I'm Very Confused! Do I Need To Be In Ketosis To Lose Weight?

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  • crazyycatlady1
    crazyycatlady1 Posts: 292 Member
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    I've lost 80lbs not being in ketosis.

    Yep, 50lbs here. For me personally low carb/keto sounds like torture :p
  • amyteacake
    amyteacake Posts: 768 Member
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    You don't need to be on ketosis to lose weight! When I first started I wasn't on a low carb diet. I did, however, go on a keto diet when I was training with a pt but that was only for a few weeks. I don't think ketosis is good to do for a long period of time.
  • Spiffy_Barbarella
    Spiffy_Barbarella Posts: 7 Member
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    You need to be in a calorie deficit to lose weight. I did a high protein, low carb diet before and lost weight because I was actually eating a low calorie diet. If you eat lots of veggies and protein, and create a calorie deficit of 500 calories a day, you will lose weight. The problem with a lot of low carb diets is that they are actually high in fat, not to mention the fact that your body needs carbs to function, and the weight won't stay off- a low calorie diet is a better way to go IMO.
  • thewindandthework
    thewindandthework Posts: 531 Member
    edited April 2017
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    hanley1512 wrote: »
    Do I Need To Be In Ketosis To Lose Weight?
    No.
    So...can you lose weight without being in Ketosis?
    Yes.

    Ketogenic and other low-carb diets are the current Weight Loss Miracles by which some people swear. They're also the fad diets that for many people work for a while but they find they can't or won't maintain that lifestyle.

    The way to lose weight, as others upthread have mentioned, is to make sure you're burning more calories than you're taking in. The hard part is figuring out a lifestyle and way of eating that you are able and willing to maintain.
  • RogerToo
    RogerToo Posts: 16,157 Member
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    hanley1512 wrote: »
    I am on information overload. Everything I read is telling me in order to lose weight, I have to be in Ketosis. Is this true? If so I am doomed. I like all the foods I read I shouldn't be eating (potatos, pasta, bread...)

    So...can you lose weight without being in Ketosis?

    TYIA!

    Hi
    The short is answer is No !

    I have lost 227 pounds despite never having been in Ketosis.
    If I can do it so Can anybody. Working on a CICO diet is what worked for me. Eating normal foods while learning proper portions is the key.

    FWIW I tried a Ketosis Diet in the past and it did initially work, then the weight came back plus.

    Good Luck
    Roger
  • SuperCarLori
    SuperCarLori Posts: 1,248 Member
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    I'm pretty sure keto and low carb ways of eating have been around long enough to not qualify as fad diets, and I have many friends who are using them for medical reasons and friends who are losing fat using them as well. Ones who have been 'fad dieting' this woe for years....go figure.

    No, ketosis is not necessary for fat loss. :)
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
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    hanley1512 wrote: »
    I am on information overload. Everything I read is telling me in order to lose weight, I have to be in Ketosis. Is this true? If so I am doomed. I like all the foods I read I shouldn't be eating (potatos, pasta, bread...)

    So...can you lose weight without being in Ketosis?

    TYIA!

    lost all my weight eating all the carbs...

    you do not need keto to lose weight...

    you need a calorie deficit..

  • thewindandthework
    thewindandthework Posts: 531 Member
    edited April 2017
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    I can't speak for others, but in my opinion, the hallmark of a fad diet is that it is extreme, has rules of what you should and should not eat (which personally I find unnecessary and intolerable), and that most people lose weight at first but find the restrictions impossible to maintain.

    Certainly there are people who stick with it--and good for them! They have stuck with their fad because it worked for them. Doesn't mean it's not a fad.

    EDIT: But I have gotten off track. OP, if keto-type diet plans look good to you, do it! If you don't think that type of diet is something you can stick with, don't fret. Just log what you do eat, and make sure your calories eaten are fewer than your calories burned.
  • SuperCarLori
    SuperCarLori Posts: 1,248 Member
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    Well I feel that even calorie restriction could be labeled as extreme at times, and certainly a person would need restrict their cake intake, no? ;)

    I lost my first thirty pounds doing keto, and no I can't seem to maintain it. I do know plenty who are rocking that fad though.

    The bottom line is to find a way of eating that can be maintained. And if you do keto and can't maintain it, then stop doing it and try something else. There are many ways to restrict calories.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,668 Member
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    Nope. Just need to eat less calories than you burn.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

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  • SuperCarLori
    SuperCarLori Posts: 1,248 Member
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    earlnabby wrote: »
    Keto diet is not "flavour of the month" it's been around for decades - but it is not necessary to lose weight.

    If there is a bandwagon to jump on, it is a "flavor of the month" and keto definitely has a bandwagon right now.

    I can't deny this. Truth cannot be denied. There's a bandwagon.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,401 MFP Moderator
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    earlnabby wrote: »
    Keto diet is not "flavour of the month" it's been around for decades - but it is not necessary to lose weight.

    If there is a bandwagon to jump on, it is a "flavor of the month" and keto definitely has a bandwagon right now.

    I can't deny this. Truth cannot be denied. There's a bandwagon.

    I suspect its from all of the Netflix "documentaries" who are not promotion high fat since the low fat craze didn't solve the obesity epidemic. Although, I am not sure the high fat craze will solve it either.
  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
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    Down a little over 100lbs. No ketosis.
  • DietPrada
    DietPrada Posts: 1,171 Member
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    WinoGelato wrote: »
    hanley1512 wrote: »
    Do I Need To Be In Ketosis To Lose Weight?
    No.
    So...can you lose weight without being in Ketosis?
    Yes.

    Ketogenic and other low-carb diets are the current Weight Loss Miracles by which some people swear. They're also the fad diets that for many people work for a while but they find they can't or won't maintain that lifestyle.

    The way to lose weight, as others upthread have mentioned, is to make sure you're burning more calories than you're taking in. The hard part is figuring out a lifestyle and way of eating that you are able and willing to maintain.

    Why so dismissive and judgemental? Ketogenic diet is not a fad or a weight loss miracle - it works because it reduces your hunger and allows many people who have never succeeded before to gain control of their eating and yes, eat less calories. . It also has many medical applications, controlling diabetes, inflammation, epilepsy. And as for sticking to it, jump over to the low-carb group - there's many of us who have done it for years (4 years for me at 20 - 30g carbs a day). My diet is not restricted in any way, I just choose not to eat sugar and grain based foods - much the same as vegetarians choose not to eat meat. I don't hear so much hate for them though, go figure. Just because you don't understand something, or choose a different path for yourself, doesn't mean you need to condescend to people who aren't the same as you.

    Keto reduces YOUR hunger. As has been stated countless times on these threads, satiety is largely individualized and many people DO NOT find Keto satiating.

    Mine and thousands of others. And I'm willing to bet that anyone who's tried it and NOT had their appetite reduce has not done it for long enough, and has not actually eaten properly low carb, or has had too many cheats. It only works if you do it properly and stick to it long enough to switch your body to fat burning rather than sugar burning. If you do it properly, it works for most people. Most people who quit low carb do so a couple of days in because they felt lethargic and headachy - which can be eliminated by having enough salt.
  • LucasWilland
    LucasWilland Posts: 68 Member
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    hanley1512 wrote: »
    I am on information overload. Everything I read is telling me in order to lose weight, I have to be in Ketosis. Is this true? If so I am doomed. I like all the foods I read I shouldn't be eating (potatos, pasta, bread...)

    So...can you lose weight without being in Ketosis?

    TYIA!

    This just goes to show how twisted the fitness industry is in dealing with actual science. The only thing that has ever shown to cause fat loss ever is a calorie deficit, yet somewhere along the way, possibly from the unbelievable amount of BS from Gary Taubes and fitness magazines, people got the idea that weight loss would be impossible in the presence of high insulin levels.

    This is true to an extent, but what many don't realize is that every time you eat (regardless of whether carbohydrate is ingested or not, fat cells are being created and stored by the body and being burned or oxidized during sleep. What matters is if at the end of this 24 hour cycle your adipose cells have a necessary deficit of insulin to allow hormone sensitve lipase to leave the glycerol backbone of your cells, which can simply be accomplished by an inadequate production of ATP, aka, a calorie deficit.

    Now people have somehow got confused that eating more fat= burning more body fat, but this isn't even close to remotely true. The only thing you are doing by dropping carbs and replacing them with fat is forcing your body to use intramuscular triglycerides as glucose, but this won't make a dime's worth of a difference if there is a necessary energy surplus to store those extra triglycerides into adipose tissue, which is why there has not been a single study that has shown a ketogenic diet to be superior when both calories and fiber are controlled ever. It really comes down to a matter of personal preference.

    By the way, the circus clown called Taubes debunked his own theories with his own metabolic ward study, so yeah...