By now, you have probably heard of—or know someone who is doing—"the keto thing." I feel like the National Keto Association (not a thing) should be sending me monthly checks for my husband's exuberant endorsement. So, what is it, and should you care about it?
Keto diets aren't some cure-all, magic new way of eating. Eating this way has been around for years, and it is actually one of the most prescribed diets by doctors for patients who have or are developing Type 2 diabetes. (It is also prescribed for infertility issues—research how sugar affects hormone production!) The goal of this diet is to prevent your blood sugar from spiking or dipping. In other words, you keep your blood sugar level by eating consistent meals that don't include carbohydrates or sugar. This brings the body into ketosis, where it burns fat instead of storing it.
When you eat a low-fat diet, the body takes the sugar and carbs it gets and burns them (yay, energy!), then takes the fat it gets and stores it. This is a hard way to lose weight and maintain weight loss (it's slow). That's all well and good, but the reality of a keto diet is no carbs, no sugar, and NO CHEATING! That's right—one bite of something loaded with sugar or laced with carbs, and your body is no longer in ketosis. Your blood sugar spikes, and it will take 24 to 48 hours to get back into ketosis.
The good news? Let's say you go on a 7-day cruise tasting every European baked good you can find. You aren't going to see the huge weight gain you would see if you went off a low-fat diet. Most of that initial gain will be water weight, and you'll easily shed it once you start "ketoing" again. But is keto a way of life, or should it just be used as a temporary diet?
All this being said, I'm no doctor—just a fat lady who has read a lot and tried a bunch of diets. If you're still interested in my opinion on keto as a diet versus keto as a lifestyle, read on.
Keto diets are very restrictive and hard to adhere to if you've been a lifelong food abuser (right here, guilty!). I would only recommend keto as a long-term lifestyle to someone who has severe health struggles with blood sugar and weight control. So, if you don't have diabetes but just need to lose extra weight, what do you do? I'd say use keto as a tool to get to your healthy weight. It is going to teach you how to make good food choices, eliminate processed foods, and curb addictive food cravings.
Once you've reached a healthy weight and are able to maintain it through exercise and your eating habits, I would start moving toward a Paleo or Mediterranean diet. These diets are, at their core, ketonic-adjacent, but they allow for natural sugars found in beets, fruits, and starchy vegetables. They also let you have grains and, sparingly, pasta. These are lifestyle diets, meaning you can live the rest of your life on them without restricting yourself to the extreme levels of a low-fat or strict keto diet. The goal is to be healthy and maintain that health. So, use a keto diet as the tool to get to health, then alter that diet to make it a lifestyle of healthy, satisfying living.
What to expect while ketoing:
Invest in some sugar-free gum. While your body is in ketosis, it can give you some gnarly breath. Plus, the sugar-free gum seems like a total treat now that you don't actually get real treats!
Fiber is your friend! I think my biggest complaint on this diet is the "number two" situation. I had a hard time balancing my fiber intake, and I would yo-yo between not enough and way too much (you know what I mean). Once you get into your groove, that mellows out.
Keto Flu: Yeah, it's a thing. The first week (or two), you may experience headaches. Your body is not used to having stable blood sugar, and there is a definite detox phase. It's really not that bad, though—especially when you are losing 3 to 4 pounds a week!
Eating is very counter-intuitive. We've been programmed to think fat is bad. During the 1980s, the government ran a massive campaign against fat, flooding the market with low-fat versions of everything and scaring everyone with promises of heart failure if they didn't comply. The only kicker? They took out the fat and added sugar. Fast forward 40 years, and we have sugar addicts, an obesity epidemic, an increase in infertility... and the list goes on. Real fat (avocados, nuts, eggs, etc.) is good for your body. Sugar is the enemy. That is your new mantra.
Sugar substitutes: If you're like me, this diet will be absolute torture for your sweet tooth. I tried to get behind sugar substitutes, but I just can't. I can always taste them in whatever I put them in (they taste bitter to me), and they have a notoriously negative impact on your "number two" situation if you eat too much of them.
So there ya go—my unlicensed, unsupported, non-credentialed opinion on keto dieting. You're welcome!
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