My Latest Thoughts on the Keto Diet

I used to be the type of person who couldn't eat carbs on a regular basis without gaining weight.

I was introduced to the keto diet in my early 20's just after I had been diagnosed with PCOS. I was struggling with stubborn weight gain (only a few kilos but enough to make me feel uncomfortable and unhappy with my appearance), I was fatigued, not coping well with stress, constantly craving sugar and struggling with regular episodes of binge eating which I would then follow with periods of restriction.

I had skin issues, sluggish digestion (which left me feeling constantly bloated), severe PMS and big issues with my cycle.

For 8 years, I used the keto diet (on and off) to manage these symptoms. I was able to get my symptoms under control while on the keto diet but as soon as I relaxed my diet, the symptoms would return. I resigned myself to the fact that I would have to be very conscious of carbs for the rest of my life.

In the early months of 2020, I decided I needed to put myself back on the keto diet to get these recurring symptoms under control. In the past I would begin to see these symptoms improve within the first week, but this time, weeks passed and nothing changed. I persisted with the plan, I cut out more carbs and focused on eating as 'cleanly' as possible. Eventually my weight and skin health started to change but other aspects of my health were getting much worse.

Something was wrong.

After many months of trial and error, reading and research, I realised a number of facts about the keto diet which were difficult to accept.

I had devoted the past 8 years to promoting the benefits of the keto diet and I had worked with thousands of people, coaching them on various keto plans. It was a scary thing to be in a position where I wanted to change my message and my mind.

Now, 2 years later, I consistently have no signs of PCOS, insulin resistance, gut health issues or hormone imbalance. I eat an abundant amount of carbs daily. Rice, potato, fruit, honey and even fruit juice forms a regular part of my daily diet and it feels freeing to be able to enjoy these things without worrying about gaining weight. 

Throughout this article I want to share some of the things that helped me to realise that keto was not the answer for me, and these are some of the things that have helped me to be able to eat a wider variety of food again without it affecting my health or my weight in a negative way.

If you would like to experience this same level of freedom, read on.

These are 3 of the many things I learned which allowed me to start the process of healing my body so I could break free from keto dieting.

1. Carbs are not the problem

Carbs are our bodies preferred source of fuel. They are not supposed to cause rapid weight gain, bloating, binge eating, insulin resistance, hormone imbalance or any other health issue that gets blamed on carbs. I'm not suggesting you can eat all the sugar you want without repercussions, but carbs are not the evil macronutrient that we are led to believe they are.

If carbs do appear to cause health problems, cutting them out will work, for a while.. just like it did for me. But eventually, the symptoms will break through and you will be forced to deal with the REAL root cause.

It was interesting for me to learn that there are certain nutrients and minerals that your body needs to be able to turn carbs into fuel. If these nutrients are lacking, carbs may cause problems.

I decided to use a Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (along with a bio resonance scan) to uncover my mineral status and I discovered I was deficient in EVERY mineral needed to utilise carbs. Discovering this also helped me to understand how imbalances like insulin resistance and PCOS developed in the first place.

So one of the problems with the keto diet mindset is, instead of balancing the missing minerals and nutrients that the body needs to thrive, we simply blame carbs, we cut them out of our diet and we think we have solved the problem.

It was also interesting to discover that certain foods can impair or block your bodies ability to turn carbs into fuel. When we are aware of these foods, we can reduce them (because these foods are not essential like carbs are and your body wont miss them), and then you can eat the carbs your body wants without gaining weight.

2. The keto diet can make things worse

Any kind of extreme restriction forces the body into a stressed state and a stressed body will struggle to heal.

When I was first diagnosed with PCOS I was struggling with estrogen dominance, insulin resistance, subclinical hypothyroid function, gut health issues, impaired detoxification and nervous system dysregulation.

The LAST thing my body needed at that time was to be starved of carbs. 

By cutting out carbs, I starved my liver of the fuel it needed to function well, which further perpetuated toxin build up and estrogen dominance. I starved my thyroid and metabolism of the fuel it needed to work well, causing me to regain weight rapidly every time I went off plan. I caused my body to be in a high stress state where it was forced to produce ketones for fuel. In this stressed state I was unable to heal my gut, I was unable to heal the hormone imbalance and I was unable to signal to my body that it was safe to maintain a healthy weight.

What my body really needed at this time was nourishment. But sadly, we are brainwashed by diet culture to think dieting and restriction is the answer to all of our health concerns, when really, it makes everything worse.

3. Just because it feels good, doesn't mean it is healthy

One thing I struggled to get my head around was, how could the keto diet be making things worse if I felt so good when I was on it?

If you've tried the keto diet before, you would know that cravings and hunger disappear within a few days, which honestly should be the first red flag. An absence or loss of appetite is not a good thing, its a sign that something is wrong, but once again, it has been glamorised by diet culture as something we should aim to achieve.

I saw a social media post by Jessica Ash Wellness saying "if your dog loses it's appetite for days on end, you don't think.. "YAY, they are in ketosis!" you rush them to the vet. Same goes for a child or elderly person, a loss of appetite is often a sign that they are stressed or unwell. It does not occur when the metabolism is thriving.

On a keto diet, bloating appears to improve, energy appears to improve, everything seems to feel better... until of course you fall off track because your body is desperate for carbs.

As I mentioned in point 2, any kind of extreme restriction forces the body into a stressed state. Carb restriction, extreme calorie restriction (anything below 1200 calories for an adult is extreme restriction), prolonged periods of fasting, even excessive exercise will cause stress to increase.

If you have to consistently eat 1200 calories or less to lose weight, then weight loss is not the thing you should be focusing on. Firstly because this is a sign that your body and your metabolism needs nourishment and healing.

Having to starve to lose weight is a sign that something is wrong. Secondly, it is unlikely that you will be able to maintain such a low intake of fuel long term, and when you do start eating more, you will gain the weight back (plus some).

And lastly, if you do manage to eat 1200 calories long term, your metabolism will continue to slow down, you will lose metabolically supportive tissue (muscle), hormone imbalance will develop, problems with detoxification will arise and you will begin to gain weight again.

This means you will have to eat even less next time you want to lose weight. This is how people end up on those horrible HCG and Fast 800 style diets (sadly, I am speaking from experience here too). 

So back to the original question, how come we feel so good on restrictive plans like a keto diet?

When stress is high, we can feel really good. High stress can cause your appetite and cravings to disappear, it can cause an increase in energy, it can cause brain fog to disappear. High levels of stress can suppress almost any symptom.. for a while (this is how corticosteroids work). But despite feeling good, prolonged levels of high stress are not healthy.

Eventually, the body cannot cope with these high levels of stress. This is the point where most people fall off their plan. We blame things like a lack of will power or a lack of motivation, but this is not the real problem.

When we spend too much time in a highly stressed state, whether that stress is because of life circumstances, work or restrictive dieting, our metabolism becomes suppressed and as soon as we start eating more, we regain the weight. Not only does the weight return but it becomes harder to lose it on our next attempt.

Periods of high stress will also deplete the very nutrients you need to use carbs for fuel, which further enforces the false belief that carbs make you gain weight.

Over time, stress will damage gut health, impair liver function and disrupt hormones. This is all going on under the surface while we're feeling "really good" on our carb or calorie restricted plan. It is not until we start eating carbs again that stress comes down (because carbs are actually anti-stress, its one of the reasons why we crave carbs, sugar and salt when we're stressed) and the symptoms begin to appear. Which reinforces the false belief that 'carbs are bad' and that carbs cause (insert symptom here).

When I first heard this information I was triggered, I was upset to learn that what I believed to be true may not actually be true.. but I was so desperate to fix my health issues that I was willing to do anything.

If these points have resonated with you and if you're ready to break free from restrictive dieting, yo-yo dieting and keto plans, reach out because I would love to help you.

Use the link below to get started with an initial consultation today.

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