My body weight has been the same since I was 20—never changes,” says Laurie Steelsmith, ND, a naturopath in Hawaii and author of Growing Younger Every Day. She decided to go on a keto diet not to lose weight, but to experience its effects. “After about 3 weeks, I felt fantastic, I had so much energy, and kept going,” she says. After following the diet for two months, Steelsmith started modifying it in a way that maintains improvements.
“I no longer have low blood sugar—ever,” which had been a problem before keto, says Steelsmith. “My tendency was not to eat because I get busy, so I got ‘hangry,’ and then I got irritable, and then I felt crummy,” she recalls. But that cycle is gone. One day after breakfast, she went on a six-hour hike up a mountain. Afterward, she knew it was time to eat but wasn’t very hungry, still had plenty of energy, and mentally felt on top of her game. Before keto, she would have been hungry, and likely hangry, long before the end of the hike.