Chapter 14:
Ending a ketogenic diet
One important aspect of any fat loss diet is how it should be ended. Realistically, one can
not, and should not, be on a fat loss diet forever. At some point, an individual will have reached
their goal and the focus will change to maintenance. Bodybuilders will frequently move from fat
loss phases back into mass gaining phases, where some regain of bodyfat is accepted as an end
result of gaining muscle mass.
A sad reality of fat/weight loss is the dismal statistics for long-term weight maintenance.
Individuals who use caloric restriction as the only way to achieve their fat loss have a much lower
chance of keeping that fat/weight off than those who use exercise or a combination of exercise
and dietary changes (1). Simply put, dieters can not restrict their caloric intake and be hungry
forever.
This is the primary reason that exercise has been emphasized in this book as an integral
part of any diet. It is not realistic to subsist on low calories forever. Far more realistic is to
maintain good exercise habits for a lifetime. This is also the reason that neither an excessive
caloric deficit or an excessive amount of exercise is advocated. While it may take longer to reach
one’s personal fat loss goals with a more moderate approach, the chances of maintaining that fat
loss are much higher if good habits have been developed.
If an individual tries to lose fat quickly by exercising ten hours per week, they will
eventually run into problems with scheduling. As soon as they cut back to a few hours of exercise
per week, the weight/fat will start to come back. Instead, if this individual develops a regular
schedule of three to four hours per week of exercise, and couples that with a slight caloric deficit
until they reach their fat loss goals, they will be more likely to maintain this amount of exercise
on a consistent basis. This should make maintaining the fat loss easier.
Some individuals may choose to remain on some form of a ketogenic (or low carbohydrate)
diet indefinitely while others will not. For those who remain on a ketogenic diet, there are fewer
issues involved in moving from fat loss maintenance. Either calories can be increased (in the
form of dietary fat or carbohydrate) or activity levels can be decreased until fat loss stops. Since
the long term health implications of ketogenic diets are not known, this book cannot recommend
that a ketogenic diet be sustained indefinitely.
For individuals who do move away from the ketogenic diet, there are more issues which
need to be discussed including the physiological ramifications of adding carbohydrates back to the
diet, maintaining bodyfat levels, etc. Each is discussed in this chapter. Most of the information
presented here applies to individuals on a SKD or TKD. Due to the structure of the CKD, it has
its own set of implications and consequences.