What is the keto diet?
You may have heard of a new diet plan gaining popularity in many fitness circles. The keto diet is short for “ketogenic diet”. It’s a high-fat, low-carb eating plan that has the potential to turn your body into a fat-burning machine.
The keto diet changes the way your body converts food into energy. Normally, your body turns carbohydrates (think bread and pasta) into glucose for energy. Eating a lot of fat and very few carbs puts you in ketosis, a metabolic state where your body burns fat instead of carbs for fuel.
But does it work?
While research indicates that the diet can help shed body fat, long-term studies supporting its effectiveness are lacking.
Can it promote weight loss?
When following the traditional keto diet, your carb intake is limited to less than 5–10% of your total daily calorie intake (1Trusted Source).
This allows your body to enter ketosis, a state during which the body switches to using fat instead of carbs as its primary fuel source, and ketones are produced in the liver (1Trusted Source).
The reduced carb intake is usually made up for by increasing fat intake to around 70–90% of calories, or 155–200 grams for a 2,000-calorie diet (1Trusted Source, 2Trusted Source).
Protein intake is moderate, usually around 20% of calories, or 100 grams for a 2,000-calorie diet (1Trusted Source, 2Trusted Source).
There are several proposed weight loss mechanisms associated with the ketogenic diet, though long-term studies are lacking.
May reduce hunger
One of the main weight loss mechanisms related to the keto diet is likely its ability to reduce hunger (4Trusted Source, 5Trusted Source).
Following the ketogenic diet has been linked to decreased levels of ghrelin, one of your body’s main hunger hormones (6Trusted Source).
Reducing ghrelin levels and hunger can cause you to eat fewer calories throughout the day, which may result in weight loss (6Trusted Source).
In fact, one study in 20 people with obesity following the keto diet associated this way of eating with reduced food and alcohol cravings (7Trusted Source).
Thus, the keto diet may be an effective strategy to regulate your hunger levels, though its long-term safety must be taken into consideration.
Can promote loss of water weight
Another potential weight loss mechanism of the keto diet is the loss of water weight that accompanies the significant reduction in carb intake.
This is because carbs, in their stored form in your body, hold water (8Trusted Source, 9Trusted Source).
Thus, when you reduce your carb intake, such as during the initiation phase of the keto diet, stored carbs are released along with additional fluid, resulting in weight loss of varying amounts.
Calorie balance
To determine whether the keto diet can aid weight loss, it’s important to review how weight loss is traditionally achieved.
To lose weight, you must eat fewer calories than you burn, which is also referred to as a calorie deficit.
One study in 17 men with obesity or excess weight found that the keto diet was associated with a small increase in the number of calories burned. Although, this did not lead to increased body fat losses, compared with a traditional baseline diet (3Trusted Source).
These results suggest that the ketogenic diet is not necessarily superior to a traditional diet for weight loss when calorie intake is matched.
The keto diet’s weight loss effects are therefore much more likely to be a result of reduced calorie intake due to changes in satiety signals associated with high fat, very low carb diets.
The bottom line
The keto diet is a very low carb, high fat diet that has been shown to offer various health benefits, including weight loss.
While the exact weight loss mechanisms associated with this way of eating are still under investigation, it appears that weight loss is caused by a calorie deficit, reduction in hunger levels, and water weight loss.
Keto supplements may reduce hunger and help you get into ketosis more rapidly, though they should not be used to promote weight loss.
While the weight loss benefits of the keto diet may seem promising, it’s important to consider its potential side effects, downsides, and the lack of long-term research on it.
Want more info? Check out the weightloss.blog on Twitter @TheweightlossB.
Lets Talk Fitness 