One of the contestants from ‘The Biggest Loser’ has turned away from Jillian Michael’s calorie restriction approach and has embraced the ketogenic diet.
Rob Kidney lost 116 pounds on the show, but like many contestants, he started to gain it back when he was not working out several hours a week.
Mr. Kidney had struggled with his weight since he was a kid, then all through high school and college.
When he got into the business industry as a salesman, he began to put on even more weight from traveling and eating out several times a day.
He was already 30-40 pounds overweight when a series of stressful events occurred in his life and his eating became out of control.
After participating on ‘The Biggest Loser’ with some success, Kidney continued restricting his calories to 1400-1500 a day and still worked out, yet noticed he was starting to gain weight.
He realized that something hormonally was going on in his body that the ‘Biggest Loser’ approach had failed to address.
That’s when he became a fan of Dr. Eric Berg (DC), who advocates “healthy keto” and intermittent fasting.
Intermittent fasting involves eating all meals during a specific time frame. For example, most people who follow this approach will not eat for 16 hours (sleep time is included) and only consume food during an 8-hour window.
Kidney’s new keto regimen consists of fewer meals, five cups of greens a day, and healthy fats.
His weight loss results have been slow, but steady, and he’s feeling the benefits.
In his interview with Dr. Berg, Kidney noted that since adding more healthy fats into his diet, his bones no longer ache when he exercises.
Dr. Berg also recommends taking days off from eating altogether.
He has found that short periods of fasting helps the body lose weight without slowing down the body’s metabolism—something many of ‘The Biggest Loser’ contestants were experiencing.
In response, Jillian Michaels has increasingly begun criticizing the keto diet in many different forums.
While Mr. Kidney did not speak ill of Jillian Michaels, he did challenge her to stop attacking the keto diet and look at the science that backs it up.
“Many of the statements she has said are just not true…Hopefully she will study the science and backtrack,” Mr. Kidney said.
Mr. Kidney also says that many of the past contestants are now following a keto diet as well and with much success.
Dr. Berg has been a long-time keto advocate and supports eating healthy foods along with a low-carb/high-fat diet.
The keto diet is often mischaracterized as people sitting around eating nothing but bacon and steak. However, most proponents of a ketogenetic diet suggest that 60-80% of your daily calories come from fats.
The diet was originally used to help control epileptic seizures, but subsequence research showed that the keto diet also dramatically improved diabetes and lowered insulin levels.
Then researchers found that people were feeling satisfied enough when eating a high-fat diet that they naturally reduced their caloric intake.
Like many diets that become quickly popular, many self-appointed gurus (who may or may not have received formal education in nutrition or medicine) will create sites and sell products that may not be medically necessary or healthy.
And it’s important to remember that keto has not been immune to this phenomenon.
So do your research first and take the approach that works best for you and your body.
Watch Robert Kidney’s full interview:
