Cheat days/meals are something cause people to fall off for good. How many times have you eaten something that didn't serve your body and then could never get back on track?
Mainstream culture teaches you that you should never restrict foods because you should always be able to just eat whatever you want in moderation.
NEWS FLASH, this is not how the human body works.
Moderation does not work. Unpopular opinion. But look around you. People don't feel good! How many people do you know who can truthfully say "I FEEL AMAZING ALL OF THE TIME?"
When you're in ketosis, your body is relying on either dietary fat or your own body fat for fuel.
When you are on a moderate/high carb diet your body runs off of glucose (sugar) because carbohydrates ARE sugar as soon as they hit the blood stream. Doesn't matter if it's oats or cake.
You cannot switch back and forth between fuel sources that easily. If you have a cheat meal or cheat day, it can take a long time (time varies) for people to get back into ketosis again.
By eating the high sugar/high carb/addictive foods, your body craves those foods! You gave it sugar, so now it wants more. It's like a drug. This is why moderation doesn't work.
"But it worked for xyz social media influencer!"
You don't know every single day in and out for them. They don't share their life 24/7 so you have no idea what that person is going through! IG is a highlight reel and we know that. You don't know their mental health, skin conditions, how they sleep, how they feel on the inside! What their internal health condition is matters and cannot be determined by their photos they post online.
The really cool thing about this whole subject is you don't need to take my word for it. You can get a blood sugar monitor and track this all for yourself.
When you eat a lot of carbs/sugar, your blood sugar goes up. When your blood sugar goes up, your body sends out insulin to bring it down. The crash down feels like:
Cravings carbs/sugar
Hungry shortly after eating
Tired
Irritable
Anxiety
Unmotivated
Fast heart beat
There are no cheat days on keto, it's a permanent lifestyle change to FEEL your BEST! If what's discouraging you is that you aren't seeing results fast enough, there IS a change that needs to be made. There is ALWAYS a change to be made. You're not not losing weight because you're not eating potatoes. You're not losing weight because there is still something you are consuming that your body isn't happy about. It's causing some sort of inflammation and you need to be able to pinpoint it to fix it.
Forget and throw in the trash calories in vs out. It may have worked in your younger years of life but once hormones come into it, it doesn't matter. I know dozens of people who have gotten as extreme as 500 calories per day and didn't lose an ounce! The fitness community will tell you it's because they need to refeed and up their calories. But when it doesn't work and they start gaining, they tell them it's probably because their body needed that. NO. This is not how this works. Fat storage is determined by INSULIN. That is what needs to be addressed.
1 comment
What glucose monitor do you recommend to someone just starting to monitor for weight loss?