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Short Summary
Main recommendation: Once you reach your goal, you do not need to increase carbohydrates, and Dr. Eric Westman suggests staying in nutritional ketosis, which he says may be healthier and help prevent chronic illness. He frames the low-carb approach as a way to maintain health and weight rather than a short-term weight-loss diet, though he notes the long-term science is still not settled.
Key Points
- Dr. Westman says the body works fine without dietary carbohydrate, reversing the traditional assumption that carbs must be eaten daily.
- He cites a summer study in which mice on a ketogenic diet lived 15 percent longer than mice on other diets.
- He says hunger is maintained for most people (excluding those with eating disorders), so people will not "whittle away to nothing" on this approach.
- Dr. Westman says carbohydrate intake is the major controller of the insulin response, which he believes drives fat storage, and that weight loss is a consequence of a fat-burning diet rather than the main goal.
- He says he's encouraged by new science suggesting eating less may be better than eating more for immune function, cancer prevention, and inflammation, while cautioning against taking this to an absurd extreme like not eating at all.
- For psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, he says there are few published studies but some anecdotes suggesting carb restriction may help.
Details Worth Noting
- Concrete instructions: Do not increase carbs after reaching your goal, as the video recommends staying in ketosis. For macros, Dr. Westman suggests thinking in grams per kilogram of lean body mass rather than absolute grams, with protein roughly between 50 and 100 grams depending on exercise and body size; fat fills the remainder of calories. Keto-style carb intake is around 20 to 30 to 40 total grams per day, and for psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis he says there are few published studies but some anecdotes suggesting it may help, so he suggests trying it ("Give it a try").
- Macro counting is optional; he says it is not required, but if you count, adjust protein and fat to your body size and activity level rather than using fixed numbers.
- In response to a viewer who had a year of stable blood work and weight, he said net carbs could be tried, mainly by eating more foundation vegetables, though he warns many "net carb" labeled products contain additives that can stimulate hunger.
- He notes a distinction between goals: bodybuilding or sports performance require different calculations than simply staying healthy, which is what most of his patients want.
- He says the science does not establish that this can be done forever; the claim is that increasing carbs may not be necessary once a goal is reached.
Bottom Line
Dr. Westman's view is that staying low-carb after reaching your goal is likely fine and may be healthier, but it rests partly on animal research and anecdote, so it should be monitored with regular measurements of health markers.
