Do the keto diet and intermittent fasting really work?

There’s a myriad of diets out there claiming to do the same thing: give the weight loss results that you want. But what does a registered dietician really think about all of this? Tune in to find out which diet tips actually work. Check out these deep dives on intermittent fasting and trendy keto diet.

Transcript:
Yoona Ha 0:06

Hi, everyone, welcome to Novant Health's healthy headlines podcasts. This is Yoona Ha. In a previous episode, you heard my colleague Roland Wilkerson talk about how therapy works. This week. I'm with Registered Dietitian Andrea Hyatt to talk about diets that don't work. We've all been there eager to shed a few pounds or find a new diet that helps us be healthier. Well, Andrea, who works at Novant Health's weight loss solutions has really heard at all when it comes to dieting, from the Sleeping Beauty diet to Keto diets, which one's work? And how do you navigate this endless stream of fad diets? We're here to find that out today.

How would you spot a fad diet?

Andrea Hyatt 0:54

So there's a couple of things is a diet promises a quick fix, then we kind of know, okay, this is probably something that's too good to be true. So that's something that you know, you really want to look out for, if they say you're going to lose 10 pounds or 10 inches in five days, well, that's probably something that is not going to last life long. So you know, you want to kind of stay clear of those sorts of things. Anything that excludes or restricts of food group. So if it says I lost 20 pounds by cutting out all carbohydrates, or I've lost 20 pounds by just drinking water, you know, those are some things that you will see with those fad diets. And you want to make sure that any type of diet is going to be something that is more balanced than other things is like promoting a magic through food. So like the grapefruit diet, or the cabbage soup diet, I've lost weight when I just ate cabbage soup for you know, two weeks, well, obviously, you're going to lose weight because cabbage doesn't have much in there, there's not much protein. Lot of times when people lose that weight, they're either losing their water weight, or they're also losing some of their muscle mass because they're not taking in enough protein. So you know, just because it promises the super food doesn't actually mean that it's a food that's going to benefit us. And then the other thing is, you know, check the research out on there, that you know, I always am looking at the research when it comes to either the intermittent fasting, the keto diet, any diets that are out there, I'll go on our nutrition blogs and nutrition websites to see what the other dietitians are saying. Also go on to evidence based journals as well to kind of see where this you know where everything is. I definitely would stay away from things like the media, or celebrities. So if a celebrity said, Well, I lost this weight on the ketogenic diet, well, that's not a research based type of thing. They probably have some other things that are going on, they might have a trainer, they might have somebody cooking for them. So just because a celebrity endorses, it doesn't mean that it's actually working. Same thing with, and I don't like to say his name too much, but Dr. Oz. So Dr. Oz has a lot of following. And a lot of people that I talked to, they'll say, Oh, well, Dr. Oz told me that this is fine. So I'm going to follow it. And you know, there's not much research that he does with those different diets or those different things that he recommends. So it is very important to do your own research and to kind of find out that information for yourself as well. There's the grapefruit diet, so you only grape fruit for the whole, like two weeks, there's the juicing where you only drink, you know, certain types of juices. There's also the Sleeping Beauty diet, have you all heard about that? Oh my goodness. So the Sleeping Beauty diet is where people actually take sleep aids, and sleep through their diet. Instead of eating when when they feel hungry, they will just take a sleep baby, go to sleep. So that is something that I have heard people do, which is really, really crazy. That's the Sleeping Beauty diet.

Yoona Ha 4:17

So how does that actually work for let's say, if you had a nine to five job, how would that work? Would you just you know find time to nap your your hunger?

Andrea Hyatt 4:27

I guess so, I don't know too much about it. But I know that like for people who have problems with thumb stacking at nighttime. So instead of having that snack at nighttime, which was maybe the thing that was their culprit that they had said was making them gain weight, maybe they'll just take a sleeping pill and go to sleep early instead of snacking. So I've seen that happen, I've seen people that would spend a couple days in bed, where they are, they've just kind of stopped eating all together. So that this way they can kind of sleep through the they're, they're fast almost. So that was a very interesting one that I have had people that were on the gluten free diet. And with the gluten free diet, it is a it is a great diet for people who do have a gluten sensitivity or a gluten allergy. But I have a lot of people that follow either a gluten restrictive diet just because they want to lose weight. So I tell a lot of people that that is not probably the best option for them. Now if they do have a sensitivity, or they have an allergy, perfectly fine to follow. But when we start to restrict certain food groups in our diet, that's when a fad diet actually occurs and we don't want to be restrictive, because then then we're not going to be successful with that diet either.

Yoona Ha 5:45

What do you think are the most dangerous types of diets out there? Especially when we introduce supplements into the equation? And your from your perspective? What's the most what are the most harmful kinds out there?

Unknown Speaker 5:58

Well, I think that the keto diet could be harmful if you know if it's for somebody that has high cholesterol as diabetes, that sort of thing, if they're pregnant have gallbladder issues. So I think any fad diet could possibly be harmful, if it's, you know, wrong for that person. There are some other diets called like the HCG diet, where people are getting shots of a hormone that is produced when people are pregnant when women are pregnant, and they follow a less than 800 calorie diet. So usually a 500 calorie diet, and then they're taking shots of this HCG hormone to get them to lose weight. And so I think that that is something that is pretty harmful. I think that that would be something that I would not recommend. Usually people who do that will lose the weight, but then again, not learning how to eat the right way. The other one is the Sleeping Beauty diet would be one that I would say would be harmful. Because let's let's just face it, you're sleeping through your diet and sleeping through your day, that so that would be something I would not recommend you can get, you know dependent on sleep aids as well when you do that. So I really think that any type of fad diet could have some potential for some problems. The two diets that I get a lot of questions about are the ketogenic diet and the intermittent fasting. So w...