Keto Withdrawal- What to Expect

People often ask me how long I have been keto

The answer I give is “off and on since 2012.” It has been more on than off, but most people I know occasionally lapse. The most notorious time is around the winter holidays, when carbs and alcohol (basically liquid carbs) flow freely.

So how do you handle it, and what usually happens?

The best answer is the one I give for a lot of things. It depends.

It depends

On how wickedly sensitive you are to carbs and sugar, how far off the wagon you fall, and how long you stay there.

If you are like me, it takes literally 2 to 3 days before a soft roll starts to show up around the midsection. You can tell yourself it is barely visible and we should not be obsessed with appearances, but it is what it is. The good news: with a little discipline and some serious calorie restriction, you can be back in ketosis and lose the roll in the same amount of time.

The next thing you may see is puffiness in the face. When you look at carb-addicted people (still most of the world) they have a bloated, bovine appearance from water retention.

The final phase is the return of body fat and body size. People who consume excess carbs are simply bigger because of the overall fat they pack on.

I never let it get that far

Because once you do, you are looking at several months of keto to get back to where your body functions best, lean and strong.

Some people have asked, what about low-carb and intermittent fasting? To me intermittent fasting is pretty much a given with keto, because your appetite is suppressed and two meals a day feels like plenty. Let’s call “low-carb” somewhere between 100 and 140 grams of carbs a day. If you are not super carb-sensitive, this may be fine for you and you may still look and feel great.

An interesting aside on what I call the Carb Sensitivity Scale: the more sensitive your body is to carbs, generally speaking, the more of a sweet tooth you have. The poison is addictive. Often someone like this will binge on sweets when they come off keto.

Bottom line: it is much easier to stay in ketosis than to bounce around. Never mind the potential health consequences. I make something that will help you stay in.

It has been said and I agree: carbs can kill. There is no worse diet than high fat combined with high carbs in terms of accelerating aging and vascular consequences like heart attack and stroke.

I often wonder what kind of dent would be made in the statin drug market if 40 percent of the country went keto.

We may never know

But in the words of one of my patients: “Doc, I gotta worry about me and mine before I take on the woes of the world.” Truer words were never spoken.

DD

More on the Carb Sensitivity Scale later. For now consider it a Dr. Dave original.

— Doc