A dietitian weighs in on the Ketogenic diet for weight loss

My trainer put me on a keto diet over a year ago. Shredded me to pieces. Thing is he didn't tell me it was a ketogenic diet lol. I only found out later.

Subsequently I've studied the ketogenic diet intensively. It's not really special for fat loss* tbh. So many myths on the internet about it. It's not even about how much carb you eat, it's to do with the amount of glucose in the blood. Some people can have very high ketones level with an intake of 150g of carb a day.

*fat loss (or gain) is exclusively to do with energy balance.
 
Baron said:
Shredded just means you've stayed consistent with a fat-loss diet until there's basically not much fat left to lose. And I stand by my prior statement. I have personally never met a single person who's in great shape (i.e, shredded, super lean, whatever...) that got there on a keto diet. Not one.
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I don't think anyone made the claim that to be shredded you had to go on a ketogenic diet, to be fair.
 
El OchoCinco said:
150grams of carb would barely be ketonic for most people. Usually people have to get it down to 25-50 NET carbs to really get there.
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Mate, I said for some people..here are some studies that prove my point:

Foster GD, Wadden TA, Peterson FJ, Letizia KA, Bartlett
SJ, Conill AM. A controlled comparison of three very-low-
calorie diets: effects on weight, body composition, and
symptoms. Am J Clin Nutr 1992;55:811—7.

Lewis SB, Wallin JD, Kane JP, Gerich JE. Effect of diet
composition on metabolic adaptations to hypocaloric
nutrition: comparison of high carbohydrate and high fat
isocaloric diets. Am J Clin Nutr 1977;30:160—70.

Meckling KA, Gauthier M, Grubb R, Sanford J. Effects of a
hypocaloric, low-carbohydrate diet on weight loss, blood
lipids, blood pressure, glucose tolerance, and body com-
position in free-living overweight women. Can J Physiol
Pharmacol 2002;80:1095—105.
 
The studies not only discuss high carb v. low carb but they also include the factor of significantly reduced calories of maybe 1200 or under. However they do not demonstrate that someone eating 150 calories would be in a ketonic state. That is my only point but obviously I agree with you on the matter.
 
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rallymode said:
Low carbs = low energy = lame workouts
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Makes no difference for strength training. An average weight training session doesn't use that much energy, couple of hundred calories. High intensity endurance training does however and you would need higher intakes of carbs to prevent loss of performance. Those guys can forget about ketogenic diets.
 
Visaria said:
Makes no difference for strength training. An average weight training session doesn't use that much energy, couple of hundred calories. High intensity endurance training does however and you would need higher intakes of carbs to prevent loss of performance. Those guys can forget about ketogenic diets.
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Those marathon runners look like skin and bones..so unhealthy and then you look at the sprinters...
 
rallymode said:
The way i see things is this. Low carbs = low energy = lame workouts = loss of muscle = slower metabolism.
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I disagree with this. In particular the first "=" sign. Low carbs does not lead to low energy as long as you have enough body fat and/or eat enough dietary fat.
I have done quite a number of workouts without having eaten carbs beforehand (no carbs during approximately 12 hours prior to the workout). Therefore I know from my own experience that it did not affect the energy and intensity of the workout.
 
Visaria said:
Makes no difference for strength training. An average weight training session doesn't use that much energy, couple of hundred calories.
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Try lifting with your glycogen levels depleted and tell me how carbs make no difference. There is a reason why people do carb reloads when they are cutting.

200 cals for a weight lifting session? Maybe with the pink dumbbells.
 
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