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If you’re in the market for a fat loss diet, there’s a very good chance that you’ve come across the Ketogenic Diet at some point before. Whether you’ve actually tried this diet type out yourself or have just read up on it to determine if it’s right for you, there are many mixed feelings with regards to this diet set-up.

The ketogenic diet can best be described as ultra-low carbohydrate where you’re taking in fewer than 30 grams total each day, mostly coming from fibrous vegetable sources and the odd bit of carbohydrates that are found in the protein rich foods you choose to consume.

In addition to that, fat content gets ramped up in this diet to help round out the rest of the calories required to meet your daily caloric needs.

Users of this approach often read that fat loss is greatly enhanced from using it and that hunger levels will drop way down or be non-existent.

But before you rush out to jump on a ketogenic diet, you may want to think twice. While these diets definitely do promote better hunger control, they’re not necessarily more effective than your standard low-carb diet.

Let’s look at a study that assessed this issue.

Design

The study was designed so that twenty adults would be randomly assigned to either a ketogenic low carb diet or else a non-ketogenic low carb diet which would consist of approximately 40% of the total calories from carbohydrates versus the 5% found in the ketogenic group.

The subjects were to follow this diet for a six week trial period where their 24 hour caloric intakes were controlled to ensure both groups were taking in the same amount.

Results

After the study was completed, the results indicated that the mean weight loss between the two groups did not differ.

What did differ however was the blood beta-hydroxybutyrate in the ketogenic dieters which ranked in at 3.6 times that in the non-ketogenic dieters. Since your LDL blood cholesterol is directly correlated with this measurement, this could pose a problem for those who are worried about their current cholesterol profile.

In addition to that, inflammatory risk and perceptions of vigor were also more impacted in those following the ketogenic diet than those who weren’t, further illustrating a significant difference between the two groups.

Take Home Message

So from this study we can conclude that if you’re looking for weight loss, a low carb diet can definitely be beneficial but going ultra low carb into the ketogenic realm is not always more helpful. If you plan to maintain intense exercise sessions as well that will make for more the reason not to exclude carbohydrates from the diet as they are the primary form of energy utilized at this time.

Reference:

Hutchins, H. et al. (2006). Ketogenic low-carb diets have no metabolic advantage over nonketogenic low-carbohydrate diets. Am J Clin Nutr. May;83(5):1055-61.

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