In 2 weeks I will have been doing keto for 6 months. I am breaking keto for the summer, but plan on returning to it in the fall.
Now that I am fat-adapted, I am curious how my body will transition back to carbs. Any tips or suggestions? I am not going to go hog-wild back into carbs or anything, but I will be introducing them back into my daily diet. I also know that I have to cut way back on the fat intake, cause you can’t do both.
Thanks in advance,
I’m also super aware that I may hate eating non-keto and if that happens I’ll jump back on the keto wagon.
As with most questions around here, a search can really accelerate your learning… this is the best thread but there are others…
Taking the whole summer off, the results may not be pretty. The body will happily default back to primary glucose fueled and doing that for more than a short time, you will probably undo what you have done on keto (whatever that might be).
However, we don’t know much about you. Are you lean and metabolically flexible/healthy, in which case ‘leaving’ keto may be somewhat irrelevant depending on your definition of keto (20g net?). In this case you can probably handle many more carbs than standard keto so have a nice summer. If you are metabolically unhealthy, IMHO this is a fool’s errand
I would stick to the healthier carbs and avoid the junk. So eat some of the veg that we tend to avoid…carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, fruit in moderation, etc. Avoid breads, pastries, wheat in general , pasta, rice and of course pop, juices and junk foods. You’ll probably find that you end up being reasonably low carb this way at under 100 grams or even less a day without much effort. Remember, a serving size of mashed potatoes is about about a half cup or so…not half the plate.
In my experience, taking a break from Keto can really set a person back…I ate what I wanted for about 3 days over Christmas, and boy did I pay for it! I felt awful for a week after and it stalled my weight loss progress for 3 months! I’m happy to say I’m losing again, but it was an eye opener for me!
100% agree with @shallimar! I definitely wouldn’t go back to bread, pasta, grains, etc., but enjoying some seasonal fruit & veg will probably be fine and hopefully your transition back to full Keto shouldn’t be too difficult.
Best of Luck - for me, breaking keto would be punishment, not a reward, so…
My personal list of evil things in order of poison potential is below - I think there is science behind the list, I just dont have the science all laid out… If I were forced to have carbs, I would start from the bottom and work my way up till the lashings stopped.
1- Sugar, HFCS, fruit juices, Soda
2- PUFA - industrial oils - Canola, Saffola, corn, vegetable etc.
3- Industrial extruded grain products - Cornflakes, Special K, etc.
4- Breads - white, wheat, whole grain, 37 ancient grains, flatbread - whatever…
4a- Crackers - just bread in a smaller crispier package
5- packaged junk foods - potato chips, doritos, etc.
More benign poisons
Berries, Whole fruits, semolina pasta (home made preferably), tubers (potato, carrot, etc)
My mind is so far down the anti-carb rabbit hole that I cannot make myself eat bread or sugar sweet desserts, or other things from the top list, with the exception of industrial oils, since they cannot be avoided while dining out.
Be aware that your satiety signals will be broken again. So you will have to watch quantities. If you keep your fats up, at least you will still have some lasting satiety. If you are able to keep your eating window small, the damage from the carbs may be limited somewhat! As for physical changes - as best as I can remember from years ago when I came off Atkins (my bad)- gaining the water weight back and worse sleep were the salient ones.
Best of Luck - hope you emerge somewhat unscathed on the other side.
99% of people here will tell you this isn’t a good idea. Keto is a way of life and for you to remain successful, you must adapt it to all life events. Going off for the entire summer is going to be long enough to throw you out of fat-adaptation so you’ll have to start the process all over again, which can take a couple of months, depending. But if you’re willing to accept those consequences then all the best to you.
Thanks all for your advice. I was a healthy fit person before trying keto. And plan on going back to my normal workout routine when I break keto for the first time in 6 months.
The benefits that I gained besides feeling amazing, being full for a long time, no hunger pains, no inflammation in my usual problem areas: back, and hands, and great sleep. Keto has helped me maintain weight with less working out due to a busy school and work schedule. Now that it’s summer I can really hit the gym again.
Like I said, I’m going to transition slow and not nose dive into pasta, pizza, and bread. But introduce a more clean eating style with an occasional pasta. And just for the summer. I also miss a nice glass of wine, or an occasional margarita.
But maybe I’ll hate how I feel and dive back into keto. I’m pretty nervous about straying because it is so beneficial, but I wanna live a little and not overthink about what I’m eating for a few months. It’s been a whirlwind of a new adventure for me, diet wise. I have never stuck through even a week of any other diet, but I’ve been strictly keto for 6 months. Super proud of myself and I feel great.
There’s no transition other than you most likely feeling like death at first. Your body will burn them like it always has, you’ll loose fat adaptation pretty quickly, inflammation will go up, blood sugar will always be stressed even if you maintain it, that crack like addiction to sugar will be back in control of you and very likely you won’t be keto for a very long time if ever.
LOL, says the person with the Keto brain that can control sugar! That person is about to go bye bye!
Unlikely, that’d be like saying a recovered crackhead wouldn’t like crack again. Not trying to be the downer, but we’ve all seen this, and better yet most of us have DONE this before. Conveniently is ALWAYS ends the same way. Hopefully you find your way back. The fact that you feel you need a break from eating awesome foods that taste amazing without the need to be a calorie counting freak makes me wonder what you / how you eat now. Many people make this WOE overly restrictive and there is no reason for that. If anything we have a lot more variety than “normal” people and gain much more than we loose. In any case good luck, because all kidding aside you’ll need it. We’re hear to talk you of the ledge if you need it.
My advice is to be thoughtful in your decisions and don’t feel you have to indulge in carbs because others around you are. Staying Keto may not be practical but there are many low carb indulgences and you might surprise yourself.
Enjoy life, enjoy summer, IF/EF Keto Woe and I will be here to support you and give you my very biased opinions
I think you can minimize the damage (and unfortunately, I agree that there will be damage) by stepping off the Keto Ranch, but at least staying in Paleo County, as it were. Dumping crap carbage into your system will be like taking an engine you’ve rebuilt to run on ethanol and start dumping diesel into it. Will it run? Sure. Kinda. For a while. Enjoy the backfires, and it’s gonna take some rebuilding to get it optimized again. At least staying Paleo will keep you from having to rebuild everything. Best of luck to you whatever you do, and let us know how it goes. At a minimum, your experience can be a helpful data-point for others.
