Why the Country’s Gone Crazy for the Keto Diet
It seems like new diet trends start to show up in the news every year, with a horde of diet evangelists following close behind. But almost always, these dieting trends are a flash in the pan, and the masses jump onto the next weight-loss train as soon as it arrives. However, there’s one diet you’ve probably heard of with a little more staying power. It’s called the ketogenic diet, or “keto,” for short, and it may be the answer to many fair-weather dieters’ woes. The keto diet involves eating mostly foods with high fat content, such as red meat, bacon, butter, nuts, and healthy oils, while keeping carbohydrate intake to an absolute minamum. Fruit, root vegetables, wheat, and sugar must be almost entirely eliminated. Normally, the body uses glucose derived from carbohydrates as its primary fuel source. Unused glucose is converted to glycogen and stored in the liver, where it turns into fatty adipose tissue as the glycogen stores overfill. Basically, the keto diet keeps carbohydrate intake so low that the body is forced to search for another source of energy to keep everything moving. So, the body shifts from metabolizing mostly glucose to metabolizing fats instead. During a process called ketosis, the liver takes fatty acids from the body’s stores and convert them to ketones, which it then “learns” to utilize as its main fuel source. In this way, fat stored in the body is burned away to fuel physical activity. SUCCESS STORIES “When I came in with a partially torn ACL, I couldn’t walk without difficulty, let alone run. Within 3 weeks, Ming and the others at Focus got me back to about 80 percent. After about 5 weeks, I am at 95 percent and able to play baseball again. Thank you, Ming!” -Trevor Patience
It’s a decidedly extreme diet — to maintain ketosis, strict avoidance of any and all carbs is vital — but there’s plenty of science to back it up. One 2003 study published in the
New England Journal of Medicine found that severely obese participants who kept a strict low-carb diet lost nearly three times as much weight as their low-fat counterparts.
However, it’s far from foolproof. As the start of ketosis, you’re essentially starving the body of its previous main fuel source, resulting in sleepiness and weakness until it acclimates to running on ketones. Afterward, proponents say you’ll start to feel satiated and energetic. But, keto can cause problems for high-intensity exercise and strength training, which depend on stored carbs for fuel. Some experts even argue that the diet is dangerous, causing the body to enter “starvation mode.” It can even cause a host of other problems, including making it even harder to lose weight. Whether you’re a proponent or a detractor, it’s clear the keto diet is here to stay, at least for a while. But before embarking on your fat-burning journey, consult with your physician to learn whether ketosis is a safe option for you.
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