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Comment by mikece | Hacker News Reader

It's been used to treat diabetes and seizure victims for a while so, yes. Personally I lost over 70 pounds (from 295 to 225 -- I'm 6'5") at one point using keto. My main concern is whether one who is on the diet for weight loss will become overly sensitive to carbs if/when they start eating them again causing the body to immediately store them away as far instead of burning them (and if so, how long would it take to "return to status quo ante" with regard to carbohydrate metabolism).

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Yes, in my personal experience. However, I suspect my body is just desperate to hold on to carbs and pack those bastards around my liver anyway, regardless of previous Keto periods or not. When I stick to Keto, I feel better, think better, poop better, I don't get headaches and I don't have acne. Is it magic? I dunno. The chemistry seems to support it.

Years ago we called it Atkins (yes, I am older) and it worked great for me, but chips and salsa are my kryptonite. Unfortunately, as I age, I must rely more and more on my diet for control I am not but a humble nerd who now sits behind a glowing screen toiling away as a PHB, but I can offer this: Keto works for me and I would recommend it to anyone.

I think the Atkins diet was low carbohydrate but not low enough to induce ketogenesis.

It did indeed induce ketogenesis, in fact regular testing of urine for presence of ketone bodies was how one monitored whether their carb intake was appropriate

Of course, eating high-carb meat like hot-dogs and chicken nuggets won't work.

I tested my urine during Atkins and I was either high or medium in Ketones. I did eat a lot of meat high in fat and little to no carbs.

I was able to keep being in ketosis while still eating about 50g carbs/day (Through meat products), while I was doing exercises daily.

Note for others tha urine isn't accurate. You need blood test.

It’s accurate enough, at least in the beginning.

Time of the test matters a lot, I dismissed morning, because it was always too high.

Tested during mid-day and late afternoon and made an average.

(Dietary) Ketosis is only partially about low carbs, the other major part of the equation is high fat. With Atkins (like paleo diets) you might get the right amount of fat intake to enter into Ketosis, but it’s more likely you will be consuming to much lean protein and you will continue using glucose as your primary fuel source.

> I feel better, think better, poop better

Same. Also, less tired and lost 20 pounds.

An anecdotal story, so YMMV. I was 280lbs and dropped to 240lbs using fasting + low carb + keto (at times). During the time my stomach would always bloat when I ate carbs. The harmony lasted for about a year and then all the benefits stopped for me at least. I stopped losing weight, lost a lot of strength even though I was eating 1800-2000 calories a day (two meals one protein + oats the other fish/meat + veggies and if really hungry I'd do the same meal one more time) with occasional one meal a week cheat day.

It took me about a solid year of eating 100-150gr a day from oats/rice/pasta/bread to be able to start utilizing carbs as fuel completely and not until I doubled it to 200gr (250-300 at times) did I start noticing weight loss + increase in strength. I was able to drop my weight to 225lbs in span of 4 months. My macros are around 220gr of protein, 200gr carbs, 60gr of fat.

When I was doing my research I found that most body builders / athletes were talking about reverse dieting as a must after a long diet. They were slowly reintroducing carbs I think an increment of 20-30gr per week for their daily intake (I dont recall the exact numbers).

Seems to match my experience.

Lost about the same amount but being less tall years ago without following a named diet.

I did quite a bit of research back then (reading up things as well as talking to people in the field) what to do. But basically the only things I found consensus on for long term effect are the very simplified intake less calories than you use rule and be consistent.

At least from my own experience I reckon the psycological aspect on you getting to enjoy or even prefer eating the new diet outweights details on how exactly they work in the body.

I think this is in part why Keto is so popular at the moment: even just the look of the dishes is much more appealing than what we typically thought of as diet meals.

My wife and I have been on and off keto for long stints (6 months) at a time. We eat what most people would consider low carb--no bread or pasta most of the time. Occasionally we sneak in binges of fruit or have ice cream.

Despite times over a week we have carbs both of us never leave ketosis. We seem to stay 1.0 mmol/L or greater even after having carbs.

I mean, would you rather be overweight and not sensitive to quickly storing even more fat through carbs, or thin/regular and more sensitive to gaining weight quickly through carbs?

The body adapted to storing carbs over a long period of time. Chances are that you need to give it at least as much to "un-adapt" from that.

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