The Keto Obsession: Does It Work, or is It Just a Hype?

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The keto diet is popular once again: Instagram has millions of keto-tagged posts; Pinterest is brimming with keto meal ideas; and books about ketogenic diets are among Amazon’s bestselling special diet titles.

The funny thing is, a true ketogenic diet initially wasn’t even meant to help people lose weight. In the 19th century, it was used to manage diabetes. And by the 1920s, doctors put children with drug-resistant epilepsy on the diet after discovering that fasting helped reduce their seizures. Recent studies show that a ketogenic diet may also help with other neurological disorders, including ALS, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s, and even depression.

How the Keto Diet Works

First and foremost, the keto diet mimics the metabolic effects of fasting by forcing your body to use fat instead of carbs as its primary source of energy. That process — tricking your body to burn fat for energy by turning it into ketones — is called ketogenesis. When your body has ketones in the bloodstream, then you are in ketosis. That means your body’s energy is coming from those ketone bodies in your blood, rather than blood glucose.

You’d think burning fat would be a great way to lose weight, but doing it this way can be…