The Fastest Way To Get Back Into
Ketosis After The Holidays
Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's means a lot of opportunity to indulge in carbohydrates as you celebrate the holidays with friends and family.
It's totally possible to have a perfectly Keto Holiday, but if you choose not to, that's ok too.
I get it.
It's hard to stick to Keto during the holidays, so no judgement if you indulged.
Now that's you're ready, I'm going to show you the fastest way to get back into ketosis after the holidays.
I've had holidays where I ate completely off-keto, consuming well over 300 grams of carbohydrates. Or on other holidays, like this most recent Thanksgiving, I ate totally keto during the meal, and then had one slice of carbohydrate-filled Pecan Pie. It's my kryptonite, and it was 100% worth it!
Whatever you choose, there's no judgement here!
Here's the fastest way to get back into ketosis when you're ready:
First of all, you need to get back to the basics
Just like when you started Keto you'll need to make sure your diet and exercise adhere to the principles of the Ketogenic Diet.
- Drastically Cut Carbohydrates: how many carbs you can eat per day varies, but stick to 20-50 carbohydrates per day. Track your macros in an app like Carb Manager or MyFitnessPal to make sure you're staying within the limits. Going ultra low-carb is easy, thanks to recipes like the ones found here on Fit Mom Journey. Visit the Fit Mom Journey Recipe Index
- Load Up on Healthy Fats: In a Ketogenic Diet, healthy fats make up around 70% of your daily calories. These can include fats like avocados, grass-fed butter, olive oil, ghee, coconut oil, and MCT oil. Beyond traditional fats, you can also have fatty foods such as egg yolks, nut butters (with no added sugars), olives, and fatty meats that are grass-fed and grass-finished.
That's really all it takes for the fastest way to get back into ketosis after the holidays. But, there are some things you can do to speed this process up.
Here are my suggestions….
How To Get Back Into Ketosis Faster
Take Exogenous Ketones: these supplements help you get into ketosis faster, increase your energy levels, decrease keto flu, and even increase mental focus. BHB is the most abundant ketone in the body, and your bodily systems actually run more efficiently on BHB (ketones) than they do on glucose (carbohydrates). You'll still need to eat a ketogenic diet, but Exogenous Ketones can make getting back into ketosis much easier and faster.
Intermittent Fast: The most common way of doing this is only eating during an 8-hour period during the day, and then fasting for 16 hours. This forces your body to use body fast for fuel, which is then converted into ketones in the liver, and BOOM, you're in ketosis!
Exercise Harder: by exercising while eating ultra low carb, your body will be forced to burn up the carbohydrates it has in storage. Once those are gone, you metabolism will switch to burning fat for fuel. When that happens, you're in ketosis! Exercise speeds up how fast your body uses the carbohydrates it has in storage, putting you back into ketosis faster after a cheat.
Take MCT Oil: whether it's in liquid or powder form, MCT oil is about the most perfect fuel you can get for your body. MCT oil, once taken, requires no digestion. Instead it heads straight to the liver, where it converted straight to ketones (in about 20 minutes) where it can go straight into the body to be used as fuel.
Do these things and you'll be back in ketosis so fast you won't even remember indulging in carbohydrates!
Even better, you'll be reaping all the benefits of the Ketogenic Diet, which include:
- More energy
- Increased Mental focus
- Better quality sleep
- Fewer blood sugar spikes
- Healthier body composition
- Less cravings and hunger
- Reduced risk of diseases such as heart diseases, type 2 diabetes, and even cancer
3 Final Tips for Getting Back Into Ketosis
To make the transition back into ketosis even easier, here are 3 more tips to help you:
- Drink Plenty of Water: using up the carbohydrates your body has stored before getting back into ketosis also flushes out quite a bit of water. Therefore, it is important to drink lots of water. Drinking lots of water will also help ease keto flu symptoms.
- Supplement with electrolytes: In addition to drinking lots of water, take an electrolyte supplement (with no sugar) to make up for fluid lost.
- Sleep, sleep, sleep: Getting lots of rest is one of the easiest things you can do help get back into ketosis. Sleep is not only important for blood sugar regulation, it is also essential for hormonal regulation, and adrenal function.
Once you've done all of these things to get back into ketosis, you may be wondering how to know you're in ketosis…..here are 7 ways.
7 Ways To Know You're In Ketosis
1. Weight Loss
Weight loss is the first and most obvious sign that you're in ketosis.
The weight loss happens for a variety of reasons, but it's important to note that it's very fast in the beginning.
This is because when you switch to a low-carb diet, your muscles start losing water. Carbohydrates are what bind water to your muscles, so when you're not eating carbohydrates, your muscles start dumping them, and the attached water.
That's one of the things that causes Keto Flu (which you can read about in Keto 101), but drinking plenty of water and keeping your salt intake up will keep you hydrated and feeling healthy.
After the initial water leaving your body, then you'll start to see steady fat loss.
Related Reading: My 60 Day Keto Challenge Results (I lost 23 pounds!)
2. Little or No Appetite
When you stop eating carbs, something crazy happens:
You don't get hungry.
At least not as much or as often.
Instead, you will find that your levels of satiation from your meals require much less food because of the super high fat content.
Also, when you're in ketosis, your body does a better job of regulating the hunger hormones that make your brain tell your body it's hungry.
Get the full scoop on Keto Macros by reading What To Know About Calculating Your Keto Macros.
Related Reading: Need Keto Meal ideas? Check out the Keto Recipe Index here.
3. Clear Mental Focus and Energy
I love this particular perk of ketosis.
If you struggle with an afternoon crash, then ketosis could be your miracle cure. An afternoon crash is caused by your insulin levels plummeting – a result of your carbohydrate eating habits . But when you're in ketosis, you don't have the crazy blood sugar rises and falls, and your brain has an endless supply of fat to fuel it.
Your mental focus and energy levels will become so much better if you're in ketosis, and it will be a noticeable difference.
4. Crushing Fatigue – Then Nothing
Hold the phone…
You mean to tell me that you can tell if you're in ketosis by if you're fatigued?
Yes. Well, sort of….
When you cut out carbs intent on moving your body into ketosis, it takes your body a little while to catch up with what you're trying to do. This process is called the Keto Flu.
I'm not going to lie, ti's not fun, but when the nausea, headaches, and fatigue subside, this is a good indicator that your body has crossed over into Ketosis.
If your Keto Flu symptoms aren't subsiding within a few days, this might be a good time to drastically increase your water intake and take some Exogenous Ketones. This will help your body get into ketosis faster. I get my MCT Oil Powder and Exogenous Ketones from Perfect Keto.
To fully beat Keto Flu, read Your Handy Guide To Beating Keto Flu
5. Digestive Upset
Everyone's digestive system reacts differently to a change in diet like cutting down on carbohydrates. Yours could go one of these ways:
- Constipation: You could go days without using the bathroom, but if it gets to be more than a few, please take a stool softener or add more fiber to your diet so you don't get “stopped up” for too long.
- Diarrhea: Adding more fat to your diet can have an impact on your digestive system as well. Your body will adapt in a bit, but if you want to keep from running to the bathroom every few minutes, try taking a fiber supplement. (Please make sure you're drinking enough water, too!)
- Nothing: Some people have no trouble, but I find that most do.
6. Bad Breath (Fruit Loop Breath)
Fruit loop breath is on almost unavoidable sign of Ketosis.
This stinky breath is caused by increased Ketones in your blood (a sign your keto diet is working), but there are a few things you can do:
- Brush your teeth more often
- Use mouthwash
- Chew gum
- Grin and bear it
For most people, the stinky breath goes away in a few weeks, so don't think the problem will be there forever.
7. Increased Ketones
You can actually test for ketones in your system a couple of ways:
With Urine Strips:
This sort of gross, but the biggest issue with testing your urine for ketones is that these strips, while cheap, are pretty inaccurate.
With A Glucose Meter:
This method is more expensive, but more accurate way to test for ketones, and if you're in ketosis is with a Glucose Meter.
I personally use a Keto Mojo meter that uses blood to test my ketones and I absolutely love it! It's accurate, fast, and costs 75% less to use than any other meter I've found.
Signs you are in ketosis can vary from person to person.
But, you'll most likely find that at least a few of these hold true for you.
In the beginning you'll lose a lot of weight, but then weight loss should level off into steady weight loss, between 1-3 pounds per week, depending on how your body responds.
You'll also have to tinker a bit with your carbohydrate levels.
Some can eat at the top of the limits (50g per day) while others eat 20g or less per day, and some even have 0 carb days. The point is to get your carbohydrate levels to where your eating does not produce an insulin response, and leaves your body with elevated ketone levels – known as Ketosis.
xoxo,
Gretchen
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