Should you go on a Keto Diet to Lose Weight?

A client recently asked me the following question “I’ve heard a lot about the keto/zero carb diet, and seen a video of someone who’s achieved significant weight loss using this approach – should I be ‘going keto’ too?” My answer usually begins with ‘not exactly’, but before we get into why that is, let’s firstly look at what a keto diet actually is… 

What is a ‘Ketogenic’ Diet?

Many people believe that ‘keto’ diets have to be high in fat, although the strict definition of keto is that your total intake of carbohydrates is less than 50g per day. This is actually extremely restrictive and involves very careful counting of how many grams of carbs you are consuming each day, as it is very easy to overshoot this target.

However, once you’re able to consistently reduce your daily carb intake down to this level, it ‘retrains’ your metabolism to start burning fat for fuel as opposed to purely running on glucose. Most people are used to consuming carbs every few hours or so – often resulting in the ‘blood sugar rollercoaster’ of constant ‘crashes’ and cravings throughout the day. Once your body has adapted to being able to convert fat for fuel (which can take up to 2 weeks), most people notice much steadier flows of energy throughout the day without the frequent crashes and periods of feeling tired and ‘hangry’.

A by-product of this fat-burning process is the production of energy molecules called ‘ketones’ which can be used as a fuel – particularly by the brain, which for many people can promote an energised and focused state of mind. In fact, it’s for this reason that many clients I work with particularly enjoy following a keto approach – in that they finally can achieve the steady and sustained focus they were previously lacking on their ‘carb-fuelled’ diet.

Potential Weight-loss Benefits of a Keto/ Zero Carb Diet:

1. The lack of dietary carbohydrates reduces your circulating insulin levels and improves your ‘insulin sensitivity’. When the hormone insulin is high it signals the body to go into ‘storage mode’ – which prevents you from accessing your stored body fat and slows weight loss. However, when insulin is low, another hormone called glucagon is increased which actually promotes fat oxidation. 
2. It can suppress your appetite – by directly boosting ‘fullness’ hormones such as leptin and reducing hunger hormones such as ghrelin.
3. It promotes greater fat-burning throughout both exercise and resting periods throughout the day.
4. Reduced storage of body-fat. When dietary carbohydrates are consumed in excess a process of ‘lipogenesis’ occurs – ie where excess carbs are converted to body-fat. However, if carbs are kept lower then the body will predominantly burn fat for energy which will help promote weight loss. Clearly this effect will be amplified on a zero carb diet.

So, if a keto/ zero carb diet brings all these benefits, why am I not all in on a 100% keto diet? Well, as with most things in nutrition & lifestyle, the key is usually in finding the correct balance. With most interventions, it is usually the case that too little is ineffective but too much will bring considerable downsides! And yes, this applies to ketogenic/ zero carb diets too. 

Whilst a keto/ zero carb diet will indeed bring the benefits listed above, most people that follow this diet will make some big initial weight loss improvements, but will then hit a ‘hard stall’ where they are still some way off their weight-loss and health goals. This is because a keto diet will indeed improve many markers associated with inflammation and chronically elevated insulin levels – but this is not the whole story to good health! 

Potential Downsides of a Keto/ Zero Carb Diet:

By cutting out almost all carbs, for many people keto diets (and especially zero carb keto diets) can be overly restrictive, eliminating many sources of dietary fibre and plant polyphenols – which we know are crucial to good health and sustained weight-loss. This clearly becomes even more of an issue when following a zero carb diet. Not only that, some people can become insensitive to carbs if they follow this approach long term – meaning that whilst their body becomes adapted to burning fat for fuel – it is less able to effectively deal with incoming carbs, resulting in excessively high blood sugar spikes from consuming relatively smaller amounts of carbs.

The Enhanced Energy Approach to Keto:

So, rather than a zero carb diet, I encourage clients to follow a hybrid ‘keto before midday’ approach, extending the ‘overnight fast’ by restricting carbs throughout the morning. This encourages the body to transition into a ‘fat-burning’ mode throughout the morning period – which also provides the welcome cognitive benefit of improved mental clarity. 

I then encourage clients to gradually add in more ‘wholefood’ types of slow-releasing/ high fibre carbs throughout the day in order to fill in the gaps of vital vitamins, minerals, polyphenols and dietary fibre which are all crucial to sustained weight-loss and long-term good health.

If you’re interested in finding out more about how exactly to do that, then why not consider taking out a free 2-week trial to my Enhanced Energy online membership programme where you’ll discover exactly how to implement this hybrid ‘keto before midday’ approach which has worked so well for many of my clients! Or why not contact me here if you’re interested in finding out more about working 121 to help you reach your health goals.

What has your experience been with keto or zero carb diets? Let us know in the comments below!