Posted on 12/23/2017 3:04:43 PM PST by nickcarraway
Pretty impressive.
Many people who follow the ketogenic diet (a.k.a. keto) are obsessed with its ability to help you lose weight quickly—and keep it off. Now, new research has found that the low-carb diet may have one especially huge perk going for it: It might burn 10 times more fat than other diets.
That’s the major finding from research published in the journal Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research & Reviews. For the study, scientists took 30 adults who had been diagnosed with metabolic syndrome, a group of health conditions that increase the risk of developing heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. They then randomly put them in three groups: One group ate a ketogenic diet but didn’t exercise, another ate a standard American diet and didn’t exercise, and a third that ate a standard American diet and exercised for 30 minutes a day for up to five days a week.
Here’s what they found: In 10 weeks, the group that was on the ketogenic diet had “significant” changes in their weight, body fat percentage, BMI, hemoglobin A1c (a test that measures a person’s blood sugar), and ketones (the result of your body burning fat for energy). Their resting metabolic rate, which is the rate that your body body burns energy when you’re not doing anything, was more than 10 times that of people who ate a standard diet. “All variables for the ketogenic group out-performed those of the exercise and non-exercise groups,” the researchers wrote in the study. (Learn how bone broth can help you lose weight with Women's Health's Bone Broth Diet.)
See what happened when one woman tried the ketogenic diet:
In case you’re not familiar with it, the keto diet is a high-fat, low-carb diet that encourages followers to get a moderate amount of protein. Carbs are generally replaced with fats, and it’s thought that this shifts your body into a metabolic state known as ketosis.
The keto diet generally shuns sugar, processed foods, low-fat foods, grains and gluten, high-carb fruit, and vegetable oils. Instead, followers are encouraged to eat plenty of non-starchy vegetables, lean meats and fish, full-fat dairy, and nuts and seeds.
It’s worth pointing out that this study is small and it focused on people with a health condition—not otherwise healthy people. Still, the findings are definitely worth thinking about if you've been mulling over going keto.
My nurse practitioner suggested the Keto diet to me a couple of weeks ago. I’ve bought a few Keto books and have started subscribing to some Keto channels on YouTube. Looks pretty good and effective...I just hate the thought of giving up my yummy carbs.
Guess I’ll give it a whirl...next year!
Low carb is a great way to lose weight, and most people mistake the Atkins first two weeks for a lifestyle. There’s a limit to how much energy the body can generate from fat stores. It will take resources from other lean tissue (muscle) if that amount is exceeded. x10 seems like hype.
My husband loves meat and veggies, so it was easy for him. I am not a big meat eater, so I have to do a lot with eggs. But it does work!
“This diet has been around for decades in one form or another, and it works very well for many people. My husband lost 65 lbs. and has kept it off for several years now.”
Our ancestors back a hundred years plus lived on this diet.
About 2 years ago, I had severe foot problems and listened to a health advisor really followed the high carb pyramid bs. I could not walk my normal 1.5 miles per day with some nice hills due to my foot problems. In a little over a year with my crummy high carb diet and minimal exercise I gained about 35-45 pounds.
Then, I had a severe foot operation with about 50 stiches and enough metal screws and stuff in the foot bones, that makes an Xray of my foot look like an Ace Hardware ad for stainless steel gear. I have so much steel in that foot, I set off alarms at courthouses and baseball stadiums in their metal detection areas.
It took another year to get back to my full walking. I was like your husband about 65 pounds over weight.
A friend who had been through the same and had lost 65 #’s told me to forget about the deadly food pyramid. He told me to read up on the paleo diet and go on it. I did.
We threw away basically anything with carbs, sugar, flour in any form, any thing that said diet on it. Also zero processed food. My FP/Doc was for the diet, and he said to buy stuff from the edges of a big grocery store. That is where the produce and fresh food including meat, poultry, milk/cheese and fresh seafood are. He said to never buy anything in a package. He recommended 1-2 eggs 3-4 times a week and said that bacon was God’s gift to us.
In about 2 weeks, I lost 20 pounds, after a month 40 pounds and after 3-4 months, 65 pounds in total.
My wife is a great cook, and she had noticed in her 35 years as the head RN for a large FP practice that the Italians and Greeks if they didn’t kill each other when they were young, lived long life spans.
So she created a modified Mediterrain Diet. We have smoked Sockeye Salmon every morning for breakfast with fresh tomatoes, a seasonal fruit and a handful of mixed nuts.
Lunch consists of real meat: Sliced ham, turkey and sometimes a tuna salad from canned tuna. I make a roll with a big leaf of kale, the meat and cheese.
Dinner is often char grilled ocean salmon, other ocean fish, or grilled steak, pork loin, chicken or grass fed hamburger and grilled veggies for a side. We have a fresh green salad after every dinner. We have some real chocolate candy for dessert.
My wife keeps local fresh fruit/veggies and mixed nuts on a counter for our snacks. She lost 7-10 pounds and has maintained her 20 year old weight since we started this. We are new Kaiser patients, and her FP sent back a copy of her lab test values with an A+ and a great!. He told her that he has female jocks that would kill for her lab values.
I think the major difference between the Keto diets that I’ve used and Atkins is sweeteners and processed food additives. Atkins uses aspartame and other synthetic additives while Keto is more natural. Sweeteners are stevia, erythritol and monk fruit. Fats are coconut oil, butter, bacon fat etc.
It’s even much older - William Banting advocated for this type of diet in the 1800s.
Glad I scrolled down before posting. Ketogenic is exactly the Atkins diet.
Diabetes is the reason I need to cut out processed foods etc. I take three Metformin a day and it’s like swallowing horse pills. My last A1C was 7.4.
My Dr suggests and my Husband insists that I basically follow this low carb/no processed foods diet. My goal is also to get off the medicine.
“You weren’t getting enough sodium. Your sodium requirements go up quite a bit on keto and often just extra salting food isn’t enough. When your body can’t enough sodium it can’t manage water in the body, thus leading to headaches from dehydration.”
I seldom if ever have headaces, my wife jokes that I give them to people I don’t like/care for.
When I started my Paleo trip, a friend told me to buy an old fashioned salt grinder and fill it with course pink Himalayan Salt. Keep it where I ate and take it with me when we eat out. If food didn’t taste salty enough to put salt on it. I did and my headaches went away.
More fluid intake is required for this type of diet. A lot more metabolic processing is taking place to deal with the proteins.
So far I have lost 50 pounds on this diet.
I went on this diet last yr when my wife was out of the country for 8 weeks. I lost 35 lbs. No carbs, fruit or soft drinks.
She came back and I regained 20 lbs. I think she is trying to get rid of me.
Hands down best low carb site around - http://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/
The linked site has a grocery list that’s an easy reference. Basically, just eliminate anything white in your diet (bread, flour, corn starch, rice, sugar, potatoes, pasta). Stick to meats and low carb veggies (no pinto type beans, corn, sweet potatoes, peas) and fruits (stick to berries). I’ve printed out most all her recipes into a 4” binder that’s bursting at the seams.
Just because beef is expensive doesn’t mean you have to buy steak. I do NOT. Pork and chicken are budget friendly. Turkey is can be found < $1/lb during the holidays.
I’ve been on and off LC since Atkins so if you have any questions, just ask.
They say cheese is fine but I don’t lose as much if I eat a lot of it. And I do love cheese daily. So, calories do play a factor even though they say they don’t.
If you can give up candy, full sugar soft drinks and potato chips, this diet pretty easy. Just go with substitutes for your yummy carbs.
I got my A1C down without any diet, and without any pills.
My method? Eat normal diet in normal quantities between 10 am and 6 pm. And I eat a lot during that period along with snacking on peanuts and dates. After 6 pm I consume no calories. My exercise is walk total of 10 miles each week. I not only lost weight, but even better, only lost mostly fat around the waist.
The 10 times is a huge overstatement.
All diets are hard to keep up. It is a no-win situation. As soon as you get off the diet, all the old problems re-appear.
See post #34.
I’ve been reading and researching the neuroscience of starvation this past week.
Ketones are far, far more important than most scientists realize. They are actually a preferred fuel for the brain over glucose.
In addition, they lower oxygen consumption of the body. Research has shown that ketosis doubles a diver’s ability to hold their breath.
The have also discovered that the normal ketone level of a one month old baby is 5 times the normal adult. They facilitate rapid fetal development.
Ketones are used as fuel in every cell of the body except red blood cells which have no mitochondria.
This topic is fascinating to me. Writing a summary paper on it now for a chapter in a book.
That is incorrect.
Ketosis also can lower the serotonin production in the enterochromaffin like cells in the gut. 95% of the body’s serotonin is produced there.
When this happens the influx of unresolved psychological issues can be overwhelming for a person.
THIS is why fasting is an excellent soul cleansing procedure as it brings the wounds in the soul to the surface.
“The 10 times is a huge overstatement.”
Agree - it’s all calorie balance. Fat is roughly 3500 calories per pound, so if you exercise a bit you’ll lose about 0.7 pounds per day by fasting (once you go ketogenic - about 60 hours after starting a fast), of which I’ve done many times, for long periods. During the first 60 hours, you’ll think you’re losing weight much faster, but that’s just because your body is clearing out the food it has, and is burning non-fat energy stores, which are not nearly as storage-efficient as fat. But after 5 days of fasting (water only), the numbers will not lie.
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