Keto Carb Up

(Dani) #1

Hey All!! Happy Fourth! :us:

I was wondering if anyone has any advice or insights on a keto carb up day? Been seeing it a lot on some pages I follow.

Thanks!!!

(Tim) #2

Iā€™ve never heard that phrase before, could you explain what it means?

#3

Wait. What?

Have no clue what that is. What is the purpose of a carb up on a low carb way of eating? I donā€™t get it.

(Allie) #4

You mean deliberately taking yourself out of ketosis in the mistaken belief that carbs are necessary for the body? I donā€™t bother with any of that stuff.

#5

What advice specifically are you looking for? People mean a lot of different things when they say ā€œcarb up.ā€

#6

What you are referring to is a CKD ā€“ Cyclical Ketogenic Diet. It is one of the 3 common keto diets standard keto (skd), targeted keto (TKD) and CKD.

There is nothing wrong with a CKD and people have been doing it for decades but for th average overweight keto dieter it is not always the best option especially if you have past history with binging or out of control cravings once you introduce a ton of carbs. CKD requires a lot of carbs once a week and VERY low fat. I and many people have lost tons of fat doing it but it is not for the faint of hart. A SKD is way easier to follow than a CKD.

Quick cheat sheet:

CKD = 7-14 days of strict keto, carbs around 20/30gms or less a day. So it is an SKD most of the time then 1 day of carbs but some people do 2 days.

Once a week or every other week it is high carbs and LOW fat. Carbs range from 300-700++ deepening on body type and level of activity you engage in on a daily basis. Only about 5% of keto folk would I say a CKD is good for, the rest should stick to the easier SKD.

All you have to do is search on Google for ā€œckd lyle mcdonaldā€ and you will find tons of info.
Then you can decide if it is right for you.

(Dany Bolduc) #7

A couple years ago, before I read for myself all I could find about ketosis and the metabolic processes involved in fueling my body, a friend of mine introduced me to ā€œThe Anabolic Dietā€ by Dr. Mauro di Pasquale.

Itā€™s a diet tailormade for bodybuilders (which I am not) that prescribes a Carb up day.

Iā€™m a little fuzzy on the details so I wonā€™t get into them.

Now that I have been Keto for some time I can draw these conclusions ā€¦ for my n=1.

  •      Having a carb-up day is completely and utterly counter to staying in ketosis and getting the benefits of being in nutritional ketosis.

  •      It prevents (or at least greatly delays) you from effectively becoming fully fat adapted.

  •      Once fully fat adapted, strength is the same, but endurance goes through the roof. Ketones FTW!

  •      When carbing-up you 'always' have to deal with Carbs cravings, which for me, inevitably leads to falling off the wagon and 1 carb-up day, becomes 2 days then 7.

I would be willing to concede that ā€˜maybeā€™ for a competing/top level body-builder, which are incredibly disciplined in the first place, this ā€˜mightā€™ be effective to maximize mass gain, power or what-not.

But for anyone NOT at that level (and I was weight training 5-7 times a week for 1.5 hours), it would, at best, most likely be less effective than straight Ketoā€¦ at worst, it could completely derail your efforts to be in ketosis and reaping its benefits.

(Dani) #8

Thanks everyone for your input! I was trying to understand it as I saw ā€œcarb upā€ on a few other sites I follow. It seems to be counterintuitive to what I am trying to achieve.

Thank you again for your knowledge!

(Jenn Monaghan) #9

For some reason I cringe every time I hear ā€œcarb upā€ or ā€œlisten to your body.ā€

(Dustin Cade) #10

There are a few keto people that I follow that do carb up (refeed) as a normal practiceā€¦ first of which is

(Dustin Cade) #11

and the second person who does this is

I am only sharing info, I do not practice refeed or carb up days

(betsy.rome) #12

Yeah, Dr. Mercola also says to carb up once a week. I call bullshit.

(jilliangordona) #13

The ability to carb up drastically depends on the individual person. Iā€™m bummed to see all of the hate for it in this thread, but this forum is moreso (not totally) catered to non-athletes.

Those in the heavy lifting and athletic community use this method, often by eating carbs 30 mins before a tough workout. I think this is effective for athletes transitioning into full keto in order to keep their athletic performance up. But it ainā€™t for everyone, and should be avoided unless you are heavy lifting in TRANSITION to keto.

I did this, as to my boyfriend. We both do full keto now and donā€™t need to carbs. But it helped with both if our frustrations in doing less sets at the rack with in transition.

#14

I am too but itā€™s not unexpected which I can understand but seems to ignore that different things work for different people and not everyone eating keto has physical and psychological issues with carbs and itā€™s nice to have the forum to discuss those differences. Iā€™ve neve done TKD, but thrive on CKD even though I donā€™t even like carbs (why I eat keto) but as an active person my hormones certainly do best with CKD.

#15

I enjoy Leanne Vogelā€™s podcasts even though I donā€™t always agree with her on things like women and fasting ā€” or this.

But her carb-ups look pretty darn low-to-moderate-carb most of the time, and I think that once Iā€™m at my goal weight Iā€™ll do that one every few weeks or soā€¦mainly from a culinary point of view, because I love to cook!

(I already know from experience that a few extra carbs once a month or even twice wonā€™t make me regain weight or start cravings, itā€™ll just knock me out of ketosis for a couple days.)

#16

Her carb ā€œupsā€ seem much different than other styles and itā€™s more a flexible low carb diet. Itā€™s sort of why I originally asked OP what she meant by ā€œcarb upā€ as there is Vogelā€™s small sweet potato and thereā€™s CKD maximum loading.

#17

Agree with some of the comments here that her carb ups are rather pathetic lol, they resemble more of a lazy keto with higher than normal carbs. I lost almost 100lbs doing a ckd with 500-600gms of carbs on average once a week, sometimes every 10 daysā€¦ mostly carbs like that guy in the videoā€¦cereals etc and very very low fat.

#18

Exactly! Thatā€™s a carb up. A sweet potato is not a ā€œcarb upā€ as most refer to when discussing refeeding.