Cyclical keto diet

(Eve) #1

Does anyone do the cyclical keto diet? I.e. one day of carbs a week. I am considering it but thought l would check people’s experiences first. I do not want, or intend to, have a carb binge, but merely to go above the 20g with safe , non-chemical foods, e.g. some higher carb veg, or a piece of fruit. Any feedback would be very welcome.

#2

I’ve been doing it on and off since Christmas, but still having practically carni/keto meals too…just sneaking in the odd higher carb meal. Like Christmas dinner for instance.

But I have to say I’m also planning to go back to keto and the odd day 2MAD or OMAD, because I’ve noticed the T-shirts getting tighter recently!

Does no harm every now and then I think, but I also think it’s probably more effective if planned in with some cardio or weights exercises (which I never did).

#3

I don’t have a rule like that. In summer, I sometimes eat seasonal local fruit. Just can’t resist, lol. It doesn’t happen all that often, except for berries, I eat them often. And sometimes I eat more than 20 carbs of veggies. But I never eat anything processed and use no sweeteners. I’ve been doing this for years now, so I am good with it. Worst come to worst, it can stall weight loss. I was never too concerned with that, and I am definitely not now that I have lost a lot of weight.

(Jenna Ericson) #4

I haven’t tried cyclical keto per se, but I’ve thought about it. I’ve been using the Carbon Diet Coach app for macros and it’s helped a lot in terms of staying in ketosis. It keeps protein relatively low, and only counts total carbs rather than net carbs, so the amount is higher there than normal. My calories are high-ish for me (at least 2000) so I end up eating a lot of fat. This has worked well for me. In the past, I had a hard time staying in ketosis because I would end up eating around 25 net carbs, probably 100 grams of protein and like 100 grams of fat. It basically ended up being more like low carb than keto and I never had enough energy.

#5

I think it is better, if you want to try cyclical, to wait until you reach your target weight under keto/carni.
Then (as it was for me) occasionaly switch to low carb in which you’ll probably be knocked out of ketosis.

I practised this recently on vacation to Spain, as I didn’t want to hold back on the paella and other dishes on offer…although I got my fair share of seafood and carni foods too. I felt fine and was able to get back into ketosis when I got back fairly easy when i wanted.

#6

Spain has some excellent seafood and meat! I pigged out on those when there.

(Jenna Ericson) #7

I’m thinking of doing a mainly carnivore diet higher in saturated fat with some whole food carbs around workouts until I reach my goal weight. I’ll skip the raw liver for now! If I need vitamin C I’ll just eat some fruit.

#8

What you have just described is more or less my normal keto diet.
Coconut oil is a good healthy saturated and mono unsaturated fat source I believe…I use it qite a bit.

The meat/fish is the main, but I do use mushrooms, and various cruciferous veg around that too, normally stir fried in healthy oil (which I also try to vary rather than have too much of one lipid).

I love liver, but I take take care to light fry in good oil/lard/tallow for about 3 minutes each side of the cuts, at about 3/4 hob ring heat. No more no less! Lol. Soaking in milk for an hour or so overnight is optional, but I’ve never bothered. Think of the goodness…

Here’s the oils/fats I currently rotate through (all good, the butter in the container is grass fed Irish salted):
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(Robin) #9

Wow… not in my world. Going rogue for even one day would bring back the cravings. No thanks.

#10

Each to their own Temple Priestess…each to their own! :smiley:

(Robin) #11

Are you calling me a Priestess? Thanks so much.
Now if my husband would just comply with my royal decrees… or would that be dawgma?

#12

You should speak with Ifod on here- I think he’s a good advocate of cyclic and he also plans it around exercise.

I just cycled for convenience (holidays), a change (experimenting on how it affects me), nostalgia, and getting involved more in eating out.

But as I said before, I have the ingrained discipline now, all the tools in my toolbox, to switch back to keto/2MAD at the drop of a hat.
Which I’ve given myself a pat on the back for- because I had no control or care before keto.

#13

Hahaha!

A pure purveyor of the carniverous WOE, is what I meant, and the Temple came from your username.

But, in a way, our WOE is like a religion. All religions usually have specific food rules…even SAD :upside_down_face:

#14

I do a Hybrid of TKD and CKD. Started with TKD and the preworkout carbs make a huge difference. Switched to CKD and that definitely helps with muscle endurance all day long. With CKD, you reload when you need it, doesn’t have to be once a week, assuming you’re lifting, one carb load won’t make it a week. You gotta feel it out. For me, the Hybrid of the two does the job.

For reloads the starchy stuff is great, if you do anything preworkout you want the super fast high glycemic stuff so you’ll burn through it during workouts. Overall it brought my gym performace way up again, had zero effect on my ability to lose fat, I’ve actually got my bodyfat lower than it was on 4yrs of strict keto. I was in the high teens when I switched off standard keto, and my last DEXA had me back in the 10’s. So all benefits, no downsides, as long as you do it right.

#15

I have read about cyclical keto a few times and it has high-carb low-fat days. As I am totally unable to eat low-fat even for a single day (and it’s just my ability, not my willingness) and the carb days are SUPER carby, I wouldn’t ever attempt it.

Just going a bit (or sometimes more) higher-carb occasionally while keeping the fat at least as high as normal? I have been doing it since several years. Not ideal but I can’t resist. I don’t PLAN those carby days (usually) and I only consider them useful for my joy and sanity but it’s actually better for me to stay quite low-carb, at least physically. Not like I am unwell on occasional carbs but it’s still not as good. And I can go overboard very easily even now.

The only time when I deliberately eat a lot of carbs is when I REALLY want to do OMAD. As carbs make that ridiculously easy. But I can do it on carnivore nowadays, thankfully.

It would be very safely keto for me (now, after lots of carni days in the last years. I easily could go high-carb with paleo vegs alone in the past)… Many of us have a higher ketosis carb limit, not 20g net or total.

And what is the ideal carb intake, from what sources and if the occasional higher-carb is useful, it’s highly individual. You should try and figure out what works best for you if you are interested in such experiments or knowledge.

@coopdawg: Oh, I keep forgetting that liver soaking milk is a thing!!! Thank you, I may try that with the liver defrosting in my fridge… Fried liver can get a bit old (not very much though, it’s too nutritious so I very rarely am supposed to eat it) and chicken liver is very strong flavored, after all… Though I have some duck fat now (I rendered it today :D) so I suppose my liver will be nice anyway. But some milk can’t hurt.

#16

Ehm, I forgot to say, I also cook with creams too.

They can be very low carb and give you your fat requirement for energy.
Great for sauces…but even soured cream, creme fraiche or cream cheese like Mascarpone are great on a handfull of blueberries or raspberries.

I have some Mascarpone bought today, and some berries- I’ll post under jumpin’ Jack later on.

(Jenna Ericson) #17

I might do something like that with a small amount of oatmeal with coconut oil or something before workouts. I’ve heard ketones can be a good replacement for glucose (as opposed to fatty acids) for higher intensity exercise. I felt the best on a diet with a lot of long chain saturated fat, with limited carbs from berries and root vegetables. This made it so that my blood sugar stayed relatively high, which gave me a lot more energy.

I’m from Boston also. Do you know of Boston Underground Strength Training?

#18

You are a dawg’s mom! Lol. Just getting that now!

You’d give the meister a run for his one liners.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #19
#20

Yes at times. Do you exercise? What are your goals? If just starting this Keto journey I would be very strict and not do cyclical keto. I exercise a lot and I am also fat-adapted. I started keto over 10+ years ago. I do consume a lot of carbs at times (100+ grams) when it is appropriate to do so. For the first 3 months, I ate nothing white or could be white. My only conscious carb was blueberries (15 grams) on my salad.
I have seen some women lose more weight when they increase their carb intake to about 50 grams per day. I do not know if this is the norm.