Keto Explained

Looking to have keto explained?

Most importantly, are you looking to know my thoughts on it?¹

Fuck, how much time do you have on your hands?!

Oh wait, you’re reading this right now while also thumbing through Instagram or something, which is more than likely during the course of a workday. Given that you obviously don’t have a job, it’s not like you’re doing anything constructive with your time.²

Be that as it may, let’s proceed!

Background:

You know that ketogenic, or keto, diet that you’ve only recently heard about that helps people lose weight in the spare time it has when not curing cancer, fighting racism, feeding the multitude with five loaves and two fish, etc? Well, it’s been in use since 1924 to treat epilepsy after its design by Dr. Russell Wilder at the Mayo Clinic. Yeah, keto existed well before becoming the most trendy weight loss diet in the world thanks to the advent of social media!

Overview:

The therapeutic version of the keto diet that’s used to treat epilepsy consists of 80 percent fat, 15 percent protein, and 5 percent carbs. Straying from that slightly, the standard keto diet for weight loss has 75 percent of the calories coming from fat, 20 percent from protein, and 5 percent from carbs.

As for the rationale behind the limited intake of carbs and protein, the aim is to restrict them to a level that induces ketosis, which is when the body breaks down fat to produce ketones for its energy needs instead of burning glucose for fuel as it ordinarily does. That ketosis mumbo-jumbo sounds a lot like how the Atkins and Bulletproof diet operate, huh? Take a guess why. Yup, it’s because those are ketogenic diets that get their principles from the ketogenic diet! Now, while ketogenic diets like Atkins and Bulletproof are similar to the keto diet, they’re certainly not interchangeable, as they all have key differences that you can read about by purchasing the book that discusses those diets in length.

What To Eat:

What one can eat to satisfy the high fat, moderate protein, and low carb profile of the keto diet depends on the specific approach that one follows, as there are two distinct ways for the accommodation of differing needs. For example, the “clean” version of keto focuses on nuts, seeds, butter, oils, heavy cream, cheese, avocados, meat, fish, eggs, and above-ground vegetables with less than 5g net carbs per 100g serving, like kale, spinach, zucchini, lettuce, cucumbers, asparagus, and cabbage. On top of that, those whole foods are organic, grass fed, pasture raised, free range, wild caught, cold pressed, and any other adjective that gets the point across that the food product is from a quality source.

For those less concerned with convenience and more with health, the “dirty” version of keto allows one to get their macronutrients from any kind of food, such as processed cheese and vegetable oils, margarine, mayonnaise, bacon, jerky, chocolate, potato chips, pork rinds, bunless burgers, and other highly processed and packaged foods. All that matters under this approach is meeting your macronutrient targets.

What Not To Eat:

The foods to avoid on keto are mostly those that are rich in carbs, some of which include all fruit, with the exception of berries; rice, pasta, bread, cereal, and other grains; beans and legumes, such as lentils, peas, and chickpeas; and below-ground vegetables, like potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, rutabaga, beetroot, and celeriac. Salad dressing, ketchup, teriyaki sauce, and many other condiments are also barred for their high sugar content, as is soda, fruit juice, and candy, as well as sugar-free alternatives. Lastly, alcohol of any kind isn’t recommended.

Results:

The main selling point of keto is that you don’t have to cut calories. All you have to do is watch your macronutrient intake to make sure you’re taking in fewer carbs and you’ll lose weight. As far as the losing weight part goes, stories abound of people doing just that by the shitloads, with studies aplenty to substantiate the advantages of a keto diet for weight loss. The losing of a shitload of weight apparently makes keto magical, pointing to the evilness of carbs, right? Nope, not exactly!

As is always the case, keto is like any other diet, being that it’ll work as long as you’re in a caloric deficit. Taking in less calories than your body burns is the scientific underpinning of ALL weight loss. As such, it’s the consumption of fewer calories, not the limiting of carbs, that’s responsible for keto’s efficacy as a weight loss approach, as the excessively high intake of fat has a filling effect that causes people to reduce their overall calorie intake without them even knowing.³ But wait, if it’s about fewer calories and not carbs, then why do people see success from keto when other diets failed them in the past?

That comes down to adherence. Someone who, for example, quits the cabbage soup diet then strikes gold with keto most likely didn’t comply with their previous diet long enough to see results because eating cabbage soup EVERY…FUCKING…DAY wasn’t enjoyable, whereas the ability to eat fatty foods on keto was more tolerable to them, thus helping with their adherence to it. It’s as simple as that!

Anyway, people do see success on keto.⁴ And as it was noted earlier, many studies suggest that it’s great for weight loss, but that’s as long as you follow it. Coming as no surprise to anyone with a basic understanding of nutrition and physiology, it’s normal for people to gain weight back when they stop keto and reintroduce carbs into their life for any number of reasons. One is because the diet is hard to follow, as daily eating turns into a math equation to ensure that your macro consumption doesn’t take you out of oh so precious ketosis.⁵ The other reason for stopping keto has to do with carbs providing energy and eating little to no carbs isn’t sustainable for most people. Regardless of the reason for stopping keto, that decision carries with it an increase in carb intake that’s far greater than what was consumed on the diet. As such, some weight is gained back when carbs are reintroduced because carbs help with storing glycogen in the muscle cells. That plus the associated water retention adds up to weight gain.

Weight gain is in the short-term once carbs are added back on the menu. But how about the months and years after reaching your goal weight and coming off keto? How does weight loss success stack against other diets? How well do keto practitioners keep the weight off? When it comes to long-term results from using keto over other diets, there’s no research regarding that specifically. It just hasn’t been conducted yet.

Safety:

How safe is keto is a relative question. If you’re someone with preexisting conditions affecting your pancreas, liver, thyroid, or gallbladder, then following a keto diet wouldn’t be wise without first consulting a medical provider. The same applies to those with elevated cholesterol levels, as well as cardiovascular issues like atherosclerosis, atrial fibrillation, and heart failure. Type 1 diabetics, individuals with a history of eating disorders, and pregnant or nursing women are also advised not to begin keto before seeking the advice of a physician, dietician, or other qualified professional. And because of the heightened risk of their medication causing an increase in blood acidity, the diet is ruled out for type 2 diabetics who have to use an SGLT2 inhibitor.

When it comes to someone who isn’t representative of any of the conditions above, it should be kept in mind that the restrictions associated with keto can cause nutrient deficiencies and kidney stones, as well as increase the risk of heart disease. Other potential side effects include dehydration, muscle cramps, and insomnia, diarrhea, prurigo pigmentosa (a/k/a “keto rash”), and keto flu, the name for a collection of maladies suffered during the initial days of the transition to a keto diet as your body experiences carb withdrawal.⁶

Other:

When have you ever heard someone say they wanted to go on the keto diet for some other reason than to lose weight? Yeah, NEVER!!! Although originally created as a treatment for epilepsy, the current iteration of the keto diet isn’t a diet that people follow for health purposes but it has been found to have benefits for diabetics and those with existing heart conditions, two groups of people the diet isn’t generally recommended for.⁷

Glossary: caloric deficit, calories, diet, dietary fat, glucose, hormones, nutrition

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Monster Longe

Monster Longe is a personal trainer in San Diego. He has been lifting weights for +25 years and training clients in the gym and online for about half of that time. When not working with clients or making content that's easy to read, understand, and apply to everyday life, he enjoys long walks and leaving buildings crushed and entire city blocks decimated in his wake.