My personal training clients always have some degree of weight loss goals that they would like to achieve. For most, it’s their top focus while for others it’s more muscle gain. No matter how ambitious the weight loss goal is, there is one sure proof way to shed those extra pounds. Some people may find this to be a polarizing idea, but Keto is the #1 best way to lose weight. And I’ll tell you why.
Your body has two sources of energy that it uses. The easiest source to use is glucose which come from eating carbohydrates. The other energy source is fat that is stored away in our bodies. With our typical American diet, which is loaded with carbs, we are generally using glucose for our bodies’ functionalities. Our bodies only start to use fat when we get low on glucose. Through years and years of a carb filled American diet, we have unknowingly trained our bodies to use glucose as our primary energy source. Since we constantly eat carbs and because of how easy it is to break down, this is the fuel that our bodies have grown accustomed to using primarily.
If your body has a steady flow of glucose due to carb rich foods and routine eating windows, then our body never has a reason to reach into storage and use our fat reserves. This is where Keto comes into play. Although this topic is highly debated, the science can’t be. Keto focuses on cutting out carbs, so the body has no choice but to use fat reserves. That’s all Keto is. No carbs means no glucose. And no glucose means our bodies will resort to the fat we have store away. As a result, we start burning that stored fat because that’s what it’s there for. It’s there for when we don’t have easy energy on hand.
Keto is not easy. I’ll get that right out of the way. It’s difficult, frustrating, and can be very restricting on what we put in our bodies. At first, this is all true. However, it gets easier as your body begins to adapt. Since most of us have grown up on a typical American diet, our bodies have had no need to use our fat reserves. Even if we eat a healthy American diet, it still is filled with carbs, forcing our body to use up the quick glucose instead of fat. With Keto, we are asking our bodies to adapt to a completely new energy source. For some, it’s very difficult. Some people experience what is call the “Keto flu” due to the effects of glucose withdrawal on the body. Although this only lasts for a week or so. After the body adapts to using fat, this won’t be a problem anymore. Keto comes from the word Ketosis which means when there are ample amounts of ketones in the blood. Ketones come from metabolizing fat into energy. When there are no carbs in the diet, and your body relies only on its stored fat, glucose levels will plummet, and ketones will take over as the new primary energy source.
If losing weight is priority #1, then we have to retrain our bodies to use fat as our energy source. That’s what Keto is all about. It’s tough at first because our bodies are not used to this. We have no “metabolic flexibility”, a term that means we are accustomed to going back and forth from glucose to ketones as our primary energy source. Metabolic flexibility comes from training our bodies to use ketones from fat. After we get over the first hump in a Keto diet, our bodies will become more used to the ketones and our metabolic flexibility will start to develop. After a few weeks of Keto, it will even be easier going back into ketosis if you were to give yourself a cheat day or two. That’s our ultimate goal, to become metabolic flexible so our body can use fat or carbs as energy sources.
Keto isn’t easy, especially at first. But it is the best way to lose weight. It takes some practice and determination, but it’s all necessary to train our body to use fat instead of carbs as fuel. Most of us are getting by on the carbs that we eat. However, if you have weight loss goals that you’re struggling with, then it may be because your carb intake is too high. My #1 advice to clients interested in weight loss is to cut out carbs as best you can. Stick to meat, fish, and green leafy vegetables. I know, the diet is very limiting, but that’s what it takes to change how our bodies have been functioning for years. Once you build up your metabolic flexibility, then you can be more lenient about what you eat. But at first, it’s better to take an “all in” approach. Despite what anyone says about Keto, the science of how our body uses energy and where it comes from can not be debated. It is the #1 diet for weight loss.
Dabbl 