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Keto diet is a lifestyle: Jaydeep Bhuta

Let cellular health consultant Jaydeep Bhuta, who lost 62 kg, tell you the best way to lose weight

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Jayesh Bhuta then (left) and now (right)
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Jaydeep Bhuta, at 30, has a remarkable story for those who are struggling with obesity. In 2014, he was at his unhealthiest. He weighed over 142 kg with his waist measuring 52 inches. From then to now, he has made his mark as a Cellular Health Consultant. Having been mentored by a leading research scientist from the US, he has discovered and followed a healthy way of living, and also helped others. He has about 600 clients and his consultation experience of about 20 months, the total weight loss among his clients is around 6,000 kg. He follows a well-formulated vegetarian Keto diet and has great belief in it. He is, however, troubled by the various myths and beliefs around it. Here, he speaks about his own transformation, his beliefs and the many misconceptions that trouble the health industry and Keto believers.

The back story

For Jaydeep, a big wake-up call was when he travelled to Germany in 2013. He says, “I was overweight even before I went to Germany, but that wasn’t troubling me, my health was. I couldn’t even stand beyond 10 minutes and couldn’t sleep straight. Even when I would wake up, I would feel tired. I suffered a major Sleep Apnea attack in Germany. (Sleep Apnea is a serious sleep disorder that occurs when a person’s breathing is interrupted during sleep). In all likelihood, the weather conditions there aggravated the issue. That’s when I realised something was not right.” And like most overweight people, Jaydeep had tried all sorts of diets. “Nothing was working. And whatever was happening wasn’t at the pace that it should. For me, it was like starving myself. It just wasn’t convenient to have four-five meals per day. When you are fat, everyone has advice for you. from the trainer in the gym to family and friends. People recommend all sorts of diets, machines. I have done things, which I now feel were stupid.” Jaydeep then got to know about the Ketogenic Science and that changed things drastically.

Facts and Myths

Jaydeep feels that fat loss is a scientific study, “It’s biochemistry. We’re obsessed with losing weight, while what we really should be concentrating on, is fat loss. There is no such thing as spot reduction or detoxification. A lot of people check their weight three times a day. Your weight may vary from time to time. If you are dehydrated after a walk in the sun it will go down, but that doesn’t mean you have lost fat, people even wrongly associate fat loss with sweat. They feel that the more they sweat the more fat they melt. The fact is that fat can neither be melted, excreted or reduced by sweating it out. Your body can break down fat to generate energy in the form of ATP (Adenosine Tri-Phosphate). I want everyone to understand that fat loss is a science. I needed an approach that would help me lose weight fast and sustain the fat loss.”

Sharing Knowledge

This wasn’t a profession by design for Jaydeep, “I was into manufacturing of industrial components before I got into this. After I lost a lot of weight, I felt I could help others. Also, people had started seeking advice from me. For a while, I tried to balance my factory work and this, but within a year that became impossible. Then I decided to give this my complete attention.”

Ketogenic Diet

Explaining Ketogenic diet in simple words, he says, “Most people will give you a vague explanation that it has to have below 10 per cent carbs, 70 per cent fat and rest protein. But I would say it’s a diet that helps generate Ketones in human body is called Ketogenic diet. Ketones are alternative source of energy and are by-products of fat breakdown. When that happens, it means your body is not using sugar (Glycogen) for energy, it is using fats. Think of your body as a car with two fuel tanks, when one depletes, it goes to the other.”

Jaydeep says he doesn’t refer to the diet he follows as ketogenic anymore. “That’s because people have wrongly interpreted ketogenic diet as the diet of extremely high fat. There are all sorts of things that are sold online in the name of ketogenic food in the market, made by people who have no or very little knowledge of this science. People eat these, but they obviously don’t get any good results. You can’t let a person eat half a cake because it’s Ketogenic friendly, the serving portion should also be checked. ”

Facts and fiction

While there are many who follow the diet, there have been some questions raised about the diet. Jaydeep counters, “People wonder if weight loss at a rapid rate is right? Even after losing more than 60kg I have no health concerns. If you are absolutely fit and feel energetic then even if you lose 10 kg a month it isn’t a problem. I see people giving horrible advice like — have honey with warm water to lose weight or vibrate body parts to lose weight or do abs to lose fats in that region (this is not true) — that is a worry for me.”

He strongly believes that in most cases sluggish metabolism is why people gain weight. Obese people’s weight loss is usually attributed to their eating habits, but it is not true as a lot of lean people may have worse eating habits and yet manage to stay thin. He doesn’t blindly believe in calorie restrictions, too, as a lot of obese people are already trying to cut down calories and are even working out and putting in more efforts in the gym yet don’t manage to lose weight as compared to othere eat far above their perceived BMR and yet don’t put on any weight. He feels that a calorie from fat and proteins are not equal to the same amount of calories coming from carbohydrates as they all don’t take the same metabolic pathways and they would activate different hormones and enzymes.

He explains, “At a molecular level sugar is sugar. People say honey is natural so it’s better, but white sugar is not made in a lab, it’s just a processed form. Show me one report that shows honey contributes to fat loss. It may have antioxidant and other benefits, but it doesn’t contrinute to fat loss. I know the principles of carbohydrate-based diet as well as low-carbohydrate diets, as I have studied from both schools of thoughts only to realise that the one common thing between both is the hormone Insulin, which is the major reason for fat gain. When the level of Insulin spikes that is when fat gain happens or fat loss becomes difficult. That’s what we need to stabilise. That’s the rule everyone applies. People might ask you to eat quinoa, bajra, these foods also have sugar (carbs). It will also bring sugar in your system, but at a slower rate. These are low G.I. (Glycemic Index) foods. The rules of biochemistry are the same the only difference is that other nutritionists believe in a gradual curve (small increase or slow increase) of Insulin, wherein I believe in flattening it.”

Diet Fundas

Speaking about combination food, he says, “People are consuming either carbohydrates, protein, fats or water. Any food that you consume is either one of these or a combination of these. The root cause of gaining weight is carbs and not fats. The food pyramid was made in such a way that fats were kept at the top indicating it was bad for your health, while carbs occupied the larger area at the bottom to signify that one should be eating those. This has been exploited by multinationals that made their business from selling low-fat products. We have been on this planet for millions of years and we didn’t have low-fat products. We have always consumed natural fat. What we were not having is processed food and sugars.”

Jaydeep is a firm believer of opting for the Dexa Scan rather than checking the Body Mass Index (BMI) to gauge a person’s fitness. “This test shows a human body’s fat percentage. If you check the weight of someone like Salman Khan or John Abraham, they weigh a lot because of their muscles, but have very little fat percentage. Only relying on the weighing scale, would give wrong indications and they would fall under obese category, which is not correct. The number on the weighing scale is not an indication of their fitness levels. I feel the easiest way to guage success is to see inch-loss.”

Go Low Carb

Jaydeep says, “I was told that human can’t survive without carbs. The problem is that people, including dieticians, are trained to think like that. A lot of athletes are opting to go on low carb diets to improve performance. Ketogenic diet is being used to help people battle many diseases like diabetes, PCOS and Insulin Resistance, There are people who have been on Insulin Injection for many years and with the help of this diet they are going off it in a few days and they are even managing to get perfect blood glucose levels and HBA1C, which otherwise they could not get in spite of taking Insulin injections.”

Other Factors

The only people who should avoid this diet by themselves, according to Jaydeep are, “Type 1 (Juvenile Diabetics) and Type 1.5 (LADA), which are auto immune in nature and will require a clinical set up to follow this diet. It  can be helpful to them, too, but if not monitored properly, can lead to a state of Ketoacidosis. However, such cases are very few in number.” People often wonder if the diet is sustainable. Jaydeep says, “People say ketogenic diet can nutritionally deprive a person of vitamins and minerals due to absence of grains. Human body requires vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants irrespective of its source they can also be derived through non-grain sources like leafy vegetables and organ meats. Some nutritionists say you should eat local or fruits etc, but your body doesn’t know or care where it is getting nutrition from. People say that taking out grains is not sustainable. I ask them why not? A lot of our dietary influences are because of our culture. Also, once you correct your health, reintroducing the right kind of carbs can be done.”

Stay away from fads

Jaydeep cautions people from using fad diets. “Cyclic ketogenic diet is another fad. It basically means doing it in cycles or with breaks. Ketogenic diet is more of a lifestyle. It empowers you to be at your best. People stress too much about hitting plateau. After losing 15kg a month, and then eight kg the next, people feel that the five kg weight loss in the third month is less. They may give up the diet under the pretext of hitting plateau.”

Celeb talk

While Jaydeep has celebs clients like Ekta Kapoor, the Deols and many telly actors as well as politicians, he doesn’t want to known as a celeb-nutritionist. “I didn’t get into this to make big as a celeb nutritionist. For me, what is more important is to help people like me, who have been fighting the war with obesity.”

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