Keto and occasional carbohydrate, will that ruin the weight loss?

[Ifa99]

So I just had an interesting discussion with my therapist. I told her I was almost ready to start Keto and what little pieces was still missing before I was would jump all-in and change my life and way of living. I guess I was kind of excited when I talked about, and passionate because after a while she stopped me and asked me how I would deal with potential fall outs, planned occasions like a get-together or other times when it will be hard to stay completely off the carbs.

First I could not give any answer, because I didn't think this part though before today. Those days will come. And I might break if I am really low or feeling stressed. After all, food has been my crouches and go to comforter for all problems in life as long as I can remember.

She didn't ask me this to drag me down or because she is evil. She asked to make sure I enter Keto with my eyes wide open so that one little mishap don't break my spirit and throw me into a bad mental state.

I do understand that one day of pizza does not matter in the long run, because it is what one does on most days that counts. And that got me thinking, is there a way to plan for disaster and thereby avoid longing for certain food?

For instance, If I set up two days a month where I can eat some carb food. Like pizza, pasta or root vegetable I should be back in ketose within a few days? Say I do a fat coffee with mct oil and coconut oil a few hours before eating carbs. To avoid feeling hungry so I more easily can control the amount of carbs I eat. Until now I would polish off a large pizza alone, pluss often I ordered starters and dessert as well. And drank beer or Coca Cola. I am not going back to that. But I might try eating just maybe just 2 slices, like sized normal fit people would do, and drink water. And skip starters and dessert.

For easy math say 30 days in a month. 2 days with carb. in moderate doses. Say the whole next day goes to burn those carbs. I would still have 26 days that month in ketose.

What do you think, do I sound like a recovering alcoholic planning the next disaster or is it possible to plan for carbs twice a month to boost moral and keep spirit high while adjusting to a new way of life?

Have you done carbs while on keto and how did that effect you and your weight loss? Did you work carbs into your calender so you knew beforehand about the cheat days? And did you take any measures to control the serving size/overall intake of carbs?

Let me know.

[CommitmentRulz]

There is nothing magical about keto. It ALL comes down to eating fewer calories than you burn on a consistent basis. (For people who like a lot of foods high in carbs, this makes keto attractive/helpful.)

Again, nothing magical or special about keto. It is STILL (and always has been) about CALORIES in and calories out. A consistent caloric deficit is how you lose weight.

[Ifa99]

Thx. I've heard that before and that is fine. But maybe my post was not concise and to the point so I will try to explain with as few words as possible. What I am after is the long term effect. As I don understand one day of pizza won't ruin a weight loss project.

First, I would love to hear from other obese folks that have been down this road them self.

1: How did carb intake during ketose state of weight loss affect you?

2: Did you suffer from increased cravings and plateau'd on the scale for a while after eating small portion sizes of carb loaded meals like pasta and pizza?

3: Did you notice any affect on inflammation, stomach issues or other problems after flirting with carbs?

[CommitmentRulz]

I should have checked your post history before I ever responded in the first place... https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showt...post1580803001

Sheesh.

[Ifa99]

Yeah bash the fat guy. He so fat he so stupid.

[Tucane]

1. Water retention for 1-2 days (non-fat weight gain) depending on intake. No adverse effects otherwise.

2. No intense cravings, but a feeling of missing out on stuff due to long-time restriction. Scaleweight stagnant as per 1.

3. No issues that were clearly linked to carb intake, but some discomfort due to a lot higher fruit fiber intake.(gas).

Now I don't do Keto long-term anymore for many reasons; preferences, energy needs etc. But it works for fat loss in a caloric deficit and has a small bonus in flushing some glycogen/waterweight when needed.

[Ifa99]

Tu sir. Much obliged. Just what I was looking for.

1: Did you notice if you got a new round of "keto-flu" after a carbo intake during your keto phase?

2: Did it take long to get back into ketosis after you broke it with carbs?

[Ifa99]

Quick update. Keto eating rules. Dropped a lot of weight 24 kilos on last friday and shrinked 3 sizes for pants and 2 for shirts. Last week I finally got around to start training with a PT. Doing full body workout 3 times a week now just to adapt to actually using my body for anything beside sitting.

To answer my question in this thread, yeah breaking keto with carbs is bad. Or at least for me it is. When I eat keto I don't get cravings. I mean the occasional thought of chocolate, sandwiches, beer and chips etc I do still get now then. But those small urges passes within minutes. Cravings for me used to be something so strong I couldn't fight it. The cravings would role on for hours and hours until I finally caved in and stuffed my face with sweets and greasy food.

Two times I've done carbs while on keto. Pasta both times, because pasta I missed the most. It did feel like seriously great to eat carbonara both times. Because I so enjoy the eating of pasta. But both times I struggled 5-6 days with elevated hunger, I started getting cravings and I had to put in hard effort to remain keto and eat only greans and fatty cuts.

As the kilos dropped I've found it much easier to be alive. I can walk up and down stairs without waves of pain, I do a daily walk early in the morning before I do anything else. And yeah, I still get windy and I am still obese. But that's ok, for the first time I know I can do something about it. And that is to keep working out and use my body each day, and to eat keto. The benefits of keto are so huge for me I don't care if I don't put on any muscle mass at this stage. That can be next years me problem to deal with. Right now I am just stoked to finally manage to drop weight steadily and finding back to using my body.

So far all I can say to others with severe obesity that are on keto is this. If on keto stay on keto. The more you stray the more you are moving backwards rather then forwards. Remember how hard it was to start keto, to not eat carbs? Every time you load up on carb might take you right back to that fighting stage, where your mind is trying to trick you into more carbs. You will be able to go back to eating keto, but are the rough struggles with carb worth the 15 minutes of pleasure you get from eating carbs?

Your mileage may vary so try it if you miss carbs that much, but if you feel you are starting keto from scratch the next day just stay keto.

[AdamWW]

Yeah bash the fat guy. He so fat he so stupid.

wut?

[Johnez]

Been keto over a month, healthy eating since March. A lot of people advise against telling the world you're on keto diet, as it's highly denigrated by many, however when they see the results and the fact that I don't break my diet they respect it. Have lost 30 lbs and kicking ass. Hard to disrespect that. Anyway, the reason I tell coworkers I'm on keto is it gets tiring to turn down pizza and cake and donuts and whatever else they bring. They know now, my lifestyle is different. I also eat outside, first because I ate a lot of fish and it was a lil embarrassing having my meal be the center of attention haha, but now because of peace and quiet.

So my advice, stick to your diet and let this be your opportunity to draw some boundaries and take control of your life. Feels good.

Also, I avoid most keto junk food or any keto replacement for high carb things like cookies or cake or pizza. First it doesn't taste as good and never satisfies. Second, it's a lifestyle. What's the point of going keto if all your doing is replacing all your high carb junk with keto junk??? Nope. I prefer my big meaty veggie salad over that fake keto junk. Alright off my soapbox haha.

[lmjmitchell]

I had a friend who did Keto and lost 80lbs. He was very strict until he reached his goal weight. Afterwards, he ate carbs again but kept it under control and didn't gain any weight back.

[TheHaws]

You get very defensive at people trying to point out advice.

Keto is a great way to maintain hunger, and regulate hormones. Other than extra water weight, no real difference from a well balanced diet. I think with the reading I have been doing that Keto is/was best for me in my situation at 300, now closing in on my lowest weight of 220. MAINLY because it forced me to not eat trigger foods, I was never diagnosed but I definitely had binge eating symptoms and lack of control.

Heres some information on getting back into ketosis. It depends on a few things.

1) How long have you been in ketosis prior to eating carbs
2) How many carbs did you eat

For everyone it can be different, keto may take a week to get back into, and if your mixing a high fat diet after eating carbs it really just makes no sense. I would suggest staying full blown clean keto for at least 2 months before thinking about incorporating a 1 day a month carb day with CLEAN carbs like sweet potatoes.

Eating carbs will spike your insulin, and tell your body to store fat (well, eating anything spikes insulin, but carbs have a higher glycemic response). You really have to ask yourself tho, is that pasta really worth it? I understand clean carb refeeds later on in the diet process but not when you are trying to break bad habits. The benefit to keto is your cravings go away if you give it enough time. This is coming from a dude that would order a large dominos pizza 3 times a week and hasn't ordered one for almost 8 months while I lost 80lbs.

Also 24 kilo is a lot of weight, I would be interested to know ur starting weight.

Last piece of advice, so far I have seen you almost completely disregard AdamWW in the other thread and Commit. These two are a wealth of knowledge, just seems like you took things personally idk. TBH I don't even know how you will react to this reply, so that is something that you may want to work on as well. People are here to help, nobody said anything offensive, just gave you truth and advice.

[hardyboysare]

You get very defensive at people trying to point out advice.

Keto is a great way to maintain hunger, and regulate hormones. Other than extra water weight, no real difference from a well balanced diet. I think with the reading I have been doing that Keto is/was best for me in my situation at 300, now closing in on my lowest weight of 220. MAINLY because it forced me to not eat trigger foods, I was never diagnosed but I definitely had binge eating symptoms and lack of control.

Heres some information on getting back into ketosis. It depends on a few things.

1) How long have you been in ketosis prior to eating carbs
2) How many carbs did you eat

For everyone it can be different, keto may take a week to get back into, and if your mixing a high fat diet after eating carbs it really just makes no sense. I would suggest staying full blown clean keto for at least 2 months before thinking about incorporating a 1 day a month carb day with CLEAN carbs like sweet potatoes.

Eating carbs will spike your insulin, and tell your body to store fat (well, eating anything spikes insulin, but carbs have a higher glycemic response). You really have to ask yourself tho, is that pasta really worth it? I understand clean carb refeeds later on in the diet process but not when you are trying to break bad habits. The benefit to keto is your cravings go away if you give it enough time. This is coming from a dude that would order a large dominos pizza 3 times a week and hasn't ordered one for almost 8 months while I lost 80lbs.

Also 24 kilo is a lot of weight, I would be interested to know ur starting weight.

Last piece of advice, so far I have seen you almost completely disregard AdamWW in the other thread and Commit. These two are a wealth of knowledge, just seems like you took things personally idk. TBH I don't even know how you will react to this reply, so that is something that you may want to work on as well. People are here to help, nobody said anything offensive, just gave you truth and advice.

You are offering good advice but I have to highlight a few issues with what you are stating just because others will read this and likely think the same:-

1. Clean carbs don't exist how could they? Food is either nutritional or not highly nutritional. What is a clean carb? Sweet potato has more carbs then a normal potato so wouldn't that make it worse as more carb will cause higher insulin response. Or is it a clean carb lower in calories if that is cases again a sweet potato has 86kcl v potato at 77kcl per 100g.

2. Unless someone has a predisposition or suffers from a insulin issue the GI index is a pointless scale as it states a watermelon is worse then a blueberry muffin and banana bread is a lot better for you glycemic response wise then just bread??

3. Spikes in insulin don't tell you to store fat as that would suggest all proteins and carbs will make you fat and dietary fat can't due to the difference in stimulation of insulin. Excess calories make you fat not insulin in healthy individuals.

4. Why would pasta not be worth it? It doesn't cause you to get fat beyond any other foods due to excessive calories.