KETO - Is There a "Perfect" Diet?
KETO - My Experience
First and foremost I want to state that the purpose of this post is not to demonize the KETO diet or to discredit those who actively partake in the diets protocols. The simple purpose of this post is to account my personal experience while on the Keto diet and highlight some major points of emphasis you should definitely consider before starting this diet. It is extremely popular right now so I found it a fitting time to post this.
My GOAL:
Let my lay out the background behind my decision to try this diet. I have always had a hard time trying to find the “right” diet to fit my lifestyle between sports, constant physical activity, and weight lifting. Once sports ended for me, I quickly realized I could not continue eating in the same fashion. This was glaringly obvious by weight gain that I told myself was muscle. LOL! The weight wasn’t muscle dude, it was blubber. I dabbled in adjusting my diets around eating enough to support the exercise but still found myself having spells of over eating… Even if it was over eating “good” food - it was still way too much. I’m sure my wife and family can vouch for me that I can eat quite a bit regardless of whatever the food may be. So… long story short, after multiple attempts trying different things, I wanted to give the Keto diet a try. I originally heard about the diet from a guy named Elliot Hulse back in 2011. Sounded a lot like the Atkins diet without doing much research but I saw plenty of people getting awesome weight loss results from the diet so I wanted to give it a shot. (Keep in mind, this was before I became a certified nutritionist and licensed health coach)
My Approach:
I started the diet in hopes to lose the extra weight, lean down again, and find a long term solution to my slow metabolism. I was still resistance training 4 to 5 times per week and doing cardio two to three times per week. I read books by Dr. Joseph Mercola and other industry experts on how to properly plan my eating to fit the diets protocols because I wanted to be as real and honest with myself to access and track the overall results. I big misconception with this diet is that many folks feel as though they can just cut out carbs and let it fly. They give themselves free reigns to cheese, bacon, mayonnaise, ground chuck hamburger meat, and other calorie dense fatty foods. It is SO VERY important to remember that fat is extremely calorie dense and not the most filling. If you are not careful, you can easily eat 1000+ calories in one single sitting.
My Keto Macros:
Taking all this into consideration I gave myself an initial calorie goal of 2200. This is probably extremely low for most people and it was certainly low for me due to the resistance training even with the weight loss goal. But I intentionally set it low, and took the reverse dieting approach. That is to say, I set the calories low, focused on lifting heavy on compound movements, and monitored my daily protein intake to a certain degree to allow muscle growth. I eventually added calories in slowly the ensure I did not gain any unwanted weight.
Protein: 115g
Carbs: 30g net carbs
Fat: 175g
*Note: I found it extremely hard to stay in ketosis while also eating enough protein to aid in muscle recovery and growth. For those who may not know, excess protein in the ketogenic diet gets converted into the carb glucose (through Gluconeogenesis) which will halt your body’s production of ketones. NOT ideal for ketogensis.
Also noteworthy… that is a lot of fat. It is important to try to structure your exercise either soon before of after your highest fat meal to reduce your body’s negative response to the high amount of fat intake at once.
Books & Info
If you are considering doing the keto diet please do your research. Maybe you will decide not to by the end of this, but either way please do your homework before starting. Don’t base your fundamental foundation of your diet on a skimmed article and what your friends have told you. I recommend reading “Fat for Fuel” and also look into “Keto in 28” and “The Keto Reset Diet”. That should give you all the information to get started.
*AGAIN: This was before I become a nutritionist.
RESULTS
The first time I tried the keto diet I lost 24 pounds in three months. I wish I could say this was all fat but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. My strength was fading and my muscles were not growing. The body that I had achieved wasn’t what I envisioned. So, I quit the diet for a while to figure out how I could adjust the eating to give me that dream physique I wanted to get. After I hammered out a few kinks, I gave it another shot.
My second attempt at the keto diet was for exactly six months. During this six month period I stayed strict on my diet like the first go around. I lost weight at a rapid pace, kept muscle mass, but again everything was more soft than solid. I was pissed! I mean, all in all the function of the diet for weight loss worked great… it just didn’t work for what I wanted. My body looked like I had been doing just cardio. I wanted to look like I had been chiseled out of granite - not jello! Again, weight loss - great ; strength and mass building - very poor IMO because you cannot eat enough protein to actually stay in ketosis naturally.
*I found the weight loss EXTREMELY hard to keep off for the long term even when eating healthy and mindfully. As soon as I got over the mental block to eat carbs again, the kind your body NEEDS, the weight came back. This weight also helped me increase my strength while keeping my body fat pretty level. Overall my body fat went up 3.2% after quitting. I have had the absolute worst Yo-Yo effect on the KETO/low carb diets than any other diet I have ever tried in my entire life. Lesson learned.
KETO Pro’s:
1 - Rapid Weight loss at an incredible pace. Due to this fact, I feel like a Keto diet is a good place to start for many folks who have a lot of weight to lose and need to jump start their progress (25lbs+). Nothing gets you more motivated than dropping 20 pounds quickly! As long as you keep the right mentality to develop good eating patterns when you stop the ketogenic diet, it could be a good starting point.
2 - You learn your body’s sensitivity to carbohydrates. On Keto you find out quickly how your body responds to the intake of carbs or lack there of. Keto diets are a great way to overcome insulin insensitivity or “Insulin Resistance”. This will help jump start slow metabolisms.
3 - If you are new to dieting and all the nuances, the Keto diet is pretty simple and easy to follow. This is one of the sexy things about the diet that attracts most folks. You can see results quickly while learning how to eat better. Not bad, not bad.
KETO Con’s:
1 - Adaptation period was rough. Body had to get use to the rigors of not using carbohydrates as energy which was rough during the first few weeks with resistance training
2 - Cardio cannot be intense. So this diet is not made for folks who are endurance athletes.
3 - High fat led to excess bloating for me personally and it messed up my stomach pretty often. Especially after eating fat dense foods like macadamia nuts.
4 - I lost muscle mass no matter how hard I tried to keep it. Yes I lost plenty of fat too but the body I had left was technically “leaner” but was much more soft as well. NOT A FAN.
5 - Must follow strictly to stay in ketosis which is the entire purpose of the diet. Many folks go at this diet without tracking their foods and meals. Not a good plan. You might as well just follow the Atkins diet if thats the case.
6 - Long term weight loss almost impossible to keep once going back to a normal eating pattern or diet plan. There was a study performed by the health school at Harvard that put 150 folks through three different diet plans over a two month period. 50 people followed the ketogenic diet, 50 people followed the paleo diet, and 50 people were encouraged to eat normally. All 3 groups had a cap on their daily calorie intake at the same level and all three groups were to perform 3 hours of exercise per week. It was found that all three groups lost about the same amount of weight in comparison to body mass in a 2 month period. Folks in the Keto group lost an average 0.8 pounds more. NOW, heres the good part. The group checked back in with all participants 6 months later. Of all participants, 81% gained back some weight that they had lost during the 2 month period. They found that folks following the KETO and PALEO diets gained 90-95% of their weight back. Folks following the normal calorie restricted diet gained less than 30% of their weight back….
Weird right?!
Heres the deal…
I have no beef with any particular diet plan as long as you are dieting around YOUR goals. Everyone is different and the truth of the matter is… there is NO perfect diet. Unfortunately, the fitness industry and diets are cultish. YES, CULT-ISH. Everyone believes that their way is the right way. Raw foodist, Vegans, Paleo Dieters, Keto Diets, Crossfit-ers, Powerlifters, Bodybuilders, etc. etc. etc. I can go on and on here but my point is… there is no black and white. Honestly, I have come to the point now, through trial and error, where I know what works best for me.
This is why all of my clients follow the IIFYM plan (If It Fits Your Macros). It is what I call “Agnostic Eating”. No, I do not follow “diets” anymore. The reality is, if you are trying to lose weight you need to be at a calorie deficit. Eat less than you burn. It is crucial to know that you are actually at a deficit. We do this by logging calories in the beginning and meals. Once you have that under control, the weight loss is well on its way. No crazy restrictions on any particular food or group. It really can be that simple. Human nature naturally pushes us to make simple things complicated.
There are more secrets we use to get the weight off but I am just illustrating my point here. I learned that there is no short cut to long term weight loss for any fitness goal. Rather, our goal for living healthier should be to eat nutrient dense food. Both micro and macro nutrient dense. That is total human nutrition and that is what our bodies are designed for.
So in closing here… I tried the ketogenic diet and learned that it is not for me. I do however believe it could be right for you depending on where you are at in the fitness journey. Just don’t be a sucker and follow the newest, most popular thing out there. I was that sucker. It is easy to get tempted because yes, the diet produces results super quick. The tricky part is sustaining. I don’t know about you but I never start any goal with the idea to back track once its achieved.
When it comes to your personal fitness journey… BE HONEST with yourself. Just because someone else is doing something, doesn’t mean its right or that it will work for you. You will find your answers in your own goals. Stay in your lane and do what is best for YOU! Keep pushing on y’all. It’s 2019 and I hope you guys have your best year to date. Keep getting stronger and keep working on THE BETTER YOU! Love you all!
