I was VLC / ketotic for 8 months before about a month ago. Decided to introduce veggies / carbs for tolerance sake. I miss VLC and ketosis / all meat so much! But sweet potatoes and vegetables are awesome. It is very hard, and I can't seem to find a common ground between the two. Make sure you have enough physical activity to pick up the extra carbs, that really helps I find.

I've cycled through many different carb levels.

For me, fruit is much more likely to cause digestive nonsense than other sources of sugar.

I would insist you follow your intuition on these matters.

Edit: And if you're training twice a day, VLC is probably never a good idea.

You've got some good suggestions here WRT upping the carbs, especially given your workout load.

Just wanted to chime in with something:

When you've been VLC for a while and are mostly fueling and running your body on fat, your glycogen stores are typically very low. When you sudden;y add carbs back into the mix (especially starchy ones, as opposed to LC veggies like peppers or asparagus or something), you replenish that glycogen. What most people don't realize is that our bodies store glycogen along with water. I never remember the exact ratio but it's something like for every gram of glycogen we store, we store 2.5g of water. So this is why people "gain weight all of a sudden" after being LC/VLC and having a big cheat or simply add back a fair amount of carbs. It's not fat, but simply water coming back with the glycogen. (And that can leave you with that bloated/puffy feeling.)

Things will even out eventually, and I do think you'll feel (and perform) better with some carbs in the pre- and post-workout period.

Hi! I know exactly what you mean. I have been VLC Paleo for about 8 weeks, but for the last week had to add back some sweet potato. I tried to get keto adapted, and I think I was in Ketosis, but for the amount I was working out, I couldn't keep to absolutely no carbs. It was affecting my skin, my sleep, my recovery, and my energy.

VLC Paleo is great for people who are doing low/moderate exercise, but you have to have carbs if you are a frequent exerciser, which based on working out twice a day you definitely qualify for. If not, you are putting your body under a different kind of stress, which can result in cortisol increase and actually hinder all your hard work.

I would say try with a sweet potato or something with glucose as opposed to fructose PWO for a week and see how it goes. What works for one, may not work for others, you have to tinker and find out what works best for you or which starches you respond best to that help your performance.

Best of luck!

Your digestive hormones tend to adjust to what is commonly eaten, and your gut bacteria do too. I'd add just small amounts of carbs at first. Maybe white rice. If you have then after a workout you tend to shunt them into glycogen replacement

I've done varying levels of carbs and I personally hated VLC. It did nothing for me but make me miserable the entire time. I now do 70-150g of carbs a day and am much happier. I lost the initial 3-5lbs of glycogen-water weight and gained it back when I added carbs in again, but after less thank a week my weight stabilized. I did notice my belly seemed bloated but that only lasted for about 3 days after adding in more carbs.

I am pretty active (waitress walking at least 4miles a day and workouts 6days a week) & I noticed nothing but major drops in my athletic performance, energy, mood, etc when I was doing VLC. I struggled to work-out, let alone complete my resistance work-outs. Had enough one day and I ate about 150g of carbs. Immediately felt awesome & the next day went for a 6mile run.

I'm happy that I tried VLC just for the fact that I now know my body does not like it. My carbs are mainly berries, broccoli, sweet potato or white potato, onions, lettuce, tomato, peppers, carrots, occasional apples or bananas. I feel I've been having more cravings for ice cream since going VLC, not really sure why that is but the cravings have been quite strong!?

Not sure about the carb intolerance but I've been reading from Robb Wolf and others that VLC long-term might not be the best so it makes me feel better about adding in more carbs. Of course, LC works great for some, to each their own! I would certainly think that with how active you are, adding some carbs back in would be a great idea-try it for a week or two?