First of all the Low Carb Bootcamp is not a keto diet. We positively encourage the consumption of FLGV (fuck loads of green veg) which increases the carbohydrate intake to well above the levels required for nutritional ketosis. This also counters the probably unfounded insistence on fibre since there will be lots of fibre in the vegetables and salad suggested in Bootcamp, and even more fibre when berries and nuts are reintroduced after the first two weeks when we enter Bootcamp Light.
There is no reason for a low carb/ketogenic diet to be "costly". There are plenty of low cost low carb foods such as eggs and cheap cuts of meat.
"Keto flu" is a temporary situation that happens to some people, but not everybody, during adaption. If you are suffering from "nausea, insomnia (haven't heard of that one myself) and dizziness" then it will pass in a couple of days and there are steps you can take to resolve these issues such as replacing electrolytes and taking your regular painkiller. This is nothing to do with "The diet is not balanced and can easily cause nutrient deficiencies." Keto flu is caused by switching from a standard to a low carbohydrate intake.
"The keto diet... includes the Atkins diet, the South Beach diet and the Zone diet." Nope, nope, and nope. Atkins and South Beach are only likely to be ketogenic during the first two weeks. The Zone diet emphasises vegetables and fruits and permits small amounts of grains so it isn't ketogenic.
"Ketones are produced in weight loss regardless of the type of diet you are following. So, actually, anyone who is losing weight is acutally on a keto diet." Well no. You may produce ketones during sleep so this is partially true but a keto diet is a therapeutic diet produced by keeping carbohydrate intake very low and also limiting protein intake. You may still be "in ketosis" since this covers a wide range of ketone levels but you aren't following a keto diet unless you're trying very hard to.
The next few paragraphs are a bit of a confused mess. No it doesn't matter to your body whether it's burning fat from your stores or from your diet but in the context of a low carb diet it does seem to be important to have a enough dietary fat coming in to promote effective usage of fat stores. No the production of ketones is largely irrelevant to the amount of body fat you are burning which is why we don't recommend using ketostix on Bootcamp. Yes when you add fat as bulletproof coffee it can defeat the object of achieving weight loss although when you are close to your target weight it can also help to achieve weight loss. On both low carb and keto diets you are not "adding additional fat to the diet", you are replacing your calories from carbohydrate with fat calories. It is the satiating effects of low carb and keto diets that leads to a spontaneous decrease in calorie intake. Finally I would bloody well hope that children on ketogenic diets gain weight since children are supposed to gain weight. Unless they're seriously overweight you never want a child to be losing weight.
Going on to the Another fad? section... diets for therapeutic ketosis have been round for about a century and were the only treatments for type 2 diabetes and epilepsy before medicines became available. That doesn't really matter though because unless you have a medical condition that you are hoping to treat with ketosis then there's no need to be so restrictive and a liberal low carb diet will be far more pleasant and easy to stick to.
"The diet is not balanced and can easily lead to nutrient deficiencies" - sounds like the author is starting to panic now. There aren't any nutrients contained in potatoes, rice, and bread that you can't obtain from vegetables. The biggest problem area with low carb diets is obtaining electrolytes such as sodium, potassium, and magnesium however these can all be obtained from natural food sources. Add a little extra salt to your food, a squeeze of lemon juice, and half an avocado and you're topped up on all of these minerals. Keto flu is not a consequence of nutrient deficiencies, it is a temporary phase of the adaption process that, as I mentioned before, not everyone experiences.
The next panic-inducing statement is about the impact on gut microbes starved of essential fibre. I guarantee that if you post your daily food on the Bootcamp threads and there are no veggies on there then you will receive a stern talking to from BIWI.
The following paragraph is confusing as the author correctly asserts that most people that claim to follow a keto diet are actually following a low carbohydrate diet that the author admits "can be helpful, at least in the short term, for some people to lose weight." The claim that most people can't stick with a very low carbohydrate diet for long is simply preposterous. The Interwebs is filled with people that have been doing this for 5, 10, 20 years, since Atkins first became popular, since before it was well known. There are so many associated health benefits with eating a low carb diet than an awful lot of us couldn't even consider going back to a standard UK diet. My arthritis is in remission, my periods are lighter, my teeth are cleaner, my IBS has disappeared, I sleep better, my cholesterol levels are improved. Even if I did gain all the weight back I would still eat this way because I feel ten years younger than I did five years ago when I first started.
If you're using a low carb diet to treat diabetes or polycystic ovarian symptom then I concur with the author's recommendation to consult your doctor. It will certainly affect your blood sugar levels and you will need your doctor's advice on whether you need to reduce your medication accordingly.
The blanket statement that people with pancreatic or liver problems sounds scary. The pancreas secretes enzymes involved in the processing of fat, but it also secretes the enzymes involved in the processing of protein and carbs so if the balance of food coming in changes it will downregulate the carb enzymes and upregulate the fat enzymes. That doesn't place any additional stress on the pancreas. A low carbohydrate diet is a good way to reduce the fat in a fatty liver. It won't magically repair your liver if it is already damaged but there is no reason to think it will make it any worse. If you do have a pancreatic or liver problem and you were worried about it being an issue then the simple solution would be to increase your fat consumption gradually, for example switching to one low carb meal a day at first, then two, and then three. While a low carb diet is higher in fat than a conventional diet you don't need to be adding butter to your coffee or drinking cream out of the pot. It's fine to stick to the natural fat in meat, fish and dairy.
I'm going to have to give up there. Let me know if you have any questions.
for the Daily Mail to prove me wrong.