Holy weight loss, Batman!<\/p>\n
Spend enough time scrolling through keto-diet or weight-loss Reddit threads and you\u2019re bound to come across the \u201cwhoosh\u201d \u2014 an effect that many dieters explain as a sudden but significant drop in pounds.<\/p>\n
Doctors and nutrition experts have debunked the concept before, though the whoosh effect is not altogether flim-flam. Still, dieting with the goal of rapid weight loss is rarely healthy, and protocols advocating for it should be taken with more than a grain of salt.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Redditors praise a process called the \u201cwhoosh effect\u201d associated with the keto diet, claiming they drop major pounds practically overnight. VK Studio \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n
The ketogenic diet<\/a>, known by the shorthand keto, has been used in health care settings for over a century. But it reached peak fad status in the internet age, as bloggers lured people with the siren-call of a diet that demands all-you-can-eat bacon.\u00a0<\/p>\n Keto \u2014 a high-fat, low-carb regimen \u2014 was originally prescribed to patients dealing with epilepsy<\/a>, because of how it can help stabilize neurons in the brain over time and prevent seizures.\u00a0<\/p>\n With strict adherence, the diet induces a biological process known as ketosis, training your body to run on fat instead of its normal fuel of carbohydrates like glucose and other sugars.<\/p>\n Cutting out carbs (breads and pastas but also certain fruits and vegetables) and replacing them with high-fat foods like meats, fish, dairy and oils gives the body no choice but to burn fat for energy instead.<\/p>\n The diet\u2019s mystical status rose even higher when people online began chatting about the supposed \u201cwhoosh effect\u201d and the immediacy of the diet\u2019s results in the mirror.<\/p>\n \u201cThe point of talking about a whoosh is so that people aren\u2019t discouraged when they see the scale stuck for a couple weeks,\u201d one Redditor wrote in a weight-loss thread<\/a>. \u201cAnd then you may see a big drop overnight, because your body expels the water weight it was holding onto, and now your real weight shows.\u201d<\/p>\n Registered dietitian Gregory Lafortune tells The Post that the whoosh is a \u201creal experience\u201d \u2014 but most people don\u2019t understand the underlying factors. Instagram \/ @menshealthdietitian<\/p>\n Another commenter wrote: \u201cI explain a \u2018woosh\u2019 as my body feeling safe enough to drop some weight. It holds on, makes sure that the deficit is a pattern of new behavior and not a fluke and then seems to be like \u2018cool, we are not in danger. Feel free to let this go.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n But experts see it differently.<\/p>\n Registered dietitian Gregory Lafortune<\/a>, MS, RDN, LD, tells The Post that the whoosh effect is a \u201creal experience, but it is often misunderstood.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPeople see it as a sudden fat loss from being on the keto diet,\u201d he explains. \u201cInstead, the whoosh effect is attributed to shifts in water weight due to the keto diet. It\u2019s not a sudden loss of fat. It\u2019s a sudden loss of water weight. Fat loss is gradual.\u201d<\/p>\n The purge in water weight might be more pronounced on the keto diet because of how the body stores carbs.\u00a0<\/p>\n A keto diet restricts a person\u2019s intake of carbs like pastas and breads. bit24 \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n It\u2019s right there in the name: Carbo-hydra-tes. They\u2019re stored in the body as glycogen, a constellation of glucose molecules. For every gram of glycogen stored, there\u2019s at least three grams of water cached away with it<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis is why someone on a low-carbohydrate keto diet loses water weight,\u201d Lafortune says. \u201cThis differs from other diets because they may not restrict carbs as strictly as keto does.\u201d<\/p>\n Rapid weight loss can indeed occur from a very low carb diet, often within the first few days. But it\u2019s water weight, not fat, as some champions of the whoosh effect claim.<\/p>\n Chasing the whoosh effect isn\u2019t just a lost cause, it can also lead to serious issues like dehydration.<\/p>\n Some keto dieters talk about diarrhea<\/a> \u2014\u00a0which can dehydrate the body and strip it of important nutrients \u2014 as a sign that they\u2019ve achieved the whoosh effect.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Some say they\u2019ve triggered the whoosh by other harmful means like yo-yoing between fasting and binging or drinking alcohol for diuretic effects.\u00a0<\/p>\n