Meat only diets are exceptionally good at weight loss, because your body gets into ketosis (it takes anywhere from 1-2 days to weeks, usually with hangover-like symptoms to adapt fully, but it takes no time to snap out of it), and naturally you cut out most of the calorie sources from your diet.
For what it's worth, this mostly doesn't actually happen. There is some good science behind maintaining ketosis in children under careful monitoring by a physician. Most of the empirical evidence in adults is that it's hard to achieve and harder to maintain. The weight loss some people achieve on "keto" diets is mostly just due to caloric restriction when it's been measured carefully.
The upside is you don't really want to have your body in ketosis anyway.
I haven't heard this before, that it doesn't actually happen. Are those ketosis test strips you pee on not accurate?
I've ketoed before for weight loss (and am starting again soon) and when I was quite strict with it I'd be well into the ketosis range on those pee strips.
If it's not a sign the body's in ketosis, what is it a sign of?
Also, fwiw, I lose significant weight on keto without moderating my calorie intake at all; fatty meats, cheeses, butter, oil, etc., plus a lot of vegetables. If it's not ketosis, what is it?
> Also, fwiw, I lose significant weight on keto without moderating my calorie intake at all; fatty meats, cheeses, butter, oil, etc., plus a lot of vegetables. If it's not ketosis, what is it?
Unless you were very carefully tracking calorie intake before and on the keto diet, it is not justifiable to assume same caloric intake, even if keto food seems very calorie rich.
It absolutely does happen. If you stop eating carbs for several days, you will go into ketosis. You can tell because your glycogen will be depleted, temporarily dropping your weight by a few pounds in a short time period. Also, your breath and urine will start to smell. If this isn't ketosis, then what is it?
There's a little bit of a disconnect on the definitions people use. Usually when people talk about ketosis, they are implying the body has some kind of "fat burning" mode where you will burn the fat you have stored, and that you can trigger this mode without changing the number of calories you eat just by getting rid of carbs. This is for all intents and purposes a myth.
Of course you're right, in the other sense, that if you don't eat any carbs your body will be burning the fat you ingest instead, and that this will show up in your bloodstream. You also won't burn any weight this way unless you have a calorie deficit (as you note, it's "temporary").
Note that when OP said that "it doesn't happen", they didn't mean ketosis doesn't happen. They meant that meat-heavy diets don't result in weight loss because of ketosis.
Indeed, it's complicated, because urea is toxic, so long term living on protein is not that amazing for your health, plus slipping into ketoacidosis is a small risk (high ketone and high blood sugar levels at the same time) if people are not strict about their diet (and we know strict dieting is hard anyway).
