Reply to Keto: Thread for Group Starting 6 May

Forum Index » Diet, Nutrition & Weight Loss

Reply to "Keto: Thread for Group Starting 6 May"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]NP and forgive me if it seems I'm intruding, please disregard if the below seems unhelpful.

[quote=Anonymous]Now that I know how many carbs are in things. I can't imagine how anyone transitions off keto without gaining weight. [/quote]

So I've been eating this way for twelve years now, with occasional periods of non-ketogenic but low-carb eating, and (on holidays) eating anything I like, because why avoid baguettes in Paris or pasta in Rome?

IME, you do gain some water weight when you eat enough carbs to move of out of ketosis -- usually 3-5 pounds for me. But it really is only water weight, since it comes off within a week of returning to ketogenic eating.

Having watched friends try and then abandon low carb, I think the main reason people gain back the weight after quitting keto is that it's much, much easier to consume excess calories when eating carb-heavy meals. In general, it seems like people who LOVE keto are also people who have serious carb cravings -- and difficulty feeling full -- when eating a standard American diet. So unless you're very very disciplined at calorie counting and resisting cravings (I am not), eating more carbs will also mean eating more calories, in the long run.

[quote=Anonymous]1. I have read that woman do need to carb up to maintain weight loss (and otherwise, may suffer hair loss long-term!)[/quote]

Twelve years into it, I've got a very full head of hair.  :lol:  I DO remember losing a bunch of hair about 3 months into keto (to be precise, the induction phase of Atkins -- which is ketogenic, 20g or less). My doctor (after some labs) concluded that it was telogen effluvium -- triggered not by the diet, but by losing twenty pounds pretty rapidly. She said it can happen on any diet -- or, for that matter, at any time you go through some kind of physical shock, or even an emotional shock. It's unfortunate but it does pass, and my hair did regrow to its former thickness. But man it was upsetting while it was happening!

Regarding women needing to carb up, there are a few studies out there that suggest in rare cases, a long-term low carb diet can depress the thyroid. So that would be one reason to incorporate more carbs. Years and years of anecdotes shared on low carb forums also suggest that some people have great luck busting a weight-loss stall by, [b]once in a blue moon,[/b] eating a very carb-heavy meal or day (but the trick is, to go back to keto the next meal or day, and stay there).

I myself only dropped the last ten pounds and hit goal weight after I "climbed" a few rungs on the Atkins ladder, which has you reincorporate 5g of particular kinds of carbs each week. It's a cool (but sooo slow) system to figure out how many carbs you can eat, exactly, before you get knocked out of ketosis. IIRC I got up to around 60-65g net before I gained the water weight that showed I was out of ketosis. So I stuck with that amount and it really did restart my weight loss, back in 2007, and took me all the way to goal (where I've stayed, plus or minus five pounds, ever since).
[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics