We spend a lot of time on this podcast helping people past obstacles, critics and misconceptions. Today, the fun part: the payoff. Over two episodes, we counted twenty perks that changed our lives when we went low-carb keto. Here are the first ten, planted like pennants along the trail.
Perk 1: Healthy, steady weight loss
The early drop is real, and some of it is water: when carbs go, the body releases the water it was holding along with them. That is also why electrolytes matter in the first weeks; replace the magnesium, potassium and sodium that leave with the water, and the transition goes far more smoothly.
Then the genuine fat loss begins. One of us lost about 50 pounds over several months, a couple of pounds a week after the initial whoosh, and has held a steady weight for years since. No injections, no hunger, no counting. And a note we always add: this is expected weight loss from a deliberate change. Unexplained weight loss is a doctor visit, full stop.
Perk 2: Steady blood sugar
This might be the perk underneath all the others. Cut the carbs and the daily glucose roller coaster flattens into rolling hills. One of us has lived this at the sharpest end: once a diagnosed type 2 diabetic, now, after years of this lifestyle, showing an A1C out of the diabetic range and no measurable insulin resistance, verified by lab work.
Our favourite illustration came from a phlebotomist, of all people: a healthy woman in the business of blood who allowed herself one childhood treat, a glass of chocolate milk, while wearing a glucose monitor. Her blood sugar more than doubled within minutes, and her head spun. Healthy people spike too; they just rarely see it. Once you have watched your own line respond to food, you never eat quite the same way again.
Perk 3: Mental clarity and focus
Brain fog is so common that many of us assume it is normal. It is not. On a low-carb diet, the liver produces ketones, a fuel the brain runs on beautifully, and the difference is hard to overstate: the afternoon crash disappears, problems that felt sticky come apart, and the brain you have at 3 pm is the same one you had at 10 am. The fog did not lift a little for us. It lifted entirely.
Perk 4: Less inflammation
If a condition ends in "itis," it is inflammation, and inflammation loves the modern diet. Dial back the sugar, refined carbs and ultra-processed food, and the body quiets down in ways you stopped hoping for. In this partnership alone: a rotator cuff injury that ached for two decades regained nearly full motion, joint pain we had written off as aging faded, and the bloating that once required stretchy waistbands simply ended. We blamed Father Time for years. It was the food.
Perk 5: Energy that shows up every day
This one sneaks up on you. First you stop dreading the dog walk. Then you cannot sit still. One of us went from struggling to manage two half-hour walks a week to walking ten miles a day, every day, in every weather, for the past two years. The other spends full days cutting and hauling firewood in his late fifties and still makes the gym the next morning. When your body runs on fat, the tank is always full.
Perk 6: A healthier relationship with heart health
We will keep this one measured, because it matters. What we watch, in partnership with our doctors, is the fuller picture: triglycerides, blood pressure, inflammation markers and blood sugar, not a single number in isolation. On this way of eating, those markers moved in the right direction for both of us; triglycerides in particular were worse in the vegetarian years than they are now. Cholesterol management, including any decision about medication, is a conversation for you and your doctor, and it deserves better than headlines in either direction. Get the full panel, understand what each number means, and decide from data.
Perk 7: A better mood
Science is increasingly clear that the gut talks to the brain, constantly, through the vagus nerve, and that metabolic health shapes mental health far more than anyone believed a generation ago. Dr. Georgia Ede's book Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind is the deep dive we recommend most.
Our lived version is simpler: when nothing hurts, your energy is steady, and your blood sugar is not yanking your emotions around, you are just easier to be around. Think of the people you love as batteries. On the old diet, we mostly drained the people around us. Now there is enough charge to give some away, and friends have noticed. That alone was worth the change.
Perk 8: Calmer immune responses and less inflammation burden
We are careful here: this way of eating does not cure autoimmune disease, and type 1 diabetes is not reversible. What we can say from experience is that lowering the body's baseline inflammation gives you a better hand to play with whatever you are managing. Measured inflammatory markers dropped to the low normal range for one of us who once sat squarely in metabolic syndrome territory. If you live with a chronic or autoimmune condition, stay close to your care team, and consider your food one of the most powerful levers you still hold yourself.
Perk 9: Radically simpler meal planning
Here is an underrated joy: shopping and cooking get easy. You shop the outside ring of the grocery store, flip the occasional package to read the ingredients, and put most of them back. The cart looks lighter; the nutrition is heavier. A useful test we love: would your grandparents have recognized this as food?
Meals stop being a daily puzzle. Eggs and beef in the morning, a protein-anchored dinner, two meals most days, almost no snacking, because there are almost no cravings. And a bonus that only shows up once you eat simply: when something does not agree with you, you know exactly what it was. No more blaming mystery bugs.
Perk 10: Protein, muscle and aging strong
After 40, adults lose muscle steadily unless they fight for it, and the fight has two weapons: enough quality protein and resistance training. On this way of eating, one of us is lifting more at 58 than he did at 29, not to impress anyone, but because strength is the currency of independence: carrying your own firewood, climbing your own hills, getting off the floor without help at 80. Watch your performance, not the mirror. Feed the muscle, train the legs, and age on your own terms.
The climb continues
Ten pennants planted, ten to go. In Part 2, we cover the perks people rarely see coming: gut healing, a tougher immune system, insulin sensitivity, natural appetite control, blood pressure, anti-aging effects, emotional steadiness, joint comfort, stronger teeth and even your eyes.
Want a guide for this part of the climb? The Lookout is twelve weeks of one to one low carb and keto coaching, online across Ontario. Or compare the three coaching programs side by side.
Read Part 2 here, or listen to both full episodes on Lessons from the Ketoverse, available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. And if you want these perks with a guide who has collected every one of them, that is what we do at Ascent. You are the climber. We carry the map.
This article shares personal experience and general education. It is not medical advice. Always work with your healthcare provider on significant dietary changes, medication decisions, or management of any health condition.