Who Is Keto a Bad Fit For? (Spoiler: It's Not for Everyone)

Who would keto be a bad fit for? From my experience, this is very individualized. But let's talk about a little bit.

Who Is Keto a Bad Fit For?

In terms of keto being a bad fit for someone, for my experience over the years, it's very individual. There are some generalizations that we can make. But it all comes down to the person. It's going to come back to testing and assessing how each person feels with it and how they do over a period of time.

We can make some generalizations in terms of who would be the best fit for keto, but from my experience, following a ketogenic diet long-term seems to be a little bit less of a fit for a few different types of people.

Very Lean, Active People

For some people who are very lean and very active, they don't have that much body fat on them—those are going to be the people who probably have a little bit harder time not incorporating carbs into their diet. Because they have less energy stores that have less fat stores, and they're probably going to be a little bit more active.

I think everybody should try going into a state of ketosis at some point in their life. But just from experience over the long term, and following a long-term ketogenic diet, people who are very lean and have low body fat levels tend to struggle a little bit more.

High-Stress People

Another group of people that I've seen keto be a little bit challenging for over the long term are those people who have very high-stress levels. Whether it's from work, family, or whatever it may be, if you are super high stress, keto can in itself be a stress to your body. We have to think about that from kind of a practical standpoint—keto is great, but anything can be great.

For example, ketosis is a metabolic state right that your body can go into, and for some people, we thrive on that. And for other people, that can actually be a little bit too much of a stress on your body. This is why this is so individual because it comes back to the person themselves and all the other factors that are going on in their lives. 

Low-Serotonin People

Another group of people where keto might not be the best fit for those who have low serotonin levels. If you're feeling like you're a little bit more anxious, you're suffering from some depression or having trouble sleeping at night, those are some signs that you may have some either low serotonin levels or some other hormone issues that are going on. That might be a sign where keto might not be the best fit, because we know that carbs themselves can actually help to increase serotonin levels for some people.

From my experience, incorporating carbs strategically has been something that's helped with people who are in that situation or suffering from those different things that I mentioned. And so that would be kind of a sign that keto might not be working that well for that type of person.

From my experience over the years for myself and working with many clients, I found that you have to test and assess. Because everybody has different stressors in their life. Everybody has different activity levels, different places, that they're coming from and different goals. Take note of what you're doing, and really think about what's working for you and what's not. 

Not sure if keto is right for you? Explore all the other content we have on the blog and podcast to learn everything there is to know about keto.