KETONE DIET- what are youir thoughts on it????

Keto is great! I love it, and my advice is to try it for yourself and decide. Some people can't do keto, others thrive on it. Just remember, you will go through 'carb withdrawls' as I like to call them, so you must give this diet a good month before you decide to ditch it.

I love it because I feel full, my skin has cleared, and I'm losing a lot of weight. I honestly don't miss the carbs most days. :P

It's a superior diet for many reasons. It's how we all got here; that is to say, as a matter of evolutionary biology, it saved our ancestors from every major blight and famine in human history.

The diet provides a huge metabolic advantage. Compared to other diets, you can maintain all of your essential body functions while eating 8,400 fewer calories each month -- a 2.5 lb. advantage every single month.

As I've written in another post:

"[T]he reason why fat loss is so much easier for those on low carbohydate diets, especially a ketogenic diet (< 50 grams of carbs a day for most people), is because they have to eat 300 fewer calories each day, compared to everyone else trying to lose weight. Over just one week's time, that's 2,100 calories: a huge "metabolic advantage."

In that regard, the brain is unlike any other part of the body. It can only run off of two types of fuel: glucose or the ketone body beta-hydroxybutyyrate combined with a relatively small amount of glucose. Everyone's brain, regardless of his or her height and weight, uses roughly the same amount of calories.

When a person is eating less than 50 grams of carbohydrates a day, they produce sufficient amounts of the ketone body beta-hydroxybutyrate to fuel the majority of the brain's energy needs -- roughly 75%. By limiting carbohydrates and not spiking insulin all day long, ketogenic dieters are always in so-called "fat burning mode": hormone sensitive lipase is upregulated all the time, resulting in the constant breakdown and mobilization of triglycerides. As those triglycerides are broken down, the liver immediately grabs its share of the fatty acids and glycerol to fuel the brain. The liver does so by making beta-hydroxybutyrate out of the fatty acids and uses the glycerol to make glucose in a process called "gluconeogenesis."

People who simply cut calories never produce enough beta-hydroxybutyrate to sufficiently fuel their brains. As a result, they are invariably subject to hypoglycemia and have to eat carbohydrates every time their glycogen runs low. On a ketogenic diet, the brain is always taken care of endogenously through the process above. Consequently, ketogenic dieters never experience hypoglycemia and can effortlessly eat less and stick to their daily calorie goals while rarely even thinking about food. When the brain is fed, the overwhelming majority of the body's cells can function using fatty acids.

The ketogenic diet is the reason all of us are here posting in this thread. It's how our ancestors overcame every major blight and famine in human history. It's why I cringe when I hear those who never took high school biochemistry call it a 'fad'."

ETA: When people talk about the life-extension benefits of "calorie restriction," it's just a polite way of saying "carbohydrate restriction." Even then, however, most people don't really know what it works, but I'd bet a brick house against a bag of sugary donuts that it's because of the powerful attenuating effects of beta-hydroxybutyrate on oxidative stress.

This makes a fantastic amount of sense, however, let me ask you this. Our ancestors ate ketgenic diets - not out of choice, but out of necessity. They also, once given the opportunity, returned to eating more carbs when available. Essentially keto is our biochemical hibernation to help us survive the less plentiful winter. My argument continues to be the same. Those people returned to eating carbs when available, because keto is NOT optimal long term! It's great for short periods of time, but eventually unless you cycle off it, you risk some dangerous side effects including loss of muscle mass which will slow your metabolism and spiral downward from there. Other side effects have all already been mentioned so I won't rehash. But if you're using the evolutionary argument - which is a good one - then you also have to recognize that it isn't meant to be long term.

It's a superior diet for many reasons. It's how we all got here; that is to say, as a matter of evolutionary biology, it saved our ancestors from every major blight and famine in human history.

The diet provides a huge metabolic advantage. Compared to other diets, you can maintain all of your essential body functions while eating 8,400 fewer calories each month -- a 2.5 lb. advantage every single month.

As I've written in another post:

"[T]he reason why fat loss is so much easier for those on low carbohydate diets, especially a ketogenic diet (< 50 grams of carbs a day for most people), is because they have to eat 300 fewer calories each day, compared to everyone else trying to lose weight. Over just one week's time, that's 2,100 calories: a huge "metabolic advantage."

In that regard, the brain is unlike any other part of the body. It can only run off of two types of fuel: glucose or the ketone body beta-hydroxybutyyrate combined with a relatively small amount of glucose. Everyone's brain, regardless of his or her height and weight, uses roughly the same amount of calories.

When a person is eating less than 50 grams of carbohydrates a day, they produce sufficient amounts of the ketone body beta-hydroxybutyrate to fuel the majority of the brain's energy needs -- roughly 75%. By limiting carbohydrates and not spiking insulin all day long, ketogenic dieters are always in so-called "fat burning mode": hormone sensitive lipase is upregulated all the time, resulting in the constant breakdown and mobilization of triglycerides. As those triglycerides are broken down, the liver immediately grabs its share of the fatty acids and glycerol to fuel the brain. The liver does so by making beta-hydroxybutyrate out of the fatty acids and uses the glycerol to make glucose in a process called "gluconeogenesis."

People who simply cut calories never produce enough beta-hydroxybutyrate to sufficiently fuel their brains. As a result, they are invariably subject to hypoglycemia and have to eat carbohydrates every time their glycogen runs low. On a ketogenic diet, the brain is always taken care of endogenously through the process above. Consequently, ketogenic dieters never experience hypoglycemia and can effortlessly eat less and stick to their daily calorie goals while rarely even thinking about food. When the brain is fed, the overwhelming majority of the body's cells can function using fatty acids.

The ketogenic diet is the reason all of us are here posting in this thread. It's how our ancestors overcame every major blight and famine in human history. It's why I cringe when I hear those who never took high school biochemistry call it a 'fad'."

ETA: When people talk about the life-extension benefits of "calorie restriction," it's just a polite way of saying "carbohydrate restriction." Even then, however, most people don't really know what it works, but I'd bet a brick house against a bag of sugary donuts that it's because of the powerful attenuating effects of beta-hydroxybutyrate on oxidative stress.

This makes a fantastic amount of sense, however, let me ask you this. Our ancestors ate ketgenic diets - not out of choice, but out of necessity. They also, once given the opportunity, returned to eating more carbs when available. Essentially keto is our biochemical hibernation to help us survive the less plentiful winter. My argument continues to be the same. Those people returned to eating carbs when available, because keto is NOT optimal long term! It's great for short periods of time, but eventually unless you cycle off it, you risk some dangerous side effects including loss of muscle mass which will slow your metabolism and spiral downward from there. Other side effects have all already been mentioned so I won't rehash. But if you're using the evolutionary argument - which is a good one - then you also have to recognize that it isn't meant to be long term.

You won't crash a metabolism on keto unless like any diet, you push it on for too long on too few calories.