Hey hey everyone. So I am going to be blatantly honest here so get ready… I started keto at the beginning of August this year. I weighed in at a whopping 246.8 pounds at the start. I was probably one of the most unhealthy people on the planet. I work from home (sedentary unless to the fridge and back), I ate fast food at least 3 times a week (pizza, fries, burgers with the bun), smoked and, most of all, drank delicious beer. When i say i drank beer, i am not talking high school drink 3 beers and stumble around giggling. I am talking 18 packs to the gut at least twice a week. I have NOT had a single alcoholic drink in over 2 months. I have been super disciplined on keto and I am down almost 25lbs. So here’s the question: can I get wasted? Just one time…or do you think it ruins everything? If I bump myself out of ketosis, will it be difficult to get back in and become fat adapted? Please don’t hate. This is really an honest question I want to know the answer to. Life is a little difficult right now and I just want to drink beer:) TIA
I really want to get drunk
It will kick you out of ketosis, yes.
But if you drink a low carb beer or alcohol with soda water/sugar free drinks you SHOULD be okay.
Your liver will stop producing ketones to process the alcohol.
You’ve been on Keto for almost 10 weeks, you should be nearing adaption if you don’t have a lot of metabolic damage.
Get drunk, KCKO. If you think it will help you to take a break and enjoy a drink then go ahead, it may take a few days to reach ketosis again. Just be strict.
I have…before. I just want to relax and let go for a night, not spill to a shrink at this point.
Thank you @ava_ad0re ! I appreciate the realistic advice. I have been doing so well that it actually terrifies me to “get out of ketosis”. I may not even proceed with my evil intentions 
but wanted to know the risk. I appreciate it!
If you feel it’s detrimental to your progress to stop and enjoy before bolting out of the gate and having a binge, then be realistic about what you expect, take the time you need and continue.
There is no point feeling guilty
If I were you I would;
- Enjoy the drink
- Intermittent fast to Lunch the next day
- Enjoy a fatty protein filled lunch with minimal carbs, try and keep your carbs as low as possible for the next day or two and you should be back on the wagon.
Your days of 18 packs are done. If you’re like most of us who enjoy a few beers around here your tolerance has gone down. Drink slower than you did before and have water in between beers. You’ll thank me.
I have heard that your tolerance drops so I am sure it wont be 18 anymore. Thank you for the helpful tips. I think maybe i will just start with one low carb option and take it from there.
Forget how many ketones are in your blood for a minute.
Because of the amount of alcohol you are talking about…I suggest…
Instead, you have to be honest with yourself.
Have I ever gone on a isolated 18 pack bender and just picked up where I left off the next day?
Or, does the 18 pack usually start a “what the hell” multi-week/multi-month series of multiple nights per week (whatever work and social life will put up with) of partying?
If it is usually more the start of the party - you should think hard on your current gains and potential loss over the coming days.
Hi Jennie. 
Congratulations on those pounds that are gone, ~10% of your starting weight.
No way to really say what the risk is. We’re all different. 2+ months keto - you’re probably well fat-adapted, or close enough for government work, as they say. One session of drinking = no problem getting back into ketosis later, nor will it affect the fat adaption in any meaningful way, in my opinion. I think the question is if it will indeed just be one time. Some people have had major downward spirals from just one slip-up, just one day they went off the program. You know yourself better than anyone.
April 2017, my doctor told me I’d finally made it all the way to full Type 2 diabetic status. 340 lbs. Quite a few decades of excess behind me. Was really strict with keto and fasting for 5 or 6 months, then got a bit slack and have gone back and forth for the past year. I’ve given in many times, ate a bunch of pizza, drank a bunch of booze. It never is as good as I think it will be.
Thanks @RobC. I really appreciate these realistic and non judgy answers. My whole family (for the most part) drinks at every function. I have been faced with or put in a position of making a choice to drink several times over the past 2 months and said no. It does scare me or make me apprehensive to drink again but then I think “why not”. I guess its ultimately a decision I have to make…
Thanks @OldDoug. I guarantee that if I imbibe, i will feel like shit the next day or maybe even the next week. Is it worth it? I dont know the answer to that. I’ve had lots of fun being intoxicated and know a thing or two about hangovers. I just dont want to ruin my current success but dont think its realistic for me to NEVER drink again. Maybe not 18, but 6?
Seem to be stuck
If you do - do it with eyes wide open.
Remember Robin Williams line - something like “I can violate my standards faster than I can lower them”.
Maybe at this minute you wouldn’t order a pizza, or think ice cream was a possibility, or decide to extend your party to Monday.
But be honest with yourself (maybe write down stuff), if you wake up in bed with those 2 non-keto dudes (Ben and Jerry’s) and there are flat oily boxes, ranch dressing in plastic cups and pizza crusts all over your kitchen - how do you think that “extending your streak” decision will go?
If you are interested in my 2 cents… don’t do it… It sounds like you had an addiction problem with no off switch after 2 months its pretty likely to switch itself back on again… After about 2 years of keto I made some keto bread and could not stop eating it. The texture and taste took me right beck to my carb addiction days I ate the whole lot over 2 meals and was constantly tempted by it until it was all gone. I did this precisely twice just to see if the effect was the same and it was. No way will I ever make that again… so if you ever felt that the excess beer consumption was kind of addictive I’d stay well away for a couple of years.
Congrats Jennie on the weight loss and the turn around to make it two months strict so far. At one time, I had been strict keto, but only for 1 month, was 20 lbs down, floating on a cloud at how easy it had been to remove all sugar cravings, and remove the desire to binge eat, just about everything from, “you name it” to “I can’t believe your putting all that in your mouth” .
All it took, in my mind, was a little let down in that discipline I had been developing, I allowed myself a couple of beers, instead of a simple ( 1 serving) glass of wine once in a while. Then it was a couple of fast food burgers with buns, instead of a keto meal at home. I’ve been on and off the saddle many times since then, gaining and losing the 20 lbs back and finally gaining it all back and probably more, ( too scared to weigh myself) over the next 8 months, but still ketoing and fasting on again off again, trying to get off of this carbaholic roller coaster, again. The Keto WOE had been on the sideline for much of the past year, coming out only when dining with friends our family who thought I was still off the carbs.
Can’t say it was only the beer, but wished that I had made it through the last nine months strict instead of the 1 month, as I could have been down, 50lbs, 60lbs, heck 100lbs down today and feeling so much better.
What I’m trying to say is that, in my opinion, if you have the beer bender, then it’s possible that you lose the keto discipline you worked so hard for, Don’t be sorry like me, be very careful with your new found WOE.
Oh Jennie Jennie Jennie, I think I love you 
Here is a post I made in a different topic, It may help. If you click on the topic title, you can see the whole conversation -
It may help.
Thank you for asking an honest question and being honest about your thoughts. I despise the taste of beer, lol, that’s just me… but I wanted to let loose about 5 weeks in and I went with diet soda and Captain, served my purpose and we had a lot of fun checking our BAC with the keto breathalyzer! Because my sisters and I are dorks! My personal experience is that when I relax and allow myself a little break here and there, I’m not as apt to crave it and have done well not overdoing anything by having my mind set that nothing is off limits, which in turn helps me not overdo anything, and I am not so hard on myself and sabotaging my journey. I’m sorry, I rambled, but wtg on your successes! I hope you are able to find what works for you, and you will.
Have a couple Martinis and call it a night.
If I needed a little fix that would be my go to.
If you drink 6+ beers you’re going to feel like a bloated, swollen piece of crap.
Maybe this isn’t what you want to hear, and not sure how to say it without coming across as “judgy”. But in my experience, no one who does not have alcoholism can drink 18 beers in a sitting. Most people would be dead.
That’s not a comment on who you are as a person, it’s a statement about physiology. Alcoholism is a disease, not a moral failing. But it’s a disease that has only one means of defeating it, which is complete abstinence.
Can I be certain about this? Are all binge drinkers alcoholic? No, I’m not a professional in that field, and this isn’t a diagnosis.
Just a caring observation from someone who has lived through it, and who would wish better for you than putting yourself through this.
Aside from anything else, you should be aware that the amount of alcohol you’re talking about can have significant downsides, not the least of which is increased cancer risk. Something to ponder.
I wish you well.