Weight loss is the obvious remedy for obesity. Even a 5 percent bodyweight reduction can significantly improve the prognosis of an obese person. However, finding sustainable weight loss regimens remains a challenge.

One promising avenue is the high-fat ketogenic diet, which promotes weight loss through a variety of mechanisms and can consequently reverse type 2 diabetes, a metabolic disorder often intertwined with obesity. 

This article explores the problem of obesity, its link to diabetes, and how the ketogenic diet can help.  

Obesity Defined

A person is considered obese when his or her Body Mass Index (BMI) exceeds 30.

• • Underweight: less than 18.5
  • Normal weight: 18.5 to 24.9
  • Overweight: 25 to 29.9
  • Obese: Over 30
  • Morbidly obese: Over 40

To calculate your BMI, follow the calculations below:

Imperial: [weight (lb) / height (in) / height (in)] x 703

Metric: [weight (kg) / height (cm) / height (cm)] x 10,000

The primary feature of obesity is excess fat accumulation. This stored fat, called adipose tissue, is how humans store long-term energy—and it’s not necessarily pathological. But in obesity, too much energy is stored, and body fat accumulates to dangerous levels. 

Still, obesity doesn’t have just one cause. It’s a multifactorial condition in which dietary choices, exercise, stress, sleep, socioeconomic class, and genetics can each play a role. Certain variants on a gene called the FTO gene, for instance, appear to be linked to excess weight gain.

Obesity itself isn’t fatal, but it does predispose a person to other dangerous conditions. An obese person is at higher risk for heart disease, high blood pressure, Alzheimer’s, cancer, sleep apnea, type 2 diabetes, and other undesirable conditions and side effects.

Diabesity: The Obesity Diabetes Link

More than one-third of the American population is obese. Many are either diabetic or prediabetic. This trend is so pronounced that researchers have coined the term “diabesity” to describe it.

The diabesity epidemic is largely a product of the Standard American Diet (SAD). The SAD is notoriously high in sugar, and high sugar intakes have been shown to drive obesity, insulin resistance, and diabetes.

The progression from sugar to diabesity is logical. A high-sugar diet increases blood sugar levels, which in turn increases insulin levels. This blood sugar and insulin dysregulation eventually lead to a state called insulin resistance, or the inability of muscle and liver cells to effectively store blood sugar, even when insulin is present. As a result, blood sugar stays high, the pancreas releases more insulin, insulin resistance worsens, and diabesity progresses. High insulin levels also promote excess fat storage, leading to obesity.

To reverse this progression, it’s crucial to control blood sugar and insulin levels. That’s where the ketogenic diet comes in. 

How the Ketogenic Diet Helps with Obesity

The ketogenic diet is a low-carbohydrate high-fat diet designed to induce a fat-burning metabolic state called ketosis. In ketosis, the body stops turning to sugar/glucose for energy and instead relies primarily on fatty acids and ketones/ketone bodies for energy. (This is achieved by severely limiting carb intake so the body instead has to burn fat and covert it to ketone to use for energy.)

As a result of switching energy gears, so to speak, less glucose is required to fulfill normal functions. The only way to get into and stay in ketosis (and to achieve keto weight loss) is to maintain reasonably high ketone levels by eating a diet rich in healthy fats, moderate in protein intake, and very little in the way of carbohydrates.

Contrary to popular belief, maintaining the above mentioned keto meal plan is not just about cheeseburgers and Bulletproof Coffee. It includes meat, fish, chicken, veggies, and healthy oils, such as coconut oil, olive oil, and MCT oil, and of course avoiding all high-carb foods, including sweeteners and processed and whole grains. But the most important element is that your daily net carbs intake remains under 20 grams.

The ketogenic diet affects metabolism differently than the Standard American Diet. By restricting carbs, the ketogenic diet keeps blood sugar and insulin levels low. Instead of encouraging fat storage like the SAD, the ketogenic diet encourages the body to use fat stored within the body as well as fat from daily food intake.  

Because of this, low-carb diets have proven effective for weight loss, especially in obese and diabetic populations. There is a growing amount of evidence pointing to this fact. Consider these:

• Just 24 weeks of keto dieting improved blood lipids and stimulated weight loss in obese people.
• Overweight adolescents lost more weight on a low-carb diet than on a low-fat diet.
• In those maintaining weight-loss goals, a ketogenic diet increased energy expenditure and decreased hunger hormones compared to a high-carb diet.

Let’s review why, exactly, the ketogenic diet helps obese people lose weight:

• Insulin function
  

  Of all the macronutrients, carbohydrate raises blood sugar and insulin levels the most. It follows that restricting carbohydrate consumption on a ketogenic weight-loss diet (eating keto-friendly foods and fewer calories than needed for homeostasis) and improves these markers in obese, diabetic populations. And it does. Blood sugar falls, insulin falls, and insulin function stabilizes. This is why the ketogenic diet is such a powerful treatment for type 2 diabetes. In a one-year controlled study run by Virta Health, 60 percent of patients on a supervised ketogenic diet reversed their diabetes. The average weight loss was 30.4 pounds.
  

• Appetite management

A higher fat, ketogenic diet may prevent overeating (and subsequent weight gain) by several mechanisms, including:

– Decreased ghrelin, the primary hunger hormone
– Decreased neuropeptideY,an appetite stimulating brain factor
– Increased synthesis of the hormone cholecystokinin(CCK), which promotes a feeling of fullness by binding to the hypothalamus

• Leptin function
  

  The hormone leptin regulates appetite and body weight by binding to receptors in the brain. Simply put, leptin is a satiety hormone. High levels of leptin, like high levels of insulin, are linked to obesity. Specifically, high leptin causes leptin resistance. When someone is leptin resistant, they have difficulty regulating food intake. High-carb intakes increase circulating leptin and exacerbate leptin resistance. The ketogenic diet, on the other hand, appears to improve leptin sensitivity.

The Final Word

It’s no coincidence that rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes are rising in lockstep. The two conditions are driven by similar metabolic disorders—high blood sugar, high insulin, and insulin resistance.

Research shows that the keto diet plan can help. The strict carb restriction of the ketogenic diet has myriad health benefits, and can restore insulin sensitivity, improve leptin function, reduce hunger hormones, promote weight loss (water weight in the short term/first week and the fat loss over time), and even reverse type 2 diabetes. 

Can the obesity epidemic be halted? If the medical community, dietitians, and dieters embraces the ketogenic diet, perhaps it can. 

The post Solving Obesity with the Ketogenic Diet appeared first on KETO-MOJO.

Source: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System

We know this from personal experience and it’s why we created Keto-Mojo.  Before we started a high-fat diet and keto meal plan, we were overweight, unhealthy, and sick of being sick and tired. And while everyone should talk with their healthcare provider and perhaps a dietitian before making any dietary changes, we want to try and educate others on the benefits of the ketogenic diet for weight loss. While it may seem daunting to change your whole view on food and diet, there’s a loving and supportive ketogenic community that will be happy to offer a shoulder for you to lean on while you get lean and aim for long-term weight loss!

Research on the Ketogenic Diet for Weight Loss

The ketogenic diet has been gaining traction in the medical community as a fantastic tool in treating obesity and obesity-related diseases. This has spurred countless research into not only its efficacy, but also its safety, and overall health benefits, including fat loss.

A recent study on 83 obese patients over 24 weeks looked to examine the long-term health implications of a strict ketogenic diet (Hussein et al., 2004). The BMI (body mass index) of the participants was between 35.9±1.2 kg/m² and 39.4±1.0 kg/m². All participants were subjected to liver and renal function tests, and glucose and lipid profiles, using fasting blood samples, and a complete blood count. Thereafter, fasting blood samples were tested for total cholesterol levels, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (otherwise known as “good” cholesterol), low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (known as “bad” cholesterol), triglycerides, blood sugar, urea and creatinine levels at the eighth, 16th and 24th week. In addition, weight and height measurements, and blood pressure were monitored at each visit. During the duration of the study participants received a diet consisting of 30g of carbohydrate, 1g/kg bodyweight protein, and 80% fat (via healthy high-fat foods). The participants saw a drastic reduction in weight, going from a mean bodyweight of 222.73lbs to 191.07lbs. In addition to the reduction in body weight and subsequent BMI the participants also showed a significant decrease from week 1 to week 24 in their total cholesterol as well as their triglycerides and blood glucose. The participants also saw a positive increase in the HDL cholesterol numbers.

And while many of you may be interested in the science surrounding the ketogenic diet and its many benefits (feel free to read through our other articles), perhaps you are here looking to learn how to implement the diet for weight loss, and not just losing water weight.

Keto, which focuses on low-carb foods, may be one of the least complicated diets out there, but due to the overwhelming amount of information in the form of blogs, websites, Instagram, Pinterest, and doctors, it can appear complicated.

But what the ketogenic diet boils down to is getting your body into ketosis (the metabolic state in which you burn fat for fuel versus glucose).

So how do you get started on your weight loss journey with the fat-burning ketogenic diet? Follow our five easy steps and we will have you on a healthy eating plan in no time!

Step One: Consult your Healthcare Provider and Take Your Measurements

Always consult your healthcare provider before making any lifestyle change, particularly if you are on medications, so they can advise you on proper precautions, run any necessary lab work, and also make them aware so they can monitor your progress and avoid any undesirable side effects (other than the keto flu, which is a bit of a right of passage).

If you are a diabetic you will especially want to talk with your healthcare provider as keto will have an effect on your blood glucose levels and you may need to adjust your insulin to ensure proper dosing. Once you get the okay from your healthcare provider, we recommend taking your body measurements, calculating both your BMI and your body fat percentage (your healthcare provider can help you with this), and get an accurate weight. All of this information will help you to personally monitor your progress. With any form of weight loss it’s easy to focus solely on the scale, but the scale is NOT the only way to measure success! And when you feel like giving up because you aren’t at a certain number, look back at your starting point and appreciate how far you have come!

Step Two: Know What Kinds of Foods to Eat on Keto

The ketogenic diet is a higher fat, moderately low protein, very low carbohydrate diet. This means that the majority of your calories will be coming from good sources of fat. But that does NOT mean you will only be eating sticks of butter and bacon grease! Nutrition is very important on the ketogenic diet. You need to make sure you are getting your “fuel” from whole foods. This means, vegetables, meat, dairy, oils, nuts, and berries (in moderation).

Sticking with whole foods makes things less complicated. When you look at “keto” prepackaged foods you need to sift through the ingredients looking for culprits that may not actually be keto-friendly. Read more about this in our article called Is This Keto Approved?. Also, learn how to calculate your macronutrients. It’s not just about calorie intake or carb intake; it’s about eating a diet of mostly healthy fats (coconut oil, olive oil, almond flour, macadamia nuts and more as listed below), moderate protein (grass-fed meat, chicken breasts and thighs, eggs, etcetera), and low-carb veggies (leafy greens, zucchini, bell peppers, green beans, and more). If you consume any fruit, you want to choose non-sugary berries that are low glycemic so they won’t cause a significant blood glucose spike, which in turn would affect your ability to stay in ketosis. More great options are in the infographic below:

Step Three: Calculating Macros and Calories

You have a basic idea of what you can eat. But how much should you eat? This is where the conflicting information starts. Now there are two different views on weight loss on keto. Some say you do not need to calorie restrict, just stick to keto calorie percentages alone (70% fats, 25% protein, and 5% carbohydrates) or with 20g of net carbs per day. (Note that net carbs are total carbs minus fiber.)

With this school of thought you would eat until satiated and stop. Eating more fats as needed to feel satiated. Now this has been shown to work in clinical studies and lead to weight loss. But in many of those studies the participants were morbid to morbidly obese and just decreasing carbohydrates alone would have resulted in a weight loss, especially for the short-term. The issue here is that many people that are overweight do not know what satiety is. They may feel they need to have the feeling of being “stuffed” or full to be satisfied.  So those people may be more likely to overeat, resulting in weight gain rather than losing weight.

The second school of thought is to track your macros (the amount of fat, protein, and calories you can have daily) and also have a caloric deficit. This is our preferred way as it seems to lead to more optimal results and ketone levels. For those looking to go this route, using a macro calculator such as MyMojoMacros will help you figure out the proper amount of protein and fats for your activity level as well as daily calories.

Step Four: Tracking The Keto Diet for Weight Loss

After you have decided on which method you would like to follow as far as calories and macros go you need to decide how you will track what you are eating. While pen and paper may be preferred for some, we love the simplicity of being able to use an app or website. We’ve recently reviewed a few of them so head over to that article to read the pros and cons of several of the most popular keto apps available for your mobile devices. Now here comes the tricky part. Once you have your macros, have your method of tracking, now you need to plan your meals so that you stay within your limits. We have always found that meal planning is the best way to stay on target. It is much easier to make adjustments to your day BEFORE you eat something. For us, that means tracking our breakfast, dinner, and snacking first. Then using any remaining macros to make a delicious nutrient-rich salad! If you need more fats you can add avocados, cheese, dressing or oils. If you need more protein you can add eggs or meat.

Step Five: Self-Experimentation on Keto Diet

Finally keep in mind that everyone’s body is different and reacts uniquely to foods, diets, and exercise. That means that foods that someone can have and stay in ketosis might kick you out. This is where monitoring your ketone and glucose levels will come in. Monitoring your levels and testing them before and after trying new foods will help you find what works best for you and your body. Your weight loss journey is just that, YOURS. That means you need to work at a pace that suits you. If that means starting slow and cutting out added sugars, sweeteners, and flour, making shopping lists for the right kind of nutrition, and working up to keto then that is what you need to do. If it means losing at a slower pace so that you feel more comfortable with all the change then that’s what you need to do. Keto can be a healthy sustainable way to lose weight and live. You need to think of it as a lifestyle change and not a “crash diet” to get you to your goal. And while the keto lifestyle is a great way to lose weight, you need to be in the right frame of mind to do so. Focus on your health, make small attainable goals (a few that have nothing to do with the scale), and stay positive. This is the key to success from the first week onward!

The post Keto for Weight Loss appeared first on KETO-MOJO.

What is a Calorie Deficit?

A calorie deficit is the same thing as a caloric deficit: it’s a shortage in the number of calories you should eat to maintain your current weight. 

People trying to lose weight intentionally operate at a calorie or caloric deficit for obvious reasons: if you lower your daily calorie intake to consume less than your body needs to maintain your current body weight (energy homeostasis), your body burns reserves (i.e. body fat) in order to function properly and consequently loses weight. 

What’s the Right Calorie Deficit to Lose Weight? 

To gain weight, you need to eat more calories than your body burns on a daily basis. So it makes sense that if you’re looking to lose weight, you need to craft a diet plan where you eat an amount of calories that totals less than your body burns on a daily basis.

To do this, you practice calorie counting and healthy eating and monitor your food intake. But, as with most things, the right deficit is not one size fits all. The correct total number of calories for you to operate at a safe deficit depends on a number of factors, including your sex, age, your weight, your height, your physical activity, and how much weight you want to lose.

To calculate your calorie deficit, you first determine your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) or Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) based on age, gender, height, and weight.  BMR and RMR are used interchangeably and refer to the number of calories you need to perform the most basic and essential functions like breathing. Then you factor in your daily activities to identify how many calories you need each day just to maintain your current weight. By knowing your daily calorie needs, you can calculate a calorie deficit based on your weight-loss goals.

There are calculators that can help you determine the right calorie deficit for you. These calculators determine your BMR or RMR, essentially how many calories you should eat to maintain energy homeostasis (your everyday functioning without losing weight), then tell you how many calories you need to eliminate (burn through exercise or more likely subtract from your daily caloric intake) to achieve your weight-loss goal.

Using a Macro Calculator to Determine the Right Calorie Deficit

If you’re attempting to lose weight, a macro calculator will help you determine a safe, sustainable calorie deficit—i.e. one that won’t make you so tired or hungry that you can’t stay on the diet. It will tell you how many calories you should eat to maintain your current weight, factoring in your sex, age, weight, height and activity level. Then it will tell you what percentage of calories you should cut daily to achieve your desired weight loss (the calorie deficit needed to reach your goal). 

A macro calculator will also tell you how many of your daily calories should come from fat, protein, and carbohydrates on a ketogenic diet. This, along with tracking what you eat so you don’t eat more than you think and so you also make sure to eat the right amounts of fat, protein, and carbs, is essential to successfully meeting your weight-loss goals. 

Fortunately, we have an easy and convenient calculator here on this website. The Keto-Mojo MyMojoMacros calculator  will individualize your macros (daily calories broken into fat, protein, and carbohydrates) for a ketogenic diet based on your personal data, activity level and fat-loss goals. Start calculating your macros here!

The Final Word

A calorie deficit is a shortage of calories needed to maintain your current weight. To lose weight through dieting, you need to determine the right calorie deficit to achieve your weight loss goals then craft eating habits supporting the deficit. The right calorie deficit for you depends on your sex, age, weight, height, activity level, and weight-loss goals. Using a macro calculator helps you best understand a caloric deficit that’s safe for losing weight in a healthy way, allows for success over a reasonable amount of time, and takes into account specific things about you and your body. Once you know the right calorie deficit for you, you can adjust your diet to eat less food or lower-calorie foods, control portion sizes, and of course eat fewer calories. As with all new diets, it’s a good idea to consult your physician or a registered dietitian before starting a new diet. 

The post What Is a Calorie Deficit and How Does it Help Weight Loss? appeared first on KETO-MOJO.

Before that, this new, dramatic step in modern medicine was slowly making its way to the mainstream. In fact, the US government only recently broadened the scope of telehealth services covered by Medicare, the federally-sponsored health insurance program for people 65 or older. But the sudden urgency made the use of telehealth instantaneously widespread, and accepted. Now patients across the country can receive a wide range of remote care services – normal primary care and specialized-medicine office visits, mental health counseling, and preventive care advice – from the comfort of their homes. In cases of required care, it’s covered by most insurance, too. 

So what exactly is “telehealth”? In this article, you’ll learn what telehealth is, the benefits of telehealth, and why it’s quickly becoming an important part of managing and reversing diabetes and obesity and of monitoring your overall health. 

What Is Telehealth?

Telehealth simply refers to healthcare-related activities that are executed online or via phone. But it isn’t just about live phone or video visits with your primary care physician or specialist. It also encompasses a growing array of at-home technology – apps, devices, and wearables – that track your vital health information, can transmit any gathered data to your healthcare providers, and help your providers make more informed healthcare decisions. Telehealth could be:

• A doctor consulting with a patient on a video call
• The ability to directly contact and have email exchanges with your physician through an online portal
• The monitoring of vitals and biomarkers through wearables, devices, and apps
• The online exchange of test results between healthcare facilities
• Two physicians discussing a medical matter via online chat
• A neurologist monitoring potential stroke patients from afar using “telestroke” technology
• A remotely controlled robot-assisted surgery
• And much more

Telehealth Terms to Know

Before discussing the benefits of telehealth in more detail, it’s important to define a few key terms. 

• Telehealth: the term used to encompass all digital healthcare activities, including administrative functions.
• Telemedicine: often used as a synonym for telehealth, telemedicine actually refers to specific clinical services provided to patients.
• Remote patient monitoring: the use of digital technology to collect health data (pulse, blood pressure, glucose levels, ketone levels, weight, etc.) from a patient, then transmit that data to healthcare providers for analysis and treatment recommendations.
• Remote coaching: when a patient signs up for remote coaching, they receive health and wellness counseling from a distance. This counseling can be one-on-one coaching with a provider, or via an app.
• API/API integration: API stands for application programming interface, and refers to a set of rules and functions governing how a piece of software works. API integration is the ability of two online systems to communicate with each other and exchange data. The concept of API integration is especially relevant to the success of app-based telehealth programs. API integration ensures your health data (your daily blood pressure, for instance) is securely and accurately transmitted from your testing device to your provider.
  

Telehealth Technology In Action

There are two key benefits to telehealth technology. The first is obvious: You can now connect with your care provider without being in the same room or even the same continent. The second is less obvious but extremely powerful: You can now gather, evaluate, and share with your health care providers your own personal health stats. 

Not sure what we mean? Consider this: with the benefit of digital technology, suddenly even simple home measuring devices, such as a scale, can be a powerful telehealth device. Every time you step on a “smart” scale, it records your current body weight and sends the data to an app on your phone. That data can then be presented to both you and your physician to give a better, fuller picture of your ongoing status and help your provider coach you and make dietary and lifestyle decisions based on real, evolving information. 

Beyond smart scales, there are many other telehealth-friendly apps and devices. These include:

• Wearables like Fitbit devices and the Oura Ring that track sleep, heart rate, and activity levels
• Apps like MDHealth, Doctor On Demand, and Express Care Virtual that connect patients directly with physicians
• Apps like Cronometer, MyFitnessPal, and Carb Manager that track nutrition information like calories and macros 
• Devices like the Keto-Mojo meter that record biomarkers like glucose, ketones, and GKI. 

In fact, ketone and glucose tracking devices are making a big difference in the fight against diabetes. More on that later.  

Consumer Benefits of Telehealth 

As technology advances, the benefits of telehealth continue to manifest. Here are five solid reasons telehealth is an important and very real part of our medical care, present and future:  

#1: Prevents the spread of infectious disease

SARS-CoV-2 (the novel coronavirus) is a highly contagious pathogen that causes a disease called COVID-19. To mitigate the global health consequences of COVID-19, telehealth became a critical means of receiving health care while avoiding the potential exposure to the virus at medical centers. Telehealth allows patients and healthcare professionals to communicate remotely without risking a potentially lethal infection. 

#2: Allows greater access to healthcare

Many people live dozens of miles from a modern healthcare facility, especially in rural areas. With the benefit of technology, however, these people can receive care and counseling at home.

But you don’t have to live in the boondocks to utilize telehealth to your advantage; for example, if you’ve got a sick child at home, a video visit with the physician can help ease minds and provide the best next steps.

Additionally, the ease of use and affordability is proving instrumental in allowing for greater ongoing access to physicians. For example, San Diego, California-based internist and telehealth practitioner Dr. Brian Lenzkes began transitioning to telemedicine upon realizing that without the costs of a large office, abundant staff, and insurance-related red tape, he can offer patients ongoing care and coaching and easy access while charging close to the same amount as a $75 copay – all without involving insurance. An added benefit: “You have the peace of mind that you can always call your doctor. It’s like having AAA,” explains Dr. Lenzkes. 

#3: Saves time

Even if you don’t live too far from your doctor, it’s a schlep to get in and out of a doctor’s appointment. There’s the transportation time, time spent in the waiting room, the intake nurse checkup, the visit itself (often with delays by the physician), and then the journey back to your home or office. This can easily amount to three or more hours to spend about 15 minutes with your doctor. Telehealth eliminates all but the visit itself, so appointments tend to start on time. Needless to say, the time savings add up quickly. 

In the half an hour it takes to come to see me, you can do something else, like go for a walk. – Dr. Tro Kalayjian, New York-based weight loss specialist

Saving time was a big reason that New York-based weight loss specialist Dr. Tro Kalayjian started implementing telehealth into his medical practice. “In the half an hour it takes to come to see me,” he remarks, “You can do something else, like go for a walk.”  Dr. Tro, as he’s known to patients, is mainly focused on helping obese clients lose weight through proper nutrition. (This includes helping folks get started with the keto diet). Dr. Tro has a deeply personal connection to this area, having been obese into his young adult years. Now that he’s lost the weight, he wants to help others do the same, and telehealth is a big part of that.

#4: Engages and motivates patients

In situations where telehealth is used to track your physical status, progress, or both, seeing ongoing results can have a significant effect on your motivation to stick to your goals. Why?  As the old business maxim goes, “What gets measured gets managed.” When you digitally track weight, blood pressure, glucose, ketones, and other biomarkers over time, it creates a sense of accountability. This accountability increases the chance that you will make positive diet and lifestyle changes. Tracking also allows you to see – in real-time – the effects of what you do and eat. Based on this insight, you can adjust your lifestyle accordingly. 

#5: Provides insight to healthcare professionals

The days of the yearly checkup are gone. Telehealth gives doctors and other clinicians a steady stream of data to make better decisions. Suddenly, your health status is a moving picture, not a once-a-year snapshot. For example, if you’re tracking your glucose and your care provider notices your glucose levels ticking upwards, your care provider might schedule a consultation to discuss the causes and ramifications of this trend, including what you can do to lower your glucose and consequently reduce your risk of diabetes. 

Telehealth For Obesity and Diabetes 

Speaking of diabetes, with the aid of apps, devices, and online programs, patients with diabetes, obesity, or both are seeing remarkable progress in reversing these conditions. For instance, having patients measure ketone levels daily, then sharing this data with their provider, provides a level of accountability previously unseen in healthcare. 

In fact, a growing body of research suggests that telehealth-based interventions are effective for treating both diabetes and obesity, which is encouraging, since effectively managing these conditions decreases the risk for nearly every chronic disease.

In one study published in March of 2020, researchers assigned 25 obese people to either a telehealth group (with weekly remote coaching) or a self-directed group. The results? The telehealth group not only complied better with the program – they also lost more weight.

Another analysis found that after four months of app-based health coaching, participants lost 3.23 percent of their total body weight, on average. About one-third of the 763 participants achieved “clinically significant” weight loss, an average of nearly 10 percent total body weight!

Yet the most striking telehealth success is probably that of Virta Health, an online, doctor-supervised program created to manage and reverse type 2 diabetes. The program is designed to keep patients in nutritional ketosis (0.5 to 3.0 mmol/L) by having them eat a ketogenic diet.  

Multiple studies, including one sponsored by Virta Health, have shown a ketogenic diet to be effective diabetes medicine. Here are the results from one year of the Virta Health program on 218 type 2 diabetics:

• 60 percent reversed their diabetes (average HbA1C dropped from 7.6 percent to 6.3 percent) 
• 94 percent reduced or eliminated insulin therapy
• Average weight loss was 30.4 pounds
• Average triglycerides decreased 24 percent

How does Virta Health ensure patients comply with the program? By having them measure ketone levels.

Measuring Ketones In Telehealth

Measuring ketones, and ensuring you stay in ketosis (by consistently keeping your ketones up) is effective diabetes medicine, but only if the patient complies with the high-fat, low-carb regimen of the keto diet. Fortunately, there exists a specific biomarker – the ketone – to track this compliance. Ketones are molecules, produced through fat burning, that serve as a backup energy source to glucose for your body and brain. If your body doesn’t have carbs to burn, it turns to ketones. As evidence continues to build for the keto diet, patients are increasingly measuring ketone levels along with blood glucose levels. (Blood glucose levels indicate one’s progression towards type 2 diabetes). 

A Word from the Keto-Mojo Team about Keto-Mojo Tools and Telehealth

At Keto-Mojo, our aim is to empower you to optimize and manage your health through a healthy ketogenic lifestyle. Since our founding, we have recognized the benefits, importance, and role of telehealth in this pursuit. So, shortly after launching our blood glucose and ketone testing meter, we created an app, integrated APIs and other nifty tools to help you leverage your test results, empower you to better manage your health, and improve your diet and overall well-being. 

Following are all the Keto-Mojo telehealth tools you can use:

The Keto-Mojo meter: Unlike other devices on the market, the Keto-Mojo meter measures both glucose and ketones in an affordable, convenient manner to improve outcomes for patients for weight loss, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and other chronic illnesses that benefit from ketosis. Beyond accurate point-in-time measurements, the Keto-Mojo device allows you to:

• Track glucose, ketones, and the glucose-ketone index (GKI) over time with the Keto-Mojo MyMojoHealth app, available free for iOS and Android.
• Sync glucose and ketone data with a smartphone via Bluetooth connectivity.
• Remotely share glucose and ketone data easily with healthcare providers via secure API integration.
• Feel comfortable that your data is secure because the app and servers are HIPAA compliant.

The Keto-Mojo Bluetooth meter: The Keto-Mojo meter is Bluetooth enabled and allows you to instantly sync your blood glucose and ketone test results from your meter to your smartphone. 

The Keto Mojo Classic app for iOS and Android: This app allows you to track and filter your data and upload your readings to select health management platforms, including Apple Health. 

The ability to import or export your readings via CSV file so you can share your readings with any professional via email. In the case that you are not synced with your provider online or able to share data directly from the app, this tool allows you to share the data with anyone with an email address. 

Secure encrypted API (application program interface): If you’re a health professional and would like your EHR (electronic health record) system to connect your patient data automatically, please contact us.  

SDK (Software Development Kit): We’ve developed a software kit so that we can partner strategically with health companies in order to connect natively to other apps. If you have an app and would like to integrate it, please contact us.

The bottom line? The Keto-Mojo meter, through accurate measurement and secure data sharing, helps both individuals and providers achieve therapeutic success with the ketogenic diet. It’s a tool to track metabolic health over time. 

Contact us for a free consultation on integrations with Keto-Mojo glucose, ketone, and GKI readings.

The Final Word

The coronavirus global pandemic kept people home and pushed telehealth into the forefront as a way to safely connect with care providers from the comfort of their own home. Remote care is the new reality and there’s no going back now.  

But telehealth isn’t just about preventing the spread of a contagion. It’s also about increasing access to care, spurring patient engagement, and providing you and doctors better insight into your health. 

With the benefit of telehealth, the world has already made significant strides against obesity and diabetes. As technology improves, telehealth improves along with it. Keto-Mojo provides many tools to empower you to leverage telehealth to your benefit. The pandemic inspiration may be dark, but the future of telehealth is bright. The more technology permeates healthcare, the better healthcare will become. 

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There’s been more interest than ever in BMI numbers (body mass index numbers) since the coronavirus outbreak of 2019 for one important reason: obesity (one of the BMI weight status markers) has been connected to a higher risk of severe COVID reaction. But that’s not the only reason to be curious about BMI values. When you start investigating your health or weight loss, you’re likely to come across the terms BMI, BMR, lean body mass, and fat body mass. 

These terms refer to important biomarkers that help you understand your body’s composition and gauge whether it needs adjusting, presumably through diet, exercise, or both.

Read on for clarity and help determining your own BMI percentile, BMR, and body mass composition. 

What is BMI?

BMI stands for “Body Mass Index,” which is a standard measurement of a person’s weight with respect to her or his height and also an indication of health risk based on weight. 

Your BMI number is based on a simple mathematical calculation and is a common indicator of your total body fat and whether you qualify as “underweight,” “normal,” “overweight,” or “obese,” based on World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. 

The higher your BMI score, the greater your total body fat percentage. 

Here’s the breakdown of BMI percentiles for an adult, according to the World Health Organization (WHO):

Thus, a “normal” BMI score, or a normal weight range for a person’s height, is between 18.5 and 24.9. Below the “normal” range is underweight and above is overweight. 

How to Calculate Your BMI

There are two ways to determine your BMI — through a table offering you an estimate or through a mathematical formula, which will give more concise results. 

BMI Estimate

To estimate your BMI, match your height in inches to weight in pounds in the following table from the National  Institutes of Health (NIH) National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI):

Body Mass Index Table 1 (for people with BMI of 35 or less)

Body Mass Index Table 2 (for people with BMI greater than 35)

BMI Calculation

There are online BMI calculators that calculate BMI, but you can calculate your BMI with the following mathematical formula provided by the CDC:

BMI = (weight  in pounds) ÷ (height in inches²) x 703

Here’s an example of how to use the calculation, using a person who is 150 pounds and 65 inches tall:

1. First, square the height in inches (65² or 65 x 65 = 4225). 
2. Then divide the weight in pounds (150) by the height squared (4225); so that’s 150 divided by 4225 = 0.03550296. 
3. Now, times the result by 703 (0.03550296 x 703 = 24.9585799). Thus, the BMI for a person who is 150 pounds and 65 inches is 25. 

The metric equation is as follows: BMI = (weight in kilograms) ÷ (height in meters²)

Risks for People with a High BMI

What’s the obsession with BMI? It has everything to do with optimal health versus health problems. An ideal weight keeps you in a better position for better health conditions, while a heightened amount of body fat (i.e. obesity) is attributed to higher risk for a variety of undesirable health conditions. Following are a variety of increased risk factors that accompany a high BMI: 

• high blood cholesterol or other lipid disorders
• type 2 diabetes
• heart disease / cardiovascular disease
• hypertension
• stroke
• high blood pressure
• certain cancers
• gallbladder disease
• sleep apnea and snoring
• premature death
• osteoarthritis and joint disease

Now that you understand BMI, let’s explore BMR.

What is a BMR Basal Metabolic Rate?

Your body burns a specific number of calories to perform its basic, life-sustaining functions, such as breathing, processing nutrients, producing cells, and circulating blood. The number of calories your unique body needs to sustain its most basic, essential functions is your BMR or basal metabolic rate. 

On an average daily basis, you burn more calories than your BMR just doing normal daily activities like working, walking, cleaning, or gardening. For the average person the BMR accounts for between 60 to 75 percent of your daily Total Energy Expenditure (TEE). 

Another term you might hear in relation to BMR is RMR (resting metabolic rate); they’re often used interchangeably. What’s the difference between BMR and RMR? Not much. Your BMR is the minimum number of calories your body needs to function, while your RMR (or REE, resting energy expenditure) is the number of calories your body burns at rest. In other words, they’re essentially the same thing but looked at through a slightly different angle. 

In either case, your BMR can be used to help you gain, lose, or maintain your weight. By knowing how many calories you burn, you know how many to consume.

How to Calculate your BMR 

There are a number of BMR formulas; however, the most recognized and accurate formula for calculating BMR is the Mifflin-St Jeor equation. Because of its accuracy, here at Keto-Mojo, we use this formula for our MyMojoMacros calculator to calculate your daily calorie burn based on your activity level. 

The calculation is fairly straightforward. The results indicate how many calories you need daily for your body to perform life-sustaining functions:

BMR for Men = (10 x weight in kilograms + 6.25 x height in centimeters – 5 x age in years + 5)

BMR for Women = (10 x weight in kilograms + 6.25 x height in centimeters – 5 x age in years – 161)

Here’s an example of how to use the BMR calculation for men, using a man who is 190 pounds, 72 inches tall, and 45 years old:

1. First convert the weight in pounds into kilograms by multiplying the weight in pounds by .454 (190 x .454 = 86.26 kilograms)
2. Next convert the height in inches into centimeters by multiplying the height in inches by 2.54 (72 x 2.54 = 182.88 centimeters)
3. Now plug the numbers into the formula: BMR for Men = ((10 x 86.26) + (6.25 x 182.88) – (5 x 45) + 5) or 1,786 daily calories 

The total number of daily calories a man of this size, weight, and age needs in order to perform only the most basic life-sustaining functions, without doing a stitch of exercise or anything else, is nearly 1.800 calories. 

Here’s an example of how to use the BMR calculation for women, using a woman who is 150 pounds, 66 inches tall, and 45 years old:

1. First convert the weight in pounds into kilograms by multiplying the weight in pounds by .454 (150 x .454 = 68.039 kilograms)
2. Next convert the height in inches into centimeters by multiplying the height in inches by 2.54 (66 x 2.54 = 167.64 centimeters)
3. Now plug the numbers into the formula: BMR for Women = ((10 x 68.039) + (6.25 x 167.64) – (5 x 45)- 161) or 1,342 daily calories.  

The total number of daily calories a woman of this size, weight, and age needs in order to perform only the most basic life-sustaining functions, without doing a stitch  of exercise or anything else, is nearly 1,350 calories. 

Once you know your basic BMR, you can determine how many calories you need each day in order to lose weight, gain weight, or maintain your current weight by factoring in your activity level and then determining your optimal daily calories from fat, protein, and carbohydrates (macros) in order to reach your goal. (See below for more on this.)

This is the basis for our MyMojoMacros macro calculator; it determines how many calories you need to sustain your life and daily activities, factoring in how many calories you burn based on your average daily activity level. Here’s how to make the calculation for what you need to maintain your current weight:

1. Determine which of the following categories below best describes your daily activity level.
2. Use its suggested calculation to find your optimal daily calorie intake. 

BMR Activity Level Formulas

• Sedentary: minimal or no exercise. Multiply your BMR by 1.2.
• Lightly active: you exercise lightly 1 to 3 days a week. Multiply your BMR by 1.375.
• Moderately active: you exercise moderately 3 to 5 days a week. Multiply your BMR by 1.55.
• Very active: you engage in hard exercise 6 to 7 days a week. Multiply your BMR by 1.725.
• Extra active: you engage in very hard exercise 6 to 7 days a week or have a physical job. Multiply your BMR by 1.9.

So, as an example, let’s take the woman who is 150 pounds, 66 inches tall, and 45 years old and consequently has a BMR of 1,342. If she’s moderately active, she multiplies her BMR (1,342.14) by 1.55 to understand her daily caloric requirements for eating enough to maintain her current weight. Since 1,342.14 x 1.55 = 2,080, her total daily calorie intake should be 2,080.32 daily calories. If she wants to lose weight, she’ll have to eat less calories per day. (Read about calorie deficits here.) If she wants to gain weight, she’ll have to eat more. 

Regardless, results using this formula are an estimate. The formula would be more accurate if it included additional factors, such as body composition and weight history. But it’s still a good indication of your BMR.

Speaking of other factors, let’s talk about lean body mass versus fat body mass. 

Lean Body Mass Versus Fat Body Mass

The body is made up of a variety of elements, including blood, bones, muscles, skin, and more. But when evaluating the health of your body, a common biomarker is determining how much of your body is comprised of lean body mass and fat body mass. 

In simple terms, lean body mass (LBM)—comprised of bones, ligaments, tendons, internal organs, and muscles (muscle mass)—is the difference between your total body weight and your body-fat weight. So, fat body mass is the difference between your total body weight and your lean-body weight. 

LBM usually averages between 60 to 90 percent of total body weight for the average person, and men generally have a higher percentage of LBM than women do. The BMI (body mass index discussed above) takes into account how much lean and fat body weight an average, healthy person would have based on their height, then gives an estimate of your body’s fat and lean composition based on their weight. 

While BMI is the most commonly used predictor of lean versus fat body mass, it is not the most precise way to identify whether you have a “healthy” amount of fat, especially because it doesn’t take into account various physiques, such as a muscular one or a more flabby but thin one (commonly described as “skinny fat”). A truer indication of how much fat versus lean body mass you are carrying can be found through bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), which is a test that passes an imperceivable current through your body and measures its speed and resistance (it moves faster through fat-free areas due to its higher water content) then plugs the results into a mathematical equation to conclude your total body fat, fat-free mass, and water. Even more valid and reliable is underwater or hydrostatic weighing. This test is done by submerging the person taking the test into a water tank, having them expel all the air from their lungs, and measuring their body’s mass per unit volume. Both the BIA and hydrostatic weighing are available to the general public; if you’re interested, ask your primary care physician for more information on these tests and where to get them. 

The Final Word

Your BMI is a calculation and biomarker for determining whether you’re at a healthy weight or can benefit from gaining or losing weight; it’s based on your height in comparison to your weight. While the commonly used formula to calculate your BMI is a solid estimate, there are more accurate ways to determine your true fat to lean body mass ratio. Your BMR is an indication of how many calories you need daily to perform basic life-sustaining functions; it fluctuates based on how active your lifestyle is. Body composition can be generally broken down into lean body mass and fat body mass; identifying your body’s composition of fat and lean body mass is important to understanding your general health. Understanding all of these terms, their calculations, and what your results are, give you insight into predictors of your general health and are good starting places for understanding whether you’re at a “healthy” weight. 

Should you calculate your BMI and find that you’d like to lose weight, decrease your waist circumference (excessive waist size is another marker for health risks), and feel better overall,  speak with your healthcare provider. It’s always a good idea to get medical advice before changing your diet. Plus, what’s good for younger people isn’t the same for older people.

The post What’s BMI, BMR, and Lean Body Mass Versus Fat Body Mass? appeared first on KETO-MOJO.

1. Weight Loss

Weight loss is probably the most commonly cited health benefit of the ketogenic diet, and it’s not one to overlook. With keto, weight loss is real and effective for one simple reason: it helps people convert from a carb-heavy diet, carb-burning diet to a fat-heavy, fat-burning diet. A diet high in carbs induces bloating, weight gain, and poor health and relies on carbs for energy. A high-fat, moderate-protein, and very low carb diet curbs your appetite, allows you to eat until you’re satiated, and burns fat from your body and your foods for energy. 

Whether you’re fit, a little out of shape, or obese, a ketogenic diet can do more than help you reach or maintain your goal weight through dieting; it can reduce your risk factors for obesity-related diseases and disorders, including diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and certain cancers. (We’ll talk more about that later in this article.)

The best part? You don’t have to starve yourself to get there. On a keto diet, you get to eat your fill of satiating foods loaded with good fats, which triggers a fat-burning metabolic process known as ketosis. Once you’re body is acclimated, this leads to increased energy and ability for physical activity. 

2. Reduced Appetite

Imagine not feeling those food crashes and carb cravings. That’s the keto life. You eat, then you’re satisfied…for a long time! Once your body has settled into the diet, it works more efficiently, burning the fats in your food and your body and never embarking on the wild ride that is the highs and lows of a carb/sugar laden diet. Without the sugar peaks and crashes, cravings disappear, and you feel satisfied. 

Why, you wonder? Isn’t a calorie just a calorie. The answer is no. Here’s why: 

As we mentioned above, the ketogenic diet is one that’s very low in carbohydrates, moderately low in protein, and high in fat. But it’s more specific than that. Each day on a keto diet, you eat to your macronutrients (“macros”) or the total amount of calories of fat, protein, and carbs you should eat per day based on your height, weight, activity level, age, and goals. But not all macros are the same. Each has a specific amount of energy or calories:

• Carbohydrates have 4 calories per gram
• Protein has 4 calories per gram 
• Fat has 9 calories per gram

Clearly, fats are more satiating (keep you feeling satisfied longer) because they provide you with the same energy per gram as both protein and carbohydrates combined! 

That’s not the only reason your appetite is reduced on a keto diet. As we mentioned earlier, once you get into ketosis, you generally don’t experience the blood sugar level peaks and valleys – and the consequent hunger pangs – that you do on a carbohydrate-heavy diet. Hormones, in this case insulin, cholecystokinin, ghrelin, and leptin, play a strong role in the lack of hunger, because they influence the feeling of being satiated. 

Ketosis has been shown to suppress ghrelin (a strong appetite stimulator). In fact, in a study where participants were put on a ketogenic diet for eight weeks and then reintroduced to a standard diet, participants in ketosis experienced a reduction of circulating concentrations of several hormones and nutrients that influence appetite.

3. Inflammation

Inflammation is the body’s natural immune response to help heal and fight infection. But too much and persistent inflammation can cause unpleasant symptoms, such as pain, joint stiffness, swelling, fatigue, and more acute physiological results. 

When you’re on a keto diet and regularly in a state of ketosis, your body produces ketones, specifically BHB (ß-hydroxybutyrate), which is a strong anti-inflammatory chemical. BHB helps to inhibit the inflammatory pathways (NF-kB and COX-2) and also activates the AMPK (AMP-activated protein kinase) pathway, which assists in inhibiting the inflammatory NF-kB pathways. Additionally, BHB has been shown to exhibit effects similar to pain-relief drugs, such as NSAIDs, by inhibiting the COX-2 enzyme. 

Another anti-inflammatory influence is the ketogenic diet itself; the keto diet helps promote the consumption of anti-inflammatory foods, such as eggs, olive oil, coconut oil, avocados, and other foods high in omega-3s, all of which are heralded for their anti-inflammatory effects. The diet plan also promotes the avoidance of inflammatory foods. Not sure which is which? See our lists below, which feature some popular anti-inflammatory and inflammatory foods. 

Anti-inflammatory Foods

• • Eggs
  • Olive oil
  • Coconut oil
  • Avocados
  • Fatty fish
  • Spinach
  • Cauliflower
  • Broccoli
  • Blueberries
  • Bone broth
  • Garlic
  • Nuts

Inflammation-Causing Foods

• • Processed foods
  • Refined sugar
  • Grains
  • Fruits
  • Starchy vegetables
  • Omega-6
  • Processed oils (canola, corn, safflower)
  • Soda

4. Cholesterol

When people think of high-fat diets, they almost instantly think of high cholesterol levels. It’s a reasonable response considering we’ve been told for years that the low-fat diet is heart healthy and the high-fat diet is not. Yet more and more research showing that fat is not to be feared but rather it has been the scapegoat for the real culprits of cardiovascular and obesity issues among Americans today: processed carbohydrates and diets high in sugar. 

On a ketogenic eating plan, many people experience a decrease in total cholesterol, a decrease in triglycerides, and an increase in HDL. Although some people may see a rise in cholesterol on a ketogenic diet, those people would likely see an increase regardless because rapid weight loss, be it water weight or body fat, can lead to a temporary, short-term rise in LDL cholesterol. Consequently, it’s often recommended to wait six months after starting a ketogenic diet to test your lipid panels, or to wait until your weight loss has tapered off.

We have several articles and videos that dive deeper into the Cholesterol/Keto diet relationship here: 

• • What is Oxidized LDL Cholesterol?
  • Does Keto Raise Cholesterol?
  • Meet Dave Feldman & Cholesterol Code
  • The Keto Diet and Cholesterol: Digesting the Facts

5. Diabetes & Blood Sugar Control

Since you eliminate sugar and most carbohydrates on a keto diet, it’s not hard to understand why it’s great for blood-sugar control. The less sugar and carbs you eat, the less sugar in your bloodstream. This is why, after starting a keto diet, most people will notice a decrease in their blood sugar almost immediately. In fact, the effects are so immediate, it’s recommended that diabetics beginning a ketogenic diet work with their health care provider so they can adjust their medication as needed while their glucose levels become lower and more stabilized. 

When you’re eating carb-heavy high-glycemic foods, you experience a blood-glucose spike immediately after eating, followed by a subsequent drop in blood-glucose. On a ketogenic diet, you reduce your sugar and carbohydrate intake and thus naturally keep your blood glucose levels from rising and falling drastically. There will still be a small natural rise in blood glucose when you eat low-glycemic foods, but you won’t experience the high and low glucose level variations of a high-carbohydrate diet. 

Plus, as we mentioned, by reducing your carbohydrates, you deprive your body of glucose stores, so your body begins using fats for fuel versus carbohydrates/glucose. This causes your insulin levels to lower, because your body is no longer being tasked with managing a lot of sugar. 

Even people with insulin resistance benefit from the ketogenic diet. With insulin resistance, your body doesn’t respond to insulin as it should. This often translates into higher blood-glucose levels and, over time, can lead to diabetes and increase your risk for heart disease. Studies following participants with diabetes who implemented a ketogenic diet show that participants saw drastic reductions in their glucose-lowering medications and fasting glucose levels.

6. Blood Pressure

Anyone with high blood pressure will appreciate the positive blood pressure control that results from a keto diet. 

In studies following obese patients, those on a ketogenic diet experienced a more drastic reduction in their blood pressure than those on low-fat diets. Simultaneously, these same subjects following a keto diet had comparable weight-loss and triglycerides results as study subjects who followed a low-fat diet and received a weight-loss drug. Additionally, the systolic blood pressure in the ketogenic group decreased (which is good for lowering high blood pressure), while it increased among the low-fat/diet-drug-medication participants.

7. Heart Health

The term “heart health” conjures images of little heart icon that appears on whole grains and cereals and promotes carbs/low-fat foods. But, in fact, a diet low in carbohydrates and higher in fats has been shown to drastically improve the biomarkers associated with heart disease. 

In a recent study of a group of normal-weight normolipidemic men (men with normal lipid amounts in their blood) who were put on a ketogenic diet for six weeks, 22 out of 26 biomarkers for cardiovascular disease risk improved significantly. 

While some people experience a small increase in LDL cholesterol on a keto diet, it’s now suggested that LDL is not the “make it or break it” factor in determining heart health it was once believed to be. In fact, current research shows that LDL is a very small piece of the puzzle; in a 2.7-year randomized study looking at the influence of the Mediterranean diet on people who had previously had a heart attack, there was a significantly dramatic reduction in repeat heart attacks and overall mortality. Most remarkable, there was no difference in LDL changes between the two groups. 

Now, it’s widely known that it’s the particle size of LDL that plays a larger role in determining heart health risks. Circulating LDL particles are actually quite diverse in size, and smaller, denser particles (which carry proportionately less triglyceride) are the ones associated with vascular damage and heart disease. 

In fact, in a recent study of ketogenic diet participants where LDL increased, there was a shift in the size of the particles; average particles increased while the small, dense particles associated with vascular damage drastically decreased.

8. Brain Health

The brain loves keto just as much as the heart. The ketogenic diet was initially implemented as a therapeutic treatment in the Mayo Clinic in 1924 to treat neurological conditions, specifically epileptic seizures. In a randomized clinical trial, researchers started the ketogenic diet with pediatric patients suffering from two or more weekly seizures while on anti-seizure medications. Within three months of initiating the diet, 34 percent of the participants had a 90 percent decrease in seizures!

But the research doesn’t stop with epilepsy. In recent years, the ketogenic diet has begun to be studied as complementary intervention for various neurological disorders. And while many scientists within the neurological field state that the brain prefers glucose over ketones, the brain does over time (with age) lose its ability to efficiently fuel itself with glucose alone. This is where ketones come into play. 

Ketones are a natural neuroprotective antioxidant that has been shown to prevent harmful reactive oxygen species from damaging the brain. Ketones have been shown to increase mitochondrial efficiency and production, which helps to protect brain cells from strokes and neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Finally a ketogenic diet has been shown to help regulate glutamate (a dominant neurotransmitter in our brain) which can cause nerve cell damage if over stimulated. 

While much of the research around the ketogenic diet and the brain is in its infancy, the research that has been done is promising and shows a need for further exploration to fully understand the scope of benefits and clinical uses.

Here are some additional articles and videos on this topic on our site:

• • The Ketogenic Diet for Neurological Disorders
  • Keto As a Treatment & Prevention for Alzheimer’s
  • Keto Has a Long History in Treating Epilepsy
  • How the Ketogenic Diet Increases Mental Performance

9. Acne

While genetics plays a large role in acne, it has been suggested that a ketogenic diet may help to improve skin clarity. 

Specific research on a ketogenic diet and acne occurrence has not yet been published, but there have been studies that have looked at a ketogenic diet in regards to hormonal balancing, specifically PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome). Women suffering with PCOS often deal with insulin resistance, hormone imbalances, fatigue, unwanted hair, infertility, and acne. Current studies have looked at the ketogenic diet and low-carbohydrate diets in women with PCOS and have found that they were able to reduce their insulin levels, and reduce their body mass. 

But how does this translate to acne? Well, a recent study, where researchers looked at the benefits of a low-glycemic diet on acne, showed that as insulin levels went down, the physical appearance of acne seemed to lessen. Additionally, as we discussed above, keto has been proven to aid against inflammation, which in turn helps to lessen the inflammation associated with acne (red and swollen pustules).

10. Migraines

Migraines, a recurring type of headache that can cause severe pain, plagues nearly 12 percent of Americans. So naturally, those that suffer with migraines are willing to try most solutions to rid themselves of them. While migraines may not have been their primary reason for starting the ketogenic diet, many migraine sufferers on the keto diet have reported a significant decrease in migraines, including, in some cases, becoming migraine free!

There have been a handful of studies that have looked at the relationship between a ketogenic diet and migraines. In one study, participants in the ketogenic diet group reported a reduction in headache frequency and drug consumption. It was hypothesized that the success may be modulated by keto’s enhancement of brain mitochondrial metabolism and the inhibitory effects on neural inflammation and cortical spreading depression. Ketogenic VLCD (very low-calorie diet) could find a transient role in antagonizing the ponderal increase, a common side effect among prophylactic migraine treatments.

For more information on keto and migraine’s, read our book review on Fighting the Migraine Epidemic: How to Treat and Prevent Migraines Without Medicine, and learn more about the author Angela Stanton, Ph.D. here.

11. Cancer Treatment

When you hear of keto as a cancer treatment, most people are referring to the Warburg effect, whereby cancer cells prefer to use anaerobic (without oxygen) glycolysis to produce energy. 

This is much less efficient than aerobic glycolysis, and it means that cancer cells have a much higher requirement for glucose for energy. That’s the basis for the PET scan where glucose is injected into the body to help detect cancer.  Since cancer takes up glucose far more rapidly than normal cells, the test tracks the activity and location of cancer in the body by noticing what happens with the injected glucose. 

But here’s the most interesting part: some cancers lack the ability to metabolize ketone bodies. This means that if such a cancer has no access to sugar for energy, it cannot thrive. In these cases, a ketogenic diet essentially “starves” the cancer cells. Unfortunately, not all cancers respond the same way, and the Warburg effect is not universally seen in all cancer. 

Still, there is promising research on the role of a ketogenic diet as an effective complementary intervention for cancer treatment. In one study on neuroblastoma, a cancer that most commonly affects children, the ketogenic diet significantly reduced tumor growth and prolonged survival of the study subjects (in this case mice).  

We’re seeing an increasing number of preclinical studies evaluating the ketogenic diet as an adjuvant therapy in cancer treatment, either alone and/or in combination with classic therapy.  In addition to neuroblastoma, the strongest evidence for the tumor-suppressing effect of a ketogenic diet has been reported for glioblastoma (a brain tumor), prostate, colon, pancreatic and lung cancer. 

Read more about cancer and keto here.

The Final Word 

Bottom line: the ketogenic diet has significant health benefits in a variety of areas, from metobolic health to heart and brain health, and more. As studies continue and more is understood about the body’s reaction to the ketogenic diet and how it can be leveraged for a variety of wellness initiatives, there will surely be more discoveries of the benefits of the high-fat, moderate-protein, low-carb ketogenic lifestyle. Regardless, always check with a dietitian or your primary care physician before making dramatic dietary changes. 

The post 11 Significant Health Benefits of the Ketogenic Diet appeared first on KETO-MOJO.

Are You in Ketosis?

Before we dig into other possible influences, let’s make sure you are actually in ketosis. You may think you are, but if you aren’t truly in ketosis, you won’t reap the benefits from it, including weight loss. The best way to find out is to check your blood ketones and blood sugar and make sure your numbers are in line with ketosis. 

If you know you’re in ketosis, and still not losing weight, here are some other things to consider:

Are Processed Keto Foods Kicking You Out of Ketosis?

As keto has grown, so have the food choices. On one hand, it’s good to have options. But, there are some not-so-healthy options available, like misleading keto snacks and desserts, and these can affect your ability to stay in ketosis or lose weight for two simple reasons:

First, many “keto” processed foods lack the nutrients we need. When your body is not getting enough vitamins and minerals from the diet, you can actually gain weight and store fat. 

Second, not all keto-friendly sweeteners are created equal. Some of them are zero carbs, but others contain some carbs, which can push you past your desired daily macros if you’re not careful. Worse, bio-individuality means some people react adversely to any or all of these sweeteners, perhaps heightening their blood sugar and kicking them out of ketosis. Finally, some products claim to be keto when they’re loaded with enough carbs to derail your macros.

To avoid complications, be sure that the majority of your macros come from real whole foods loaded with healthy fats, such as avocados, olives, eggs, wild-caught fish, pasture-raised meats, high-fat and low-carb dairy products, healthy oils (think olive oil and coconut oil), and non-starchy vegetables like spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, and peppers. And, if you’re eating processed keto snacks, track your macros carefully and consider testing your ketones and blood glucose; it’s important to see if what you’re eating is affecting your ketosis. Regardless, keep your diet plan clean and keep processed treats to a minimum. If you need great keto-friendly foods to munch on instead of processed foods, try Chocolate Peanut Butter Fat Bombs or go to our recipe section for more delicious keto recipes. 

Are You Eating Too Many or Too Little Calories?

Along with eating the wrong things, excessive calorie intake can also be a reason for an inability to lose weight on the ketogenic diet. Over-consumption of food and going over your recommended macros (including fat intake) can lead to weight gain rather than fat loss. Luckily, the more solidly into ketosis you are, the less hungry you become, so overeating becomes harder and harder. Eating too few calories can have similar results; when your body thinks it’s starving, it holds onto everything it can. Just be sure you’re eating within your macros and you should be fine. If you’re not sure, it’s always a good idea to count your macros; if you want to lose weight, you should eat at a healthy calorie deficit. 

Are You Tracking Your Carb Intake? 

When eating keto, it’s important to track how many grams of carbs you eat. Otherwise, you may be getting more carbs in your diet than you think, which can kick you out of ketosis. Some foods you wouldn’t think have carbs actually are high-carb. Some dairy and nuts are good examples. Just ¼ cup of almonds has 3 grams of net carbs, but another handful (which is easy to consume when snacking) brings the count right up to 6 grams of net carbs. The best way to avoid miscounting or overeating carbs is to track your food intake on a macro-counting app such as Cronometer or Carb Manager. Once you have a handle on portion sizes, carb counts, and your macros, you may not need to track everything. But early on in your keto journey, tracking is a great tool to ensure you aren’t going overboard with carbs.

Are You Eating Too Much Protein?

There’s a reason macros tell you how much fat, carbs, and protein to eat every day; following macros helps you manage your meal plans and stay in ketosis. For some people, when too many grams of protein are consumed, the body changes them to carbs through a process called gluconeogenesis! This can adversely affect your ketone levels. So, make sure you get enough protein, but not too much. 

Might Lifestyle Factors Be Affecting Your Health (Stress and Cortisol Levels)?

There are other lifestyle factors outside of what or how you eat that can affect your weight. You can have the best diet, follow keto perfectly, track your macros, and eat whole foods, yet still experience weight-loss resistance. When that happens, it’s time to take a look at another lifestyle factor: stress. Believe it or not, if you’re in a constant state of overdrive and not taking time to decompress, you can actually impact your ability to lose weight.

What happens when you’re stressed?

When you’re stressed, your body pumps out cortisol through the adrenal glands. Cortisol helps the body to stay on high alert. But when increased, it also is associated with an increase in belly fat.

According to the article in Harvard Health Publishing called “Understanding the Stress Response,” elevated cortisol levels create physiological changes that help to replenish the body’s energy stores that are depleted during the stress response. But they inadvertently contribute to the buildup of fat tissue and to weight gain. For example, cortisol increases appetite, so people will want to eat more to obtain extra energy. It also increases the storage of unused nutrients as fat.”

Managing your stress levels through self-care techniques, such as deep-breathing exercises, meditation, warm baths, yoga, walking (which helps to put the body in a parasympathetic or relaxed state), and mindful eating (eating while sitting, chewing your food thoroughly, and eating slowly), can all help with decreasing cortisol output and keeping your body more relaxed throughout the day. Also, don’t forget about exercise. Exercise not only helps with weight loss, but it also can help to counteract stress through the release of feel-good chemicals like serotonin in the brain. Getting enough sleep is important, too. 

Do You Have a Medical or Genetic Issue?

Some medical conditions and health issues, such as hypothyroidism, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), Cushing’s syndrome, depression, and hyperinsulinemia (high insulin levels) can make it difficult to lose weight. If you know you have one of these, you may have found the culprit of your weight-loss stall. If you’re not sure, it’s worth seeing your primary care physician to get tested and find out if something medical is in your way and learn how to manage it so that you can continue with healthy weight loss. Meanwhile, some people have specific genes (multiple SLC22A5 SNPs) that make it hard for fat to get across cell membranes and thus be released from the body. This is also something you should discuss with your doctor. 

If All Else Fails: Try Intermittent Fasting

If you’re following all of the guidelines here with the intention of losing weight and aren’t seeing the scale move, you might consider intermittent fasting. All animals evolved from environments where food was scarce. Fasting is an adaptation humans gained from when food was harder to come by, enabling us to function effectively in a food-deprived state. Along with being good for preventative health, one of the many benefits of intermittent fasting is weight loss. Intermittent fasting is eating between a very specific eating schedule, and fasting outside of that schedule. For example, some people will fast for 16 hours with an eight-hour eating window. Other people choose a smaller eating window of 6 or even 4 hours, and still, others only eat one meal per day. Sometimes it takes tweaking to find the eating window that works best for you. Learn more about intermittent fasting here.  Also note, before starting a new dieting program, it’s always a good idea to consult with your primary care provider or a dietitian. 

The Final Word If You Are in Ketosis and Not Losing Weight

There are several things that can affect your ability to lose weight while on a keto diet (i.e. a low-carb high-fat diet). If you’re not reaching your weight-loss goals try the following:

• First of all, make sure you are really in ketosis by using the Keto-Mojo blood glucose and ketone meter and downloading the free MyMojoHealth app, where you can easily track and monitor your ketones, and view trends and graphs on your mobile device.  In the app, you can also sign up for a MyMojoHealth account which allows you to store an unlimited number of readings in a secure cloud platform, review your readings on multiple devices, connect your readings to other popular health apps, and even share your readings with your healthcare provider.  Learn more here.
• Make sure you’re eating the right amount of calories for your keto lifestyle, and eat fewer calories if you’re eating too many. If you’re unsure how many calories you should target to meet your goal, use the MyMojoMacros calculator. 
• Track your macros to help ensure you enjoy a high-fat, low-carb diet, remain in ketosis (a fat-burning state where your body uses ketones for fuel), and burn body fat and reach your target body weight. We suggest using an app like Cronometer or Carb Manager, (use these links for a discount on the premium versions of these apps). And if you sign up for MyMojoHealth you’ll be able to upload your glucose and ketone readings to the nutritional apps so you can see all of your metrics in one place.
• Avoid too many processed foods; they can increase your blood-sugar and carbohydrate intake.
• Eliminate as much stress as possible.

Following these steps, most keto dieters are able to get back on track with their keto weight loss plan and achieve fat loss.

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