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The Keto Diet Explained | Nutritionist Explains... | Myprotein
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Jan 30, 2025
What is the Keto diet? Richie, an expert nutritionist explains what it is and how it can help to lose weight. The Keto diet is one of the most popular diets of the last 20 years. In this video, Richie Kirwan will help us understand how a keto diet works, what it does and also, what it doesn’t do, and why. In addition to this, Richie only talks about the use of a ketogenic diet for weight loss. Let us know in the comments if you have tried the keto diet before and if it worked for you ⬇️ *** Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction 01:17 - What is a keto diet? 02:32 - How can you get into ketosis? 03:07 - How does exercise affect ketosis? 03:22 - What can you eat on a keto diet? 04:00 - Why start the keto diet? 05:59 - Does lower insulin cause weight loss? 07:14 - How does keto affect appetite? 07:52 - Can you burn more fat? 09:22 - Does keto affect your health? 10:50 - Any more keto questions?
View Video Transcript
0:00
is the keto diet the magic bullet for
0:01
all your fat loss problems let's talk
0:03
about that
0:06
how's it going guys my name is richie
0:08
kirwan and today we're going to talk
0:09
about one of the most popular diets of
0:11
the last 20 years
0:13
keto assuming you haven't managed to
0:15
avoid all forms of regular and social
0:17
media for the last 20 years in which
0:19
case i wholeheartedly tip my hat to you
0:22
you'll probably have heard of the keto
0:24
diet or seen one of the many keto
0:26
products recipes or diet books that are
0:28
flooding the market right now it's kind
0:30
of a big deal and just like anything in
0:32
the world of nutrition and fitness
0:33
there's a whole lot of bad information
0:36
about keto diets too so hopefully this
0:38
video will clear up any of those myths
0:40
for you so before we go any further i
0:42
really want to point out that i'm not
0:43
here to tell you to try or to avoid the
0:46
keto diet i like to think i'm
0:48
nutritionally agnostic which means i
0:50
don't really care about following or
0:52
recommending any specific type of diet
0:54
but i do care about the science that
0:57
tells us about the effects of that diet
0:59
so the reason i'm doing this video is to
1:01
help you understand how a keto diet
1:04
actually works what it does and also
1:07
what it doesn't do and why and one
1:10
really important point i'm only going to
1:12
talk about the use of a ketogenic diet
1:14
for weight loss so
1:16
let's get started first off what does a
1:18
keto diet even mean well keto is short
1:20
for ketogenic and a ketogenic diet is
1:23
one that causes your body to generate or
1:26
make ketones you see one of the main
1:28
fuels of our body is glucose which is a
1:30
carbohydrate when we're healthy our body
1:32
does a really good job of keeping our
1:34
blood glucose levels pretty stable to
1:35
provide our body with energy when our
1:37
blood glucose gets low we can top it
1:39
back up with glucose from our muscles or
1:41
from the food that we eat we can also
1:42
make glucose in our liver by breaking
1:44
down some amino acids and fat but that
1:46
takes a lot of energy to do so but if
1:48
you don't eat carbohydrates your body is
1:50
missing one of its major energy sources
1:52
so to provide energy for organs that
1:54
normally use glucose like the brain your
1:56
body produces ketones as an alternative
1:59
fuel and that's when ketone levels in
2:01
your blood start to get higher and
2:03
someone is classified as being in
2:05
ketosis ketones are basically another
2:07
energy source that your body can use
2:09
instead of glucose when it's scarce now
2:11
one thing that's really important to
2:12
point out here is that ketosis is not
2:14
the same as
2:15
ketoacidosis ketoacidosis is a serious
2:18
condition that happens mostly in type 1
2:20
diabetics when their blood sugar gets
2:22
too high starts to turn acidic and then
2:24
they can pass out or even die like i
2:26
said it's not the same as physiological
2:28
ketosis where your body makes ketones
2:30
when carbs or energy alone so how does
2:32
someone get into ketosis well the
2:34
easiest way is to reduce the amount of
2:36
carbs you eat with many ketogenic diets
2:38
recommending no more than 20 to 50 grams
2:41
of carbohydrate a day so where do carbs
2:43
come from well just think of all the
2:45
foods that make you happy there's a good
2:47
chance that most of them contain carbs
2:49
fruit starchy vegetables like potatoes
2:51
pasta rice beans bread flour sugar cakes
2:54
ice cream
2:55
all the good stuff they're all high in
2:57
carbs as an example one medium banana
3:00
has around 27 grams of carbs so having
3:02
just two a day could knock someone out
3:04
of ketosis technically now if you do a
3:07
lot of exercise you could eat more carbs
3:09
and still potentially be in ketosis just
3:11
because your energy output is so high
3:13
you'd be burning through those carbs and
3:14
your body would still produce some
3:16
ketones to meet some of its energy needs
3:18
but in this video we're going to talk
3:20
about getting into ketosis by cutting
3:22
carbs so if you can't eat carbs on a
3:24
keto diet what can you eat well here's
3:26
the thing you can still eat a wide
3:28
variety of low carb foods while
3:30
following this diet meat fish eggs oils
3:33
are all completely carb free and tend to
3:35
make up the majority of calories on a
3:37
keto diet nuts berries non-starchy
3:40
vegetables like spinach broccoli
3:41
tomatoes peppers and many other salad
3:43
vegetables are also so low on carbs that
3:45
you can add quite a few to your diet and
3:47
still be in ketosis so think of it like
3:49
this if you normally grab a burger and
3:51
chips for lunch to make it keto you just
3:53
need to remove the bun from the burger
3:54
and replace the chips with a salad which
3:57
in retrospect actually sounds pretty sad
3:59
but healthy so why would someone even
4:01
want to do a keto diet the simple answer
4:03
is fat loss when people try keto diets
4:05
they lose weight and they lose it
4:07
especially quickly at the start you see
4:09
some of the initial weight loss is
4:10
actually water weight and there's a very
4:12
easy explanation for this each gram of
4:13
carbs in our muscles holds onto about
4:15
three to four grams of water an average
4:17
person can have as much as 500 grams of
4:18
carbs stored in their muscles holding on
4:20
to up to two kilograms of water reduce
4:23
your carbs a lot and you'll see a quick
4:24
drop in body weight but that's not body
4:27
fat in fact as a lot of that water comes
4:29
from muscle muscle mass can get a little
4:31
lower on keto diets too but training
4:33
with weights can help to hold on to it
4:34
and that applies to every diet if you
4:36
are losing weight weight training will
4:38
help you hold on to more muscle mass
4:39
which improves your body composition
4:41
long term so if you lose a lot of weight
4:43
as water on a keto diet does that mean
4:44
that it's no good for fat loss
4:46
absolutely not and we'll talk a little
4:48
bit more about that in a moment you see
4:49
a lot of people are under the impression
4:51
that because your body makes ketones out
4:53
of fat being in ketosis means someone
4:55
will be losing a lot of body fat but
4:58
that's not necessarily true you see if
5:00
you eat very few carbs and a lot of fat
5:03
and calories you can be in ketosis but
5:06
not use any of your body fat at all
5:09
you'll just use the fat that you eat to
5:10
make ketones which means you're not
5:12
losing body fat now you absolutely can
5:15
lose a lot of body fat on a keto diet
5:17
but it's not because of some magic
5:18
ketosis fat burning effect people lose
5:20
fat on keto because drumroll please they
5:24
eat fewer calories think back to the
5:26
burger and chips i mentioned earlier by
5:29
removing the burger bun and chips you
5:31
are easily turning a 1 000 calorie meal
5:33
into a three to four hundred calorie
5:35
meal when people do keto they have to
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cut a huge amount of foods out of their
5:39
diet biscuits ice cream chocolate bars
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cakes pastries pies breakfast cereal
5:43
sandwiches all gone that's called
5:45
automatic calorie reduction and it works
5:48
and just in case you don't believe me
5:50
there have been a lot of studies showing
5:52
that people actually lose the same
5:53
amount of weight on both very low carb
5:55
or low fat diets when calories are
5:57
reduced the same amount at this point
5:59
you may be wondering about lower insulin
6:02
levels while on a keto diet you see when
6:04
we eat carbs our body produces insulin a
6:06
hormone which is absolutely essential
6:08
for our survival a few of insulin's
6:10
functions are to decrease fat burning
6:12
and increase carb burning to burn off
6:14
the carbs that we've just eaten
6:16
and to store carbs either as glycogen in
6:18
our muscles or as body fat this leads
6:20
people to believe that if you want to
6:22
lower your body fat all you need to do
6:24
is lower your insulin by not eating
6:26
carbs this is called a logical fallacy
6:29
something that sounds logical and true
6:30
at first glance but isn't the case you
6:32
see we have lots of evidence that people
6:34
can have high insulin levels and still
6:36
lose weight as long as they eat fewer
6:39
calories than they burn or as long as
6:41
they're in a calorie deficit in fact
6:42
there was a series of famous experiments
6:44
back in the 1940s and 50s using what's
6:46
called the rice diet which was used to
6:48
help treat people with a number of
6:50
conditions like heart disease
6:51
hypertension kidney disease and even
6:53
diabetes people on the diet ate a lot of
6:55
surprise surprise rice and some fruit
6:57
with over 90 percent of the diet's
6:59
calories coming from carbohydrates
7:01
meaning they were producing a lot of
7:03
insulin and you know what happened they
7:05
all lost weight so it's not the lower
7:07
insulin on a keto diet that causes
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weight loss so you probably want to know
7:11
if there's any advantage to a keto diet
7:12
why else would people do it right
7:14
well one of the big advantages of a keto
7:17
diet is its effects on appetite you see
7:19
being in ketosis seems to help lower
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hunger hormones like ghrelin which means
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people are less hungry if you're not
7:25
hungry you're probably going to eat less
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that's why some people swear by keto
7:29
diets it helps lower appetite and if you
7:32
don't feel hungry you're way more likely
7:34
to stick to a diet long term and lose
7:36
weight some people think that keto diets
7:38
also offer a metabolic advantage by
7:40
helping burn more calories than high
7:42
carb diets the thing is while some
7:45
experiments have shown a difference in
7:46
calorie burn on a ketogenic diet the
7:48
difference is so small that it's
7:50
practically irrelevant another thing you
7:53
might have heard is that if you're on a
7:54
keto diet you need to eat fat to burn
7:57
fat now while this is technically true
7:58
in that if you eat more fats you will
8:00
burn more fat for energy if you eat a
8:02
lot of fat you won't be burning body fat
8:05
and for many people
8:06
that's the end goal you see if you eat
8:08
so much fat that you eat more calories
8:10
than you need you'll burn some of the
8:12
fat calories that you eat and if you
8:14
have more left over they'll get stored
8:16
as body fat you won't burn all of your
8:18
own body fat at all so remember even on
8:20
a keto diet calories matter what about
8:22
ketone supplements also called exogenous
8:25
ketones well they're often marketed as a
8:28
weight loss supplement but pair this in
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mind like i said earlier ketones are a
8:32
source of energy just like carbs or fats
8:34
so they contain calories adding more
8:36
calories to your diet is not how you
8:39
lose weight in fact studies using some
8:41
of the most expensive ketone supplements
8:42
on the market showed absolutely no
8:45
effect on body weight you see you can
8:46
take ketones and increase the levels of
8:48
ketones in your blood but you won't be
8:50
burning fat to make them yourself hence
8:52
they don't work at all if you go to the
8:54
gym and lift weights you'll also be
8:56
happy to know that you can still perform
8:57
just as well on a keto diet although you
8:59
may feel a little tired at the beginning
9:01
as you adapt to it however keto diets
9:03
may not help you improve your
9:05
performance to the maximum and for very
9:07
high intensity activities like sprints
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you might see a drop in performance but
9:11
for the everyday gym gore that probably
9:13
won't make a difference at all but for
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competitive athletes keto is probably
9:16
not the best approach carbs really
9:20
really help with high intensity
9:22
performance now another concern is the
9:24
possible health effects if someone
9:25
decides to use a keto diet for weight
9:27
loss now this is where things get a
9:28
little bit more complicated you see if
9:30
someone loses weight we often see
9:32
improvements in blood sugar and insulin
9:33
especially if they have diabetes
9:35
improvements in blood triglycerides they
9:37
tend to drop which is good hdl or good
9:39
cholesterol goes up which is also good
9:41
this happens with weight loss of any
9:43
type but the changes can be especially
9:45
noticeable on a keto diet but the big
9:48
problem with some keto diets is that ldl
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or what many people know as bad
9:52
cholesterol tends to go up that can be a
9:55
problem because high levels of ldl
9:57
cholesterol can lead to heart disease
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over many many years one of the reasons
10:01
for the high cholesterol is the high
10:02
level of saturated fat from foods like
10:04
water and fatty and processed meats like
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bacon which are really popular on keto
10:09
diets or at least some keto diets but
10:12
here's the good news if someone follows
10:14
a healthier keto diet pattern high in
10:16
green or salad vegetables that are high
10:18
in fiber and with mostly unsaturated
10:20
fats from fish and olive oil even nuts a
10:24
ketogenic diet can actually help to
10:26
reduce ldl cholesterol so it's really
10:28
important to remember that while
10:29
calories matter food quality also
10:31
matters
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i really want to stress this point
10:34
because within the umbrella term of keto
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which just means a diet low enough in
10:37
carbs to cause someone to go into
10:38
ketosis there can be many different ways
10:40
of eating these different ways of doing
10:42
keto can have significantly different
10:44
effects on health and that's why we
10:45
shouldn't assume that all keto diets are
10:47
the same just like we can have a healthy
10:49
and less healthy vegan-style diet so
10:51
should you try keto well that's
10:53
completely up to you try it see how it
10:55
feels if you like it and it feels like
10:57
it's something that you can happily
10:58
stick with fantastic some people really
11:00
do well on keto some people however just
11:02
love carbs and if that's you maybe keto
11:05
isn't the best choice the most important
11:07
thing to remember is that you don't need
11:09
to do keto to lose weight control your
11:11
calories and you can use any number of
11:14
diets the trick is to find the diet that
11:16
you enjoy that you can stick to long
11:19
term so did that clear everything up
11:20
about the keto diet as always if you
11:22
have any more questions let me know in
11:24
the comments below and if you have any
11:26
experience with keto diet let me know
11:28
about it and remember to like and
11:29
subscribe to the my protein youtube
11:30
channel for more great evidence-based
11:32
nutrition information
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