Spring is coming and there are Keto diet advertisements everywhere! You can’t miss them. The high-fat, low-carb diet that caught on and spread quickly, led experts to label it as a fad, while celebrities praised its effectiveness.
The Spring brings a flood of plans and promises to help you shed the winter weight. Every health article written in the country is promoting the Keto diet to reach your weight loss and health improvement goals.
Is it effective? More importantly, is it healthy?
Before you make a commitment to a strict Keto diet regimen, it’s critical to know what you’re getting yourself into. Regardless of what some health professionals say about the Keto diet, PLEASE consult your own doctor before embarking on a high-fat diet.
What is the Keto Diet?
Slightly different versions of the Ketogenic diet are primarily based on a low intake of carbohydrates coupled with a high intake of fat and protein. This means people on the diet get most of their calories from fat and about 20% from protein and about 5% from carbs.
The goal of decreased carb intake is to force the body into the state of Ketosis, in which fat becomes the main provider of fuel for the body which reasons that the body will also burn stored fat. Not to be confused, Keto is not the same as the Paleo and Atkins diets, which also feature low-carb routines. The problem with this diet regimen is that high fat has caused heart disease. If you’re already struggling with extra pounds, you could be adding fuel to an already burning fire.
Why Experts Say the Keto Diet Is Not the Answer
Any diet that changes or modifies food consumption will cause weight loss. So to call the Keto diet effective is a stretch with science behind it. It doesn’t get reviews or recommendations from doctors.
“I wouldn’t recommend the Keto diet to anybody,” Jeffrey Mechanick, medical director at Mount Sinai Heart’s Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Center for Clinical Cardiovascular Health, told USA TODAY.
The problem doctors have with the Keto Diet is they are now rethinking diet programs because weight loss does not equal good health. Good health requires balance. Restrictive diets don’t offer foods that both promote weight loss and good health. Good health requires a healthy intake of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and healthy proteins. If you’re shooting for improved health, you want to add whole grains, fruits and vegetables to your diet because these foods carry beneficial nutrients, vitamins, polyphenols, and fiber- rich foods that are essential to good health.
According to Dr. Mechanick, “As the Keto diet essentially nixes the body’s intake of carbs, the body searches for an alternative source of fuel. Before long, the body breaks down fat, muscle and tissues to sustain itself.” According to Mechanick, “In theory, the Keto diet basically mimics starvation. If you don’t eat carbohydrates but you eat an excessive amount of fat and protein, you’re still going to waste tissue. Tissue is still going to burn off.”
Yes, you can experience quick weight loss on the Keto diet for a week or two, but that’s not actually good a good thing considering what you give up in the long run. People seem to think that once they lose the weight, they can add back into their diet the carbs they eliminated. That’s where the weight gain begins and it continues because gut bacteria changes which promotes weight gain. See our blog Diets Are More Dangerous that Diabetes.
If Not the Keto Diet, Then What?
Foodology LLCorporated to the Rescue! “Diet-Zombies” (our word to describe people who are constantly dieting) might find this part hard to digest—calorie restrictive diets don’t sustain long-term weight loss. Long before doctors started moving away from what we traditionally think of as a “diet” that restrict calories as a way to lose unwanted pounds,Foodology LLC.was telling people that a better way to achieve both weight loss and optimal health is well-balanced meals to build muscle and support skeletal mass. The easiest way to do that is to reduce processed food from meals. We have always promoted a healthier lifestyle with incredible results.
Doctors are now trying to not even use the word “diet.” The new term doctors now use is “eating habits.” The boomerang affect results when it comes to dieting, whether Keto or some other name. You go on a diet, lose weight, and gain it all back within a matter of months. What those beautiful models showing off those great looking bodies fail to tell you is that their fat cells shrunk. That’s all that happened. You reduced the size of your fat cells. They are still there waiting to be filled to overflow the first time you stray from starvation eating. That’s not a successful weight loss strategy!
As difficult at it seems, you must learn to eat healthy balanced meals. To be successful losing weight and keeping the weight off and getting a healthy body, you must change your eating habits for good. Unless you do, you are flirting with diet failure. How do you change? Learn what foods promote weight loss and good health. We can help you with that! Go to Foodology LLC. and enroll in our Six Week Weight loss program . Six weeks is all you need to be forever healthy!
Win the Weight Loss War
Let’s say your goal is to lose 30 pounds in 6 months. How you reach that goal is critical to losing the weight, but more importantly, can if you can keep it off? For most people doing this, the television is the answer. You join a popular weight loss program and follow the directions and even if you buy the pre-made meal plans, you might win the weight loss battle but still lose the weight war. Why? Within 6 months of ending your diet (fast), you gain the weight back and gain even more pounds! Dieting is an endless cycle that may never stop.
Getting duped by the promise “eat this, not that and you lose” means more than losing a few unwanted pounds, you lose the ability to permanently lose the weight. Instead of modifying the food you eat each day, you completely replace your regular meals with something entirely new that you’re going to quit eating when you reach your weight loss goal. Instead of dieting, portion control is a more effective way to lose weight without messing up your body.
Enroll in our powerful Six Week Weight Loss program and learn to eat healthy and maintain a healthy weight without dieting and starving yourself into another weight loss failure. Don’t become another Diet Zombie! Invite us to your next Wellness Event or let us lead your next weight loss program. Our lessons produce powerful results!
