Is keto maintenance the same as other diet's maintenance?

radioactivegirl76

I keep hearing people say you'll gain your weigh back when you start eating carbs again. Is this true? Isn't there a maintenance phase to sustain weight loss after a keto diet? If you lose weight on a keto diet can you not change to a calorie in/calorie out maintenance?

vismal

The only way you will lose weight in ketosis (beyond water weight) is to eat in a caloric deficit. Calories in out is not something you can change to. Regardless of what foods you eat or do not eat calories in vs out will be responsible for your fat loss. If you use a ketosis diet to lose fat (requires eating in a deficit), than transition to eating maintenance calories, you will not gain fat. You will however again weight when adding carbs back in despite eating maintenance. You generally lose a good amount of water weight when initially switching to low carb and gain that water weight back when you reintroduce carbs. The problem most people have is calorie control once outside of ketosis. Keto makes sticking to a calorie deficit easier for some. When you add carbs back in you may struggle to keep calories at maintenance. This is why some suggest that the practices you use to lose weight should be the same you plan on using to maintain weight. All that being said, I have encountered many people who have successfully lost weight using ketosis and kept it off after reintroducing carbs so it's not impossible.

PAV8888

You lose extra "borrowed" water weight when you deplete your glycogen stores entering Keto.

When you eat carbs again your glycogen stores replenish and for every one gram of stored carbs you retain an extra 2-3 grams of water.

Total glycogen can be a good 500g and together with the water the carbs are bound to can account for a good 2kg of body weight.

So people who exit Keto either by accident or on purpose and who replenish their glycogen (as they would do at maintenance) often see a 3-5lb rapid increase in weight.

Seeing a 5lb increase together with the feel good rush of eating the previously forbidden carbs, or having the feeling that they're making up for previous deprivations (since they've already regained some weight) often results in people saying *kitten* it and overeating their calories for a period of time.

Which indeed leads to an even more substantial weight regain till things get under control.

Of course often people don't realise that all they have to do is control their calories to control their weight regardless of what way they choose to eat (keto, paleo, dash, some other name, no name, or random)

And induction into Keto is not always pleasant.

So.

If weight is being regained and you can only control it by doing Keto but diet fatigue makes you unwilling to restart Keto.... and you're regaining weight.... and you can only control your weight by doing Keto.... but you're tired of doing Keto because carbs feel good... and weight is being regained...

**ETA: as I see below from people who actually do keto my glycogen weight regain numbers may actually be conservative...

RedSquadronLeader

I second what @vismal said. I think the people who say you gain all your weight back as soon as you eat carbs again are usually thinking of the dieter who (say) does a keto diet for 2-4 weeks, loses a lot of mostly water weight, then has a carb-up for whatever reason. I do keto normally and I'm a fan of having a carb-up every so often, but if you're not mentally prepared to see anywhere from 5-15 lbs on the scale afterwards, you shouldn't do it. Thinking they've undone all their effort towards fat loss really hits people, and then they often just keep piling on the carbs and all other sorts of food for a while, and then they really WILL gain fat.

Losing weight on keto and maintenance on keto do look slightly different, however. Generally you want to set carbs at 20-50 g depending on your activity, protein at 0.8 - 1.5 g/kg of lean body mass (again depending on your activity), and make up the rest of your caloric intake from fat. Since you want to reduce calories if you're trying to lose weight, you'd have a lower overall percentage of calories from fat than during maintenance, when you've got more calories to eat and fill with fat.

Also, I've personally found that maintaining on keto for me requires about 1900 kcal (without additional exercise), whereas maintaining on roughly 30% Fat / 40-50% Carbs / 20-30% Protein requires about 1650 kcal (where those numbers are already adjusted for TEF). Hormonal changes can be significant while on a ketogenic diet (part of the reason I eat this way anyways), and I believe the difference in maintenance calories can be attributed to this.

Anyways, you can certainly shift to a higher-carb diet for maintenance, as long as you keep your calorie intake at your maintenance levels and you're fully aware that roughly 10 lbs of water (or more if you're bigger/male) is going to accompany the carbs.

nvmomketo

If you start eating a lot of carbs again, that is not keto maintenance. That's just maintenance as moderate or high carb. KWIM?

If you reintroduce a lot of carbs you will retain water again. As the others said, that may be a water gain of a few pounds. It isn't fat. Just water.

I think what many mean when they state that you will regain lost weight is that if you go back to eating foods that you ate before, you will probably eat them as you did before - too much. If you came to ketosis because you could not moderate carbs well, you may regain weight when you reintroduce carbs because you still may not be able to moderate them well.

I started a ketogenic diet a couple of years ago. I maintain with a ketogenic diet for health reasons, and because I am HORRIBLE at moderating carbs. I can't eat many or I overeat.

Some slowly reintroduce more carbs back into their life once they are in maintenance. The Atkins phases address that. Or you can just stay LCHF. Many who find LCHF works for them, just keep doing it.

radioactivegirl76

I'd like to thank everyone for taking the time to respond. Your answers were exactly what I needed to know. (Y'all have probably read how sometimes people can get off on their own soapboxes.)

I've lost 45.5lbs by LCLF, lots of exercise and 1200 cal/day diet. I'm 25lbs away from goal weigh and have been kicking around the Ketosis idea. The main reason being so I can increase my 1/2lb a week fat lose to +1lb/wk fat lose before swimsuit season.). (I'm 5'2 and 154lbs). Am I just dreaming?

CharlieBeansmomTracey

radioactivegirl76 wrote: »

I'd like to thank everyone for taking the time to respond. Your answers were exactly what I needed to know. (Y'all have probably read how sometimes people can get off on their own soapboxes.)

I've lost 45.5lbs by LCLF, lots of exercise and 1200 cal/day diet. I'm 25lbs away from goal weigh and have been kicking around the Ketosis idea. The main reason being so I can increase my 1/2lb a week fat lose to +1lb/wk fat lose before swimsuit season.). (I'm 5'2 and 154lbs). Am I just dreaming?

doing keto doesnt mean you will lose more fat,your body burns the fat you eat as fuel instead of carbs. only having 25lbs to lose you should be only trying to lose 0.5 lbs a week. keto doesnt mean you burn body fat faster. body fat is burned in a deficit no matter how/what you eat.you will drop a lot of water weight at first but it wont be a lot of fat.

radioactivegirl76

Thanks. That's what I needed to know.