Ketogenic Diets Explained
The keto diet is one of the most popular diets out there. If you have any aspect of fitness on your social media, odds are you’ve seen some influencer try to sell you on keto amidst your scrolling. If you’ve ever wondered what exactly keto is and if it really is all the hype, this article is for you.
Related: So Many Different Diets… Which is Best?
The goal of the keto diet
When you follow a ketogenic diet, the goal is to put your body into a state of ketosis. Ketosis is when your body stops utilizing glycogen (carbs) as its main source of energy and begins to use ketones instead. Ketones are energy producing compounds that your body can derive from fats. When someone has no access to food for a prolonged period of time, ketosis is a sign that true starvation is setting in.
In order to achieve this state of ketosis, you have to severely restrict your intake of carbohydrates and almost exclusively eat fats and protein. This generally means eating 5% or less of your total calories from carbohydrates.
Glycogen, the storage form of carbohydrates, is your body’s preferred source of energy- especially for physical activity. When you deprive yourself of carbs as you do in the ketogenic diet, your body has no choice but to go into ketosis.
Many people believe that being in this state of ketosis is superior for losing fat. However, is that actually the case? That is discussed further in just a bit, but the answer may surprise you.
The “keto flu”
If you have ever tried the ketogenic diet, you might have noticed that you feel like absolute garbage for the first 1-3 weeks. This is commonly known as the keto flu. When your body is changing its primary source of fuel, it has to undergo some pretty radical metabolic changes, and can cause some harsh adjustments. This tends to happen with any major diet change, but the transition to ketosis tends to be the most severe.
Is it actually better for weight loss?
Whenever a diet becomes popular in mainstream media, a large amount of research behind it tends to follow. The ketogenic diet has been no exception, especially with the claims it has of weight loss.
So, how does keto hold up? Well, when you compare a ketogenic diet to a day of eating with normal carbohydrate intake, there tends to be no difference if the overall protein and calorie intakes for the day are the same.
Now, since this is the case, I would argue that for most people a ketogenic diet is not a great idea. I say this because when you look across comparisons of many different diets, they tend to produce the same results if calories and protein are equated. Therefore, the diet plan that you’d be most successful with is the one that you can adhere to the most. Often times, the diet plan that you can adhere to the most is the one that is the least restrictive and incorporates the most foods that you enjoy.
Why do people think keto is better?
As with all diet fads, the people who perpetuate the ketogenic diet have their reasons for thinking it is superior. So, let’s talk about what those reasons are.
One thing that is true is that your body is burning more fat for energy when you’re on this diet. However, that is really because it has no choice but to burn more fat for energy if it does not have any carbohydrate intake. You see, just because your body is “burning” more fat does not mean you are actually losing fat. There is an important difference between burning dietary fat and burning body fat. When people say you burn more fat on keto, they end up being half right because you are burning more dietary fat but you aren’t necessarily burning more body fat.
What tends to happen when you compare any two diets is this: if the protein and calories are the same, then there is virtually no difference in the outcome in terms of body composition. This same idea holds true when you compare keto to really any other diet.
What about keto for performance?
Alright, so we’ve covered how a ketogenic diet will influence weight loss, but what about physical performance? Many people claim that a ketogenic diet will lead to an increased performance, particularly in their endurance. Is this true?
Well, keto tends to fall short in both high intensity exercise and longer duration exercise. For high intensity exercise, such as a 5-rep max squat or a sprint, our bodies have a much harder time producing the needed energy without carbohydrates. Also, one of the major signs of true physical fatigue is when our muscles run out of stored carbohydrates, which part of the reason why endurance tends to fall off a bit on keto.
The thought process behind why people might think a ketogenic diet is better for endurance isn’t too farfetched. Highly trained endurance athletes tend to utilize more fats than carbs for energy over the course of a race.
However, many things that make sense mechanistically in the body tend to not pan out when outcome research is done on the subject. The ketogenic diet for endurance is no exception to this trend.
Conclusion
The next time you are checking out at the grocery store and see a magazine that says something like “lose 50lbs in a week with this keto plan,” understand that they are full of crap.
Would I recommend that someone tries keto for weight loss? Probably not. You can absolutely lose weight on keto. However, it is very restrictive, requires a lot of conscious thought, and is really one of those diets where you are likely to put the weight back on when you stop the diet.
If you need more convincing on why you can (and probably should) incorporate carbs into your diet, read our review: Carbs: to be Feared or Loved?
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