Keto diet. Why?

[thx9000]

For the month of March I stuck to a ketogenic diet. I'd range from 0 to a max of 20 carbs a day. I think I peaked at 40 carbs on a couple of occasions, but that was the exception not the norm. I watched my diet pretty carefully and was averaging somewhere around 1900cal per day. I regularly lift 5dy a week and do LOW intensity cardio 5dy a week as well (30 - 40min ED). I have many more details (I'm very anal) but I'll spare you the boredom....

By day eight I had lost about 6lbs (water from the lack of carbs?). From then on out I lost between 1.5 and 2lbs/wk. Just over a week ago I switched to a "fast food diet". Burger King, Popeye's, McDonalds, Wendy's. All I have eaten, 5 mini-meals a day, is crappy fast food (it gets old FAST) for nine days. I kept the calories in the 1800 to 2100 range. Guess how much weight I have lost in 9dy? 2lbs....Go figure.

To be fair, the keto diet was tollerable (rarely ever bothered me) and the crap food diet is driving me insane. BUT, what advantages/benefits am I missing out on by not sticking to keto? Certainly not greated weight loss. At least not from what I can tell. Better lipid profile? Maybe. Better insulin sensitivity??? If the last on is the case I wonder if the keto diet is "easier" on lean body mass than say a mod carb low cal diet is? Maybe I've lost 2lbs BUT sacrificed more LBM than I did on the keto weeks...

Thoughts?

 

[slimm]

I started a keto diet in late January at about 285lbs. Followed pretty strict 20-30 grams carbs a day and yesterday morning weighed in at 251lbs. My arms and legs are bigger than they have ever been. I don't know what to say other than everyone will respond different. If I did a fast food diet I would be as big as a house. Now mind you my results have been with breaking from the diet for 2 out of the seven days as well, trying to eat more carbs, but not really being concerned about what I consume. I say stick with itit will work. FYI I bout my first keto diet book back in 1995 called the anabolic diet by Dr. Mauro DiPasquale. I have been following Mr.X's CKT lately just to be a bit more strict.

HTH

 

[Manu]

By day eight I had lost about 6lbs (water from the lack of carbs?). From then on out I lost between 1.5 and 2lbs/wk. Just over a week ago I switched to a "fast food diet". Burger King, Popeye's, McDonalds, Wendy's. All I have eaten, 5 mini-meals a day, is crappy fast food (it gets old FAST) for nine days. I kept the calories in the 1800 to 2100 range. Guess how much weight I have lost in 9dy? 2lbs....Go figure.

I think the first 6 lbs are mostly water from the lack of carbs.
Take a look at this:
"Can you show me where I said I thought keto diets were stil lthe best?
I'm fairly sure I wast here for that interveiew and here's the only thing I said about them

"Now, fundamentally, there was really nothing that new about refeeds. Bodybuilders have been using cyclical diets (of one sort or another) for decades. In hindsight, I really feel that the carb-load was the reason that the Bodyopus diet worked, not the keto phase so much. It turns out that ketogenic diets per se aren't really protein sparing in lean folks. But the carb-load was bumping leptin and keeping the body running better overall, metabolically speaking. That's also on top of the psychological effects of being able to 'eat anything on a diet' every week."

Those comments have way more to do with the refeed than anything else and, quite frankly, I've been very clear (elswhere anyhow) that keto diets are nothing special. They allow *some* folks to more easily reduce calories but that's about it. As far as the fat loss/protein sparing effects, they are minor (maybe 3 lbs more fat/less muscle over 12 weeks and even that is variable) and inconsistent (many lose less muscle on a non-keto diet). Most of what you lose on a diet is dtermined by internal factors anyhow, diet and training make a very small contribution.

Frankly, once you establish a proper deficit, get adequate protein and adequate EFA's the composition of the rest of the diet makes almost no difference in terms of body comp changes. That and add a refeed every so often depending on bodfyat. Composition may affect adherence, it may affect training intensity, it may affect other factors important to succcess. But it doesn't make a shit's worth of difference (nothing huge anyhow) in terms of fat loss.

Basically, here's my current diet template
1. Set calories to get fat loss of 1-1.5 lb/week. 10-12 cal/lb (or 20% below current maintenance) is a good starting point, adjust every few weeks.
2. Get adequate protein: 1 g/lb LBM, usually in the realm of 25-30% of total cals.
3. Get at least 25% total cals from fat (this is an adherence, fullness, taste issue) with at least 6 grams fish oils per day. The rest can come from monos, veggie oils (don't go nuts with w-6 intake) some sat fats, MCTs, whatever. It's profoundly irrelevant on low calories.

That leaves 45-50% of your total calories unaccounted for (protein is 25-30%, fat 25%). That can be divvied up however you like/whatever meets your personal preference/training needs.

Put it all into fat if you want a keto diet and know you function well on them (some do, some don't). Put it into carbs if you prefer that (this tends to maintain training intensity better for most people). Put it 5% into fat and 40% into carbs if you want Zone (some hate the complication). Put it 8% into fat and 33% into carbs if you want Isocaloric. Whatever.

As long as you get steps 1-3 right, the rest of the diet makes little difference IMO.

Lyle "

Here's the link

 

[Manu]

Personally i don't like keto because after a short time workouts suffer big time.
Trying a 50P/30C/20F and consuming carbs around workout could have a positiv impact on workouts.

 

[Toozee]

Any fat loss or weight loss is determined by calories in vs. calories expended. If you expend more than you take in you'll lose weight, usually fat. The CKD just may not be your thing.

For me, It works well. No loss in strength during diet and after switching back I can tell there's very little (if any) muscle loss.
I keep my heavy lifting to about 2-3 days on this diet though. Cardio about 4days.
BUT.......

That's just me. Other cutting diets that work well for others dont work as well on me. Everyone is different.

 

[gymrat]

Personally i don't like keto because after a short time workouts suffer big time.

I find my body adjusts pretty well to this diet, and my workouts really don't sufer much at all.

 

[thx9000]

I don't really have have a hard time adjusting to very low carb diets. The first few days are hell, as in very low energy and constant carb cravings. Thereafter, I feel great on the diet and really don't mind the food composition.

I'm guessing my "fast food diet" was 20/40/40 (P/F/C) but haven't done the math to prove it. The results were a forgone conclusion as (metabolism) - (energy in) should have stayed the same and thus I lost the same amount of weight in the end.

My confusion comes from the impact of higher carbs and thus higher insulin levels on my FF-Diet. Shouldn't the higher insulin levels inhibit fat loss? I guess reading Manu's post above the answer is "yes but it's not THAT big of a deal". That just leaves me with a potentially worse lipid profile to deal with....