The ketogenic diet is becoming increasingly popular as a way to lose weight and improve overall health. It involves drastically reducing carbohydrates and replacing them with healthy fats, which puts the body into a state of ketosis. But can you do keto five days a week? In this article, we will discuss how to successfully do keto five days a week.
Disclosure: Some of the links in this article may be affiliate links, meaning that we may earn a small commission if you click through using our link and make a purchase. Please be assured that this will not cost you any extra money. Also, please be assured that we either use the products we recommend personally, or have been recommended by trusted friends who currently use them.
Ketosis is a state that your body achieves when you consume low amounts of carbohydrates. It’s also known as the “ketogenic diet”, even though it isn’t exactly a diet, it is more of a way of living.
When you eat a lot of carbohydrates but not enough fats, your liver converts those carbs into a chemical called glucose. This causes insulin to be released and your blood sugar level to drop.
When your blood sugar drops below 50 mg/dL will usually experience symptoms of low blood sugar.
Feeling nervous, dizzy, tremors, hot and cold sweats, feeling hungry, weak, and experiencing heart palpitations are some of the symptoms and signs of extremely low blood sugar.
Keto avoids this by giving you an alternative fuel source, which is ketones.
This allows your blood sugar levels to remain level, and gives you a feeling of wellness and satiation – meaning that you no longer have hunger spikes or erratic blood sugar levels.
If you are trying to lose weight, you should also consider doing intermittent fasting. The most effective way to do this is to follow an 8-hour eating window.
During this time, you can only eat between noon to 8pm. This means that if you wake up at 7am and you have no breakfast then when you eat at 12pm you would have fasted for 16 hours.
Do Keto Cheat Days Halt and Delay Your Progress?
Cheat days are not advisable on the keto plan. Usually, during the keto diet, we avoid carbs completely. Instead, we need to focus on eating healthy, which means that we must avoid processed carbs like bread and pasta.
You can also try to eat leafy and green vegetables with low carbohydrates. If you do these things, then you’ll end up shedding pounds much faster.
However, with cheat days we can throw our bodies out of ketosis if we overdo it with carbs.
Going from a fat adapted state to a normal state can be a little uncomfortable for people, so it is generally not advised to cheat on the keto diet unless you have nothing else to eat.
Does Keto Cycling Work?
There is no doubt that ketosis can be beneficial when you’re trying to lose weight. When most people start their keto plans, they focus on cutting back on carbohydrates.
However, this approach isn’t always effective for everyone. In fact, many people who try to cut down on carbohydrates end up feeling unwell and they find it difficult to adapt.
Some people find real benefits from consuming carbs, especially if they plan on being active. Keto cycling, or carb cycling, means that you can have more fine grained control over your dietary needs, and will allow you to plan for events that require a little more glycogen.
If you are going to be active, or if you are feeling like you need a little more carbs in your life, then carb cycling can work for you, but the effects of the keto diet will not be as noticeable.
While in a state of ketosis, your body uses fats as its primary source of energy. As a result, you’ll feel full without consuming large quantities of food.
In addition, you’ll have fewer cravings for unhealthy snacks and sweets, which might trigger your cravings if you consume carbs on the weekend.
Is Keto Cycling Worth Trying?
Sure, most things are worth trying, especially if you fit into the category of people that needs a little extra carbs to perform at your best.
If you are not sure about what it is that you should be doing, then be sure to consult a doctor or dietician.
Generally speaking, it is beneficial to eat more carbohydrates if you are going to be involved in sports and physical activity. Carbohydrates are a main source of fuel in your body, and provide you with the energy you need to carry out various activities if you are not doing keto.
If you find that you are not enjoying the diet with no carbs, then you might need to try another diet that supports your need for carbs instead of keto.
The Problem with Keto Cycling Is That Your Body Will Need To Adapt
Perhaps the biggest drawback is the fact that a ketogenic diet requires a lot of time to adapt to. Your metabolism will slow down significantly, which means it will take longer for you to burn off any extra food you consume if you are not adhering to the macro plan that you have set for yourself.
You should always try to keep your carb intake as low as possible if you are trying to follow a keto diet, and if you are wanting to try and cycle between low carb and normal diets then you will have to experiment.
Everyone is different, and if you are able to snap back into ketosis when you need to then keto cycling could work for you, but it will take some time for you to figure it out.
Conclusion: Can You Do Keto 5 Days A Week?
Some people simply feel better when they eat a moderate amount of carbs in their diet, and that is ok. Keto is not for everyone. But if you are enjoying keto, and you think that having the odd carb filled snack will help you to stay motivated, then you could consider some kind of carb or keto cycling as part of your plan.
You can do this by following an number of keto cycle plans out there, or by doing a bit more research into what carb intake does for you when you are on the keto plan.
Sticking to keto is a life changing realization for many. The best thing about this diet is that it doesn’t require you to count calories too much, as long as you stay within your macros. Once you have mastered that concept, then you will find success with this fantastic way of eating.
