So, last night I ate half a pita, a significant carb pig-out for me. It was the underlayer of a ‘pizza’ my husband makes and as he was eating two pita-pizzas, he evidently felt sorry for me and my deprived keto existence, and a half appeared before me. My usual approach to pizza is to scrape off and consume the toppings but yesterday I decided to experiment.
Didn’t even remember I’d done it until this morning. I’ve had only my usual morning coffee thus far, but about 10 minutes ago I realized my stomach was feeling really uncomfortable and it quickly progressed to me being almost doubled over with painful cramps. Post-toilet it’s a wee bit better, but still distinctly NOT my usual (i.e. keto WOE) experience which I’d describe as virtually never having any sort of stomach discomfort.
So, you guys tell me: am I experiencing the rebellion of a system no longer used to wheat? What experiences do any of you have?
Carb binge symptoms?
I know it’s very individual. Probably most of us have problem with sudden carb eating but some people get cramps from a little bit (not even going out of ketosis) and others need to eat much sugar for a week to feel some discomfort 
I am close to the second but it’s not that simple. I can get very mildly sugar poisoned eating a little fruit alone sometimes but some fatty protein afterwards keeps me feeling okay. Starches are fine unless I eat a ton. But I start to get nudges from my body if I don’t keep my carbs very low, I just keep feeling quite okay (for a while but I don’t want to eat much carbs for a long time so things rarely ever progressed to pain).
I have behavioral problems when eating carbs (results in overeating unless I can do OMAD), that’s my main problem with it and that extreme low-carb feels a little bit better than my normal low-carb. Mild poo softening may happen too… But that’s it unless I am an idiot and ignore the wishes of my body for days, only that may result in some more than super mild bellyache and nausea, that effectively stops any carb eating.
Carbs add up in my case. If I was very low-carb since weeks, I may get away with 400g candy or something though I wouldn’t expect that, it just happened once. But I can’t do 100g carbs a day (it doesn’t matter what kind of carbs but I need much plants for this amount) without getting progressively more carb poisoned, it’s pretty bad after a week. At least I had that some years ago, I don’t really test that anymore, it’s too much carbs for me and even if I wanted to eat such carby meals, I would get carb aversion way before I could notice bad symptoms.
Maybe a decade ago, after I drastically lowered my carb intake, I had to try out a carby overeating day (I had so many of those in my past). It was definitely unpleasant, shock to my system but nothing like cramps. Just bellyache and nausea, not too bad but a serious warning that I should eat healthier.
This is normal and one doesn’t need to go near to keto for this, I ate 80g net carbs that time and only did that for a few months. But my body gets hooked when I show it a way better woe than the previous and the bridges back gets burned Not totally, I can make some short visits back but I never need to worry about doing much higher-carb again, it’s impossible and definitely not desired, in the contrary.
Wheat: I don’t know if it’s a thing that the body forgets how to handle it (probably it is, so many things exist…). My body doesn’t have this. I can eat very much wheat or gluten without problems, simple, lone sugar is the problem.
Your story is pretty normal, I saw it many times though it usually involved much more carbs. But we have different levels of sensitivity and it’s usually not very very well predictable as there are different factors in play.
I wouldn’t think half a pita would do that either way, depends on which one specially it was, but either way that’s not going to be a lot of carbs, when we eat super strict keto for long periods of time we start to hyper react to things we really shouldn’t, when I was eating standard keto for years it didn’t take much for me to feel the wrath. I doubt it has anything to do with wheat specifically, if you had a wheat issue, you’d know it. No different than people who eat near no fat forever when they eat a significant amount of fat they have an appt with the toilet, it’s a loss of metabolic flexibility. That was one of the things that started changing my mindset on things, I didn’t like that I traded one type for another.
Food sensitivities—in fact, any allergic reaction—are funny things. They can come, and sometimes also go, over a lifetime, so it is very hard to say that keto made you allergic to the ingredients of your pizza. You might have still developed such an allergy, even had you remained a carb-burner; there is no way to say, one way or another. I think it likely that you had already developed a sensitivity to whatever was in your pizza, but that your diet as a carb-burner caused you so many worse problems, you never noticed this particular sensitivity. Now, with the general noise level reduced, you are aware of the problem.
Sometimes exposure to an allergen can inure the body to the allergen, but in other cases, repeated exposure only makes the reaction worse. After my last experience with poison ivy, I am afraid to come into contact with the plant at all, given the risk of anaphylactic shock (I also have to beware poison sumac and poison oak, because of the same chemical). But avoiding exposure to urushiol has by no means diminished my reaction to it. And that just seems to be the way it is with certain people and certain allergens.
@Shinita sounds like you’ve done a lot more experimenting than I’ve done! With the exception of something like a holiday dinner where for sure I significantly exceed optimal carbs, since starting this WOE I haven’t really had an outright “cheat” like that pizza crust – just minor ones like several fried potatoes, a bite or two of a spanakopita. Luckily overall, carbs no longer “call to me.” Plus, as I’d said recently on another thread, I’m actually afraid to overindulge in them now, like an alcoholic would be afraid of a drink!
@KetoType2 it did indeed pass, in about an hour or so, perhaps helped by physical activity? Since I’m still not sure what it was, I will experiment with it again soon, just to know.
@lfod14 I realize a half pita doesn’t seem like much but it was the only unusual thing I ate. It could have been a virus just glancing off of me instead, I suppose? I found processed grains so easy to give up that it has now been two years since I’ve eaten pasta, bread, oats, cereal, or rice (potatoes are a little bit more challenging) so this was truly unusual. If it represents loss of metabolic flexibility, that’s not so good 
@PaulL other than the pita itself, the pizza had nothing on it that I wouldn’t normally eat – cheese, mushrooms, fresh tomato, a bit of onion, olive oil – so if I’ve developed a sensitivity, it pretty much has to be to the bread. Unsure how to resolve the question of what that reaction was other than trying to replicate the experience, I guess!
Ive had gut pain from processed carbs. I believe my gut had not maintained the requisite enzyme levels to deal with lots of carbohydrates. A sharp pain, annoying but short lived
Recently I began eating carb based treats more often (socially) as I’m a good weight and metabolic health. I just decided to widen my food choices for a while. I don’t get the pain anymore. It will be interesting to see if the intolerance returns when I do a phase of strict keto again
Last time I ate something containing wheat I ended up unable to breathe and got myself an ambulance ride followed by a late night in hospital for “observation” 
Never happened before and sure as hell won’t be happening again.
@Hallie It’s interesting that your body fairly quickly adapts to a carb increase. If you repeat the cycle aand get similar results, I hope you come back here to report.
@Shortstuff that’s crazy scary, of course! Did you have any recognizable wheat issues before starting keto?
I was aware of intolerance issues with bulgar wheat and oats, but not specifically wheat although always got heartburn / reflux after eating it so it’s very possible there were pre-existing issues with wheat too.