Focus on the meat. Eat less of the other stuff.

I make a crustless lemon whip (0 carbs) and cheesecake (don't eat crust or make with chopped almonds)

@kpk54 that is a great mantra. (and i am in the same boat of loving candy. with lots of kids at home…though i did ok last year on strictly CICO and watching how much i ate rather than worrying about carbs; hopefully i do ok this year with wanting to watch carbs than strictly calories).

tonight will be rough for me to remember to STEP AWAY FROM the FOOD; we have a church halloween party that is a chili cook-off _and_ a huge dessert table. thank you for the mantra to keep in mind

I white-knuckled through Halloween (the remains of which are still resident in our office kitchen). Re Thanksgiving, I plan to enjoy roasted turkey skin for the first time in YEARS. I'll be skipping the mashed potatoes. I was never a fan anyway. I plan to make my own stuffing from a recipe on the Charlie Foundation site. I recommend their TG recipes for anyone wanting to keep it true w/o feeling deprived or out of sync w/fellow diners. I make a killer spaghetti squash gratin that has been a staple on my TG table for eons. And it is Keto. Who'd a thunk it? My tradition has always been to hit the gym or trail hard on TG morning to front-load my calorie burn. No changes there. I think the key to this will be to plan, plan, plan. There's plenty of time!

CentaurusSoter wrote: »

qweck3 wrote: »

During the first 2 months of keto in trying to get to the fat adapted stage I'd suggest being strict with the diet if being fat adapted is your goal. Once that happens if there are a few times a year that you enjoy special foods on holidays go for it in moderation. I think you will see that long term that stuff will be in front of you and there is zero desire for it regardless.

I’ve stuck with keto and keeping 20-25 carbs a day since I started. The situations like the holidays coming up are something I am dreading going through
, since I have no idea what eating a normal, much less thanksgiving dinner is gonna he like. As far as I know, I haven’t had enough carbs to leave ketosis in any major way in months.

What’s it like eating a normal food meal after getting fat adapted? Do you get sick? Food coma? Do you have to wait months again to get fat adapted again? I’ve been really curious how long it takes to lose fat adaption as well.

If it’s just out of keto for a few days until you burn off the hundreds of carbs from turkey day, that’d be fine. This part of keto is what causes me stress, since it feels like I am flying blind. The friend that got me into keto quit after a week or two.. meanwhile I am 115 days in, solo.

That depends.
Some people find they get gastric upset and food coma after they do a cheat meal. Some have one or the other. A few have neither.

You will be out of ketosis if you eat enough carbs. If you've been in ketosis 4-6 weeks, you are likely fat adapted. Adaptation, once gained, isn't that easily lost. The metabolic machinery has been built. It doesn't disappear. Once you've depleted glycogen stores and maintain keto-level carbs again, you'll go back into ketosis. It may take a few days to feel like you're back in the saddle again, but ketosis is ketosis as far as your body is concerned. I haven't heard a definitive answer on how long it takes to lose adaptation, but I'm 100% certain 1 or 2 days isn't enough to cause that. ( I would be interested in the info if anyone else has heard better on the subject.)

Water weight will come on due to glycogen replenishment. It can take as little as 2 days to as much as a week for your body to shed that. It's just water. It will leave.

Remember to keep up with your salt when you're back on track. Some people can get a bit of a mini-keto flu from bouncing out and then back in.
HTH.

CentaurusSoter wrote: »

qweck3 wrote: »

During the first 2 months of keto in trying to get to the fat adapted stage I'd suggest being strict with the diet if being fat adapted is your goal. Once that happens if there are a few times a year that you enjoy special foods on holidays go for it in moderation. I think you will see that long term that stuff will be in front of you and there is zero desire for it regardless.

I’ve stuck with keto and keeping 20-25 carbs a day since I started. The situations like the holidays coming up are something I am dreading going through
, since I have no idea what eating a normal, much less thanksgiving dinner is gonna he like. As far as I know, I haven’t had enough carbs to leave ketosis in any major way in months.

What’s it like eating a normal food meal after getting fat adapted? Do you get sick? Food coma? Do you have to wait months again to get fat adapted again? I’ve been really curious how long it takes to lose fat adaption as well.

If it’s just out of keto for a few days until you burn off the hundreds of carbs from turkey day, that’d be fine. This part of keto is what causes me stress, since it feels like I am flying blind. The friend that got me into keto quit after a week or two.. meanwhile I am 115 days in, solo.

Many will splurge a bit on carbs during the holidays but a keto'er's splurge is often different than someone who eats higher carb. I might have a tablespoon or two of mashed potatoes or a couple of bites of roasted potatoes. I'll eat some mashed carrots and turnips. I make my stuffing sausage heavy so I have a bit of that too. I'll use some gravy for flavour, same with cranberries, but it's just enough to smear on my turkey - no gravy puddle. I may have a small slide of pie, with whipped cream (no icecream) but I'm more likely to make my own LCHF dessert and have a larger piece instead.

I will often feel an energy slump if I have too many carbs, and my appetite is up for a few days afterwards. I will often gain a couple of pounds, but as mentioned earlier, it's just water and is gone the next week - no biggie.

If I eat way too many carbs, especially in refined carbs, my stomach may feel off for a few days and my BMs tend towards constipation or the runs. I may get a headache (could be due to electrolytes or swinging BG), not sleep as well, and my arthritis may act up - that can last a good couple of weeks so I try not to hit that point.

If you go for a brisk walk after the meal, that will go a ways towards minimizing your BG rise.

I think I will be okay with the holiday meals themselves, but have been dreaming of Christmas cookies lately. If there are lots of those around I might be in trouble. Good news for Thanksgiving is there is an early morning boot camp class I can take to preempt the calories and one on Black Friday to burn some off as well.

baconslave wrote: »

CentaurusSoter wrote: »

qweck3 wrote: »

edited for space

That depends.
Some people find they get gastric upset and food coma after they do a cheat meal. Some have one or the other. A few have neither.

You will be out of ketosis if you eat enough carbs. If you've been in ketosis 4-6 weeks, you are likely fat adapted. Adaptation, once gained, isn't that easily lost. The metabolic machinery has been built. It doesn't disappear. Once you've depleted glycogen stores and maintain keto-level carbs again, you'll go back into ketosis. It may take a few days to feel like you're back in the saddle again, but ketosis is ketosis as far as your body is concerned. I haven't heard a definitive answer on how long it takes to lose adaptation, but I'm 100% certain 1 or 2 days isn't enough to cause that. ( I would be interested in the info if anyone else has heard better on the subject.)

Water weight will come on due to glycogen replenishment. It can take as little as 2 days to as much as a week for your body to shed that. It's just water. It will leave.

Remember to keep up with your salt when you're back on track. Some people can get a bit of a mini-keto flu from bouncing out and then back in.
HTH.

Ugh, ketoflu. That was the worst and I dropped weight way too fast, probably to a dangerous level, before figuring out I could use powerade zero. 3 days of those got me through that and never had an issue like that since. Pretty sure that was mostly severe dehydration and nutrient loss. Turns out, the water-per-kg ratio is not applicable to a morbidly obese person, and drinking 5L of fluids a day is insane.

Still, the idea that I can leave ketosis, have a t-day meal, and get back to it in a week or so, and stay fat adapted, is really good news. I'm going on 4 months (120 days soon in keto) so hopefully my system is fully converted and good to stay for the long term. I was only concerned as I couldn't find any information on how long you can keep fat adaptation before reverting. There is a ton of info out there, but so much is focused on people that do keto for a week or two, or is introductory focused, and then like many people, the info seems to just dry up for those that are a few months in or more.

nvmomketo wrote: »

CentaurusSoter wrote: »

qweck3 wrote: »

edited for space

Many will splurge a bit on carbs during the holidays but a keto'er's splurge is often different than someone who eats higher carb. I might have a tablespoon or two of mashed potatoes or a couple of bites of roasted potatoes. I'll eat some mashed carrots and turnips. I make my stuffing sausage heavy so I have a bit of that too. I'll use some gravy for flavour, same with cranberries, but it's just enough to smear on my turkey - no gravy puddle. I may have a small slide of pie, with whipped cream (no icecream) but I'm more likely to make my own LCHF dessert and have a larger piece instead.

I will often feel an energy slump if I have too many carbs, and my appetite is up for a few days afterwards. I will often gain a couple of pounds, but as mentioned earlier, it's just water and is gone the next week - no biggie.

If I eat way too many carbs, especially in refined carbs, my stomach may feel off for a few days and my BMs tend towards constipation or the runs. I may get a headache (could be due to electrolytes or swinging BG), not sleep as well, and my arthritis may act up - that can last a good couple of weeks so I try not to hit that point.

If you go for a brisk walk after the meal, that will go a ways towards minimizing your BG rise.

Being a Southerner, it means turkeyday is a carb heavy day for the staples.Add to that my family and I are all very good cooks.. that means homemade pies, breads, cheese pie (macaroni bake) and so on. I think I am going to figure out a caloric limit that I am good with, like 2500-3000 calories per day, and up my macros to a low carb ish level, and then plan what I'll eat from there. While I could eat an entire pecan pie.. I think I'll figure out the numbers for a slice or two and enjoy the day, while avoiding a food coma (hopefully). Packing my running gear is a good idea.

qweck3 wrote: »

CentaurusSoter wrote: »

qweck3 wrote: »

edited for space

You may feel the effects as all that breakdown of sugar hits the blood but that should be over in a few hours. I've just found that for me I have zero desire for the carby stuff any more. If I do take in higher carbs its usually right before a workouts so more like instant fuel.

Once you are fat adapted you can take in higher amounts of carbs without major issues.

Blood sugar issues and worrying about being nearly 180kg are one of the reasons I went keto. It's nice not having crashes anymore. It's weird still to get some fat/protein when feeling hungry and in need of fuel to people that haven't gone through this before.

Thanks all of y'all for this information. It's really some of the critical stuff I needed to know. I'm probably gonna stick to a low carb day or stick to a keto diet. I dunno. If I was a year in, I wouldn't be so worried. The fact I should be able to recover within a week is really good to know though. My main goal is to find ways to be normal within my dietary constraints. I figure if I don't have some ability to adapt to the situation, I won't stay with this long term. I know I wouldn't have stuck with this for this long if I hadn't figured out some of that already. Not having carb cravings anymore really makes a difference.