Hey all, I’m thinking a lot about maintenance although I’m in the thick of the fast 800.
1. Because I’m not too far.
2. Because I’m someone who need to be prepared.
3. Also based on previous experiences I know that it’s the most challenging phase.
If I understand correctly, the fast 800 is aiming to put us in ketosis so that our bodies can raid the frigde that are our fat reserves. That’s an analogy that I have heard from Megan Ramos.
Anyway, what happens once we have lost all the extra weight and that our fridge is empty? Surely at that point ketosis isn’t best?
Would the idea be to fill the fridge again with some moderate carbs on some days, followed by another bout of fasting/ketosis so that the fridge can be emptied again etc? Is that the idea of maintenance? A cycle of filling up the fridge moderately then emptying it?

Your post is important, because it is likely many people are also thinking that low-carb/Ketosis is JUST a way to diet and when you reach goal, you can go back to “regular eating”.
The new research that keeps rolling in, is that low carbohydrate eating is protective of your brain AND your body.
In addition, fat is your brain’s BEST FRIEND and low fat/high sugar diets are implicated in many brain malfunctions and diseases, including Alzheimer’s.
I strongly recommend Dr. Perlmutter’s book, Grain Brain and his great Grain Brain Cookbook for a board-certified neurologist’s point of view on this matter.
The old way of thinking is out of date.

Hi Louise! Maintenance is the tricky bit, I agree. There are so many different ways to do it! Have you considered the
reverse diet? Simply put, begin maintenance by slowly increasing your calories, i.e., 850 per day week 1, 900 in
week 2, etc. Keep your carbs low until you approach your TDEE, then gradually increase them. You will soon discover
where your “tipping point” is and will have a reliable number not to exceed each day. This has worked famously for me
for just over 2 years. Others will soon be along to share their strategies too! 🙂

Hi, Dr Fung describes us as having 2 different storage units, there is the fridge (our muscles) which is our short term storage, and then there is the freezer (our fat stores). – The “switch” which blocks access to our fat stores is the level of insulin.

I have been eating low carb now since October 2017. I have dropped over 6.5 stone, I am down to the dress size I have been most of my adult life. Before I started on this journey I would have said that this was the time to move into maintenance. However, as a result of a recent body condition scan I know that I am still at 39% body fat.

I have been eating a high carb diet from childhood and am now in my late 50’s. I now realise that I have been seeing health problems caused by high levels of insulin all my adult life. So my focus from here on is to stay in ketosis as well as keeping calories low to reduce that level of body fat and also to improve my insulin sensitivity because insulin sensitivity is essential to successful maintenance. – Its a personal choice between knowing how sensitive you are to insulin and then planning accordingly, or working to improve your insulin sensitivity to make it easier to maintain. The science is starting to uncover how many other hormonal systems Insulin acts as an on/off switch for or interferes with.

I use a cheap breathalyser to monitor the effect different foods have on how long it takes me to return to ketosis and what levels of carbs I can handle a day to stay in ketosis. – What I have learned is that despite eating low carb for 20 months I am still extremely Insulin Resistant. – Anything over 20g of carbs knocks me out of ketosis and it takes me over 36 hours with a physically active lifestyle to return to ketosis. Even when fasting for 48 hours I don’t manage the high levels of ketosis that relative newcomers to the forum manage on shorter fasts.

I understand from Dr Fungs work that having periods of low insulin levels our bodies can recover from Insulin Resistance. So that’s my new aim.

My advice for you would be to get one of the cheap breathalysers, an AT6000 it only costs about £10 from amazon. The trick to using one to monitor the levels of ketones in your breath is to blow the very last of your breath into the machine during the testing phase. Buying one will help you to discover how insulin sensitive you are, so you can work out how you want to go on from here.

JGwen so you’re now aiming to replace your fat with muscles? My body is about 45% of fat so I’ll be here for a while! That puts me in the obese category while my BMI is now healthy.
Just goes to show that BMI means nothing.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that both is possible. I will confess, when I found out I was still 39% fat I spent ages with calculator working out what that would mean in lbs if I got down to a healthy fat percentage and just dropped fat and maintained existing levels of muscle. 🙂 For most of life the reading on the scales is no where as important as body composition, but I would really like to go on some seriously equestrian adventures and they have weight limits.

I do still have periodical sessions of squishing my spare tyre into different shapes to try to estimate what inch loss from waist and hips is still possible.

I came across a podcast last week from a ketosis conference were a Doctor explained how high Insulin levels effects the function of the thyroid. – It was a bit of an aaaahhhhh moment. – Back in my 20’s I went round and round in circles, I had all the symptoms of an under active thyroid but blood tests showed that my T4 levels were just inside the “normal” range. – From the podcast I now know that high insulin levels blocks the body from turning T4 into the hormone which the body acts on – T3. –

When I was at a social event yesterday someone remarked that in recent months she has seen a change in me beyond the shape change. – She can see an inner glow. – I think I understand what she means, when in ketosis I feel so much more alive. – That’s what I want for the rest of my life.

@jgwen I finally got my head on a cheap breathalizer but I’m getting vastly different readings when I try 3-4 times in a row, between 0.08 and 0.92.
I find it hard to manage to blow just with the last of my breath. Sometimes I don’t have any air left so can’t blow for long enough, sometimes I have quite a bit of air left so wasn’t the last of my breath 😬😅😖
Any tips?

@louisekangooroo
I started the BSD in April 2016 and I’ve maintained since reaching my goal weight 6 months later. I’m 59. I aim for being in ketosis (as much as I can) all the time and try for no more than 20g carbs per day. I tried one of the expensive breath monitors and could never get a consistent reading so ended up returning it for a refund so I don’t imagine the cheap ones are going to be much good.

I ended up buying a blood monitor and keep an eye on my levels with that. It’s much more accurate and I can also buy the glucose strips and check that as well.

Note that I’ve never had T2D and I do this purely to maintain my weight loss, stay healthy and prevent serious illness. I get blood tests every year to monitor my insulin, liver enzymes and HDL/trig levels.

I’m fitter and healthier than I’ve ever been and will continue to eat like this for the rest of my life.
Cheers
Linda