If you try keto, you love it, and it’s working for you, then more power to you! I’m not about to try to stop you. However, the typical advice when people run into roadblocks with their keto diet is to ‘eat more fat to raise ketones’ and ‘keep calm and keto on’. Oxidative priority To …
Read moreKeto Lie #12: If in doubt, ‘keep calm and keto on’.
This is perhaps one of the most seductive lies that I fell for in the early days of my low-carb/keto journey. I kept hearing the keto gurus say that I should simply ‘eat fat to satiety’. Apparently, fat was the most satiating macronutrient and the best thing I could choose to eat if I wanted …
Read moreKeto Lie #11: You should ‘eat fat to satiety’ to lose body fat
If there was anything I thought I knew for sure when I was an insulin-fearing keto zealot, it was that: the blood sugar roller coaster is bad, and stable blood sugars were good. According to the keto gurus that I was following, if you want to lose fat and optimise your metabolic health, the most …
Read moreKeto Lie #10: Stable blood sugars will lead to fat loss
Many find low carb or keto almost magical in the early days. As they move away from the most hyper-palatable fat+carb combo foods, they experience greater satiety, their blood sugars and insulin levels drop, and they feel great. High-fat foods can also feel satiating, but this may be simply because they give you a lot …
Over the past few years, people in the fasting/low-carb/keto communities have been told that: insulin toxicity is the root cause of the majority of our western diseases, insulin is public enemy number one, and reversing ‘insulin toxicity’ is the key to weight loss and health. Is fat really a ‘free food’ because of insulin? However, …
If you’ve read the previous chapters of Big Fat Keto Lies, it should not be surprising to learn that I also got into the fasting craze when it was booming in Ketoland. I was such a super fan that both Jason Fung and Jimmy Moore asked me to write a review of their book, The …
People in Ketoland like to point out that ‘there is no such thing as an essential carbohydrate‘. However, while this is technically true, it’s irrelevant when you understand that the amount of essential dietary fats that you require is tiny (i.e. 1.6 g of omega-3 and 4.6 g of omega 6 PUFAs or less than …
The Carbohydrate – Insulin Hypothesis is one of the cornerstone beliefs of many who subscribe to low carb and keto diets. The theory is that because carbohydrates raise insulin the most and insulin is related to fat storage, eating more carbohydrates will lead to more fat storage on your body. Hence, dietary fat should be …
Read moreKeto Lie #5: Fat is a ‘free food’ because it doesn’t elicit an insulin response
Perhaps the biggest differentiator between keto and every successful version of a lower-carb diet (e.g. Atkins, Paleo, Bernstein, Banting, Carnivore, etc.) is the misguided fear of ‘excess protein’ to keep ketones high, insulin low and avoid gluconeogenesis. Ever since Jimmy Moore discovered that protein could convert to sugar via gluconeogenesis and therefore lower your blood …
Read moreKeto Lie #4: Protein should be avoided due to gluconeogenesis
One of the most common responses to any weight loss stall in many keto groups is that you should ‘eat more fat to get your ketones higher and burn more fat’. This lie is seductive because it is partly correct, as well as delicious! High-fat foods are highly palatable and provide a dopamine hit that …
Read moreKeto Lie #3: You should eat more fat to burn more body fat