The Stupid Myth About the Keto Diet

The Keto Diet Myth

The keto diet is one of those fad diets you’ll hear about all the time when you’re trying to cut weight. If you’re a bodybuilder prepping for a show, it may be the route to take, but other than that it has its drawbacks.

If you’re not a bodybuilder or doing a photoshoot, it’s not the best approach for weight loss. Is your goal to just cut weight for the short-term or do you want to stay lean for good?

That’s the problem with the keto diet. It’ll make you lose weight, but you won’t be able to sustain the weight loss. Do you want to bust your ass for 6 weeks to get shredded to only gain the weight back?

Well if you’re a bodybuilder or athlete prepping for a competition or photo shoot, it makes sense. Just know you’ll gain the weight back once you go back to your normal way of eating.

Also, be prepared to be moody and feel lethargic. Your body needs carbs to function.

For the average civilian though, going on the keto diet isn’t the best move for weight loss. That’s because the fundamental principle that remains true for weight loss has nothing to do with how many carbs you eat.

Weight loss is always about cutting the calories you eat not carbs.

What Is The Keto Diet?

The keto diet limits how many carbohydrates you eat. It’s a low carb diet. Instead, you’ll consume most of your macronutrients from fats.

Foods that you eat in place of carbs will include:

• seafood
• fruits and vegetables
• healthy fats (cheese, avocado, olive oil)
• meats and poultry

The gist behind the keto diet is that it puts your body into ketosis. Ketosis is when ketones build up in the body. What this means is your body starts to burn fat for energy. That’s because your body can no longer burn carbs for fuel since you’ve cut out the consumption of them.

Low Carb Diet Benefits

The biggest reason people go on low carb diets is for weight loss. Benefits include:

• weight loss
• reduce appetite
• improve cholesterol
• prevent diabetes

Most of these benefits are a result of reducing your calories though. So even if you aren’t on a low carb diet, then you’ll receive these benefits from just losing weight.

In reality, the benefits you receive from the keto diet are just from reducing the amount of calories you’re eating and lowering your weight.

Low Carb Diet Problems

For one, carbs are your body’s primary source of energy. Without carbs, your body will lack energy.

Another problem with low carb diets is that for most people they only lead to short-term weight loss. That’s because most people can’t cut out carbs for the rest of their lives.

And what that means is that once you get off a low carb diet, you’ll just gain back all the weight you’ve lost.

Not to mention the loss of glycogen from carb depletion. Glycogen is stored in the muscle to give it energy. And guess what, it comes from carbs.

So if you’re cutting out carbs completely, that would hurt your gains big time in the gym. You need muscle glycogen to throw around all the heavy ass weight you’re using.

If you’re going to go on a low carb diet, you must have carb reloading days to replenish your body back with carbs.

As an added catastrophe, think of all your favorite foods. The vast majority of them are made up of CARBS – pizza, ice cream, cookies, chips, etc.

Cutting out those foods just for a shredded physique won’t be worth it for most people. To me, you gotta be an elite bodybuilder.

The Truth About Weight Loss

The real reason the keto diet works for weight loss is because of the reduction in calories. When you cut out the amount of carbs you’re eating, you’re reducing the number of calories you’re consuming.

That’s the only way to lose weight. It doesn’t matter what diet you’re doing, if your goal is to lose weight then you need to eat less.

A multitude of studies support this. What’s crazy is that you can lose weight without exercising as long as you’re reducing your caloric intake and get into a caloric deficit. However, for a well-developed physique, lifting weights is mandatory.

With that being said, the keto diet is a good option for some people to limit how much food they’re eating.

If your goal is to lose weight, then you need to burn more calories then you’re consuming.

Sustainable Diet 

The key to weight loss is through a sustainable diet that you can follow long-term. It’s about making a lifestyle change to do that. So whether that’s with the keto diet or any other diet you follow, the one you can continue to follow will be the one you should do to lose belly fat for good.

At the end of the day, all diets work for weight loss if you can sustain it and it puts you in a caloric deficit.

So find a diet that works for you, and stick with it.

Conclusion

The keto diet is one of the most popular diets out there if you’re looking to lose weight. Just know that it will likely only lead to short-term weight loss and for most people it’s not a sustainable approach to get the lean physique you want.

If you’re a bodybuilder or bikini model prepping for a show or photoshoot, sure it may be a good diet prep for the event, but the results you get won’t be there to stay.

Weight loss comes down to cutting calories, not carbs. If you want more tips about dieting, follow us on Instagram and Facebook!