Every fad diet has the same underlying theme, caloric deficit, some form of low carb, and a catchy name. Keto, low carb, high fat, intermittent fasting, paleo are all diets that have popped up in the last few years and pretty much have the same basic concepts. Fad diets have been around for ages, and there’s always new ones coming out under a different name, even if it is practically the same as the last one.

Keto/Low Carb, High Fat

The first occurrence of these kinds of diets that actually had an organization and name behind it was the Atkins Diet, introduced by Dr. Atkins. The Atkins diet sold food that you could by that fit into the diet’s requirements- low carb, high fat, high protein. But these foods were highly processed and full of sodium and sugar to help keep them preserved and shelf stable. The keto diet follows the same principles as the Atkins diet did, but when it first appeared didn’t have any prepackaged foods associated with it. Now a days more and more companies are putting out ‘keto’ versions of their food to appeal to these diets. The idea behind the keto diet is that you eat low carbohydrates and high fat so that you force your body to burn more fat, and in turn you should experience more fat weight loss. However, this isn’t exactly how weight loss and fat loss works. While the amount of fat your body is burning is increased when you start the keto diet, the amount of fat you are consuming is also greatly increased. After being on the diet the rates of body fat burned are going to slow. This is because carbohydrates are our bodies preferred fuel source, so when you are barely consuming any carbs, your body switches to its next preferred fuel source, protein. So, when you are on the keto diet for an extended amount of time your body is going to start breaking down your protein sources to use as fuel, leaving you with less muscle mass. Muscle weights more than fat, so you will see a decline on the scale, but its not the kind of weight loss you want. 

Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting has different requirements, but overall, still leaves you in a carbohydrate and caloric deficit. It mainly involves scheduling out your days, so you are in a cycle of periods of fasting and periods of eating There are many ways to do intermittent fasting, but the most popular is to eat for 8 hours a day, and fast for 16. For example, allowing yourself to eat between 11am and 7pm and fasting the rest of the time. The idea behind this is that it increases your metabolism, changes your hormones, and increases fat burning. However, studies show conflicting results on this, and since we technically fast every night in our sleep, its not really necessary. Most of the time what ends up happening is people try and cram a whole days’ worth of eating into those 8 hours, trying to make up for the time they weren’t eating. This leads to overeating and making poor decisions about food since you are just trying to get any food possible in. 

Paleo

Paleo is a little different from the rest, and even though it comes off as being different, the basis is still low calorie/low carb. The basis of this diet is that you eat foods that date from the Paleolithic era, 2.5 million to 10,000 years ago. It typically only includes lean meats, fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. A diet that only contains these foods, while it seems healthy, is really just another version of a low carb, high fat, low calorie diet. Like the keto diet, you are depriving your body of the carbohydrates that it really wants to be fueled on. When we eat predominately fats our bodies break them down into ketones. The brain can use these as a fuel source since it isn’t receiving any glucose to use. But when this happens for too long the body starts processing fats into ketones quicker then the brain can use them. This floods the brain and body with ketones, which are very acidic, and leads to a condition called ketoacidosis. This can be live threatening as it raises the acidy of your body to extreme levels if left for too long.

So, what is the alternative?

While people may think these diets are the holy grail to weight loss, they just aren’t sustainable. All of these can possibly lead you to ketoacidosis and can be dangerous. Your body also just doesn’t like to run on fats and protein without any carbohydrates, it wasn’t built that way, and we need calories to survive. The best way to loss weight is to just focus on eating healthy foods, getting the proper mix of carbs, fats, and proteins spread evenly throughout the day and to incorporate exercise wherever you can. 

There is a reason these diets are fad diets; they just aren’t sustainable and leave you feeling hungry and grumpy. They also don’t teach you any healthy lifestyle changes, so when you end them, you go back to eating how you used to and gaining all your weight back. Then the newest diet comes out and the cycle repeats all over again.