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Comment by addicted | Hacker News Reader

And there’s no truth to it either.

Cutting carbs only helps to the extent you’ve reduced calorie intake.

People drop their calories too low, and then they take a cheat week after a year or so where they eat pasta, and suddenly they feel a lot better and they’re back to eating more calories and back to gaining weight, leading to yo-yo dieting, which may even be worse than just having a higher than healthy but static weight.

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That’s not true - the ketogenic diet is not a calorie restriction diet. It was invented early last century by a medical doctor to simulate fasting and treat epilepsy in children. Low calorie diet lead to yo-yo dieting which is not the case for keto were you are allowed to eat enough calories to be satiated. The binge eating comes for the oscillating glucose and insulin levels driven by the consumption of refined carbs. Carb addiction is the problem and that’s the root cause we should be addressing to stop the metabolic health epidemic that has only been getting worse despite all the pharma profits.

I’ve done keto a couple times in the past, even back when it was called Atkins. It absolutely was a calorie deficit diet since it was difficult to eat that many calories consistently to go over my BMR for more than a few days at a time.

Friends doing it also had the same experience as I did.

Not saying it isn’t as advertised, but everyone on it I knew (n=14 or so) was getting results from fewer calories after we all decided to start carefully logging food intake.

It’s a great diet that works, but via other mechanisms for many vs ketosis.

It’s still a restriction diet that poses a lot of challenges for most to remain consistent with on a long term basis.

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