Balanced Diet vs Keto

I have been trying to see if I can lose weight faster on keto vs a balanced diet.

The last 14 days I have been doing what would probably be considered high protein keto. My macro goals are 10% carbs 60% fat and 30% protein, but I have been a little higher on fat and lower on carbs than that each day.

The previous 14 days I was doing what I consider is a more balanced diet but still probably low carb. My macros then were 40% carbs 35% fat and 25% protein.

I lost 9 lbs in 14 days on the balanced diet and 10 lbs in 14 days on keto with the same calorie limit on each. Appears to me it is mostly about calories.

Your opinion?
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Replies

  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,261 Member
    edited June 2021
    You won't actually get into ketosis with those macro's. Protein is insulinogenic and your carbs are too high. It also takes a while to fully adapt to ketosis and 2 weeks is probably not enough time in a good keto macro. Your basically consuming what would be considered a low carb diet. Chalk up your weight loss to water weight and a calorie deficit. good job though in losing the weight.

    EDIT: 40% carbs isn't really low carb. The Average American was a little higher, can't remember maybe 43 in the 1960's and early 70's. Then soon after saturated fat was replaced with more carbs in the diet from the low fat philosophy, basically.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,985 Member
    I have been trying to see if I can lose weight faster on keto vs a balanced diet.

    The last 14 days I have been doing what would probably be considered high protein keto. My macro goals are 10% carbs 60% fat and 30% protein, but I have been a little higher on fat and lower on carbs than that each day.

    The previous 14 days I was doing what I consider is a more balanced diet but still probably low carb. My macros then were 40% carbs 35% fat and 25% protein.

    I lost 9 lbs in 14 days on the balanced diet and 10 lbs in 14 days on keto with the same calorie limit on each. Appears to me it is mostly about calories.

    Your opinion?

    My opinion: why are you trying to lose weight so quickly? Are you morbidly obese? These are numbers that nobody should expect.

    Apart from that: once you eat less carbs you lose water as glycogen binds water. But you weren't really low carb. So...
  • chrisalexander851
    chrisalexander851 Posts: 14 Member
    Yes, I am considered morbidly obese. I have so much to lose if I dont lose it quickly it will take forever.

    Currently my blood keto measurement is 1.3
  • Dootzy1
    Dootzy1 Posts: 2,357 Member
    I applaud your efforts to reduce your weight and get healthier. I know that some people in my city participate in a medically supervised fast to get the desired outcome more quickly. They progress to a more moderate diet that is sustainable on their own.
  • VegjoyP
    VegjoyP Posts: 2,773 Member
    Question. Do you just want to loose it fast or sustainably, permanently, wisely and with livable choices for life?
    Balanced. The keto diet has good points and medicinal uses however a custom eating pattern designed to get you permanent healthy happy and well is not a diet but a way of eating 👌
  • chrisalexander851
    chrisalexander851 Posts: 14 Member
    VegjoyP wrote: »
    Question. Do you just want to loose it fast or sustainably, permanently, wisely and with livable choices for life?
    Balanced. The keto diet has good points and medicinal uses however a custom eating pattern designed to get you permanent healthy happy and well is not a diet but a way of eating 👌
    VegjoyP wrote: »
    Question. Do you just want to loose it fast or sustainably, permanently, wisely and with livable choices for life?
    Balanced. The keto diet has good points and medicinal uses however a custom eating pattern designed to get you permanent healthy happy and well is not a diet but a way of eating 👌

  • chrisalexander851
    chrisalexander851 Posts: 14 Member
    edited June 2021
    I was pretty happy with the balanced approach and did feel like it is something I could sustain long term. I read and listened to some information about training your body to be “metabolically flexible” and part of that would be doing keto for a while. So, I decided to try it for a month or so. There is no way I could do this forever, but if it helps speed things up a little bit then I could white knuckle it for a month or so every now and then. I think the main thing that is making it work for me is weighing, logging, and counting everything I eat and so I a can control the calorie intake. I will probably need to do that for a long time if not forever or it is really easy for me to overeat.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,261 Member
    edited June 2021
    psuLemon wrote: »
    You won't actually get into ketosis with those macro's. Protein is insulinogenic and your carbs are too high. It also takes a while to fully adapt to ketosis and 2 weeks is probably not enough time in a good keto macro. Your basically consuming what would be considered a low carb diet. Chalk up your weight loss to water weight and a calorie deficit. good job though in losing the weight.

    EDIT: 40% carbs isn't really low carb. The Average American was a little higher, can't remember maybe 43 in the 1960's and early 70's. Then soon after saturated fat was replaced with more carbs in the diet from the low fat philosophy, basically.

    You should probably do more research on keto. It doesn't take two weeks to get into ketosis. You can do it in a few days. And while protein might inhibit some keto production, it will only be suppressed a little.


    OP, like others said, it's about calories... Not macro split.

    Using ketones as ATP happens everyday for everyone. Being in a fully adapted state of ketosis is quite another.

    I never said it would take 2 weeks. Some people where their already using a low carb diet can be fully fat adapted quickly when they drop carbs lower where their body is using ketones as their primary energy source.
  • Sara3veg
    Sara3veg Posts: 48 Member
    VegjoyP wrote: »
    Question. Do you just want to loose it fast or sustainably, permanently, wisely and with livable choices for life?
    Balanced. The keto diet has good points and medicinal uses however a custom eating pattern designed to get you permanent healthy happy and well is not a diet but a way of eating 👌

    Well, to be fair the long term success rate for weight loss adherence is pretty dismal, regardless of which approach you do.
  • chrisalexander851
    chrisalexander851 Posts: 14 Member
    Sara3veg wrote: »
    VegjoyP wrote: »
    Question. Do you just want to loose it fast or sustainably, permanently, wisely and with livable choices for life?
    Balanced. The keto diet has good points and medicinal uses however a custom eating pattern designed to get you permanent healthy happy and well is not a diet but a way of eating 👌

    Well, to be fair the long term success rate for weight loss adherence is pretty dismal, regardless of which approach you do.

    Way to keep it positive
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,454 Member
    Sara3veg wrote: »
    VegjoyP wrote: »
    Question. Do you just want to loose it fast or sustainably, permanently, wisely and with livable choices for life?
    Balanced. The keto diet has good points and medicinal uses however a custom eating pattern designed to get you permanent healthy happy and well is not a diet but a way of eating 👌

    Well, to be fair the long term success rate for weight loss adherence is pretty dismal, regardless of which approach you do.

    Way to keep it positive

    She has a point though.


    I had about 80 pounds to lose. In the beginning I ate the way I always ate, lots of grains, sugar, cheese. Not many vegetables. I was drinking juice still. It was easy for me to lose those first 20 pounds by not making a whole lot of food-choice changes and eating really low calorie (1200 Plus Exercise calories."

    Then it started getting a bit more difficult.


    I think you'll try all kinds of things along the way. I finally had to give in and eat a well-balanced nutritious meal plan with sufficient fat, fiber, protein and vegetables.

    THAT still works at my goal weight now - since 2008.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,261 Member
    edited June 2021
    heybales wrote: »
    psuLemon wrote: »
    You won't actually get into ketosis with those macro's. Protein is insulinogenic and your carbs are too high. It also takes a while to fully adapt to ketosis and 2 weeks is probably not enough time in a good keto macro. Your basically consuming what would be considered a low carb diet. Chalk up your weight loss to water weight and a calorie deficit. good job though in losing the weight.

    EDIT: 40% carbs isn't really low carb. The Average American was a little higher, can't remember maybe 43 in the 1960's and early 70's. Then soon after saturated fat was replaced with more carbs in the diet from the low fat philosophy, basically.

    You should probably do more research on keto. It doesn't take two weeks to get into ketosis. You can do it in a few days. And while protein might inhibit some keto production, it will only be suppressed a little.


    OP, like others said, it's about calories... Not macro split.

    can be fully fat adapted quickly when they drop carbs lower where their body is using ketones as their primary energy source.

    Well no.

    They still use fat as the main energy source for the upwards 90% of the day as it would have been anyway.

    But now your 10-15% that would have been carbs for the brain and the few other organs that can trade off - is now ketones.

    Also, 10% carbs was reference to the Keto time - the 40% was used on the balance diet time.
    And yes - still not that low carb anyway.

    The ketones accesses the fat for ATP so of course fat is the primary energy source, that's what fat adapted means. To access that energy source consistently the person needs to be in full Ketosis. That isn't going to happen when the OP is using 30% protein and 10% carbs....that's 40% of the foods that are insulinogenic. As soon as the beta cells in the pancreas produce insulin the beta cells in the liver stops producing ketones, so your out of ketosis. That's one of the main reasons the Keto diet adherence is so difficult. Does that mean that ketones aren't being made, no, some will when insulin comes back to baseline or for example first thing in the morning after the nights fast or working out fasted etc. The ketone pathway in the brain bypasses the one for glucose so the brain works fine with ketones and anything that crucially needs glucose will be produced through gluconeogenesis. Anyway, we may be talking a similar thing, right now I'm not quite sure

    EDIT: The OP was referencing the other diet and seemed to think 40% was low carb, that's why I commented because 40% isn't low carb.
  • Sara3veg
    Sara3veg Posts: 48 Member
    I. I am pretty confident that failure to maintain comes from psychology rather than physiology. People go too hard, change too many things, see weight loss as the goal and objective in and of itself. Then, yeah, they snap back to their comfort zone either because it's too hard to stay there or they went so fast and hard that no meaningful psychological/habitual changes occurred.


    100% this.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,261 Member
    Sara3veg wrote: »
    I. I am pretty confident that failure to maintain comes from psychology rather than physiology. People go too hard, change too many things, see weight loss as the goal and objective in and of itself. Then, yeah, they snap back to their comfort zone either because it's too hard to stay there or they went so fast and hard that no meaningful psychological/habitual changes occurred.


    100% this.

    Signaling hormones like ghrelin and leptin and also dopamine do matter. Food manufacturers know these well. IMO
  • corinasue1143
    corinasue1143 Posts: 7,460 Member
    So, educate the uneducated. How low must carb percentage be to be considered a low carb diet.
    Also, if OP was in ketosis for a week, didn’t he, practically speaking, actually lose more fat the week he didn’t eat keto and more water the week he was on keto? I don’t know. Never studied or tried keto, just read a little about it in these forums.
  • ccrdragon
    ccrdragon Posts: 3,374 Member
    So, educate the uneducated. How low must carb percentage be to be considered a low carb diet.
    Also, if OP was in ketosis for a week, didn’t he, practically speaking, actually lose more fat the week he didn’t eat keto and more water the week he was on keto? I don’t know. Never studied or tried keto, just read a little about it in these forums.

    The definition of low carb is not carved in stone anywhere, but the generally accepted value for 'lower' carb is > 150 grams a day and 'low' carb is > 100 grams a day.

    Keto is generally defined as less than 20 grams a day, but some people (myself included) can maintain ketosis eating any where between 30 and 50 grams a day.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    heybales wrote: »
    psuLemon wrote: »
    You won't actually get into ketosis with those macro's. Protein is insulinogenic and your carbs are too high. It also takes a while to fully adapt to ketosis and 2 weeks is probably not enough time in a good keto macro. Your basically consuming what would be considered a low carb diet. Chalk up your weight loss to water weight and a calorie deficit. good job though in losing the weight.

    EDIT: 40% carbs isn't really low carb. The Average American was a little higher, can't remember maybe 43 in the 1960's and early 70's. Then soon after saturated fat was replaced with more carbs in the diet from the low fat philosophy, basically.

    You should probably do more research on keto. It doesn't take two weeks to get into ketosis. You can do it in a few days. And while protein might inhibit some keto production, it will only be suppressed a little.


    OP, like others said, it's about calories... Not macro split.

    can be fully fat adapted quickly when they drop carbs lower where their body is using ketones as their primary energy source.

    Well no.

    They still use fat as the main energy source for the upwards 90% of the day as it would have been anyway.

    But now your 10-15% that would have been carbs for the brain and the few other organs that can trade off - is now ketones.

    Also, 10% carbs was reference to the Keto time - the 40% was used on the balance diet time.
    And yes - still not that low carb anyway.

    The ketones accesses the fat for ATP so of course fat is the primary energy source, that's what fat adapted means. To access that energy source consistently the person needs to be in full Ketosis.

    I was referencing their initial post where they said when the 40% carbs was eaten, and wasn't thinking they were in ketosis then anyway. Obviously the 10% they wondered about isn't either probably.


    Regarding the part I left - Are you aware that under a normal balanced diet with plenty of carbs 85-90% of your daily energy source is fat already - not because of being low carb with ketones or some special fat-adapted mode?

    Ketosis not required.

    You may want to look up the people that post their resting metabolic tests, or VO2max tests - they almost all show what the energy source was during the resting and even early part of the exercise was - fat.

    Just in case you don't believe physiology books.

    My reference to main energy source 85-90% of the day is fat requires nothing special for average people.
    Then again not a metabolic disease either that keeps insulin and blood sugar elevated.

    When I hear keto-advocates use the term fat-adapted as if the body must learn to use it - I know confusion is in the air, further comments sometimes clarify that indeed some normal workings of the body are misunderstood.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,261 Member
    edited June 2021
    heybales wrote: »
    heybales wrote: »
    psuLemon wrote: »
    You won't actually get into ketosis with those macro's. Protein is insulinogenic and your carbs are too high. It also takes a while to fully adapt to ketosis and 2 weeks is probably not enough time in a good keto macro. Your basically consuming what would be considered a low carb diet. Chalk up your weight loss to water weight and a calorie deficit. good job though in losing the weight.

    EDIT: 40% carbs isn't really low carb. The Average American was a little higher, can't remember maybe 43 in the 1960's and early 70's. Then soon after saturated fat was replaced with more carbs in the diet from the low fat philosophy, basically.

    You should probably do more research on keto. It doesn't take two weeks to get into ketosis. You can do it in a few days. And while protein might inhibit some keto production, it will only be suppressed a little.


    OP, like others said, it's about calories... Not macro split.

    can be fully fat adapted quickly when they drop carbs lower where their body is using ketones as their primary energy source.

    Well no.

    They still use fat as the main energy source for the upwards 90% of the day as it would have been anyway.

    But now your 10-15% that would have been carbs for the brain and the few other organs that can trade off - is now ketones.

    Also, 10% carbs was reference to the Keto time - the 40% was used on the balance diet time.
    And yes - still not that low carb anyway.

    The ketones accesses the fat for ATP so of course fat is the primary energy source, that's what fat adapted means. To access that energy source consistently the person needs to be in full Ketosis.

    I was referencing their initial post where they said when the 40% carbs was eaten, and wasn't thinking they were in ketosis then anyway. Obviously the 10% they wondered about isn't either probably.


    Regarding the part I left - Are you aware that under a normal balanced diet with plenty of carbs 85-90% of your daily energy source is fat already - not because of being low carb with ketones or some special fat-adapted mode?

    Ketosis not required.

    You may want to look up the people that post their resting metabolic tests, or VO2max tests - they almost all show what the energy source was during the resting and even early part of the exercise was - fat.

    Just in case you don't believe physiology books.

    My reference to main energy source 85-90% of the day is fat requires nothing special for average people.
    Then again not a metabolic disease either that keeps insulin and blood sugar elevated.

    When I hear keto-advocates use the term fat-adapted as if the body must learn to use it - I know confusion is in the air, further comments sometimes clarify that indeed some normal workings of the body are misunderstood.

    I'd probably have to see studies where 85-90% of calories from fat is used by the average person, that's just the way I am. It would be interesting to find out where the calories from glucose and fructose go for the average person during this time when they're burning this 85-90% fat. It appears they haven't been burning them too well over the last 40 years, maybe there going into adipose tissue, just a quess.

    Fat adapted ketosis is confusing for sure. The US military have been trying to adapt the ketogenic diet, especially navy seals and special forces but also the average soldier as well, but it's difficult because of the dietary requirements. They're using esters and salts right now, but it's going forward. Wonder what the benefits are? Keto for me is not about weight loss, I can do low carb and get a similar result.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,431 MFP Moderator
    I was pretty happy with the balanced approach and did feel like it is something I could sustain long term. I read and listened to some information about training your body to be “metabolically flexible” and part of that would be doing keto for a while. So, I decided to try it for a month or so. There is no way I could do this forever, but if it helps speed things up a little bit then I could white knuckle it for a month or so every now and then. I think the main thing that is making it work for me is weighing, logging, and counting everything I eat and so I a can control the calorie intake. I will probably need to do that for a long time if not forever or it is really easy for me to overeat.

    If you look at long term weight loss success stories and evidence, it has a few commonalities; sustainable diet changes, slower weight loss and some sort of tracking (calories, weight, pictures, measurements) being the major drivers. Its why i am on year 11 of my successful 60 lb weight loss.


    Follow a way of eating that you find sustainable. And that can change throughout your weight loss lifecycle. You could start with balance and then change or cycle dietary preferences based on your weight loss stage. I often do this. The first 50 balanced. The last 10 keto. And now i am working on vanity lbs.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,261 Member
    edited June 2021
    psuLemon wrote: »
    heybales wrote: »
    psuLemon wrote: »
    You won't actually get into ketosis with those macro's. Protein is insulinogenic and your carbs are too high. It also takes a while to fully adapt to ketosis and 2 weeks is probably not enough time in a good keto macro. Your basically consuming what would be considered a low carb diet. Chalk up your weight loss to water weight and a calorie deficit. good job though in losing the weight.

    EDIT: 40% carbs isn't really low carb. The Average American was a little higher, can't remember maybe 43 in the 1960's and early 70's. Then soon after saturated fat was replaced with more carbs in the diet from the low fat philosophy, basically.

    You should probably do more research on keto. It doesn't take two weeks to get into ketosis. You can do it in a few days. And while protein might inhibit some keto production, it will only be suppressed a little.


    OP, like others said, it's about calories... Not macro split.

    can be fully fat adapted quickly when they drop carbs lower where their body is using ketones as their primary energy source.

    Well no.

    They still use fat as the main energy source for the upwards 90% of the day as it would have been anyway.

    But now your 10-15% that would have been carbs for the brain and the few other organs that can trade off - is now ketones.

    Also, 10% carbs was reference to the Keto time - the 40% was used on the balance diet time.
    And yes - still not that low carb anyway.

    The ketones accesses the fat for ATP so of course fat is the primary energy source, that's what fat adapted means. To access that energy source consistently the person needs to be in full Ketosis. That isn't going to happen when the OP is using 30% protein and 10% carbs....that's 40% of the foods that are insulinogenic. As soon as the beta cells in the pancreas produce insulin the beta cells in the liver stops producing ketones, so your out of ketosis. That's one of the main reasons the Keto diet adherence is so difficult. Does that mean that ketones aren't being made, no, some will when insulin comes back to baseline or for example first thing in the morning after the nights fast or working out fasted etc. The ketone pathway in the brain bypasses the one for glucose so the brain works fine with ketones and anything that crucially needs glucose will be produced through gluconeogenesis. Anyway, we may be talking a similar thing, right now I'm not quite sure

    EDIT: The OP was referencing the other diet and seemed to think 40% was low carb, that's why I commented because 40% isn't low carb.

    Show me a single study that shows you can't be fat adapted with 30% protein and 10% carbs. The OP was at 1.3 mg/dl. That is a good blood ketone level. Making blanket statements like that us fundamentally incorrect. Calories, total carbs, exercise, fasting times, weight, height, and gender all have an impact. There are fat adapted bodybuilders at 300g of carbs daily.

    Fat adapted in a ketosis sense is not the same using using adipose tissue for energy, but sure someone consuming 300g's of carbs will burn fat as well as glycogen, that's the way the body works. Show me a study where 30% proteins and 10% carbs is in a state of ketosis and has metabolically shifted from burning glucose as it's primary fuel source to fat.

  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,431 MFP Moderator
    psuLemon wrote: »
    heybales wrote: »
    psuLemon wrote: »
    You won't actually get into ketosis with those macro's. Protein is insulinogenic and your carbs are too high. It also takes a while to fully adapt to ketosis and 2 weeks is probably not enough time in a good keto macro. Your basically consuming what would be considered a low carb diet. Chalk up your weight loss to water weight and a calorie deficit. good job though in losing the weight.

    EDIT: 40% carbs isn't really low carb. The Average American was a little higher, can't remember maybe 43 in the 1960's and early 70's. Then soon after saturated fat was replaced with more carbs in the diet from the low fat philosophy, basically.

    You should probably do more research on keto. It doesn't take two weeks to get into ketosis. You can do it in a few days. And while protein might inhibit some keto production, it will only be suppressed a little.


    OP, like others said, it's about calories... Not macro split.

    can be fully fat adapted quickly when they drop carbs lower where their body is using ketones as their primary energy source.

    Well no.

    They still use fat as the main energy source for the upwards 90% of the day as it would have been anyway.

    But now your 10-15% that would have been carbs for the brain and the few other organs that can trade off - is now ketones.

    Also, 10% carbs was reference to the Keto time - the 40% was used on the balance diet time.
    And yes - still not that low carb anyway.

    The ketones accesses the fat for ATP so of course fat is the primary energy source, that's what fat adapted means. To access that energy source consistently the person needs to be in full Ketosis. That isn't going to happen when the OP is using 30% protein and 10% carbs....that's 40% of the foods that are insulinogenic. As soon as the beta cells in the pancreas produce insulin the beta cells in the liver stops producing ketones, so your out of ketosis. That's one of the main reasons the Keto diet adherence is so difficult. Does that mean that ketones aren't being made, no, some will when insulin comes back to baseline or for example first thing in the morning after the nights fast or working out fasted etc. The ketone pathway in the brain bypasses the one for glucose so the brain works fine with ketones and anything that crucially needs glucose will be produced through gluconeogenesis. Anyway, we may be talking a similar thing, right now I'm not quite sure

    EDIT: The OP was referencing the other diet and seemed to think 40% was low carb, that's why I commented because 40% isn't low carb.

    Show me a single study that shows you can't be fat adapted with 30% protein and 10% carbs. The OP was at 1.3 mg/dl. That is a good blood ketone level. Making blanket statements like that us fundamentally incorrect. Calories, total carbs, exercise, fasting times, weight, height, and gender all have an impact. There are fat adapted bodybuilders at 300g of carbs daily.

    Fat adapted in a ketosis sense is not the same using using adipose tissue for energy, but sure someone consuming 300g's of carbs will burn fat as well as glycogen, that's the way the body works. Show me a study where 30% proteins and 10% carbs is in a state of ketosis and has metabolically shifted from burning glucose as it's primary fuel source to fat.

    So essentially you make a blanket statement and can't back it up. Got it.

    OP is in a state of ketosis. Maintaining that for in increased time (4-8 weeks) and they will be "fat adapted".