Anyone near or at goal and thinking about slowly adding carbs while monitoring your Keto status?

#1

I’m thinking that because I’ve been an organic, non-toxic fish/seafood vegie foodie with some friends and my family for quite some time. I’m loving keto and it’s doing all that’s advertised ha ha. Love the way I feel on this, have dropped 9 of the 17 lbs I aimed for and testing keto up with blood meter - so YES in keto now.

Will probably wait until at goal and think this will probably be 2-3 weeks from now, the way things have gone so far. Meanwhile, would love to collect a community with this interests. I’m reading that people are staying in ketosis with up to maybe 50-60 carbs/day (I think they’re meaning net carbs). Right now I’m at <20 and it feels just fine for the moment, just think I’m going to want to add more for longer than a few months lifestyle. Sure DON’T want to drop out of keto, though.

Thoughts about this ? Anybody with this goal or doing this ? I’d love to learn from your experience.

PS - I totally honor what I am hearing from some folks who feel they are “carb or sugar addicted” and that if they loosened their grip on this at all, they would fall into the hole they felt they’ve been in until finding this. Addiction is a whole additional piece of this for some folks. Grateful it’s not mine to this extent and wishing the best for those who suffer from this.

Also, I won’t try anything like this until I’m at my goal weight and maybe til l’ve maintained goal for at least a week (month?). Just cuz I’m still in this phase and want to get where I think I’m going before I change course in any way.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #3

Glad you put that in, since I’m one of those folks, but I’m also glad it’s not something that you have to worry about. In any case, though I have a while before I reach my goal weight, I am enjoying keto recipes so much that I don’t really miss carbs at all. I crave them, but I don’t miss them! :grin:

(KCKO, KCFO 🥥) #4

I’m at goal weight, even below it most days now for 6 months. I eat anywhere from 10-50 grams of carb daily. Most days it is closer to 20 than 50, but I do occasionally creep over 50. I think what makes a difference is where those carbs come from, for example I can drink wine or eat a slice of bread, the wine doesn’t effect my weight at all, but I will bounce up after the bread. EVERYTIME, so bread is no longer an option for me.

I started out on Atkins 20 foodie meal plan, after a couple of weeks, I followed their carb ladder. This post explains it pretty well. I aimed to become a fat burner, I don’t worry about my ketones anymore, I did at first, but now I know I can do too many carbs, and if I just get back to my normal meals and IFing, I am good to go.

(Marcy) #5

I am replying to “follow” this thread. I didn’t have much to lose. Since I am close to goal weight, I wonder what happens next. I am not diabetic, prediabetic, and I don’t have issues with carb/sugar addiction. As the dudes say, I am not sure I fit the category of a deranged metabolism. I am healthy besides a few extra pounds. Thanks for posting the link to the carb ladder @collaroygal! I love eating keto, and will use this WOE for the rest of my life, although I need to figure out where that sweet spot of carb intake is for maintaining my weight. (no pun intended)

#6

Ahh c’mon @Dread1840 let’s hear what you’ve got to say – it’s always good ha ha !

Yes @PaulL, I am feeling this too and hearing it over and over here and in other forums — this keto stuff does “feel so good” indeed. I’m more than impressed with all of this and just linked to an article in The Scientist Magazine - sorry don’t have click link here but it’s called Running on Empty. Most interesting summary there. I do think we are onto something here.

Thanks for the Carb Letter, @collaroygal - will definitely have a look at that for this project of mine : ) You also said

Are you actually measuring your carbs each day - or is that getting easier logistically ? I do find I/we love to eat the same things over and over and after awhile it’s just in memory.

Starting to also feel like i’m feeling if I’m in keto or not, that’s pretty interesting - and surely how I would like this whole thing to turn out.

I just bought a keto blood meter after some confusion with the urine strips. Testing every day or so just to get a feel, although won’t for long given the $$ cost. Have been at 0.5 and 0.6 in blood. Reading that everything over 0.3 is keto, some say 0.5. Reading that there’s an optimum for athletics 1.0-3.0 but that for weight loss and mental agility, 0.5 to 1.3’s jsut fine.

I want to wind up being able “feel” when I’m in keto just like I might feel my stomach’s full or something and then go from there with diet.

Ha ha yes exactly, @mlcox630 ? Me to . What is WOE by the way - doesn’t sound so great for the rest of life ha ha
Yes that sweet spot - exactly ME too. : ) As @collaroygal has pointed out and I’m imagining already, it might well be just what makes up the added carbs. How sweet is that sweet spot maybe.

One cool thing about this is that the way I’m feeling on it is indeed starting to counter things like temptation to eat something like eegad dessert of some sort or another. Might turn out that I will say OK to a favorite and just accept that I might not feel ‘as good as usual’ for a bit. Then I’ll learn just how that goes and what further tendencies will be - my own only of course. NEXT thing folks so rightfully worry about is whether doing that will lead to more. A whole 'nother thing I’m thinking

Talk soon !
Ati

(Chris) #7

Dude, I actually forgot what I wrote, it was late!

Might have been something snarky like “why bother” or something, that’s usually my MO for deleted posts. I try not to be too much of a jerk.

(Adam Kirby) #8

I have gotten to the point of being decently lean but not quite ripped yet. I have been adding in things like beans and tomatoes lately for a change. Hell I might even eat a potato once in a while! :scream: But to be honest most of the time I’m perfectly satisfied with primarily meat and some vegetables and dairy. I have almost zero interest in eating junk food anymore except for the occasional binge. Even whole food carbs, I have to actively think about how to add them into my eating.

(Todd Allen) #9

A little over a year ago when I started tracking my blood glucose I was kind of horrified to discover eating a banana or a grapefruit could spike my glucose from it’s baseline of ~105 mg/dl to 140 mg/dl for an hour or more. I had been eating low carb, nothing with refined sugars or processed grains for 6 months and was glad to see my fasted blood glucose had dropped toward the low end of the pre-diabetic range but my HbA1c was still fairly high at 5.9% and prompted me to start tracking and see if I could do better.

For roughly 6 months I ate keto targeting limits of 20 g net carbs and 75 g for protein. I sometimes did blood ketone testing, maybe once a week but mainly focused on not having my glucose rise by more than 20 mg/dl over baseline. Over that 6 months my baseline BG came down to 90-95. After adding breath ketone testing I transitioned from tracking foods and counting macros to just tracking results in terms of glucose and ketones. And I’ve been slowly upping my carbohydrates eating more foods I was restricting like onions and tomatoes and reintroducing foods that were on my forbidden list such as peaches and apples - our trees bore exceptionally fine crops this year.

Last week I had more lab work done and I was thrilled to see that except for elevated LDL, 180, I’ve strongly reversed every other marker of poor health. Fortunately I also got the test for particle counts and sizes and I’m pattern A with a very large peak size and strong bias toward the larger sizes count wise. My doctor said typically he would find my LDL worrisome and recommend statin therapy but suggested we just keep an eye on it. The best part was my 12 hour fasted insulin was 2.3 reference range of 2.0-19.6 uIU/mL which combined with a BG of 79 mg/dl looks like I’ve joined the minority of older Americans who are metabolically healthy. I celebrated with a dinner including a small sweet potato and a cup of strawberries for dessert. My blood glucose maxxed out at 90 mg/dl 30 minutes after dinner and was back to baseline after 90 minutes.

Going forward I expect to strictly avoid processed foods / added sugars, etc. but will continue eating more fresh vegetables and fruit while keeping my BG low and staying lightly in ketosis which I value as indicators I’m not over doing the carbohydrates and continuing to burn fat.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #10

I think that we really ought to ignore LDL. After all, you can tell from the fact that your triglycerides are high that most of your LDL is going to be small and dense, or if they’re low, your LDL is going to be large and fluffy, and that’s what counts, far more than total LDL, which has no association with heart disease risk. As Dr. Phinney points out, 50% of people with familial hypercholesterolemia live perfectly normal lives, have perfectly normal lifespans, and never develop heart trouble. So it’s clearly not the cholesterol level that’s sickening the other 50%.

Now, if we could only get the doctors to see things this way, lol!

(Todd Allen) #11

My triglycerides and HDL were both 80. Tris down from 250 and HDL up from 29 a couple years ago. And over the same time LDL has risen from 120 to 180. I think much of the rise is due to my efforts to boost my omega 3 to omega 6 ratio, including eating a lot of sardines and other fatty fish - recommended despite having been shown to raise LDL while reducing intake of other sources of PUFA high in omega 6 (which are shown to reduce LDL) and replacing them with more saturated fats such as grass fed butter with better omega 3/6 ratios (also shown to raise LDL).

It begs the question why things correlated with better health like fish raise LDL and things like corn oil that lower LDL are coming under increasing scrutiny for contributing to cardiovascular disease and yet LDL is still public enemy #1.

(Adam Kirby) #12

In some observational studies LDL reduction is associated with massive earth-shattering profit.

(Michelle) #13

You’ve made great progress!!! I think it’s really up to the individual on how many carbs they can allow and still either stay in ketosis or stay “low carb”. I truly believe it’s different for everyone, and we all have our ways to think about it and continue this WOE.

I don’t miss starchy carbs at all, so for me, I probably wouldn’t creep up the carbs if I’m at goal weight. I eat that fox hill bread (1.5g net carbs) and I have some keto treats (gooddees mixes) and these are about all the carb creep I need to feel fully satisfied and still stay keto. I’m just not missing much to allow for more carbs. Granted, I don’t track macros, but I do track ketones.

I’m basically in Keto for the disease prevention benefits. I do think things like cancer and alzheimers feed off sugar, and I just don’t need those things in my life, so for me, I want to keep my carbs as low as possible.

(Chris) #14

Exactly, and linked with countless metabolic problems. Twitter has been going nuts with correlations.

(Marcy) #15

I wouldn’t want to live the rest of my life with woes either :joy:
WOE = Way of eating :slight_smile:

(Dawn) #16

This is all great information. Thanks for the thread. I will continue to follow it.

I do have a question, has anyone reached maintenance with the intention of following keto to maintain, only to discover that you are consistently gaining weight back? I am about 60 pounds from maintenance, but this is a BIG fear of mine. What do you do in that case? Do you just start restricting calories based on your current weight? (since you are at goal weight and no longer worry about BMR reductions)?

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #17

For me, it would depend on whether the gain was from new lean tissue or from fat.

(Ken) #18

I wouldn’t focus on a specific number of daily carbs. That’s not really the point, as avoidance of a pattern that causes lipogenic readaptation is the real issue. If you use the fat based pattern as your baseline, keep Carb intake as the exception rather than the rule, and are aware it takes chronic overcompensation of glycogen to gain fat, you can be fairly flexible.

So, my little rule is that if I eat carbs, such as starches and simple sugars, for whatever duration I ate them, I don’t eat them for double that amount of time. The longest I ever go, on a regular basis, is a two day recompensation period. However, a longer period, such as a two week vacation, wouldn’t phase me at all, I’d just eat carbs, but try not to grossly overeat.

The first step of fat regain is glycogen recompensation. So, if every time you recompensate glycogen your weight later drops back down to it’s previous level after the glycogen depletes, you’re doing just fine.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #19

Question: since the body is continually making new glucose to meet its minimal requirements, why would it even be necessary to “recompensate glycogen”? Or does the term “recompensate” not mean what I think it means?

(Ken) #20

It’s not necessarily required. It’s arguable you could be completely healthy if you never ate another Carb again.

The issue of the thread is that of adding carbs back in after you’ve been lipolytic. I’ve provided general guidance on how to do it.

#21

I LOVE this ! And I think I’ll be heading for something just like this once at goal in about 2 weeks, that’s my plan : )
For each of us, it will likely be a somewhat different number of days for post carb load remediation/recompensation period and that’s just fine. As long as we are mindful of it and engineer the discipline to do what you are doing. THANKS for this, @240lbfatloss Ken !

Totally agree with this, also how we feel internally. Muscle weighs more than fat and there’s nothing wrong with muscle, is there ? Good luck with this !