Dears,
I am thankful to Ketogenic forum and other folks who helped and helping to get my goal. I feel in next one month I will be reaching my goal of fat loss and my BMI is going to be in healthy range. Also, belly size is going to be under 32 inches.
Question is , what to do after that? How to go back slowly out of ketosis and adapt to healthy diet and exercise to maintain the results achieved in these three months of Ketosys process?
I have learnt some of the basic healthy things which I am going to followâŚbut I am bit afraid that once I start carbs againâŚshould not be going back to where I started. Please suggest your experience and way forward to transition out from Ketosys in a healthy way and to maintain the results further.
Thanks in advance. 
How should one return to normal healthy diet after three months of Keto?
Can I ask why you want to stop eating keto? Only as I treat it as just âa way to eatâ rather than a âdietâ keto is a healthy diet 
Since low carbohydrate, moderate protein, and high fat is what we evolved to eat, I see the ketogenic diet as the ânormal healthy diet.â The evidence that the dietary advice to keep fat low and to eat a lot of carbohydrate is the cause of our national obesity epidemic is pretty solid. Iâm old enough to remember the days before the U.S. Dietary Guidelines, and people were a lot healthier then.
Welcome to the Hotel Ketofornia. You can check-out any time you like, but you should never leave.
If you learn anything from living a ketogenic diet, itâs this: Keto IS healthy eating. Standard guidance on âhealthyâ eating is so much corn fertilizer.
My personal big 4 for maintenance:
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Stay away from processed pre-packaged foods including grains and starchy veggies?
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Refrain from eating high sugary foods too often with any food you eat? (create a timed eating window always eat sugary things alone by themselves, no fats or protein) MOST IMPORTANT ALWAYS KEEP SUGAR INTAKE IN CHECK?
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Make fat and meat your primary source of nutrition just eat more but not too much?
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Eat more leafy greens and cruciferous veggies? (unlimited; raw, cooked, steamed or fermented; what ever amount your gut bugs can handle)
Many people post about returning to eating carbohydrate in a way that sounds very much like an alcoholic in early sobriety talking about someday being able to drink again. It scares me.
Stay whole foods and quality foods.
Monitor additional - what you call normal - foods and see what they are doing to your body.
Monitor as you may have at the beginning of keto but, youâll be doing it backwards.
Instead of looking for weight loss, youâll probably be monitoring weight gain.
One or two pounds every few months gain might be fine for you - a quarterly fast will get you back to good and your diet will feel less restrictive.
But, a pound a week - youâll maybe want to rethink.
I think keto / low-carb IS a ânormal healthy dietâ.
What is it you want to eat that youâre not eating on a keto diet? What do you think is healthy that youâre not getting with keto? Really, there is a very large variety of foods that you can eat and stay keto / low-carb. And there are quite a few ways to eat keto / low-carb in terms of carnivore all the way to vegan, largely animal based to largely plant based.
Returning to junk food woudnât seem healthy. Going more towards a starch or carb based diet would really concern me if you intended to continue eating high fat. It seems that high fat / low carb can be healthy, and for some a low fat / high carb diet can be healthy. But high fat / high carb is asking for a health disaster. I think most of us on this forum have not found low fat / high carb diets to work well for us. I was in that camp despite really wanting to make the McDougall diet and similar protocols work for me. They just didnât. If youâre one who can be healthy with that way of eating, I envy you.
Good luck, whatever way of eating you ultimately decide is best for you. We really are all different and genetics really can play a major role in what works for an individual.
Keto is the healthy diet that will allow you to maintain. You can go back to carbs and we wonât bash you for it but I predict a slow steady increase in weight and size is in your future.
I looked at the title and thought well damn, I am abnormal. Of course I have known that for some time now.
Congrats on your success @smilekapoor!
Iâve never eaten more real food in my life than I have in the past 6 months. If what I am eating now isnât healthy, then there is no such thing. Iâm consistenly at 75-85% of my suggested RDA for vitamins and minerals.
Iâve been in maintenance for about a month. My plan was to raise my carbs to 30-35 and go back to eating higher fat amounts, more nuts and dairy too. The thing is I am still ending up between 15-20 carbs on most days when I donât consciously focus on making them higher. Iâm such a creature of habit that eating under 20 per day is still practically an involuntary action.
My idea was to include small amounts of starch⌠maybe a cup of rice or potatoes here and there but to be honest, they donât really taste that great any more and I havenât been that motivated to make them much. Iâm not really complaining. Itâs just surprising to me.
What I find most amazing is my capacity for meat and my apparent inability to achieve a feeling of fullness even though I donât have an issue with still being hungry. A 16 oz ribeye is no problem. I can put one down and wish there were more. I ate around 20 oz of delicious beef roast last week and could have easily eaten more but I stopped when I thought to myself that this is getting ridiculous. I feel like I could take on one of those steakhouse challenges where if you eat the Flintstones sized steak, salad and baked potato, you get your meal for free and your picture on the wall of gluttony.
Scalewise, I float between three pounds over weight goal to four pounds under. Iâm currently 2 pounds under and the number usually depends on how busy I am with life.
Thatâs awesome! But now that song will be stuck in my head all day. 
Also, have a complete blood panel drawn before starting carbs so you have a baseline of what you know you can get back to if you return to keto.
It is fine that you could feel restricted on keto. Maybe always talked about at the dinner table and in restaurants etc. but you might want to change the inflammatory title of this post to something like:
âHow should one move to a less carbohydrate restrictive diet after three months of Keto?â
Hi â
It appears, by your own admission, that keto has helped you lose weight and improve your health. Why would you want to transform out of ketosis and to a lifestyle and way of eating that is opposite or away from that? That is a question you should answer to yourself.
Reconsider keto as a healthy way of living rather than a short term diet.
That said, if you are not comfortable with keto for whatever reason, Iâd recommend eating a whole food diet, primarily meat, fish and vegetables, as well as dairy, nuts and go easy on fruits and berries. That should keep you relatively low carb.
I also believe finding a physical activity or sport to participate in, is important for your physical as well as mental health. You donât have to be a hard core athlete, although you can â but I also count long walks as exercise.
Meditation is useful as well. Keto is just one part of the healthy living equation. Health is about whole body and mind body. Exploring your spiritual and creative side. Being engaged in life on multiple levels.
I went a bit off the rails here, but hopefully it gets you thinking about what health and well being means to you.
Cheers,
Q
Itâs like an alcoholic finally getting their liver healthy and asking - how do I drink again without damaging my liver again?
If alcohol was good or healthy, there may be a reason to consider it. Unfortunately, some people have bodies that cannot process alcohol and remain healthy.
Carbs are like alcohol for those of us who suffered with metabolic syndrome. They serve no purpose and provide no health benefits. Theyâre a recreational drug and youâre free to abuse your health as you please. But it will come at a cost to your longevity and disease.
Referring to ânormalâ diets⌠there is nothing normal about consuming carbs - no more so than consuming alcohol. Our bodies are made with protein, fat and very very small amounts of carbs. There are no essential carbs. It is abnormal to eat carbs on the SAD diet.
Wishing you only good health 
Congrats on your success! Be prepared to put weight back on if you back off keto. Keto is meant to be a permanent change so the weight stays off. I would recommend staying on keto, but find the balance point to where your weight stays static. Only you will be able to figure that out by trial and error since everyone is different.
Good answer.
I think the poster just wants to go on maintenance. His title choice might be unfortunate, but no need for people to jump all over him.