So i can get into and out of ketosis very fast. I usually get out of ketosis twice a week, on Wednesdays and Fridays. To get out of ketosis i can eat a full pizza, bag of corn chips, few sandwiches and beers in the evening. On the next day continue with the keto diet and by evening my ketone levels can be 0.8mmol/L. My concern is that are there any potential risks involved in constant in/out of the keto diet. I have not done any blood test since i started with the keto diet, which was about a year ago. What biomarkers should i look for when doing blood test, to see iām not harming myself with this cyclical ketogenic diet?
I posted this same question to reddit and got banned from /keto, which caught my by a surpriseā¦like why??? i know itās very unusual to get in and out of ketosis that fast, but i have a fast metabolism though, which might have something to do with it.
Iāll give some more background info for those who might be familiar with the issue. I eat mostly as pescoterian. My breakfast would look something like coffee with tablespoon of ghee, 1 teapoon of MCT. Then 3 eggs with jalapeƱos cooked and drizzled with coconut oil and mayonnaise at the top. For lunch ill eat like 3 handful of macadamia nuts, 2 slices of 90% chocolate, a can of sardines and one avocado and just coffee. My dinner varies quite a lot, but many times it is a salat of some sort covered with olive oil. Iāll finish eating by 5pm and do my breakfast again 5am in the morning. Hope that helps.
Into and out of ketosis few times a week
What is your reason for being on a keto diet?
Being in ketosis is not the same as being fat adapted and carbing up that frequently will kill any chance you have of being fat adapted.
You are releasing huge insulin spikes and then eating ketogenically at least twice a week. This seems to be the worst of both worlds and probably a very good way yo gain weight.
Why are you having the carb up days?
Good strategy, for metabolic purposes. That limited frequency will not allow any type of lipogenic readaptation. Iāve been practicing the same type thing for well over a decade. Itās contrary to Nutty Keto Dogma, but is very good for metabolic health. Lipolytic nutrition as the baseline with periodic carb intake that doesnāt cause glycogen overcompensation.
Mark Sisson calls the tighter version of this āthe keto zoneā where when heās keto, heās barely keto, and when heās not keto, heās barely not keto. There may be something to it (though Iām not sure Iād advocate the extreme peaks and valleys or food composition described in this post).
I eat keto mostly for mental clarity purposes, iām at my best when blood sugar levels are stable, it even cures my slight anxiety compared to when on the carb diet.
My body weight has remained the same, over the year and by looking the abs i would say body composition is more or less the same. I do physical work and have quite intense training sessions, then i usually feel on Wednesday like my glycogen stores are depleted and feel craving for carb. Iāve been on month long keto streaks and many 2-3 week long ketosis states and have found myself struggling to feel as energised as i used to.
Keto diet can be very restrictive and a little cheat day here and there helps with coping.
Iāll be interested to know more of the benefits for metabolic health. Have you verified this with your doctor. Iāve heard Tim Ferriss say, constant in and out throws lipid profile out of whack, how would i measure iām doing it right?
Well no, Keto is a lifestyle, itās not really a diet you cheat on because you find it hard.
Yet you are eating full pizzas, bags of corn chips, sandwiches and beers etcā¦ You arenāt even cycling with decent complex carbs. Youāre just harming your progress.
Iām really curious as to what you are trying to achieve through this WOE? Because it doesnāt appear to be Ketosis or Fat Adaption.
If I wanted to reverse-engineer an eating regime that would cause emotional and physical turmoil for me, personally, it would be exactly this, but Iām a binge-eater. When I eat like that, I retain weight for days, begin to crave sugar again and running economy drops way off, not to mention mild suicidal tendencies 
but it is actually refreshing to hear from a fellow who is more chill about eating the way that works for them.
Itās not constant. Itās periodic. Although it can be frequent as long as you donāt cause chronic overcompensation of glycogen.
Read all three parts of this. It gives the hormonal aspect of nutrition, often ignored by Nutty Keto Dogma.
It seems to me that you have probably never actually become fat adapted, so you got stuck in the difficult zone when mental clarity and energy levels can be a bit rubbish. It can take 6-8 weeks for that process to happen. But that needs 6-8 weeks of basically cheat free otherwise youāll never really get there and you wonāt get the benefits.
I am not an āall carbs are evilā person. I eat carbs occasionally if the situation makes it āworth itā
But I do it knowing that Iāll bloat a bit and have a headache the next day.
However my version of occasionally is once a month or less, not twice a week.
If you want the mental clarity, I would suggest giving it 2 months cheat free and see how you feel at the end of that.
If you still want to add carbs back in then, then it is your body and up to you, but maybe look at your carb choices to minimise the negative effects.
I am interested in the the benefits of occasional carb cycling, but i still dont think there can be many benefits attached to a whole pizza, a bag or corn chips, and beers twice a week!
Hey Katie,
Actually i eat various things on a cheat day, like rice, potatoes etc. This example was just to give idea how fast my body can switch back to keto (less then 24 hours for 0.8mmol/L ) even when eating heavy carbs.
I had not heard about Mark Sisson, who even seems to promote this in between idea of keto. My initial idea for posting was to find out if there are some health pitfalls when my body is dealing with the carbs while beeing fat adapted cause i feel great, but was not so sure is that medically too as accurate.
reddit /keto have a very clear rule regarding ācheat postsā - this is most likely why you were banned.
Lauri, of course you have to do what works for you, but I agree with @Jacymac that it sounds like youāre maybe still not really fat-adapted. My own experience, plus what I read here from others, gives me the impression that people who have been strict keto without slipups for long enough to be truly fat-adapted donāt report things like feeling āglycogen-depletedā after exercise and needing carbs to feel energetic. I had energy issues for a good 6 weeks after starting keto but not since then. Even after intense exercise, I have much more energy than I used to. Again, I respect everyoneās n=1, but if you havenāt stayed in adequate carb restriction for a good two months to see what that feels like, you may want to try it, just for your own knowledge about your own body. I think for many of us, the āketo is restrictiveā thing is largely a mental game.
And of course, the presence of ketones doesnāt say anything about how preferentially your cells are turning to ketones as a fuel source.
The OP may very well be on the one end of the bell curve where they are able to eat what they want when they want and remain metabolically healthy. It is a place where most of us would probably love to be but alas we are not on that end of the spectrum. Most of us fall within the middle of that bell curve and due to a lifetime of an unknowing poor diet, we are faced with metabolic syndrome with its myriad of challenges. Hopefully a large percentage of us have finally identified whatās up and are making changes to cure ourselves. This is why we are here yes? Success in this endeavor will also fall along a spectrum. Some will get healthier quickly and some will be so damaged that success will be minimal if at all. I have tried to maintain the perspective that all of us fall along a spectrum in every aspect of our lives. Yes there are certain ārulesā to keto that are a good place to start in the process, but a good amount of mental flexibility is critical I believe when āhelpingā people out.