Weight Loss Is the Goal, Not Ketosis: A Post-Holiday Reboot Live (December 2019)
In this recording
A 63-minute Facebook Live recorded on 2019-12-27, between my Christmas Eve live and the New Year's Eve kickoff. The agenda I gave at the start: the post-holiday period, the reboot in the group, weight loss versus ketosis, energy versus nutrition, and measuring your goals. It was never posted to YouTube.
- [0:01] Holidays bring every reason for unplanned eating at once: tradition, culture, broken routines, travel, family who don't know about your diet, stress.
- [1:41] I'd put a confessional thread up in the group. I don't judge how people describe their holidays. A lot of them decided to enjoy it.
- [3:24] It's a hard time of year for every diet, not just keto. Holiday food is mostly carbs and fat together, because they're cheap and delicious.
- [4:25] That's behind you now. If you're in this group you've already decided to lose weight, for whatever reason. That's the first battle.
- [5:15] I'm not a keto coach. I coach weight loss, using ketosis. People who eat better but land at 60 g of carbs and say "I can't do keto" were doing it.
- [5:47] At a big enough deficit you may be in ketosis above 20 g net carbs. The 20 g figure is for someone who's weight stable. Ketosis is easier to keep in a loss phase and touchier in maintenance.
- [7:12] "Starvation mode" isn't a mode. My description: in a deficit while still eating carbs, your body turns down fidgeting and heat, and you feel cold, tired and foggy.
- [8:47] My anthropology story: carbs were summer food, so the body learned to gorge on them. Winter food was preserved meat and fat. You're not a bear, and the freezer aisle has berries all year.
- [10:44] You don't need keto to be welcome. Intentional choices, tracking, even just watching these videos: you're probably going to lose weight.
- [11:38] If being intentional leaves you hungry or tired, as it did me, ketosis is the solution. Lower insulin tells your body to run on its fat reserves.
- [12:23] Adaptation: I say three to eight weeks. Two is rare, most people are done in about five. I'd guess the variation is genetic, but there's no proof.
- [13:01] Ketone drinks are like injecting snake venom and testing for venom: it's in your blood, but you're not making it. My three levels: ketones in the blood, producing your own, and actually using them.
- [15:28] What ketosis won't fix: food is fun. Saying "that's not for me right now" should be explanation enough. Like the one-day-at-a-time idea from recovery groups, you're not giving up brownies forever.
- [17:07] Keto helps me with boredom eating and real hunger. It doesn't help with stress eating or emotional eating.
- [19:32] Holidays and nights out are the exceptions. Most of your food choices happen alone: how much you serve yourself, how hungry you are going in, how fast you get full.
- [20:40] Energy versus nutrition. I said starvation mode is mostly limited to people in a deficit who keep eating a standard-diet amount of carbs.
- [21:51] Almost nobody in the group is underweight. If you're near an underweight BMI, there's no reason to do keto with me.
- [23:10] Fat: real food makes it nearly impossible to get under about 30 g a day, so you don't need to chase it. Omega-3s are a plus.
- [24:09] What you do need to watch: protein, minerals and vitamins. Vitamin and mineral gaps can be tested and fixed with a pill. Take a multivitamin during any weight-loss phase.
- [25:08] You probably weren't getting those nutrients from donuts and pizza either. Worked example: someone maintaining on 1,500–2,000 calories, cutting 500 a day for about a pound a week, still needs the same calcium from less food. Eat better or supplement.
- [27:26] Aggressive loss can't last years, so supplementing for a year or two makes sense. Protein shakes, pills, powders, or a lot of leafy greens all work.
- [28:55] A few strawberries probably won't matter to your progress. The deficit matters. If keto's rigidity outweighs its hunger benefit, add some flexibility back.
- [30:01] Protein is what you really need to source. Nine essential amino acids; meat, dairy and eggs are complete. Whey is one of the best-balanced sources, which makes sense because milk is baby food. I don't specialise in vegan keto.
- [34:15] "Is a carrot the same as a brownie?" Once your vitamins are covered, I said, the carbs end up as the same sugar. What differs is how fast they break down and whether they drive overeating.
- [37:47] Can you have a piece of bread? Sure, especially on a low-calorie day. Protein is what your body most needs. If you love a blueberry muffin like cake, eat it as dessert, not as health food.
- [40:17] What ketosis did for me: fewer cravings, more energy, and it helps my mood. People tie that to inflammation; I'm not sure, since muscle growth itself works through inflammation.
- [41:11] Even as KetoDick, if I'd done nothing but keto for two years I'd have given up. I wasn't skipping real New York pizza on a trip.
- [41:57] On carbs I chain-eat: cold pizza at 10:30 at night without enjoying it. In ketosis that feeling goes away.
- [43:16] My coaching offer: $80 a month for a year, $960, with a private phone line, adjusted for hardship. Then the free Keto Basic group, with no fat-bomb or ketone-drink sales.
- [46:54] I said I'd plug a sugar-free energy drink for money, but wouldn't recommend anything I don't use. I named an MLM ketone-drink brand I don't use.
- [48:33] Measuring goals. The scale is the worst measure: two litres of water is about three and a half pounds.
- [49:21] Better: the yarn method. String around your neck, waist, thigh and arm, pinned to the wall, compared months later. Smart-scale body fat is rough but consistent with itself.
- [50:03] Green, yellow or red dots on a calendar for how each day went. Aim for 300 green dots this year and the weight will follow.
- [52:13] Fat breaks down into ketones (BHB, acetoacetate, acetone), and mitochondria adapt to use them. I said three weeks is the sweet spot.
- [53:37] Weeks one and two: just get carbs down with keto foods you like. Big eggs-and-bacon breakfasts, leave out the toast and hash browns.
- [54:35] What to expect in week one: about 700 g of glycogen, stored with 2 g of water per gram. Losing it is 2.1 kg, a bit over 4.5 pounds, and that's most of week one.
- [54:55] Weeks two and three most people stall. Weeks four to eight, weight loss takes off.
- [55:15] Reboot members may have back-pedalled over the holidays, so treat this like week one. Fats come down in the second week of January. Keep protein high, track, do your strings.
- [56:03] Is weight loss in your top three priorities? If family, money or work come first, accept that now so you don't beat yourself up later. If it is in your top three and you're not doing the work, look at self-defeating behaviour.
- [57:35] Housekeeping: join the group, the reboot hashtag, a request to share videos or recipes.
- [1:00:01] Holidays can be hard; I'm a bit bitter about some myself. Now is the time to recharge.
- [1:00:51] Wrap: you just have to decide what's best to eat tomorrow. Make decisions, not mistakes. Metrics, tracking, supplements.
Watching this in 2026
I'd keep the main point. Weight loss is the goal, and ketosis is a tool for being less hungry while you get there. Plenty of people quit because they hit 60 g of carbs instead of 20 and decided they'd "failed keto", while eating better than they had in years. The other part I'd keep is [19:32]: holidays get the blame, but most of what you eat happens alone, at your own fridge.
The measurement advice holds up too. The yarn and the green dots both reward behaviour, not a morning weigh-in that swings with water.
Things I'd say differently:
- Starvation mode. I framed it as a carb problem that goes away in ketosis. Metabolic-ward studies don't show keto protecting your metabolism at equal calories. Switching to keto raised energy expenditure only 57 kcal a day, and body-fat loss slowed after the switch (Hall et al., 2016). In another ward study, fat loss was faster with fat cut than with carbs cut (Hall et al., 2015). The hunger benefit is what I'd stand on.
- Vitamin A. I said most vitamins are water soluble and you just pee out extra vitamin A. Vitamin A is fat soluble. The body stores it, so extra can build up rather than wash out. In a review of antioxidant-supplement trials, vitamin A supplements were associated with higher mortality (Bjelakovic et al., 2007). More isn't free.
- Amino acids. I said the body needs about 250. Proteins are built from about 20 amino acids, and nine of those are essential. The point about complete proteins stands.
- Carrots and brownies. I suggested a carrot might spike blood sugar more than a brownie. I wouldn't say that again without a source.
- Inflammation. I was unsure whether ketosis does anything for inflammation. One heavily cited mouse and cell study found BHB blocked an inflammation pathway, separately from its role as fuel (Youm et al., 2015). That's lab work, not proof for your mood.
- Multivitamins. My reason was sound: less food, same nutrient needs. In the A TO Z study of women, every diet group drifted toward some shortfalls by eight weeks, with the Atkins group short on thiamine, folate, vitamin C, iron and magnesium (Gardner et al., 2010). But the US Preventive Services Task Force finds the evidence insufficient to weigh benefits and harms of multivitamins for heart disease and cancer (USPSTF 2022).
- Protein. "Protein is what your body most needs" holds up. Raising protein from 15% to 30% of energy led people to eat 441 fewer calories a day on their own (Weigle et al., 2005).
- Paid plugs. I joked I'd plug an energy drink for money. I wouldn't offer that now. The group is meant to be free of sponsors.
The glycogen arithmetic and the week-by-week timeline are my 2019 rules of thumb, not figures from the evidence pages. Same idea as my week-by-week video (uDw65ERtsA0).
If you take diabetes or blood-pressure medication, talk to your doctor before you cut carbs. If you have a history of an eating disorder, involve your doctor or therapist before you start a deficit.
Key points
- Weight loss is the goal. Ketosis is a hunger tool, not a pass/fail test.
- Most eating happens alone. That's where the plan matters.
- On less food you still need the same nutrients, so eat better and source protein first.
- Measure with string, clothes and daily green dots before the scale.
- Expect a quick water drop in week one, a stall around weeks two and three, then steadier loss.
Related
- Guide: Water weight · Timeline · Fat adaptation · Non-scale progress · Vitamins · Hunger · Energy balance · How much protein · Medications · Eating disorders
- Blog: Do you have to be in ketosis to lose weight? · Exogenous ketones · Do multivitamins work? · Nutrient shortfalls on low carb · Losing inches, not weight · How often to weigh yourself · The week-three stall · Cheating on keto · Kevin Hall's ward studies
- Videos: Christmas Eve 2019 live · New Year's Eve 2019 live · What is the keto diet? · Week-by-week timeline