Episode 4 My thoughts on Keto, low carb, and Atkins diets

Today’s episode I cover the Keto, low carb, and Atkins diets. I then review my thoughts on each of them and how they fit into what I did to lose 200 pounds. I also give my overall view on the importance of calories in versus calories out and making sure these are in proper balance to be successful. In the end we are looking for a long term successful lifestyle not a short lived diet.

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Transcript

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Hi I'm Thomas welcome to the parachute advice. My life has taken a lot of twists and turns and on this podcast I will dive into those. The goal is to help everyone listening learn from my experiences and hopefully avoid some of the mistakes I've made hi welcome to today's episode of the parachute advice podcast, I'm your host Thomas today I want to discuss an interesting topic I'm going to give you my thoughts on a couple of the most common diet plans out there today, I'll share my thoughts on the pros and cons as well as a truthful analysis from my point of view and if I think they work or not at the same time comparing them to what I did successfully, for each of these I'll use the generally accepted definition for them for mainstream sources for the purpose of discussion I'm not looking at bulking diets I'm strictly looking at diets designed for maintenance or calorie deficit. First off I'll say this with every diet we discuss if it works for you then it's the right one. But none of these are a magical cure in the end it all comes down to calories in versus calories out a few things I tend to subscribe to is any diet that makes an overly optimistic promise, label certain foods is - to an extreme or makes it sound like no hard work is involved are likely gimmicks what do I mean, well diets that say things like lose 20 pounds in 20 days or eat whatever you want as long as you avoid X food items or all weight loss is done by not consuming harmful foods like and then they give you a list of these quote harmful foods are probably gimmicks in the end diets are not easy. They don't have to be hard but anything that is a major lifestyle change will have its challenges we are looking for something that is sustainable and healthy sure, if you just didn't eat for a month you lose weight but I'm confident that's not safe healthy or sustainable. Are there certain foods that some people should avoid for health benefits absolutely but no foods are truly bad I have yet to see a food in my house try to kill me, they have no moral stance they're simply forms of energy package in flavorful ways some better than others look at it this way I would rather hold a jar of gasoline versus one of nuclear fuel but in the end neither is trying to hurt you or help you they just are what they are, both produce energy and both offer good and bad results it's all about how you handle them and use them. Just like a carrot versus carrot cake both are good in their own ways and yet bad in their own ways as well. Yes carrot cake absolutely tastes better than just a carrot. But in the end they're just different forms of a carrot with different ingredients added or subtracted okay so now that I have that off my chest and I'm done with my soapbox let's Dive In. Today we will cover the low to virtually no carb diets that have been all the rage in the past few years I start with these due to the popularity and nothing else, first and one of the most popular in the US Based on data from Google searches is the ketogenic diet the ketogenic diet is a high fat adequate protein low carbohydrate diet, that in medicine is used mainly to treat hard to control refractory epilepsy in children the diet forces the body to burn fats rather than carbohydrates, normally carbohydrates and food are converted into glucose which is then transported around the body and is important in fueling brain, however if only a little carbohydrate remains in the diet the liver converts fat into fatty acids and Ketone bodies. The latter passing the brain and replacing glucose as an energy source. Key foods to avoid are sugary Foods soda fruit juice smoothies cake ice cream candy Etc grains are starches wheat-based products rice pasta cereal. Fruit all fruit except small portions of berries like strawberries beans or legumes, peas kidney beans lentils chickpeas items like that root vegetables and tubers such as potatoes sweet potatoes carrots parsnips Etc there's the dreaded evil carrot, low fat or Diet products, low fat mayonnaise salad dressing and condiments some condiments are sauces barbecue sauce honey mustard teriyaki sauce and ketchup unhealthy fats such as processed vegetable oils or mayonnaise, should also avoid alcohol beer Wine Liquor mixed cocktails they also list sugar free diet foods sugar free candy syrups putting sweeteners desserts Etc, instead your diet should focus on items like meat red meat steak ham sausage bacon chicken and turkey fatty fish like salmon trout tuna and mackerel eggs pastured or Omega 3 whole eggs, butter and cream preferably grass-fed butter and heavy cream cheese but unprocessed cheese like cheddar Goat Cream blue or mozzarella. Nuts and seeds almonds walnuts flax seeds pumpkin seeds chia seeds and Etc healthy oils like extra virgin olive oil and avocado oil. Avocados whole or freshly made guacamole low-carb veggies such as green veggies tomatoes onions peppers. Condiments that can be used or salt pepper herbs and spices. There's also similar to keto a more General version of this the low-carb diet a low-carb diet restricts the amount of carbohydrates you eat. Carbohydrates are grouped as simple natural lactose in milk and fructose and fruit simple refines just such as table sugar complex natural like whole grains or beans complex refined like white flour. In general a low carb diet focuses on proteins and some non-starchy vegetables. Low carb diet generally limits grains legumes fruits bread Suites pastas and starchy vegetables and sometimes nuts and seats. However some low-carb diet plans allow small amounts of fruits vegetables and whole grains so what's the major difference between low carb and Keto, the main difference between these diets is the carbohydrate intake on a low-carb diet you typically eat between 50 and 150 grams of carbs per day but on the keto diet daily carb intake is restricted to fewer than 50 grams. Another main difference is protein intake with low carb diets protein intake may be high but with keto diets protein intake should be moderate at around 20% of tobo around 20% of total calories. This is because excessive protein intake can prevent ketosis additionally fat intake tends to be significantly higher on the keto diet as fats replaced carbs and proteins as your calorie source. A daily limit of .7 22 ounces or 2257 grams of carbohydrates is typically. What you see with a low carb diet these amount of carbs provide 82 240 calories some low carb diets greatly restrict carb during the initial phase of the diet and then gradually increase the number of allowed carbs. So what are my thoughts on these after explaining all of this in detail well when I first started this journey I thought long and hard about keto why. Because I can eat bacon butter and meat these are all things I loved, I mean I love pasta and pizza with crust is as well but I do love bacon butter and meat what I actually came to realize was I could also continue to eat far too many calories with this approach again. This diet is trying to build its success in the simple idea that carbs are the problem and not calories. I know that's a controversial statement but that is the reality of how it is spun in social media more often than not, I watch a lot of videos on YouTube and Instagram and I am shocked some days by the keto snacks people are cooking up or the cooking ideas they have that they call are healthy keto I've seen some, we're a small dish of food called a snack is equal in calories to my entire dinner that could be several pounds of food. On top of that as I mentioned while on my soapbox earlier. I'm not a fan of the idea that there is good or bad food I prefer the view that there is high calorie and low calorie food that's it, within that there can be healthier and less healthy food in reference style processed or nutrient dense that food is, let's say your dinner can be 750 calories to be in plan you could make a big stir fry with 9 ounces of chicken breast a whole bag of stir-fry vegetables and a cup of cooked grains or each just a 9-ounce rib eye or hell, you could just have three 250 calorie candy bars is one option better than the other I would argue the stir-fry pasta. Again if your calories in and calories out are correct and in balanced none of those options ruin your plan the issue is you'll likely be hungry pretty quickly afterwards versus a filling dinner of complex carbs proteins and healthy fats. Or in the keto example go ahead and eat a dinner bacon and cheese but again you have to limit yourself to the calories your body needs to either maintain or lose weight, I have friends who have done keto very successful and they loved the lifestyle and good for them as I said earlier, it works for them and it has caused them to be successful so there's nothing wrong with that. As mentioned earlier keto can also help with some medical conditions it has been successfully used to treat and help control epilepsy that's actually why the diet was created, there have also been evidence that other autoimmune diseases in people will react well to it I think this can be a matter of a person's individual response to a specific Foods as well as the fact that it forces you away from highly processed foods. Again I think the most important thing here is that it helps push you away from highly processed foods. That is something that I think is important no matter what diet you use there was a much earlier form and slightly different version of Keto you may have heard it called the Atkins diet. While both stipulate a drastic reduction in high carb foods including sweet sugary drinks Brad's grains fruits legumes and potatoes the biggest difference is Atkins is designed much closer to the idea of using low carbs to lose weight and then you slowly transition back to high carbs as you reach your goal weight. This is very different from keto which is all about long term low to virtually no carb lifestyle in an article from Healthline they explained it this way. Though Atkins has evolved to offer a variety of plans the original version now called Atkins 20 is still the most popular. It's broken down into four phases which are based on your daily Net Car, total carbs - fiber and sugar alcohols allowance Phase 1 induction this phase allows for 20 to 25 grams of net carbs per day until you are 15 pounds from your goal weight, then in Phase 2 during this phase you consume 25 to 50 grams of net carbs per day until you are 10 pounds from your goal weight, next phase 3 your net carb allowance is raised a 50 to 80 grams per day until you have met your goal weight and maintained it for one month. In Phase 4 during the Final Phase you consume 80 to 100 grams of net carbs per day for an ongoing weight maintenance. You probably notice they're 80 to 100 grams of net carbs is nearly twice what the keto diet recommends for your daily allowance. 80 to 100 grams is much closer to a normal diet and I use normal just as a way of comparison no judgment in that statement. As you approach your goal weight and advanced to these phases your daily carb allowance increases allowing you to incorporate a greater variety of foods however even during phase 4 which allows for up to 100 grams of net carbs per day you consume significantly fewer carbs and most people normally eat. Most Americans get about fifty percent of their daily calories from carbs which equates to about 250 grams of carbs if you eat a 2000 calorie per day diet, I really like this idea much more than a keto diet because it's much closer to how we live and factors in the concept of Maintenance or a long-term lifestyle. This is not to say again that keto can't be a long-term lifestyle, but I've seen too much evidence In Articles when your diet is more restrictive long-term adherence. That much harder again both diets focus on avoiding carb dense foods which tend to be highly processed. I know for me just not consuming highly processed foods has been a game changer I can feel the difference the minute I eat a high sugary highly processed food. And I'm not even on keto a little carp honestly my carbs are far closer than normal diet everyday but I'm still avoiding highly processed foods, that's sad I've done weeks of low carb just to change things up I mentioned in some of the much earlier episodes that I would change up my diet pre frequently I found that my body and Metabolism reacts well to that. Likes doing low carb high protein weeks or the next week doing let's say a vegan week especially when I would do low carb high protein vegan weeks my body seemed to react great to that. In the end I cannot reinforce enough that the Ultimate key is calories in versus calories out I have also leveraged the idea of low carb or keto style diets when out to dinner to help limit calorie intake. That's a place where it works great for example it's very easy to order a burger and fries or better yet burger and side salad when out and Skip either part or all of the bun. Brad can be a very calorie dense item let's use an easy example of in-and-out burger. A double-double with onion is 670 calories and a double-double with onion protein style, where you replace the bun with lettuce is 520 calories while not a huge change simple swaps like that can really add up over the course of a day. He'll replace the special sauce or there spread with mustard and ketchup and you're now down to a 440 calorie Burger. Or take homemade fried rice I'll use cauliflower rice and then added a half a cup of regular rice, so instead of 2.5 cups of rice at 500 calories you are closer to 200 calories for the same volume of food but far less calories and carbs. So at the end there are definite advantages to low carb or Keto. Like I said I like to use some of those approaches especially when I'm out to dinner with friends and family and I'm trying to limit my calorie intake but at the end. I still firmly believe the number one focus is calories in versus calories out and not to vilify any sort of food or food group. I know I joked earlier but at the end of the day. No food is bad if eaten in moderation he'll Twinkies Donuts even a candy bar is not going to ruin your diet if eaten in moderation, all of this can be done and you can be successful, make sure that the approach you take a sustainable that is the key long-term sustainability to truly be successful as I come up on three years I can't tell you how important this is stainability feature or portion of this diet path has been for me. I hope you got great information out of today's analysis on just one of the. Types of diets out there I'll have more episodes like this coming up thank you for listening please join me again for future episodes. You can contact me at parachute advice podcast at gmail.com again that's all one word parachute advice podcast at gmail.com. You can also follow me on Instagram at parachute advice again thank you for listening and please like And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Music.