Carbs or cals

crimson_noir

Full Member
Sorry if this is a silly question, but i didn't give much thought to how the VLCD would work just hoped that it would! I have been reading the threads on here and now I'm confused, is it the low amount of calories that work or the low carbs? So if you were to 'cheat' or when trying to work towards finishing the diet if you ate additional protein but therefore mor cals would that keep you in ketosis?
 
Not a silly question at all. It is all rather confusing at times.

I think it's both!

Ketosis keeps you burning your fat for fuel!

Lower calories helps you drop the weight quicker!

So depending on what you ate if you cheated, would depend on whether you stayed in Ketosis or not, the more carbs you have, even small amounts, the more chance you have of coming out of it.

VLCD are around 60g carbs a day, some people can have alot more a day and stay in Ketosis, others alot lower amounts before there kicked out.
 
GetSetGo is right. For a VLCD ketogenic diet it's most important to keep carbs within the limits to remain in ketosis, and this varies for everyone but 50 - 60g of carbs a day is a good guide.

The low amount of calories in a VLCD ensures that your body has a large deficit of calories that it needs for its normal function so it will use stored fat as fuel when you are in ketosis meaning that you lose weight. The more calories you consume, even if they are just protein, the less the deficit which means that you are not burning off the fat as much as you would if you stuck to plan.

As long as you consume less calories that your body needs to function you will lose weight, but increasing the calories will affect the rate as which you lose weight. On average it takes a deficit of 3000 calories to lose a pound of fat, so if you consumed an additional 300 calories a day more than the VLCD programme you would lose 0.1lbs less per day than if you had stuck to plan, and therefore 1lb every 10 days although people lose weight at different rates so these figures are only indicative.

For best results stick to the plan but if you feel the need to 'cheat' definitely stick to lean protein such as prawns, grilled chicken or plain white fish as these will keep you in ketosis.
 
Thank you guys that's really helpful. I'm not intending to cheat but have a birthday to attend where I can have meat and salad.
 
If you are intending to have salad then it would be a good idea not to eat the tomato.
 
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