Hi all, it’s been a few weeks since my last blog. What can I say it’s busy at the moment. Lots of people wanting to get fit, on top of that I’m trying to increase my own cycling training for some (hopeful) racing later this year. This means more hours on the bike, luckily the weather is starting to turn warmer over here in the U.K. so it’s now a joy rather than a freezing Winter chore!

I’m really hammering my diet too, what has always been that 5% of difference for me is how I snack. When I’m on top of things I’ll basically snack on just fruit, nuts and seeds, when I let things slip it means I’m snacking on chocolate and biscuits – it’s simple really. In a nutshell, ‘clean’ snacking yields results, ‘dirty’ snacking does the opposite. Everyone has their different food habits that need overcoming, and snacks are definitely mine.

This brings us to the subject of this weeks blog, diet, namely the dangerous trend of using the ketogenic diet to aid weight loss. Maybe you’ve seen it advertised or even being advocated by ‘fitness professionals’ (and I use that term loosely).

The ketogenic diet is around a 75% fat diet which is primarily used for seizure control in Children with epilepsy. It contains very low carbohydrate and what this does is force your body to use fat as fuel, putting it into a state of ‘Ketosis’. Your body is basically put into a state of famine, I’m no health professional but this state of Ketosis has been shown to potentially decrease seizure activity. Don’t ask me the scientific jargon on how this happens, it just does.

Lately, I’ve seen an increasing amount of activity promoting the use of the diet to aid weight loss. I can’t quite believe it, not only is this hopelessly irresponsible it’s only dangerous for your health.

Here are some potential risks from using the ketogenic diet –

1. Nausea, headaches and fatigue – As you adjust to a high fat low carb diet your body, in its shock, can react with irritable side effects. If this doesn’t stop you, then read on.

2. Kidney stones – Highly acidic foods like fats put stress on your body’s ability to digest them, namely in your kidneys where you may suffer problems like kidney stones.

3. Lowered nutrients – It should be obvious, but cutting out carbs will lead to a lowering of essential nutrients in your body. All those great vitamins that are found in carbohydrates that you decide to cut out mean bad news for you internally and externally.

4. Lowered blood sugar and higher risk of diabetes – Your body gets its sugars from carbohydrate, hence if we take carbs away you’ll have lower energy. You’ll also put yourself at higher risk of becoming diabetic on the ketogenic diet. Need any more reason to steer clear of this?

5. Social difficulties – There are MANY more health related reasons but my last danger is a social one. If you begin to suffer fatigue and become nauseous on the diet, this is going to have a knock on effect in relationships and family life. It’s not just you who is affected, others will begin to be too.

Like I said, there are many other reasons as to why this diet is a bad idea for weight loss. Look up ‘the dangers of the ketogenic diet’ and you’ll find page after page of the risks. To be brutally honest, it shouldn’t take a half-assed blog from me to convince you it’s a bad idea. I’ve also seen the use of the ketogenic diet in the cycling world that I’m a part of, it’s being used to advocate ‘performance gains’, crazy! Sadly and regrettably, It’s clearly just the next fad, another hopeless and desperate handle that gullible people will clinch onto. When will we just stop and use basic common sense? Please remember to always question the motives and the morales of individuals who recommend this sort of tactic. Just what depths are some people willing to stoop too?

Remember, always question the credentials of some ‘expert’ who endorses such rubbish. 9 times out of 10, they’ll probably be an affiliate of some ketogenic diet plan company or another and are just trying to make a quick buck. Ask yourself this simple question – would your GP randomly tell you to do the ketogenic diet? No I hear you say? I rest my case.

Looking at your diet sensibly, there’s just so many great and healthy options out there rather than putting your health at risk with this rubbish. The gleaming and truthful light will always shine towards the obvious truth – a colourful and balanced diet. You really don’t need to cut out anything to lose weight and be healthy, just be consistent most of the time and (you guessed it) exercise regularly. If you do decide to diet, look at simplicity first – things like cutting down on portion sizes, upping your fruit and veg, snacking on healthy things and watching alcohol consumption should always be your first port of call.

To conclude, the ketogenic diet is meant to be prescribed by health professionals for seizure control and other means that only they deem necessary, it should not be prescribed by some dodgy online nutritional ‘expert’. It should not (repeat) should not be used to lose weight, it’s just silly, extremely ill-informed and dangerous. Just use your heads people, do you really want to risk so many conditions for the sake of weight loss when there’s so many healthy alternatives out there?