The ketogenic diet became popular in the 1920’s and it was originally used to treat epilepsy in children. It turns out it was quite effective at reducing the incidence of seizures and so it gained a bunch of popularity as a treatment tool.
Nowadays it’s gained a whole bunch more traction as a weight loss diet but fun fact, that’s not originally how it came to be.
The keto diet is essentially a very low carb diet, typically landing in the range of something like 30-50g of total carbohydrates per day depending on how active you are. Just to give you an idea, 30g of carbs is about 2/3rds of a cup of rice or a large banana or a truck load of leafy green veggies. The difference in calories is typically made up by protein and/or dietary fat, so you could call it a very low carb diet, but you could also call it a moderate protein, higher fat diet…same diff!
The ketogenic diet results in something called ketosis.
Ketosis is essentially a backup fuel system for the body, so the body’s primary fuel or preferred fuel source is glucose and the backup fuel source is ketones. So when we have adequate carbohydrates in the diet, the body runs off of primarily glucose and when we don’t have adequate amounts of carbohydrates in the diet our backup fuel source kicks in and it happens to be ketones…when we’re producing a bunch of ketones, this ‘body state’ is called ketosis.
Hopefully you’re still with me…
Now why would we have a backup fuel source? It turns out, humans don’t want to die and so there is a built in contingency plan to avoid starvation and ketones happen to be that fallback plan.
The absolute fastest way to get into ketosis or to get your body to use this alternative fuel source is by fasting, meaning not eating anything. You can take supplements like ketone esters or ketone salts to goose this process and make it ‘quicker’ as much as I don’t like that word in this context…however, when it comes to getting into ketosis ‘naturally’ the fastest way to do so is by not consuming any calories at all aka fasting.
Being that we’ve got this backup system in place that makes us more resistant to starvation, it only makes sense that the fastest way to achieve that state is via not eating calories.
Another way to get into ketosis is of course via eating a ketogenic diet.
How does the keto diet work for fat loss?
It works just like every single other diet out there, a calorie deficit, you consume fewer calories than you burn and you lose fat.
Meaning…even on a ketogenic diet if you were to eat more calories than you burned, you could still gain fat using this dietary approach, so there’s nothing special about ketosis or the keto diet itself for fat loss…it works just like every other diet out there from a weight loss standpoint.
Having said that, from a behavioural and food choice standpoint if you drastically reduce your food choices, it often makes it easier to lose fat.
For example, if I say I’m no longer going to eat any carbs, that reduces my food choices by a SHIT LOAD…essentially all fast food is off the table and most all treat foods are a no go, so basically your options are proteins, fats and a limited amount of vegetables…you’re only going to want to eat so many chicken salads with olive oil or hunks of salmon with avocado.
Now as a little thought experiment, what if you decided to instead of go on a ketogenic diet or a very low carb diet, you choose to do a very low fat diet…
You’d need to eliminate essentially all fast food, most all treat foods and you’d be limited to protein, starchy carbs like rice, potatoes, bread and vegetables, but you couldn’t use much of any sauces, butters, oils etc.
So what this shows is that when you cut out an entire food group whether it be carbs or fats, you cut out all junk food by default and also limit your food options big time!
I point this out for a few reasons…
1. Carbs are not evil and neither is fat, it’s consuming large quantities of both that get us in trouble.
2. Eliminating an entire food group whether it be carbs or fats limits your food choices and when you limit food choices, you inherently reduce calories in most cases because less options equates to fewer calories consumed practically speaking.
Think about going to a buffet, if you could only eat protein and fat your choices are going to be very limited because you can’t eat any foods containing carbs.
On the other hand if you could only eat protein and carbs your choices are going to be very limited because you can’t eat any foods containing fat.
But…if you’re eating proteins, carbs and fats you can eat any food you want!
Which of these 3 scenarios is going to result in the most calories consumed? Without a doubt it’s going to be the person eating proteins, carbs and fats because they have way more choices. When you have limited choices you naturally eat less because you simply get tired of eating the same foods.
As a side note if you were to eat a low protein, high carb, high fat diet…this is quite literally the fastest way to get fat for a few reasons…
1. Protein is highly satiating and so if you go out of your way to eat a low protein diet, you’re going to be hungrier.
2. Think about all the food options that are low in protein and high in carbs and fat…they’re all the most calorie dense, low quality foods. Ice cream, doughnuts, cookies, cakes, muffins etc.
In the case of only eating protein and fats…there’s only so much meat, vegetables, butter, oil and sauces you’re going to be able to stomach.
In the case of eating protein and carbs…there’s only so much meat, rice and pasta you can eat without needing to add a sauce, or some fat for texture before you call it quits.
So to wrap up this point, limiting food options is a REALLY powerful tool for losing weight no matter what type of eating approach you choose to follow.
One highly motivating aspect for individuals doing the keto diet right out of the gate is that folks often see large initial weight drops in the first 7-10 days for two reasons.
1. If they’re in a calorie deficit they’ll lose some fat.
2. They’re going to drop a fair bit of body water because when you eliminate carbs from the diet you lose the body water that comes along with them.
For every gram of carbohydrate you eat, you ‘store’ or ‘hold’ about 3g of water with it, so for every gram of carbs you cut from your diet you’re going to lose 3g of water.
Folks following diets that contain carbs will lose fat in the first 7-10 days in a calorie deficit as well and they’ll also drop some water because carb intake will likely come down, just not as much as in the ketogenic approach typically.
The only kicker is, if you decide to include carbs back in your diet at some point, you’re going to gain a proportionate amount of water weight back because it’s not fat, it’s just the water that carbohydrates pull into the body when consumed.
Regardless, these big initial weight drops often motivate people to keep going with the diet because they see this big drop on the scale and think, ‘hey, it’s working’…so this is something keto has going for it as far as folks following through with the protocol.
Also, some folks really enjoy the food options on a keto diet and find it quite simple eating essentially just protein, vegetables and fat. It’s also one less food group to prepare so you don’t need to prep things like potatoes, rice, oats etc. so from a cooking standpoint it simplifies things as well.
Additionally to enjoying the food options, some people find the keto diet extremely satiating and they never really feel all that hungry. Now no matter what diet you follow, hunger should only really be an issue when you get very lean and if you’re feeling hungry on a consistent basis and you still have quite a bit of fat to lose, your diet isn’t structured properly plain and simple.
This is one of the primary reasons why I recommend eating single and minimal ingredient whole foods whether you’re doing a keto approach, low carb, high carb or whatever…single and minimal ingredient whole foods are the way to go for long term fat loss success because they’re much more filling and more nutrient dense.
One important distinction that I want to clear up around the keto diet is burning body fat vs. using fat for fuel. I’m not sure if the keto advocates either don’t understand this concept fully or use the play on words as a marketing tool, but either way it’s VERY misleading.
If you eat a diet higher in carbs and lower in fat, you’re going to burn more carbs for fuel and less fat.
If you eat a diet lower in carbs and higher in fat like the keto diet, you’re going to burn more fat for fuel and less carbs…makes sense right!?
Now, using fat for fuel is not the same as using body fat for fuel.
You can use body fat for fuel in both scenarios as long as you’re in a calorie deficit because by definition you’re burning more calories than you’re taking in and that’s why your body dips into your body fat stores for energy…this how weight loss happens.
Unfortunately some of the hardcore keto advocates talk about burning fat for fuel, but don’t distinguish between fat that you eat and body fat that’s literally stored on your body.
This is a REALLY important distinction because your body is super adaptive and it’s going to use the fuel you provide it with…
If you eat a higher carb diet you’re going to use more carbs for fuel.
If you eat a higher fat diet you’re going to use more fat for fuel.
But, if you’re not in a calorie deficit, you’re not going to use any body fat for fuel in either of these scenarios.
It’s a play on words that some keto folks use that confuses the public because they hear ‘use fat for fuel’ and assume it’s body fat, not the dietary fat that they’re eating.
The term use fat for fuel is the same as saying use carbs for fuel.
Neither of these statements is addressing utilizing body fat for fuel, I hope that makes sense…
On the supplement front there are all sorts of different products out there and funny enough the only supplement I might potentially recommend on a ketogenic diet is a salt supplement. Sodium demands in the body go up quite a bit on a ketogenic diet due to the shifts in body water, carbohydrates etc. so if you’re having a hard time getting enough salt in your diet, I’d recommend supplementing with it to make up the difference.
Full disclosure, I haven’t used this product personally and I have no affiliation with this company, but if I was to use a salt supplement I’d use LMNT. I’m a big fan of the owner of the company and he’s been on the pod chatting about salt, so if you want to learn more about sodium intake specifically on the ketogenic diet or just in general for your health, I’d recommend listening to Episode 80 with Robb Wolf titled ‘Why You Need Salt In Your Diet’ HERE.
But, if you’re getting enough via simply salting your food you don’t need a supplement. A supplement is just a convenience and practicality thing because you need quite a bit of sodium on a keto diet and lots of folks don’t actually like the taste of that much of salt on their food.
Personally I wouldn’t invest my time or money into supplements like ketone esters and ketone salts because they’re incredibly expensive and you can do just fine on a ketogenic diet without them. There is some promising stuff around using ketone esters and salts in response to experiencing a TBI or traumatic brain injury, but outside of very special and specific situations, I just don’t see the need for them.
Aside from the food and preference aspects of the keto diet, who might it be the right fit for?
In general what I’ve noticed is that the keto diet tends to work better for folks who are less active in general or happen to implement less intense versions of exercise. For example, folks who have desk jobs that don’t do a lot of super vigorous workouts in their spare time.
So if you lift a little bit of weights and walk for the vast majority of your movement practice, from a physical output standpoint the keto diet might be a good fit for you.
On the other hand if you do CrossFit or cycle 100km a week or lift weights really hard, you’re probably going to see a noticeable dip in performance if you decide to follow a keto diet due to the low carbohydrate availability.
When it comes to performance, nothing beats carbohydrates.
Now I’m not talking about chugging Gatorade and downing those fucking garbage gel packs that some runners and cyclist use, I’m just talking about eating carb containing whole foods like rice, oats, potatoes, yams, fruit etc.
Now we’re at the most important concept of the article, practicing how you play…
Let’s say your goal is fat loss and you’re thinking about giving the ketogenic diet a go in order to reach your goal. If you plan on implementing carbs back into your diet at some point, the keto diet likely isn’t the best fat loss approach for you because if you lose the weight you’d like to lose via a keto approach, how are you going to implement carbs back in and maintain those losses after having lost the weight with a completely different diet structure…?
In my opinion it’s probably better to implement a version of a diet that you see yourself following long term, so in other words practicing how you play.
From a sustainability standpoint I can’t tell you how many people I’ve heard say, ‘I tried the keto diet and lost some weight and then put it back on because I started eating carbs again.’
On the other hand if you see yourself following a keto diet or a very low carb approach for years on end then hey, ya might want to give it a shot.
I’ll mention I’m not for the ketogenic diet or against it, I’m for the right tool for the right job and I wanted to put this article together because if you’re going to try an approach like this, I want you to be informed prior to doing so.
Now that we’ve laid out the info and you’re thinking hey, this does sound like the right fit for me…how should you actually do it?
There are better and worse versions of every single diet out there and obviously I’d rather someone implement a better version of the keto diet vs. a worse one so…eating nothing but eggs, bacon and butter is technically a ketogenic diet, but I wouldn’t recommend that.
What I’d recommend is eating single and minimal ingredient whole foods like meat, fish, eggs, maybe a bit of dairy if you tolerate it, plenty of leafy green vegetables and you might even be able to fit in a small amount of fruit like berries because they’re very low in carbs. Lastly you’ll need to consume a pretty good amount of fat to make up the difference in calories via things like olive oil, avocado, nuts, seeds, coconut milk etc.
If a client comes to me and says they’d like to implement the ketogenic diet, this is how I structure it because it’s the most healthful way to do so.
Now it’s important to be mindful with your carbohydrate load because foods like nuts, seeds, avocados, dairy, fruit and vegetables all have low amounts of carbs in them, but they do add up so that’s something to be aware of.
I did the ketogenic diet years ago and I felt pretty decent and my performance was alright, however I just prefer to eat starchy carbs. I love rice, potatoes, yams, fresh fruit and personally I’d rather reduce my fat intake to make room for more carbs vs. reduce my carb intake and eat a whole bunch of fat…it’s just a personal preference thing.
I do very well on a moderate to high protein, higher carb, lower fat diet…my performance is awesome, I feel great, I sleep great, my blood sugar is balanced and all that good stuff, so for myself I gave it a go and it wasn’t the right fit, but everyone is different as far as their lifestyle, goals, food preferences, etc.
As we wrap up here I just want to revisit the fact that there is nothing special about the ketogenic diet or any other diet for that matter. If it results in fat loss it’s because a calorie deficit was created in one way or another, so when you’re choosing an approach that’s right for you…you want to implement a diet structure that makes adherence or following the program as seamless as possible.
It’s sort of like choosing a career…not everyone has the same interests and so as a result we have all sorts of different jobs out there that people really enjoy. We take into account what the job is, so what we’re actually doing and if we like it, how the schedule looks, how the day to day looks, the financial compensation, location, holiday structure, benefits and the list goes on…
For some folks the right metaphorical job may be the ketogenic diet, for others it could be just a low carb approach, some of my clients follow higher carb diets…the key is finding the best fit for you personally.
