How to Get Into Ketosis After a Cheat Day?

If you’ve done a keto diet, you know how hard it is to not fall into tempations.

We all, at one point, had a cheat day on keto, and most of us probably regret it. 

However, you may be wondering how you can get back into ketosis after a cheat day. 

In this article I’ll discuss exactly how to get into ketosis after a cheat day, and what you should do if you just had a cheat day.

How Does Keto Work?

Keto is a low-carb, high-fat diet that works by putting your body into a state of ketosis. Whenever you eat very low carb, your body cannot use carbs as the main fuel source. Then, it has to resort to using its own body fat for fuel. This is why keto is really effective for weight loss, improving insulin sensitivity, and improving energy.

But, restricting carbs can make it difficult to stick to keto.

Why Do People Have Cheat Days on Keto?

People have cheat days on keto because completely removing carbs from your diet can be difficult. Sometimes people fall into their urges to satisfy their carb cravings, so they have a cheat day or binge eat. 

However, many people who have became overweight became overweight from binge eating or eating unhealthy foods.

That’s why it’s important to not have cheat days on keto if you want to break the bad habit for good.

How Many Carbs Will Kick You Out of Ketosis?

On average, eating over 50 grams of carbs in a day will kick you out of ketosis. Whenever you eat a lot of carbs, your your body senses that it can use carbs as fuel. This means that your body will get kicked out of ketosis & will stop using its own body fat for fuel.

However, on keto, you can eat as many carbs from fiber or artificial sweeteners as you want because those carbs don’t affect ketosis.

Can I Still Lose Weight If I Have a Cheat Day on Keto?

Though it is possible to is weight with cheat days on keto, most people don’t recommend cheat days on keto because it’ll slow down your progress a lot. This is because it takes your body multiple days to get back into ketosis after eating carbs, so if you just go in and out of ketosis constantly, your body won’t be able to lose weight for most of the week. 

However, If you do everything right on keto and do a lot of fasting, then you could probably still lose weight, even if you had cheat days. 

But, if you want to lose weight quickly and without yo-yo dieting, I don’t recommend cheat days.

How to Get Into Ketosis After a Cheat Day?

As long as you lower your carbs to under 50 grams per day, you’ll quickly get back into ketosis, so you’ll continue to lose weight. But, remember that it may take a couple of days for you to get back into ketosis after a cheat day. 

How Many Days Does It Take to Get Back Into Ketosis?

If you limit your carbs to under 50 grams per day, on average you can expect to get back into ketosis 2 – 4 days after eating carbs. However, if you a bigger person and exercise more frequently, you may get into ketosis faster. But, if you are a smaller person and don’t exercise often, then it may take a little longer to get into ketosis.

This is because your body needs time to empty all of the carbs from its body and start using its own body fat for fuel again.

Will One Cheat Day Ruin Ketosis?

Yes, one cheat day will ruin ketosis. However, you shouldn’t get frustrated or quit keto just because of one cheat day. Over my 40 pound weight loss journey, I unintentionally had a bunch of cheat days and binges. However, the most important thing is to stick to keto & to replace your bad habits of binge eating with healthy eating.

Keto is not just about weight loss, it is also about building your mental strength and creating good eating habits for life. 

Keto is not just about the weight loss, it’s also about gaining control over your temptations.

What Are the Signs That You Aren’t In Ketosis?

The two most common signs that you aren’t in ketosis are if you have a lot of water-weight after eating carbs, or if you feel unusually tired after eating carbs.

Bloat

Excess water-weight or bloat shows that you may have been kicked out of ketosis because carbs hold water. 

So, if you ate a lot of carbs and potentially got kicked at ketosis, you’d probably notice that you have a lot of water weight and flab on your body.

Being Fatigued

Being super tired also shows that you may have been kicked out of ketosis. 

This is because after eating keto for a while, your body stopped being able to use carbs for energy as effectively. 

So whenever you do eat carbs, you’ll likely notice that you’re really sluggish.

Conclusion

In conclusion, if you had over 50 grams of carbs in a day, you likely got kicked out of ketosis. But, if you eat under 50 grams of carbs per day & wait a couple of days, you’ll start losing weight again. If you had a carb binge, don’t worry about one, insignificant cheat day & instead focus on staying disciplined with healthy eating in the long-term.

If you’re not sure if you should have cheat days on keto, here’s my article where I discuss if you should have a cheat day on keto or not.