Health and fitness professionals believe that all diets that "come out" are fads that do not really work and swear by whatever system they use successfully. The Ketogenic method of nutrition is another one mocked by many that I personally know and admire which is really sad because the way you track what you eat to maintain a ketosis state is the key that unlocks your ability to see real results .
I can tell you from personal experience now that the diet is not magic, but it is effective because you are forced to understand nutrients on a higher level during the process.
With all things in life, we can either choose to follow others blindly and place total faith in everything they say, or become knowledgeable about it for ourselves and let experience teach us the truth.
Ketogenics does work, will always work, and the misconceptions being thrown around even by the public figures who tout it can be put to rest.
Now that I have been on the diet for a good test length, I have a much deeper understanding of how the body breaks fats down and uses them as fuel compared to burning carbs as fuel.
Did you know that the mystical protocol of having a week long time period after starting the diet where your body magically transforms to burn fat instead of carbs is a complete lie?
Anyone who eats less carbs than their body needs will have some level of ketones present in their blood stream. This is a natural process in the body and not some kind of hack to throw your body into fat burning. Think of it this way. When your body metabolizes fat, ketones are created to be burned by the muscles. This is always happening any time you lose weight.
The only advantage of eating near zero carbs is to accelerate that process and provide maximum fat burning potential over a period of time. This means that even low carb diets work the same way as a ketogenic diet or even heavy workouts that use up all of the available carbohydrate in the body and move on to breaking down fat cells for extra energy during and after exercise.
Needless to say, the real education that everybody needs is that carbohydrates are a very powerful energy source that is very easy to abuse without even trying. In fact, 99% of people abuse that energy source daily and it's not their fault.
I have a new respect for carbs and their role in nutrition, but they are not bad. We all need to understand and reprogram ourselves to realize that the amounts of energy in carbs we need per day in order to not gain weight are much, much lower than what we typically consume "in secret"..... Hidden inside of seemingly healthy foods.
If we can learn to be much more aware of labelling and doing proper math using the nutrition info of all foods, weight loss can be easy.
If focusing on weight loss, you need to be a carb counter, not a calorie counter....but, the two work in concert meaning, if you consume 3500 calories, you still need to burn them all to lose weight.
Many of the health problems we all face are due to overstressing the pancreas with massive amounts of carbs which slowly leads to blood sugar issues, insulin resistance, plaque in the arteries, you name it. Sugar is an acidifying substance so the more there is in your blood, the worse condition anything your blood touches will be in (which is your whole body).
I now believe that "caring for carbs" should be the new worldwide diet goal. You don't have to eat zero carbs, but just pay attention to how much you eat. The number of grams per day is not going to be the same for each person though. It needs to match your body's energy consumption level which for most of us in order to burn fat as well, is like....50 grams a day. Now to get a grip on how bad we are doing as a race, look at the nutrition info of the last 3 things you are and add up the carbs. You'll likely be stunned that you are near 50 or over.... And that's just a single meal!!
Awareness is the key. Fruits need to be consumed with caution on how much sugar intake you are getting. Vegetables like carrots and corn are higher in carbs than greens so choose greens more. Starches, the "third part of a healthy plate" meaning potatoes, rice, sweet potatoes etc. need to be cut out unless you are training for a triathlon and truly need those extra carbs. Who came up with that anyway? The idea that there needs to be a protein, a starch and a vegetable?? Most of us only require for energy purposes a protein and a vegetable.
All in all, this diet trial has been a huge success and I have lost weight, but that is not even the most important takeaway. Learning on a deeper level what goes into your body is much more important for long-term success and changing the way you eat. Keto or not!
Cheers,
Chris
RESTEEM DRAW!
Here is another chance to ENTER THE FINAL DRAW to win 5 SBD by resteeming this post!
Past winners include
Who knows, maybe the next could be you!
Thanks for your continued support and for helping spread my content across steemit!