So last year I lost 40 pounds in 6 months doing very strict keto. I hit my goal weight of 150 pounds in June 2019 and felt amazing! I lost almost 40 collective inches too! Went from size 14/16 to a 2/4.
Soni slowly started increasing my carb intake like adding fruit or yogurt for breakfast, then I started stress eating about 1x a week. Darn cheese sticks from Sonic!
Then I started splitting a desert about 1x a month with hubby. Then 1 piece of candy wont hurt right? I have only regained 4 pounds and 2 inches but I feel like I am failing at maintenance big time.
Everyone tells me you still look amazing! 4 pounds is no biggie! I am so afraid I will slide back into my old habits. I still eat keto 95% of the time but at times that stress eating still gets me. I work as a psychotherapist and have a high maintenance autistic teenager so stress is always present.
Anyone else struggle with backsliding during maintenance? Tips or ideas?
Maintenance is harder than I thought!
If ur emotional eater it might be easier to stay out of all the bad stuff altogether if u feel u dont have 100% control over it. One way would also be to try train urself to handle stress and emotions differently, like exercise or other distraction that takes ur mind away or exhausts it.
Hello @MommyJill2005, I hope you are still here and standing strong.
From experience, i will advise that you stay far away from all of those carby food. I am a victim of that. I lost over 20kg and 4 dress sizes but gradually fell off because of stress and I can tell that eating those cards and sugars is not worth it. Apart from all the weight and inches i packed on, I feel like crap on most days. I do not feel healthy and full of energy anymore. I have tried to get back several times but the cravings come calling every now and again. I stumbled across this forum today in search of help when the frustration was getting to its peak.
If you continue indulging regularly, you may slide right back into old habits.
Iāll agree 4lbs isnāt a lot but it CAN be the beginning of a backslide. First thing you gotta do is change your mindset. Thereās no problem sharing a desert with your husband. Keto isnāt a religion, you canāt go through life after youāve hit your goal never eating anything you like or ānormalā again, itās just not realistic. BUT you need to have the right mindset. If Iām going out to dinner and I know Iām going to eat a desert, like last night, my kid loves a desert at a steak house we go to, he brought it up before we even left the house. So first thing I do is change my meal, instead of a fatty ribeye and butter all over everything I went with a fillet and some steam veggies. If Iām gonna eat a bunch of sugar Iām not going to preload with a ton of fat as we know they donāt play nicely together. If you donāt have a ton of injected fat to be stored youāre going to burn through that sugar like wildfire. The next day I definitely wonāt eat a breakfast and probably not lunch, dinner as usual. If you throw the balance off in one direction, you gotta make up for it in the other. Donāt think of cheats as āadditionalā to what your eating, they took the place of something that now needs to come out. People donāt like that mindset a lot around here because if means that their macros actually matter, which they do. But as so many that hit maintenance or even close to it typically realize is that putting butter on things and adding fat to already fatty things donāt work long term when it comes to hitting (and keeping) real goals.
You should stick to some rules at maintenance. As I cut out sugar several years before keto, thatās not my concern but itās pretty clear to me that itās probably better if everyone just avoid added sugar. There are some very serious emotional, social and other things where a tiny bit is a better idea but they should be rare exceptions.
Eating more vegetables, sometimes a plum or something? That may work but why would you want candy after ketoā¦? Eat some better, more nutritious and even more delicious dessert if you really want some.
I am very good with maintenance, too bad I need to lose 
But I changed my lifestyle for good. Carbs arenāt good for me so as soon as I started low-carb, I left high-carb for good. And as time passed, I went lower and lower with my carbs as itās ideal for me.
I donāt know how do you feel with more carbs but caution is advisable even if you can allow more. You should decide about your diet. You did keto, I would think low-carb is advisable for you. Low-carb with rules. My low-carb has no added sugar, no or almost no grains, dry legumes, potatoes, fruits in moderationā¦ It was very easy for me to eat under 80g net carbs in the years before keto and I lost much fat without efforts then (just not enough to be slim). Itās a nice amount of carbs for many people. Find your sweet spot: amount of carbs, type of foodā¦ With my restrictions it was natural to keep my carbs somewhat low but if I started to eat bread, sugar and potatoes, it would have been a nightmare.
Yes I always feel it the next day for sure. I literally hurt in my joints, feels flu like, have a headache, etc. I crave keto friendly foods, it is definitely my body rebelling! I need to listen and just think of it as poison and just abstain 100%.
Yes thank you. I agree, I always have been an emotional eater and I gave it to it often prior to starting keto. I was super strict between 15 to 20 carbs a day for 6 months didnt cave at all. It only started over past couple of months really.
I used to think of carbs like eating poison or an allergy I steered away completely. Since I have been pairing stress with I want junk again it is a bad combo. I do yoga, meditate, attend therapy myself and have an incredibly supportive hubby who also does keto. We fall off wagon together, lol. We also get back on together so that helps. Thanks I will take your advice!
This is probably not true. If anything, adding fat, particularly saturated fat, will keep you fuller longer. Yesterday, as a test, I made Einkorn biscuits and ate three of them with tons of butter on them. Einkorn is wheat (an ancient grain). Yet, I was unbelievably full (as in FULL) and am still in ketosis today.
The high fat + high carbs I think means high PUFA + high carbs, not high saturated fat.
May be maintenance is not a useful concept. I think there always needs to be a forward looking goal. I lost about 30 lbs in 8 months then looked forward to gaining 25 lbs of muscle in 25 months and normalize bio markers. So far 14 lbs of musce and 6 lbs of fat in 18 months and bio markers looking good. Always have a goal thatās beyond maintenance.
Congratulations on the wonderful progress youāve made. Youāve gotten wonderful feedback above. I especially like @charlie3ās commentā¦
Sounds like youāre approaching eating as a ācontact sportā ā¦ rather than the joy it should be?
Until you shift that paradigm for yourself - and focus on savoring those healthy choices that your more thoughtful self wants you to be eating - youāll be missing all the pleasure thatās already there to be had.
Currently, youāre likely regarding those ātreatsā as rewards or āentitlementsā ā¦ when thatās not what they are at their core. In reality, they are substitutes for something you yearn for that - as you know as a psychotherapist - they are not.
Figure out what you really need, whatās good for you, and enjoy that instead of gobbling the snacks you wind up quickly regretting.
Food for thought. 
Hugs - I feel for you! Iām not at maintenance yet, so donāt have any advice to offer there but I know a thing or two about emotional eating!!!
Aaargh! I am starting to think that the emotional/stress eating stage of my āhealingā could end up being a harder won battle than overcoming general food addiction/cravings, which is pretty well controlled with a very low carb diet.
I could slip into complacency about my ādietingā successes - Iāll be soaring and feeling indestructible, that is until one of two things happen:
1.) I will accidentally eat something with too many carbs - usually a dish someone else has cooked for me - and that sets off a whole load of cravings for the rest of that days waking hours and I get up the next morning feeling really stomach hungry (never happens usually!) plus it then takes a couple of days to fully get back into the sweet spot where Iām not craving anymore.
2.) Stress. I am such a stress eater. I recognise now that a growing feeling of stress sends me insatiably back and forward to the cupboard or the fridge.
What Iāve decided is that the stress eating for now is too big of a mountain to try and conquer in one go - Iām sure there is some work I need to do around the reasons why I use food in these circumstances - so Iām choosing to let myself do the stress eating but stick to keto blow-outs because they are easier to overcome being that there are no long drawn out cravings to get through - one mega calorie day is just an excess of calories, not a week of struggling to get back on track! Andā¦ in the meantime Iām on the hunt for some real answers about the roots of the issue!
I agree. I think that some people can do the āadd back a little carbs etcā on maintenance but I have always felt that this is definitely not feasible for people with a history of disordered eating of any kind.
Also, sometimes we are on keto for so long we start thinking it is our sheer willpower that enables us to live this keto wol but we start eating carbs again and we realise itās really not. Itās keto that gives us powerful control over our eating habits.
Once I realised that, I realised that even in maintenance, all higher calories (for bulking/maintaining) and even occasional cheats will need to remain keto. I am so done with forever losing/gaining weight.
To the OP, iād definitely recommend looking into other ways to cope with and reduce the stress. Having plenty keto alternatives (coconut yogurt, keto ice cream etc) at home for the occasional monthly treat can help.
@MommyJill2005 Jill, how many times have you read on this forum that keto is a lifestyle change not a diet? Rhetorical question, I know the answer is many many. Even though most of us nod and agree, it remains an abstraction to many, āsure sureā¦whatever.ā A lot of folks act surprised when they suddenly realize that āyes, I do have to eat like this the rest of my life!ā
Keto is an attitude not just a menu plan: first to eat what you need to eat to regain the health and vitality you lost, then to continue to eat what you need to eat to retain it. You havenāt given up anything. Youāve decided to eat what makes you healthy and well instead of stuff that doesnāt. Youāve already accomplished lots of good stuff in your year plus on keto. As @charlie3 said above, donāt call it āmaintenanceā. Call it ā4th and 10ā on the 12 yardline if you need incentive. The craving/desire for carbs (aka sugar) can go away if you let it go.
Maintenance is tricky. I decided to take the advice posted here by gardengirlkp and examine my own issues with food and then plan my own maintenance around that. The theory being that you may lose the pounds but you do not lose your āissuesā And also I am taking her advice (and also Dr. Atkins) and always experimenting and never settle. ā¦ It keeps things fresh. Only maintained for 6 months but doing good. Most important never stop trying or adjusting
true for me!Absolutely, and ironically, I preach this to people all of the time. I truly do believe it is a lifestyle and that is why I have been so concerned lately with my habits sliding back. I wanted to catch them before I regain more than 4 pounds and gain back all 40 that I lost.
I feel like just admitting it on here made it more real if that makes sense and I know I am not the only one that struggles. That in itself helps.
I have started using Carb Manager again, logging always helps me. When I have to write it down I literally never falter, it is when I stop that I dont hold myself accountable and backslide.