When it comes to diets that might help you lose potentially unhealthy pounds, there are certainly quite a few options. However, when it comes to the one that can result in significant and lasting weight loss, the keto diet may be your best bet, according to a new study.
In the study that was presented at the 8th International Scientific Symposium New Frontiers in Scientific Research from the PronoKal, via Medscape, patients were put on a keto diet that saw them consuming a mere 600 to 800 calories per day, which resulted in those involved both losing weight and maintaining that weight loss.
When it comes to why this low-calorie keto diet was effective, Ana Belén Crujeiras, principal investigator of the Health Research Institute of Santiago de Compostela-Galician Health Service Group of Epigenomics in Endocrinology and Nutrition and the Biomedical Research Networking Center for Obesity and Nutrition Physiopathology, explained that in order “to achieve this metabolic state (ketosis), routes that require the combustion of fats are activated, and this induces body weight loss.”
Crujeiras added, “Our work has shown that the very-low-calorie ketogenic diet is effective for rapid weight loss and maintenance of lost weight, as well as reducing fat mass, primarily visceral fat mass.”
Granted, “anyone who is put on a 600 to 800 calorie diet will lose weight regardless of if you are following a keto diet or a high-carb, low-fat diet,” Kimberly Duffy, RDN, LD, CPT, tells Eat This, Not That!.
Duffy adds that ‘the problem comes in maintaining the weight loss long term,” saying that “the keto diet is one which cannot be sustained and when a person goes off the diet, weight regain can be quite rapid.”
Beyond that, Duffy notes that “extreme restriction and guilt around food choices leads to binge eating and a dysfunctional relationship with food.”
“As a dietitian, I don’t recommend a low-calorie diet to anyone,” Duffy adds, noting that she prefers to teach her clients to make “small changes which can become lifelong habits.”
To find out more about the best and safest ways to lose weight and keep it off, be sure to read Eating Habits for Weight Loss That Experts Say Actually Work.
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Desirée O