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carb cheat experience

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deans_mama
deans_mama Posts: 11
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I did a "carb loaded" cheat meal and would like to share my experiment with you. I am NOT advising anyone to try this or suggesting what I did was beneficial. However, part of this lifestyle is trial and error.

I decided to have a "carb cheat meal" for dinner last night and went against all the advice of many people. I needed to see if I was fat adapted and wanted to replenish my leptin levels.

I enjoyed a free meal from Applebees for teacher appreciation day! It wasn't as good as I imagined. My taste buds must have changed because it wasn't better than my "real food" meals. My husband said the same thing. I went home with a bubbly stomach and slept awesome! This morning I checked my blood ketones and I AM STILL IN KETOSIS! My fasting levels are typically 2.7-3.5 but this morning they were 0.6 (not the best or the worst). It is still nutritional ketosis and will rise over the course of the day.

I am fat adapted!!!!! I don't know why I am not losing but I am going to hang in this WOE for the long haul. I'm 15 pounds away from normal weight and 25 away from my goal.

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  • rainbowunicorns720
    rainbowunicorns720 Posts: 48 Member
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    Your ketones are lower because that carb feed caused a spike in insulin. Insulin rises...ketones fall...and fat is stored instead of burned. Insulin is THE fat storing hormone. You will not lose fat with elevated insulin. .6 is technically ketosis but barely. .5-1.5 is light nutritional ketosis with optimal being 1.5-3.0. If you eat anything else today that raises insulin even slightly it's going to knock you out of ketosis. If you want to know why you aren't losing...it's because of the carb loads. You need to keep your insulin supressed to get your ketones high and burning fat. Your ketones rise during the day because you are consuming dietary fat. Some of the ketones is body fat burned...but any reading you take after eating is affected by the fat you ate... because that point it is a measure of the body fat AND dietary fat that your body is burning. The only reading that is a direct measure of body fat (only) burned is your morning reading. That's assuming a fasted state of at least eight hours. Hope this helps!
  • rainbowunicorns720
    rainbowunicorns720 Posts: 48 Member
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    Your morning fasting ketones are great though...do whatever you were doing at that time...and keep it up without a carb load if you can and you should start losing again. It takes a certain period of time of your body having low insulin levels to trigger fat release. I don't know how often you do these carb loads but it's probably often enough that your insulin isn't being suppressed long enough. How are your calories? I find that even if i have really high ketones (sometimes as high as 4.6 in the evening) I still won't lose unless my calories are low enough.
  • deans_mama
    deans_mama Posts: 11
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    rainbowunicir- you've made very inaccurate assumptions.
    1. I don't cheat hence the writing of the "experiment".
    2. My macros are dead on .
    3. 0.6 is still ketosis regardless if its high or low after a huge carb reefed after a fasted state.
    4. I'm fat adapted per this experiment AND my average fasting blood ketones- so I DO NOT spike my insulin usually.
    5.leptin is also a hormone related to fat loss.
  • rainbowunicorns720
    rainbowunicorns720 Posts: 48 Member
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    I'm offering up possibilities as to why you aren't losing weight...and those are usually the reasons you stop losing weight on keto. But do what works works for you. I never said you weren't keto adapted either...if you weren't you wouldn't have a reading at all. If you don't cheat then this is your first experience with what a cheat will do to your ketosis. I've btdt and was just trying to offer what I had learned from it. Good luck.
  • Leonidas_meets_Spartacus
    Leonidas_meets_Spartacus Posts: 6,198 Member
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    Ketone/Ketones level don't indicate fat loss, it just means your body is using fat to feed the brain and other organs. If you want to lose the body fat, your cells should have a negative flux. Leptin regulates hunger and has nothing to do with Fat loss for most part. Insulin is like general in fat metabolism, to simplify Insulin kinda decides when fat is to be stored, used etc. If you are not losing weight, did you get you BF tested? There were few weeks when I didn't lose any weight or even gained but was consistently losing fat, though my scale thought otherwise.
  • ginnyspencer1
    ginnyspencer1 Posts: 16 Member
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    Thanks for this post! I've been in keto without refeeds for 3 months (well there was that one "third of a slice of cake" that made me so sick that one time...lol...you know, keto issues :-) ) . I've also been juggling carb re-feed -vs- be patienta and wait and see -vs- increase calories...trying to make sure my last 15 lbs of fat loss actually HAPPEN. right?! I'd love to hear how your experiment continues with the refeed. Good move doing it before bed. I read that's the ideal way to go. Keep up the good work!
  • RachelRuns9
    RachelRuns9 Posts: 585 Member
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    Ketone/Ketones level don't indicate fat loss, it just means your body is using fat to feed the brain and other organs.

    This. If you aren't losing it's because you're eating at maintenance!
  • droogievesch
    droogievesch Posts: 202
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    I had a HORRIBLE experience with a "Reload". I went to my mother's birthday party and ate whatever my little heart desired (and drank more shots than I thought I would). End result: I gained 6 lbs overnight and 6 days later I'm still up 2 lbs. I feel horrible about it, but lesson learned that I cannot do that. I've been trying for the past week to get myself back into ketosis and I have yet to do it :(
  • rainbowunicorns720
    rainbowunicorns720 Posts: 48 Member
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    Definitely true that if your calories aren't low enough you won't lose. I'm assuming that's because you are providing all the fat your body needs through diet so it has no need to tap in to its fat stores.
  • suzettewhatever
    suzettewhatever Posts: 6
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    Exactly. As your body mass decreases so does the amount of calories you need. As you have already lost some weight your defficit has been decreasing as well. Basically the gas tank is shrinking so it takes less gas to fill it. If you want to keep the tank only 2/3 full you have to put in less now that you have a smaller tank.

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