I have been on Keto for 8 months now and have lost the weight I wanted to.
I am looking at coming off Keto and going back to a “normal” diet however wondered if anyone has any advice on how to go about this?
How long does this period take, do you slowly introduce certain carbs again etc.?
Any advice would be much appreciated 
Why? There is no rulebook to exiting Keto. What is normal? How do you plan on maintaining your current desired weight?
You can’t, sorry. 
Keto is the red pill. Now that you know how your body is supposed to function and what fuel it wants and needs to be healthy, you can’t ‘unlearn’ that truth.
I just recommend cheating every now and again but still 99% of the time being keto, just for your own health.
You know, for real, though, I guess it’d be pretty easy. Not really anything special you have to do; no “transitional period.” If all it ever was was a weight-loss diet for you, then it should be easy to move on from and come back to as needed. 
Caveat lector: we’re all different, YMMV, yadda yadda.
I did Atkins 10 some years ago. Lost weight, markers looked great. Then I started to increase my carbs, as Atkins then recommended. I backslid right back into obesity and bad markers. You may be fine adding back carbs, but given my improved health, and longest sustained weight-loss under LCHF, I have no intent of increasing my TOTAL carb grams over 20.
Ever. This isn’t about weight-loss for me, but improved health. Weight-loss is the fatty steak on top. 
The Atkins website has the carb ladder, IF and ONLY IF you do exactly as it says, you can add some carbs back in slowly. But keeping the weight off will get harder with each rung of the carb ladder. I had to stop at 50 which I don’t even hit every day, I am just as often at 15-20 grams. But knowing your limits can help to maintain, so give it a shot, if you find you hit trigger foods and start full on carbage eating again, you can stop and go back into keto. But your body is going to be happier if you don’t go full on carbage again. The trick is to stop adding them back when even a lb. shows up on the scales, you need to log your foods so you can pin point exactly what your triggers are. It is dangerous territory and you must be brave to venture there. Good luck, you will need it. Maintenance is MUCH HARDER THAN LOSING.
I honestly do not recommend that at all.
Keto is a wonderful way of life.
Why would you want to go back to something which made you sick in the first place, and will make you sick again?
If you know what works, why stop doing it?
Each to their own… I don’t have any useful suggestions because I never plan on eating carbage again.
Thanks for the advice thus far.
I have been struggling on Keto since day one. I am a very fussy eater and haven’t felt like my Micronutrient balance has ever been right.
Also I have had a couple of blood tests recently and been advised my blood sugar is low and also cholesterol is very high.
Mainly I have been eating fried bacon, sausage, gammon or steak with fried eggs, butter and cheese. I was going Keto to lose weight and I lost 3.5 stone however for 2 months now I have remainder the same. I have tried fasting for 24 hours etc but nothing helps.
Also I have been very dizzy and headaches for a few weeks now and know it is something to do with my diet.
As such I have decided, for the foreseeable future at least, I will go back to a balanced low fat diet.
You might want to look at some kind of carb cycling or head over to Mark’s Daily Apple. His favorite way of eating is staying in what he calls the keto zone. It would be a disaster for folks with serious metabolic issues - and in fact he doesn’t recommend it for them - but he tends toward whole foods keto and comes out with some starches or fruits occasionally but between his eating and his workouts, he actually ends up staying in ketosis most of the time.
Once you’re fat adapted - again, barring metabolic problems - you might find yourself more tolerant of carbs and able to bring them in but still stay relatively low carb.
However - blood test showing low blood sugar sounds kind of odd to me. Usually the main concern for low glucose is folks who are diabetic and are taking insulin because they can overuse insulin and end up in a coma. Folks with good glucose control don’t randomly have blood levels that are dangerously low, and once you’re fat-adapted, you can actually run on much lower blood sugar than what doctors might consider normal. And the cholesterol is a whole can of worms. You might want to pick everyone’s brain about some of these things - headaches, dizzy, cholesterol - before ditching keto for good…
It’s not really a matter of “Coming off Keto”, because if you switch back to your previous Carb based pattern you’ll just readapt back into chronic lipogenesis and create the same problems. What you’re looking for is Maintenance. That means preventing readaptation back into Lipogenesis. That occurs when you eat enough carbs to chronically overfill glycogen. That’s harder than you think and really takes a heavy Carb filled diet.
You have to practice “Carb Awareness” and simply eat them infrequently enough to prevent glycogen overcompensation. My rule is if I eat carbs at a meal, the next two meals are low Carb, fat based. Same thing for a day’s worth. If I eat them for a week, I go three days without to deplete glycogen, which normally takes two or three days.
I’ve done this for nearly two decades and have never regained any fat.
I would of course recommend that you not go off keto, as you’re likely to gain back the weight if you do, but that’s not what you asked.
My recommendation, based on past experiences I’ve had going back on carbs, is to start with whole foods: whole fruit, whole root vegetables, whole grains (if you are looking to reintegrate grains at all, that is. You may want to consider leaning more paleo and continuing to eschew grains for your health), and don’t eat them in combination to start (so if you’re going to have potatoes at one meal, don’t also have quinoa or an apple, for example). Pay close attention to how you feel. You may find that some carbs are more satiating, some make you feel better/more energetic/more sluggish/etc than others, and so forth. White flour and white sugar have basically no nutritional benefit at all, so you’re better off staying away from those completely, since you’ve managed to do so for 8 months already, and it can be a very slippery slope once you allow them back into your life.
Good luck–I hope whatever you choose to do works for you!
So wait… You lost almost 50lbs but because you’ve plateaued a bit you’re talking of throwing in the towel? That’s amazing progress, even if you never lost another ounce. It sounds like you’d be better served by some fine tuning; I wouldn’t give up yet if I were you. What weight did you start at? If you’re at a relatively “normal” weight now that you’ve lost some, don’t get discouraged. At this point, continue with the keto but now start to build muscle and strength. The dizziness and headaches are classic tell-tale signs that you may need more salt, too.
I know I basically plateaued at about 50lbs down, even though I feel like I could stand to be even a few more lbs down (went from 220 to about 170, would like to be about 160) but instead I’m just rolling with it, seeing how I do without measuring and counting calories/macros, and I’m also working on building muscle at the gym.
Anyway, I don’t think you should give up just yet; but maybe adjust some things and maybe even adjust your expectations a bit. Let your body enjoy it’s new lighter self for a bit - maybe in a few weeks or months THEN try for more weight loss if you need it. I think in about 2 weeks I’m going to go back into high-monitoring weight-loss mode since I’ve just been coasting for a few months.
Has anyone else experienced feeling dizzy etc? Could this be down to a lack of Electrolytes?
yes, that’s exactly what it could be! it can take a bit to figure out electrolytes.
This is generally a “do what works for you” kind of a crowd, and I don’t think you should stay on keto if you don’t want to, but I would encourage you to use us as a resource to troubleshoot so that you can make the best decisions about what to do next. If you tweak keto and then find that you feel incredible, you could continue it or you could reintroduce some carbs (but be LC enough that you get the advantages of ketosis much of the time).
Agree with your post but it doesn’t sound like he wants to lose more weight. He got the results he wanted in terms of weight loss and doesn’t feel great so wants advice on possible post-keto eating.
@decreebass ETA: never mind! I hadn’t read his second post.
No don’t get me wrong, I have been looking to lose another 20-25 pounds yet but have just hit a wall for 2 months now.
I have been working out in that time, going to the gym doing weights and some jogging too.
My legs are constantly stiff, even if I don’t run for a week, which again I believe is a side effect of Keto.
I was never Keto-for-life, which don’t get me wrong, I know a lot of people are and they love it and that is great for them.
For me I don’t particularly enjoy Keto but the results of weight loss with it.
However I do seriously miss being able to have a few pints of beer with friends, or eat a tuna baguette or have a takeaway as a treat from time to time.
I do not plan to go back to my previuos unhealthy lifestyle, just to stick to a more traditional low fat low calorie diet.
You can absolutely have a few pints of beer, etc., from time to time. And if you’re fat-adapted and take care to stay fat-adapted, the effects of those occasional treats will have less problematic effects on your body.
Please don’t take what I’m about to say as any sort of judgement or like I’m implying you don’t know stuff, I really don’t mean it like that and only hope this helps. But I am guessing, based on your thinking about going not only off keto but to a low fat, low calorie diet, that you haven’t really been exposed to or convinced by the scientific data showing both the ineffectiveness and the deleterious effects of this typical diet approach. Has it ever worked for you before for a long period of time? I really try not to be dogmatic about keto, but most of us who have read/watched/self-educated about the science would run away screaming as far and fast as possible from low fat/low calories. This includes the members of this forum who believe more strongly in CICO than others.
You’ve come so far, and as someone who had to start keto three times to finally commit for life to a low carb lifestyle, I can totally sympathize with how you’re feeling. But I can also tell you, it’s no fun watching your progress blow away in the wind. I also have not had the same rapid results since coming back, it has been a longer slog. My only real suggestion would be to do whatever you can to dig into the science and understand the nature of those lab values and other issues you’re having (including making it enjoyable) before you reverse your hard-won fat-adapatation. There are lots of different ideas for breaking stalls out there, different things work for different people. If you still want to switch to low fat and low calorie after all your research, the option will still be there. I wish you luck!
Thanks for the advice!
I have started reintroducing carbs gradually this week. Today I decided to have a banana for the first time and my stomach has gone crazy. I guess this is to be expected? Not sure if it is avoidable as I am doing this gradually
It seems you are giving up on Keto because you hit a stall (very common), you have a few minor physical reactions (also common), and you miss certain foods (not in my case, but also common).
You will most likely gain all the weight right back. When you do, I suggest you consider doing Keto again. Keto is a great WOE. Many people do it for weigh loss, as you did, but the overall health benefits I think are much more important.