Holy weight loss, Batman!
Spend enough time scrolling through keto diet or weight loss Reddit threads and you’ll come across “the buzz” — an effect many dieters describe as a sudden but noticeable drop in pounds.
Doctors and nutritionists have already rejected this idea, although the consciousness effect is not completely flim-flam. However, diets aimed at rapid weight loss are rarely healthy, and the protocols that support them should be taken with a grain of salt.
The ketogenic diet, known by the shorthand keto, has been used in healthcare settings for over a century. But it’s reached a fever pitch in the age of the Internet, as bloggers hit the public with the siren call of an all-you-can-eat-bacon diet.
Keto—a high-fat, low-carb diet—was originally recommended to patients dealing with epilepsy, because of how it can help stabilize neurons in the brain over time and prevent seizures.
Followed closely, the diet stimulates a biological process called ketosis, training your body to rely on fat instead of the normal fuel of carbohydrates like glucose and other sugars.
Eliminating carbohydrates (bread and pasta but some fruits and vegetables) and replacing them with high-fat foods such as meat, fish, dairy, and oils gives the body no choice but to burn fat for energy.
The mystique of the diet was heightened when people online started talking about the supposed “consciousness effect” and the immediacy of the diet’s results in the mirror.
“The point of talking about mindfulness is so people don’t get discouraged when they stand on the scale for a few weeks,” wrote one redditor in a weight loss thread. “And then you might see a big drop overnight, because your body is shedding water weight, and now it’s showing your real weight.”
Another commenter wrote: “I describe a ‘wow’ as my body feeling safe enough to lose some weight. It persists, makes sure the deficit is an example of new behavior and not a fluke and then it’s like, ‘Okay, we’re not in danger. Feel free to let it go.’
But experts see it differently.
Registered dietitian Gregory LaForton, MS, RDN, LD, told the Post that the consciousness effect is “a real experience, but it’s often misunderstood.”
“People see it as sudden fat loss from the keto diet,” he explains. “Instead, the weight loss effect is attributed to changes in water weight due to the keto diet. It’s not a sudden fat loss, it’s a sudden loss of water weight. The fat loss is gradual.”
Losing water weight may be more pronounced on the keto diet because of how the body stores carbohydrates.
It’s in the name right here: carbo-hydra-tes They are stored in the body as glycogen, a cluster of glucose molecules. For every gram of glycogen stored, at least three grams of water are stored with it.
“That’s why someone on a low-carb keto diet loses water weight,” says Laforton. “It’s different from other diets because they may not restrict carbohydrates like keto.”
Rapid weight loss can actually occur from a very low carb diet, often within the first few days. But it’s water weight, not fat, as some champions of the consciousness effect claim.
Chasing the effect of consciousness is not only a lost cause, it can lead to serious issues like dehydration.
Some keto dieters talk about diarrhea—which can dehydrate the body and rob it of important nutrients—as a sign that they’ve gotten the hangover.
Some say they got sober through other harmful means, such as a mix between fasting and binging or drinking alcohol for its diuretic effects.
According to Healthline, “The goal of each of these methods is to reduce your body water, and while this may make you feel thinner temporarily, it is not a permanent effect.”
In general, LaForton recommends setting goals that prioritize long-term health, not just immediate changes in image.
If the GLP-1 fever has taught us anything, it’s that rapid weight loss can take a real toll on the body.
Whether it’s from a keto-like diet, a drug like GLP-1 or another source, LaFortune lists muscle loss, a higher risk of weight regain, a slower metabolism, a general loss of strength and energy, and sometimes severe nutrient deficiencies as potential side effects of rapid weight loss.
That being said, the consciousness effect is not the overnight miracle that some people make it out to be. Tucker, Bam, Kaboom.
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