Keto exit plan, sort of?

(Kristen Ann) #21

Holy shit beccs!

(Elian) #22

I am not a doctor, but speaking from experience (both mine and others), this sounds like SIBO. Either that, or you have a nightshade allergy/intolerance. Have you had the same gastric response from other vegetables in the nightshades family (tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplants, goji berries)?

(Elian) #23

And that’s perfectly fine, although the keto zealots out there (and even here for that matter) will try to convince you it’s wrong and carbs are the devil incarnate (they’re not). Using keto as a means to an end like losing weight and improving your eating habits is perfectly OK.

There is no right answer to this question other than whatever works for you. It all depends on your metabolic rate and genetic make-up. If you’re doing keto for weight loss alone, know that our bodies are genetically encoded to function best within a certain weight bracket, so if you’ve pulled the short straw genetics-wise, your body will always try to compensate and revert to a higher weight regardless of if you like it or not, case in which you’re either going to have to stick to a stricter version of keto or increase physical activity.

Yeah, we know. We’ve all been there. Took me 6 months of torment and food anxiety to completely change my mindset about food and fully immerse myself in the ketogenic lifestyle, then another 3 or 4 months of more food anxiety and despair trying to tailor my keto diet into something more permissive and sustainable long term. If you don’t want to do keto as a lifestyle (which is perfectly OK and won’t mean you’ll be less healthy), I’d say moderation is key.

My advice - and I don’t give this lightly precisely because I do not know how your body works - is slowly increase your carb intake up to around 50-60 net carbs tops just like @ajbennett said and see if you keep seeing the results you want.

(Elian) #24

[slow clap] This has to be one of the best, most logical and genuine advice I’ve ever seen someone give on this forum.

(Lazy, Dirty Keto 😝) #25

Haha, thanks! I had to edit my comment though, it was 225 to 135 :grin:

#26

Maybe it was rhetorical but I couldn’t resist. Maybe you really don’t understand as you are different.

We can have various food on keto but we can’t eat lots of things and nothing can replace them. It might be a problem for people. And there are the ones missing eating everything others eat at a party or something… Well, there are ketoers with holiday breaks, it may work. Not for everyone, though.
Comfort… We can buy lots of interesting carby stuff. Maybe we would be fine with a low-carb option but there is none. I make my own things since long but new ones often love to buy ready made food.
If I want some “real” and especially milk chocolate, that’s sugary. I can’t make them, only dark ones. I can make delicious cakes easily but not my favorite one. It’s fine for me, I don’t eat them even off-keto, normally but they can tempt others. At least in the beginning. We can change a lot. And it may take a long time to get the right recipes for everything we possibly want. I had no proper bread in the first years, not like I missed it but it was useful when I started to bake wheat breads again (and stopped completely avoiding gluten).

And if keto gives one little benefits, temptations are probably harder to resist. That’s the other side.

I had both. And I have a nice fruit garden. Not like it alone had a big impact on my keto but I didn’t do keto in the most intense fruit seasons this far. I probably will this year, it’s so much easier without nuts and vegetables filling up my carb limit. And I have motivation to keep my carbs very low now…

I couldn’t eat fried cauliflowers on keto (as a small amount wasn’t enough) and I loved it. I missed that. Well, vegetables in general. It’s over but it was very important for me before.

#27

I agree with Mark. Why change from what works best and you feel your best? Also if you are a ‘slippery slope’ person and you know some truths about yourself in full disclosure to yourself and aren’t pretending you can handle those carbs ‘so easily’ and not ‘backslide super fast’, just be sure you do know you and don’t pretend.

I been dieting for a long time it seems and over these 5 years of finding my place in it all, one thing I did was RELY and learn/listen/ absorb all those maintainers out there and their personal journey. What they did not do was ever go off their eating plan it took to gain their results and health…what they did do was allow a few extras but very very close to their eating plan on how they lost lbs., hit their goals and received their increased health benefits. What they add back is very very little! Any long term person maintaining true weight loss and health goals can only add back very very little. They can do that a few ways that suit them very personally. A little dessert each night, like some raspberries and cream and cheese maybe or they opt for a 1 day food item, like have a few fries with their meal. But it is what works for you and never against you. Maintenance is a real job, a real deal, a real PLAN one must make for themselves. So know you and make it work for you.

There is no exit strategy from healthy eating. It all depends on what you can add back on how you do long term maintaining. We all know here how fast everything we accomplished can be gone in a very short time once we backslide and get out of control.

Know yourself. Don’t pretend here. Or your 95% goal you achieved will be viewed by ya in the rear view mirror, disappearing in the distance. We all know again on this, we all have these troubles, well most of us LOL

A very very very small percentage of people who hit goals in weight loss ever hold them even close to 3 yrs or so. Most never make it that long. The stats are super low for holding your success long term. So get the info from those who do long term success and that info is always the same, eat very close to the menu it took to hit your goals and make what little you can add a very tight grip and never loosen that grip. Find you in it all on what works to add a bit back but don’t pretend you can go back, ya can’t.

just some chat info about how I feel on it and from all that info I posted was all from long term maintainers who hold their success…not from those who got there and backslided again and again and had to start over. Long term maintainers do what it takes for long term success. They are a wealth of info out there :slight_smile:

(bulkbiker) #28

Without a doubt the most helpful post on this thread from someone who has been there and done it!

(bulkbiker) #29

Sorry but “moderation” has failed for so many people that by now it should be not even considered as a possibility. You have either never been troubled by food addictions or are young and metabolically healthy. The “slippery slope” is very real and really shouldn’t be messed with.

It that makes me a zealot then I’ll happily wear that moniker but as someone who has lost 120 pounds and maintained that loss for 4 years I’ll hazard a guess that I may just have found something that works pretty well.

(Elian) #30

Who’s messing with it? I just said we’ve all been through it (myself included). Moderation is key to not going down the slippery slope. Some people can master it, others can’t. Nothing to be envious about.

Good for you, and congratulations if that’s what works for you.

(bulkbiker) #31

The OP?
Suggesting “moderation” to someone who has already mentioned a “slippery slope” isn’t especially helpful?

(Elian) #32

Why not? If he’s looking for a keto exit plan that means he’s not entirely happy with this diet and he wants to reach a balance that would best suit him without compromising his goals. Just because there’s the danger of a slippery slope doesn’t mean he won’t learn how to avoid it just like thousands of others who migrated off the keto diet to something more carb-inclusive have done.

(bulkbiker) #33

Citation please?

(Elian) #34

If you’re under the impression that I’m trying to convince you or someone else of something, you’re dead wrong. Shared my thoughts, said what I had to say, OP is free to take whatever he wants from our advice. My job here is done.

#35

I’m with Elian as I learned to eat certain things in moderation even if I was totally addicted to them before… As Elian wrote, it doesn’t work for some people but works for others.
I needed to go cold turkey with a very few items and I can enjoy the rest in moderation whenever I want. I suspect I can do the latter with every items given enough time. It’s not true for everyone, of course.
Sometimes cold turkey isn’t even an option, we are just that addicted but moderation works (or we aren’t addicted, we just refuse to give up certain mostly harmless favs. but they aren’t harmless in big amounts). Sometimes cold turkey comes first and we add back the item later and it’s not nearly as dangerous then. I have lots of experience with this. I personally thought slippery slope is a warning and it’s safer to keep the carbs at a minimum (whatever it means for the one in question), I think I wrote that in my comment before, I just wanted to say it’s far from impossible to use moderation at some point in the future. It is an option for some of us while keeping our carbs very low all our life might be the impossible thing.

We can’t avoid moderation, especially not on keto where me must eat carbs in moderation. I actually find the typical, normal keto too hard, I can’t do such kind of moderation regarding vegetables. But many people can. Our style is different, we eat other things in moderation.
And when we go off keto for some reason, we shouldn’t forget each and every rules. We still need moderation even if it’s less strict at certain places of our diet.

(bulkbiker) #36

That’s great if you can do it but… and its a big but… how many times have we seen people disappear from here for months to only come back with an “I fell off the wagon with a small cheat that ended up in months of eating crap” posts?
As there is nothing lacking in a reasonably well formulated keto diet then I really can’t see why it would be hard to stick to long term. It certainly has only health benefits and no downsides. Seems completely illogical to try to re-introduce the “food” types that created such a big problem for many in the first place.

(Elian) #37

I really get where you’re coming from and I for one honestly appreciate you voicing such valid concerns. But you also have to understand that not all of us turn to keto for the same reason. Some do it as a last resort and end up making a lifestyle out of it which is amazing to say the least, while others use it as temporary solution to heal, solve specific issues and/or correct their eating habits, only to get themselves in a better place where they can re-introduce some of the previous food groups in - and I stress - moderation while not veering completely off the keto guidelines. Even a ‘reasonably well formulated’ keto diet as you put it might not be palatable for some individuals, or it might not be 100% of what their body requires to thrive after the healing process.

Bottom line is in my opinion to always find balance within reasonable terms. And if you fall off the wagon at least you know you tried and you will at least have learned your lesson. :smiley:

#38

Yep, many people go back to their old, SAD diets. It’s a bad idea. A nice low-carb diet, on the other hand, might work wonderfully for some people. It was my beloved default diet for about 9 years and I surely will fall back to it now and then.

I never could stick to keto for long (I am impressed I did <40g net carbs for 7 weeks, I must have been super determined and there was novelty. it was nice but still challenging and I couldn’t go lower at all for years), I don’t even see why I would want to do keto every day of my life, it would be restrictive, I would lose some enjoyment, comfort and would gain nothing. Not everyone has problematic food types. I have a problematic macro, carbs.
Some versions of keto suit me but many people feel way better eating a bit or way more carbs on most days. Maybe keto helps them to find their way. Or they try it out, lose fat more easily that way, who knows? (I need to be way more strict to lose, maintenance is way easier.) I like to have very strict days sometimes, they have their role. But I wouldn’t do them forever, there is no need.
Keto isn’t the best for everyone even though it may be helpful at times. And even if it’s best for someone, a mostly harmless carbier day might totally worth it. I’ve read such stories and I can relate. We gain something and lose nothing or very close to nothing, it’s very logical and understandable to me. It’s probably less so for “food is only fuel” people but we who view food as so much more… And it can’t change in every case and it’s fine like that.

(Jim Savage) #39

Hey all. Thank you all for your input. I believe that I could stay on Keto for life. I think that the hardest part for me is that I have a wife and two young kids. On the weekend the kids like to go out as a treat. What usually happens is that my wife and kids go somewhere and I either get lucky and find things that I like there or I go someplace else that has something that I enjoy eating. Also, on normal days where we cook, we cook for both a regular diet and a Keto diet. So I guess that I can look at it another way to make it easier on everyone.
What if I put the family on Keto?
That way we can all eat together and eat the same foods and not have a separation. My kids are 4 and 10. Would it be unhealthy for them since they are growing?

(Jack Bennett) #40

For me, I’d find it relatively easy to stay keto permanently if every restaurant menu had 2-3 guaranteed keto options. I’m generally fine when I’m at home, but on travel or eating out is where the biggest challenges lie for me. I suspect this is the situation for quite a few people.