Is The Ketogenic Diet For You

Diet trends come and go and the current diet du jour is the Ketogenic Diet. Will it work for you? Is it something you could benefit from? Here are my thoughts.

First, any diet you pick will work to lose weight as long as it is implemented with 100% CONSISTENCY. To keep it off, it has to be a diet that you can live with for a lifetime. Many people wrongly assume that once they reach their goal weight, the diet is over and they can resume their normal life and eating. That’s why finding a diet that you can stay with forever is so important. It’s why I choose to track my macros, why some people eat Paleo, some are vegetarians, some Mediterranean, etc.

The Ketogenic diet is quite simply any diet that forces the body into a process called ketosis, whereby fats are burned instead of carbohydrates for use as energy. A proper ketogenic diet calls for the dieter to consume high amounts of fat, adequate amounts of protein, and very low amounts of carbohydrates. Generally this breaks down to about 70-60% fat, 30-20% protein, 10-5% carb. It can be very effective for weight loss and many people find it just makes them feel good overall.

Studies have shown that this diet is also very good for people with cancer and persons with epilepsy. There’s even some anecdotal evidence shows it is good for people battling Lyme disease.

Here is where you have to be very careful with this diet. The first few days will be miserable as your body is still trying to run off carbs and you aren’t giving it any. Once your body kicks into ketosis, you’ll start to feel great, about 2-3 days in if you are really keeping your carbs low (less than 25 grams per day). However, ketosis (where your body runs off fat and not carbs) is meant to be a temporary condition for your body when it suspects starvation is imminent. It does not like to stay in ketosis so the moment you eat anything carby (or even an excess of protein), your body will revert back to normal function and you will feel like poop again. That’s what makes a true ketogenic diet somewhat challenging. Cheat days are very counterproductive, especially in the beginning (2-3 months). After awhile, your carb tolerance will build up and you will not feel the carb hangover so badly.

Most sources recommend you buy testing strips to see if you are truly in ketosis or not. I would definitely suggest doing that.

Beware all the folks selling exogenous ketones and telling you that you can eat whatever you want. It doesn’t work that way. Ketone supplements do have their place, read more here about who should consider supplements.

Make sure you take a fiber supplement as you will not get enough without one. The recommended daily fiber intake is 25 grams for women and 35 for men.

And know the difference between a true ketogenic diet and something like Atkins. With ketogenic you have to really watch and track your percentages as excess protein AND carbs can affect whether you are in ketosis or not. With Atkins you can have unlimited fat and protein. Big, big differences between the two!

The biggest issue with this diet is sustainability. Studies that have been conducted to assess its effectiveness on weight loss or as nutritional therapy have seen huge dropout rates because it’s actually a really hard way to eat.

I personally do not recommend this diet because of the sustainability issue. Folks, that’s a lot of damn fat. A lot. Not there is anything wrong with it, but I personally don’t want to eat 60-70% of my daily calories from fat. If it sounds good to you, rock on! But do it correctly. Measure and weigh your foods. Track your percentages. Use ketosis strips. Don’t half ass it. And again, let me emphasize…

YOU CANNOT POP A KETONE SUPPLEMENT AND MAGICALLY BURN MORE FAT. 

Stay Strong Y'all!

What I'm currently nerding out about: This special exercise edition of Time Magazine!