Go Go Keto
A man looks at himself in the mirror. He doesn’t see himself anymore. Instead, he sees a shadow of his former self, enveloped in a thick layer of fat. His muscles that were once as solid as a rock are now rolls of flabby fat that jiggles with the slightest of movements. That man was my uncle. Until one day, when he decided it was time to be the better version of himself, to start a diet and to lose weight. He, like most, wanted to be a better version of himself. He wanted self-improvement. And like most, he wanted it fast. I remember recently, my uncle told my family that he wanted to lose weight and that he’s trying this new diet trend called the ketogenic diet, or Keto diet for short. Most of us didn’t know what he was referring to, so he explained it to us. A few weeks later, we saw him again and he actually lost a noticeable amount of weight. We were all shocked to say the least. We all thought that fat makes you fat, but he just proved to us otherwise. Then my dad brought up an interesting question. How safe is the diet? This question got me wondering the same thing. At this point, I was curious as to know if it was actually healthy. I felt scared for my uncle because I didn’t want anything bad to happen to him. I wanted to learn more about Keto so that I wouldn’t fear it anymore, as well as about the scientific aspects behind the diet, about the ketogenic process. All this ignited my desire to explore the Keto diet even further.
To learn more, I started from the very beginning and asked myself, what is the Keto Diet? The simple answer, it’s just a diet. And like any other diet, it has restrictions for what you can and can’t eat. It’s not to limit your fat intake, actually, it’s to increase it. Essentially, the keto diet reduces your carbohydrate intake, until the smell of your favourite baguette fresh out the bakery turns into a vague memory, and replacing it fat, like the smell of salty crispy bacon on an early Sunday morning. Your diet should consist of 60 to 80 percent of your calories coming from juicy and fatty foods, like everyone’s favourite breakfast crispy bacon, 20 percent coming from every muscle heads favourite thing, protein, and only a small 10 percent should come from carbs. This is all to achieve ketosis, which can take anywhere from two to four days to actually start. Only when you reach ketosis is when you start to lose weight. But, what is ketosis? Ketosis is like a hybrid car. When it runs out of gas, it switches to electricity. When you reduce the amount of carbs you intake, your main energy source is gone, so your body utilizes your reserves of ketones instead, which are compounds the liver creates from fat when the blood is low on insulin.
The Keto Diet sounds so cool right. I mean, only a sicko wouldn’t want to eat crispy bacon, that with every crunch creates a symphony as it crackles with every bite, for breakfast, even more salty, fatty dripping bacon, that instantly lifts your spirits, as if you were being lifted away by food angels into a euphoric food coma, for lunch and mouth watering, juicy bacon once more for supper. Not many people that I know of would turn something like this down. The Keto diet seems like every foodies fantasy diet, but what are the effects it has on our body? The Keto diet actually has some nasty side effects. According to MensHealth.com, the risks associated with the Keto diet are bad breath, diarrhea, an increased risk of heart disease and diabetes and the Keto Flu, which affects 25% of people who try the Keto diet. Symptoms include vomiting, gastrointestinal distress, a lot of fatigue, and lethargy. However, in reality, it’s not even a flu and it tends to pass within a couple of days because your body just needs to make that transition into ketosis. Although it has its bad sides, and bad breath standing atop it all, the good outweighs the bad. After all, the Keto Diet is very popular for a reason.
But, what’s with all this hype surrounding the Keto diet anyways? The answer is simple. It’s because it works. Not only does it work, it works well. If the Keto Diet only had one job, it would be the Bill Gates of what it does. That job is weight loss. When it comes to weight loss, “There is no question that ketosis does work in the short [term],” according to Men’s Health. The Keto Diet also has a lot of benefits such as it reduces seizures in children who suffer from epilepsy, reduced hunger and cravings and promotes the loss of water weight. The diet also has been shown to improve blood sugar control for patients with type 2 diabetes, at least in the short term. Weight loss is the main reason most people start the diet. But according to The Harvard Health Publishing, “that difference in weight loss seems to disappear over time.” But things start to be more complicated and controversial when the effect on cholesterol levels is considered. A few studies show some patients have increased cholesterol levels in the beginning, only to see cholesterol fall a few months later. The Keto diet has proven to be very effective when it comes to losing weight. Yet, the Keto diet still lacks the proper long term studies, causing researchers to lack a full understanding of its long term effects. This is why Marcelo Campos, a primary care doctor at Harvard Vanguard, suggests that people embrace a more sustainable diet rather than trying the next cool trends, since these more sustainable diets have been proven to lead to a longer, healthier, vibrant life.
All this talk about the safety of diets raises more questions. Namely, why are so many people always obsessed with the newest and trendiest way to lose weight? The Keto Diet has the amazing ability to contribute to weight loss, but it’s just like every other fad diet. Before this came the Atkins diet, and before that came the Paleo Diet. People just want to be better, they want to improve, and they want to be happier with the person that looks back at them every time they look in a mirror. Self-improvement is very important to the growth of every individual. The reality of it all is that you can’t run away from yourself. The more you run, the deeper a hole you dig. And eventually, everything you ran from would catch up to you, leaving you to be overwhelmed and suffocating in the very same hole you dug. Self improvement is just like a video game. Theres always another level to beat. We all want to be better people, for most, the keto diet is someone’s helpful item/tool they need to beat that one super hard level. That’s why so many people look to these diets, in hopes to be a better version of themselves. I’ll be the first to say, staying motivated is far from the easiest thing you can do, but the end result is like your first bite into a moist, fluffy, chocolatey cake after a long hard day of work, it’s very, very satisfying to say the least.
At the end of the day, it’s not about the who, what, why, how, it will always be about you, and your desire to be a better version of yourself; self-improvement. When you see all the hard work and effort you put in, all those extra pounds that once went to your stomach, now grinded away, those flabby arms, now toned and that once heavy feeling of insecurity that loomed over you, that never leaves your side like a shadow, has now vanished with this new bright ray of sunshine from your newfound confidence and self-love, it’s in that moment that you’re met with a euphoric sensation, that hugs every inch of your body, from the top of your head to the tip of your toes. You begin to realize why so many people are hooked, like a hungry fish on a fisherman’s line, to the feeling of being that better version of themselves. Maybe there’s a lot more to all this. Maybe I’m oversimplifying things. Maybe there’s a lot more than meets the eye. But regardless, one of the best feelings in the world is being a better person, and that’s undeniable. Change starts with you and to quote the legendary King of Pop, Michael Jackson, “I’m starting with the man in the mirror, I’m asking him to change his ways.”
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