02/05/2026
Absolutely
Step on a scale after a week of eating low-carb, and it's easy to see why low-carb diets are so popular. But what’s happening inside the body tells a different story.
When you eat carbohydrates, your body may store some as glycogen in your muscles to serve as a quick fuel source for activity later on. On the scale, this can look like a small weight gain, but it's really just carbs and water in your muscles.
On a low-carb diet, those glycogen stores drain away and pull out the water with it. Ketones, an alternative fuel source made by our own body, may also increase water loss, as water is needed to flush out our kidneys. On the scale, this can look like rapid weight loss, but much of it is just water loss.
This rapid drop in water weight helps explain why low-carb diets have been so popular.
➡️ The bottom line: Keto and other low-carb diets just don’t hold water.
The thrill of seeing the pounds come off so quickly keeps many people returning to low-carb eating. However, when the diet fails (as many of them do), people may blame themselves rather than the diet itself. This can lead them back to the failed dieting cycle again and again.
What really matters for long-term health aren’t short-term changes on the scale; it's body fat loss and overall health outcomes.
People who eat lower-carb diets are at significantly higher risk of living shorter lives, but it comes down to the foods eaten on the low-carb diet.
Eating patterns that favor fat and protein from animals, like red meat and chicken, are associated with higher mortality, while eating fat and protein from plants is associated with lower mortality.
Permanent weight loss requires permanent dietary change. Healthier habits just have to become a way of life. Thankfully, the single best diet proven for weight loss may just so happen to be the safest, cheapest way to eat for the healthiest, longest life. Eat more plants.
Learn more at see.nf/ketodiets1 and see.nf/ketodiets2.
PMID: 26278052, 26183608, 11423059, 12684366, 12237978, 23372809, 30122560
