This is not the Enquirer or the Star. This is real life, people. While they say that Boulder is 10 square miles surrounded by reality, THIS REALLY HAPPENED! I have a client, let's call him Chris.
Chris might describe himself as an addictive personality type; whatever he takes on, he throws himself into it FULL FORCE. We had been discussing strategies for better eating habits for quite some time while his weight slowly crept higher and higher. He was full force into eating whatever he damn well pleased. I sent him a podcast about intermittent fasting and doing so by staving off hunger with a higher fat diet. After all, being hungry is the main obstacle to weight loss for most people. It's hard to stay compliant when all you can think about is eating. He decided to eat one big meal per day, full of fat, protein and vegetables. Otherwise, he would drink only coffee, or carbonated water. As you can imagine, the first few days were rough, but it didn't take long to figure out how to make it sustainable and a habit. The best part was, he was dropping body fat and no longer hungry. His body has begun using his excess body fat in the form of ketones for fueling his activities rather than relying on glycogen for fuel (usually derived from carbohydrates and excess protein).
"I would describe the energy level as a D battery." He said. "There are no blood sugar spikes nor sudden drops in energy. Just a long, slow steady energy." Some weeks he did 60+ minutes of exercise per day, some weeks only our two personal training sessions. Regardless of his exercise level, he continued to lose body fat. I was excited to see his progress (first two charts pictured below) but wondered if this was really the road to good health. Chris strategically had his doctor visit before he started this diet as well as eight weeks into it. The most notable numbers showed a drop in blood pressure from 117/89 to 104/72 and his testosterone level went from 320 to 675; it has more than doubled! His triglycerides stayed constant.
After switching to a Standard American Diet type eating pattern for the holidays (high carbohydrate/multiple times eating per day), he returned to the keto-diet with some difficulty. "I have concluded that hunger is simply a side effect of carbohydrate withdrawal. It's similar to to an addict's withdrawal from substances thus after some initial discomfort, everything feels right again."