Ketogenic Cheat Days
Bob314159
Posts: 1,178 Member
I've been doing keto for 3 or 4 months- around 30carbs per day- pretty consistently. I was losing 2 lbs per week, then upped my calories - so now I'm doing 1.75 lbs per week. I had a goal for last week and I ended up 3 lbs under that. This week I've intentionally not been careful - I've been eating with family and/friends and put on 2 lbs, but still under my goal. I will have no trouble getting back on track tomorrow.
I still need to lose another 40-50 lbs. I have no desire for a cheat day where I eat lots of carbs. My trainer has been discussing my diet, and he believes I should cheat and eat more once a week - I think he means calories, not carbs. His believe is the body can get used to a low intake diet, and I would stop losing weight as rapidly as I am unless I play tricks with my diet.
I still need to lose another 40-50 lbs. I have no desire for a cheat day where I eat lots of carbs. My trainer has been discussing my diet, and he believes I should cheat and eat more once a week - I think he means calories, not carbs. His believe is the body can get used to a low intake diet, and I would stop losing weight as rapidly as I am unless I play tricks with my diet.
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I have found, personally, that having slightly more carbs can be enough to "shock" my body into losing weight again, but I'm talking a very small difference in amount here. For example, eating 8% carbs one day and then 10% the next if often enough to do this for me - I guess my body is very sensitive to carbs. I believe this "shock" value is what your trainer is referring to. I would recommend the following: Ignore him...keep calm and keto on! You know this. You got this.0
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I can't see a way of increasing intake without knocking myself out of ketosis. The benefits of ketosis are more important to me. I feel that the scale will catch up later, and my body will settle at a normal weight eventually.0
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First of all your results are awesome and you should keep global perspective. 1.5lbs a week is still great and as someone who has lost a lot of weigh i can tell you it doesn't last. you will have weeks of stalling and small gains. Do not panic.
That being said...
I do have every couple of months a cheat night scheduled a couple of weeks ahead of time. In that cheat day i will purposely try to spike my insulin as high as possible (i have no health issues, i do not recommend this if you have any blood sugar regulation issue). I will use donuts, juice just crap. I will feel like crap the next 2 days but i seem to feel better after and get back into ketosis quickly. The idea is that it resets some hormonal issues that long term ketosis may - keyword is may - cause. The weight loss impact is minimal from my experience. I just seem to feel better and less tired. I go back to the keto euphoria after that.
I have seen so many who don;t do this and are fine. I have seen people do it weekly (tried it and caused me to stall).
Good luck.0 -
Was the reason he said that because you had lost more one week than projected? That happens sometimes. With 40-50 pounds still to lose, I don't think you have to worry about it. Is this trainer familiar with keto? I don't think his theory is valid with keto, though I think it happens frequently with SAD (standard American diet).0
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My daily a lories vary a lot. I bounce between 1000 and 2200 calories on most days. When I average around 1500 I lose best but I am finding that more and more days are closer to 2000 lately so my weight loss is very slow now.
I find I do have to be careful not to add in more carbs. I try not to go over 20g per day but on days when I eat more my carbs tends to go up (30g) and then my appetite goes up, and my BG may be affected.
So I think changing calorie levels can be helpful, I tend to lose faster that way, but be careful not to increase your overall calorie level. If you add on one day, you may need a bit less on others.
This is just my experience.0 -
Lots of folks post lots of different philosophies on "cheating".
Here's mine - "cheating", the mentality, food as reward rather than fuel, is what got me to 350 lbs and morbidly obese in the first place.
I'm done.
Loosing and gaining 50 lbs over and over and hating myself and feeling miserable is a merry go round that I'm done with.
I've never heard anyone that isn't weight training or working on their physique be "happy" that they had a carb cheat day. Yuck, bloating, up 2 to 5 lbs in a day, mental fog, then weeks getting readapted to keto - why bother?
If I "cheat", it's a monster steak or higher calories, not carbs. I'll allow myself close to 30 total carbs maybe with half cup or so of full fat yogurt, a few raspberries, maybe a large salad, but no to destroying my friend NT - nutritional Ketosis.
If you are flirting with 20 or 30 lbs or so to tone up and look good it might be different. If you are morbidly obese (isn't that a great, terrifying phrase?!?!) like me, then cheating is part of the stinkin' thinking that got me here.
Oh, and I just got the news of a friend who died of diabetes. The last picture I saw of him was "celebrating" with a huge piece of birthday cake.
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@nicintime I am sorry to hear about your friend. 0
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@nicintime I am sorry to hear about your friend.
Thank you.0 -
He was talking about it cause I mentioned I had been off for a week. He said don't be surprised to get a burst of [fake] loss from water once I become keto again, and he thought I would then get another surge of [real] loss from the body getting surprised by an increase in consumption, followed by returning to a low intake.
He is familiar with ketogenic.Was the reason he said that because you had lost more one week than projected? That happens sometimes. With 40-50 pounds still to lose, I don't think you have to worry about it. Is this trainer familiar with keto? I don't think his theory is valid with keto, though I think it happens frequently with SAD (standard American diet).
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