From keto to maintenance
amring
Posts: 21 Member
Hi everyone, I've been on the keto diet for a month now and so close to reach my goal weight! I'm planning to come off the keto diet on valentine's but I have a dilemma. Ive been feeling so great whilst being on the diet, how do I come off it without gaining weight, get back to my bad eating habits and prevent getting sugar lows in the afternoons? Any ideas are much welcomed! Thanks in advance!
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Replies
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Weight gain/loss/maintenance is about calories, not how you eat. If you like eating that way, you can keep doing so. You'd just need to eat a bit more overall so that you are at a maintenance calorie level rather than a deficit calorie level.10
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no offense intended but thats why it should not be called a diet, but instead called, a way of eating, a lifelong way. Its okay to cheat or maybe raise the maximum carb level per day while in maintenance.
Listen to your body..... You just said you are feeling do great...... do you WANT to start feeling like crap again?9 -
What were these "bad habits"?
Eating too much clearly but what else was bad about your previous dietary choices?
I find it a bit confusing that you "feel great" eating in your current way but seem determined to change it, can't you just increase your calories to maintenance levels but eat in the same way?
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Hi everyone, I've been on the keto diet for a month now and so close to reach my goal weight! I'm planning to come off the keto diet on valentine's but I have a dilemma. Ive been feeling so great whilst being on the diet, how do I come off it without gaining weight, get back to my bad eating habits and prevent getting sugar lows in the afternoons? Any ideas are much welcomed! Thanks in advance!
If you go off keto, you're going to gain weight because you will be eating carbs again and that will replenish glycogen stores and add water weight...it's not fat, so it's not a big deal...but yeah, the scale will go up when you re-introduce carbohydrates.
If you want, you can just remain keto and increase calories to maintenance if that's your preferred way of eating. Alternatively, you could just eat a balanced, nutrient dense diet...it doesn't have to be keto or all the junk...there's like this huge middle ground where you're eating a lot of good healthy foods and not getting sugar crashes and whatnot. I don't remotely eat keto and I don't have bad eating habits and I don't get sugar crashes because I don't eat crap all day long.9 -
The others are right. Keto is a lifestyle, not just a diet. It's about burning fat instead of glucose. You can easily start incorporating more carbs on the plan since you no longer need to lose weight. Know what your maintenance carbs & calories are. S..l..o..w..l..y... add more carbs back in. It could take a couple of months to reach your maintenance. If you are at 20 Net then move to 50 Net and stay there for about 2 weeks. Then move up to 70 Net and stay a week or more. Move to 100 and stay awhile. Keep doing that until you reach maintenance. You can do this with Keto foods and stay Keto, or you can incorporate healthy carbs of fruit, veggies & grains (off keto), but do it s...l...o...w...l...y. And @tsazani is absolutely right. Water weight will hit you as your liver fills back up (if you go off the keto plan), so plan for that. I usually gain about 6 pounds of water (the same as I lost the 1st week of the keto diet). So you may want to lose a couple of extra pounds beyond your plan to allow for that. Whichever way you choose, good luck. We support you 100% and wish you luck.4
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Everyone has given some solid advice. While calories don't matter as much on keto, if you go back to the way you were eating a month ago, you're going to gain your weight back. As it was suggested, slowly add back in your carbs and you'll find your happy medium to maintain your weight. However, if you're still losing weight, maybe reevaluate your goal weight? Good luck!18
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mrsskinny629 wrote: »Everyone has given some solid advice. While calories don't matter as much on keto, if you go back to the way you were eating a month ago, you're going to gain your weight back. As it was suggested, slowly add back in your carbs and you'll find your happy medium to maintain your weight. However, if you're still losing weight, maybe reevaluate your goal weight? Good luck!
Calories matter as much on keto as any other diet or WOE.20 -
mrsskinny629 wrote: »Everyone has given some solid advice. While calories don't matter as much on keto, if you go back to the way you were eating a month ago, you're going to gain your weight back. As it was suggested, slowly add back in your carbs and you'll find your happy medium to maintain your weight. However, if you're still losing weight, maybe reevaluate your goal weight? Good luck!
Long term calorie balance determines weight loss, gain or maintenance so yes they matter for any kind of diet.10 -
mrsskinny629 wrote: »Everyone has given some solid advice. While calories don't matter as much on keto, if you go back to the way you were eating a month ago, you're going to gain your weight back. As it was suggested, slowly add back in your carbs and you'll find your happy medium to maintain your weight. However, if you're still losing weight, maybe reevaluate your goal weight? Good luck!
Of course calories matter as much-they're what determines weight loss/gain/maintenance, not specific macros ratios.8 -
You've only been eating keto for a month, so you are not fully fat adapted yet anyway. So it sounds like you need to first decide whether you want to continue with keto or not long term. If yes, then all you need to do to maintain weight is to increase how much total you eat. To stay keto, that will mean increasing fat and protein rather than carbs.9
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Part of success in maintaining is figuring out the way you intend to eat for the long term. Honestly, no fancy diet ever worked for me... inevitably I’d put the weight back.
It sounds like you’re using keto to just drop the weight and then hoping to go back to eating the way you were to begin with. Given that, I’d encourage you to ditch Keto now and figure out how to eat in a way that’s going to be reasonable indefinitely. Figure out what kind of portion sizes and foods you need to eat to stay within your ideal caloric range as well as keep you happy. This is making peace with food... far more important than dropping a bunch of weight quick in a month. Good luck in figuring this out!5 -
Thanks for all the advice everyone! To be honest I was struggling with keto in the beginning but now I'm used to it and actually feel good. I do miss the carbs sometimes (bread/cake) is my biggest weakness!! My main challenge during this weight loss journey has been social gatherings. Mostly I feel left out as the food tend to be non-keto friendly and everyone tend to be SO judgemental if you don't eat carbs with them! Hence I don't see it as a long term solution (to completely eliminate carbs from my diet). I guess I'm just scared to gain all the weight back again once I start increasing the carb intake! But I just have to be on top of monitoring my weight fluctuations and do something about it sooner rather than just leave it...4
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Thanks for all the advice everyone! To be honest I was struggling with keto in the beginning but now I'm used to it and actually feel good. I do miss the carbs sometimes (bread/cake) is my biggest weakness!! My main challenge during this weight loss journey has been social gatherings. Mostly I feel left out as the food tend to be non-keto friendly and everyone tend to be SO judgemental if you don't eat carbs with them! Hence I don't see it as a long term solution (to completely eliminate carbs from my diet). I guess I'm just scared to gain all the weight back again once I start increasing the carb intake! But I just have to be on top of monitoring my weight fluctuations and do something about it sooner rather than just leave it...
You will seen an increase on the scale initially, due to water weight replenishment. But, as long as you continue to eat at the correct calorie intake for your weight management goals (your maintenance level intake as you transition into maintenance), then you'll be fine. I currently eat 200+ carbs a day on average and I've had no problem hitting my weight targets/currently wear size 4 jeans etc.2 -
It’s not keto vs maintenance. You can maintain on keto if you want to eat that way. Not that I recommend keto at all, just sayin.1
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