Keto cheat day. How serious is cheating on keto? And if you do, how long does it
take to get back into ketosis. Today I'm gonna talk about how to make some smart
decisions around that cheating so that you can minimize the damage if you do.
Coming right up.
hey I'm Dr. Ekberg I'm a holistic doctor and a former Olympic decathlete
and if you want to truly master health by understanding how the body really
works make sure that you subscribe and hit that notification bell so that you
don't miss anything a lot of people try keto and they get great results but it's
also for a lot of people it feels like a great commitment like too much of a
commitment like I can do it but not if I have to do it all the time not I can't
do it if I'm not allow to make exception so there's a lot of talk about cheat
days and some people even turn it into an art form on how to cheat as much as
possible. Well I don't think that you want to do it a lot but we're gonna talk
about how to minimize the damage and when it might be okay to do it first of
all people want to know if I do cheat am I just totally setting myself back how
long is it going to take to get back into ketosis if I do so there are some
variables here we want to think about genetics play a role momentum is a big
word meaning how long have you done it how well has it been going how strongly
are you into fat burning your age your metabolism and the degree of the cheat
so if you cheat obviously if you cheat a lot then it's gonna make more damage and
if you cheat just a little bit and also the length of the cheat is it just a
meal or do you stretch it into a day or maybe a whole week so those obviously
make a huge difference because the it depends on how much momentum you have
and how much of that momentum you break so one way of
looking at it is if someone has done they started very insulin resistant and
then they work their way down they were very very consistent and they've done
keto low-carb intermittent fasting for years now they're very very stable
their insulin sensitive their bodies are totally fat adapted now if this person
goes to a party and gets out of ketosis they have a few drinks they have some
cake they eat some some pie or some potatoes then it's just gonna be a blip
all right they're gonna get out of ketosis but their bodies have so much
momentum they're so entrenched in that habit in their physiology that in 12 to
24 hours they're going to be right back it's like it almost never happened and
as long as they don't do that every week or a couple of times a week
then they're gonna maintain that physiological habit okay it's like
momentum how deep in are you another person though who might just have
started keto they might just have been going a couple of weeks they measure
their ketone and say oh great I have ketones I' m in ketosis well their body
isn't totally fat adapted yeah they're burning fat cuz that's what they're
eating the most part but they haven't really converted their entire physiology
there the habit of their body isn't there yet so if these people cheat it
might be several days or even up to a couple of weeks before they get back to
to the place that they were so keep all of those things in mind that it depends
on your momentum your body creates habits and just like it took you a long
long time to get insulin resistance it's gonna take you a while to become insulin
sensitive so I'm not going to tell you whether you it's okay to cheat or not
but ideally I would say don't cheat but at the same time if you feel deprived
then that's not a good thing that putting stress on you and you're
probably not gonna be able to keep it up but ideally you want to be able to not
cheat but if you cheat the question is why are you not satisfied is the food
not satiating is are you bored is there not enough variety those are all things
that you can do something about probably the most common thing though is that
people go on a trip and they're tempted or they don't feel like there's enough
alternatives or they have a holiday or a birthday and they feel that this is the
one time that it's just not right to not participate in the celebration
whether it's someone else's birthday or maybe even your own so there could be
lots of different reasons so let's talk about two things first how you can set
yourself up to reduce the chance or the risk or the need to cheat and then we're
going to talk about how to minimize the damage if you feel like you have to so
the first way to set yourself up not to cheat is to truly really become fat
adapted because if you are if you're all the way fat adapted then you really are
not going to have any cravings you're not going to feel the need for that
pizza or that ice cream to the extent that you do it's gonna be an emotional
need it's going to be a memory it's going to be people talking about it it's
going to be watching commercials of pizza all the time and reliving certain
emotions but if you're truly fat adapted then you are not going to have those
cravings you're not gonna have that need so they're longer and more consistent
you can let yourself become fat adapted and get that momentum the more stable
you're gonna be then you want to develop a variety of good food there are
thousands of different options and if you just go online on a regular basis or
you buy a couple of several different cookbooks and you consistently try new
things then you're going to build a wonderful
variety and you're gonna feel so so satisfied it's going to be so rewarding
with all that keto food that you're probably not going to feel the need the
only time would be like a birthday and you just know that grandma is gonna bake
a cake she's going to do it just for you and your life is over you'll be shamed
if if you refuse but if you if you develop a great variety on keto then
you'll be so satisfied that the longer you go the less you'll feel the need you
can also have keto treats there are ways to make fat bombs and cookies and
desserts that even though they're not full of sugar and even though they're
not maybe exactly like you remember they're going to be very very close and
they're going to be very rewarding the fourth thing you want to make sure
is don't keep junk at home okay if it's at home it's gonna get eaten at some
point so finish it or throw it out and don't buy it again if you only have good
stuff at home then that's what you're gonna eat that one's pretty simple but
it is so powerful that once you sort of make the clean break once you get fat
adapt and you decide you get into it then clean out the cupboards just don't
have those carbs and that sugar and the desserts and those tempting things
around because eventually they'll they'll get consumed number five as much
as possible if you're gonna have a treat if you're gonna have a party if you're
gonna have some way of celebrating or making a big deal then make it a keto
feast as far as possible then maybe just overeat instead of
having one steak just have two so you probably won't lose weight but at least
you're not going to spike your blood sugar you're not gonna ruin your ketones
and what will probably happen is you just won't eat anything the next day so
now let's talk about if you do end up in a situation either where you feel you
have no choice or if you
really feel like hey you know part of my life is to celebrate part of my life is
to have special treats part of my life is variety so I'm gonna do this no
matter what then the first thing I want to suggest is don't call it a cheat day
call it a celebration because cheating it's such a negative word it's like
we're supposed to feel ashamed after cheating we're supposed to put ourselves
down and beat up on ourselves so just change it and say that hey if I'm gonna
do this I'm gonna celebrate and if you're gonna celebrate then try to have
a plan decide ahead of time that it's gonna be a one-time thing decide what
you're gonna eat and don't just sort of leave it open-ended because then there
are too many options for it to get totally out of control if you're going
to celebrate and you have a plan then make it count make it a special occasion
buy something really really good if you're gonna have ice cream if you need
to have ice cream then don't buy cheap ice cream buy the best ice cream you
know buy the best most expensive the fattiest richest ice cream you can if
you're gonna have a couple of cookies make sure they're dripping with butter
make sure that they're the best crispiest flakiest that that you
can find if you're gonna have a beer don't drink something that you don't
like that's low in calories drink something that counts have something
that is truly truly satisfying and then make it count sit down make it an
occasion put some nice tablecloth light some candles put some flowers on the
table whether it's yourself or or with somebody but make it count
truly make it a celebration don't just buy a six-pack of muffins and down them
with it with a coke make it special the third thing that you can do to to
minimize the day is even if you're gonna celebrate
there's a big difference between having that rich satisfying ice cream with
maybe a really rich cheese cake or brownie as opposed to having a ice cream
float or something that's just pure pure sugar and and chemicals alright you can
keep it more or less close to keto you can still have it even if it has some
sugar and it's really rich and and decadent it could still have some good
fats in it you could still make it yourself maybe but keep it as close to
keto as possible once you go and you decide I'm gonna do this and you make
some purchases buy enough for one time okay
don't buy a six-pack because it's more economical don't buy the case because
it's cheaper per item don't go to Costco because it's Halloween and buy the 14
pound bag with 800 pieces of candy just because it's so cheap they're
practically giving it away buy what you could reasonably eat without getting
just totally out of control on one occasion and finish it and be done with
it alright because if they're leftovers then they're gonna get eaten and then
when you've had the party now it's time to forgive yourself because a lot of
times we a lot of the damage comes from us beating up on ourselves and we're
saying oh I shouldn't have done it I shouldn't have done it I shouldn't have
done it and believe it or not the worse you feel about it
the more likely that you're gonna do it again the more likely that you'll say oh
well you know I blew it so I might as well just start over next week don't do
that forgive yourself plan ahead forgive
yourself feel good about it and get right back to it
okay make it one meal and then you know the rules you
know what you had what your plan was and you go right back to it. The same thing holds
true if it's on a trip especially and I know myself I've been guilty of this you
go on a week-long trip and your intentions are good
so you last two or three days and then there's just that special things like oh
I remember that kind of bread that was so good and you smell it and yeah yeah
this bread would be worth it and you have a bite and then if that's all you
did that wouldn't be such a big deal but if you beat up on yourself and you say
oh I guess I blew it well you know there's just four days
left on the trip I might as well go ahead and enjoy it right well that's not
such a great idea because that's a huge difference that it's basically the
difference between a few hours and days to week forgive yourself is very very
important it's natural it's okay your your ancestors they found a a beehive
they found a fruit tree they killed an animal they had a party there's gonna be
times with with ups and down it's alright just move on and get right back
to it number six exercise if you have a plan
then you probably want to do a little extra exercise beforehand because that's
really gonna empty out that glycogen it's gonna make you a little more insulin
sensitive so then when you fill it up you're gonna fill that glycogen store
really well and then you go and exercise after again okay you can give yourself a
couple of hours you don't want to exercise with a full stomach but just
work out move a little bit extra before and after and that's gonna dramatically
reduce the insulin resistance the amount of insulin you're going to stay more
insulin sensitive we're all human life happens things happen be easy on
yourself know that things are going to happen but stay true to your goals learn
as much as you can understand why you're doing it
motivate yourself set up your goal imagine how good you're gonna feel when
you get there and the stronger you can hold on to that goal with a good
expectation the easier it's going to be for you to handle these challenges and
to move on if if it happens and again it's not a wrong thing I'm not saying
that you should never celebrate I mean do that once in a while but don't do it
all the time if you enjoyed this video I think you're really going to learn a lot
from that one thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the next
video