Low-carb or keto diets seem to be all the rage nowadays, but the question is, is it better for fat loss in comparison to a moderate carbohydrate diet or low-fat diet? Many people who go on a keto-diet and restrict carbs, as well as calories end up losing a significant amount of weight and quickly at first but then it starts to slow down. This occurs by depleting water and glycogen stores in our body. […]
Having issues with your digestive system or notice that you are getting sick more often, maybe it is a good time to take a closer look at your gut health. Our gut plays a pretty big role in helping us to digest food, absorb nutrients, metabolize drugs and help aid in regulating our immune response. Our guts are also highly sensitive to not only the things we ingest but whether we are exercising or even […]
I was talking to a client the other day about seriously trying to drop some body fat. In the personal training world, many clients will primarily be training for fat loss. Sure you will have many that want to improve health, get stronger and the like, however, the majority of adult age clients will want to lose some fat. While there are many ways to lose body fat the number one factor will be consistency. I […]
What Goes on in the Gut Digestion has been a hot topic of discussion in the last couple of years. With the profound research coming out about how important our gut bacteria can be has opened our eyes to a whole new way of thinking about our health. Everything from our immune systems, brain, and even fat loss can be dramatically affected by what is going on in our guts. I have had my own […]
There are a few things in fitness and in life that seem to pop up all too often. One of the first things that come to mind is lower-back health. In everyday life, it can stop us in our tracks. From long days to sitting at a desk to hours upon hours of manual labor, the lumbar spine can start to feel not as resilient and at times, painful. In the gym and during various […]
Plateauing or plateau – a state of little or no change following a period of activity or progress. During my time as a trainer, I have heard the word “plateau” used all too often. Oftentimes it is simply because someone does not feel that there are getting anywhere with their health and fitness goals. They are pounding the pavement with their workouts and staying away from junk food. So, the natural thing to think when […]
Factors for Muscle Growth There is a great debate on what works best in the strength-training world for muscle growth. The simple answer is it depends on your goal and your experience level. There are many ways to construct a strength-training program and many variables that will determine your success. Sometimes you can use a periodization model to include multiple workouts splits in a given year. You can also follow an undulating periodization model where […]
Controlling Food Portions and Macronutrient Breakdown If many of us just stopped eating the amount of food volume that we consume, we would probably lose fat and feel better. Unfortunately, it is not that simple. I do not believe a calorie is a calorie. I also feel that reducing calories can make us become nutrient deficient, lack energy, lose muscle, and set ourselves up to overeat and fail in the end because calories are cut […]
Real Workouts. Real Eating. Real life.
Low-carb or keto diets seem to be all the rage nowadays, but the question is, is it better for fat loss in comparison to a moderate carbohydrate diet or low-fat diet? Many people who go on a keto-diet and restrict carbs, as well as calories end up losing a significant amount of weight and quickly at first but then it starts to slow down. This occurs by depleting water and glycogen stores in our body. So, this means most of the initial weight loss occurring with low carb diets is just water weight. 
Studies have shown that if protein and calories matched for each experimental group with varying amounts of fats and carbohydrates, such as low fat, low carb or moderate carb, then weight loss was similar among all groups. This proved that controlling calories and consuming enough protein have the biggest impact on weight loss and that the number of calories coming from fats and carbs did not alter body composition.
However, long term studies showed that when looking at these diets long term and blood work, moderate and higher carbohydrate diets led to better blood work results and reduced metabolic risk factors while low carb diets also led to reduced metabolic risk factors but led to an increase in LDL cholesterol and inflammatory markers.
Fad diets are never a good idea and are typically only sustainable for a short time period. The more we restrict ourselves and our diets the more likely we are to fall off the wagon, lose control and end up gaining back all the weight previously lost or even more.
Everyone is unique and our bodies respond differently to different types of diets, so some of us may do better at reducing our carbs a bit while some may do better consuming higher amounts of carbs. This means that there is no diet more superior than another and that your diet is dependent upon your goals, your body and how likely you are to maintain that style of eating long term.
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