[KerrickStaley]

One issue with keto weight loss is that some of the lost weight is water weight—the keto diet reduces your body's ability to store water.

So keto may reduce your weight, but it's not actually reducing your fat stores, it's just reducing the amount of water in your body.

[nategri]

This is strictly a first week "problem." Having lost 22+ pounds since February on a (renewed) low carbohydrate diet, I can assure you not all of that was water weight. Previously I lost over a hundred pounds by eating this way and have managed to keep it off for years. It took a series of very large lifestyle changes to get me a little off track---something I'm now correcting.

[goda90]

But if weight is still being lost over weeks, that can't just be water reduction, or else there would be no water left to lose pretty quickly.

[netman21]

Right. 50 pounds down here. It took 6 months but I have stayed keto and kept it off four more months since starting. Losing 6 pounds the first week was obviously water weight but wow, that is the way to start a diet.

I saw one good description of what is going on: You don't ever lose fat cells just the amount of fat each one stores. When you enter ketosis your cells give up some of the water they were using as place holders for the fat they are waiting to store. Thus the periodic "whoosh" that ketorers report. Every few weeks you notice you have to pee a lot and you lose a few pounds.