51 Days Off Keto...Now What? Need Advice

(Dawn) #1

I am not sure if anyone can identify with this thread. I am hoping that I don’t anger all of my supportive friends. BUT, I have been off of Keto for about 51days. It started as just a Weekend celebration of my birthday. The plan was to eat anything I wanted and ALLLLLLL the sugar. After all, I was fat adapted and a seasoned EF’er. I thought I had all the tools to easily get back on track and back into Ketosis.

Well…that didn’t work out. A monster came out that I could not control. 2 days turned into 2 weeks, then 2 weeks turned into almost 2 months. I ate everything. Venti Green Tea frappucino’s from Starbucks, jelly beans, chocolate, donuts, cake, pasta, bread. I was able to squeeze it all in over the 51 days that I was away from Keto/IF/EF. I lost that wonderful ability to feel full and satisfied. My cravings were OUT OF CONTROL.

My plan was to live Keto forever. I never imagined that just a small cheat would ruin me for almost two months. And I gained about 26 pounds!! I tried over and over to get back on track. I tried fasting, but I couldn’t stop eating. I tried focusing on just being keto, but I kept eating too much sugar or too many carbs. I am in tears over my wayward ways. Finally after much prayer, I was able to get through 24 hour semi fast with broth, heavy cream and black coffee. Control is coming back. But Now What? I still want a donut.

I don’t know which direction to go in now. How do I get back on track? I have seen many people on the forum go off plan for a few days or maybe a week or two. But I have never seen folks who lost their way for two full months.

I was fat adapted quite nicely. Have I destroyed all of those enzymes? Am I now a sugar burner again? What exactly happens to your body when you abandon keto like this? Is fasting the best way to get back into Ketosis or should I focus on keto eating to get back into ketosis? What caused me to lose control this way? Is it because of too much fasting early on in my journey? Has all been lost because I was off Keto for so long?

Can anyone help? I need a good stern "talking to"

*Full disclosure I have been under tremendous stress over the last couple months as well. I appreciate (thanks to other forum members) that stress can be a contributor as well.

#2

Im still fairly new to keto, but I feel like if you have cravings that strong, try to find or make a keto alternative. It will keep you on track and satisfy the itch while your body adjusts back to where it was before.

Somewhere someone made a keto alternative to whatever craving you have! Just google it!

(Dawn) #3

Thanks so much. I tried keto treats and they helped, but they weren’t enough. I still ended up grabbing real sugar. I was just too out of control to do the right thing. :rofl::rofl:

(CharleyD) #4

Welcome back Dawn!

You’re most definitely back to being a sugar burner so the best thing to do is load up on good whole foods. Forget the fasting for now, just when you’re hungry, fill up with the usual keto stuff.

The mitochondria have settled back into using glucose as their main substrate, but there’s nothing to stop them from turning back over to using FFA if you provide them that.

You should be able to get back to ketosis quicker now than when you initially started. Nothing is destroyed.

When I’ve had to stray for a meal, like birthday’s, etc. I made sure that I included ACV prior to subsequent meals, drank a lot of water, added more salt to most things, and boiled some eggs and popped them whenever I got a bit sugar crave-y.

Here’s to your return to clean(er) eating! Cheers!

#5

One day at a time. The past is past, guilt is a useless emotion and focus on now and tomorrow. Get back on the horse as best as you can. Be kind to yourself. We all lapse. I am lapsing at the moment and will get back on.

(Banting & Yudkin & Atkins & Eadeses & Cordain & Taubes & Volek & Naiman & Bikman ) #6

Been there. Done that. Had a cheat day turn into a cheat year.

I think the best advice is to go back and go hard. Reread whatever book had the plan you were following, pick a day, and get back on it. Remember how easy it is to do once you get over the hump.

#7

I LOVE popcorn and my husband and I are very excited for the Infinity War Avengers movie. I 100% plan on enjoying myself at the movie and having lots of popcorn and butter.

But i can also sneak in snacks in my purse! Cheese, meat snack sticks etc.

#8

Stern talking too? No prob, that’s my specialty. Cut the shit and start eating some bacon! You already know you messed up, you know WHY, you know HOW, and you KNOW how to fix it, so don’t make a simple thing complicated… and just DO IT! Welcome back and call it a lesson learned. Fighting off sugar isn’t easy, if it was most of us wouldn’t be here right now, just remember that next time you want to “cheat”. Nothing else matters, no point in debating what or why, what condition your fat adaptation is, maybe this, maybe that just eat keto again NOW!

Welcome back to the heard.

#9

It would probably be best to start over like you have never done keto before. Don’t focus on calories, etc. Just focus on keeping those carbs low until you can get your hunger back under control…Then you can turn your focus to keeping a tighter rein on those macros and calories to start the weight loss back up again…

You can do it!

(Jay AM) #10

Stop worrying about what you’ve done and focus on what you need to do. You are an adult and, as an adult, you have to put up with a lot of stuff. This is just something else to put up with. Go back to basics like a newbie. Don’t expect the quick weight losses a lot see at the beginning of keto though, many people that go off and come back don’t see that initial quick loss the next time. Get back on the track you know was working for you and, next time, be prepared to celebrate in a keto way. Junk food is a reward for short term dieters that will never achieve anything. Junk food is not a reward for keto, it’s a punishment to your mind and body and isn’t worth it.

Also consider, if you eat something that causes cravings, Dr. Adam Nally says it can take 3 days to stop having cravings from that one item. Don’t worry about fasting, just like most of us wouldn’t recommend a new person fast. Get back in tune with your body and get going back to where you’ve been before. The path is still there, you just have to clear out the weeds.

(Banting & Yudkin & Atkins & Eadeses & Cordain & Taubes & Volek & Naiman & Bikman ) #11

Whisps, yo. A go to popcorn substitute. I think one of my movie theaters even sells them.

#12

Pah! 2 months is just a blip.
You’ve got decades ahead to fine tune this.

If cold turkey doesn’t work for you then cut down steadily over a few days.
At the same time, eat lots. Lots of filling, satisfying Low Carb stuff.
Baked goods and artificial sweeteners could help you through the transition.

And most important of all:

STOP BEATING YOURSELF UP

:grinning:

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #13

You are in the same position as a relapsed alcoholic, and I imagine it will be difficult. A lot of people find that sobriety after a relapse is a much tougher proposition than their initial go. So let me start off by thanking you for your story. I am a sugar addict and have been idly wondering about maybe having a dozen or two glazed doughnuts . . . just as a treat, you understand, then right back on the horse. It’s good to have a reminder that it doesn’t work that way.

Try my favorite tricks. First, you can always have sugar again, but just postpone your next sweet till tomorrow. No need to swear off for ever, just don’t have any right now. Perhaps you can make an agreement with someone to speak with them first before you have your next sweet. In early sobriety I once called my sponsor about really needing a drink, and he promised to meet me at a certain bar near my office, when it opened at ten a.m. Needless to say, by the time ten a.m. came around, I no longer needed to go to the bar.

Think the craving all the way through: not just how nice that stuff will feel on your tongue, but the consequences later, and how you will feel having to deal with them. A sugar headache might not be quite as bad as a hangover, but it can come pretty close, and there are other unpleasant consequences to think about as well. One guy I used to know told me that when he really wanted a drink, he would imagine putting his car keys and the deed to his house down on the bar when he placed his order.

Pray. Our own strength is not enough to keep us from our addictive substance, we need help from outside. A.A. tells its members that they can decide for themselves what their higher power is, as long as it’s a power greater than ourselves. If you’re not a believer, simply aske the universe for help, That’s part of what you’re doing by posting here, as well. After all, collectively we have an enormous amount of experience and wisdom about the ketogenic way of eating—much more than any one of us has individually.

Try to help someone else, especially someone else who is struggling to stay with the keto way of eating. You’ll end up helping yourself far more than the other person! (This is part of how A.A. works, by the way, you help yourself by helping others.) You’ve already helped me keep off the sugar today, just by starting this thread! Thank you.

There’s a lot more, but this is enough for now. Send me a private message or an e-mail (I think you can through these forums) if you need to. I’ll be pulling for you, regardless.

(Ken) #14

I suggest you restrain yourself to eating carbs only on the weekend. That way you have something to look forward to. You’ll quickly drop whatever weight you’ve gained.

(Newimprovedme ) #15

@Goal179 I understand your pain. I recently fell off the wagon for 6 months. I’ve been back for 8 weeks now. It happens. Like others have pointed out stop beating up yourself. For me the way I got back on the horse was to eat as much keto friendly meals as would keep me satiated. I didn’t let myself get hungry. Until my cravings left in a few days. I loaded up on eggs, bacon, avocados, butter…and kept them close at hand in case of cravings. Just keep yourself satiated with high fat keto foods for a few days and the cravings will soon go away.
KCKO

#16

I think do whatever will get you through the first few days. If that is fasting fine, if that is eating as much fat and as few carbs as you can fine too.

I started keto over 11 months ago but the month before I found fasting. I know that is reverse order of most people. I was coming from a moderate carb diet with no flour but a lot of cheating. I had lost 15 lbs and then stalled. I was reading up on T2 to help some other people and stumbled on Dr. Fung and was fascinated by the idea of IF. Over the next couple of weeks I had a number of catered parties and a wedding and in order to get through them I decided to mostly IF from one party to the next. At the party I could eat whatever I wanted although I tend to stay away from wheat anyway as I do not tolerate it well so that limits me (did have one dessert with wheat at one of the parties, planned to have a second and never got around to it because I was not that hungry). After 4 or 5 catered events and dinners out in 10 days I lost 5 lbs, eating whatever I wanted at each (I was not that hungry so did not gorge). It was a miracle and I was hooked. Then someone on Fung’s site mentioned keto and I thought why not try it. Interestingly, fasting was harder when I was doing keto for the first month or so, then I started feasting on keto before a fast and it became easier

My point is that there is more than one approach that works

(Vincent Hall) #17

Watching this to see how you progress. I’m currently off Keto while I sort myself out. I appear to have a bigger OCD than I realised, and was also way to stressed out out about everything, work, home and it appears edting keto.
Stress and lack of sleep needs to be sorted out to ease the path into keto lmo.
But we are all individuals, I wish you good fortune.
\v/

(Dawn) #18

I love this forum. Thank you all so much for pushing me back up on the horse. There was some good advice here about making sure to go keto first and focus on controlling those carbs. Some also suggested that I go straight to fasting. I decided to do both. I am coming straight off a carby food and sugar binge with 3000- 4000 calories a day, so my metabolism is pretty high. I figured this was a great time to jump into a EF with good results. I took one day to keto up with lots of healthy fats, sausages, eggs, cheese and an entire can of macadamia nuts. The next day, I jumped cold turkey into a fast. My fear with being keto on the heels of the sugar binge is that eating will trigger me to crave sugar. I have a tendency to always crave something sweet after I eat. I am in a dangerous place right now and keto treats just didn’t seem like a good idea to me.

So I went cold turkey into a EF with alot of crutches including: Brenda’s Keto aid throughout the day to keep me hydrated and full, mio, bone broth, and heavy cream w/ decaf coffee. The first day of fasting, I had to break open an emergency diet coke to help me with the sugar cravings (I am not a soda drinker but desperate times call for desperate measures). The caffeine helped with my appetite and the sweet taste saved me from falling back off the wagon and getting a donut.

The second day, I was able to skip the broth and the diet coke. Just coffee w heavy cream and keto aid.

Today is the third day. So far, keto aid, coffee with heavy cream. I feel much better. My digestive system is starting to empty out all of the junk. My energy and mood is starting to improve. I woke up with that familiar “fasting glow”. I am down eight pounds. I even got a box of donuts for my son’s teachers and had no temptation at all (they requested the donuts. I was going to take them salami and cheese, but they didnt’ want that). I am still not in ketosis, so I am working from sheer will power here. Right now I am just using keto sticks. I will start testing blood in a couple of days to see where I am.

To help with the stress: I am journaling daily, walking daily, logging my food daily, even when fasting - I log everything (I had completely stopped logging), praying daily (as always but more acutely focused on strength to get me through sugar temptations) and visiting this forum daily. I intend to break the fast on saturday. I think Zorn is coming up, so I will jump in there and do that one too.

(Liz ) #19

Cheering you on!! :tada: You got this! You know exactly what to do, that sugar addiction is a bear, but you have all of us with you to fight it back. Remember, the longer you go without eating carbage, the less willpower you will require to deal with thoughts of it. So it won’t always be so hard. One day at a time, it’s worth it!!

(Doug) #20

Dawn, carbs are addictive - I don’t think there is any doubt of that, for most of us. Just how far we will ‘relapse’ is an individual thing, and I think most of us test that. I’m very impressed with the “strict keto” folks on this forum, but I don’t think I’ll ever be ‘pure.’

No, I am sure it’s not all been lost. I’ve gotten large pizzas, or had several Margaritas, chips and salsa, and a plate of burritos, or had what is frankly a horrendous amount of drinks - I do feel worse afterwards but going back to keto and to fasting too has been easy.

How do you do it - you just do it. Yes, maybe thinking about it in terms of “one day at a time” will work best. We’re not perfect but we are playing a long game here.