Pros and Cons of Ketogenic Diet

I look at the ketogenic diet the same way I look at the vegan diet,  it is a diet that should only be followed  to fix certain health problems and is not a balanced long-term diet.

For my clients who are trying to lose bodyfat I recommend they start with a 2 week ketogenic diet followed by 2 weeks ketogenic diet + 1-2 starches/day depending on activity levels.     We follow the ketogenic diet until the body is fat-adapted and our appetite for sweets is diminished.  Once we reach these goals it is time to start following a more balanced diet.  The only time I recommend a person stay on the ketogenic diet more than 2 weeks is if they are more than 15-20 lbs overweight.  Once a person is this many lbs overweight they qualify as sick and unhealthy, the health benefits of the keto diet outweigh the negatives for these folks.  For these people getting the excess weight off becomes our #1 priority. 

Pro: You will lose weight quickly on this diet, many people lose 5-10 lbs during their first 10 days following this plan.

Con:  You will probably lose at least some muscle mass from this quick weight loss.  Clients who are 20 lbs or more overweight can afford to lose a small amount of muscle mass as they lose fat but  for clients trying to lose mainly bellyfat this can be disastrous.

Pro:  Your appetite will change so drastically by the 10-14th day it will feel like you have no appetite at all.  This is a beneficial thing when trying to change eating habits BUT

Con:  This "no-appetite" feeling can be addictive for some folks so they stay on the pure ketogenic diet for more than 2 weeks.    This almost always causes people to undereat.  If you undereat on the keto diet you are missing the point and the body will react as it always does to nutritional stress, mainly by storing calories as bellyfat instead of burning this fat for fuel.

Pro:  The diet is simple to follow.  Meats, eggs, vegetables.  That's it! 

Cons:  The ketogenic diet does not teach a person how to eat a balanced diet.  Many people try to turn this into a beef and bacon diet but this is not the proper way to do it.  Digestion will be poor and a 0% carbohydrate diet followed in the long run will make some folks feel terrible.   A true ketogenic diet has some carbohydrates but all of these carbs must come from above-ground/low-glycemic load (no starch) vegetables.  Vegetables have almost nothing in them energy-wise so even on the keto diet you can eat them almost unrestricted.  It is not as easy as most people thing getting a couple hundred calories a day from vegetables only!