The ketogenic diet is currently being advertised by many for weight loss and improving blood sugar levels. However, a new US study on mice shows that women may not be able to take advantage of this high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet.

The results of the study were presented on March 24 at the Endocrine Society annual meeting in New Orleans.

The researchers have summarized the results of their investigation in a communication .

“Our observations on mice suggest that women on the ketogenic diet are less likely to achieve significant fat loss than men and also have poorer blood sugar control,” said study leader Jesse Cochran of the University of Iowa.

“These results can help explain the discrepancies in the success rates of this diet between the sexes,” the expert continued.

Keto diet is based on the absence of carbs

Briefly again to the basics of the keto diet: The concept is based on completely removing carbohydrates from the menu. Starch, sugar and fiber, but also proteins, are only consumed to a limited extent.

Instead, the calories are almost entirely derived from fat . As a result, the body automatically begins to burn stored fat for energy instead of using the carbs it consumes.

“The liver converts fat into ketone bodies in a process called ketosis,” the scientists explain.

How the diet should work has long been clear – and yet there has been a major research gap, as E. Dale Abel, President of the Endoctrine Society, explains: “Most studies on weight loss with the ketogenic diet have been done with a small number of animals or only with male mice. “

Therefore, gender differences in the response to this diet have so far been unclear.

Male mice benefit more from the ketogenic diet

Cochran and his research team wanted to change this and therefore examined both male and female mice. The researchers either fed them on the concept of a ketogenic diet – or gave them regular food in the control group.

The control group’s diet consisted of seven percent fat, 47 percent carbohydrates and 19 percent protein . The ketogenic diet, on the other hand, consisted of 75 percent fat, three percent carbs and eight percent proteins.

After a 15-week feeding period, the female mice who had been on a ketogenic diet showed no weight changes and had greater fluctuations in blood sugar levels compared to the female animals on the control diet.

The male mice lost weight on the ketogenic diet, however, and blood sugar control also remained unproblematic. The only drawback: Male animals exhibited due to the keto diet rather signs of fatty liver disease.

The hormones could be to blame

Because he suspected that estrogen plays a role in the different responses to the ketogenic diet, Cochran removed the ovaries of some female mice and re-tested the effects of both diets.

The result: compared to mice fed a control diet, mice with removed ovaries had reduced body weight and fat after the ketogenic diet.

“This suggests that post- menopausal women may get better weight loss results from the ketogenic diet than younger women,” explains Cochran.

• Weight Loss