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| Thinking about changing from Keto to Weight Watchers? Here's how to switch without gaining weight. |
Last Updated: January 15, 2021
Keto doesn't work for everyone.
It's an extremely limited, unbalanced, demanding way to live. Despite what the die-hard low carbers say, that is the unvarnished truth. That is reality. And as such, you might be wondering how to switch from Keto to Weight Watchers.
The low-carb lifestyle is a difficult way to live. I completely understand that. I have done low carb in one form or another, on-and-off, throughout my entire life. I used to fully support it for everyone, but that is no longer the case.
Why?
Because it uses the starvation pathway.
And because last year, I lost 40 pounds just eating less and being more active. The amount of carbs I ate didn't matter at all.
The weight you lose during the first two weeks of Keto is almost all water. Very little body fat is lost because the body first turns to oxidizing amino acids when glucose is scarce.
How much weight you'll regain switching from Keto to Weight Watchers depends on how much muscle you have and how much weight you lost during the very first week of Keto.
For me? It was 5 to 8 pounds.
So, let's get started:
One of the biggest blunders that low carbers make when returning to a regular diet is taking their high-fat habits back with them. After weeks or months of dining mindlessly on greasy burgers, bacon, well-marbled steaks, chicken wings, and full-fat salad dressing, it can be quite difficult to switch to a low-fat diet.
High fats and high carbs together are a recipe for disaster.
This high-fat high-carb recipe is why most people regain the weight they lost on Keto. Returning to your former eating style will always backfire on you. You'll now be eating more calories than you were on Keto, due to the extra fat.
Your prior eating style is why you weighed what you did, so switching to Weight Watchers is a better alternative than just going rouge. But it needs to be implemented slowly and carefully.
Begin by reducing your fat content now before you even think about Weight Watchers foods.
For one week, choose lean meats over fatty cuts and trim back the amount of butter, mayonnaise, sour cream, salad dressing, and cheese you've been eating.
The zero-points list will be the foundation of your new lifestyle, but the word "foundation" doesn't mean you'll be eating nothing but chicken breast and tuna.
I played that game when I did Kimkins a few years ago, and honestly, it wasn't a lot of fun. As long as the weight was coming off rapidly, I was able to tolerate eating chicken breast 2 or 3 times a day, but the goal right now isn't to lose weight quickly.
The goal is to move your mindset into a perspective where Weight Watchers isn't perceived to be a weight-loss diet. What you're doing instead is finding a variety of foods in reasonable quantities that will enable you to reach your ideal weight and easily maintain it.
So this week, add as many of the zero-point foods into your low-carb food plan as you comfortably can. For example, use more chicken breast than thighs, replace some of the red meat with fish, and maybe experiment with some greek-style yogurt.
Don't force this on yourself. Some of the foods will already be familiar to you, such as whole eggs and low-carb vegetables. Other foods will be quite new, such as beans.
Depending on your current carbohydrate intake, you'll want to add these foods more slowly than what Weight Watchers recommends. Someone who is currently eating at 20 net carbs will need to go slower than someone who is already eating 60.
Don't make the carby foods on the list a free-for-all. Pay attention to how fruit and other foods like yogurt and beans affect your weight.
Some people will be able to simply add the foods back without a lot of mental restriction, while others might have to return them one food at a time, so they can easily see the results. This is where the water regain will begin to occur, so you want to ease into this step. The last thing you want to do is cause your mind to go into shock.
Just know that the first 5 to 10 pounds, depending on your muscular build, is water.
Not body fat.
If you need more than a week to make this change, then take all of the time you need. I've labeled each step as "weeks," but you don't have to go that fast. If you're more sensitive to carbs than the average person, you can use these as 3 steps instead.
Continue eating only to appetite. Do not eat if you are not hungry. Limit the amount of carby foods to what your body can tolerate. If you suddenly find yourself hungry and craving junk after eating a bowl of chili, simply don't eat the beans.
Just because a food like beans is on the zero-point list, that doesn't mean you have to eat it. The list offers a guideline of what you "can" use to build your own personal foundation diet. But that foundation diet will be different for everyone. Choose foods that won't send your hunger into overdrive.
So far, you've cut back on fat and experimented with zero-point foods. If you've found a variety of zero-point foods that doesn't cause you to gain weight, it's now time to slowly move into the SmartPoints system.
On the new FreeStyle program, fat is limited to the number of SmartPoints you are given on a daily and weekly basis. And so is red meat. The easiest way to make the switch from Keto to SmartPoints is to plug in the amount of fat and red meat you're already eating, and see how many points are left over.
If you've already exhausted your SmartPoints for the day, which is highly likely, you'll have to make further adjustments to your menu.
As with the prior weeks, take as long as you need to make this change because it can be quite a juggle in the beginning.
Theoretically, points is supposed to help you control your calories, but that won't always be the case, especially for those coming from a low-carb background. Many Keto dieters are used to eating hefty portions, which is why I suggested that you limit your food intake from the very beginning of the switch to fit your real hunger.
This will make it easier to control your portion sizes.
The good thing is that zero-point foods don't come with portion restrictions, so you can adapt the plan to fit your hunger by eating more zero-carb foods. Just know that the higher your calorie intake is, the slower your weight loss will be. But you'll have to use a little common sense.
This is a new way to eat, instead of a diet, but the rate of weight loss will reflect your caloric deficit. There is no way to get around that.
Hang around the low-carb community for more than a couple of weeks and you're bound to run into the suggestion that calories-in versus calories-out is a flawed ideal.
No, it's not.
While the calories-out part of the equation can be affected by a wide variety of things, lowering body fat still comes down to this:
Energy used needs to be greater than the energy you take into your mouth.
Period.
If you can move from low carb to Weight Watchers and maintain the exact same energy deficit, you won't see much more than a hiccup when it comes to weight gain. Glycogen will refill and then your body fat will continue to come off at the same rate.
There is nothing magical about low-carb diets.
The reason why low carbers argue over calories is because insulin resistance, inflammation, and health issues do affect the rate at which body fat comes off. But not because calories-in versus calories-out is a lie.
Whether that's by restricting carbs or following Weight Watchers new FreeStyle program and upping your activity doesn't matter. The disruption in energy balance is what matters.
While switching from Keto to Weight Watchers might take a bit of work, some self-discovery, and lots of patience, as long as you continue to create an energy deficit, you'll be able to reach your weight-loss goals with the new Weight Watchers program.
And this also applies to those who are insulin resistant.
All you have to do is find the right Weight Watchers foods for you, which is rarely as restrictive as the low-carb community dictates.
It's an extremely limited, unbalanced, demanding way to live. Despite what the die-hard low carbers say, that is the unvarnished truth. That is reality. And as such, you might be wondering how to switch from Keto to Weight Watchers.
The low-carb lifestyle is a difficult way to live. I completely understand that. I have done low carb in one form or another, on-and-off, throughout my entire life. I used to fully support it for everyone, but that is no longer the case.
Why?
Because it uses the starvation pathway.
And because last year, I lost 40 pounds just eating less and being more active. The amount of carbs I ate didn't matter at all.
Unless you have insulin resistance or a medical condition like diabetes that is affected by the carbohydrates in your diet, restricting carbs to super low levels places a heavy stress on the body, mind, and heart, which has to be adapted to.
The idea that blood glucose rises beyond safe levels when everyone eats carbs is just a fairy tale.
It's not true.
Hubby's blood glucose level NEVER goes above 100 mg/dl, even after eating pure sugar.
What is true is that if you don't fall into one of the above health categories, yet consistently eat hardly any carbs, your stress hormones will be consistently high, due to the alternative metabolic pathway.
It's not true.
Hubby's blood glucose level NEVER goes above 100 mg/dl, even after eating pure sugar.
What is true is that if you don't fall into one of the above health categories, yet consistently eat hardly any carbs, your stress hormones will be consistently high, due to the alternative metabolic pathway.
This way of eating puts you into a never-ending fight-or-flight mode, which can have serious physical consequences.
Weight Watchers, on the other hand, is a more balanced way to eat. It isn't perfect yet. It still recommends a very low saturated fat intake, due to the inconsistencies of published scientific studies on fats, but it is moving toward the center of the two extremes currently available to dieters.
Instead of being a straight-up low-carb high-fat or high-carb low-fat diet, Weight Watchers is now a freestyle plan that puts the responsibility for what you eat directly into your own lap.
You determine the carb, fat, and sugar content of what you eat, keeping within the allowable points you're given. This makes it easier than ever to move from Keto to Weight Watchers without gaining weight.
Since Weight Watchers is also the diet most often recommended by physicians, in this post, I'm going to explain how to switch from Keto to Weight Watchers without destroying what you've accomplished so far.
When you go on a low-carb diet, the carbohydrate restriction forces the body to use its carbohydrate stores. These stores are called liver and muscle glycogen.
Weight Watchers, on the other hand, is a more balanced way to eat. It isn't perfect yet. It still recommends a very low saturated fat intake, due to the inconsistencies of published scientific studies on fats, but it is moving toward the center of the two extremes currently available to dieters.
Instead of being a straight-up low-carb high-fat or high-carb low-fat diet, Weight Watchers is now a freestyle plan that puts the responsibility for what you eat directly into your own lap.
You determine the carb, fat, and sugar content of what you eat, keeping within the allowable points you're given. This makes it easier than ever to move from Keto to Weight Watchers without gaining weight.
Since Weight Watchers is also the diet most often recommended by physicians, in this post, I'm going to explain how to switch from Keto to Weight Watchers without destroying what you've accomplished so far.
Why Your Weight Jumps Up When Eating Carbs
When you go on a low-carb diet, the carbohydrate restriction forces the body to use its carbohydrate stores. These stores are called liver and muscle glycogen.
When glycogen is stored, the body also stores 3 or 4 grams of water for every gram of glycogen because the liver needs that water to turn glycogen into glucose.
The weight you lose during the first two weeks of Keto is almost all water. Very little body fat is lost because the body first turns to oxidizing amino acids when glucose is scarce.
It doesn't automatically turn to body fat.
It only turns to fat when the carbohydrate restriction continues for more than a week.
When you go back to eating carbohydrate foods, the body will refill your dwindling glycogen stores, including the water it needs to process it into glucose. This is not body fat, so it's nothing to worry about, but it can feel really scary to see the scale immediately jump up about 3 to 10 pounds.
When you go back to eating carbohydrate foods, the body will refill your dwindling glycogen stores, including the water it needs to process it into glucose. This is not body fat, so it's nothing to worry about, but it can feel really scary to see the scale immediately jump up about 3 to 10 pounds.
How much weight you'll regain switching from Keto to Weight Watchers depends on how much muscle you have and how much weight you lost during the very first week of Keto.
For me? It was 5 to 8 pounds.
Once the glycogen and water is replaced, as long as you are eating at a calorie deficit, you will then begin to lose body fat again. But if you hold onto your high-fat habits or eat more calories on Weight Watchers than you were eating on Keto, your weight won't go in the right direction.
This is why you don't want to switch from Keto to Weight Watchers haphazardly.
This is why you don't want to switch from Keto to Weight Watchers haphazardly.
You want to stay in control of the situation.
Moving mindfully from Keto to Weight Watchers will enable you to continue moving toward your weight loss goals.
So, let's get started:
Week 1: Lower Your Dietary Fats
One of the biggest blunders that low carbers make when returning to a regular diet is taking their high-fat habits back with them. After weeks or months of dining mindlessly on greasy burgers, bacon, well-marbled steaks, chicken wings, and full-fat salad dressing, it can be quite difficult to switch to a low-fat diet.
High fats and high carbs together are a recipe for disaster.
This high-fat high-carb recipe is why most people regain the weight they lost on Keto. Returning to your former eating style will always backfire on you. You'll now be eating more calories than you were on Keto, due to the extra fat.
Plus, returning to what you ate before will always result in what you weighed before.
Your prior eating style is why you weighed what you did, so switching to Weight Watchers is a better alternative than just going rouge. But it needs to be implemented slowly and carefully.
Begin by reducing your fat content now before you even think about Weight Watchers foods.
For one week, choose lean meats over fatty cuts and trim back the amount of butter, mayonnaise, sour cream, salad dressing, and cheese you've been eating.
Low carbers are known to drench everything in sour cream and cheese, so ditch the high-fat recipes and eat simple low-carb meals this week.
Don't gorge. Eat when hungry, but don't eat if you're not. This isn't the week to look at calories. This is the week to begin changing your dietary fat habit into something more realistic and healthy.
If week one went well, and you're okay with eating less fat, check out the new Weight Watchers zero-point list. If week one was a struggle, don't move forward yet. Go another week on a reduced-fat intake to see if eating less fat is even an option for you.
It won't be an option for everyone. And that's okay. At least, you'll know what you can and can't tolerate.
Don't gorge. Eat when hungry, but don't eat if you're not. This isn't the week to look at calories. This is the week to begin changing your dietary fat habit into something more realistic and healthy.
Week 2: Check Out Weight Watchers Zero-Point List
If week one went well, and you're okay with eating less fat, check out the new Weight Watchers zero-point list. If week one was a struggle, don't move forward yet. Go another week on a reduced-fat intake to see if eating less fat is even an option for you.
It won't be an option for everyone. And that's okay. At least, you'll know what you can and can't tolerate.
The zero-points list will be the foundation of your new lifestyle, but the word "foundation" doesn't mean you'll be eating nothing but chicken breast and tuna.
I played that game when I did Kimkins a few years ago, and honestly, it wasn't a lot of fun. As long as the weight was coming off rapidly, I was able to tolerate eating chicken breast 2 or 3 times a day, but the goal right now isn't to lose weight quickly.
The goal is to move your mindset into a perspective where Weight Watchers isn't perceived to be a weight-loss diet. What you're doing instead is finding a variety of foods in reasonable quantities that will enable you to reach your ideal weight and easily maintain it.
So this week, add as many of the zero-point foods into your low-carb food plan as you comfortably can. For example, use more chicken breast than thighs, replace some of the red meat with fish, and maybe experiment with some greek-style yogurt.
 |
| Also begin to experiment with different herbs and spices. |
Don't force this on yourself. Some of the foods will already be familiar to you, such as whole eggs and low-carb vegetables. Other foods will be quite new, such as beans.
Depending on your current carbohydrate intake, you'll want to add these foods more slowly than what Weight Watchers recommends. Someone who is currently eating at 20 net carbs will need to go slower than someone who is already eating 60.
Don't make the carby foods on the list a free-for-all. Pay attention to how fruit and other foods like yogurt and beans affect your weight.
Some people will be able to simply add the foods back without a lot of mental restriction, while others might have to return them one food at a time, so they can easily see the results. This is where the water regain will begin to occur, so you want to ease into this step. The last thing you want to do is cause your mind to go into shock.
Just know that the first 5 to 10 pounds, depending on your muscular build, is water.
Not body fat.
If you need more than a week to make this change, then take all of the time you need. I've labeled each step as "weeks," but you don't have to go that fast. If you're more sensitive to carbs than the average person, you can use these as 3 steps instead.
Continue eating only to appetite. Do not eat if you are not hungry. Limit the amount of carby foods to what your body can tolerate. If you suddenly find yourself hungry and craving junk after eating a bowl of chili, simply don't eat the beans.
Just because a food like beans is on the zero-point list, that doesn't mean you have to eat it. The list offers a guideline of what you "can" use to build your own personal foundation diet. But that foundation diet will be different for everyone. Choose foods that won't send your hunger into overdrive.
Week 3: Slowly Add SmartPoints to Your Diet
So far, you've cut back on fat and experimented with zero-point foods. If you've found a variety of zero-point foods that doesn't cause you to gain weight, it's now time to slowly move into the SmartPoints system.
On the new FreeStyle program, fat is limited to the number of SmartPoints you are given on a daily and weekly basis. And so is red meat. The easiest way to make the switch from Keto to SmartPoints is to plug in the amount of fat and red meat you're already eating, and see how many points are left over.
If you've already exhausted your SmartPoints for the day, which is highly likely, you'll have to make further adjustments to your menu.
This is where the switch gets tricky.
What you don't want to do is pamper your dieting mindset that says you're either low carb or high carb. Weight Watchers is a moderate-carb diet.
So what you're actually doing is using SmartPoints foods to limit your red meat, carbs, and fats to a moderate level of intake.
Most people have no idea what moderation is, which is why so many get into trouble when trying to return carbs to the diet. If you use the zero-points foods as your foundation and use the SmartPoints foods as filler, you'll have a much easier time of making the adjustment from Keto to Weight Watchers.
So what you're actually doing is using SmartPoints foods to limit your red meat, carbs, and fats to a moderate level of intake.
Most people have no idea what moderation is, which is why so many get into trouble when trying to return carbs to the diet. If you use the zero-points foods as your foundation and use the SmartPoints foods as filler, you'll have a much easier time of making the adjustment from Keto to Weight Watchers.
As with the prior weeks, take as long as you need to make this change because it can be quite a juggle in the beginning.
What About Portion Sizes?
Theoretically, points is supposed to help you control your calories, but that won't always be the case, especially for those coming from a low-carb background. Many Keto dieters are used to eating hefty portions, which is why I suggested that you limit your food intake from the very beginning of the switch to fit your real hunger.
This will make it easier to control your portion sizes.
The good thing is that zero-point foods don't come with portion restrictions, so you can adapt the plan to fit your hunger by eating more zero-carb foods. Just know that the higher your calorie intake is, the slower your weight loss will be. But you'll have to use a little common sense.
This is a new way to eat, instead of a diet, but the rate of weight loss will reflect your caloric deficit. There is no way to get around that.
The Truth About Calories-In Versus Calories-Out
Hang around the low-carb community for more than a couple of weeks and you're bound to run into the suggestion that calories-in versus calories-out is a flawed ideal.
No, it's not.
While the calories-out part of the equation can be affected by a wide variety of things, lowering body fat still comes down to this:
Energy used needs to be greater than the energy you take into your mouth.
Period.
If you can move from low carb to Weight Watchers and maintain the exact same energy deficit, you won't see much more than a hiccup when it comes to weight gain. Glycogen will refill and then your body fat will continue to come off at the same rate.
There is nothing magical about low-carb diets.
The reason why low carbers argue over calories is because insulin resistance, inflammation, and health issues do affect the rate at which body fat comes off. But not because calories-in versus calories-out is a lie.
It's because health problems affect the energy-out side of the equation, and that's where individuality comes into play.
YOUR energy out must be greater than YOUR energy in, and the numbers won't be the same for everyone. The trick is to discover what you need to do to create a state where your energy used is greater than the energy you're taking in.
YOUR energy out must be greater than YOUR energy in, and the numbers won't be the same for everyone. The trick is to discover what you need to do to create a state where your energy used is greater than the energy you're taking in.
Whether that's by restricting carbs or following Weight Watchers new FreeStyle program and upping your activity doesn't matter. The disruption in energy balance is what matters.
While switching from Keto to Weight Watchers might take a bit of work, some self-discovery, and lots of patience, as long as you continue to create an energy deficit, you'll be able to reach your weight-loss goals with the new Weight Watchers program.
And this also applies to those who are insulin resistant.
All you have to do is find the right Weight Watchers foods for you, which is rarely as restrictive as the low-carb community dictates.
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