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Two Week Keto Reset – Restarting Keto After a Break

Author’s Note: I began my two-week keto reset around 10-12 days before my family decided it best to stay home as much as possible. The next week our state recommended citizens stay home and soon our state began lockdown. Here’s my quarantine weight loss story. (Spoiler alert: I have regained the weight I lost during my two-week keto reset, but I’m okay with that for reasons I’ll explain in my lockdown post.)

Okay, here I go again! As I write this I’m on day two of my second keto reset. (You can read about my first 14-day keto reset if you want.) I’m restarting keto after a break from a low carb high fat diet.

I recently wrote about my experience after a year on a low carb high fat diet. I talked about the planned break I took from the diet. That break happened during a stressful time and just before the holidays. I didn’t just fall from the wagon, I jumped off – and now I have the added pounds to show for it.

I knew I’d get back on track this year by doing a two week keto reset again. However, I didn’t want the pressure of restarting keto as a New Year’s resolution.

In addition, I had some financial pressures that prevented me from purchasing the low carb, keto-friendly foods I needed to do things the right way. Now that my purse strings are loosened I’m ready to get started on the next phase of my weight loss journey.

My Plan for Restarting Keto After a Break

As I said above I’m restarting keto with a two week keto reset. I don’t know yet if I’ll continue keto after the two week period, but I’d like to stay on a low carb diet until the holidays.

My weight loss goal for this year remains at twenty pounds just like last year. Of course, first I need to lose the eight pounds I gained over the holidays.

If I lose weight too quickly with keto, I’ll increase my carb intake after the two week keto reset.

These are the steps I took before restarting keto after a break.

Before Restarting Keto I Examined Why I Fell Off the Wagon

A combination of a planned break from low carb and unexpected stress caused me to abandon my low carb diet. I spent time thinking about what I could have done differently to avoid ditching low carb completely. During my reflection on the past year I decided that I ended my low carb diet too soon.

While I think my planned break from low carb eating around the holidays was wise, my plan to stop low carb around my birthday in September left too much time for me become sucked back into bad eating habits.

Because my goal was to lose only twenty pounds a year, I felt justified in eating more carbs after I surpassed my goal. While I still feel that losing weight too quickly will make maintenance unsustainable, I will simply increase my calories from fat once I reach my goal instead of eating more carbs. If I increase my calories but keep my carbs under 50 grams per day I decrease the risk of falling completely off a healthy diet.

I Forgave Myself for Falling Off the Wagon

While understanding why I fell into old eating habit is important, I don’t think beating myself up over it makes sense.

What’s done is done. I want to move forward. Dwelling on negative emotions like guilt, shame, or regret only makes me seek self-comfort. The laziest way to comfort myself is by eating sugary foods.

Why take the risk of pushing myself toward unhealthy food choices by beating myself up for making unhealthy food choices?

So, my mistakes are in the past. I know why I made them. Moving on.

I Got Clear On My Goals for the Year

Last year I started my low carb high fat diet with several goals in mind.

• I wanted to do two weeks of strict keto followed by a low carb, high fat diet.
• I wanted to lose twenty pounds over the year.
• I wanted to eat freely (including unhealthy fun foods) over the holidays.
• I wanted to make my weight loss sustainable by going slowly.

My goals for this year remain the same with some added notes.

• • I’ll do a two-week keto reset at 20g carbs or less per day.
  • I’ll increase my carbs to 50g per day afterward.
  • I’ll lose twenty pounds.
  • I’ll plan a clean, higher carb cheat day once per week IF my weight loss happens too quickly.
  • I’ll eat whatever the heck I want over the holidays.

I Planned My Keto Restart for a Less Stressful Time

You may have noticed that I didn’t jump back into keto on January 1st. The timing wasn’t right. I had some personal and financial priorities to settle first. I wouldn’t have been able to afford clean, low carb foods on my grocery budget in January or February. I wanted to wait until I could do things the way I felt was best for my situation.

Now, that doesn’t mean that we should always wait for the perfect time to tackle a new goal. There’s rarely a perfect time to start something important. In fact, I’ve got stressors right now that make it more difficult for me to stick to a healthy diet. However, I felt better about starting in March than January this year. I don’t regret waiting until I was mentally all in.

I Started My Keto Reset Around the First Day of My Menstrual Cycle

I’m a 41 year old woman. Give me a calendar and I can tell you exactly which days of the month I’ll struggle to eat healthy. Fortunately, I only struggle with a ravenous appetite during half of my cycle.

My appetite remains manageable during the first two weeks of my cycle. As long as I have a plan for what to eat each day I don’t get tempted to stray from it.

The last two weeks of my cycle – specifically days 21-27 – bring a bigger challenge to my healthy eating habits.

I wanted to do the two week keto reset during the first two weeks of my cycle to give myself the biggest advantage for a great start.

As I expected my appetite was naturally lower when I began my two week keto reset. The timing felt right and I was successful because of it.

I Bought All the Food I Needed for the Two Week Keto Reset

About a week before I started my keto reset I made a meal plan for two weeks. It’s so much easier to stick to a weight loss challenge or a healthy lifestyle when you plan for it.

When the food is in your home and prepped healthy choices require very little energy. When you have to spend time deciding what to eat each day decision fatigue sets in.

My experience tells me that having a meal plan, buying all the food for at least several days at once, and prepping what can be prepped ahead of time leads to success.

Winging my diet each day leads to overspending, overeating, and underachieving.

The day before I started my two week keto reset I shopped for my food. I woke up on day one with no thinking or planning to do. I just looked at my meal plan and ate what it told me to eat.

I Decided On My Intermittent Fasting Plan

Intermittent fasting has been a crucial part of my weight loss and wellness plan. In fact, I believe following an 18/6 intermittent fasting plan for a while last year helped me to lose more weight than I would have with low carb only.

I decided to use a 14/10 plan while on my keto reset, though. I chose a less strict intermittent fasting plan because I didn’t want to lose weight too quickly.

On a keto diet, I tend to lose weight faster than is sustainable. So, I don’t need intermittent fasting for weight loss while doing keto. However, I like the wellness benefits of intermittent fasting and wanted to continue with it.

I planned two meals per day to be eaten between the hours of 8AM and 6PM. Even so, most of my meals happened between 10AM and 4PM. I broke my fast most days with heavy cream in my coffee.

Two Week Keto Reset Weight Loss Results

I’ll be honest: I didn’t dig my fourteen days of keto as much this time around. I didn’t really enjoy it at all, actually. I’ve never been a die-hard keto girl – low carb, high fat is my thing.

I experienced a worse keto flu than I did last year. I felt irritable and my digestion seemed off for most of the two weeks.

I feel like I lost an appropriate amount of weight during this keto reset.

Here are the numbers:

Restarting Keto After a Break – Frequently Asked Questions

Here are a few questions I had about restarting keto after a break that I’m able to answer about my personal experience. Keep in mind that I’ve only eaten a strict keto diet for four weeks of my entire life. The last healthy diet I followed was simply low carb, high fat.

Remember, we’re all different and have different wellness needs and outcomes. Your experience may differ from mine.

Do You Still Get Keto Flu If You Restart Keto After a Break?

I definitely got keto flu when I restarted keto. Maybe it’s because the memory is more recent, but I feel like it was worse this time around.

Is It Easier to Adjust to Keto When You Restart Keto After a Break?

It wasn’t easier for me. I’d eaten a higher carb diet for almost six months when I restarted keto. I really was starting over.

However, when I was low carb last year and had planned cheat days it wasn’t difficult at all to get back on low carb. But, because I’d been on a higher carb, paleo-ish diet my body had to readjust to being in ketosis. It was as tough the second time around as the first.

How Long Did It Take To Get Back Into Ketosis After Restarting Keto?

I can’t say for certain. This time around I didn’t measure my ketones in any way. In fact, I don’t care about being in ketosis. I’ve only ever done keto as a reset to kick off a low carb, high fat lifestyle. I do want my body to be comfortable burning both glucose and ketones, but this time around I didn’t care to measure for ketones.

I can say that after three days I had fewer cravings. That’s normal for me on any diet plan, though. If I cut out sugar, by day four I stop thinking about it all the time.

I assume I was back in ketosis after about four days of strict keto. Other symptoms (such as sluggishness, frequent urination from glycogen store depletion, etc) got better within the first week.

Did I Keep the Weight Off After Only Two Weeks on Keto?

Unfortunately, while I successfully lost weight with both my first keto reset and this one, I haven’t kept the weight off.

You can read about why I stopped losing weight for four months if you want. Spoiler alert: There was a virus situation and some grocery shenanigans, so I took a break from low carb.

If you’re considering restarting keto after a break I hope the information I shared here will be useful to you.