Will be spending some time in Italy in a few weeks and I’m strongly considering taking a break from Keto to enjoy pasta while there.
Anyone done this while on vacation, any stomach or other issues one should be worried about? We’ll be in a few other European countries and I’ll stick to Keto there, I love pasta and really want to partake while in the country.
I’ve been Keto eating on average 20 total carbs or less per day for just over a year now.
Thanks in advance.
I would just not keep eating high fat if you’re going to eat higher carbs and keep it to a minimum if possible otherwise enjoy yourself and cheat a little. I’ve heard seafood especially fish is very good in Italy if you do decide to go keto.
Paging @Janie
She recently took a vacation in Italy and from what I remember she had a great time (and actually lost weight!).
(Though of course it’s probably fairly individual: how well you handle carbs, whether you’re comfortable tossing in some IF, etc)
My husband and I just got back from a 2-week vacation in Italy and my husband was especially worried about the effects of eating pasta after 10 months on keto. We took digestive enzymes (NOT probiotics) with us and took them when we ate pasta and I’m sure they helped.
We also increased our carbs a bit the week before we left. Instead of 20 we ate like 40. We did this because we noticed when we chose to have a “carby” meal we both ended up in the bathroom with a lot more… ahem… waste. Volume-wise. Not trying to be gross here but it was a concern for both of us since we would be on tours w/o easy access to toilets all the time. We just figured our bodies had converted over to fat-burning and just didn’t digest carbs as efficiently as before.
I did actually lose weight but we walked our [spoiler]asses[/spoiler] off. Literally.
The pasta was amazing and so worth it! I had no idea. We either skipped breakfast or ate salami and cheese. Then tried to be pretty good for either lunch or dinner and treated ourselves to pasta at the other meal.
And like @grinch734 said - we didn’t eat the higher fat diet we eat on keto. I had no BPC’s and the meals weren’t particularly high in fat, either.
I’m going to Greece in three weeks. Plan to stay on plan as much as possible. Not super fond of lamb but hope I can get some awesome seafood.
I am just back from a 4 day break in Rome and in high ketosis. We did a lot of walking around to see the sights and Rome is truly a wonderful place but is over-run with what seemed like Afghan and African hawkers with a few Gypsy type women beggars and one or two Italian Winos.
The Italians themselves are very friendly, gracious and kind. Motorists do beep-the-horn a bit in traffic but not as frantically as I’d been led to believe. Pedestrians for the most part seem to claim automatic right of way at un-signalised pedestrian crossings.
I tended to stay keto but did share a Pizza one night and had beer at another meal. In the evenings I generally drank 1 or 2 glasses of wine. I did have to increase my fibre intake by eating the Pizza and 2 apples and 2 kiwis on my second last day basically because I was taking too long in the bathroom. My digestive system responded well without any emergencies but I can’t say how it would have reacted to loads of pasta dishes.
If you do go for Pasta etc… you will get good value and enjoy the food. As a family of 5 consisting of 4 adults and one teenager, I was the only one that had any reservations about the food especially one “mixed roast” which turned out to be 2 loin lamb chops and some sort of minced meat blob with a side of spinach. The restaurants in effect didn’t really do roasts at all; I did have roast beef, without gravy, in an “Irish pub” but it was basically too lean and only available at the weekends. At one of the more modern Burger joints at Termini railway station bun-less burgers were one the menu and mine was just perfectly char-grilled along with the veggies.
Enjoy your trip.
Enjoy the goat yughort, lam legs, goat cheese ,kabob, shawerma.
Try to get if possible from the local farms to get the real gut bacteria.
You should not have any problems with eating any kind of carbs of your choice and at your pleasure as you have built up such a health reserve or set point that it is extremely resistant to being changed so getting back into ketosis should be fairly quick that you have been keto for a year or so!
Thank you for the suggestions. I don’t eat goat or goat cheese or lamb - I have a physical reaction to all of them. We will be in the middle of Athens for a week. I’ll eat what I can and fast the rest, I suppose.
Thanks for all the feedback, feeling pretty good about indulging in some local fare now.
@Acetix - We’ll be in Rome as well.
But of course, you can’t really say you’ve been to Europe if you have overlooked Rome.
The Romans conquered everywhere else, even France and England.
Rome surely was not built in a day. Paris was in effect built in the last 200 years with the exception of Versailles which is also pompous and pretentious. Even the Mona Lisa is Italian as well.
Rome is authentic. I’ve been to France may times and this was my first trip to Italy; I am still kinda bowled over as you can tell 
I recently took a 3 weeks vacation in spain. Ate all foods including bread, ice cream and wine(until I was full not more), enjoyed them. No stomach problems. gained a couple of inches on my waist which I dropped easily after being home for 3 weeks and back on Keto.
I think there is much to be said for planned breaks from keto. ie a vacation, or a holiday meal versus eating carbs out of stress or momentary weakness. Enjoy Italy!