Do you ever have a break off KETO?

aeb09

You can't really cheat on keto and be successful. You also didn't give yourself a fair chance at it before you cheated. The first two weeks are the hardest - for most people, cravings for carbs are still there and your energy levels usually decrease while your glycogen stores are depleted. I promise if you stick with it beyond those two weeks, you will begin feeling the results. You will have high energy all day long and you will stop craving carbs. Time and again every person I've come in contact with who live keto say the same thing.

parkscs

You can't really cheat on keto and be successful. You also didn't give yourself a fair chance at it before you cheated. The first two weeks are the hardest - for most people, cravings for carbs are still there and your energy levels usually decrease while your glycogen stores are depleted. I promise if you stick with it beyond those two weeks, you will begin feeling the results. You will have high energy all day long and you will stop craving carbs. Time and again every person I've come in contact with who live keto say the same thing.

Sure you can. It's called maintaining a caloric deficit through your carb up. There are people that stay in keto and aren't successful, because they overeat even without a significant amount of carbs in their diet.

What some people call carb cycling is what others calling "cheating on keto", and you can't tell me that no one is successful with carb cycling. Keto is good for appetite suppression, but the notion that you can never leave ketosis and be successful is just nonsense. That said, not everyone does well going in and out of keto on a regular basis, so that doesn't mean "cheating" is a good idea.

Don't confuse success and ketosis - they're not at all the same thing.

aeb09

You can't really cheat on keto and be successful. You also didn't give yourself a fair chance at it before you cheated. The first two weeks are the hardest - for most people, cravings for carbs are still there and your energy levels usually decrease while your glycogen stores are depleted. I promise if you stick with it beyond those two weeks, you will begin feeling the results. You will have high energy all day long and you will stop craving carbs. Time and again every person I've come in contact with who live keto say the same thing.

Sure you can. It's called maintaining a caloric deficit through your carb up. There are people that stay in keto and aren't successful, because they overeat even without a significant amount of carbs in their diet.

What some people call carb cycling is what others calling "cheating on keto", and you can't tell me that no one is successful with carb cycling. Keto is good for appetite suppression, but the notion that you can never leave ketosis and be successful is just nonsense. That said, not everyone does well going in and out of keto on a regular basis, so that doesn't mean "cheating" is a good idea.

Don't confuse success and ketosis - they're not at all the same thing.

Please don't preach at me about this. There are different versions of keto - traditional, targeted, restricted and cyclic. I'm speaking solely on traditional where no, you cannot cheat frequently and be successful.

Yes, as with anything, you do need a calorie deficit and cannot eat 10,000 calories a day on keto and think you'll lose weight. I don't believe I ever said you can never leave ketosis and be successful. I am saying you cannot regularly cheat on traditional keto or you'll likely feel sick from constantly depleting and replenishing your glycogen. Do people carb cycle with success? Yes, but most likely they are hard-training physically fit athletes and can use their carb-cycling to their fitness benefits.

Honestly so tired of hearing CICO is the only thing that matters for 100% of people to be successful. That is not always the case. Can the majority of people get away with it? Yes. For medicinal reasons, success and ketosis are the same thing for me, period.

parkscs

Perhaps it's not what you meant, but "You can't really cheat on keto and be successful" is what you said and such a blanket statement is simply not true. And I'm not really advocating cheating, but like with anything, it comes down to the extent and frequency of the "cheat". If you have some carbs for a special occasion but otherwise maintain your caloric deficit (or even if you don't), that alone is not going to prevent your long-term success - and I'd say that's true even for someone with PCOS/insulin resistance. Even if you go over on your calories on occasion, that alone is not going to impact your long-term success. Of course, if you're "cheating" several days a week you may struggle with weight loss, but that's true of any diet and exercise routine and not just keto.

If deviating from your nutrition and fitness plan even once precluded long term success, no one in this world would ever be successful. Luckily though, that's not the case.

willhoft

MFP has GOT to stop telling use in 5 weeks you will weight "X". Who the heck cares??? What we want to know if overall what we are eating and how that is mathematically affecting problem where our weight is. The app needs to encourage a person to log everything we eat and encourage daily weigh in's. The app has so much potential...they need to take it to the next level.

Leonidas_meets_Spartacus

I don't break but some times I do take it easy when celebrating with family etc.

sluggishtwitch

I don't break but some times I do take it easy when celebrating with family etc.

I'm about to take a day off for my Birthday. Those types of times are the only breaks I plan on taking. Birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas...I think while others may not agree, I feel like it is fine with me, and my plan.


You never know how it'll affect you until you try it, so if you want to take a day off, take one day off, go back on, see how you feel. From what I've gathered from other people who are on the ketogenic diet, on their days off they feel pretty icky in comparison to how awesome they feel while in ketosis. It's your body, your plan, your health...You are in charge and responsible for your decisions,

As for the cravings...I've found that the longer I stay in, the less cravings I personally have. It's hard at first, but once you get into it, and your body adjusts, it does get easier...at least in my experience.

sljohnson1207

I'd say the first thing you need to be quite sure of is that you were doing it correctly in the first place.

So, what were your macros set to, and was your goal to just eat "lower carb" or go into full-on ketosis and stay there?

As another poster stated, there are varying degrees of low carb diets, with variable amounts of allowed carbs. And since everyone seems to have different goals, what works for one of us may not work for another.

I, for instance, prefer to eat more net carbs than some of my MFP fellow low carb friends. I don't go super low, but I do know that my level of net carbs for losing is pretty low, and for maintenance, also pretty low.

There are plenty of people on here that aren't strict at all, and don't want to be in ketosis all the time, that lose weight at a good rate, and I say if that works for them, they should do what works for their goals and lifestyles.

I have had planned days "off plan". I have also worked in some treats here and there. I did not do this in the first 10 days. In fact, I waited nearly 3 months before having my first off plan meal. And I knew it would take days to get back into ketosis after doing it. And since my goal is to stay there, I don't stray very often.

silentKayak

If you're on a keto diet where you're counting on staying in ketosis so that you can eat higher calories and still lose, then you must not cheat. You'll get out of ketosis, then calories will matter again, and you'll regain what you've lost. (Ketosis happens when you're eating almost no carbs, and it means that half-burned fat is literally excreted out of your body as a waste product - a metabolic "cheat" to CICO, because your burn rate goes up even though the effort is the same).

If you're on a keto diet where you are eating lowcarb as a way of controlling hunger, but your primary weightloss mechanism is a calorie deficit, then it's fine to eat what you like (cheat day) and go back to it the next day. The more you control your carbs, the more you'll find that the "cheat" isn't worth it because you'll realize how tired and hungry the sugar and starch makes you.

PM me if you have questions, as I've done it both ways. I lost more weight faster the first way, but I really didn't find it sustainable. It's a hard way to live. Since you clearly can't sustain it either, the second way may work better for you.

parkscs

If you're on a keto diet where you're counting on staying in ketosis so that you can eat higher calories and still lose, then you must not cheat.

Given that there's no significant metabolic advantage to a ketogenic diet, I'm not sure where you're getting the notion that you can eat more calories on a low carb diet and still lose, relative to a non-ketogenic diet. Some older studies (with poor controls) suggested that a low carb diet may produce a 200-300 calorie advantage over standard hypocaloric diets, but more recent studies demonstrate this is not the case. There's no metabolic cheat beyond appetite suppression.

Springfield1970

parkscs wrote: »

If you're the type of person that gets nasty "keto flu" symptoms when going into and out of ketosis, then taking a break is probably a bad idea because you're just setting yourself up to feel miserable for a few days. If you only managed to make it 10 days before dropping the hammer on some cookies, I'd probably reconsider whether you really want to do a ketogenic diet. You certainly don't have to do such a diet to lose weight, but it can be helpful for some people. That said, it's not helpful for everyone.

Yes I took a break from it about three years ago and funnily I now have a fantastic relationship with food, my body fat percentage has dropped by half (over 30% to 15-18) and I GET TO EAT WHAT I LIKE (just smaller portions).

Guess I'll be going back on it soon.

This is akin to me hopping into a thread about vegetarianism and saying "DAMN THAT STEAK I HAD LAST NIGHT WAS GOOD!" What's the point? You don't eat keto, that's great. Not sure what that really adds to the discussion though.

I'll explain it then. I did these keto type diets for years, doggedly, and they didn't work for me, just like they aren't going to work for the OP. I was pointing out that there are better and more successful ways to get ripped for us normal food lovers. She lasted 10 days, and was desperate to break. Not a good candidate.

PS you didn't use my whole quote. It had a big NOT after 'Guess I'll be going back on it soon'

mkroberger

I say don't beat yourself for your mistake and just hop right back on the wagon. I mean, they say alcoholics typically have set backs during recovery. Ideally they keep getting back on it until there are no setbacks (isn't sugar considered a drug?)

Any diet is hard. I've done them all! Even tried Atkins in the 80's when I was in high school. Last year I did Atkins again, had great results, but got the carb flu. Day three on Keto and following the rule to ensure I have the right amount of fat and I feel good! (Knock on wood it continues). I even lifted weights the last couple of days.

I have counted calories on MFP, done loads of exercise, and my weight loss wasn't happening. I feel some people react differently to different diets.

I do know body builders go strict low carbs before an event, and will often have a cheat meal once a week, or even carb cycling and increase their workouts on the days they include some carbs. Their increase in carbs though are healthy ones, like sweet potatoes.

Anywhoooo, my point is don’t beat yourself up and just get back on the wagon. We can do this!!! :-)