Been doing this for almost a month now. Feel great.
This weekend I have a bunch of people coming over and I know I’m going to be tempted to drink a beer or two.
I don’t believe I’ve ever been kicked out of ketosis. Anyone done this? Would I get sick?
I was thinking to do a lower than normal carb day, sticking to fat and meat and then let the two beers perhaps get me to 30 or 40g.
Thoughts?
(Ps- I’m sort of sick of drinking whiskey and wine)
My experience. You feel bad. Anything ranging from ‘slightly off’ to ‘holy crap, this was a terrible idea’. Of course this directly correlates with the quality and quantity of the carbage you’re eating.
I don’t think it’s a terrible idea, I say go for it. Depends where you’re at in your progress though and what the likelihood of one beer turning into seven beers is. And then how much you think that’ll put you off your targets the following day/week/etc.
The one thing that surprised me is after being in ketosis long enough, the carb-ey food I used to love tasted bland. More importantly, the day after, I didn’t crave it anymore and I didn’t feel nearly as bad as I had eating junk food in the past.
Just my two cents, but I say, if you trust yourself, and you’re making a conscious choice about it, don’t worry about it. Have a day off every now and then. Don’t beat yourself up, recognize that you might feel terrible, and get back to the keep calm and keto on the next day.
I have been eating keto for about 5 months. Personally I don’t really notice when I drop out - I only know because I know I have eaten too many carbs or protein and then I blood test. I certainly don’t feel sick.
IMO being in ketosis and adapted enables a metabolic flexibility. ie you can dip out occasionally and then go back in quickly (within a few hours). That is how we are suspected to work.
Having said that, if you have only been doing this for a month you may take a little longer to return to a keto state.
If you want a beer, have a beer. A low carb beer. Or even two. But not a six-pack. Unless you don’t mind feeling crappy later… If this is a way of eating you’re going to stick with for life (like me) you’ve gotta make it do-able. Learn to savor that beer, not slug it down. Enjoy it. It will be enough if you decide it will be enough.
I just got back from a week at a lake house with friends. I had WAY more than two beers, along with some other carby stuff. I survived.
Two main things to keep in mind:
Hydrate. Seriously. Not like in college where you drank a cup of water with a Tylenol before you passed out. I’m talking liters and liters in the hours before you drink. You need to give your kidneys something to work with.
Keto makes you a lightweight. I used to be a “pound three or four beers to get started” kinda guy, now I am really feeling it after one or two.
Hydrate. See number 1.
If you’re really worried, drink liquor or low carb mixed drinks (www.reddit.com/r/ketodrunk) but see rules 1 through 3.
I’ve had a couple of different experiences with this:
Mich ultra x 3 = light buzz, no drop out of keto (but man, the flavor of that swill…)
“full flavored beers” x 4/5/6/7… = easy buzz, drop out of keto, two days to get back into ketosis. This time period can be shortened by doing a HARD workout the day after (if your head can take it).
2 “full flavored beers” with a high fat meal = nice buzz, no drop out.
Have fun “figuring out” how you react! 
Thanks everyone. I’m curious to see how I react. I have had a little hard liquor and wine since I have started and the buzz just isn’t the same as it was when I was carbing.
Sadly I only enjoy the ipa styles and it’s mostly from local breweries. They aren’t low carb by any means.
Good tips thank you!
I suppose it depends on the cider and the beer you’re referring to, but my experience with cider (generally) is that they tend to be higher in carbs (on average) than beers, due to the cider’s sugar content.
That’s why I specified dry. I make my own personally.
Maybe the uS is different but here in the UK, dry cider is quite a lot lower than beer.
No worries. 
There has been a recent proliferation of what I refer to as ‘children’s ciders’ - which are full of stupid fruit flavours and sugar. But a drop of proper scrumpy is dry as a desert, rather than a dessert.
I drink all the time, don’t notice anything different either way. If I drink beer it is one of the water beers i.e. Coors, Mich Ultra, Miller Lite.
I love cider and was brewing my own until I started keto. I haven’t been brewing since because I don’t know how much sugar to add to make it dry enough to be safe for keto. I’d love any tips you have, like a specific gravity to aim for.
I was a home brewer myself and love the IPA’s
Some guys from my old home brew club sent me this link
https://gomadhops.com/
I have not tried it myself.
Honestly I was just thinking about dry hopping some light beers myself. Just buy some citra hops and put some in a light beer to give it some flavor. Everyone here has listed the lowest carb beers so you can start dry hopping them.
One thing i have to say about IPA’s was i noticed i started to like the bigger beers and i have a feeling it was because of the increase in sugar high and craving. Plus your pallet starts to change over time. Now after 3 years it is like a reboot.
As far as some of the beers they only have 2.5 carbs to 5 so you should be ok. Funny thing is beers like corona light are considered gluten free because of the way they are processed plus corn sugar is the man ferment-able in that beer.
I have been trying to get my local friends who own a brewery to make a low carb Belgian beer in this style of beer the yeast has a lot of flavor and you can ferment out most of the sugar.
Yeah, that was my first thought too. Must be pretty dry cider (like water + vodka) to be lower carb content than a lot of beers. Maybe that’s just college memories though. Haven’t had cider that came with a nutrition label on it in a long time.
The yeast you use will have more to do with the final gravity. Most yeast for cider die off or go dormant at about 3-7% this you want to have happen with cider because without residual sugar it will taste astringent or just like shit.(someone may love this) You can make a apple wine made from apple juice this would be better and you can make it drier without any of the off flavors you would get from a dry cider .Using a wine yeast would eat more of the sugar. If you add sugar you would only increase the carb count in the end unless you use a high gravity yeast and calculate what the final gravity would be and final closer to 0 would be less residual sugar. When you make wine, beer or any fruit wine that has a low carb they are less forgiving to imperfections because there is not the sugar there to cover up off flavors. It takes more skill to make a light beer taste constant batch to batch along with taste good.
I don’t add any sugar at all - I just add champagne yeast to cartons of supermarket apple juice. Champagne yeast is important because it is very subtle and allows for malolactic fermentation - which means it makes the very dry cider much less harsh but you have to let it sit on the yeast for while to develop it.
My rough recipe is that I take a 5 gallon fermenting vessel, sterilise it, add 20 litres of juice and sprinkle in the yeast. Seal with an airlock. After a few days, once the fermentation is visibly underway, add another 5 litres of juice to top it up. (This is done because the first part of fermentation requires oxygen, to build a colony, then the second part generates alcohol and doesn’t require oxygen).
Ferment until the pressure equalises in the lock and it will be bone dry and around 4 %.
(I once did the sums a long time ago and can’t remember the details but based on the sugar content all turning to alcohol it’s a max of 4.5 %). slow and steady is best for flavour.
Then transfer to other vessels to clear. Clearing will take a few days, maybe a week. You can either bottle it or you can clear in bottles, in which case, chill them well to firm up the sediment and don’t pour out your last inch into your glass.
Also don’t throw out your yeast in the fermenting vessel - add another 25 litres straight to the vessel onto the live yeast culture. You’ll get an immediate and much more rapid fermentation. Leave this batch on its lees for another week or so - even longer if you can - depending on how quickly the first batch is getting drunk.
Allowing for waste, you get around 45 litres of cider for the price of 50 litres of juice and one packet of yeast. It has no added sugar, no nasties and virtually no carbs. If you google ‘turbo cider’ you’ll get more detailed instructions on home-brew forums but I find this is dry, refreshing and certainly doesn’t knock me out of keto if I have a little of it. I tend to drink it in a big wine glass, chilled over ice.
It doesn’t ‘taste like shit’ but if it is too dry for you, you can add a little stevia or some such.
Since I’ve gone Keto, I’ve been in one situation where I ended up with one beer. I think it stalled me for a day or two, but I survived! I won’t feel bad if I do that again, but I more or less gave up beer long before going full Keto anyway.
That’s been my main go-to drink. Easy to make at home and easy to order when out with buddies. Also, I’m a gin lover. I don’t drink every day at all, but if I sip 2 or 3 of these, it never seems to affect my progress or noticeably stall me. And being light weight due to ketosis, I don’t need more than this in one night.
