digest
Short Summary
Main recommendation: If weight loss stalls on a keto-style diet, first check for hidden carbohydrates (carb creep), then cut back on added fats, and if the stall continues, change where you buy your food. The video frames carb creep as the most common cause of a plateau, typically appearing three to six months into the diet.
Key Points
- Carb creep often comes from sauces, restaurant or fast food meals, and condiments; the speaker gives coleslaw, which has added sugar in their area, as an example.
- Dr. Westman says ketone testing can help detect carb creep: in his experience, staying at 20 total carbs or less should keep a person in ketosis, so measuring ketones can reveal whether something is knocking you out of it.
- Dr. Westman says that based on what he's learning, some people can be knocked out of ketosis for about two weeks after just one carb-containing meal, so he considers occasional "little bits" risky and does not recommend cheat or carb days.
- Dr. Westman says excess fat intake, especially fats, oils, and butters added to food, is in his experience the second most common cause of a stall today.
Details Worth Noting
- Concrete instructions: Check labels and ask about preparation for barbecue sauce, ketchup, jam, salad dressing, and coleslaw, since these can contain added sugars. Avoid restaurant and fast food meals where you cannot control preparation, unless you have confirmed what goes into them.
- Concrete instructions: If you stall, optionally check ketones and aim for 20 total carbs or less per day to stay in ketosis, while staying strict every day rather than using cheat days.
- Concrete instructions: Eat the natural fat in your food and eat to satiety; do not add extra butter or oils to food to "get fat in," because the body will burn the dietary fat first and stop burning body fat.
- Concrete instructions: If you still stall after fixing carbs and fats, switch to a different grocery store or another food source. The speaker mentions Dr. Atkins' suggestion of moving to Europe, which they describe as impractical.
- Dr. Westman says that while not eating anything is technically the best fat-burning approach, total fasting is not a healthy way to do it, and he says the misconception to avoid is that you need to eat or drink fat to burn body fat.
- Dr. Atkins is named as a teacher of the speaker, and Jackie Eberstein, who worked with Dr. Atkins, is said to still work with the speaker.
- The speaker says European food at the time lacked some US additives such as high-fructose corn syrup, and that meat quality also varies between countries.
Bottom Line
Plateaus on a keto-style diet are most often caused by hidden carbs or excess fats, so fix those hidden sources first before changing your food supply.
