What Happens When I Stop?

#1

Hi, started keto about a month and a half ago, down about 20 pounds. Pretty thrilled so far!

My wife and I are both doing it and both have a ways to go. We’re probably about 50 or so more pounds to our goal weight, but are wondering what exactly happens when we get there if we want to maintain the weight.

Will we need to stay in ketosis for the rest of our lives?

If we gradually wean ourselves out of ketosis and introduce whole grains and more starchy vegetables into our diet, will we gain all the weight back?

Essentially, what I’m wondering is, if once we get to our goal weight, we transition to what’s widely regarded as a very healthy diet – lots of vegetables, healthy fats, lean proteins, whole grains (and the very occasional slice of pizza or 2) – will all the weight come back just because we’re not on keto?

Thanks!

(Windmill Tilter) #2

Here is my 2 cents:

The weight will not all come back because you stop doing keto, but the odds are that you will regain weight (keto or no keto). Losing weight is lot easier than maintaining weight loss. The data is pretty clear on this point. Keeping the weight off is the true battle. You can skew the odds more towards your favor based on how you lose the weight.

In the first first couple weeks after you start eating carbs and you exit ketosis, expect a 5% (by current bodyweight) regain due to water/glycogen (this is totally normal and healthy). After that, whether or not you regain fat will depend on how diligent you are during maintenance. Plenty of folks have successfully maintained weight loss with a healthy diet whether that’s vegan, keto, paleo, whole 30, etc. If you go back to poor eating habits and terrible food (SAD diet), you’re just about guaranteed to regain the weight.

If you ascribe to “set point theory”, (and I do), your body will likely fight to regain weight. My understanding is that this is true regardless of whether or not you drop the weight via keto. If you lose the 50lbs quickly, and if you intentionally calorie restrict in the process, thereby artificially reducing your resting metabolic rate, the odds of weight regain increase.

My 2 cents is to eat keto to satiety, and let your body decide how fast the fat comes off. The harder you try to force your body to lose weight, the more metabolic tripwires you’ll be setting off, and the harder your body will fight to regain the weight. It has a 2 billion year head start in the art of maintaining fat reserves, so you don’t want to pick that particular fight.

Here is a useful article on the subject of maintenance, and strategies that are helpful in maintenance. Roughly 80% of people who lose >10% of their bodyweight are unable to sustain it for 2 years. This study examined the folks who were successful to see what they had in common:

Again, this is just my 2 cents! I do think that the fact that you’re thinking about maintenance now is terrific. Not many people do, and aligning your current weight loss approach with the goal of long term weight loss will hopefully help you beat the odds! :+1:

(PSackmann) #3

Hi Dan and welcome! The short answer is, if you return to the way of eating you had before you started Keto, then yes, you will return to your previous weight. Depending on any underlying health issues you and your wife have, you may be able to start adding in some more carbs, until the point where you no longer are in ketosis and/or start gaining weight. There are a lot of threads on the Maintainers section that can help with details.

(Piglets = Bacon Seedlings) #4

Howdy Dan… thanks for asking a question that is on many a mind! Not experienced enough to really help you out with an answer, but sure wanted to welcome you to the forum!

#5

No one can say if you gain back some weight. If you don’t eat too much, you won’t gain any fat back. But it’s usually easy to eat too much on a carbier diet, you did that, I did that… Maybe you can be careful or do keto a few weeks a year to lose what you gain in 1 year (it works for some), who knows?
It’s very strongly advisable to keep some good habits but as I see, you don’t want to go back to the diet that made you gain fat. It’s nice but I can’t possibly know if your idea is right for you. Give me grains (hey, just give me lots of veggies and some fruits) and I surely will eat way over my energy need, I just can’t avoid it without extreme efforts, keto is much better and easier. It’s because carbs can’t satiate me and I eat when I am hungry but carbs often trigger eating problems and one eats even when they are already full. But there is a chance you can eat grains in moderation, they satiate you and you even feel right. Many of us have very different experiences but we are all different.

You don’t lose fat because you are in ketosis. You don’t gain fat because you aren’t. But your diet and eating habits are connected, your body works differently in ketosis… Maybe try it if you feel keto way too restrictive but if you start gaining, change your diet (or be more careful), don’t wait until you ruin all your results like so many people for some reason, I don’t really get it.

If you get used to keto, maybe you can stay but even if you eat more carbs, why not just some more vegetables or nuts? Grains are super carby and easier to overeat. You started keto just recently, after 6 weeks I was still hungry so I ate a lot and lost nothing, I missed my veggies, I just felt good but it was a bit difficult for me. I changed a lot since then (fat adaptation, smaller eating window, both are because of keto but I enjoy them out of ketosis too, to a smaller extent), keeping my carbs low are way easier and my diet is different too. Keto for life isn’t for everyone but going back to grains sounds a bit too drastic and potentially dangerous to me. But again, I know nothing about you and maybe grains mean a safe, tiny amount but it makes your life more enjoyable and it’s worth it. Only you can figure it out.

(John) #6

So something about your current lifestyle, diet, and genetics has you 70 pounds above your goal weight. Meaning you will have to permanently change something to achieve a different result than what your current choices are producing.

If your desired goal-state diet is the one you described, why not just do that now? If you think you can maintain a healthy weight with that eating style, then adopt it today, and your weight should drop eventually to that maintenance weight.

Or are you just looking to a ketogenic diet as a quick fix? Though 70 pounds is a lot to lose. As mentioned above, keeping it off long term is the real challenge.

(Susan) #7

Welcome to the forum, Dan.

I am just really curious why you are looking at Keto as a diet to dump the weight and then go back to eating Carbage and poisoning your bodies again with SAD foods? Why would you want to do that to your bodies?

Losing tons of weight quick is easy -very easy -I have done it so many times, but I always gained more back each time.

If you are thinking of Keto as a Diet, then the probability of you gaining the weight back and even more, is high. Many of us on here that were Yo-Yo dieters for years before Keto are living proof of this.

When you stop Keto and go back to eating the SAD foods, your body will become sick again, and you will lose the awesome benefits of Keto, and you will probably not keep the weight off. If you are super lucky you might not gain it all back, but you still won’t have the wonderful magic of Keto working in your veins.You can just stay Keto for life, it is a Way of Eating (WOE). The best food plan in the world, why would you want to go back to eating the stuff that made you overweight and unhealthy to begin with? If you do Keto for long enough, and see how awesome it is, I cannot fathom for the life of me, why anyone would ever want to go back to eating badly is all.

(Windmill Tilter) #8

Dr. Fung wrote two amazing books that cover the path you’re considering.

The first book is called “The Obesity Code”. It’s amazing. Pretty much everything you need to know about weight loss, low carb high fat, fasting, autophagy, and exercise. Best book I have ever read on what actually works.

The second book is “The Longevity Code”. It’s about how to eat once you’ve healed your body and gotten to a healthy weight. It’s a fascinating, evidence based book that seeks to optimize for a healthy, long life. It’s not low carb high fat, but rather moderate carb, moderate fat, moderate protein. Dr. Fung obviously he doesn’t have all the answers, but I have enormous respect for him, and he’s a really sharp guy. It’s not everybody’s cup of tea, but since it’s similar to what your proposing, you might find it interesting.

Welcome to the forum!

(Jack Bennett) #9

Welcome!

Everyone is different, so it’s hard to look at a specific case and say with certainty “X will happen” or “Y definitely won’t happen”.

You may be one of those who can (e.g.) hold fast at 100-150g of carbs and maintain a weight loss. Others try to do that and add more and more carbs until they are back at 300+g. The only way to be certain is to run the experiment. Of course, running the experiment has risks. The main risk is that it doesn’t go well and you’re back to square one.

There are ways to avoid that. If you work slowly and gradually, and track carefully, you can tell when your improvements are slipping, and lower the carb ceiling again.

A deeper question is why you want to go back to a conventional way of eating. Anecdotally, it seems like keto works best for maintenance when people get really into it and never want to go back. If you want to “maintain” with vegetables, olive oil, lean meats and whole grains, why not start off that way, rather than endure a radical change into and then out of keto? (Edit: credit to others upthread who said the same thing!)

Also anecdotally, on keto, a lot of people experience unexpected resolution of issues like joint pain or airborne allergies that can be traced back to dietary components like wheat and other grains. So there may be non-weight-related reasons to avoid eating certain foods. Again, highly individual.

#10

It seems it won’t be the same fattening diet though. Still too far from keto, probably but there is no such thing as best diet in general, keto (and even low-carb) isn’t for everyone (I just think that if someone is able to do keto for months, they shouldn’t go back to high-carb right away, they should feel comfortable enough on low-carb and even if it’s not true for some reason, at least try and see).
Losing and maintaining is individual, we can say general things but it may be wrong in the individual case. Losing fat is practically impossible for me if I am in normal BMI range with little activity and maintenance is the easiest thing ever, basically I do anything I can and I will maintain. I know people who just can’t lose fat using their normal diet without pain and suffering but they can maintain their weight on it, they must be careful though (there are some who can’t seem to do any other diet so losing is pain and suffering every time and they hate that so there’s a huge motivation to maintain).

I kind of agree, the old diet or anything similar is probably a very bad idea but I think maybe some low-carb diet would be better after keto, maybe not long term, people feel right on different diets with different carb intake, even if keto (or low-carb) is okay physically, it might be super hard to keep our carbs low enough. As time passes, it may easily change though, that’s why I don’t think someone should actually plan to go to eat many carbs after keto. Maybe even they won’t want (or can’t) that later . It’s like sweets on keto. It might work, maybe it’s even the ideal way at some point but it shouldn’t be the default choice and long term plan, IMO. At least most of us definitely won’t agree with some “healthy grains” plan in the future, it really sounds wrong. And it probably is but it depends on the person I guess.

#11

Because it’s fun and challenging? :smiley: Okay, maybe it’s just me, I love to try out strict but good things.

I guess temporal keto is many people’s plan because keto is effective for them and they can do it for some months but they refuse to live like that longer term. Maintenance is way easier than losing fat for some of us. It’s not even true for everyone that eating like they plan in the future will solve their weight problems and definitely not as quick as some stricter approach.

I am all for permanent lifestyle changes but I understand people who have a temporal very strict diet phase. It doesn’t work at all for many (at least if it isn’t followed by a way better diet than the original) but it works for some and maybe it’s someone’s best idea. I know worse (and sometimes still successful) ideas.
But we can’t predict if an individual case will be like the common one or not. If we are asked, it’s almost obvious we focus on the average case (except me, special ones are more interesting) but there are very unique ones so we can just make an educated guess using too little information.

(Robert C) #12

Keto is a tool and for some people it can feel restrictive.
Zero slices of pizza - ever - for the rest of your life (for example).
There are fake Keto pizza recipes but for some, those don’t have anything to do with their favorite little pizza place down the street.

So, AFTER you both hit goal, you get to make a decision. If this way of eating has become enough of a habit by then - maybe keep going with the odd cheat meal. If not, maybe cycle Keto. So, go off of Keto until you have gained 10 pounds - then go back on until those 10 pounds are gone (be careful to measure fat changes - water weight swings by 10 pounds in a day).

PS - 20 pounds in 45 days is an average of half a pound a day - that is probably too fast for just Keto so you might also be calorie restricting while eating Keto foods. That will not give you a true sense of what you can eat on the diet.

#13

I think most of us had problem not with the occasional slice of pizza but grains as a staple in the diet especially when it’s unclear if it will be desired in the future.
Maybe almost all ketoers who can get away with it has carbier days, we read about such occassions a lot. It shouldn’t harm even fat-loss let alone maintenance (but of course, it’s very advisable to stick to keto for a longer time first. Even I waited until fat adaptation and I am not strict at all).

#14

Thanks for the answers everyone! Appreciate your insight.

(Scott) #15

I have no plans to “stop” as I feel this is a healthier way to eat. I used to wonder if the weight loss would continue however after a year and a half I have found that weight loss slows as I get closer to my natural weight. In fact I have been steady at the same weight within a pound for six months or more. This past weekend I took a trip to an all inclusive resort to attend my sons wedding. I ate and drank way too much but did eat keto except for all the beer. I gained seven pounds in five days. This morning I am down almost three pounds. So, to answer the OP’s question “What happens when I stop”. If you eat similar or the same as you did when you gained before you will gain again. It is that simple.

(Bob M) #16

I have lost allergies (used to take two 24-hour allergy pills per day), skin tags, bad skin, pre-cancerous lesions, asthma, depression, mood swings, etc., all because I went low carb/keto. I will partake of foods like real pizza, but they immediately cause me the same symptoms I’ve lost. So, I plan on being low carb forever, with the occasional foray into grains and other foods, but not too much.

#17

Typically, most early weight loss is mostly water. When someone goes into ketosis, their glycogen stores dwindle. That glycogen binds water to it. So as the glycogen dwindles, that water will be released. For some people, this can cause the “keto flu”, an electrolyte imbalance, because electrolytes can get flushed out of the body with that water.

Unfortunately, when someone stops keto, those glycogen stores will start accumulating again, binding water once again. So they may see some quick water weight gain.

Most short-term weight fluctuation is a simple change in water retention and digestive tract contents. It takes time to lose (or gain) a pound of fat (or muscle).

If that “healthy diet” will maintain the weight loss, it should have been able to lose the weight in the first place, without keto. In the end, you should be doing a way of eating that is sustainable and gets the results you want.

For myself, I need keto, for two reasons:

  • It controls my hunger. Before keto, I was ravenously hungry all the time.
  • It controls my blood sugars. As a T2 diabetic, I no longer need insulin or metformin.
(Jack Bennett) #18

This is a huge one for me as well.

Eating low-ish carb paleo, I struggled to complete a 16h fast.

Eating ketoAF, OMAD I don’t really mind fasting for 22-24h every weekday.

#20

Thanks for the study, it’s fascinating! I have no plans to return to my “old way of eating” (which involved a lot of greasy foods in huge portions), just eventually planning on transitioning out of keto to one with whole foods, low carbs, moderate protein and moderate fat, and continuing to weigh myself to make sure that if i gain any weight i quickly take it off again (even if that does mean going to back to keto for a while). But it’s good to know that research shows that it’s possible, and that the longer you keep it off, the less likely you are of regaining it.

#21

I’ve gained some weight in maintenance, nuts were my downfall…you can never relax :joy: