Carbing up is never as fun or good as it seems

(Chris Kornelsen) #1

So I’ve been doing experiments on myself this month. Carbing up for a meal then seeing how fast I get back into ketosis, carbed up for a whole weekend to see how that affected me. Been doing this four weeks now where I do keto mon-Saturday, then sunday carb up. And I have to say even though I can do it and be back into ketosis within 2 days and I dont really feel a giant energy crash, one thing is I do feel like shit. My back and knee pain comes back, I have energy but I’m sore. I recently moved and the first day I moved I was full keto and had consistent energy and no muscle fatigue. Second day we had pizza so I had some and instantly sore the next day with pains.

I also I tk experiment on just how life is and how I felt in general being a carb metabolizer. Seeing if I even missed it or would wanna go back.

Needless to say carbing up can be fun and taste the old foods I was used to like delicious pizza (which no matter how long I’m keto I cant shake the craving of). But it’s not worth it. I think my experiment Is over I honestly deeply enjoy the food on keto I love how I feel and the lifestyle of it. I do not miss carbs as much as I figured I would. While my digestion is still a little off on keto I believe this will corrext in time and it’s literally the only downside. Keto is by far the bette lifestyle and its amazing how even a day of carbs gives me back old pains. KCKO. I wanted to post this as just a way to post results of some self experimentation and my observations. Might be helpful to some newbies who think this life isnt sustainable because they will just need to carb up. I can attest that’s what worried me and its wildly false keto os very sustainable and carbs dont compare to good healthy fats

(Chris) #2

900g of starchy carbs over Friday night and all day Saturday. Back in keto now and had no symptoms I’d consider negative. N=1.

#3

My idea if carbing up is eating a bunch of beans with an otherwise keto meal. If I am eating right I can do that and eat 75+ grams of carbs and still stay in ketosis.

Pretty crazy…but other than that I just take a rare (thin) piece of birthday cake.

(Chris Kornelsen) #4

That’s pretty crazy definitly not my experience. I’d say your one of the minority. But good for you

(Chris Kornelsen) #5

My idea was pizza, donut, pop and chips haha

(Ken) #6

There is really no need for massive carb ups unless you’re heavily training, and even then it’s subject to the degree of negative metabolic effects you’re experiencing. If effects are severe, you can always opt for simple carbs around workouts as an option like TKD rather than the much larger intake of a CKD. Your body is also more sensitive to types of carbs eaten, I always feel crappy after eating lot’s of wheat no matter what. Of course it goes away quickly, so it’s the price you pay if you eat it. Potatoes don’t seem to effect me, so it’s really a matter of self experimentation. I think the occasional single carb meal is what works better for the average person, more as a preventive action rather that waiting for negative symptoms to occur. If symptoms have occurred, then things like a week of Maintenance may be necessary. There’s nothing wrong with being Keto for several weeks then going into Maintenance for a week to insure you maintain metabolic flexibility.

(Bob M) #7

3,600 calories of just carbs? What did you eat?

(Chris) #8

798g actually. Mostly white rice, a few rolls of Smarties (100% glucose), and the rest was top round steak and protein shakes. I’m experimenting with cyclical keto, had success with it in the past.

(Ken) #9

CKD certainly won’t hurt you if you desire to practice it. Nor will elevated, intermittant carb intake during Maintenance. As long as your cycles never completely refill liver glycogen you can pretty much do whatever you want to do. I’ve lived over 15 years that way.

(squirrel-kissing paper tamer) #10

I agree that it’s usually never as good as I think it will be. And boy is it over quickly. Then I’m left with the “Well, that’s gonna leave a dent in things” feeling afterward. Fortunately I’ve never fallen off the wagon since starting, just threw my leg over once or twice but then got back on. Thanks for posting.

#11

I always get stomach cramps and GI distress when I slip up and eat a carby meal.

(Dirty Lazy Keto'er, Sucralose freak ;)) #12

I’ll take your word for it. I don’t plan to ever “carb up”. Their might be a day when I eat too much keto bread, heavy cream, veggies, or whatever, and maybe push it to 30 or 40 gms, but I don’t ever see myself eating carbs like I used to… Several hundred a day…

(April Harkness) #13

No carb ups for me. I know it would cause me to binge. I sometimes am a voyeur on the CKD fb group. Someone consuming bowls of fruity pebbles…of course they do depletion workouts. But I dont train to eat…so definitely not for me.

(Doug) #14

Chris, you’re so right - the mental illusion that builds up ahead of time is rarely true. Some of us are like the human race as a whole - we have to learn the hard way, over and over and over again.

(Susan) #15

This is just yo-yo dieting, that many of us did for years before Keto… learn from those of us that are older and have learned from our mistakes and failures doing this; that it messes up your metabolism and is not good for your body.

It took me over 40 years of dieting to figure this out. It is better to keep the carbs low, no sugar, and just do Keto for your new lifestyle =). Your body will adjust and once you are fat adapted, you will no longer want all that Carbage. You will see this as well if you stick with Keto for the long haul and don’t do these Carbages!!

(Ken) #16

Yo-Yo dieting is certainly not the same as carb cycling or any type of cyclical keto eating protocol. To say it is, or anything similar is simply misinformation.

(PSackmann) #17

Not quite. Cyclical Keto, or CKD, is understood as 5-6 days each week of low-carb eating followed by 1-2 days of higher carb intake to refill glycogen stores in the muscles and liver. This is not the same thing as yoyo dieting, restricting food or carbs to a desired goal only to remove the restrictions and reverse the progress, then repeat.

(Susan) #18

OKay @240lbfatloss and @goohsmom

This seems dangerous to your body to do this is all, 3, 600 calories of just carbs, and eating

I meant eating on and off your WOE doing this is not healthy or good for us is all.

I don’t see how doing this to our body is good for us. Sugar is toxic to our bodies.

(April Harkness) #19

I agree. ANd anyone with a past history of an eating disorder is playing with fire if they do CKD. If you don’t have a history …then hey, if it works, go at it and I shall view you from afar with a bit of jealousy. but as someone who suffered for almost a decade from Binge Eating disorder…it is definately not for me. Do I ingest carbs before a workout. Yes. but not fruity pebbles or the other options I see on the CKD page. I chose targeted keto (or in my case- Targeted Carnivore keto) because it fits my athletic lifestyle and i just do it right before my training session and then back to carnnivore as usual. I take about 12-15 grams of carbs on my two toughest training days and that’s it. I don’t do it for my one to two other training days. And on those two days, the carbs feel like a PED! Even when all is said an done…That may be the only carbs I have that day aside from incidental ones from the sauce or garlic I put on my meat and eggs. So I am still under 20 grams when it comes to strict keto standards on my training days. But that ckd, with the carb depletion workout prior to carb up…I just could not do it. I know 100% i would be back to binging. So I must stay away from that type of keto. ( I may be wrong, and correct me if I am, but I think CKD is more for physique development than performance, although both can go hand and hand. I actually don’t train for aesthetics (surprising, I know). I love being lean but that is NOT why i train. It just is a side effect. i train the two activities i like to do (oly lifting and kb sport and let my physique fall where it may.) Again…even if it did help my performance, as a person in recovery from binge eating disorder…CKD is just a bad idea for people like me. Eventually it would send me into a spiral of eating and I fear I would not be able to come back to eating normally.

(Chris) #20

Whatever you say, you’re obviously the authority on my metabolism.