My Take on the Keto Diet: is it worth it?

Keto diet. Paleo diet. Whole 30. The JLo Diet. The option is there – but is it worth taking?

Google the word “diet” and you’ll get over 2 billion results in .83 seconds. Google the words “fad diet” and you’ll get just under 20 million results to browse through. You’ll also get a definition: “a diet that is popular for a time…without being a standard dietary recommendation, and often promising unreasonably fast weight loss or nonsensical health improvements”.

I’m not a huge fan of fad diets. For me, they represent rules that tell you whether you have succeeded or failed (in what exactly, I’m not sure). They teach you nothing about what your body wants or needs. They are restrictive and impractical.

Quite frankly, been there, done that, over it.

But fad diets, like the Keto Diet, are trendy and they do offer some sound advice. If you’re interested in adopting a diet like the Keto Diet, it’s just as important to know the why and the how as it is to know the what.

What Exactly is the Keto Diet?

The Keto Diet is a very low-carb diet, in which you restrict carbohydrate consumption to 10-20 grams per day. Your primary sources of energy are proteins and fats.

Low-carb diets are not new. The Atkins Diet was all the rage in the 70s but low-carb diets date back even further than that, perhaps more than 2,500 years ago when they were used as a possible cure for epilepsy (I haven’t done the research but apparently there is still some solid proof of a connection between low-carb diets and positive effects on epilepsy).  

The goal in undertaking the Keto Diet is to put the body in a state of ketosis – a state in which the liver increases the conversion of fat (ideally body fat), into ketone bodies to be used as an alternative source of energy. Alternative to what? To carbs, your body’s favorite and (normally), primary source of energy.

How the Keto Diet Can Help You Lose Weight

There are a few ways that the Keto Diet can help you lose weight, but only one of them has anything to do with carbohydrates.

First, the Keto Diet, and really any diet that has had any success, asks you to pay closer attention to what you eat. If the only rule that the Keto Diet exploited was “pay attention”, it would have a positive effect on weight loss. How many times have you finished a bag of chips, or cleared your plate at dinner, and not really tuned back in to what you were eating until you reached for more and it was gone? Mindfulness, then, is a key component in making the Keto Diet work.

Second, the Keto Diet (and again, almost every other trendy diet out there), encourages you to stick to real food and to avoid processed junk. This might not be so obvious when reading through a list of Dos and Don’ts for the Keto Diet, but think about the aisles of processed, packaged snacks at the grocery store. Almost every single one (except those labeled specifically to be Keto-friendly), have added sugar and carbohydrates. Those are off limits and so you are forced to find (see previous paragraph) non-processed options.

Third, the Keto Diet promotes protein consumption. Protein is the building block of muscle. Muscle is the firewood to your internal, calorie and fat-burning furnace. The more muscle you have, the hotter your fire can burn. On top of that, protein is the hardest macronutrient for your body to digest which means that in a miniscule way, your body uses more energy to breakdown and use protein than it does with carbs.

The Keto Diet’s real differentiator comes in the form of its extreme restriction of carbohydrates in favor of protein and fats. Diets high in protein and fat have been shown to suppress appetite and keep you feeling satisfied after and between meals. When you aren’t as hungry you eat fewer calories and when you eat fewer calories, there’s a good chance you will experience weight loss.

Why the Keto Diet Might Not Be Right For You

The common denominator in any diet program that you commence upon is: You. Your goals, your preferences, your physiological make up, your mental makeup, your history…all of these facets play a role in what will, and what will not, work for you.

If you are trying to build lean muscle mass, the Keto Diet is not for you. It takes hard work at the gym to build lean muscle. You need glycogen (how your body stores carbohydrates in your body), to support that effort as well as support the muscle synthesis that you want to occur post-workout. Training on the Keto Diet is possible (though you might not have as much energy, at least at first), but don’t expect to build muscle quickly.

*A targeted, or cyclical Keto Diet, in which you strategically plan low-carb, moderate carb and high carb days around your workouts, can work effectively for someone trying to build muscle and lose fat at the same time, but it is an advanced diet technique and not necessarily beneficial for non-athletes (or even every athlete).

If hard-pressed, would you admit to getting “hangry” when you haven’t eaten in a while? People react to low-carb diets in different ways. Some people can handle it, some really just, shouldn’t. Carbohydrates give you an endorphin kick.

The Keto Diet is not a balanced diet. Whenever you throw the word “restrict” or “eliminate” in to the mix, “balance” plays a smaller role. The Keto Diet doesn’t differentiate between white bread carbs and apple , or banana, or sweet potato carbs…which means that someone on a Keto Diet might find it difficult to meet his or her vitamin, mineral and electrolyte needs.

The other important nutrient conspicuously missing from a low-carb diet: fiber. If you don’t supplement (and even if you do because there is little proof that shows fiber supplements work like the real thing), expect some digestive issues.

My Verdict on the Keto Diet

There are three, really important ideas to take away here:

1.        There is no one diet or program that trumps all others for all people.

2.        There is more than one diet/plan/nutrition program that could work for you.

3.        Not every diet program will work for you.

Is Keto right for you? That’s up to you, unless you want to work with a Nutrition Coach in which case, click here. I can’t recommend, or not recommend, a diet to you without first knowing you.

Here is what I do know works, for anyone, anywhere, regardless of whether we’ve worked together or not.

Eat less food and move more. When you do eat, eat more protein and vegetables, and less processed food. And if you truly want success, stay consistent.