Younger Women may Respond Poorly to Keto Diet: Study

Women on the ketogenic diet are less likely than men to encounter notable weight loss and are more likely to display impaired blood sugar control, finds a new study.

Although the ketogenic diet has been lauded for weight loss and improving blood sugar control, a new animal study finds that women fail to show these metabolic gains on this high-fat, very low-carbohydrate diet. The findings of the study will be presented at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting.

"These results may help explain discrepancies in this diet’s success rates across the sexes."

Ketogenic Diet May Affect Anaerobic Performance of Athletes
Ketogenic diet mainly consists of a low carbohydrate diet which leads to increased production of ketones. Ketogenic diets reduce exercise performance of athletes in activities that are dependent on anaerobic energy systems.

‘Women on the ketogenic diet are less likely than men to encounter notable weight loss and are more likely to display impaired blood sugar control.’
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Originally used as a treatment for epilepsy, the ketogenic diet, which is sometimes called the keto diet, greatly restricts consumption of carbohydrates (starches, sugars, and fibers) and proteins. This makes the body switch from burning carbohydrates for energy, which it does naturally, to burning stored fat. The liver converts fat to ketone bodies in a process called ketosis.

"Most studies of the ketogenic diet for weight loss have taken place in small numbers of patients or in only male mice, so sex-based differences in response to this diet are unclear," said senior investigator E. Dale Abel, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the University of Iowa Department of Internal Medicine and president-elect of the Endocrine Society.

Working under Abel’s supervision, Cochran studied both male and female mice. He fed them either a ketogenic diet or a regular diet as a control. The control diet consisted of 7 percent fat, 47 percent carbohydrates and 19 percent protein by mass, whereas the keto diet was 75 percent fat, 3 percent carbohydrates and 8 percent protein by mass. After 15 weeks of feeding, the female mice on the ketogenic diet displayed no changes in weight and had impaired blood sugar control compared with females on the control diet, he reported.

Ketogenic Diet May Reduce Frequency of Seizures in Severe Epilepsy
A high fat, low carbohydrate diet in patients with severe form of epilepsy seems to halt the condition and reduce the frequency of their seizures.

In male mice, however, body weight decreased on the ketogenic diet while blood sugar control was maintained. However, males on the ketogenic diet displayed signs of worsened non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Speculating that estrogen plays a role in the differing response to the ketogenic diet, Cochran removed the ovaries of some female mice and tested both diets. Compared to mice fed a control diet, ovariectomized mice on a ketogenic diet had decreased body weight and body fat.

Ketogenic Diets and Sport Performance
Ketogenic foods do help the athletes to burn fat and cure epilepsy, but excess amount of such foods causes toxicity in blood and damages the liver and kidneys.

"This finding suggests that postmenopausal women could potentially experience better weight loss outcomes with the ketogenic diet compared to younger women," Cochran said.

Abel recommended that people considering a ketogenic diet discuss it with their doctor or a dietitian first, noting that some feel worse while on this diet or have trouble sticking to it.

Ketogenic Diet Can Help Prevent Cognitive Decline
Cognitive abilities can be boosted by following a ketogenic diet- a high fat, low carbohydrate diet regime, finds a new study. The study further states that this diet can help mitigate the risk of Alzheimer's disease.

Source-Eurekalert