First of all…what the heck is ketosis?

The body preferentially burns glucose for fuel, glucose essentially being carbohydrates, but if you’re on a low carb diet or you’re fasting and there isn’t much glucose around, the body has a backup fuel source because the body is absolutely incredible and it doesn’t want to die…that backup fuel source is something we call ketones.

There are always small amounts of ketones in your bloodstream, but they really ramp up when we lower the carbohydrates in our diet and/or don’t eat anything and when ketones elevate to a certain point, that physiological state is called ketosis.

So, if you lower your carbohydrate intake a bunch or for whatever reason you haven’t eaten in a while, the body can still function…you can think about ketones like a backup generator, if the power goes out, the backup generator kicks in and voila, you’ve still got some electrical juice!

Now that we know what ketosis is, what is a ketogenic diet?

It’s a diet that is low enough in carbohydrates to kick in that backup generator and use primarily ketones to fuel you, and a classic or typical ketogenic diet is a low to moderate protein, very low carb, moderate to high fat setup.

So essentially carbs are low, fat is on the higher end and protein is lowish to moderate and fun fact…

The ketogenic diet was actually used as a really effective tool to manage epilepsy in children in the 1920s and 30’s, epilepsy is a neurological disorder that causes seizures…interesting right!?

It was also used as a tool to manage type-2 diabetes and still is today. Side note on Type-2 diabetes…it’s 100% avoidable because it’s a lifestyle disease, meaning you can absolutely reverse it via diet, assuming your physiology isn’t too far gone i.e. you haven’t done permanent irreversible damage.

Now that we’ve laid that foundation, let’s get to the good stuff, keto in relation to fat loss…

For the average person, they’d need to reduce their carbohydrate consumption to the 30g to 50g per day range in order to achieve nutritional ketosis, so moving forward we’re not talking about simply not eating or fasting to achieve ketosis, we’re covering how folks get into ketosis by actually consuming food.

Practically speaking, 30g of carbs is about 2/3 of a cup of cooked rice or 1 really big banana or a bunch of leafy green veggies, so it’s not a lot!

Now when folks reduce 1 of the 3 macronutrients (which are protein, carbs and fat) to that degree, more often than not they eat fewer calories spontaneously because they simply don’t have as many food options, so a lot of foods are off the table when you’re carbohydrate intake is capped at 30ish grams per day.

Essentially all processed food is a no go because it has too many carbs in it and this is where a lot folks misunderstand fat loss in general and more specifically fat loss in regards to keto because…

If we were to flip the keto diet on its head and instead of reducing carbs by a ton, we simply reduced fat by a ton…we would also most likely reduce our calorie intake because again, pretty much all processed foods are off the table being that they contain too much fat as well.

So whether we go really low carb or really low fat, processed food intake reduces drastically and when processed intake goes down, calorie intake goes down and when calorie intake goes down…we lose fat, meaning…

There is nothing special about the ketogenic diet, it yields fat loss in the same way that every other diet known to man results in fat loss, a calorie deficit. There is no other way to lose fat, this is how every single diet works whether it be Vegan, Carnivore, Paleo, Atkins, Low carb, Low fat, South Beach, Jenny Craig, it doesn’t matter…if you’ve lost fat at any point in time, you did so by being in a calorie deficit!

You don’t see me make absolute statements very often, however this is one that I feel perfectly comfortable making because there are no two ways about it.

Fat loss requires a calorie deficit, just like fat gain requires a calorie surplus.

So…can you gain weight on a ketogenic diet? Absolutely, you can keep your carbohydrate intake very low, even at 0 in fact and still gain body fat if you overconsume calories, just like…you can still gain body fat if you keep your fat intake very low yet still overconsume calories.

Whether you overdo it in regards to fat or carbs or both, a calorie surplus is a calorie surplus, no matter how you spin it.

Having said that…protein is a semi exception because it’s just super difficult to overconsume being that it’s so satiating and I’m talking about lean protein specifically just because if it’s fatty protein, it’s not actually going to be the protein that is pushing you over the edge calorie wise, it’s going to be the fat in said protein, for example…

If you ate really fatty bacon all day long, yes there is protein in there but there is a TON of fat and that’s what’s going to drive your calorie intake way up vs. something like lean chicken breast…good luck gaining fat on a lean protein like that. Practically speaking, it’s basically impossible…you’ll feel nauseous before you could consume enough calories to increase your weight from such a lean source of protein like chicken breast.

A few statements that you’ll often hear proponents of the ketogenic diet say are…

‘You need to eat fat to burn fat’…this is just simply not true…if you follow a zero fat diet (which I wouldn’t recommend by the way) you’d still burn fat in a calorie deficit with zero consumption of dietary fat…it’s not like you have to eat fat in order for your body to physiologically use body fat for fuel…that’s not the case.

The second thing that you’ll often hear keto advocates say is that you ‘burn fat for fuel eating a ketogenic diet’ and while this is technically true, it’s INCREDIBLY misleading and this is one of those situations where information is somewhat conveniently left out because…

Yes, on a ketogenic diet you will burn more fat for fuel, but notice, that statement didn’t say you will burn more BODY fat for fuel, those are two completely different things.

You burn more fat for fuel on a keto diet because you consume more fat, which only makes sense, but when folks hear ‘burn fat for fuel’ they automatically think ‘body fat’ and that’s not the case, for example…

If you eat a high carb low fat diet, you will burn more carbs for fuel because you’re limiting fat consumption and carbs are the primary fuel source that your body has access to.

So this is a sneaky distinction that’s really important to make because burning fat for fuel is not the same thing as burning body fat for fuel.

The only way to burn body fat for fuel is to be in a calorie deficit.

Now…I’m not a proponent of a ketogenic diet and I’m not opposed to it either, for me it’s all about sustainability and using the right tool for the right job…so if a client comes to me and says, ‘I really like eating a ketogenic style diet and I want to eat this way to achieve fat loss’…I say ‘great, I’m all for it’ and I help that person formulate the best ketogenic diet structure possible for them as an individual, however…

The truth is that most folks just aren’t going to sustain a ketogenic diet long term and the reason is because it’s very difficult to keep your carbohydrate intake that low on a consistent basis and this is why you hear so many stories of folks doing a keto diet, losing a whole bunch of fat and then putting it back on once they reintroduce carbohydrates into the mix.

It’s not because carbs are inherently fattening, it’s because they just tossed a ton of calories back into their diet and as a result they gain weight, shocker right!?

This would be perfectly equivalent to losing a whole bunch of weight on a high carb low fat diet and then reimplementing a bunch of fat back in the mix and gaining weight…of course that would happen because calorie intake is going way up!

Also, whether you’re on a keto diet or a high carb low fat diet, once you reimplement the macronutrient that you were limiting, all of a sudden all of those heavily processed foods are options again…and we all know that if you want to gain fat and gain it fast, heavily processed foods are the way to do it.

So, who is a keto diet for…it’s for folks that really like eating super low carb and higher fat.

Who is a high carb low fat diet for…it’s for folks that really like eating low fat and higher carb.

And if you equate for calorie consumption, they will both yield the same fat loss results, there is nothing special about either one of these approaches. I’ve done them both and achieved great results and I’ve implemented them both with clients and achieved great results…it’s all about personal preference.

Zooming out a little bit now in terms of fat loss as a whole, there is no special diet (keto included) that doesn’t abide by the universal rule that a calorie deficit is required. This is how every single fat loss diet under the sun works and so it’s just about piecing together a nutritional strategy that A) you can follow and B) has you look, feel and perform how you’d like to…this is exactly what I do with my 1 on 1 nutritional coaching clients.

If keto is that diet for someone, cool…we implement it and if it’s not, we implement something else…which may be high carb and lower fat or it may be moderate carb and moderate fat or it could be lower carb and highish fat…but not necessarily ketogenic style 30g per day low.

The best fat loss diet for you as an individual is the one that you’re willing and able to follow and I help folks find that diet.

There are no cookie cutter approaches to sustainable fat loss, there are absolutely commonalities and trends…but a one size fits all simply does not exist.