Five days off plan and oh the damage

(Marianne) #21

That’s kind of a bummer. It’s not like you binged out or anything.

We went to a wedding last Friday (7/26). Was great the entire evening - passed on the hors deourves, didn’t eat the fancy gnocchi or potatos, no bread (had the most delicious tenderloin I think I have had), but then the cake came. It sat in front of me for the longest time, but then I decided to have a “taste” of frosting. From that one bite, I proceeded to eat all of the frosting from my piece and my husband’s, and maybe another - I don’t remember. There were also these little raspberry cream candies in oval chocolate boats. I must have eaten four or five of those - and would have eaten them all if other people weren’t at our table (always been a closet binger). My first cheat since starting (Feb.).

I felt ashamed and afraid for days after that and really had to work to shake it. Got right back immediately eating well and OMAD, however, it really drove home how powerless I am over trigger foods. For me, dabbling in cheat foods is dancing with the devil. I have put the club away now, but was definitely a sobering experience.

(Ken) #22

Now, now, there’s no need to panic. Let’s look at what actually happened. You ate some carbs. You gained some water weight due to partial glycogen recompensation. You did not eat enough for either recompensation or overcompensation. You have to overcompensate chronically to even begin the transition back into fat gaining lipogenesis. That is an adaptive process, kind of the opposite of what happened when you first started Keto. That takes time, just like becoming fat adapted. What happened is you merely went into Maintenance for a while, with no detrimental readaptation. You should quickly shed the glycogen and be right back on track.

There was no real damage, just a temporary suspension of Lipolysis.

What your experience should teach you is that you can occasionally eat some carbs without significant negative effects.

(Jennibc) #23

As I wrote above, I am not panicking, this is just a public declaration so I don’t allow five days to turn into a week and then have it turn into a month, which with the cravings I am now fighting (that were nonexistent for so long) is a real possibility if I don’t right this ship. I have been doing this for some time now and last summer I ate off plan for a couple of days and gained 4.8 pounds. But I wouldn’t say gaining 8 pounds which is over 10% of what I’ve lost while doing keto is insignificant. It’s a sad fact for me that it takes a while to drop weight. I have never had that big drop that others have had in a short amount of time. As of today I am only down 2 of the 8 since Saturday. So it’s slow. And frustrating and it is what it is. It’s even harder this time. I wonder if it’s because five days in a row of eating off plan was far different than a day here and day there on the last trip.

(hottie turned hag) #24

Yeah that same impetus was what made me make my accountability thread after “Pecangate”. :expressionless: It worked! I went back to “almost-carn”.

In my case I had to remove the binge-inducing nuts from the house. I endorse this drastic measure. :blush:

(Jennibc) #25

I feel very lucky that nuts don’t trigger a binge for me. They are such a big part of my eating plan, that I don’t know what I’d do without them. I typically eat them unsalted and unroasted and that could be why.

(John) #26

hit a full body workout. your muscles are probably storing some of those lbs. that you are concerned about. If i remember right using them is the only way to get the glycogen out. So if it were me I would put as much time between meals as i could. Enjoy my trip and and then work the muscles pretty good once I was back on plan.

(Robert C) #27

I think one thing you can do is focus on the good side (if it applies to you).

I find that, when on vacation, if I restrict myself too much - especially when it comes to foods I can’t access near home - then I come back with a monkey on my back.

Essentially the feeling that I limited myself on the vacation and so should make up for it somehow. Of course, logic does not work with that feeling of cheating yourself out of something and wanting to make up for it so, for me, it is a particularly bad idea. Especially if the trip just lasts a week or two vs. falling off the wagon (or even just lots of extra cheat days) for an extended period between vacations.

If, on your trip, you “went for it” over a short period of time and truly feel it is out of your system - that is a plus in my book.

(PSackmann) #28

Consider this a gentle kick to get your butt back in gear!

Seriously, good job on catching it when you got home and not allowing yourself to get into the “oh well, I’ll get back to it later” mentality that can follow off-plan eating. That’s where the real danger lies.

(Susan) #29

You had a great holiday; though? I personally think that holidays, birthday’s, Christmas, these types of days are totally different going off program then when people randomly cheat. Once in a while, on these special occasions, you can. I did on Mother’s Day go off, but right back on track the next day. I haven’t had an off day since, but in time, I will, we all do. Just get right back on the Keto Train, Jenni! =).

#30

Sounds like a fun trip, but the fallout is rough. Glad you are back on plan. You’ll feel better soon.

I always wondered (in my brief 8 months this woe - ha!) if some people must be more reactive than others. (Genetics?) And does it work both ways? Can they drop weight more easily than others, but then also bear the full attack of carbs when they go off plan?

(Jane- Old Inky Crone) #31

@Jennibc Thank you for posting this. I’m sorry that you gained, but lesson learned, and a good lesson for me as well.
I’m about to go on a long awaited vacation and travel to New York State. We will be in a hotel from Saturday until Tuesday and I expect I’ll celebrate my birthday (on Saturday) liberally the whole time. Lately I’ve gotten lax with my carb intake, having way too many fat bombs, plain Greek yogurt with frozen blueberries, spices and condiments. I’ve been stalled for a long time and too lazy to cut out all the carbs to get back on track. When my vacation is over I plan to come back here, fess up to all the weight gain, and ask for accountability to stick to my plan.

(Jennibc) #32

Sadly I have tendinosis in my on my shoulders which precludes weight lifting and I can no longer jog because of the spinal fusion I had in January. But I still exercise everyday so that will help.

(Jennibc) #33

Unfortunately for me I both gain rapidly but lose very slowly. Such is life. But at least I know how my body works so I don’t get too frustrated as I know what to expect.

(Susan) #34

I think most of us women can relate to this, Jenni!

I know you can get back on track and do this though =)).

#35

Well that stinks. So much for the theory. But it is amazing that you are so in tune with your body!

(Jennibc) #36

I am old - and after years of trying different things, I got it down - through trial and error! I am now down 4.7 after being back for a week, just another 3.5 to go and I’ll be back to pre-vacation. Of course, now is when the loss will really start to slow down. Typically I go on vacation, gain about 3-4 pounds and lose it within 6-8 days and then the loss grounds to a halt.

(Diane Beebe) #37

It should come off quickly.

(Curt Hibbs) #38

It may not be as bad as it appears on the surface as much of that gain was likely to be water binding to the glucose. When you start eating keto again and start to delete the stored glucose, the water will go with it. I’m not saying that you didn’t gain any weight, but maybe only half of what you thought.

(mole person) #39

We’re in lipogenesis every single day. When we’re losing fat on a ketogenic diet we are just in a negative balance of lipogenesis to lipolysis. Or, if in maintenance then in balance. When you significantly alter your day’s insulin profile this balance shifts. There is more time in an insulinogenic state where glucose is being pushed into adipocytes.

Fat adaptation doesn’t protect you from that. The benefits of the adaptation are that you will likely lose faster than when you started keto due to some degree of metabolic repair and that it won’t be as difficult since you are still fat adapted and won’t have the physiological suffering. But, this says nothing of the degree of psychological suffering which for many of us actually worsens after years of keto. More on this in a later post.

You’re right that there was “no detrimental readaptation” but not that this means she was only in maintenance or that all she added was a bit of glycogen and water.

I have the same pattern @Jennibc describes. I’ll put on a bunch of weight with a short carby excursion and then get strict again. Losing the weight is never fast. A lot will be lost in a week and then the losses will slow to a trickle for a long time after. How long that takes depends on how much I have gained. JUST.LIKE.FAT.

I too fell off the wagon a bit a couple of weeks ago. Not any massive pigging out, just an ice cream a day over four days and some coconut fat bombs in the evenings for a week. After that I went back to strict carnivore and tight time restricted eating.

Here is how the losses play out, and this is the typical pattern that I’ve now seen more that a dozen times at least.

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My low on July 17th was 104.4 lbs which is exactly maintenance for me. I peaked at 109.6 lbs on July 26th. Over the following 5 days I lost 3.6 lbs. And after that the rest is a crawl. A half pound over three days. This is exactly what happens every single time. After several days of losing weight at a decent clip my average losses shift to 0.2 lbs a day. It gets even slower for the last pound.

This is not just glycogen.

(mole person) #40

Now to the psychological difficulties. For many of us our carb addictions, although they abate to a mere occasional whimper while strictly keto, turn into roaring angry lions after a cheat. For me even just one chocolate bar or ice cream or french fries or even a non sugar sweetened fat bomb will set off my inner monster.

She’s not exaggerating the difficulty some of us experience. Maybe you don’t experience it like this, I’m guessing not from your many posts on carb ups, but for a lot of us this psychological struggle afterwards does not in any way seem worth the brief moments of pleasure afterwards.

Further, it’s enough of a battle that we often lose it and have to start all over again. I’ve gone through months of this after deciding to have ONE Mars bar. I’ll have nightly recriminations and resolutions only to say “what difference will one more day really make?” the next day.

Maybe this is true for you, but for a lot if us the negative effects are very significant. We’re all different.