Diaries of a Domestic Goddess

This week, Jillian Michaels decided to publicly shame the Keto diet and everyone that follows that lifestyle. With comments like, “Your cells, your macro molecules, are literally made up of protein, fat, carbohydrates, nucleic acids. When you do not eat one of the three macro nutrients — those three things I just mentioned — you’re starving yourselves“, it makes me wonder if Jillian Michaels even knows what the Keto diet is. Does she even know what a carbohydrate is?

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What is the Keto Diet?

First things first, what is the Keto diet? Simply put, the Keto diet is diet made up of high fat, moderate protein and very low carb. Now, before you start asking questions, when I say, “high fat”, I am not telling you to just sit around and eat a stick of butter all day or loads of bacon. That’s the number one misconception of this diet. You want to eat high amounts of healthy fats. By eating this way, your body will switch from using glucose as its fuel source, to using fat. When your body starts burning fat, it’s called Ketosis (do NOT mistake this for Ketoacidosis).

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So How Low do the Carbs Go?

To get your body into Ketosis, you need to stay under 50 grams of carbs a day. Most people on the Keto diet stay around 20 grams of carbs a day. For me, I stick to 20 grams of carbs a day and 99% of my carbohydrates in a day come from vegetables. So let’s look back at Jillian Michaels statement above. She refers to the Keto diet as not being healthy and then explains that when we don’t eat one of the macronutrients (carbohydrates, protein, and fat) our bodies need, then we are starving our body. Now I am following the Keto diet and 99% of my carbohydrate intake in a day comes from vegetables, how can she claim that people on a Keto diet are not consuming one of the needed macronutrients? Not to mention, just in the mere description for the Keto diet, it states that it is a high fat, moderate protein, low CARB diet. Therefore, people following the Keto diet are NOT eliminating one of the needed macronutrients.

My Problem with the Jillian Michaels Rant

On her blog, Jillian Michaels writes about the “truth” about Keto. For those of us that actually know about the Keto diet and follow people like Dr. Eric Berg (notice the Dr. before his name…), her post is laughably inaccurate and full of Keto misconceptions. Let’s deconstruct her post and point out all of her Keto misconceptions:

1. The Keto Diet a.k.a. Atkins Diet… – right off the bat, Jillian has it wrong. The Keto diet is not also known as the Atkins Diet. While the induction phase of Atkins is similar to Keto, the overall Atkins diet is not the same.
2. Ketosis is a considered a state of medical emergency – umm…where’s your proof? Oh right, you’re not a doctor.
3. The next issue is that keto doesn’t advocate for calorie restriction – again, not sure where Ms. Michaels is getting her information, but every Keto site I have ever read said that if you want to lose weight, you need to lower your calories. And you do this TO LOSE WEIGHT. Jillian says people brag about “not dieting” or exercising. The thing is, everyone I know that follows Keto don’t really refer to it as a “diet” because it is a lifestyle change. As for the exercise part, a lot of people prefer to not have to exercise. So that statement is just stupid to me.
4. The keto diet does not address what types of proteins and fats are ideal – seriously? I don’t know what sites she is checking out about the Keto diet, but again, if you check out the information Dr. Eric Berg has available, he is very clear about what are good proteins and fats to eat.
5. Yes, protein is very good for you, but we don’t need tons of it and when we consume tons of it… – Keto is NOT a high protein diet. Seriously, Google Dr. Eric Berg. Just do it.

My Fitness by Jillian Michaels Annual Membership

Is this $69.99 a year fitness app that Jillian has available a huge reason she doesn’t like the Keto diet? Could it be that people following the Keto diet have no need for her app, therefore she is losing out on potential customers? Maybe, maybe not. I don’t know for sure, but from the outside looking in, that is my best guess. At the end of the day, while she may believe that misinformation out there about the Keto diet, I have my own experience and results to go by and the numbers don’t lie.

My Keto Experience

Keto has been a big part of my life for the last three years. Both my husband and I followed the Keto diet and made it a part of our life. Over the course of the last three years, my husband lost 125 pounds and I lost 90 pounds. Yes we exercised throughout that time period; yes we practiced calorie restriction; no we did not sit and eat buckets of lard or an entire cow in one sitting. We followed the factual information available online, as well as from our own doctor. We incorporated good fats into our diet and we successfully cut out sugar and grains and eliminated cravings. Once upon a time, I was a huge emotional eater. Not any longer. That is huge!

Besides all of that, my cholesterol is now good and my triglycerides went from 300 to 66. You can’t argue with those numbers. I went from having to nap every single day at 3 pm to having so much energy. The times that I have consciously made the decision to eat something non-Keto, I have felt like crap after. So much so, I don’t make that decision very often. It’s not worth feeling groggy, swollen or bloated. Who wants to feel that way when you don’t have to?!?

Final Words to Jillian Michaels

While I used to enjoy watching you on The Biggest Loser, I now question it. What I know about the show now from various interviews from past contestants and what I know about living a healthy lifestyle, is so not what you promoted on that show. The contestants have stated that they practiced fat shaming from the trainers, exercise regimes that were merely for entertainment purposes, dehydration for weigh-ins, and essentially starving themselves by working out for 6-8 hours a day and only eating about 1000 calories a day. You supported those tactics, yet you have a problem with a lifestyle that has real doctors behind it giving scientific facts as to why Keto is good for us. In my eyes, that completely knocks out any credibility you may have had.

Credible Keto Sites

If you are looking to start the Keto diet, you need to tune out haters like Jillian Michaels. One of your biggest resources needs to include Dr. Eric Berg’s YouTube channel. Other sites I frequently visit are:

Diet Doctor

Ruled.Me

Caveman Keto

As always, do your own research. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out and ask. While I am most definitely not a doctor, I have been following this lifestyle for the last three years. If I don’t know the answer, I will definitely help to point you in the right direction!