A positive story of breaking plateau

[xtrell]

I discovered a little plan that really worked for me during the few weeks where I was actually going crazy for lack of foods available to me, while still wanting to lose weight. I'm betting it will work for most whether you've been keto-ing for a while or just been straight lowcarbing for a while like myself. It's very basic and obvious, just a sort of carb cycling, but I figured I'd share for those who may not have thought about this (yet.)

When you're going crazy and want a few more carbs, maybe some desserts or just oatmeal at breakfast; just eat them. Make up for it by doing extra cardio (I did 3x per day: HIIT in the morning, MI afternoon and night) to make sure you're at least not intaking more than your expending. It helps that it's summertime for this, lots more free time.

After a week (maximum) of this, go into keto/NO carb for the next week. The only carbs I consumed came from peanut butter (~7g carbs), half & half with coffee (~6g carbs; I found half & half with coffee fills me up much better than heavy cream), and about an ounce of 85% dark chocolate (2g carb) per day. I don't count calories at this time since I'm not really fat adapted, but you may want to if you are. Cardio only twice per day: HIIT in the morning and MI later at night during this week. You may only want to do it once if your body reacts nicely to lowcarbing.

By the end of the lowcarb week, assuming you are very low on carbs and you are lifting and doing cardio 1-2x per day, you should be flat out dead; I normally can't get in my second cardio session on the last day. Then, simply, go back into eating more carbs for a week and upping the cardio again.

Again, this is very simple but it really helps with mental plateauing as well as physical. I always go through depressing phases where I'm mad at myself for not just living my life and eating, but this satiates that feeling. During this, I was still losing weight during the higher carb weeks (just not as much) but when I went into no-carb it totally melted off. I'm now going into two weeks of lowcarb while counting calories and using EC to see how things go.

Anyway, this may or may not help you, but I thought I'd share. If anyone gives it a whirl I'd like to hear about it.

[Teacher77]

I'd be very interested in knowing your calorie count when you get them. I wonder if the weight loss is mostly due to the extreme amount of cardio you're doing or to dieting itself.