How Many Carbs Will Break Ketosis?

The truth

If you’ve done keto, you probably know how hard it is to stay under your carb limit. 

But, you may be wondering how many carbs would kick you out of ketosis. 

In this article I’ll discuss how many carbs would break ketosis, and how many carbs you should eat per day for keto.

What Is Keto?

Keto is a low carb, high fat eating plan where the goal is to get into ketosis. Once you get into ketosis, your body can use his own fat for fuel. This helps you to get the benefits of keto, like weight loss & improved insulin sensitivity.

The most common keto foods are:

• Fatty Meats
• High-Fat Dairy
• Nuts, Seeds, & Nut Butters
• Low-Carb Vegetables
• Low-Carb Fruits
• Sugar-Free Chocolate
• Oils––Coconut Oil, Olive Oil, Butter, Etc.

How Does Keto Work?

Keto works because it reduces your carb intake, which lowers your insulin. Once your insulin is lowered enough, you reach a state of ketosis. This allows your body to use its own fat for fuel instead of carbs. This help you to lose weight without being super hungry or tired.

The reason your body stores fat is so it can survive and use its fat whenever there is no food. 

So by doing a low carb diet, like keto, you’re just doing what your body was already made to do to survive.

Why Does Eating Carbs Kick You Out of Ketosis?

When you eat carbs, your insulin raises. When your insulin raises, your body signals that there is enough energy to be used, so it doesn’t use its own fat as energy.

Fat is just a back-up plan for when you don’t eat carbs, so when you do eat carbs, you body senses that it doesn’t need to use body fat as energy with ketosis.

How Many Carbs Will Break Ketosis?

On average, eating around 50 grams of net carbs in one day will break ketosis. This is because carbs raise insulin, so whenever you eat a lot of carbs, your insulin rises, breaking your ketosis.

But, if you exercise a lot, you might still be in ketosis at around 60 grams of net carbs.

However, if you don’t exercise that much, then you might get kicked out of ketosis just by eating 40 grams of net carbs in a day.

Net Carbs vs. Total Carbs––Which One Should You Count?

You should count net carbs instead of total carbs because net carbs are the only carbs that affect insulin. This is because some of the carbs in total carbs, like fiber and artificial sweeteners, have zero calories and don’t affect insulin at all. 

Net carbs are the total carbs in a food after subtracting fiber & artificial sweeteners from that number. 

On keto, you’d be more accurate if you tracked net carbs since those are the carbs that exclude fiber & artificial sweeteners.

What Are the Signs You’re Not In Ketosis?

You probably aren’t in ketosis if after eating carbs you gained a lot of water weight, or if you became really tired after eating carbs.

Excess Water Weight

Having excess bloat or water weight shows that you may have been kicked out of ketosis. 

This is because carbs hold water. So if you eat a lot of carbs, you’d store a lot of water. This would indicate that you got kicked out of ketosis.

Fatigue

If you became tired after eating carbs, this indicates that you may have ate too many carbs, which likely broke your ketosis.

This is because if you normally eat keto, & then you start eating carbs, your body can’t metabolize them as well. 

This means that after eating carbs, you may become tired since your body can’t metabolize them like it used to when it ate a lot of carbs.

This indicates that you could’ve gotten kicked out of ketosis.

Should You Have Cheat Days on Keto?

No, you should not have cheat days on keto. This is because it takes a lot of time for your body to get back into ketosis after a cheat day, so avoiding cheat days altogether would make you lose weight much faster.

However, if you do have a cheat day, which we all do at one point, then don’t get frustrated and quit. 

Healthy eating is a long-term game, so as long as you keep playing, you’ll never lose.

Conclusion

As a general rule of thumb, if you eat over 50 grams of net carbs in a day, then you’ll likely break your ketosis. However, if you exercise more or are a bigger person, you may still be in ketosis even after eating more than 50 grams of net carbs in a day. But, if you’re a smaller person or if you don’t work out as often, then you should aim to eat less than 40 grams of net carbs per day.

If you want to lose weight with keto & intermittent fasting, but don’t know where to start, here’s my article explaining everything I did to lose 40 pounds on keto & how you can too.