Does The Keto Diet Work?
One of my favorite and most common questions #keto
What is the Keto Diet? In summary, it is a very low carb diet that forces the body to stop using glucose [which comes from carbs] and use fat stores for energy. The body turns the fat into 'ketones' - hence the name keto diet. It's high in protein and fats and low in carbohydrates. Typically only allows 30-50 grams of carbohydrates per day.
Who goes on the Keto diet? This diet was used for the treatment of epilepsy in children, and it was found to decrease the number of seizures. However, take note this is a very specific population and a very specific need. The average American diet is made up of 50% of carbohydrates.
It would be a drastic change to go from 50% to 5-10%, but many believe the keto diet is the answer to weight loss. There have been some successful studies where participants have had success losing weight. There just isn't enough long-term research to recommend it to patients for weight loss [long-term].
The number one question I ask clients when they bring up the Keto diet... Can you do this forever? What has shown to cause more problems long term than obesity itself is 'yo-yo dieting' . Yo-yo dieting is exactly as it sounds. UP and DOWN with fad diets, eating habits, weight loss, weight gain, and mental sanity. I am in this for the long game so I rarely recommend something like the Keto Diet that I know in our society [even with social distancing] it's very difficult to adhere to 50 grams of carbs a day. That's two slices of thick bread or a large potato.
So... Does it work? For weight loss? Yes, it does short-term. Can you do it for more than 6 months? Probably not. So it is not successful in the long-term. Plus if you don't include plenty of fruits and vegetables, which is the main problem in American diets anyway, you will have an absurd amount of protein and fat. Hopefully healthy fats, but with the unlimited options of processed foods it can be tempting to purchase the 'keto friendly' chips that are made from pig fat.
My general opinion: If it does not cause you physical harm and you are wanting to see if this is the right fit for you, let a nutrition expert guide you and give it a go! Nutrition is very individualized so depending on your current stress levels, gut health, and hormone balance it may or may not be the fit for you! We are more about fueling and balance and less about restriction and counting over here :)
Kelsey, Passionate Dietitian
Sources:
Atherosclerosis. 2020 Jan;292:119-126. doi: 10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2019.11.021. Epub 2019 Nov 28.
D'Andrea Meira I, Romão TT, Pires do Prado HJ, Krüger LT, Pires MEP, da Conceição PO. Ketogenic Diet and Epilepsy: What We Know So Far. Front Neurosci. 2019;13:5. Published 2019 Jan 29. doi:10.3389/fnins.2019.00005
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/ketogenic-diet-101
