19: Do you find you lose weight when you ditch carbs? The truth behind Keto

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 Hey guys, it's Lyndi Cohen, a dietician, nutritionist, and I'm joined by my divine co-host, Jenna D'Apice

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 Hello, welcome to the podcast. We talk about all things wellness and wankery, decide which is which, and today, huge one, Lyndi, what is the go keto? Should you go keto?

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 Should you go keto? I get asked this way too often. What is keto? So what is keto? Let's start there, it's a good place to start. Okay, so keto is a really popular diet at the moment, which is basically it's a high-fat diet. It's got an adequate amount of protein, so just enough protein so that you can function, and it's low carbohydrate.

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 So it's predominantly fat.

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 Predominantly fat, and so the whole idea about it is that when you're eating enough fat, your body breaks down fat into fatty acids as well as ketones, and these ketones can help your body go into a state of ketosis, and this is what people are trying to strive to. When you get into a state of ketosis, your body uses fat in a different way. It does. You do burn fat in a different way, so this is what people are striving to get to. I find it very interesting to think about what the keto diet was originally created for and it was actually for kids who had epilepsy. So the whole idea that they found, the reason they developed this diet, because you'd have kids who'd be having these seizures all the time and they figured out that the seizures were happening because they had glucose in their brain, glucose being from carbohydrates. So they thought, well, what happens if we take away the glucose? And they didn't. So when these kids are having these high-fat diets and not having carbohydrates, the seizures stopped. They also found one of the side effects was that it changed the way in which they stored and burned fat. So is the whole purpose of the diet, like they've taken out carbohydrates for the glucose in the brain and they've upped the fat just so you can survive?

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 Like do you need more fat to kind of compensate?

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 Well, you need the fats to actually get the state of ketosis. Right. Yeah. And also, yeah, you do need a certain number of calories and energy so you can actually survive. You can't just survive on nothing.

0:02:38
 And I've always thought about keto as being like terrible for your heart. Like, what is your heart doing with all that fat?

0:02:42
 Yeah, I mean, that's a really good question. And I think this is kind of like the keto diet is very much just the new paleo diet, which is the new Atkins diet and we all remember the Atkins diet. Lots of research to say that it was really bad for our heart health. And I guess like who's surprised when part of the advice back then was like have butter and have bacon and eat lots of meat as a result of it or have lots of deep fried fatty food. And I think any time we're in the diet world, we're going, let's create a huge imbalance in macronutrients and too much of one thing. Good things aren't going to happen. This isn't the way. This is not the way forward. Always let that be alarm bells going off in your brain. Okay, so back to the keto diet. Basically, to get into a state of ketosis, this is what people want to get into, you do need to eat enough fat and then it takes your body a few days to get into the state of ketosis and you have to then measure to see whether or not you are in ketosis.

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 My friend's brother does like a pin prick.

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 You prick your skin to get some blood out to kind of go, okay, because your ketones travel around in your blood. So you're trying to measure how many of those ketones are there. And you can also pee on a stick, the good old pee on a stick ketosis trick. And one of the side effects of being in ketosis is that you have a smelly breath.

0:04:03
 It's like what?

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 I don't know if it's just like normal bad breath. No, it's different. It's just like, how do I describe it? It's chemically, I think, that would be the way I would describe it. It's just a weird smell.

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 You can kind of smell someone in ketosis. So you do this, you're eating in a certain way to get into ketosis, and then how long do you stay like that for, just as long as you can?

0:04:29
 You do want to be able to stay in it for a little bit of time, but I think what's very interesting is you can't actually stay in ketosis permanently. I don't think it's a very healthy state to stay in. And this whole idea that you have to go into a state of ketosis to lose weight, but then you can't stay in there for very long, so you kind of need to transition out of ketosis at some point. It's almost like the whole diet approach stems on like an in-out, in-out, you know, on-off kind of mentality. I just think it's completely unsustainable to be doing that. I just want to think about like how hard it is to follow a keto diet and eat out and to eat out with your friends and to socialize. And I think we should all be cooking at home more. Honestly, I reckon that's like a key thing. But like a few times a week to be able to go out with your friends and socialize and chew something off the menu and not have to worry.

0:05:18
 So what type of things do keto people have to eat? What type of things that just bacon is all I can think of? Do they eat other things other than bacon?

0:05:26
 Well I think even some things have got too much protein in them, right? So you can't just eat meat all the time, but you eat other things other than just that.

0:05:43
 Yeah. Like your whole plate isn't a plate of avocado.

0:05:45
 Yeah. And imagine if it is, just like an avocado with some egg and a little bit of cheese on top and that's like your breakfast.

0:05:51
 Oh, okay.

0:05:52
 Yeah, that grosses me out.

0:05:54
 It's a bit, like you could do it for a little bit, but do you really want to live like that for the rest of your life? And I think that's the question you have to ask yourself before you try any of these fandangled diets. Can I do this for the rest of my life? And I don't know about you, but I do not want to be pricking my skin to check my ketosis levels, to have weird smelly breath, to have to miss out on my social occasions because I can't eat whatever everyone else is eating. Yes, you will lose weight by doing this kind of diet, but can you maintain it? Can you sustain it? No. I was looking into the research behind these kind of intense weight loss programs. And after five years, I think it's 19% of people were able to maintain 10% of the weight they lost, so just a very small smidgen of weight. And a small smidgen of people are able to maintain a small smidgen of the weight they lost. Yes. And 40% of people regained more weight than before they actually started doing that diet. Okay? I think that with each weight loss attempt, I always gained weight, and so I'd always end up getting into a larger size and getting a large size and becoming more and more obsessed

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 with food.

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 Now, if you want to become obsessed with sugar and carbohydrates, a great way to do that is to go on a keto diet. While you're on a keto diet, you will get a reduction in the cravings that you have for carbohydrates and sugar. That is true. That does happen. But that's only provided you stick to it. So let's say you have one deviation on the weekends and then you do eat some carbohydrates. Not only do you kick yourself out of that state of ketosis, so now you have to go back and build yourself back into ketosis, but now once you've had the taste for the thing that you've deprived yourself of, oh, now you've set yourself up to feel crazy around these foods. And I think fundamentally, this is an unsustainable approach. I don't think it's a healthy approach at all. I think it's really sad that it's currently as popular as it is. And just think about how much money all the people who are selling you keto things are currently making. I think it's a really interesting thing to think about. When you think about, well, is this a sustainable approach? Can I do it for the rest of my life is one question. And the people who are promoting this, what incentive do they have for me to be doing this?" And they're probably going to be like, it changed my life. I'm like a completely different person. I can fit into my pants so much better now. But they're also making lots and lots of money from selling you this approach. And how do you get any type of nutrients, fruits or vegetables in this diet? How do people stay on it for long periods of time? How would you stay on it for a long period of time? Because fruits are going to have too many carbohydrates in them. And I think that's another thing. When you go on a diet and it's like, fruit is fattening, fruit has too much sugar, that is a warning signal. Let that be a warning signal when it's like you can't eat certain vegetables because they're apparently bad for you. That's a shonky diet. That's a no-go. And when people are on these for long periods of time, do they take supplements or something for all these vitamins and minerals and micronutrients they wouldn't be getting. I think if you were like super, super onto it, you might be able to get away with not taking a multivitamin, but for the general population, you're going to have inadequacies in your diet. You're not going to be getting all the nutrients that you need. You know, simple things like, are you going to get enough calcium? No. Are you going to get enough vitamin A, vitamin C? You're going to have to hustle for all of these nutrients. And I'd say if you are doing keto, you absolutely need to be doing it under medical supervision. You have to be taking some kind of supplementation. You have to be doing regular blood tests to make sure that you're okay and I just think that's all just a whole lot.

0:09:26
 That doesn't sound like things people should be doing to lose weight.

0:09:28
 No, and it's a very unhealthy way to lose weight and I think this is my key gripe in the world is we're so often willing to do something very unhealthily, deeply unhealthy to our body so that we can pursue weight loss. And I think that's incredibly disordered and sad that we should have to sacrifice ourselves like that. So let's not do it. And when you actually start to rebuild your relationship with carbohydrates, life is a lot better. Life is better. I don't know about you, but I'm a shitty person when I don't eat carbs.

0:09:56
 Life is better when you can just not fear a white potato.

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 Yeah.

0:10:01
 One of my followers reached out to me and said that eating potato feels like a treat

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 for her.

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 And I can relate because it used to feel like a treat for me as well, but I just want to tell you that potato is an everyday delicious, delicious food that you're allowed to eat. And doing these low carb diets will make you feel crazy about these foods and I just want you to know that you can eat them multiple times a day and still be really healthy. All right, guys, I don't know if you have any more questions on that but that's kind of keto-wrapped. Let's like close that one off. Please don't do it. I do not recommend it. It is an absolute diet. It's one of the bad diets I'd say. And to finish off this episode, we always like to touch on something that we love and something I love is hot girl walks. Hot girl walks, the best. So I don't know if you know what a hot girl walk is. If you don't, I think many people do, but if you don't, it's a bit of a trend at the moment. What it is, it's a daily walk that you do. There's typically a uniform that people wear. There's an outfit, a certain look, but you don't have to wear a certain outfit. People do slick hair and dainty gold jewelry. That's actually not part of the outfit. Yeah, but apart from a jacket and the high white socks. Anyway, you don't have to do that. But the point of a hot girl walk is that it's a long walk, it's typically like 45 minutes to an hour. It's a daily walk, so it's not going to eat you consistently. And as you're going on the walk, what you're meant to be doing is you're meant to be thinking of things that you're grateful for, thinking about your plans that you're working on, and you're also meant to be thinking about how hot you are. I love this.

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 And it kind of becomes a bit meditative. Like this is something I'm doing for myself and I try to like not even sometimes take my headphones because like if you Take your air pods or your headphones and you've got to take your phone and it's like no I'm just having a little bit of a technology free hot girl walk. I love this

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 And so what it's all it is is it's a mental health walk really that you do every single day I don't know about you, but if I don't get enough steps during the day I'm not my best self. I consider going for my daily walk very much something I do for my anxiety as an essential like medication. I cannot live without it. So I just love this idea that we're somehow made an anxiety walk into a hot girl walk. Who doesn't want to walk along being like, I'm cool, I'm hot, I'm killing it. This is all a club that we all want to belong to in a way. I don't think it even comes down to how you look. I know it's called a hot girl walk and it's about looking a certain way, but I don't think

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 it is that. That's feeling a certain way.

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 It is.

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 It's embodying hot girl energy, which is someone who's deeply confident in themselves, who knows they're cool, who's sassy, and let's all just do more of that.

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 The more you hot girl walk, the more endorphins you have.

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 Oh, yeah.

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 Let's get the hot girl walk on. All right, guys.

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 That's it for today. If you do have any questions, please DM me on Instagram at nude underscore nutritionist with my voicemail. Ask me a question that you've been wondering, is it wellness or is it wankery, and we'll try to answer it. Also, if you can, leave us a review. If you want to, we'd really appreciate it.

0:13:00
 That'd be really great if you could.

0:13:01
 Just to know that you're also out there listening gives us happy vibes, hot girl energy.

0:13:10
 Huge hot girl energy. Thank you so much, and we'll chat to you next time.

0:13:13
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