IOH How To Quit Your Low-Carb Diet Safely



		Islets of Hope healthy living for persons with diabetes

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Written by Lahle Wolfe, low carbing since 1996

References

(1) Cyclical Ketogenic Diets Part 1; Copyright Lyle McDonald '96

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(an article especially for those on low-carb diets that induce ketosis)

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Why Bother to Transition?

Your body is smart. Any diet or lifestyle you stick to long enough and it will begin to adjust to things. When you began low-carb dieting it was probably totally new territory for your body and in all likliehood if you followed the plan weight came off like never before. But the longer you stay on low-carb, or worse, if you go back and forth a lot between low-carb and other ways of eating, your body learns and makes adjustments and becomes more and more efficient at using fat and protein. This can make going back to a "regular" diet a lot harder because your body now knows how to handle fat, protein and carbohydates efficiently.

Always try to transition from low-carb to a carb-controlled plan or low glycemic plan. Also, many on the Zone have reported that after following a low-carbohydrate plan, they have a hard time maintaining weight loss on the Zone, even though it is technically a carbohydrate moderated plan (you eat carbs only in proportion to fat and protein). This may be due in part to an increase in calories or distribution of calories -- low-carbers tend to be "grazers" and on the Zone has you eat 3 full meals each day in addition to snacks. If you wish to try to live "In the Zone" you might consider a low-glycemic plan instead. They are generally much simpler to follow and offer a lot more flexibility similar to what you are used to enjoying on low-carb plans.

Basically, if you are quitting ketogenic diets you want to stay low-carb but switch to a non-ketogenic diet or slowly increase your carbs (5 grams each day for a week) until you are out of ketosis. Try this for a minimum of 2 weeks. Then you can opt for a low-glycemic, or glycemic-controlled plan (Weight Watcher's Core Plan, Sugar Busters, South Beach Diet, or NutriSystem's plan for type 2 diabetics) before attempting a high-carb plan. The idea is to bring your body out of low-carbing s.l.o.w.l.y …. (there, I said it again) especially if you have been low-carbing for more than 2 years.

Please take the time to read our information on DKA and diabetic ketones. Even though DKA and benign dietary ketosis are not the same thing, nor are they caused by the same thing, they have some similarities in terms of medical consequences when treated improperly. If you are diabetic, please seek the advice of a medical professional before drastically changing your diet because this will have an impact on your blood glucose and insulin needs.

If you have been on a ketogenic diet longer than a few weeks and don’t back off slowly, you will risk sudden, massive edema and weight gain, emotional heartache, severe insulin spikes and/or high/low blood sugars, and even dangerous, rapid changes in blood pressure, cerebral edema, and death from sudden changes in body chemistry.

The worst thing you can do to your body is go on a carb binge while in ketosis. If you really, truly have to have those high-carb days plan them and keep them controlled. Get out of ketosis first, and then enjoy a few extra (preferably healthy) carbs.

I love what low-carb has done for me. Nothing and I mean nothing, worked for me prior to low-carb. This way of life took over 135 lbs off my body thereby adding years to my life. But honestly, after 10 years of living this way, I do feel deprived and somewhat cheated and long for more “normalcy” in my diet. If there was another way that I could manage my weight, I’d be happy. Unfortunately,there just aren’t any more candy bars, fat-crust pizza, or spaghetti feasts in the cards for me.

But hey, on low-carb, I am still "half the person that I used to be."

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Page Updated 02/07/2008