Deeper State Keto (DSK): Offboarding
Wrapping up Phase 3 and Beginning to Reverse-Diet
A bit over a month ago I published a post after wrapping up phase 2 and starting phase 3 of Deeper State Keto (DSK), the macro-tapering ketogenic cut protocol I’ve been following since mid-August.
Links to previous DSK posts
If this is the first post you’re reading about DSK, here are links to other posts I’ve written about my experience, in case you’d like to go back and read from the beginning:
- Post #1 — Intro to Deeper State Keto (DSK) program — August 2018: basics of a ketogenic way of eating, an intro to macros, and some potential health benefits of being in a state of ketosis.
- Post #2 — DSK Phase 1 update — September 2018 : determining your macros & finding your protein threshold.
- Post #3 — DSK Phase 2 update — December 2018: the longest phase where the majority of fat loss happens through slowly tapering your macros week to week (thus, includes strategies for staying the course / tracking progress, motivation, etc).
- Post #4 — DSK Phase 3 update — January 2019: the final push and using keto refeeds to jumpstart your metabolism and avoid plateaus.
Please feel free to check out those posts to get a better picture of the complete DSK program!
Wrapping up Phase 3
Phase 3 was the shortest of the program for me, which is good because it’s also when your calories dip the lowest in the program, making it the most difficult phase to sustain. Luckily the low calories of phase 3 are balanced with 1 keto “refeed” (basically a bump in calories) per week and these provide a lot of physical and psychological relief.
I stayed in phase 3 for just two weeks. At my lowest, my calories got down to ~1,320. Going much lower than that is a recipe for metabolic damage, so I decided to wrap it up and start reversing the cut through the offboarding phase of the program.
My energy remained pretty stable throughout Phase 3, and I continued to see the scale move in the right direction. I haven’t had an updated bodypod body composition test since December (I like to wait 3–4 months between tests to see broader trends), so I’m not sure about my fat vs. muscle mass but my progress pictures, attempts at measuring fat mass with calipers, and body measurements all suggest that I am continuing to maintain or even build muscle on DSK as I lose fat! More info on Phase 3 here.
Staying the course with Off-boarding
Similar to how I started DSK by on-boarding to increase my caloric runway, I am now increasing my calories little by little from the low point I hit at the end of phase 3 as I slowly off-board, or reverse-diet.
During off-boarding, every week or so, I will add 40–50 calories to my caloric intake while somewhat maintaining my macro ratios. I say somewhat because although I plan to stay mostly high-fat/low-carb, we have a trip to Japan coming up in April, and some of my favorite foods include white rice and various noodles (curry rice, ramen, etc) — and I absolutely want to mindfully enjoy them to the fullest while we are there!
To allow myself to do this comfortably, I am playing around with adding more carbohydrates from whole food sources little by little, and starting to use fat as more of a lever to hit satiety (fullness) than as a firm macro number to strictly hit.
I hope to slowly raise my intake to at least 1800–1900 calories/day before hitting maintenance. Maintenance is basically the total number of calories required on a daily basis to maintain your body weight without gaining or losing fat or muscle, and varies a lot from person to person based on fat and muscle mass, RMR (resting metabolic rate), and activity level.
Raising calories slowly over an extended period of time allows the body to acclimate to the increased calories week to week, and minimizes the body’s likelihood of adding excess fat as you eat more.
Once I hit maintenance calories and am maintaining my weight at a higher calorie intake, I’m excited to continue strength training, with more food to fuel my lifting workouts. I hope to keep progressing towards my fitness goals through a more gradual approach to continued body recomposition (simultaneously losing fat while gaining muscle), since strength training is synonymous with fat loss training.
Offboarding = An Unexpectedly Challenging Mindset
I’ve been surprised at how hard I’ve found off-boarding so far, though upon reflection, I’m not sure why I didn’t see this difficulty coming. I guess I thought that it would be a welcome relief to stop cutting and start adding calories back in, but, in reality it felt a bit like opening a can of worms. After all, my focus with cutting has been a clear, steady decline on the scale and in measurements, for months, and now it feels kind of wrong to reverse that process, even though I know it is time.
I suspect that this is the moment of most cut protocols where people might tend to either fall off the wagon completely, or get sucked into continued, unnecessary restriction, which can obviously be a slippery slope to disordered eating.
Suddenly, I have more freedom, and the promise of even more with each week. It is a little heady to think about all the food I could theoretically fit into my new and increased macros each week! But also a bit scary because I don’t want to add too much too soon and throw away all the hard work I’ve put into my progress over the past 6+ months.
Thankfully, I’ve realized pretty quickly that just like cutting 40 calories week over week wasn’t super noticeable, neither is adding 40 calories week over week. So a “let loose” kind of mindset doesn’t seem to be as much of a danger as I feared. I’m eating the same foods, and since the increase each week is minimal, I barely even notice I’m eating a little more of them (basically I just feel less hungry between meals).
I’m now trying to find a balance between eating a little bit more intuitively, allowing my macros to fluctuate a bit as I add back a bit more carbohydrate, and just staying the course by slowly and consistently following the general offboarding protocol as I reverse-diet.
It’s been very tempting at times to just say “screw it!” and buy a large popcorn at the movies now or bust out a halo top or equivalent treat after months of restriction. The only thing that’s kept me from doing that is knowing that 1) I’d most likely really feel sick because my body just isn’t ready for that yet and 2) It would take me a long time to recover mentally from breaking my promise to myself to see DSK through to its completion to the best of my ability.
Does that mean I’ve been perfect? Nope! 🤣 Here’s a post I wrote last month following a day where I blew past my macros completely. I’ve also had a hard time this week with readjusting to tracking after 3 days of travel to Utah, during which I made good intuitive whole food choices but didn’t track macros.
On Decluttering, Focusing, and Making Eating Healthfully a Sustainable, Life-Long Approach
I’m definitely human and make plenty of mistakes. So it’s a huge work in progress to create a healthy long-term mindset surrounding food. So far, for the most part, even when I have “off” days during off-boarding, I’m sticking with foods I know make me feel my best — so, for example, I may overdo it on cheese and end up over on my macros, but, at least it wasn’t a brownie full of sugar that would make me feel hungover the next day. 🤷♀️ Each day that goes by, I trust myself around food a little more, and that is a great feeling! 💗
Coincidentally, over the next month, I’m going to be doing a “digital declutter”, an idea promoted by Cal Newport, author of the new book Digital Minimalism, which explores how to use technology to support your goals and values, rather than letting technology use you. I’ll be eliminating so-called “optional technologies” from my life for the next 30 days (think social media, streaming Netflix, compulsively checking news websites and other various apps that suck up time). This presents an ideal opportunity to re-examine my use of MyFitnessPal, the app I use to track macros. I plan to take baby steps towards eating in a way that feels good and meets my goals: first, I’ll track fully as usual week 1; week 2, I’ll track all but dinner, week 3, I’ll track dinner but not the other food I eat and finally, week 4, I’ll attempt to listen to my internal hunger cues completely, not track at all, and keep sticking to foods that make me feel my best.
I’ll still take body measurementS, use calipers, assess my energy during workouts, and watch the scale to see if my attempts at self-regulation are successful, and recalibrate if necessary.
What I don’t want is to suddenly find myself traveling for a month in a foreign country with less than optimal keto foods, after months of tracking limited/controlled foods . I know I need to ease into eating without tracking and I hope this month of training wheels will be the perfect approach!
I’ll probably post a final time about DSK in about a month as I wrap up off-boarding (which conveniently will align with the end of my digital declutter…though no promises, as I’m not yet sure blogging with “make the cut” of technology I choose to add back into my life 🤔 ). I’d like to post some data that show my final numbers and progress from start to end of DSK !
❤ Disclaimer: Please note that while this update is specific to the program I am using — DSK — much more important than following a particular way of eating (keto, paleo, vegan, etc) or any program, is finding what works for you and makes you feel your best. Please ignore the dogmatic ketovangelists out there, and self-experiment in rational ways that make sense for your situation. Feel free to borrow, beg, and steal any of the info I’ve shared (well, unless its DSK, then pay for it, duh), and make it your own!
Thanks so much for reading! If you have questions about my experience on DSK over the next 30 days, you can shoot them to me via e-mail, which I’ll be checking once a day: beckyjoy (at) gmail (dot) com ❤
