Fuelled By Fat

Why the nearly 100-year-old keto diet is finding some modern-day love.

- Cat Perry

THE KETOGENIC DIET is on fire right now, in case you haven’t heard, and it’s because of people’s reliable weight loss while on it. As a Google search term, “keto” is now double the popularity of “Paleo”, which has levelled off and even decreased in the past year. Keto diets require most of your calories to come from fat (with low protein intake and even fewer carbs), which trains the body to utilise fat for energy rather than carbohydrates. Yet not everyone is on board, with some experts saying that it’s more trouble than it’s worth. There is so much emerging research and buzz about keto that we wanted to cut the fat to find out what it is and isn’t, and why this diet may or may not be effective for women who train.The origins of the keto diet date back to the 1920s, when a faith healer developed the diet to effectively treat children with epilepsy. But when anti-seizure medications became available, the diet fell out of favour. High-fat diets gained new traction in the ’90s when Robert Atkins published Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution (which, although high-fat and low-carb, is not ketogenic). Fast-forward to present day, and the ketogenic diet has been legitimized as an effective therapy not only for epilepsy but also for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, glaucoma, and even cancer. But the real appeal for most people is the ability to achieve significant weight loss - a claim backed by several studies, including a review of research in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

4 KETO DIETS DEFINED

Standard Ketogenic Diet (SKD): BEGINNER

Low carbs, moderate protein, high fat; fat types can include saturated fat or poly- or monounsaturated. Max is 25 to 50 net carbs daily depending on the person. (Three cups of kale has approximately 28 grams of carbs.)