Is the Ketogenic Diet Just Another Low-Carb Diet?

A ketogenic diet is one in which glucogenic substrates are low enough to force the body to transition from metabolizing glucose to burning fat and subsequently producing ketones. So while a ketogenic diet is low in carbohydrates, a low-carb diet isn't necessarily ketogenic.

A classic study  (Young et al,1971) demonstrated a clear difference between low-carb and ketogenic diets. Scientists took overweight young men and placed them on 'low-carbohydrate' diets consisting of 30, 60, or 100 grams of carbohydrates a day.

They found that after nine weeks, the 100-gram group was not in ketosis at all, while the 30-gram group had achieved high levels of ketosis. Moreover, the 30-gram group lost more fat than both the 60-gram group and 100-gram group despite there being no differences in total calories or protein consumed.

This study clearly demonstrates that not all low-carbohydrate diets are the same, and certainly not all are ketogenic.

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