WTF is Keto and why is it everywhere?

I don’t know if you’ve seen it or not but I have. It’s everywhere. It started with a small subset, a video in suggested without many follow up videos. Then I heard about it on the radio. Then I see it in the stores. Then I hear it at work, in stores, everyone is talking about it. I have about 5 friends currently doing it. They refuse to eat for long periods of time. I don’t know if you can remember but about five minutes ago people were calling it anorexia, now it’s called Keto.

What is Keto? I can get into the deets here but I’ll just give you the TL;DR: Carbs are bad. Fat is good. Carbs make you hungrier, are way too much energy, and result in quick insulin spikes with a sharp drop off in energy. Fat has a lower insulin spike but lasts much longer, fills you up for longer, and keeps your brain healthy.

Why is Keto getting so popular?

Any dieting trend get’s popular. Look at those stupid Multi Level Marketing campaigns selling us bullshit products like protein formulas, stomach wraps, which supposedly makes you lose stomach weight, and other supplements which often include some amalgam of berries and roots. Wanna know the trick behind any of these diets working? STOP EATING SO MUCH. That’s the trick. Any diet will work if it has you eating less. Save your money and buy your own supplements.

So to sum that up it’s the get rich quick companies making it popular. They push their version of whatever dieting trend is hot at the time and rake in what they can. What makes Keto different is that it does not sell you a product. Ketosis is simply the process with which your body metabolizes body fat. It’s a structure, or a model to live by. Skip breakfast, eat at 1 pm, and again at 5. Or once at 5 pm if you’re a bad ass. Or a starving person in India. It’s funny how in 1st world countries we try and strive for living conditions of the 3rd world, commodifying it as minimalism.

So Keto is just a process, but there still are some companies banking off this. You’ll see “keto friendly” protein bars, which are really just protein bars, protein shakes, charged higher than regular shakes, and other snack, made of cheese or seeds. Don’t buy into these products, just make your own food. You can even make Keto pizza. Meat, some veggies, you have the world at your advantage. Not so much the vegans. I could make a vegan joke here but I don’t like to make fun of dying people.

What’s great about Keto is it has opened up discussion about fats. There are good fats and bad fats. The good fats are the ones we’ve been using for thousands of years, like the Amish do now. The bad fats are Margarine and other fake butters. Those have oxygenated chains which lead to higher cholesterol. Good fats rock. The Amish knew this and didn’t give af when city slickers offered a new healthy alternative. They didn’t get scared by those post war anti-butter propaganda. Or they just didn’t hear about it because they didn’t have a t.v. and were too busy making babies.

I cook with lard. Yes lard. You may think of some fat obese monster shoveling spoon fulls of dripping goop from some rusted drum vat, but it’s actually amazing. If you want a perfect egg, cook with lard. I used to use oil but that just gets pushed away by the egg once it lands in the skillet. Lard stays where it’s told. It’s loyal. You crack your egg over your lard layer in the skillet and pick it up when it’s ready. Nothing get’s left behind. With oil, half my eggs used to get stuck on the pan, leaving black coarse residue stuck to the pan.

Some people have concerns about cholesterol and fat. Worrying about cholesterol doesn’t really mean anything anyway. Doctors and scientists are still debating on what it means. Most of what you hear comes from studies done 50 years ago, same time when anti-fat people were petitioning for more margarine. Here’s a quote from healthline.com on some of the nuance to cholesterol.  “When your dietary intake of cholesterol goes down, your body makes more. When you eat larger amounts of cholesterol, your body makes less. Because of this, foods high in dietary cholesterol have very little impact on blood cholesterol levels in most people.”

But, let’s do some due diligence here. The author goes on to say “however, in some people, high-cholesterol foods do cause a rise in blood cholesterol. These people make up about 25% of the population and are often referred to as "hyperresponders." This tendency is considered to be genetic.”

Derek S., content director at Gonzo, lost 37 pounds doing keto. Some weeks he ate once a day. That’s brutal.

How’d you lose 37 pounds?

Derek: It started off with butter coffee. I did that to make the fasting easier. The butter coffe contained two tbl spoons butter so it filled you up. No carbs. I wouldn’t eat until about five. Some days I’d eat twice. I did this for about 6 months.

Not bad. You didn’t get off the keto wagon did you? That’s kind of a big concern for a lot of people is that it’s not sustainable.

I was pretty diligent. If I was invited over to a bbq or a nice dinner I might have some carbs just to not look like a weirdo. I know some people will take the bread off a burger but I won’t do that in public. That’s a little too weird, even for me.

Did you ever feel ill or anything during your fasting?

I did feel what’s called the ‘keto flu’. It’s where you are kind of tired and flu like when you start fasting. I got over it quick though and started feeling healthier than before I started fasting. I still do it. Right now I’m about 167 and I fluctuate by a few pounds. I eat twice a day, still not many carbs. I’d like to take it more seriously again but whatever.

Keto is still a trend and I hate trends, I’m hipster that way. But it does work. If you want an in-depth explanation, check out What I’ve Learned, he does an amazing job explaining Keto. While you’re at it, look at his video on keto and cholesterol.

By Ted M. Iverson