Would like to get others thoughts on my situation. Basically, I've done keto 4 separate times over a 8 year period - each time between 3 to 5 month durations. The first 3 times I've done it, I've lost a lot of weight. I note everything from diet, weight, measurements meticously and on average, I'll go down from 220 lbs to 190 lbs within first 3 months of keto (this was the weight loss the first 3 times I did keto). In the past, after I've gotten off keto I'll go back up in weight over 9 months to a year to 220 lbs and this time around I wanted to do it longer term and make it a longer lasting lifestyle change.
However, this round of keto, it's been 3 months and I've only gone down from 220 lbs to 210 lbs!! Now obviously thats a very big difference from the 190 lbs I historically dropped down too. I am following the same exact diet, same workout routine, etc. (creature of habit) so I'm very surprised by the drastic difference.
The only one major difference is that prior to this round of keto, I was under immense pressure due to personal reasons which was further exacerbated by a lot of work issues. This lasted for a 4-5 month period. The circumstances which were causing the stress were gone and/or resolved by the time I started keto but despite the removal of stress, it appears like there was some form of lasting impact on my ability to lose weight due to it. Not exactly sure how it works but I see things like elevated cortisol, etc. thrown around and I wonder if that's what is impacting my weight loss.
Has anyone ever experienced anything similar? Has stress had a big impact on your ability to lose weight and if so how did you manage it? Also, does anyone think its perhaps not the stress causing this and some other variable?