Interesting blog post by Dr. Michael Eades

(KCKO, KCFO) #1

I found this very interesting.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #2

This is really about women and low carb. If in addition to fear of fat, I wonder if self-fat-shaming is part of the difference. Also, from my disinterested observations on this forum, I suspect women are more prone to eat so-called ‘comfort food’ and to use food as emotional support. At least more so than men. This might help account for their overall undercompliance.

(Karen) #3

I think the women on this forum are pretty compliant about low carb. They still lose less. No fear of fat here.

(Fernando Urias) #4

Men are more prone to drink beer as ‘comfort drink’ and to use it as emotional support. This might help account for their overall misscompliance.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #5

This is a trick right? I’m not commenting because…well because. :joy::joy::joy::cowboy_hat_face:

(Jenna Ericson) #6

I have a theory about why it seems to be easier for men to loss weight on a ketogenic diet. You know how a lot of people experience a huge amount of weight loss when they first start keto? Then they often stall around the time they get fat adapted. I believe this is because if your body is less fat adapted (ie less used to burning fat for fuel) it will be less efficient at knowing how much in the way of ketones to make when deprived of carbs. So it makes a bunch and you overproduce ketones. Those ketones are enormously therapeutic and help start you burning more fat more efficiently, hence more weight loss.

Women are biologically predisposed to being more fat adapted than men, presumably because they generally have a higher ratio of fat to muscle than men do, so basically women’s bodies are more programed to know how to use that fat.

To get back to the question: why do men loss more weight than women on a ketogenic diet? Because they tend to be less fat adapted so when they start keto they get this huge surge of ketones because their body is less efficient at knowing how many ketones to make. Because their ketone levels are high this starts a feedback loop where they start burning fat much more quickly and easily than before.

Women often don’t get this same initial rush of ketones and weight loss because they are already somewhat fat adapted and so might be less motivated to stay on keto, and more skeptical of it’s legitimacy.

Obviously hormones also play a big roll in whether or not we loss weight too. Since women and men have different hormones there could potentially be different reactions to the same stimulus (ketogenic diet).