Eight reasons why the ketogenic diet leads to weight gain
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Losing weight is not as simple as just increasing fat intake and restricting carbohydrate intake. Even with restricted carbohydrate intake, many hormonal and metabolic factors can still lead to weight gain.
Let's look at eight reasons why the ketogenic diet leads to weight gain, and how to adjust your lifestyle to achieve long-term weight loss success.
Eight reasons why the ketogenic diet leads to weight gain
While many people have lost a significant amount of weight through the ketogenic diet, some people find it difficult to lose weight or experience unexpected weight gain.
Your metabolic rate, hormonal balance, and overall health are unique and significantly influence your weight. The good news is that weight gain from a ketogenic diet doesn't mean a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet is unsuitable for you.
"It's important to remember that weight loss is not an indicator of health," Dr. Berg explained . "You have to be healthy before you can lose weight, not the other way around."
Here are eight reasons why the ketogenic diet leads to weight gain and solutions for achieving a healthy weight.
1. Inability to maintain ketosis
One of the most common reasons why the ketogenic diet leads to weight gain is inconsistent carbohydrate intake, causing the metabolism to switch back and forth between burning fat and using sugar as the primary energy source.
The success of the ketogenic diet depends on restricting carbohydrate intake to maintain low insulin levels, which triggers ketosis and promotes metabolism to break down fat.
"Cheat days" on a ketogenic diet are not a good strategy; they can quickly undo your weight loss efforts. Whenever you consume too many carbohydrates, your insulin levels spike, which inhibits fat burning and stimulates fat storage.
Furthermore, after consuming too many carbohydrates, the body usually needs several days to restart ketosis, which slows down the rate of ketosis adaptation and leads to weight gain.
To achieve sustainable weight loss, it is crucial to limit net carbohydrate intake to no more than 20 to 50 grams per day and consume plenty of healthy fats and adequate protein.
2. Pressure
Stress is an often overlooked factor when it comes to weight gain.
When you feel stressed, your adrenal glands release cortisol, a hormone that regulates metabolic processes and can meet the body's energy needs during periods of stress.
Although cortisol plays a crucial role in the body's stress response, prolonged stress can lead to persistently elevated cortisol levels , which has been found to contribute to weight gain.
Evidence published in *The Current Obesity Report* suggests that cortisol stimulates fat storage, particularly around the abdomen. This explains why chronic stress can lead to adrenocorticism, characterized by unexplained weight gain and abdominal fat accumulation.
A healthy lifestyle, sufficient sleep, regular exercise, and relaxation techniques such as deep breathing and long walks can calm the nervous system and help counteract the weight gain effects of cortisol.
3. Slow metabolism
People with a slower metabolism burn fewer calories than people with a faster metabolism.
There are many reasons for a slow metabolism , including menopause, hypothyroidism, genetic predisposition, hormonal imbalance, and frequent dieting.
If you suspect your metabolism is slow, monitoring your fat intake is crucial during a ketogenic diet. Fat has almost twice the calories of carbohydrates, and a high-fat diet makes it easy to consume too many calories, leading to rapid weight gain.
Boosting your metabolism doesn't actually have an effect, but you can improve its flexibility, which is a measure of how quickly your body adapts to using fat instead of sugar as its primary fuel source.
Combining the ketogenic diet with intermittent fasting (a diet plan that cycles between fasting and eating periods) can force your metabolism to burn stored body fat for energy.
This stimulates the production of lipoxygenase in the liver and enhances the body's ability to utilize fat as its primary fuel source.
4. Not eating a nutritious diet
To achieve healthy and sustainable weight loss through the ketogenic diet, it's not enough to simply restrict carbohydrates and increase fat.
Many fast foods , junk foods, and processed foods are low in carbohydrates and high in fat, but these foods will not help you lose weight; in fact, they may lead to weight gain.
A study published in Clinical Nutrition confirms that diets rich in processed foods are associated with overeating, malnutrition, and metabolic imbalances, which significantly increase the risk of obesity.
To promote healthy weight loss, it is essential to follow a nutrient-rich, healthy ketogenic diet that focuses on minimally processed, ketogenic whole foods, including grass-fed beef, wild-caught fish and game, seafood, high-fat dairy products, and organic vegetables.
5. Alcohol
Although pure alcohol contains no carbohydrates, drinking alcoholic beverages can lead to rapid weight gain.
Because alcohol is a toxic compound, the liver prioritizes its detoxification process over other metabolic processes, including fat burning.
In addition, most alcoholic beverages are high in carbohydrates and are often mixed with sugary soft drinks or fruit juices. Even small amounts of alcohol can hinder weight loss and ketosis , and it can take 48 to 72 hours after drinking to resume fat burning.
Alcohol is a common cause of weight gain on a ketogenic diet, and it is best to minimize or avoid alcohol consumption to maintain ketosis and promote metabolic health.
6. Gut microbiota imbalance
Although it may not be obvious, gut microbiota can significantly affect your weight.
Research has found that an imbalance or disorder in the composition of the gut microbiota (also known as dysbiosis) can disrupt fat metabolism, increase the risk of insulin resistance , and may lead to low-grade inflammation, all of which are associated with weight gain.
According to a study published in the journal Microbiology , "a healthy symbiotic relationship between the microbiome and the host can turn into persistent dysbiosis, potentially leading to excessive fat deposition. Obese patients have lower numbers of bacterial genes, which means their gut microbiota is relatively poor."
Dysbiosis can be caused by a variety of factors, including:
- antibiotics
- Diets rich in refined carbohydrates, sugars, and processed foods
- Foods lacking dietary fiber and prebiotics
- Alcohol
- pressure
- Gastrointestinal infection
You can promote a diverse gut microbiota by eating foods rich in prebiotics and probiotics, such as garlic, onions , asparagus, artichokes, kefir, sauerkraut, and pickles .
7. Lack of physical exercise
Regular exercise is important for metabolic health, especially if you are still gaining weight despite following a low-carbohydrate healthy diet.
Muscles have a more active metabolism, burning more calories than most other tissues even at rest. Increasing muscle mass can offset a slower metabolism and may prevent weight gain.
Regularly incorporating high-intensity interval training (HIIT) into your ketogenic lifestyle can help you lose fat and build muscle at the same time.
8. Potential health problems
Underlying health problems can significantly impact weight, fat distribution, and body composition.
"Classifying different body types based on potential health problems is very helpful in finding effective solutions to improve health and support healthy weight loss," Dr. Berg said.
People with thyroid problems often experience unexplained weight gain throughout their body, which is a hallmark of thyroid body type .
In contrast, people with protruding abdomens are more likely to have a liver-type constitution , which is usually associated with poor liver function, excessive alcohol consumption, cirrhosis, or fatty liver.
While healthy ketosis is an excellent diet to support liver and thyroid health, addressing and managing any underlying health conditions is essential for promoting overall health and achieving weight loss goals.
Watch the video below to learn why the ketogenic diet causes rapid weight gain.
What is ketosis?
Ketosis is a metabolic state in which your body relies on ketones as its primary energy source.
When the liver burns fat instead of sugar for energy, it produces large amounts of ketones, a group of organic compounds that can be used as a fuel source by the brain, heart, muscles, and other tissues.
Ketosis can be achieved by limiting carbohydrate intake to no more than 20 to 50 grams of net carbohydrates per day and getting most of the calories from healthy fats and adequate protein.
Insulin, a key metabolic hormone that regulates blood sugar control, stimulates fat storage and inhibits fat burning. Restricting carbohydrate intake can lower insulin levels, thereby releasing stored fat and shifting metabolism to fat-burning mode.
A low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet, also known as a ketogenic diet, not only helps with weight loss but is also associated with a number of significant health benefits.
A recent study published in the journal Nutrients suggests that "the ketogenic diet may help patients lose weight, reverse symptoms of metabolic syndrome, reduce inflammation, improve blood lipid levels, and may extend lifespan and improve brain function." 4
Is it possible to gain weight with a ketogenic diet?
Yes, the ketogenic diet can indeed lead to weight gain.
The ease with which you lose or gain weight depends on your diet, genetics, stress, activity level, sleep habits, and hormonal balance.
Due to this complexity, there is no single ketogenic diet that works for everyone. You may need to adjust your ketogenic lifestyle to suit your individual needs in order to prevent weight gain.
The ketogenic diet is a high-fat diet that can lead to excessive calorie intake, exceeding your daily calorie needs, and can cause weight gain even if your metabolism is in ketosis.
It's important to remember that the liver always burns dietary fat first before using stored body fat, and eating too much high-fat food can prevent weight loss and lead to weight gain.
While counting calories isn't necessary on a ketogenic diet, tracking your fat and calorie intake over a few days can help check if you're consuming too much fat, which may be giving you more calories than your body needs.
Watch the video below to learn why you're not losing weight on a ketogenic diet.
How long does it take to start a ketogenic diet for weight loss?
How long it takes to start a ketogenic diet depends on how quickly your body adapts to the ketogenic diet, your health condition, activity level, metabolic rate, and previous eating habits.
Most people experience rapid weight loss in the early stages of a ketogenic diet. This is usually due to fluid loss, a side effect of ketosis adaptation.
Glucose, a form of glucose stored in muscles and the liver after being bound to water, is depleted within the first week of ketosis. This leads to significant fluid loss, which explains why the ketogenic diet can result in immediate and substantial weight loss.
However, once liver glycogen reserves are depleted, your body will rely on ketones as an energy source, and the rate of weight loss will usually slow down.
While some people can lose two to three pounds a week through the ketogenic diet, it is more common to lose weight more slowly, about one pound per week.
Weight loss may be masked. Muscle mass is heavier than fat mass, so if you exercise regularly, the ketogenic diet may not show you weight loss.
A decrease in waist circumference without a decrease in weight is a good indicator that your ketogenic diet plan and exercise habits are working for you.
Key points
The most common reasons for weight gain from the ketogenic diet are excessive fat intake, inconsistent carbohydrate intake, lack of exercise, and stress.
In some cases, underlying health problems, such as hypothyroidism, liver problems, or gut microbiota imbalance, can disrupt metabolic pathways and hinder weight loss.
Combining the ketogenic diet with intermittent fasting and addressing any underlying health issues are key steps to promoting effective fat burning and achieving weight loss goals.