Any negative consequences of running a keto deficit past 16 weeks?

[jamex]

Just curious if the body\mind will go downhill if I take the diet a few more weeks past 16. I managed to get under 10% and its my last week if I stick to my original 16 week plan, however I'm not where I'd like to be yet and right now I can see myself wanting to push another 4 weeks if it's not going to negatively impact things like health or rebound or something else I haven't considered.

Anyone run keto significantly longer? Any insights to report or is it just business as usual?

Thanks.

[LondonMuscle]

u could go your entire lifetime never eating a single gram of carbohydrate and be totally healthy! there is not such thing as an essential carb

[ta-kid]

Well i am not an expert,but anybody i have known that went more then 3 months on any no carb diet,or very low carb look like shit,eyes look sunken and the look was older looking.But each to his own.
I would assume although,there is good and bad ways to apply such a diet.

[Memo]

Well i am not an expert,but anybody i have known that went more then 3 months on any no carb diet,or very low carb look like shit,eyes look sunken and the look was older looking.But each to his own.
I would assume although,there is good and bad ways to apply such a diet.

Something like paleo diet, where carbs comes from nuts, veggies & fruits is maybe more suitable for long term.

[LondonMuscle]

how you implement a low carb diet is of utmost important... for the average joe, low carb dieting means atkins which places basically no emphasis on making good food choices, its merely advocates not to eat any carbs... so butter, chicken skin, super fatty ground beef, deep fried sausage etc are all acceptable foods

also, most ppl on low carb diets avoid proper micronutrient consumption for fear of eating ANY carbohydrate... now although its very certain that carbohydrates do not serve any essential role in the body, its generally only from carb sources that you find adequate nutrition like in fruits and veggies... but let it be clear that it is the nutrition that is important not the carbs for these foods

a successful low carb diet should be high in protien, high in essential fatty acids, moderate in non essential fatty acids and loaded with tons of micronutrient dense foods! that is how you probably and healthily diet down on a low carb approach... unfortunately most ppl do it totally wrong and ya, probably end up looking pretty sick!

[jamex]

alright well I'm not concerned about any deficiencies. I want to be confident that by prolonging the diet my body isn't going to freak out thinking its starving and go deeper into survival mode or any other physiological change. Right now I feel great. Energy is decent for the most part, although strength endurance could obviously be better but I came to terms with that long ago.

I'm a creature of routine so I have no problem eat a cup of brocolli or spinach with every meal during my pro\veg days, and I've always been diligent about supplementing multi's and fish oil. I don't feel or look emaciated (quite the opposite) so I'll consider the advice from LM as a green light that I can pretty much stay deficit as long as I feel the need.

If I'm not competing is it ok to keep the weekly cheat meals until the end of the diet or will I reach a point where I need to pull them if I want to lose the last little bit of fat? I'm targeting an 8% or below goal...but will have to see how realistic it looks as I get closer.

[Praetorian]

alright well I'm not concerned about any deficiencies. I want to be confident that by prolonging the diet my body isn't going to freak out thinking its starving and go deeper into survival mode or any other physiological change. Right now I feel great. Energy is decent for the most part, although strength endurance could obviously be better but I came to terms with that long ago.

I'm a creature of routine so I have no problem eat a cup of brocolli or spinach with every meal during my pro\veg days, and I've always been diligent about supplementing multi's and fish oil. I don't feel or look emaciated (quite the opposite) so I'll consider the advice from LM as a green light that I can pretty much stay deficit as long as I feel the need.

If I'm not competing is it ok to keep the weekly cheat meals until the end of the diet or will I reach a point where I need to pull them if I want to lose the last little bit of fat? I'm targeting an 8% or below goal...but will have to see how realistic it looks as I get closer.


Running another 4 weeks is fine. Then you should reintroduce carbs very slowly and use low gi carbs every other meal for a few weeks. You should also incorporate a refeed meal once per week to boost thyroid levels.
P

[LondonMuscle]

alright well I'm not concerned about any deficiencies. I want to be confident that by prolonging the diet my body isn't going to freak out thinking its starving and go deeper into survival mode or any other physiological change. Right now I feel great. Energy is decent for the most part, although strength endurance could obviously be better but I came to terms with that long ago.

I'm a creature of routine so I have no problem eat a cup of brocolli or spinach with every meal during my pro\veg days, and I've always been diligent about supplementing multi's and fish oil. I don't feel or look emaciated (quite the opposite) so I'll consider the advice from LM as a green light that I can pretty much stay deficit as long as I feel the need.

If I'm not competing is it ok to keep the weekly cheat meals until the end of the diet or will I reach a point where I need to pull them if I want to lose the last little bit of fat? I'm targeting an 8% or below goal...but will have to see how realistic it looks as I get closer.

sounds like you are doing things correctly right now

for the cheat meals, i tend to start with cheat meals earlier in the diet where many things are acceptable but later on in the diet they just become high carb meals where maybe you ingest 200g or so once per week from clean carb sources like rice, yams, oats, rice cakes and even fruits... you really shouldnt have to eliminate the latter esp if you are not competing

and like P said, when you do come off the diet you have to reintroduce the carbs slowly... low carb diets dramatically increase insulin sensitivity so the rebound effect can be devastating when the carbs increase too quickly, even if the cals stay low

i actually prefer to increase the protein and fats first for a few weeks and keep the carbs cyclical until i start consuming them again on a daily basis

good luck!

[jamex]

good stuff. thanks for the responses everyone.

Prae \ LM,

I'm currently running alternating days of Pro\Veg & Pro\Fat and I was considering experimenting with moving to 2 Pro\Veg days 1 Pro\Fat day rotation. Would I yield any tangible benefit from this or should I just stick to alternating days?

[Delt King]

good stuff. thanks for the responses everyone.

Prae \ LM,

I'm currently running alternating days of Pro\Veg & Pro\Fat and I was considering experimenting with moving to 2 Pro\Veg days 1 Pro\Fat day rotation. Would I yield any tangible benefit from this or should I just stick to alternating days?

Tangible benefits...yeah like increased fat loss. Do it.

[natenator]

Tangible benefits...yeah like increased fat loss. Do it.
I lol'd

[jamex]

Tangible benefits...yeah like increased fat loss. Do it.

lol, fair enough. Today was my second consecutive pro\veg day anyway so I was looking for validation after the fact :)

So every 2 weeks should I add an additional pro\veg day into the rotation? So 2 weeks fropm now do 3 pro\veg days followed by 1 pro\fat day and repeat?

[Delt King]

lol, fair enough. Today was my second consecutive pro\veg day anyway so I was looking for validation after the fact :)

So every 2 weeks should I add an additional pro\veg day into the rotation? So 2 weeks fropm now do 3 pro\veg days followed by 1 pro\fat day and repeat?

It's tough to say ahead of time as everybody's body reacts differently to the changes, but generally the rule is you change a variable once things start to slow down whether it be cardio, carbs, pro/veg days, t3, clen etc etc. If things are still working leave it alone. That is the reason to be consistent.