The K-E Diet is starting to pick up speed in the US, helping women lose weight fast

Apr 17, 2012 20:11 GMT  ·  By

Because many men and women can't resist the promise of incredible weight loss in a very short span, the Ketogenic Enteral Nutrition diet is starting to pick up speed in the US as well. Brides, for instance, are completely won over by the idea. 

Also known as the K-E Diet or, even more to the point, the feeding tube diet, this particular diet isn't just restrictive: it actually cuts all food for 10-day cycles.

Instead of food, patients are fed a protein concoction straight into the stomach, through the nose, as the video below will show.

The tube, once inserted, remains there for the rest of the “diet.” In return, slimmers are promised amazing weight loss without detriment to muscle mass or overall health.

“It is a hunger-free, effective way of dieting. Within a few hours and your hunger and appetite go away completely, so patients are actually not hungry at all for the whole 10 days. That's what is so amazing about this diet,” Dr. Oliver Di Pietro of Bay Harbor Islands, Fla., says.

He insists that the only downsides to the diet are bad breath and some constipation issues, because there are no fibers in the concoction served through the nose.

Weight loss is supposed to occur through ketosis.

One bride, Jessica Schnaider, heard of the new diet and how it promised she would lose those few, stubborn extra pounds that prevented her from looking her best on her wedding day, in her dream wedding gown.

She thought it couldn't hurt if she gave it a try – and try she did.

“It was emotionally difficult, the 10 days of not eating. And sometimes I had to give excuses to people who were asking are you sick? And I was like, 'No, I'm not sick, I'm not dying, I'm fine',” she recalls.

“I was tired. I didn't feel like exercising. The doctor told me that if you can compliment with walking for a half an hour on the beach, that would be great, but I didn't feel like doing that. I'm a very energetic person, but those days I was a little tired,” she adds.

In the end, though, none of that mattered anymore, because Schnaider managed to lose the weight and be the woman she wanted to be on her big day.

However, that's not stopping health experts from ringing the alarm on the new diet: while it might sound like a great solution, it doesn't work in the long run because it fails to address the most important element of weight gain, namely, the triggers for overeating.

At the same time, they point out, losing 10% of the body's weight in as little as 10 days, as fabulous as it might sound at first, is anything but healthy.