Transitioning back to carbs from ZC

[Jamesbrawn007]

After some experimentation with my most demanding training sessions, e.g. strongman stuff lasting 1-2 hours, I was at my most productive using some CHO around the workout period. Don’t get me wrong, I have enjoyed excellent weights workouts on a KD. Heck, last spring/summer I was doing weights, intervals and steady state cardio on carnivore - and got into excellent condition in the process.

[VirginiaEdie]

It does get better. It’s not like it takes an entire year. Six to eight weeks in the whole scheme of things is a relatively short period of time. And if your inflammation has improved, why not have the patience?

Edit:

For the record I have never been on a keto diet. This would be the first time.

And that explains why your muscles feel so weak for now. They have to develop the infrastructure to efficiently use their new fuel source. Our bodies are quite resilient, but they can’t change over night.

[ctviggen]

Though my guess is they take a lot longer than 6-8 weeks to truly transition. For instance, I still had high ketones several years into keto, but now, I get near zero. I think that’s a transition to allow exercise to happen while not needing a bunch of ketones floating around.

[PaulL]

Is there really no way you can lighten the physical demands on your body, until you are fully adapted to the new way of eating? That might be one approach.

Another approach would be to weigh the effects you like against the effects you don’t like, and see how important each one is to you. The side of the balance with the most desirable effects might be the course of action to pursue. For example, you might like the feeling of being clean, but you might dislike the feeling of getting wet in the shower so much more intensely that it might make sense to stay dirty.

[Iskandar]

Is there really no way you can lighten the physical demands on your body, until you are fully adapted to the new way of eating? That might be one approach.

I am keeping them as low as I possibly can. It feels terribly unhealthy but as I said I am very curious to see further benefits of a zero carb diet. Some chronic aches have disappeared and it’s keeping me going.

Another approach would be to weigh the effects you like against the effects you don’t like, and see how important each one is to you. The side of the balance with the most desirable effects might be the course of action to pursue. For example, you might like the feeling of being clean, but you might dislike the feeling of getting wet in the shower so much more intensely that it might make sense to stay dirty.

I don’t have a real understanding of the what I’m missing because I have never done this before. It’s like Tesla stock, all speculation

I overate yesterday on purpose to try an extended fast to see if that might speed up the process

4,476kcal fat 363g Pro 280g All from beef minus 300kcal from 2tbsp of avocado oil for cooking and 1tsp of fish oil.

I will only have water, electrolytes and small amounts of black coffee or tea.

[djc985]

It’s not really speculation because so many here have done it and experienced what you’re experiencing. Will it work for you? Maybe.

It takes time and trying to speed up the process will most likely create unreasonable expectations. Keep calm and keto on is the mantra because it takes time to heal. It’s different for everyone and maybe you’re in a better spot genetically than others, but expecting a quick fix is false hope.

[VirginiaEdie]

If you’ve been carnivore for for only two weeks, your muscles are now depleted of glycogen. Fasting helps deplete glycogen so you can use fat instead of glucose, but I don’t think it is going to help you grow mitochondria any faster.

You really do have to be patient and trust the process.

[Iskandar]

It’s not really speculation because so many here have done it and experienced what you’re experiencing. Will it work for you? Maybe.

I understand that I will become fat adapted and get over the “keto flu” that is certain. What is not certain is more reduced inflammation, better focus, & the other anecdotal benefits people report on a case by case base.

It seems that even long term prominent KD’ers still consume CHO around bouts of high intensity exercise.

Form what I gather it’s great thing to switch to a KD for the benefits for a time being but for most of the time a diet with CHO included as the primary energy source is better suited for a person looking to be as fast, strong, explosive as possible.

You really do have to be patient and trust the process.

I do trust the process. I don’t doubt for one second that I would eventually become fat adapted and feel less weak and lethargic.

I’m trying my best to hang on and make it 30, 60, or even 90 days.

It seems to be that if I complete a longer stint I will be able to switch between CHO and ZC more readily in the future.

[Tim_Cee]

Just another consideration for ZC when one is lean. It seems like the healthy upper limit of carb might be connected to body composition. That’s a question that comes out of the link before, not an answer.

[Shinita]

The fat adaptation is not a switch that suddenly turns on.

Not exactly a simple switch, indeed, as far as I know, it can go deeper with time or something (I know little about it but even I experienced something more after years - while I went off keto all the time keto gave me no benefits to stay after I already got fat adapted so I didn’t) but many of us really experience a switch turned on after 6-7 weeks. It was very sudden for me. Keto gave me close to nothing until then (I still stayed for the tiny hints it’s the right direction ;)) but then came fat adaptation at 7 weeks and my life changed for good, it seems. It still couldn’t give me much energy, anything good mentally etc. but maybe that is the thing where I need long term extreme low-carb, we will see!

Of course it still means that a few weeks aren’t enough, I just reacted to the “no sudden switch” thing.

(I am the type who quit any woe that feels worse than the previous one, even temporarily. I won’t even wait for 2 days… I quit keto on the first day when I first tried and I felt awful, no regrets for sure, I don’t do suffering if it’s up to me! I consider myself lucky, I still could change a lot gradually. And I did stick to keto until my level 1 fat adaptation kicked in. HOW did I know it will be great I don’t know but I was sure of it and I was right.
Maybe if I KNEW I need something for health or energy, I could force myself…?)

I have no experience about performance changes though as I never was very active and my activity was just hiking (40km at most and it took me 10 hours, I took my sweet time, it was a joyful excursion in the tiny mountains here, not something tough) and that’s easy on any woe for me as I need a quite low energy output for it. It’s not cycling uphill or running or even lift, I didn’t do these when I was a newbie ketoer. I experienced nothing but I can imagine my gradual changes helped too. And it’s surely individual to some extent as well even though everyone needs to go through the adaptation process.