My experience with the "Keto Diet"

Readers who know me, or have read my previous posts, will know that I have tried a variety of different diets over the years in an attempt to lose the stubborn fat from certain areas of my body. To clarify, I have never been overweight, or in fact any bigger/heavier than I am right now. I've just been stuck on wanting to get back to my pre-university, size 8 body.

So, in my mid twenties during the lead up to Christmas 2016, I stumbled across the ketogenic (or "keto") diet. I've decided to write about it now as I've noticed the diet has gained popularity more recently - for both good and bad reasons. As with anything that fascinates me, I spent a good few hours researching how it worked and the science behind it first (I'm an all or nothing kinda gal). If you aren't sure what I'm talking about, here's a really simplified explanation from bodybuilding.com:

The idea is that you eat a strict low carb & high fat diet which is designed to result in 'ketosis'. This is when your body uses fat to produce fuel molecules called ketones when blood sugar (glucose) is in short supply. It's suggested that when in ketosis, fat stores are more easily burnt, resulting in fat loss.

Eat fat to lose fat. I was convinced so I gave it a go...

I used MyFitnessPal to track my macronutrients, I was surprised at how quickly I was reaching my carbohydrate limit. 0-10g of carbs is not much at all. It was fine(ish) giving up the bad/processed carbs, but it was very strange to me to have to limit consumption of fruit and vegetables as well, I was eating very little fiber. A plus side for me was eating more foods high in fat. It did seem to fill me up and keep me satisfied, even in small amounts. I tracked my calories as I knew fat is higher in calories per gram than carbohydrates, so I wanted to be careful not to go over my recommended allowance. I never did, if anything, I was actually eating fewer calories than before.

A couple of months in and I'd reached the lowest weight I'd ever been in my twenties: 58kg. I felt pretty pleased. But in reality, I'm pretty sure most of the weight that I'd lost came from muscle and water mass, it could even have been a result of eating fewer calories in general. I can't say what would have happened if I'd stuck with the diet for a longer period of time, but, I decided the keto diet was not for me. I wasn't exercising very much, I had little energy and I'd bloat if I had a 'cheat meal'. I wouldn't recommend it to other active, healthy people either. Carbohydrates are the primary source of energy, and we need to be consuming them, preferably in the form of whole foods like beans, potatoes, grains, in order to perform at our best.