So, I was wondering for those who are keto adapted. And you have popped out of keto by accident or maybe because of a vacation or something. How quickly can you get back into Keto.
I’m guessing if you are fat adapted it will be a little quicker correct?
Thanks!
For me it’s usually about 24 hours. I just did a huge carb up on Friday (as a bit of an experiment) and fasted all yesterday. My blood glucose spiked at 8mmol (144 dg/dL) Friday early evening (5.8 (~100) later that night) and no keto strip colour, but by late last night (Saturday) I was getting pee stick results again and BG was back to my normal 4.7-5.0mmol
Always by the next morning. Might be sooner but I don’t bother checking until next morning as I can’t see the point in stressing about it.
however long it takes your body to burn all available carbs, and presumably go back to fat burning (your body can make its own glucose, aka gluconeogenesis, but it generally would rather not do this if there is a good energy source like fat/ketones on hand)
For a major deviation from keto - I had the flu and purposely had some carbs for a day because I was just scrambling for any flu relief. I was back in ketosis after about 12 hrs (pee sticks) but felt truly adapted (energy levels back up) after about 2 days. Could have been lingering flu however.
Any other time I have abit too many carbs I’m fine in about 6 hrs. During those hours I feel abit drained.
YMMV
Usually takes 2 days for me with exercise and fasting.Been keto since May 2017.1st post and I enjoy this site
The longer I’m out, the longer it takes. Having an off plan day is 24-36 hours. A lost weekend is 36-72 hours. A two week vacation is generall 3-4 days.
Full disclosure: I am not diabetic, I am only big.
I don’t pop into or out of ketosis very easily. It’s a gradual increase or decrease. My morning BG rises or falls about 10-15 mg/dL and BK about 1-1.5 mmol per day. If I fast and exercise, the BG rate doubles, but not BK.
So if my morning BG=75 and BK=2.5, and that day I eat high carb meals, the next morning my BG will be 85-90 and BK 1-1.5 so still in ketosis. If I eat again it will rise further, but when I stop it will begin falling immediately.
I’ve been traveling for a week so I’ve been eating grits for breakfast, lots of rice dishes for lunch/dinner, snacking on fruit and nuts, generally being way over my carb and calorie tolerances.Yeserday I returned home and started fasting. The following morning, my BG was 95 and BK were 0.6 and today I should be deeper.
I’m insulin resistant but fat adapted. My body doesn’t treat being in ketosis as a cliff that I fall off of (or climb back up to). It’s more like a hill, that I gradually descend down or ascend up.
I’ve been on strict keto for 11 months. Yesterday I ate about 300 carbs at Easter dinner. I have fasted for 24 hours before. I also did full body workouts Saturday and this morning. I checked my levels at 10am and my ketones were 0.6. I expected 0.0
I think I am seeing that once you are fat adapted after awhile – it’s easier to get back to being a fat burner! love that
Gender can make a difference. Hormones can be a woman’s keto nightmare. (Some women sincerely cannot do a true ketogenic diet.)
I am newly fat adapted (6-7 weeks on keto), but this is my experience: A. I had a slip and had a few more carbs than normal (around 55 versus 20-25). A few weeks earlier this would have knocked me out of ketosis. This time it didn’t. This was about a week ago. B. I DID knock myself out of ketosis this past Saturday (two days ago) but I woke Sunday with low levels and by last night all was well.
Hi All. I am new today to this forum. I have been on the keto diet one year now and I have successfully lost 51kg so far. I watch what I eat and my macros very strictly every day. I am pedantic about precisely recording everything I eat and making sure it fits the keto macros. I very rarely eat more than 10g net of carbs per day and I never exceed 1600 calories. Last week I dropped out of ketosis for the first time since I started. I was on vacation and whil I did eat more calories than usual I stuck to my macros and I did not eat more than 25g net carbs on any given day. When I got back home on Easter Friday I did a solid 36 hour fast taking only water. Even after that my blood ketones were still only 0.2mmol. I have been on the egg diet for the last 4 days eating only eggs and cheese, drinking 2 - 3 coffees a day with cream, MCT oil & 2 stevia tabs and plenty of water. My carbs are way below 10g and my caloric intake is only 1600 per day. Still however my blood ketones are only 0.2mmol. Its been over a week and things are not improving. I am not getting any closer to ketosis. I note that a lot of people in this forum say its relatively easy to get back into ketosis if you have been doing it for a while which I have been but in my case I am struggling to get back into ketosis. Can anyone help?
congrats on the loss,
Since your bio does not say, are you dysfunctional in anyway, Type 2 diabetic (T2D) etc? Some basic facts would also be helpful weigh age BF% macro#'s.
Thinking aloud the eggs have some carbs in them if you were not already recording them, I assume your cream is full cream and not half and half, not sure what a stevia tab is(is that like a pill).
How do you feel over all are you tired or lacking energy?
Do you do extended fasts regularly?
Hi Chris. Thanks so much for your response. Sorry for the lack of detail. When I said I’m new to this I should have added I’m new to using an online forum all together. LOL. I’m 51 years old and prior to my weight loss I was 150kg and morbidly obese. My BF was well over 40%. My doctor was pressing me to have bariatric surgery. I was not keen on that idea so I got my act together and took control of my diet and lifestyle. I have never been diagnosed as diabetic. I was lucky in that regard. I use full fat cream in my coffee. Stevia tabs are little capsules or pellets of Stevia. I count the carbs in the eggs, cheese and even in the coffee and I even add a couple of grams to be on the safe side and I still never exceed 10 grams a day. I stopped drinking alcohol and other than stevia in my coffee I don’t drink artificially sweetened drinks. I drink soda or still water only. I have a desk job and I do not exercise at all. I’m not a fan. I have been intermittent fasting for the past 8 months. I fast 18-20 hours per day and eat one to two times during my eating window. I also fast a full 24 hours once a week. I have shifted to a 16 / 8 protocol while on my egg fast. I do not lack energy and I have not been tired. I get a good 7-8 hours sleep every night.
So what are your Macros?
As your weight drops they should be adjusted in case you did not know that already.
Just taking a WAG here but I think you are possibly getting to much protein since you are not specific about that. I am now around 6 months in I have fallen off several times in recent days and when I was knocked out by “sugar free” breath mints that recovery was the quickest. I think it was in regards to the overall small amount of ingested.
I was back in within a day, I don’t blood meter but based on feeling and a breath meter reading.
Next time was about 4 days later, I was traveling and basically I was knocked out due to some sauce on ribs. The next couple days I lingered, but I was eating a lot of protein and a lot of things that were not normal in my diet. The rest of that week I was lower than I had been, but not out of what I had seen recently.
So then Easter came along, I was lower than normal before eating on Easter day, I had ham which I found out after the fact was honey glazed excessively and creamed vegetables which had been thickened with flour. I am still lingering now after minimal protein the rest of this week. The time between my trip (tuesday) and that friday(good friday) I fasted my levels were OK by friday when I ended. But I just did not feel the awesome when I was done like I had in the past, my intention was to carry it till Saturday but I listened to my body and stopped.
So when I fell off earlier in keto before I was fat adapted, thanksgiving was 3 weeks into the diet, I had gone through the actual flu at 2 weeks in and was of course still adjusting. That time I only had pee sticks and it took a solid week to show anything and then it was minimal. I was never getting much higher than moderate anyway back then I did not feel the greatest for about 4 days and weight went backwards for about 2 days. There was one other thing with thanksgiving I had turkey left overs and I think I was pushing my protein limit for a few days.
Christmas was the next time and I planned it. I was starting to fat adapt I believe at that time now that I think about it and I ate worse than thanksgiving. I recovered in 2 days, despite drinking, sweets, and over indulging. I did not eat anything starchy or with flour. I never felt as bad as thanksgiving and my energy was only bad for one day unlike thanksgiving when it spanned the next whole week getting slowly better.
This is all N=1 (my personal experiment) I was pretty strict from Christmas until last week, my total loss was 51 pounds since being keto. I started Nov 1 of 17 and I was what my doctor described as highly likely to be diabetic in a few years. My BF was 31-32% when I started and I am now at 19% give or take a %, 44 male 5’9". I hope this helps,
One thing I would try is to increase your fat intake, that seems to make my level of keto stronger, esp when I am fasted. Also if you don’t already start listening to the podcasts, in particular listen to switching it up with megan ramos. The easy part for me has been I don’t feel horrible when I was knocked out now, a little less like the energizer bunny, but not like someone hit with a car either.
Hi Chris. Thanks for your advice. I do know that macros need adjusting as weight changes and I do that pretty regularly but your last message reminded me that I have checked them for a few months. I have now and I have adjusted them. I’m now working on 100g fat, 95g protein and 25g carb per day. My resting TDEE is 2200 cal per day and I consume 1400-1600 cal per day so I’m always at a deficit.
Did you ever figure it out? You said you were concerned about .2 ketone reading levels but you never said what your level was normally before that event where you were thrown out of ketosis. Is it possible your body is so good at regulating itself that you are in ketosis but your body is utilizing them properly so there is little excess in the blood?
Is there any way to know if you are still in ketosis or not without testing?
I had a little chocolate cheat yesterday and ate 3/4 of a dark chocolate bar. Maybe around 20 carbs total and I had a low carb beer… And 1 gummy bear… And 1 malt Easter egg… LOL it sounds so bad on this forum but, my self restraint was actually pretty damn awesome compared to how much I usually eat.
I still lost a couple lbs this morning tho so, I’m also wondering if maybe my body is missing something I gave it during my cheat moment… Or maybe it’s coincidence?
PS does this forum prefer new topics or just revamping similar topics?
hi. Testing is really the only way to know for sure. I’ve gotten to a point that I kind of know when I am in ketosis because I feel a little different. But depending upon what I have eaten – I’ll test to verify. The longer you do it you’ll know what your body can handle.
I just find I get back to basics after having a special meal (i.e. holiday like Easter I ate cheesecake and I know it knocked me out) – but I’m back in ketosis after a few days and feel good.