Ketogenic Diet - How many carbs do you eat?

From what I read and heard, Ketosis makes the body acidic and you may lose bone density since the body uses minerals from bone to alkalize it.

Ketoacidosis is the acidic state. Not ketosis. As for bone-density: Studies are inconclusive - there are as many that correlate ketogenic diets with loss-of-bone density (correlation is NOT causation) as there are that show no measurable affect whatsoever.

OK so ketones from ketosis are acidic and prolonged excess of ketone bodies can overwhelm normal compensatory mechanisms, leading to acidosis. Why risk your bone density?

Why not try mostly fruits and vegetables if they normally eat mostly carbs? unless they are diabetic. I suppose fats are cheaper than fruits and vegetables.

It depends on the individual. The clinically obese, especially as they get older, are more-prone to insulin-resistance than others. So even without a Dx of diabetes, the obese are often insulin-resistant and NEED to reduce carbohydrate.

Insulin resistance causes high levels of circulating insulin in the blood, which is clinically shown to both 1) cause cravings for carbohydrate and 2) is the hormone responsible for ingested carbohydrate to be stored as fat.

This is why so many obese people do well on a VLCKD (very low-carb ketogenic diet) where others have failed them.

For those that enjoy carbohydrate, usually as the weight comes off, they can gradually increase the carbohydrate consumption and maintain weight loss. Those that go OFF the VLCKD have a tendency to gain it all back. Talk to anyone that used to be 350+ lbs and maintained weight loss - the almost all exclusively stayed low-carb.

They should eat slow digesting carbs with fruits and vegetables and lean proteins and they would lose weight.
I doubt almost all of them are low carb. If they go off the diet they will most likely gain the weight back like you said and they have to eat more carbs eventually or risk dying from acidosis. There are far better alternatives to losing weight.

Heh. You have obviously never seen the results that come with a keto diet, nor have you done any research on the subject. Keto makes sense, it's a very scientific process. When your body is without carbs to burn for fuel, it begins burning fat instead. Maybe research a subject before you call it crazy?

Heh. You have obviously never seen the results that come with a keto diet, nor have you done any research on the subject. Keto makes sense, it's a very scientific process. When your body is without carbs to burn for fuel, it begins burning fat instead. Maybe research a subject before you call it crazy?

I've spend the last couple months doing a lot of in-depth research about ketosis, here's where I'm at:

- I stay below 20g net carbs/day. Occasionally, I'll eat something that had more carbs than I expected (most recently it was cabbage) and go as high as 30g, but that's pretty rare because I usually put everything in MFP before I actually eat.
- My MFP settings are 5% carbs, 25% protein, 70% fat. I eat ~1800 calories/day and drink 3+ liters of water and I've lost 25 lbs in the last 6 weeks with a completely sedentary lifestyle. (My calorie deficit is not nearly large enough to cause that much loss if keto doesn't work.) Due to old injuries, my knees and ankles hurt far too much for me to exercise until I lose more weight, so I literally sit at my desk 95% of the time.
- The science is contrary to everything I've ever been taught by the American system, but it works. My weight is down. My blood pressure is down. My cholesterol is down. My energy level is up. I'm not hungry all the time like I used to be. Most importantly, I get to eat delicious foods that I love in the quantities I want.
- My gall bladder failed and was removed 7 years ago and I've had near-constant intestinal pain since. Until starting keto. Now I feel great... No pain. No days spent in the fetal position on the brink of tears. (Used to happen at least once every 2 weeks.) No sprinting to the bathroom 15 minutes after every meal. My digestive system works like a normal person's should. (Ironically, the most common cause of gall bladder failure in young people is not eating enough fat. Less than 30 grams/day puts you at risk.)

If you're still skeptical, listen to this guy: http://youtu.be/NqwvcrA7oe8

Thanks for the replies. I do keep my fat intake at 50% so I guess that should be helping. I'd have a hard time eating only 20g of carbs a day. That seems so low to me. My average is 87g, and I'm losing weight.

Only 50% fat? Shouldn't that be higher with keto?