My Experience Losing Weight With The Ketogenics Lifestyle – Part 4

My Experience With Losing Weight With The Ketogenics Lifestyle – Part 4 By – Dwight Lilly

What Makes the Ketogenic lifestyle – Keto Diet So Effective for Weight Loss? With the diets I have tried and failed at there is one thing they all have in common, it’s one thing to follow a prescribed regiment from a doctor’s study or diet book, yet a different animal in the ‘real world’ to experience. I don’t live in a laboratory or in a diet book. My caloric expenditure and intake are not being rigidly tracked by scientists, and my meals aren’t being formulated for a specific macronutrient and calorie content. In the real world, I am inundated with palate-pleasing temptations that are dangerously convenient to consume in copious amounts. I can’t go to the mailbox, pick up a magazine or watch TV without being subjected to Madison Avenue developed professional advertising and associated temptations.

To lose weight and keep it off, I must fight against this obesogenic (fat-gain promoting) environment and my own cravings and hunger pangs, to maintain a calorie deficit. Simple in concept, but not easy to implement, as demonstrated by the rising obesity rates in westernized societies. Fortunately, it is possible to make weight loss easier to accomplish with a ketogenic lifestyle. According to the research that mimics real-world scenarios, the low-carb diet works incredibly well by making weight loss more feasible and sustainable. So why do low carb diets work so well? Although many factors contribute to weight loss, here are the two principles that explain why cutting carbs work. By restricting carbs, you naturally increase your consumption of high-fat, protein-dense, and fiber-rich foods. These foods boost satiety levels in the short- and long-term, which causes you to eat fewer calories than before. By restricting carbs, you are eliminating virtually all calorically-dense processed foods from your diet. These foods are typically so palatable that they cause us to consume too many calories and gain fat. Put in another way, the low carb diet primarily consists of highly-satiating foods like meat, fish, and lowcarb vegetables while cutting out all carb-ridden, highly-palatable foods. By eating in this way, most people experience a significant amount of fat loss because they tend to eat fewer calories than they did previously without realizing it. And that has been my experience too. Furthermore, if you restrict carbs to the point of provoking nutritional ketosis (i.e., by following a keto diet), you will also experience the appetite-suppressing effects of ketones – an alternative fuel source that will help keep your energy levels high and calorie consumption low so that you can lose more fat without missing a step.

I do have to add one caveat, even though I’m rarely hungry while living this new lifestyle, I do tend to overeat if I don’t work on reprogramming my mind to accept smaller portions of food. I catch myself continuing to lift the fork to my mouth even when I’m full. The bottom line is you and I lose weight by reducing daily calorie intake and thus burning the fat you and I already had in storage. If I’m not losing weight and I am in ketosis then I’m eating too much. And since I’m not hungry…well you get the point. It’s a habit to overeat and a habit I’m breaking. But I still slip up sometimes. Again, I’m not living in a laboratory or having a scientist o diet book author doing my meal planning and portion control.

The bulk of research indicates that the ketogenic diet is more effective than conventional diets in helping me lose weight and shed body fat. What my accompanying research on this topic showed me is as follows. Weight loss caused by low-carb diets isn’t just because of a loss of “water weight”. In research studies that measured change in body fat, subjects eating low-carb diets had a greater loss in body fat than those eating low-fat diets. Additionally, keto diets lead to a greater reduction in waist circumference, a critical indicator of harmful stomach fat. And the low fat diets always failed me. A ketogenic diet accompanied by regular physical exercise and smart diet choices, such as eating more low-carbohydrate vegetables and fatty fish, increase its effectiveness in shedding excess weight and fat. Being in a calorie deficit is the key to weight loss.

Low carb diets are effective because cutting carbs increases the satiety of the diet and reduces calorie consumption. Consistency is important. Most of the studies that yielded good results did so because subjects kept track of their calorie intake and made healthy lifestyle choices. As I mentioned in an earlier part of this series, reading labels and understanding what constitutes a serving size and it’s accompanying nutritional facts is extremely important. The calories are right on the label! Combine this with the long-term health benefits of the ketogenic diet, and it becomes a fantastic blend of both short- and long-term results. At this point I believe it is time to switch gears and address fasting. The next half of the Ketogenic lifestyle is when to eat and why that is important.