Hi all,
Just joined. I’m not sure if this has been answered but what do people usually do after meeting their goals doing Keto? I am 95% of the were I want to be but I don’t want to go back to my poor, carb rich eating habits and I don’t want to stay on Keto for life. What is the best exit strategy? What makes Keto so appealing and effective for me is that it is black and white. No sugar no carbs. If I go to a diet that allows some carbs, that, to me, is a slippery slope.
Why not? It’s usually looked on as a new way of eating not a “diet” and is so health giving why would you want to change?
Sounds like you should stick to keto then?
I started Jan 1st to lose weight And its working,However I have since learned about the damage high carbs have done to me and my glucose levels, Why I retained the weight in the first place
And also after what I have learned, I do believe I was on my way to diabetes,
I have learned the human body was not meant for the current SAD
So after I lose the weight I may increase my carbs to include a little more nuts and a few extra carbs from Keto-type foods Maybe start using Net carbs
But I am never going back to suger the way I had in the past
I feel I could be happy for the rest of my life upping to maybe 25 Net carbs I hope that will be good for maintaining As of Now I stay under 20 total carbs mostly 80% of the time under 15 total
Pretty much any diet is going to allow “some” carbs unless you’re eating pure carnivore or going for highly refined proteins or fats. (For example, you could create a zero-carb diet by eating only multivitamins and a paste made from sunflower oil and protein powder, but that sounds like a terrible idea.) As you’ve noted, the question is how low you go - keto essentially prescribes “as low as you can stand”, which might be 20 or 10 or fewer grams per day.
Going in the opposite (less restrictive) direction, there are different maintenance modes that you could pursue:
A useful goal is to avoid the slippery slope, where your 60 grams becomes 100 grams becomes 250 grams and then you look back and wonder what happened. Whatever you decide on should be stable and sustainable, and become a habit.
It’s all about preventing a detrimental readaptation from eating a chronic carb based pattern. This, and weight gain begins when you chronically eat enough carbs to fill, and then chronically overflow your liver glycogen. If you set an arbitrary daily carb level this often does not work, as it seems to creep upward over time.
The method I’ve used is to frequently throw in keto days during the week to prevent the liver from filling up. I call this “Carb Awareness”, really Glycogen Awareness to prevent filling up the Liver. Depending on how frequently you eat carbs, you will have scale swings due to water and glycogen, but when you deplete your weight goes back to normal. It usually happens in two stages, the first drop from the liver, the second from muscular glycogen taking a few more days since it has to be used up from activity.
I’ve done this for over 15 years and have never regained an ounce of fat. (As far as I can tell short of tracking it by DEXA scans.)
Interesting. I’ve been trying some carbs after my workouts, to try to see if I can get some benefit. So far, I have eaten mashed potatoes, which worked well and kept me in ketosis. HOWEVER, they caused some severe gastrointestinal issues. So, I gave up on them.
This week, I’m eating a “Ruby” white chocolate bar my wife got for my kids…and which they did not like. I don’t like the flavor, either, but it has some carbs in it. So, I’m using it. I was able to keep in ketosis also.
One day, I might have to actually track everything to see how many carbs I can eat and still be in ketosis.
Keto allows sugar and carbs… Many people eat sugar and carbs on carnivore too, just even less than on keto. Little carbs can make a big difference sometimes.
What to do after you have met your goals? It depends on the person.
You can do low-carb, you can stay keto (it may be a way stricter version than previously) or you can do something else, whatever floats your boat.
To me, it’s odd if someone does keto, gets results, feels better - and goes back to high-carb. It doesn’t make much sense to me. If it’s suffering with great fat-loss for you but you chose to lose fat this miserable way, fine, go back to some carbier diet, keto isn’t for everyone. But not all carbs are the same either, try to eat more healthily. Even if you need much carbs, you don’t need added sugar or overprocessed stuff, all the tempting (not for me) overpriced bad-quality snacks… Eat normal food.
Slippery slope, I know that to some extent. That’s why I plan to stay close to carnivore on most days. It doesn’t matter if I reach my goals, I feel better this way. So if carbs causes problems for you, why do you want to go back to them?
I understand being curious but you can’t know how you will feel later. Maybe you will do keto for life, who knows? Or you will realize what your ideal, non-keto lifestyle should be.
People change. When I started keto out of desperation, I had no idea it will be longer term. I don’t do keto all the time but I never will abandon it for good and as time passes, my carb intake got smaller and it’s good. I thought it’s impossible for me to eat little vegetables (like, 20g net carbs or less for them, it was an uncomfortably tiny amount for me. I don’t eat most green leaves). Now I spend maybe 1g net carbs on vegetables on a normal day and I feel way better doing so… If anyone told me this just a year ago…
Just do it and change things if and when they aren’t right for you.
Ahh! Two stages! This makes perfect sense of the pattern of losses that I’ve noticed after going slightly higher carb for a few days.
Any idea if it’s the same way when you eat carbs? Goes to the liver first and then the muscles? Or goes to the muscles first (which is my hope)?
Muscular Glycogen always fills first. Only after muscles are full does the liver storage begin.
It’s to enable the “Fight or Flight” response. So you can outrun or fight whatever happens to be trying to eat you.
I’ve been in maintenance mode for a little bit now. Started keto WOE September 2018 at 225 lbs, got down to 135 lbs (give or take a couple) by December 2019. Since then I have upped my calories but not my carbs. I still stay under 20g net most days, maybe 25 at best but typically under 20. I eat more calories from fat and protein. So far this has worked for me to maintain my weight. About 1600 calories to maintain 135lbs on a 5’6” frame (I don’t exercise or I’m sure I’d have to eat more than 1600)
For me personally, the benefits of keto went far beyond weight loss. More mental focus, better digestion (had IBS issues pre-keto), improved metabolism. I don’t intend to ever stop the keto WOE. You have to do what you feel is best for you, but it is possible to maintain the weight you want and still follow the keto WOE 
PS - congrats on your progress
Edited - previously I said I started keto at 245 lbs in September 2018; but that was my error. 245 lbs was my highest recorded weight. I got down from 245 to 225 doing paleo, then started keto in September 2018 at 225 and got down to 135 by December 2019
A big part of a successful way of eating is don’t waste carbs and calories ( and health ) on something that doesn’t taste good.
Things don’t taste bad because your body is saying " go ahead and eat it anyway, it’s really good for you. And by the way, eat 5 - 8 servings a day while you are at it." .
There is a reason so many of those ’ healthy ’ vegetables are bitter; they’re not really food. Not for humans, anyway.
For me, there is no exit plan, because keto helps me to control my hunger and my blood sugars (I’m a T2 diabetic). In nearly 5 decades of trying to lose weight, I’ve not found another way of eating that achieves those goals.
I’ve told people that if they plan to transition to a different way of eating that will maintain their weight after keto, they probably never needed keto in the first place. That way of eating should have lost the weight they wanted to lose.
It should be about finding a sustainable way of eating that gets someone the results they want.
I’ve lost a little over 30 lbs so far. Monday thru Thursday I do a go the boot camp workout where it is non-stop high energy workout for an hour each day. For the past 3 weekends I have been re-introducing carbs into my diet then go back to Keto M-F. So far I have continued to lose weight (at a slower pace)and haven’t seen any problems, aside for some weekend bloating which I don’t mind so much. I’m not sure how the liver level thing you are talking about works but do you think that an on-off keto thing can work?
To the OP, maybe your story (genetics) is different than mine. But after 56 years, I know my body / genetics pretty darn well.
For my entire life, I have either been obese, or fighting it, with hard core diets, and excercise.
It took me only 8-10 weeks to lose the 45 lbs I wanted to. But by then, I was so into the awesome Keto foods I was eating, I decided this was a “for life” thing for me.
Here I’m am nearly 8 months later, and I feel great. My weight is rock solid without even trying !
Just got done having the best Keto pizza dinner ever…5 nice sized slices, and fixing to have a Keto root beer float for desert 
Honestly, I can’t see how people would feel like they were missing anything doing Keto ? Unless they just aren’t doing it right 
The next guy can ride that rollercoaster all he wants. I’m just going to stay keto for life, and never again have to worry about my weight
Love Keto !
