The Ketogenic Diet Craze: The Diet That Wants You to Eat More Fat?

In America alone, experts have discovered that 45 million Americans go on a diet each year. This leads to the biggest question dieters face: what diet will be best for them? This is where the recently popular ketogenic diet (keto diet) comes in to rescue struggling dieters.

Essentially, the keto diet is a diet that focuses on consuming high amounts of fat and low amounts of carbohydrates (carbs). By eating high-fat and low-carb foods, the body enters the state of ketosis; ketosis is when the body is in a state where instead of burning carbohydrates for energy, the body is forced to burn fats for energy instead. Therefore, when you exercise regularly while being on the keto diet, it can you help you lose weight more efficiently.

The following video from the PictureFit channel explains the basic science behind the keto diet:

So what foods can you eat in the keto diet? There are lots of foods and for the most part, the keto diet is not excessively restrictive on what to eat but the main rule is to avoid high-carb foods. These high-carb foods include pasta, bread and potatoes. Some excellent keto diet foods are meat, avocado, cheese, eggs and vegetables because these foods are higher in fat content and lower in carb content.

Now does the keto diet actually work? An experiment conducted by Alexandra Johnstone tested to see if the keto diet actually helped people lose weight. There were 17 subjects that were considered obese in the experiment and they were placed on a keto diet that included low-carb and high-fat foods. The results showed that the mean weight of all the individuals decreased over a matter of 27 days by 6.34kg on the keto diet versus only a 4.35kg mean weight loss on a non-ketogenic diet. The experiment concluded that the keto diet proves to be successful and more efficient in helping people lose weight compared to other non-ketogenic diets.

The following figure from Alexandra Johnstone’s experiment shows a keto diet (bottom line) has greater weight loss benefits compared to a non-ketogenic diet (top line).

Graph of mean daily body weight (kg) on the keto diet (•) and on a non-ketogenic diet (▪) in the 17 subjects. Source: Alexandra Johnstone.

Not every diet is perfect and there is a flaw that comes with the keto diet. The “keto flu” can occur when beginning the keto diet because the body is getting accustomed to being in the ketosis state. It consists of flu-like symptoms and usually subsides in a couple of days but can last around three weeks. Fortunately, the “keto flu” will not come back if you continue to maintain your keto diet.

Therefore, it is important to evaluate the if the keto diet right for you, but based on the evidence of its effectiveness it appears to be a very effective diet for those struggling to lose weight!