Mixed
A eucaloric ketogenic diet (KD) induces significant weight loss primarily through visceral fat reduction while preserving muscle and bone mass, without adverse metabolic changes, over a period of up to three months.
If you are overweight or even normal weight, a ketogenic diet can help you lose fat without losing muscle, provided you eat enough to maintain your weight (eucaloric) and monitor your ketone levels to ensure you are in ketosis. This approach also appears to improve quality of life and reduce fatigue, particularly in those with overweight. You should aim for very low carbohydrate intake (around 33-35g/day) and monitor blood ketones to confirm adherence.
Significant weight loss was observed in both groups, reducing body fat without affecting muscle or bone mass and without adverse metabolic changes.
Why this rating
Prospective pre-post interventional study with objective monitoring (blood ketones) and control group for short-term phase, but lack of randomization in the long-term phase limits causal inference strength compared to RCTs.
Source
The impact of a ketogenic diet on weight loss, metabolism, body composition and quality of life
Simon Hirschberger et al. · iScience · 2024
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