This might sound like utter crap, but you're probably in starvation mode on 1000 calories a day and so your body is going to hold onto that fat harder than my dog would hold onto a rawhide bone.

I think the minimum calorie allowance for ANY person is something like 1200, but if you're not eating carbs, that doesn't really apply. Try focusing less on numbers and more on what you're putting into your body, which you are doing, it sounds like. Listen to your body when you're hungry and eat until you're satisfied.

Good luck =)

Calorie counting and ketosis, while not completely cancelling, allows for CONSIDERABLE leeway in the amount of calories you can eat. I don't want to come off as a know-it-all ass, but whoever told you to cut down under 1500 calories while aiming for ketosis was wrong.

Being 298 and eating only 1k a day is not going to work.

Also, forgive me for making an assumption (myself a "fat dude trying to lose weight", with 100lbs no longer under my belt), but cheese has always capsized my keto-dieting... mostly because I binged on it, and it negatively impacted my digestion (lactose-constipation).

Ketosis (in a very simplified, layman's understanding) is a process where your body mobilizes fat to ketones for something it can burn as carbohydrate. How will it do that if your source of fat is low (fish)? And yes, you are eating cheese, but are you getting 50% or better of your calories from cheese fat? I couldn't do it if I were soaked in wine and left in a French cheese cellar to dry.

So if you want to know what you are doing wrong:
1. you aren't eating enough
2. you aren't eating enough fat
3. you are eating a food that is easily binged upon, and sometimes carries additional carb payloads (especially soft cheeses).

I'd say skip cheese until you attain ketosis, eat at least 1/2 your daily calories from fatty meat (and not just fish) for two days... TWO DAYS. Keep anything other than meat sparing for these two days (even the healthy green veg). Please keep in mind this isn't the way to eat long-term, this is simply a way to get into ketosis that is easy.

More fat the better. Steaks, ground beef, bacon, etc... if it's "lean", it's not "meat" (not for realz, but for the intent and purpose of this project). Eat until full for every meal. Drink as much water (and nothing else) as you can stand. After two days of this protocol, check those strips again.

Finally, open up a fitday/cronometer/fatsecret account and log everything you eat. Carbs should be VERY low for this time where you are trying to get into ketosis. I'm talking >5% carbs, 25% protein, and the rest being fat (yes, 70% or so).

I have been on a diet...

Paleo is not a diet. If you are approaching paleo from a traditional diet-to-lose-weight mindset, you are getting off on the wrong foot. Throw out your existing notions about what it means to be on a diet.

Slow down. 6 weeks? How long did it take you to get where you are?

Sharpen your ax. Learn WHY paleo works, then the how will come more easily.

Paleo (as far as weight loss goes) is about restoring your body to its normal functionality. Your body has a mechanism for regulating body fat (just as it does for regulating your body temperature), and (like your temperature) it attempts to keep it within a specific range.

At least that's how it's supposed to work. If you've been eating the standard American diet (SAD) your whole life, odds are that your regulating system is broken. Maybe a better word than broken is injured. Think of your ability to regulate body fat as being injured.

And, how do you heal a physical injury? If you have an injured leg, do you heal it by doubling down on your running miles? No, you heal it by rest and applying the proper medicine. Once you've healed your leg, THEN you can start to work on making it stronger.

Concentrate on getting your body back to working normally, THEN you can start to worry about losing weight.

I'm a fat chick losing weight pretty quickly by just following the recommendations of WHAT to eat, and what NOT to eat (According to the Primal Blueprint). Meat, fruit, nuts, veggies, and crap-tons of fat. My only caveat is that I'm nursing a baby, but that doesn't account for the difference here.

I think I probably eat between 1800-3000 calories in a day, but I don't bother tracking.

1000 calories is WAY WAY too low. Go read what Talldog said. Absorb it. Paleo isn't about "I'm too fat so I need to diet to lose weight."

That's not going to get you anywhere.

Repeat after me:

MY BODY FAT IS A SYMPTOM, NOT THE PROBLEM.

Trying to lose weight by going on a diet makes as much sense as trying to stop a gaping wound from bleeding by mopping the blood off the floor. The blood on the floor is a symptom - a result of the gaping wound. In the same way, your obesity, my obesity, and nearly everyone else's obesity is a symptom of our modern diet.

And again, without knowing a whole lot about you, it sounds like maybe you went from eating a standard diet to now eating too little calories. Sorry, but you aren't going to get truly healthy by eating so little that your body metabolizes its own muscle mass. Believe it or not, it is possible for us fat folk to starve, to the death even.

So try this - here's what I do.

I don't eat grains. I eat very little processed sugar. I eat pretty much everything else. Fruit, veggies, whatever I feel like. I add fat to everything I cook (animal fat, not processed vegetable oils). I don't count calories. I don't do chronic cardio, in fact I am not currently exercising at all. I'm not even 100% paleo (can't really afford it all the time). I'm pretty sure I'm not in ketosis, since I don't avoid carbs. I just try to eat what I know is good for me, and I try to not eat the things that I know shouldn't be eaten as people food (like grains, etc).

Likely you need to eat more. Starving yourself isn't a very healthy way to lose weight. Check out this post: http://paleohacks.com/questions/99199/how-common-is-weight-loss-after-binge-day-s-is-this-the-same-as-a-refeed/99200#99200

HI Suzy. I would throw out your current template all together. I say this because if you are following a recommendation for 1000 calories a day then it's wrong and you need better advice. If you came up with that on your own then you need some more guidance.

I would get one of the Paleo books or follow Mark Sisson's www.TheDailyApple.com for assistance or www.whole9life.com. Follow something for 30 days and then start tweaking.

First, you don't say what size you are, or anything else much about your physical condition, including how much you weigh.

It seems to me that (1) you're not eating enough calories. Most folk can barely survive on 1000 kcal a day, and it's going to be hard to get weight off and keep it off in that calorie range. For me, calories that low would slow my metabolism to a dead crawl. (2) You're not eating a broad enough variety of foods (3) you're not eating enough fat.

Of course, without a better picture of your day-to-day situation, it's really hard to answer these kinds of questions.

1,000 calories seems to few. You might consider upping it by 200 or 500. Depending on your health and fitness level you might want to consider adding in some physical activity. Humans were designed to move after all.

How do you know you're not in ketosis? Are your clothes fitting any differently?

How to Know if You're in Ketosis

If you eating that little and aren't losing weight, it might be worth checking your thyroid? I have heard that dairy can help with weight loss, so it's a mixed one, I don't think you could say for certain that the cheese is preventing you losing weight. Also, if you eat very low calorie, you lower your metabolic rate, making it even harder to lose weight. Before you started dieting, how many calories were you eating? What are your meals like now, and rough amounts of each food? Also, don't chug lots of water, too much water can cause fluid retention due to electrolyte loss. Just drink enough to satisfy thirst.

• Alternate low cal ketogenic meals with high carb high calorie meals (about one binge a week should do it) to maintain maximum metabolic rate.
• Avoid cow milk casein, as it causes insulin resistance and slows weight loss. Cheese can actually increase your glucose levels even when you have no glucose.
• If you're eating 1000 calories a day and are in fact [not] in ketosis, you are burning protein in the body to generate glucose. That means your body is eating your muscle tissue. That's bad. Short term, this may make you weigh a little less on the scale, but long term it makes it harder to lose fat.
• Eat enough fat to kick off ketogenic process, but weigh and count your fat servings carefully. Fat is very efficient. It's easy to ingest an extra thousand calories from cheese or oils.
• Measure ketogenic state through ketone strips. It's a simple urine test and tells you in seconds if you are in fact in a ketogenic state1.
• Buy a glucose monitor, start taking blood serum glucose readings. If you're BG is much above 100 mg/dl you're either burning muscle for glucose fuel (which is not fat loss) or eating carbs you don't realize.
• Eat raw foods as much as possible. Even "cheese" often contains processed food stuff, and chemicals. I've experienced substantial improvements in fat loss when I aggressively avoid preservatives. You don't want any chemicals that act to preserve cells in your body, especially fat cells.

Long term ketogenic dieting is nowhere near as effective as cyclical ketogenic dieting.

The body does go into starvation mode, as folks call it. It's a decrease in thyroid function, and you'll fail to lose weight as rapidly as possible as well as feel terrible. Cycling ketogenic dieting with one day binges will often reset the thyroid in healthy people. That means you'll lose weight faster if you binge once a week than if you eat very low calories consistently.

I was eating 1500 calories, but was told to cut down, so I did. I weight 298 pounds and have not lost pounds or inches and the keto sticks keep coming out negative, what am I doing wrong?

If your BMI is above 30 calorie reduction usually works by itself, but eating too little might kill that effect. Have you tried increasing your activity level to boost your metabolism? Try eating more and doing more.

I agree with the above about eating too little. Make sure you are getting at least your minimum requirement of protein. The cheese might be the issue. I have heard remarks about not being able to lose weight while eating dairy. YMMV.

Just eat some more food

Eat a samich and workout. It's not rocket science, just eat whole foods and get some fitness into your life. You might always look/be fat, but it doesn't mean your unhealthy on the inside. It is a process that takes time and everyone's response is different.