Is there any problem with slowly ramping down my carbs and ramping up my fat over a few weeks? I have heard that this will somehow prevent ketosis when I finally get down to sub-50 g’s, that you’re supposed to step down in one big step.
I can see developing down to keto levels but the thought of an Atkin’s style nuclear bomb for my body is a turn off.
Today my starting point is 200g per day of carb, then every two or three days I will subtract another 25g.
Its perfectly fine to take it slow if thats how you want to do it. For some people, that makes it “doable” rather than just jumping right in. For ketosis, you need to get down to 20g of carbs or less, not 50. And as long as you are fine with the extended amount of time it will take you to get fat adapted, then by all means go for it. Tailor it so it works for you and your lifestyle. I know I have heard also for some women (sorry I cannot tell if you are male or female by your “handle”) they do better easing into it.
Totally ok. As Sheri mentioned it will just take longer to get into ketosis and get fat adapted.
it is just a longer time, but for some easier to do mentally. My friend did this exact thing, basically slowly dropping his carbs while he used up all the carbs left in his house. It worked for him and after a month and a half was into full on keto.
Me on the other hand, I can’t do that, I am an all or nothing type person. If i tried to slowly work them down they would slowly keep getting into the house and never really go away. So i just said " This day I am starting" and then went and took all the carbs we had in our house and gave to my extended family so we had no carbs in our house.
If you were trying to quit heroin would just slowly work yourself down a little less each day? That might seem extreme at first but that’s how I viewed my addiction to sugar. I made a decision and just stopped. Sure the first few days are hell, but then it gets easier, and then you start feeling better and life becomes good again. This is of course just my personal experience but it worked for me.
I would just like to point out that each body is individual. I was down under 50 net and was well into ketosis. This is what my doctor had recommended for me, so that was the advice I followed. As my weight has decreased, I’ve found that I feel that I “need” less carbs in order to survive, so I’ve just naturally gone down to around 25 net grams. Listen to your body. It won’t lie to you.
I think it comes down to what kind of Remove-The-Band-Aid type of person you are. If you’re like me and @MiKetoAF, then it’s rip it off, suffer for 2-3 days, and then enjoy the benefits such as less hunger, mental clarity, etc. Others prefer to slowly rip off the Band Aid and all that entails. I’m not saying one is better than the other, and as @Katiea points out, you have to see what’s best for you, both mentally and physically.
Certainly, for me, the presence of a medium-level of carbs would keep my cravings up and I’m afraid I’d be stuck in neutral, which would frustrate me. But, of course, YMMV.
i found the same thing. i started at around 30g, but over the past month or so I have just naturally dropped down to around 10-15g a day,
But I tottally agree with you here:
i have a friend who was well into ketosis with around 75g carbs a day, but then myself I was knocked out of it at 50g, which is why I dropped to 30g. Everyone has there own threshold, you just need to test it and see where it is for you.
I do agree with you there. Everyone is different. You have to find your sweet spot. Bringing carbs down to 20 or less per day is a place to start and once fat adapted, then you can increase your carbs (if you want to) to see how many you can consume and still remain in ketosis.
Im a band aid ripper too. One day I wasn’t keto, the next day I ate keto.
Same.
I went to the doctor on a Monday and she recommended that I eat ketogenic. I had a farewell meal of shit tons of carbs and then ice cream and cake for dessert. The next day I went full keto. If I hadn’t done it that way, I still wouldn’t be doing it.
Same for me! I could not ease into it at all! Purged our carbs, had one last Carl’s Jr western burger, and started the next day.
My friend though took 6 weeks, cutting his carbs down each week, used the time to use up the carbs in his house. Worked for him as hes full on keto <10g per day now, but yea I couldn’t do it. Each person has to do it their own way.
I’m the opposite: ease the bandaid off slowly. I got into keto almost by accident. I came to terms with my addiction to sugar and cut that out immediately, and then as I went along, it just became natural to stop eating other carbs (except for the cruciferous veggies that make such great “delivery vehicles” for yummy fat!). Now I realize that my addiction is to all carbs, not just sugar, so I am trying to keep the total low. I need to avoid anything that might trigger an eating binge, so it’s pretty much all or nothing, now that I’m actually in ketosis.
I’m not really sure what you mean when you say an Atkin’s style nuclear bomb. I’ve not really looked closely at Atkins stuff.
You can cut down on carbs slowly if you want to or let them go all at once. I wasn’t inclined to want to calculate this and calculate that and spend hours contemplating how many carbs I was eating. Guess that makes me a rip the bandaid off now kinda person.
If you want to get into ketosis, you gotta burn through the sugar first. The longer you keep shovin’ in the sugar (carbs), the longer it’ll be before you ever get into ketosis. You can cut down but if you never reach that threshold, you’ll never get to ketosis.
Hey, I was a bread and potatoes and pasta kinda guy most of my life. But I also liked a lot of other things so I still did have stuff to eat. I never ate huge amounts of meat but do eat fish, poultry, and the occasional beef or buffalo. I eat eggs, quite a lot of them, local, and real pasture raised. I eat dairy… butter, heavy whipping cream, sour cream, lots of different kinds of cheeses. And I eat lots of salads and non-starchy veggies along with those other things. There are quite a few of them that you can eat a good bit of and still keep your carbs way low. There are lists online that quantify that.
If you think you NEED potatoes, look at some of the recipes that use cauliflower instead. I make a mean “potato-like” cake out of cauliflower that is really good. I’m told you can make “potato-like” mashed cauliflower if you want something kinda like mashed potatoes. You can make various kinds of squash into fillets or strips to resemble pasta and cook that up with either a tomato sauce or an alfredo sauce. Good eats. (I make a zucchini lasagna that’s excellent.) Bread is harder but there are some recipes online that will make some decent dinner rolls. It’s hard to get a big fluffy sandwich loaf but rolls or smaller loaves are possible. If you want to delve into desserts, there are some sweeteners that you might be able to use that won’t give you a bunch of carbs to deal with. I’ve used erythritol, but I have to be careful as if I eat too much, I end up with a headache. I’ve used some stevia but it can leave an odd taste in some things. Honestly, I don’t find myself wanting a lot of sweets when I’m satisfied with fats.
Anyway, the point is, if you go cold turkey, it’s not like you have to eat steak at every meal and suffer in fits of hunger because you can’t have food. I never went hungry, ever. I just decided I was going to leave the starches and sugars and grains behind and did it. I think I eat pretty well. I think I have quite a lot of variety in my diet. Don’t focus on what you can’t eat, focus on what you can eat! And enjoy it!
If you want to test the water, why not figure out a couple of keto meals and eat them. See how you feel. You may surprise yourself and it won’t be so hard after all. ? !
Dive in, the water is warm! Or not… your choice.
If you are insulin resistant you will starve until you adapt to a fat burner. By keeping insulin raised you will not be able to burn fat for fuel effectively and this will make it harder for you to function. If you cut all carbs you will drop insulin and let your body use fat and ketones as fuel. This will also lower the time that you would possible spend with keto flue. If you do it slowly you are most likely going to have major brain fog as well because you will not be giving your brain the fuel it needs to function.
Jason,
I thought the body takes the fuel it needs, carbo first and fat second. If carbo is lowered, even if insulin resistant, the balance has to come from fat, is that not right? It sounds like you’re asserting that (if insulin resistant) until ketogenesis the body cannot and will not burn fat appropriately at all, is that what you mean? If so, where did you get this info, I would like to read more about that. Thanks in advance.
yes it does come from fat and from protein from the body when glucose is low.
There are study’s sited and examples of this in The Ketogenic Bible. It shows when in calorie deficit and same grams of protein given to two groups When one group was keto and another was not. The groups lost same amount of weight but the group that was not keto lost muscle more muscle mass.
The thought is that the body still has demand for glucose and uses amino acids to supply it. When not adapted to burn fat and ketones this demand for glucose will be higher use more muscle to get it. If insulin is keeped up then the demand for glucose will remain high.
When well adapted to keto. The body spares glucose in liver and in muscle and will only use it when there is a demand. This is used for anaerobic activity. Sprints lifting weights. Most people will burn fat when there VO2 max is about 60% over this and they burn glucose. For fat adapted high level athletes they can burn fat up to 80% of VO2 max. This means there body will save the glucose for sprinting or higher demand. Ketones are glucose sparing. These athletes will still use some glucose so they will still need glucose during long runs just not as much as a non adapted athlete.
The reason i said you would starve is in part from the insulin and blood glucose fluctuation. When you eat carbs your insulin spikes dropping your blood sugar making you hungry and tired. High stress can cause this as well. Adrenalin and cortisol will increase blood sugar to give the body fast energy by doing this is spikes insulin driving down blood sugar. You can see if a person is insulin resistant they will spike more insulin causing a lower drop causing more stress and higher demand for you to eat. If you do not eat or just enough to keep insulin elevated your body will try to lower energy output and reduce your BMR.
In the end eating and being in a ketogenic state reduces the bodies insulin and blood sugar fluctuation. When in a caloric deficit it is muscle preserving. It also prevents your BMR from dropping because energy needs are being met by ketones and fat. The diet requires less will power to maintain because these stress are not put on the body. (this is true with fasting because there are no insulin spikes from food. It will take about 3 days for a non fat adapted person to feel affects of this energy balance when fasting.This is subjective to the person)
As far as reading up on fasting and keto i would suggest The Ketogenic Bible. Then the books and works by Jason Fung. The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance is another great book and is often quoted in The Ketogenic Bible. There are a lot more books on the subject that i can suggest and i am sure others here have there favorites as well.