Keto Is The Most Popular Diet. But, Does It Really Work?

In today’s world, it seems as if there’s a new diet that comes out every day.?

Currently, the diets that grab the most attention are the?low-carb/ketogenic diets, which promise rapid weight loss and fat burn.?

Are those ketogenic diets the ultimate solution for weight loss??

Or it’s only a short-term diet gimmick?

The shocking fact is that the keto diet was first?invented not for weight loss?or for improving people’s health, but for?epileptic children?who suffered from chronic seizures (link to research).?

Years later, this diet regimen became popular among worldwide dieters and acquired multiple “versions”, such as Atkins, Dukane, paleo, keto, etc. The current market around keto meal plans and products is estimated at?billions of dollars.?

The common “promises” of those diets are?rapid weight loss, better health, less hunger, and improving blood sugar levels.?

In this article, we will answer?3 critical questions?regarding the ketogenic diet, using multiple studies.

We’ll discover if it’s healthy, safe, and sustainable??

1) Is keto the fastest way to lose weight???

Well, just looking at the readings of the weight scale, makes the keto diet look like a drastic success.?One research?took 17 obese men and fed them with a normal balanced diet for 4 weeks, and then with a ketogenic diet for 4 weeks. (both diets were equal in calorie intake)

The subjects went from losing less than a pound a week on the regular diet to losing three and a half pounds within seven days after switching to the ketogenic diet.

But, what was happening?inside their bodies?tells a completely different story. The subject’s?fat loss rate slowed?by more than a half, and they mainly lost water and lean muscle mess.?

The explanation for this slowed fat loss is that without carbs, the preferred fuel of our bodies, we will burn more protein. Another?research?that supports this statement shows that the leg muscles of CrossFit trainees placed on a ketogenic diet may shrink as much as 8 percent.?

The biggest factor that makes those drastic changes on the scale, is?water loss. When we eat carbs, our body stores them as glycogen, and to do so it retains water. Without carbs, the body gets rid of those liquids, and on the scale, it can look like we lost a lot of weight. But it’s?mostly water, not fat.?

Obviously, the goal of a successful diet isn’t losing muscle and dropping water weight. The ultimate goal is?burning fat. As Michael Fumento, the author of The Fat of the Land book cited:

“Rapid water loss is the $33-billion diet gimmick.”?

This water-loss phenomenon might be the reason why those low-carb diets remain so?popular for decades, and many people are trying those diets again and again but quit every time.?

2) Is keto good for health??

Keto advocates claim that a low-carb lifestyle can?improve health, reduce the prevalence of chronic illnesses like diabetes and heart attacks, and improve energy levels.?

So what does science has to say about this??

A?meta-analysis?of four cohort studies following the diets, diseases, and deaths of more than a quarter-million people found that those who eat lower-carb diets?suffer a significantly higher?risk of all-cause mortality. The low-carb dieters lived shorter lives.

Perhaps the biggest risk of ketogenic diets is the high fat intake which can lead to cardiovascular diseases and clogged arteries.?A Harvard study?concluded that “Greater adherence to a Low carb diet high in animal sources of fat and protein was?associated with higher all-cause and cardiovascular mortality.?

Another shocking risk of low-carb diets is severe?nutrient deficiency, which can yield profound health risks.?

One?research?found that the Atkins diet (a popular low-carb diet in the early 2000s) was so low in nutrients, that dieters will have to eat an impossible number of?37,000 calories! In order to meet their daily micronutrient requirements.?

Another evidence of this micro-nutrient deficiency is- Children who followed a low-carb diet have?gotten scurvy, (link to research) and some have even died from deficiency of the mineral selenium, which can cause?sudden cardiac death?(link to research)

Besides those issues, the ketogenic lifestyle is?detrimental to gut and bone health.?Research?shows that the ketogenic diet can reduce the species richness and diversity of intestinal microbiota, which impairs general health significantly (because of the absence of fiber in this diet).?

Perhaps for epileptic kids, the cost-benefit of the ketogenic diet is good. But for the general population, it’s probably not a smart decision considering its profound health risks.?

3) Is keto sustainable and easy to follow??

Can people really live without eating carbs for their entire life??

Well, when it comes to diets, perhaps the most important success parameter?is diet compliance. This means, how many people eventually adhere to a given eating regimen for the long term.?

We’re not talking here about weeks and months- but about?years and decades.?

Let’s have a look at the results, first. A?meta-analysis?of 12 studies revealed that only after a few months, the adherence rate of the ketogenic diet was around 42%.?

It means that more than?half of the people?who started this eating regimen?quit after a couple of months!?

The obvious explanation for this low-adherence rate is probably the fact that it’s very?easy to “cheat”?on this diet. In order to actually be in ketosis mode, as those diets require, you have to be almost carb-free.?

Eating even a small portion of carbs, the body will switch off the ketosis mode. On every weight loss journey, people will have slip-offs, and it’s natural. But?getting back on the wagon?in this case is much more complex.

Also, living without common international foods like bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, corn, and fruits is probably unachievable for most people.?

Perhaps the only good thing about the ketogenic diet is that the ketones, naturally released substances that are a by-product of eating fewer carbs, are proven to reduce hunger (link to research).?

Considering that lower level of hunger, did it help people consume fewer calories and thus lose more weight? A?meta-analysis?didn’t find a significant difference between the results of a low-carb diet or a high-carb diet?over 12 months.?

From my personal experience, I can add that among around 500 individuals I chatted with about weight loss, in the last couple of years, I’ve only seen rare cases of people who maintained this low-carb eating regimen for the long term.?

??The bottom line:

The majority of evidence shows that keto diets aren’t effective, dangerous for health, and not sustainable. The obvious finding is:?don’t trust the hype and save yourself the frustration of doing a ketogenic diet.?

There’s a reason why humans have eaten carbs since the dawn of time, and demonizing carbs, from a scientific perspective, is absolute ignorance.?

Obviously, we can’t “roast” a diet without showing the alternative and the right way. Stay tuned, because we’ll cover that in future articles.?

??Next week, we'll talk about the role exercise plays in the efficacy of weight loss, which is very surprising. Stay tuned!

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