Happy with my weight loss(195 to 165), want to incorporate cheat meals for sanity's sake, how does it work

#1

is it that basically everytime I cheat(planning on adding maybe 2-4 cheat meals a month, I have to re-enter ketosis?

and I believe that keto flu/electrolyte problems comes from switching from heavy carbs to dropping it almost completely, so I won’t really have any of those issues correct?

i went from 195 to 165 in about 5 months of on and off keto (i was “off” keto for about 6 weeks of the 5 months, only gained like 4 pounds during the 6 weeks)im a male, 25 and 5’10

i know cheating for a lot of people is frowned upon, but I wanted to get opinions from others

(Jo O) #2

I actually think cheat days are insane.
A. Makes you feel like you’re depriving yourself during Keto days.
B. Turns cheat days into your reward.
C. Not worth the recovery days after cheating.
—
We don’t count macros or track ketones, so are lazy Keto.
More like Mike Sissons’ approach of cycling Keto.

(*Rusty* Instagram: @Rustyk61) #3

What is this CHEATING you speak of?

#4

You may want to cheat, but all that does is remind you of your former diet. The sooner you cut ties to carbs, the sooner you won’t remember how good you though they were.

You can cheat, and then want to cheat year after year, or just cut the cord and get on with life. Your choice. :slightly_smiling_face:

(Jay Patten) #5

I have a cheat from time to time, but they are Keto cheats, like dark chocolate fat bombs, keto brownies or a rare diet soda.

These will have an effect on insulin (because of the artificial sweeteners) and may pause weight loss, but they won’t kick me out of ketosis or do long term harm to my progress.

Also, notice that I said “a cheat” and not “a cheat meal/ cheat day.” I know from personal experience that I’m not great at moderation (I was there 100% of the times that I stuffed my face, lol).

Having keto cheats is a great way to “indulge” and not destroy!!

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #6

A great way of putting it, and so true for me, as well! :bacon:

#7

It took me 3 weeks to be fully back to Keto adaptation after a night of wine, vodka and Rice Krispy treats. I’ve been tempted since but for me, it’s not worth it. I find keto treats that make me happy and try not to fantasize about carbs too much. I’ve heard it works for other people but I guess I’m not one

(TJ Borden) #8

I’ve added beer back in from time to time. I’ve found that a…let’s just say “few”, for the sake of discussion, beers in one sitting seems to cause me to add some water weight that takes a couple days to come back off. For me, it’s totally worth it. I’m in it for the long game, and if a few stalled days a month is the trade off for being able to continue being a craft beer geek, I’m okay with that.

But I’ve also found that I don’t feel sick after drinking beer, unlike when I end up getting a dose of hidden sugar somewhere and feel like shit for a day or two afterward

(Jay AM) #9

Basically what it comes down to as others have said above, don’t think that you can choose to binge on junk food and get off free. Being in ketosis or fat adapted is not a get out of jail free card to eat whatever once a week. There are things known as carb hangovers which can be as bad as a long night of drinking, dehydration, electrolyte wasting (keto flu causing), and various other problems individual people might run into.

However, if you’re hell bent on eating junk several times a month, you might consider incorporating a fasting regimen after the cheat times. The other part of this depends on your cheat meals themselves. Are you planning to pig out on extremely high carb meals? Or, are you talking about just introducing a few extra carbs?

If you find 20g of net carbs restricting and you are already at your goals, you could consider upping your carb allowance to 50g net carbs for example and see how you do on that. If that works well for a month with no ill effects, you might consider 60g even. Some people with healthy flexible metabolism and high energy expenditure through the day might even hit 100g safely. This advice may not apply if you come from being diabetic or highly insulin resistant.

If you don’t want to still restrict carbs and just want to have the cheat meals, keep them and possibly the meal after, extremely low fat. Which will hopefully mitigate the damage that high carbs and fat do together. Space out your other meals from the cheat meal itself. You could consider making it the last meal of the day and starting off high fat low or zero carb the next day.

Expect that eating high carb foods will cause cravings that can last for days and you may have that struggle.

(Karen) #10

Slowly ease some things back in and watch to see what you can tolerate. You may be able to tolerate more carbs. A piece of fruit might be nice. Keep the trial carbs at last.meal. good luck!Gaining…back off.

K

(Todd Allen) #11

Eating keto creates a condition called physiological insulin resistance. By not eating carbs our carbohydrate processing systems are down regulated. When given an oral glucose tolerance test we fail as if diabetic and it is recommended to gradually reintroduce carbs over a few days to get an accurate result.

In light of that I’d strongly recommend you monitor your cheats with blood glucose testing and avoid/minimize damagingly high blood glucose levels. What is acceptable depends on your metabolic health and your goals.
You might find you are ok once in a while binging on zucchini and onions while cotton candy washed down with mountain dew is a problem.

#12

Can’t cheat your health. That being said given all things considered metabolic flexibility my be beneficial so a sweet potato here, apple there etc… might be fine while a bowl of pasta or slices of bread just plain stupid in my mind.