By Lisa Freeman
It’s okay to have a cheat meal that takes you out of ketosis, but—quickly—what is ketosis? Ketosis is a metabolic process that happens when your body doesn’t have carbohydrates to burn for energy. Instead, it uses fat to manufacture ketones, which it then uses for fuel. For healthy people who don’t have diabetes and aren’t pregnant, ketosis usually kicks in after three to four days of eating fewer than 50 grams of carbs per day. You can start ketosis by fasting too.
A diet high in fat and protein, but very low in carbs, is called a ketogenic or “keto” diet. In addition to helping you burn fat, this popular low-carb weight loss program can reduce hunger, all while maintaining muscle mass. Ketogenic diets might also help lower your risk of heart disease. Other studies show that specific diets very low in carbohydrates help people who have diseases such as:
- Metabolic syndrome
- Insulin resistance
- Type two diabetes
- Acne
- Cancer
- Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)
- Nervous system disease like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Lou Gehrig’s
Now back to cheating! If you are disciplined with keto but want to cut loose once in a while, congratulations! You are human! But how do you get back into a fat burning state immediately after?
Because you have not had carbs in a while, your cells don’t know how to process the influx. Hence, they do not get fully absorbed, resulting in excess glucose in your bloodstream. Medically, this is called a glucose intolerant state. So first we need to get rid of this excess glucose. To do this, it’s essential to shock the body with muscle-building moves that initiate metabolic change. And the best workout method to achieve this is called high-intensity interval training or HIIT.
I recommend starting off with heavy strength training for 20-30 minutes. Then proceed with low intensity cardio for 20-60 minutes. This sequence will increase blood flow to the liver (where ketones are created) to then mobilize fat as a fuel source.
Another important aspect of a cheat meal is your gut health. After a carb fast, a reintroduction of carbs will increase proinflammatory mediators, and you suddenly will have an increase in toll-like receptor (TLR) activity. This turns on increased factor 1-Alpha (eEF1a1) and plays a big role in the inflammatory response in the body. In short, you can potentially have significant spikes in gut inflammation. This makes it harder to digest food, causes distress in the intestinal tract, and may introduce a slew of other uncomfortable symptoms.
But when you have a cheat meal, it’s usually more than just carbs; it’s often fats and sugars added to the mix.
Health & Disease magazine published a study (2021) that found saturated fats increase Lipo-Poly amounts. This is another inflammation marker. What they also found was that omega-3 suppresses Lipo-Poly if taken right after a meal. Fantastic news!
“Lisa, are you saying I can chow down on a cheat meal, while potentially suppressing the increase in Lipo-Poly with a few omega-3 pills?”
Yes!
Another gut protection weapon is bone broth. A hydrophilic colloid, bone broth contains gelatin and helps draw water into the gut. Doing this helps prevent the mucosal layer from breaking down, which would otherwise trigger an inflammatory response. In addition to a cheat meal tool kit component, I highly recommend introducing bone broth as a regular staple of your diet. And it’s worth investing in a grass fed, grass finish, farm-to-frozen option like Cañada de la Virgen because we cannot determine how much nutritional density is lost when a product is made shelf stable, which largely defeats the purpose.
A third supplement I recommend is chromium, which helps with carbohydrate metabolism. There is new research suggesting that you can stop localized insulin resistance. An example would be a leg workout, where you subsequently don’t use them for several days afterward. You have lost insulin sensitivity in your legs in that period of time. If you are not using a muscle frequently, you’re going to lose the ability for that muscle to suck up glucose. Having glucose floating around is not a good thing, so you want your whole body to suck up excess glucose.
This study demonstrated that literally flexing your muscles will bring the GLUT4 transmitter to the membrane of the cell. This is an independent action outside of the insulin. The fact that you can virtually absorb glucose without an insulin response literally by doing this tensing up or flexing is HUGE!!
All you need is five seconds, and that will bring GLUT4 transmitters to the membrane and suck up glucose. So, after you cheat, you do a period of flexing your whole body for three to five seconds, which will suck up the glucose. This will happen because it’s independent of the insulin. Basically, after a cheat meal, the goal is to suck up glucose as fast as you can so your body can get back to the “deprived state” needed for it to produce ketones.
OK, here is the protocol. Cheat meal example: pizza
1. Take 1000mg chromium right after your cheat meal. If you do not take chromium often, you could increase the dose from 3000 to 5000mg.
2. 30 minutes later, take 3,000 milligrams of high-quality fish oil, which is usually three capsules.
3. 15 minutes after that, start doing isometric contractions every 15 minutes between two to six hours, depending upon the time you had your cheat meal. Remember it’s just three to five seconds every 15 minutes. I want you to stop for 10 seconds and just flex all your muscles; rotate throughout your forearms, biceps, triceps, shoulders, chest. This will suck up glucose.
4. During that two-to-six-hour hour window of flexing, you’re going to drink bone broth. I am not a fan of fasting right after a cheat meal as it can trigger a binge + purge mentality, but bone broth fasting is appropriate because it can help with gut restoration and reset.
5. Next day, do full strength training and or HIIT training, and later that day, 60 percent of your max heart rate cardio for 20-60 mins. Examples would be a brisk walk, slow jog, or a stationary bike.
6. Four hours after that, no post workout meal. I want you to hold out so your body has a chance to suck up the glucose and start producing ketones. Then clean the keto diet. You should be back to producing ketones in less than 24 hours. Now that you have a protocol, you may feel a bit more balanced with your diet and confident that you can get back into keto sooner rather than later.
If you have any questions or wish to talk with me in person about keto, nutrition, or a custom exercise program, come visit me at La Clinica, call La Clínica at 415 152 2255 or visit LisaFreeman.MX to schedule a free consultation.
Be kind to yourself.
