The Power of a Long-Term Ketogenic Diet

What is the biggest benefit of sticking to a low carb or ketogenic diet long term for weight loss? Let me throw a little math at you before I tell you what I think the answer to that question is.

I lost 200 lbs in about 3 years. So assuming that a pound of fat represents about 3500 calories, I lost 700,000 calories of energy in, let’s call it 1000 days to make the math easier. That means on average I ate 700 calories a day less than what my body needed to maintain my present weight.

Now I know that not all of that was strictly from the food as I was also doing a bit of exercise but nowhere near 700 calories per day. Google tells me that to burn 700 calories a day I would have to jump rope for an hour, jog for an hour, or ice skate for about 75 minutes. I ain’t doing none of that. I will jump rope every once in a while and 5 minutes is absolutely pushing it.

So that is a consistent calorie deficit of 700 calories a day, every day for years. Now this is where I think the most important power of LCHF comes into play. In all that time where I was doing various tweaks and adjustments to my diet and exercise like trying yoga, playing with Intermittent Fasting, and doing more kettlebell work, I was able to miss 700 calories a day from my diet and never be hungry.

That’s the answer to the question in my opinion. The real strength of an LCHF or Ketogenic Diet (and I’ve done both…and carnivore) is that you can remove calories from your diet with no hunger. Look, I like to think of myself as a guy with a moderate amount of will power that can stick to something long term. I’ve been married to the same woman for over 25 years, been writing on this blog for about 4 years, and have another blog I wrote at before this one for about 10 years. But let me be honest with you, if I had to be hungry every day for 3 years in order to lose weight, there is no way in Hades I would have ever stuck it out this long.

I had always thought a certain amount of suffering was necessary to lose weight. I remember years ago when I watched Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead and decided to just drink juice for like 6 weeks. I certainly lost weight but I was miserable the entire time. If I would have had to be hungry for years in order to lose weight, it just never would have happened. I would still be 400 lbs if I was still alive.

Having eaten this way for years, it is absolutely the lack of hunger that is the strength of this way of eating. Imagine losing weight without hunger! That is absolutely the power of keto.

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