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Comment by candiddevmike | Hacker News Reader

They're a hack because they're indirectly calorie deficient, as it's incredibly hard to overeat on calories without carbs (unless you're eating a ton of fat). If you did while on a keto diet, you'd still gain weight.

Weight gain = calories in - calories out

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There's also the loss of appetite, as there's one less component to the "Fat+Carb" compulsive eating trigger.

I've had incredible success with keto, but I did yo-yo back, the downside of keto being so easy is that it's hard to get back into it, knowing that you'll almost effortlessly get results eventually, so I'm nutritionally procrastinating.

Yeah, me too. Bread consumption is like a dial of 'do I really care enough to lose weight?'

> the loss of appetite

I've been strict keto now for over five years. Prior to that I was clinically obese for decades. I tried lots of different dieting approaches and most of them "worked" to lose weight to some extent. The issue was I would always regain the weight because I couldn't maintain the diet due to the constant hunger and sense of deprivation. While all diets, including keto, ultimately "work" through calorie reduction. The unique aspect of keto for me was it was the only approach that allowed me to reduce calories without hunger or deprivation.

N=1 and individual metabolisms and preferences are different, so I don't try to extrapolate my results to everyone. All I can say is that after struggling for so long with so many other approaches, keto worked for me so fast, so easily and so well - it does feel almost like a hack.

There is no one in the world that is overweight because they eat too much unsweetened oatmeal with nothing else added for taste.

Pointing out the thermodynamics of weight loss with calories in/out is stupid though because there is a huge dependency in the amount of calories consumed based on the type of food and if the food has been engineered to taste super good.

This completely disregards the question of why is it easier to overeat on carbs than it is on protein/fats?

Protein is as calorie dense as carbs, and fat is twice as calorie dense as carbs. So it isn't mere volume of food in the stomach that causes the difference - if it was, it would be easier to overeat on protein/fats than on carbs.

Basically, it sounds like you're treating the human body like some black hole that calories get thrown into, when in reality there is a very complex feedback loop taking place based on what your bodily inputs and outputs are.

As an evolutionary biologist, I suspect that mammals (and likely other animals) are primed to take advantage of sugary, transiently available food (i.e., fruit) by storing it as fat. Fructose in particular bypasses most of the feedback loops that control glucose.

Dr Richard Johnson has researched this extensively and, yes, fructose consumption triggers increased fat storage in almost all humans. He summarized his research findings in a book[1] and has discussed his findings in a number of interviews [2]. I highly recommend the linked podcast if this is a topic that interests you.

1 - https://www.amazon.com/Fat-Switch-Richard-J-Johnson-ebook/dp...

2 - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rick-johnson-m-d-metab...

Because it is processed garbage. If you want to get fat on fat use highly concentrated oils.

Trust me, I can easily overeat calories without carbs - on keto - and gain weight. It’s a lot easier to choose not to, however.

I've been strict keto for over five years and intend to continue for life due to the weight loss, health, emotional and cognitive benefits I experience. A little while back I did a casual experiment where I intentionally increased caloric intake while remaining strict keto. I did ultimately start to gain weight, of course (because ---> physics).

What was impressive though was how long it took and how slow the gain progressed. Because keto calories tend to be so satiating, it almost felt like I had to work at getting my energy balance to stay meaningfully positive. When I'm full on natural fats, it's hard to keep eating. The other interesting thing was, even though I gained some weight, I maintained most of the non-weight related benefits (cognitive, emotional balance). My guess is this may be due to keto calories being almost all fresh, unprocessed foods.

Fat's the best for satiety, yes. I find it much easier to overeat when I'm mainly eating protein.

I'd guess you kept the mental benefits because you were still in ketosis. While I'm sure being leaner (if you were overweight) contributes to some mental benefits (body image, feeling healthier), perhaps most are simply from running on ketones.

> perhaps most are simply from running on ketones.

Even after so many years in strict keto, I still can't tease out where exactly which benefits come from between calorie reduction, ketosis, gut microbiome, etc. I feel like it's definitely a combination of more than one of the above but teasing it out would require too much experimentation and I'm reluctant to 'mess with success'.

Certainly it's possible to overeat even without carbs and still gain weight. However, there is more to fat storage than just calories. Like many systems in the body, fat storage is controlled by hormones. Hormones are affected by the types of food you eat. Therefore, what you eat can also influence the amount of fat you store.

It is actually not only because Keto is calorie deficient, but also because it encourages ketogenic metabolism, which means that while you are calorie deficient you are more effective at burning fat. Compared with a standard calorie deficient diet, you have more stable energy levels throughout the day, because the body adapts to not getting carbs.

Keto is about making your body regulate body weight on its own.

Why exactly do I need to know this equation? My body can do that for me automatically.

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