How To Eat Carbs And Still Lose Fat On a Low Carb Diet

So you tried low carb, keto, maybe dabbled in some carnivore too & now you’re ready to add some carbs back in…⁣

Yikes, right?!

It’s normal to be a little scared & anxious after seeing results on a low carb approach to your nutrition, but feeling you need to switch things up.

I’ve felt that too! But after pushing through the fear & embracing more vibrational, functional eating, you’ll strengthen your trust muscle with each experience & season of experimentation! It’ll help you find your sustainable lifestyle approach to look & feel your best!

⁣Y’all know I’m an advocate for meat-based, protein-focused nutrition for my Crohn’s & health preferences if you’ve been here a while. If you’re new, WELCOME! Pumped to have you here in this safe space of love, wellness, & learning!⁣

I’ve lost 60lbs & put my bulimia & Crohn’s disease in med-free remission via a flexible carnivore diet approach & kept it off for over 4 years!

weight loss before and after katie kelly carnivore — Tap photo for a blog guide I documented just for you on how I lose the weight & gained health!

Y’all should also embrace that nutrition isn’t one size fits all! I fully support a no diet dogma approach & support trying new things to find YOUR WAY. ⁣

⁣So say low carb worked short term, maybe you lost a few lbs, maybe you tried it for a reset, a medical condition — whatever. ⁣⁣

For most, yes, you’ll lose weight initially, primarily because of water loss & more food awareness (quality & quantity). Most don’t stick with the low carb/keto/carnivore diet long-term unless they’re on it for a specific reason or it fits their lifestyle/preferences appropriately. That’s ok too!⁣

⁣⁣The most common reason people fail to stick to any diet regimen: “real life” & social situations ends up “getting in the way.” Adherence & consistency are the keys to any success plan. ⁣🤷‍♀️You ultimately make the decision to stick to your commitments to yourself or not.⁣

⁣⁣You can incorporate carb cycling just like you incorporate fat cycling, it’s the same concept just utilizing a different macro as a fuel source. I have a blogs on resetting your insulin & leptin resistance here and specifically how to carb & fat cycle here.

Regardless of why you stop, there are things to know to help ease your transition.

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⁣⁣MAIN POINTS

1.) Have a plan⁣

2.) Get familiar with portion sizes⁣

3.) The order you eat your food matters

4.) Focus on whole foods over processed⁣

5.) Go slow⁣

6.) Expect fluctuations⁣

Things I believe in no matter what diet:

⁣⁣NO diet dogma & eating for HEALTH
Cyclical, seasonal eating
Quality, Quantity, When, & What you eat matter
Variety & nutrient density
Eating for efficient digestion & absorption
Experimentation & fun = learning & results!
Optimal protein centric meals
Eating for strength, health, & functionality
Loving your life & being kind to others!
Self love living + an abundance mindset!

Take it slow, you got this! ⁣ No need to exclude or be dogmatic about any food choices or diet as long as they help you be your best!⁣

⁣Here are some more gut friendly, gluten free, low fiber, low fodmap options that worked for me.

Great options for pre or post workout carbs. I keep mine post workout in the form of plain rice cakes mainly if I feel I need a carb refuel after heavy training or high intensity cross training or cardio. These tend to be easy on the stomach with minimal bloating & gut issues for most.

Let’s dive in further!

Regardless of why, there are some things to know to help ease your transition. ⁣⁣

1.) Have a realistic plan

One of the biggest problems with dieting altogether — lack of clarity/planning. Most people end up falling back into bad habits. What’s your why? What’s sustainable & realistic for you? What’s your relationship with food, self-awareness, and your body image? Your story matters & your results hinge on all of these details.

2.) Assess portion sizes

⁣Quantity, quality, when & what you eat all matter. With any form of restriction, especially carbs, once you allow them, you’re more likely to go ham. Make sure you’re a moderator (not an abstainer) & comfortable & ready to add them back in. Measure & weigh your portions! Check nutrition labels for anything you’re sensitive to.

It’s all about balancing blood sugar. Food order & when you eat matter. Sugar & carbs spike your blood sugar more than any other macro (protein & fats are the other 2 macros).

Tips:

Don’t eat your carbs naked (by themselves): pair them with a protein like ground beef or grilled chicken or a fat of your choosing like bacon fat, butter, or a nut butter if you aren’t sensitive to those. It acts as a buffer & slows your blood sugar spike. If you can eat fiber & non starchy veggies, these will help buffer the spike as well, but not as efficiently as protein & fats.
- Examples: white rice & butter & ground beef, rice cake & peanut butter, grilled chicken and sweet potato, etc.
- When eating a meal, eat your protein & fat first, veggies if you eat them next, then your starchy carbs. You’re less likely to overeat as well because protein & fats are more satiating.
- I time my carbs if I’m going to eat them after my workouts. That’s when I refuel my body & it uses the carbs more efficiently vs storing them as body fat. Also reduces your cortisol levels & helps with recovery. Choose sources that serve you best mentally & physically. I personally avoid anything treat-like or sugary, including fruit to prevent binge eating tendencies & gut issues. High fiber, fruits & veggies, & sugar are huge gut irritants for me. You may be able to eat them and that’s ok! Do you!

trigger food gut lilbitoffit katie kelly indiana carnivore

3.) Quality Matters

Rather than going straight for processed options like chips, pasta, doughnuts, & cupcakes, go for whole-food, non-starchy vegetables first like your greens, then white rice, potatoes, gf oats, fruit, etc. Again, choose things that are not physical or mental triggers for you.

4.) Go Slow

Keep it easy on your GI system: choose gluten free, cook food thoroughly, & go low fodmap if you’re one that struggles with any G.I. distress. Start with adding carbs in at 1 meal/d for a few weeks & assess how you respond. If you’re good, add a serving into another meal. White rice is usually a safer, gut friendly option.

5.) Expect Fluctuations

You might have weight & blood sugar fluctuations — it depends on how your body metabolizes carbs, your diet, exercise, etc. Much of the weight changes are water weight initially. Pair carbs with protein & fat to help control those blood sugar spikes. With every gram of carb, you get 4g of water.⁣ Bloating & constipation could happen because of the re-introduction of fibrous foods, drink your water! You may have more energy or less. You might feel hungrier. Again, we’re all bio individually different. Have patience.

Supplements to Help With Carb + Nutrient Utilization & Body Goals

I was tired of struggling with post-meal blood sugar spikes when eating carbs and grappling with insulin sensitivity issues. NuEthix Formulations has a wonderful profuct, Slin-Trol™, the glucose disposal agent designed to assist your approach to managing blood sugar levels.

Slin-Trol™ enhances your body’s ability to efficiently utilize glucose, ensuring it is directed towards muscle cells rather than being stored as fat.

DIRECTIONS: As A Dietary Supplement, Take 1 Tablet With Carb Containing Meals To Improve The Nutrient Partitioning Of The Meal And To Possibly Minimize Fat Storage.

I take mine prior to my largest meals & walk 10-15 minutes after eating for better digestion.

Utilyze is a dietary supplement designed to support digestive wellness and nutrient absorption.

It contains a blend of digestive enzymes that target the breakdown of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates in the body, which can improve overall digestive function and help with nutrient absorption.

Utilyze comes in convenient travel packets and aims to support overall health and wellness through improved digestion. This supplement is gluten-free, non-GMO, and suitable for adults of all ages.

DIRECTIONS: As A Dietary Supplement Take 1 Packet With Larger Meals 2 To 3 Times A Day.

Cort-Eaze is a natural supplement designed to help with stress and anxiety relief. It contains a blend of herbs and nutrients that work together to promote a healthy stress response and support adrenal function. I use it for recovery & cortisol balance, which can affect your sleep, digestion & ability to build muscle & lose fat.

Some of the key ingredients in Cort-Eaze include ashwagandha, rhodiola, holy basil, and magnesium, all of which have been shown to help reduce cortisol levels and support overall mental and physical well-being.

DIRECTIONS: Take Two Capsules Daily. I take mine post workout & before bed. One post workout & one before bed.

Helpful Educational Resources

forever strong — Fabulous book on protein focused, anti-aging nutrition!

Fabulous book on protein focused, anti-aging nutrition!

EXCELLENT article on food sequencing and balancing blood sugar here

Take-Home Message

Watching glucose spikes is particularly important if you have diabetes or a handful of other medical conditions. Your treating doctor or dietitian will advise how to modify your meals or food intake to avoid glucose spikes. Food ordering & timing may be part of that advice.

For anyone wanting to live a healthier, leaner, stronger life, consider removing sugary beverages & foods, processed food, & focusing on protein/meat-based foods as the foundation of your meals. Add fiber, proteins or fats to carbohydrates to slow gastric emptying and flatten glucose spikes. Walk 10-15 after meals & shoot for 10k steps per day. Lift 3-4x per week and watch your body & well being change!

If you found this blog helpful, join me on Instagram for daily inspiration & subscribe to our newsletter community here! I would love to have you!

September 23, 2021

Amenorrhea with exercise and athletics. Mistakes I made and why we want metabolic flexibility.

I had no idea when I lost my normal period in my early 20’s something was wrong.

Admission: chronic exerciser & habitual dieter.

At 25 I was diagnosed with cervical cancer & had part of my cervix removed. Went through divorce number 1 at 27, had a high stress job & lifestyle.

Discovered Crossfit in my early 30’s, which was like chasing a bad shot of cheap tequila with another bad shot of cheap tequila. Exacerbated my tendency for extremes.

I was overly stressed, under fed, experiencing Crohn’s flares, over training — I completely lost my period. Basically I just ignored it. I didn’t care I was just trying to chase PR’s.

At some point in your life, you’ve probably declared that your period is a major pain in the tush. But while it may be a nuisance it’s a good insight into your overall health & one we use as a biofeedback marker to help you achieve your health & fitness goals.

A recent article by Outside Magazine explained how common these issues are with female athletes & avid exercisers:

“Researchers estimate that as many as 60 percent of exercising women may experience one component of the female athlete triad, which includes disordered eating, loss of a menstrual cycle, and loss of bone density.

When an athlete’s nutritional intake doesn’t meet the body’s needs, whether due to reduced dietary intake—intentional or not—or increased exercise, the body shuttles resources to systems that are essential to survival, suppresses energy-intensive processes like menstruation and growth, and alters hormone levels.”

Quick tips on what your period tells you:

Bright Red Blood

Means you are simply at the beginning of your cycle. The ‘fresher’ the blood the more red it’ll be.

Darker Brown Blood

Brownish blood is basically just older blood that’s been in your uterus for a lot longer than fresh blood. It’s had a chance to oxidize. Can also be prevalent if you have an IUD, especially the progesterone kind. This is because you’re shedding a smaller amount of the uterus lining every month, which means the blood stays in there longer.

Clotting

Totally normal, but if you have large clots on a regular basis, they could be indicative of a larger problem like hypothyroidism, uterine fibroids, symptomatic anemia, or heavy bleeding (menorrhagia).

Irregular or Absence (Amenorrhea)

Occasional irregular periods may be totally normal, but it could also be a red flag. For starters, stress is a huge culprit.

When you’re stressed, your body produces more cortisol. Elevated cortisol levels can block signals that lead to the release of an egg that then leads to your period.

Other Common symptoms related to overdoing it, warranting an overhaul:

Irritability, mood swings

Cold extremities, hair loss, gut issues, bad digestion, bloating

No sex drive, Irregular or no menstrual cycle

Increase in belly fat⁣⁣, unexplained weight gain, plateaus

Chronic fatigue & soreness⁣, terrible recovery, poor sleep

⁣

Common Stressors:

Chronically eating in a calorie deficit⁣, not enough fat in the diet

Candida, Bacterial Overgrowth, Food Intolerances⁣

Malabsorption, gut inflammation⁣

Over training, hormonal imbalances ⁣

Too much caffeine, lack of quality sleep

Overly fasting or using fasting to extremes

Low quality food, autoimmune disorders, nutritional deficiencies ⁣

A prevalent problem in the fitness scene as discussed above: UNDER EATING & OVER TRAINING resulting in amenorrhea

Experiencing this myself first hand, here is some advice to help you destress & rebalance — not only to help you get your period back, but to also move the needle forward towards achieving your fitness goals.

Tips to Help

EAT. Eat enough food to support body systems & your activity

The number one reason athletes & avid exercisers lose their cycle & go down a rabbit hole of metabolic adaptation & basically life sucking.

We’re preconditioned to think 1200 calories is the magic number to eat to lose weight. We spend endless time punching numbers in calculators that have no idea our medical history, lifestyle, stress level, or the fact we think sugar free jello & rice cakes dipped in Walden Farms Syrup are meals. Invest in a coach y’all, life isn’t a template or calculator. It was one of the best decisions I ever made.

We underestimate the calories and nutrient dense foods needed to support muscle growth to get the ‘tone’ that every woman talks about but refuses to eat & lift weights accordingly to gain. We also tend to over exercise & do too much HIIT & cardio on top of under fueling. Focus on strength training & reduce high intensity activity.

When we don’t eat enough, and/or our body fat is very low, we don’t have enough energy stores to efficiently support body functions like reproduction. As a result, hormones and body systems down regulate (like your period & thyroid function) to survive.

Many women can have trouble losing weight and may even gain weight when eating a chronic deficit over a period of time. This is typically due to the down regulation of thyroid hormones that slow down metabolic rate. This has become commonplace in women who are training hard, competing, repeatedly doing HIIT style workouts like CrossFit and the Orange Theories without adequate food and recovery.

Find the “Right” Diet for YOU

Look, I tried to do paleo for years trying to run and CrossFit despite not being able to properly break down fruits, vegetables, nut & seeds. Add it to my list of dumb shxt Katie learned the hard way.

Not only did my physique not change, my performance suffered, my recovery suffered, I was sore all the time, pissed off, bloated, and hangry.

I was officially finally diagnosed with Crohn’s in 2018. Guess what my body cannot digest and absorb? Nuts and seeds, fibers, raw fruits & vegetables.

Guess what makes up the majority of the Paleo diet? All of the above.

We need adequate food and the right kinds of foods for our unique needs for lean muscle gain, recovery, reproduction, healthy hormone balance, and cortisol control. More food is not automatically going to cause you to gain weight and go into the dreaded ‘fat storage mode.’

Carbs are by far the most insulin-stimulating macro & antagonist to your cortisol level (stress hormone). So if you’re eating a low carb diet and performing highly glycolytic activities like CrossFit, all the boot camps and Orange Theory‘s, your insulin levels will be low. If you have a good relationship with carbs & can digest them with ease, they’re not the devil. You may need to incorporate more into your diet if you feel things are “off.”

Your body senses that resources are limited and down regulates accordingly.

Now, with that said, carbohydrate requirements will vary. We all have different fitness goals, train in different modalities and metabolize carbohydrates to varying degrees.

If you are one with PCOS, for example, you may do better on a lower carb approach but lifestyle and training needs to be tailored appropriately. Work with a qualified practitioner.

If you don’t know how many calories to eat for your activity I wrote a phenomenal post and resource on that here. Below are helpful infographics to guide you to more optimal choices.

Meat based macro ratios more applicable for healing & muscle gain phases

Meat based macro ratios more applicable for maintenance phases

Remember, standing on the podium or holding that medal in your hands doesn’t require you to have abs. Athletes don’t eat less & train more, they eat more & train intentionally.

Make Sleep a Non-negotiable

We should be sleeping well for at least 7-9 hrs per night. Make sure your environment is:

Cool & dark

Shut off electronics an hour or so before bed

Read & wind down with things that are relaxing

Keep caffeine <200 mg per day ideally and only in the mornings

Don’t eat large meals too close to bedtime

Taking a natural supplement like Nuethix Formulations Relax Liposomal (Discount Code: lilbitoffit ) or Natural Vitality Calmful Sleep with Magnesium can also help

Two wonderful resources:

Dr. Jolene Brighten’s Beyond the Pill

Lara Briden’s The Period Repair Manual

This transitions into what it means to be metabolically flexible…

What we want is Metabolic Flexibility

I used to be a huge sugar burner. I didn’t understand why I had energy crashes, craved carbs & was hungry all the time despite eating plenty of food.⁣
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Even when I was eating in a surplus, training for performance & muscle gain. I was eating plenty of meat paired with more rice, rice Chex, & rice cakes – no matter how large my meals were I was always hungry like 2 hours later. ⁣
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It was super frustrating & not convenient at all as I work in healthcare & don’t have time to have meals every 2 hours.⁣
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I fluctuated from a sugar burner, to metabolically flexible, & everywhere somewhere in between during my health & fitness journey. ⁣
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Since going meat-based with my diet I no longer have these issues of being a “sugar burner.” I now can incorporate smaller portions of white rice based carb around training occasionally with minimal negative issues. I really don’t crave them anymore.⁣
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Becoming metabolically flexible, which just means you’re able to burn both glucose & fat as fuel, was the biggest life changer. It took a lot of experimentation & patience but there is light at the end of the tunnel for y’all!⁣
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I can easily fast overnight & in between meals for hours, without having to force it or feel like I want to rip someone’s head off because I’m hangry lol!⁣
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I don’t have to worry about multiple snacks available at all times because I have to eat every 2 hours. That’s food freedom for me.⁣
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Here are a couple cheat sheets simply to help educate & help you along your health journey! ⁣

PR’d this 5k fat fueled & fasted, metabolic flexibility is where it’s at y’all!

Stop ignoring the problem, seek help from a qualified doctor, health practitioner, & coach. ⁣
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Your quality of life hinges on it❤️ I’d love to hear yall’s experiences & if you struggled with this like me!

Experiencing any of the problems above in this blog?

If you’re an athlete or woman struggling like I did, and need personalized help tailoring your nutrition, work with me one on one HERE.

Don’t forget to share this with the women in your squad who deserve to be well-fed!