Stick with keto or go back to carbs?

[killface]

Age: 30
Height: 5’8”
Weight: 185 lbs
BF: ~25%

A little about my situation: I got hurt last December and had to take a few months off from training. At the time I was at 15% BF, measured by hydrostatic testing. Unfortunately, I succumbed to the “f**k it, it’s the holidays” attitude and let my diet go (in retrospect, depression about my injury played a part in this as well). Anyway, I had reached my previous level of fitness by eating every 3-4 hours, low GI carbs, lean meats, healthy fats, proper PWO nutrition, and a change in my training program. I didn’t worry too much about counting calories or measuring anything, I basically just tried to not overeat.

I rehabbed successfully and have been back to training for about 5 months. In the last 2-3 months I’ve been on a ketogenic diet. In that time I’ve dropped about 20 lbs and although my fat loss has slowed down, I’m still making progress. I’m thinking about transitioning to a normal low calorie diet because I’m tired of looking and feeling flat and depleted and I’ve heard that I may be able to get better results given my BF level and general level of fitness. On the other hand, I like the ketogenic diet because, I’m never hungry, I feel pretty good energy-wise (outside of the gym), and I find it easier to stick to than when carbs are involved.

My diet right now consists of 3 whole food meals and 3 shakes a day.

Meal 1
6-8 oz lean protein
1 oz almonds or 1 tbsp of EVOO

Meal 2
1-1.5 scoops whey
2 tbsp natty pb

My other 4 meals are the same as these 2. I alternate whole food then shake, every few hours. I supplement fiber because I don’t particularly like veggies, although I do throw a salad in there from time to time. I also take a multi vitamin, fish oil, and glucosamine and chondroitin.

I’ve been weight training for 6 years and doing crossfit for 1 year. My goal is to get back down to 15% where I’m comfortable, if not 10-12. I’d like to hear some suggestions or thoughts about other possibilities.

Thanks for reading, and if I left anything out just lmk.

[makod]

The only way you will know whats right is to try it. If you do a diet with carbs your going to need to educate yourself a little bit - pleennttty of info on these boards.

[Klimax]

You could try a carb cycling to have a little more variety and have less shakes

[jamyjamjr]

have you been doing re-feed days??

[killface]

The only way you will know whats right is to try it. If you do a diet with carbs your going to need to educate yourself a little bit - pleennttty of info on these boards.

I'm not looking for information on different kinds of diets, just opinions or experiences with different kinds of diets vs the ketogenic diet. Perhaps from someone with similar stats or experience as myself.

You could try a carb cycling to have a little more variety and have less shakes

I did some research on carb cycling a few years ago when I was really starting to learn about proper diet. It didn't seem like a good fit at the time but I may look into it now. Thanks for bringing that up.

have you been doing re-feed days??

I've been doing a cheat meal, once a week. Sometimes that turns into a cheat DAY though. It has been more of a "cheat" day than a "refeed" meaning I don't pay particular attention to the macros for reasons of replenishing glycogen, metabolism, etc. It's more like, getting in what I've been craving all week.

Thanks for the responses.