While a keto diet can help you to lose weight as part of an overall healthy and active lifestyle, coming off of it sensibly can be difficult. Without the right guidance or game plan, you can easily undo all of that dedication and hard work in a matter of weeks or even days.
The keto diet has become one of the most popular diets for those who are looking to lose weight quickly. However, it is still a hot-button issue for many health enthusiasts, especially in terms of coming off the diet itself without regaining all of that lost weight.
Methods of preparation such as reverse dieting can help to maintain the steady weight loss you’ve worked for while stopping your keto diet. As long as you’re planning ahead, you’ll be able to stop without undoing a lot of your progress. How? Here’s how.
Increase Your Carb Intake Slowly
A common mistake when stopping a keto diet is to see the weight loss benefits and instantly begin consuming large amounts of carbohydrates. Try to avoid falling into this familiar trap.
A slow increase of, say, 5 grams of carbohydrates per when coming off a strict diet is sensible for many reasons. Not only will you be able to control your carb intake with ease, but you’ll also be able to adapt if you notice your weight beginning to creep up again.
Be Wary of Old Habits Returning
We can sometimes put in hard work and commit ourselves to a weight loss goal, then become complacent as soon as we hit our targets. Within this complacency is where old habits can rear their heads and put us right back at square one.
A met weight loss goal should be celebrated and admired. And who doesn’t enjoy a little reward now and then? But these rewards should never come at the expense of regular exercise and portion control.
Increase Your Physical Activities
As you begin to wind down your keto diet, increasing your physical activity helps to keep you burning fat and maintaining an active lifestyle. After all, you’re looking to achieve permanent weight loss, and a diet simply isn’t going to keep that weight off without your dedication.
Remember that you should be working alongside a good diet to make sure it lasts longer than just a few months before coming back again with a vengeance. As always, be sure to discuss this with a healthcare professional if you have any questions or concerns regarding a sudden increase in your physical activity.
Have an Exit Strategy
Never forget that a short-term diet with short-term goals will always give you short-term results.
Planning ahead before you stop your keto diet and implementing an exit strategy will keep your brain mindful of the overall plan and your body being carefully prepared for what’s coming.
Again, the goal should always be to maintain that weight loss, instead of the stop/start nature of a fad diet that can be so frustrating to continually strive for in your weight loss journey.