

Entering a state of ketosis is usually a rapid process, usually taking about 3–4 days for most people. 

But once you’re in a state of ketosis, it’s not clear for how long you’ll keep losing weight. 

However, if you do notice you stop losing weight, you must start fasting.

How to Keep Losing Weight on Keto

There are many different ways to keep losing weight on keto after a plateau, but the easiest way is to start fasting.

Intermittent Fasting + Keto

The most beginner type of fasting is intermittent fasting, a type of fasting where you eat for a certain period of time, but then don’t eat for the rest of the day. 

To simplify intermittent fasting, you just skip breakfast or dinner.

If you’ve stopped losing weight on keto, then intermittent fasting is probably the easiest fix.

Intermittent fasting helps you to eat less often, which lowers your insulin and reduces your overall calories throughout the day.

I personally lost around 50% of the weight I wanted to lose just doing keto alone. 

But, when I added intermittent fasting, I got to around 75% of my weight loss goal.

However, even if you do keto & intermittent fasting, you’ll hit another plateau because your metabolism will adapt again.

Then, you must progress to a more intense version of intermittent fasting, OMAD.

OMAD + Keto

OMAD is type of intermittent fasting where you eat one meal a day. It intensifies the benefits of intermittent fasting. OMAD helps lower your insulin, and helps you to eat less throughout the day, leading to amazing weight loss.

When I did keto & OMAD, I got to around 90% my weight loss goal. 

Just by doing keto, intermittent fasting, and then OMAD, you can lose most of the weight you need to lose. 

However, if you want to lose the final couple of pounds that don’t seem to come off with keto & OMAD, you must do prolonged dry fasting.

Prolonged Dry Fasting + OMAD + Keto

With prolonged dry fasting, you don’t eat or drink water for multiple days. Dry fasting works because your body can combine the hydrogen in your fat with the oxygen in the air to create H²O. This helps you to not only burn fat by not eating, but also by creating your own water.

This is how camels survive in the desert; with the fat humps in their back.

Autophagy

Prolonged dry fasting also activates autophagy, the way your body can recycle its old, useless cells. 

There’s a lot of research on the benefits of autophagy and how it increases your lifespan and helps fight cancer.

The quickest way to get into autophagy is by dry fasting, which has been said to be around 2x more effective than wet fasting.

Fat Loss

With prolonged dry fasting, you can expect to burn around a pound of fat a day and lose a pound or two of excess water.

Personally, I combined keto with OMAD for most days, but a couple days a week I would do prolonged dry fasting so I could lose a couple of pounds that didn’t go away with just keto & OMAD.

After doing keto, OMAD, and Prolonged dry fasting, I lost all the weight I wanted to lose.

To stay safe with prolonged dry fasting, always be cautious and progress the days slowly.

I’m not liable if an issue arises from dry fasting… but I am liable if you lose a bunch of weight & fight cancer!

Conclusion

A keto diet is a high-fat, very-low-carb diet, which forces your body into a state of ketosis. However, eventually you’ll experience a keto plateau. The good news is that if you add fasting on top of keto & progress, you can keep losing weight.

If you want to learn more about how to start keto & intermittent fasting, here’s my article answering all the questions people have asked me about keto & IF, & how to start today.