Off ketogenic to low calorie

Ok folks can you answer this and give me some hope.

I was on ketogenic for 2 weeks and lost 6 pounds, stopped and went back to calorie counting for half a pound a week, I’ve been very strict to 2010 calories , taken my one hour walk each day as I did on ketogenic however I’ve put on 2 pounds ......how can that be .

Also I wanted to switch between the diets every 2 weeks would that eventually work ? I’m trying to get from 13st 5 to 12st 7 , I got to 12st 13 after my 2 weeks ketogenic but now have gone to 13st 1 after 4 days off diet

Thoughts please ...thanks

Replies

  • Blythmag
    Blythmag Posts: 252 Member
    harper16 wrote: »
    It might be because you retain more water with carbs. I don't see the point of switching diets. Weight loss is caused by being in a calorie deficit.


    Thank you , is there a timescale thst it will start to go down if I stick with calorie counting.

    My theory was maintaining during my calorie counting then back on ketogenic for another 3-4 weight loss or will it just not work like that ? Was just a theory so don’t shoot me down.
  • Blythmag
    Blythmag Posts: 252 Member
    Thanks for the replies, I will stick to calorie counting then, seems good advice and I get the water thing, makes sense.


    So last question, when does the water weight gain stop happening now I will stick to this? A week 2 weeks?
    Thank you.
  • Blythmag
    Blythmag Posts: 252 Member
    Im 184 pounds. 5’6 wanting to lose 1/2 lb a week , I put that into MFP together with 3 /30min workouts per week ...I’m doing 6 now , it came out at 2010 calories @PAV8888
  • lgfrie
    lgfrie Posts: 1,449 Member
    yirara wrote: »
    lgfrie wrote: »
    Blythmag wrote: »
    Thanks for the replies, I will stick to calorie counting then, seems good advice and I get the water thing, makes sense.


    So last question, when does the water weight gain stop happening now I will stick to this? A week 2 weeks?
    Thank you.

    For me, carb related water retention takes 5 days to expunge 3/4 of it, and the rest can take another week or so.

    It's quite interesting for how long the different types of water weight stick.
    Salty meal (I had 30ml of soy sauce over my noodles yesterday as I used an old recipe for two and did not half that one): 1 day
    Water weight gain from sitting in an office all day: the weekend
    Pausing the contraceptive pill: about 2-4 days after starting again
    Flights: 5-12 days, depending on duration of flight :s

    Same deal for me with flights. It's the most persistent water retention of all, maybe even more than from eating excessive carbs. I agree, up to 12 days for a long international flight, like to Sydney. Less for a domestic flight. Weird.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,864 Member
    lgfrie wrote: »
    yirara wrote: »
    lgfrie wrote: »
    Blythmag wrote: »
    Thanks for the replies, I will stick to calorie counting then, seems good advice and I get the water thing, makes sense.


    So last question, when does the water weight gain stop happening now I will stick to this? A week 2 weeks?
    Thank you.

    For me, carb related water retention takes 5 days to expunge 3/4 of it, and the rest can take another week or so.

    It's quite interesting for how long the different types of water weight stick.
    Salty meal (I had 30ml of soy sauce over my noodles yesterday as I used an old recipe for two and did not half that one): 1 day
    Water weight gain from sitting in an office all day: the weekend
    Pausing the contraceptive pill: about 2-4 days after starting again
    Flights: 5-12 days, depending on duration of flight :s

    Same deal for me with flights. It's the most persistent water retention of all, maybe even more than from eating excessive carbs. I agree, up to 12 days for a long international flight, like to Sydney. Less for a domestic flight. Weird.

    Yeah, flights are so annoying! <3 Me, flying from Europe to central US via Seattle (don't ask). Hey, I could take those fab green hiking pants along. They are slightly tight but will fit well enough for climbing over rocks. Me, after arriving: my pants don't fit! Me on the last day: hey, my pants fit again! :s

    I naturally eat lots of carbs, thus that's at least one thing I don't have to deal with.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    lgfrie wrote: »
    yirara wrote: »
    lgfrie wrote: »
    Blythmag wrote: »
    Thanks for the replies, I will stick to calorie counting then, seems good advice and I get the water thing, makes sense.


    So last question, when does the water weight gain stop happening now I will stick to this? A week 2 weeks?
    Thank you.

    For me, carb related water retention takes 5 days to expunge 3/4 of it, and the rest can take another week or so.

    It's quite interesting for how long the different types of water weight stick.
    Salty meal (I had 30ml of soy sauce over my noodles yesterday as I used an old recipe for two and did not half that one): 1 day
    Water weight gain from sitting in an office all day: the weekend
    Pausing the contraceptive pill: about 2-4 days after starting again
    Flights: 5-12 days, depending on duration of flight :s

    Same deal for me with flights. It's the most persistent water retention of all, maybe even more than from eating excessive carbs. I agree, up to 12 days for a long international flight, like to Sydney. Less for a domestic flight. Weird.

    I always put on at least seven pounds when I fly and it usually takes at least five days to fully come off.
  • youngmomtaz
    youngmomtaz Posts: 1,075 Member
    I eat keto. Have for about 3 years. Kind of losing count though. Anyway, my body feels better as in way more energy, my bicipital tendinitis, torn tendons in wrist, and other achy things hurt less, and my migraine control is amazing! But I go off course. Every time I gain 5lbs easy. This is when I am far off course and in a “screw it” mood. Buying all the snacks and baking all the things. I stay gluten free so I can function but the carbs are out of control(and I can not control my calories when I am high carb, so many cravings) and so are my migraines, General head pain, lethargy, etc. But yet I do it. When I go back it is kind of a see saw type thing for a few weeks. Low carb-high carb-keto type cycle. I lose and gain the same 2lbs over and over. When I consistently keep my carbs below 100gm/day I don’t have the yo-yo so you could try that if the weigh flux really bothers you; you don’t have to go all the way into high carb if you don’t want to. Also remember 20gm carbs per day is extreme for keto and 50gm(or higher if you are very active) is generally fine if you have no medical conditions dictating you go lower.

    Experiencing this multiple times, I have found a happy medium similar to what you are proposing. I sit really well in a routine consisting of keto week days with extra steel cut oats, higher carb keto ish baked treats and apples and oranges, and some wine on the weekends. It seems to play well with my hormonal cravings, keep me carbed for some heavier lifts early in my week(I still feel like this is mostly a mental block on my part), and just all around make keto “easier” even though I have never particularly found it hard and usually make the choice to go off plan.

    You will find a plan that suits you. Whatever habits you fall in to just ensure that your calories are on par for your goals and you will lose as planned. Don’t really worry about a few lbs of water weight here and there. There are so small in the whole mess of it all.
  • MeganD1704
    MeganD1704 Posts: 733 Member
    As someone who used to do keto and switched to this I honestly say you are better off picking one or the other and sticking to a caloric deficit.

    Over time it will be harder and harder to get back into ketosis- it may take a week or two to even get back in it, if not longer,so cycling between the two methods isn't great/probably not sustainable.

    The biggest thing is eat at a deficit- do what suits you. It doesn't work for me to be keto as we love to travel and if I cheat on keto I pay the price for a week. So now vacations were becoming a very tiring process of finding places I could eat but also Hubs could still enjoy fun/new things. Calories are easier and I can simply take a diet break and eat at maintenance when on vacation.

    Just my two cents :)
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 33,884 Member
    Blythmag wrote: »
    Thanks for the replies, I will stick to calorie counting then, seems good advice and I get the water thing, makes sense.


    So last question, when does the water weight gain stop happening now I will stick to this? A week 2 weeks?
    Thank you.

    It doesn't "stop happening" in some absolute sense.

    Your baseline water retention stabilizes at a new (slightly higher compared to keto) level. Once you're at a more-or-less consistent new carb level, carb-related water retention doesn't keep growing and growing.

    Eventually, if you're losing fat behind the scenes (i.e., calorie deficit is in place), your fat loss is sufficient to drop your scale weight below that modest water weight bump, and you'll see loss on the scale again. But if you're at a calorie deficit throughout, fat loss - the thing we really care about - has continued to happen behind the scenes, you just can't see it on the scale because the water increase has hidden it.

    You'll still see water weight fluctuations on top of that new baseline, just as you would've on top of your keto-level carbs in the long run. Fluctuating water weight is just how a healthy body operates, for many reasons**.

    Oversimplifying, when we eat carbs, our bodies need to tie up about 3g of water for each gram of carbs, while the carbs are being metabolized. The implication is that if you're humming along at 50g carbs daily, you have a certain baseline level of water involved in processing that, around 150g (very approximate). If you switch to 150g carbs, your body will tie up around 450g water instead. As long as you stay around 150g carbs, the water needed for that will stay in a similar range (other water fluctuations may simultaneously be happening for other reasons, of course). These numberrs are not exactly what you'd see on the scale, because it's more complicated than that, but that's sort of the underlying mechanism, as I understand it.

    ** This would be a good read:

    https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
  • Blythmag
    Blythmag Posts: 252 Member
    MeganD1704 wrote: »
    As someone who used to do keto and switched to this I honestly say you are better off picking one or the other and sticking to a caloric deficit.

    Over time it will be harder and harder to get back into ketosis- it may take a week or two to even get back in it, if not longer,so cycling between the two methods isn't great/probably not sustainable.

    The biggest thing is eat at a deficit- do what suits you. It doesn't work for me to be keto as we love to travel and if I cheat on keto I pay the price for a week. So now vacations were becoming a very tiring process of finding places I could eat but also Hubs could still enjoy fun/new things. Calories are easier and I can simply take a diet break and eat at maintenance when on vacation.

    Just my two cents :)

    Yea makes sense that , I've decided to stay on calorie counting using carbs
  • MeganD1704
    MeganD1704 Posts: 733 Member
    Blythmag wrote: »
    MeganD1704 wrote: »
    As someone who used to do keto and switched to this I honestly say you are better off picking one or the other and sticking to a caloric deficit.

    Over time it will be harder and harder to get back into ketosis- it may take a week or two to even get back in it, if not longer,so cycling between the two methods isn't great/probably not sustainable.

    The biggest thing is eat at a deficit- do what suits you. It doesn't work for me to be keto as we love to travel and if I cheat on keto I pay the price for a week. So now vacations were becoming a very tiring process of finding places I could eat but also Hubs could still enjoy fun/new things. Calories are easier and I can simply take a diet break and eat at maintenance when on vacation.

    Just my two cents :)

    Yea makes sense that , I've decided to stay on calorie counting using carbs

    Awesome! Good luck :)