It's the hottest Buzz Diet out there right now, everyone is talking about it...but does it work? The short answer is yes, sort of, maybe...no? All calorie restrictive diets work to lose weight. The real question is how does it work for the long haul? In my experience, successful and enjoyable eating habits need to be established for long term benefit.
Ketosis is a metabolic state characterized by raised levels of ketone bodies in the body tissues, which is typically pathological in conditions such as diabetes, or may be the consequence of a diet that is very low in carbohydrates.
"three patients developed mild ketosis, which was promptly and successfully treated with subcutaneous insulin".
The Keto Diet shares a lot with the Atkins diet (remember that one?). It's a high fat, low carb diet designed to force your body to create energy with ketones instead of carbs.
In a study done on 83 obese patients over 24 weeks, there was significant weight loss using a restrictive Keto diet with vitamin and mineral supplementation. Longer term studies have not been as kind.
So...
Yes, it works, but so does a calorie restricted vegan diet, as well as an all carb diet or all meat diet IF the calories are restricted. The key is not ketosis, it's calorie restriction. If the only answer is to restrict, the long term results are predictable.
Ketogenic eating will work for short term weight loss, but I don't see it as a long term sustainable plan. In my experience, any long term overly restrictive plan leads to a big fall off (ever meet anyone that's jumped from Keto to Macro counting to Paleo to hi-Carb to just straight binging on pizza and beer? I know I have.)
Anyway, probable down sides of a keto diet include bad breath (halitosis) and lowered athletic performance. Yep.
If you're looking for that, get those keto strips and hit the ground running....errrr, walking...just be careful who you breathe on.
