Most persons don’t start a keto diet, or any other diet, because it’s challenging. The keto diet, popular for its weight loss effects and other benefits, is mostly used to lose weight or reach other fitness goals.
But if you’ve already reached your goal on keto or you’ve decided that the diet isn’t for you, what’s the best way to come off a keto diet without reverting to your starting point?
Note: This does not substitute medical advice. This post may contain affiliate links.
How To Transition Off Keto
Make a Plan
If you decide to transition off keto without some guidelines for yourself, it’s very likely that you will revert to your old eating patterns and regain any weight that you’ve previously lost.
To prevent this, the main principle to follow is to ease into it. When you were in ketosis, chances are you eased into it over a couple of days. The same thing is important for when you are starting a regular diet with more carbs. Waking up and deciding to eat oatmeal or toast for breakfast isn’t a good idea.
The 40 Day Carb Cycle
This is the first 40 days post-keto that will help you transition off keto into a regular diet.
- You start by increasing your carbs and reducing fats by 15% for the first 20 days. So if you were eating 40g of carbs, it will now increase to 46g. If you were eating 150g of fats, it will now decrease to 127.8.
- After this, you’ll increase to a 20% increase in carbs and 20% decrease in fats for another 20 days. After this 40-day carb cycle has completed, you can go back to eating your regular macronutrient portions.
If you want to maintain the results from the keto diet, ensure that you continue to eat healthier, high-quality foods in the right portions.
Related: Here are 101 low carb foods that will help you to lose weight
Remember that you can live a life without carb cravings and it’s not normal to feel fatigued after a meal. Your new diet should also be serving your body and your lifestyle- not taking away from it.
So in order to maintain your keto diet results, here are 2 other tips to transition off a keto diet:
- Start with unprocessed carbs
- Have 1 keto meal per day to get adequate fat- You can start with breakfast and then use more carbs for lunch/dinner
Chances are high that if you’re not interested in doing keto anymore, you don’t want to spend time calculating macros or anything of the sort.
In order to navigate this, you can consider getting one of these Keto Cookbooks that are customized to have less than 5g carbs for each meal. There’s a cookbook for:
You can prepare them all in 5 minutes for less than 5g carbs, and that’s your one keto meal already taken care of.
For the rest of the day, you can choose to incorporate unprocessed carbs into one meal for the first few weeks post-keto.
Things That Can Happen When You Transition Off Keto
You Might Gain Weight- This isn’t a must- but it does depend on how your body processes carbs, your sleep, and the rest of your diet. Remember to listen to your body every step of the way.
Bloating Could Start- Even though you should only be eating unprocessed carbs at this point, this could happen because your body is getting used to carbs again. So don’t freak out- this should be temporary.
Your Blood Sugar Might Fluctuate- After you start eating carbs again, you may experience some fluctuations after your meals. This can lead to mood swings and fatigue so you should keep an eye on that and go to your doctor if necessary.
Increased Hunger- Remember how satiating keto was?
This is because of the high fat and moderate protein combination. However, eating fewer fats and more carbs will decrease the appetite suppressing benefit of keto. This is because carbs digest faster.
To minimize this, ensure that you’re still eating a good amount of fats and protein at each meal.
Gain More Energy- Since your body will be getting more glucose from its preferred source of energy (carbs), you will have more readily available energy. If you work out, this may cause you to feel better and get more positive results.
The Most Important Thing
Do what feels right for your body. This means transitioning in a way that feels empowering and healthy instead of feeling like you ‘have to’ go on a particular diet in order to achieve results.
Some persons choose to transition off keto and go on a paleo diet or a plant-based diet because they choose to avoid processed food completely. This is also an option for you.
And if your transition off keto is temporary, then you can always take a break until you feel that you’re ready to commit 100%. That’s the practice of most weight trainers, athletes and models who use keto.
Actionable Tips For Transitioning Off Keto
- Go slowly
- Make a plan
- Introduce 1 Keto meal per day (get the cookbooks here)
- Be patient